Letters to the Editor
-
@ Anonymous
I hope Dems continue to misread 2006 as Glenn clearly is. A switch of a mere 70,000 votes across the nation out of tens of millions cast (less than one-tenth of one percent)would have kept both houses of Congress in Republican hands.
And I hope for your sake that you do not examine a map and outlook on the upcoming elections, because there's far more Republican seats up for grabs versus Dems' seats.
And a "switch of a mere 70,000 votes" may not seem too high for you, but considering WHERE those votes were switched tells a far different story. Your examples of Tester and Webb are terrific - both very Republican strongholds with well-established Republican incumbents (one just so happened to be a darling for the GOP presidential nomination), yet they LOST to two Democrats. Bummer for you.
Plus you seem to also handwave away the fact that NOT ONE Demoocratic seat up for grabs was lost by the Democrats. How often has that occurred, Anonymous? Plus the number of seats in the House given up were rather significant as well by your party. Funny how you seemingly ignore that as well.
That's okay, though. You just keep hoping your lame duck president and GOP continues to obstruct and filibuster that darn Upperdown vote thingy in Congress in hopes to make the Dems. look bad.
-
Electoral engineering
Fact: National exit polling in 2004 showed Kerry winning by a substantial 3-5% of the popular vote.
Fact: The '04 Ohio ballot results were manipulated. Several Ohio GOP election officials have been convicted in a court of law of "fixing" the recounts demanded by the Green and Libertarian Parties.
Rational inference #1: John Kerry was elected president in 2004, but the election was stolen by widespread election fraud (the Democrats, of course, quietly acquiesced -- not wanting to look like "sore losers").
Rational inference #2: In the 2006 mid-terms, Rove & Co. underestimated citizen outrage and failed to fix the election by enough bogus votes. The Republicans will probably not repeat that mistake in 2008.
Lesson learned by Democrats: None. Roll-out those electronic voting machines again.
-
Contact your Congressperson
Yeah, it's corny and old school, but when an important vote comes up and my congressman (Robert Wexler) votes the way he should, I make a point of dropping an e-mail or calling his office.
These people need to hear from us on a regular basis. Isn't it worth the 5 minutes it takes to do that?
-
update re: Feingold
I have grandparents who used to live in Wisconsin, and they love Russ Feingold. They think he is literally the only principled politician in Washington (perhaps they're right?) They are what I would call very moderate Democrats - by no means "loony" or "leftist."
People respond to principle and resolve. They want to know not only that the person representing them advocates in their interests, but also that this person takes positions based on genuine belief, even when those positions are counter to their own.
I really don't get how this is so hard for so many Democrats to understand.
-
political movement in the heartland
heartland - beltway - heartland - beltway.
I know I can never keep them straight......
Digby says it a lot. You point it out a lot. But it bears repeating often. The reason the Republicans get away with portraying the Dems as weak against the nation's enemies is because they manage to make them look weak against the Republicans. How can you expect anyone to stand up to Osama Bin Laden if they can't stand up to Karl Rove.
Yes, it involves misdirection and takes advantage of the confusion on the part of the electorate but it still works every time.
The link below includes this sentence:
I fully expect to see David Ignatius, Anne-Marie Slaughter, David Broder, and others up in arms about this affront to bipartisan cooperation and common decency in the days ahead.
http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2007/08/no-deal.html
This of course simply identifies the surrender-enablers who dominate the media and help define "conventional wisdom". Did I mention Joe Klein?
-
MAYBE the ghost of j. edgar hoover ...
... has been helping these GOP thugs. MAYBE Feinstein enjoys electrocuting baby seals in her spare time, and Rove has the intelligence on it. MAYBE ... this is the true nature of such surveillance activities. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I have to tell you I do not understand this absurd vote by these spineless Dems.
-
No Support? No Pushback, Either.
This mentality is wrong time and again. The midterm elections empirically disproved it. There is no vast yearning in America to allow the President the power to eavesdrop on our conversations with no warrants or oversight. There is no powerful political movement in the heartland demanding unlimited executive power.
I agree with you wholeheartedly... but time and time again, Bush and Cheney keep hammering back, declaring that they are the law -- not the Constitution -- and that the power of the president to simply make up whatever law will suit him continues to turn the Constitution in another "quaint" notion.
And little of substance to prevent these things has happened.
Godamn it.
-
@DCLaw 1
I have grandparents who used to live in Wisconsin, and they love Russ Feingold. They think he is literally the only principled politician in Washington (perhaps they're right?) They are what I would call very moderate Democrats - by no means "loony" or "leftist."
Most of my life until age 39 I lived in WI. It is almost impossible to hate Russ Feingold because of his well-deserved reputation for honesty and integrity. Wisconsin and Minnesota, of course, have long traditions of literally Progressive (as in the very party) politics. Glenn is correct that the state is purple, and long has been -- it yielded both Bob LaFollette and Joe McCarthy.
-
Back to Dodd
I was struck by Chris Dodd's remark to Glenn that he wouldn't go on an intelligence committee. He said he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut. This was troubling but revealing.
These committees have a built-in conservative bias, attracting cloak-and-dagger types who relish secrets that would explode most liberal heads. When conscience does erupt, we see strange things, for instance Jay Rockefeller's lame handwritten protest to Cheney and posterity.
When it comes time to vote, the Feingolds, the Bob Grahams (who demanded a prewar NIE but couldn't reveal how slanted the public except was -- shades of Dodd), and the now-reformed Harmon, aren't enough to cudgel in-betweeners. The "24" guys have the edge.
True, Congress could've seen what was up for grabs: really any lawyer could in the span of an afternoon. They seem to have made no effort, taking the "safe" course that had the backing of the toughies.
As for their constituents, the representatives think as much of them as they do of themselves. And as I commented yesterday, Dodd -- for whom I've no special affection -- can't even be taken seriously here when he says he takes the Constitution seriously.