It's an old story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

It should be obvious the Dems have little ideological problems with a strong executive and now they have zero political incentive to reign in the Bush administration. They are almost certain to capture the Presidency next year by basically every indicator at this point and why should they weaken their future power base? They want to have their own Democratic rubberstamp congress for their Supreme Leader.

Well guess what folks. We're right smack between laugh at and fight on the progression. Don't underestimate whats happening.

Remember too that attrition will also take its toll in the long run. Many of the "beltway elites" we've been railing against are older than I am and I'm already older than dirt. - Paul Dirks

Thomas Edsall at Huffington Post:

Writer Quits NRO After Fabrications Exposed

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/07/writer-quits-nro-after-fa_n_75873.html

That was mighty quick...

Deborah Howell (ombudsman) at the WaPo criticizes Perry Bacon's highly questionable story on the "rumors" of Obama being a Muslim:

Stories about rumors are tricky and easily misconstrued. A Nov. 29 story and headline that explored Barack Obama's "connections to the Muslim world" and rumors that he is Muslim were met with a swift Internet reaction that left some staffers stunned at its ferocity. Even Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles was "so upset" that he took the unusual step of taking potshots at the story in an editorial page cartoon.

My problems with the story by National Desk political reporter Perry Bacon Jr. and the headline ("Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him") were that Obama's connections to Islam are slender at best; that the rumors were old; and that convincing evidence of their falsity wasn't included in the story.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/07/AR2007120701799.html

Certainly not the same Deborah Howell whose comment threads had to be shut down during her earlier bouts with the blogosphere, due to "bad language" from bloggers. In those days, she stonewalled consistently, trying to defend the WaPo's decision to hire obviously biased writers without any real experience or credentials. Again, this dispute was resolved much more quickly than it would have been just a year or two ago.

I think there was another one I wanted to highlight, too, but for the moment it escapes me.

It's also worth noting that both of these episodes overlapped with the Time/Klein fracas, in which both mag and writer ended up with lots of egg on their faces. Apparently, there are those who watch and learn.

PART 1 OF 2

jkalos said, "But it seems to me that these abuses are so egregious that if I were one of these minority democrats watching this happen--wars with people dying, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, and so on--it would seem to me that it constitutes an emergency. And if soldiers are willing to die for their country then maybe this good minority might do more than simply vote against the policies? Why not have demonstrations in congress to stand up for conscience?"

I work for a firm that does consulting work for many of the big Democrats in Congress and I wonder the same thing you do.

I've been in a state of shock since 2000 and a state of despair since 2004. I wrote off the stolen election of 2000 as being an extaordinary and singular (I thought at the time) occurrence. After 2002 I was pissed off at the spineless advice my boss and others gave the Democrats and began to think about speaking out. I argued internally that we needed to be much more aggressive but in the kind of firm I work in, the bosses have very strong opinions and the opinions of their employees carry no weight whatsoever.

By 2003, with the obvious WMD hoax and illegal war of aggression, it became clear that things were far worse than I had ever thought possible. I applauded the rise of Howard Dean and the desperately needed kick in the pants he gave to the Democratic Establishment. Dean singlehandedly established that the Democrats could go on the offense on tax cuts and Iraq, and, during the primaries at least, the rest of the Democrats fell into line behind Dean.

My firm, like a lot of Democratic firms, ended up doing work for John Kerry. I had high hopes for Kerry, but he let us all down. Again the bosses inside the consulting firms counseled abject weakness. Again I raised objections internally pointing out all of the golden opportunities to go on offense that were being left on the table. Again I was ignored. The bottom line is the Democratic Establishment blew that election. That's all there is to it. They were weak and they blew a historically critical presidential election. That much is crystal clear.

Since then I have become almost completely cynical. I considered writing a book, which I probably should have done, but I was physically and emotionally exhausted, and instead I have just drifted along. I have become more and more cynical and jaded seemingly every month since then, as this lie is exposed or that outrage is perpetrated and no one is held accountable. I had a glimmer of hope in 2006 when we took back the Congress, something I had been working for practically since I began working in politics.

But the Democratic Congress continues to let us down time after time. I was a little hopeful that Waxman's or Conyer's investigations were going to take off, but they seem to have faded into the background. The rest of them have had numerous opportunities to take a stand but most of them are gutless. The presidential frontrunners, Hillary and Obama are disappointing at best.

I have lost almost all faith in the Democratic party I have worked my ass off for and supported all my life.

But I'm as lost as anyone else when it comes to solutions. At this point, so many of the leaders of the Democratic party are so compromised and complicit on matters of such extreme gravity that I don't believe piecemeal reform of the party will work. There needs to be a revolution within the party like that of the movement conservatives who took over the Republican party in the 70's. The problem is that the movement conservatives were very well funded, while we progressives are not.

I think the rise of blogs has been very important, but in and of itself is insufficient. We need a movement to take back our party from the losers who control it now. That will surely include as many primary challenges as we can muster, but I think it will take something more to dislodge the Establishment.

What we really need is leadership. No one who has a real chance in the presidential election has really done this. Other than Kucinich and maybe Dodd, no one has even attempted to play the role that Howard Dean played in 2003-4. Kucinich unfotunately is not a viable candidate and Dodd's problem is that we didn't heard from him on any of these issues until lately.

Hillary and Obama are pathetic. They are triangulating, while Rome burns.

There are a lot of Democratic officeholders who are good people and feel the same way we do on these issues. Like jkalos says, they need to step up to the plate and do something that is not just business as usual. There are a lot of us out here who would follow them and back them up and give them money. The progressives in Congress could cripple the Leadership if they decided they have had enough, but it would require a radical change in their political consciousness.

For that matter, we progressives outside the Congress could cripple them if we could find a way to work together. Maybe we need to form a Progressive Union within the party and threaten to go on strike, withholding our votes, our money, and our time. But I don't see anything like that happening without leadership from some of our existing officeholders.

Where have you gone Howard Dean and Al Gore?