This information was almost certainly leaked to the Post by intelligence officials who are highly irritated -- understandably so -- from watching the manipulative spectacle whereby these Democrats now prance around as outraged victims of policies to which they deliberately acquiesced, when they weren't fully supporting them.

And thanks, Glenn, for the two grafs on your "aim and intent". But you know as well as I do that some people will only see what they want to see.

As for me, I'm disgusted, but not surprised. Milgram and Zimbardo tell us this is the dark side of human nature.

Upton Sinclair told us, “It is difficult for a man to understand something when his income depends on his not understanding it.“

Meaningful election finance reform here is going to take years and be a bloody fight. I'm watching efforts in Canada where they have the same problem to a lesser degree.

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/old/features/parliament/party-finance/regulating-donations.html

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

Was George Wallace right in claiming "there isn't a dime's worth of difference" between Democrats and Republicans?

The Democratic Party "leadership" is dancing to same tune as most Republicans, played by the corporate oligarchy of wealth and political power. The corporate-controlled media consciously promotes certain policies ("free trade" treaties, for example) and "front runner" political candidates (Hillary Clinton, Rudolf Giuliani, etc.)while ignoring and belittling policies and candidates that would threaten the preeminence of corporate control of the government apparatus.

The torture being used on suspected "terrorists" now is likely to be but the forerunner of more widespread indefinite detention and torture for all "enemies of the state". As long as government power is in the hands of corporate shills and lackeys, we can expect no less.

If the Democratic Party is to regain its status as the promoter and defender of American freedom and justice, it must reject corporate-designated "front-runner" candidates and entrenched incumbents who serve the interests of the authoritarian state.

Fear and ignorance mixed with politics and patriotism produce lousy judgement by elected officials for whom it is safer to follow the crowd. Leadership based on independent judgment creates risk. There aren't many many members of Congress willing to take the risk of leadership.

Even putting Progressives in charge of failed, broken, diseased, rotten, and collapsing institutions is not necessarily going to save them.

But I repeat myself...

-- Ché Pasa

Actually, yes, you did repeat yourself. And you ended up in the same place that you always do. You tell us what needs to be done without actually telling us what needs to be done.

Also, how do you know that replacing DINOS with more and better Democrats won't help when you know zilch about who those replacements might be. That's like saying, 'Even though I never heard of Martin Luther King, and even though I have no idea what the guy stands for, or how he would go about implementing into concrete business what he stands for, or how courageous he might or might not be, I have no confidence or belief that this Martin Luther King fellow would or could accomplish anything'.

One of the unfortunate downsides to the fall of the Soviets has been not that we don't have an enemy to justify our insatiable military expenditure appetite but that we don't have an example of evil to AVOID EMULATING.

Or beware fighting monsters...

The problem is, if there isn't an evil empire, they invent one. As Martin Gifford observed in the previous thread, "It's about the moral authority, stupid".

Glenn's new book: US Government Lawbreaking 2001-2008

It is just axiomatic that when high government officials can break the law with impunity, the country no longer lives under the rule of law. That has been the United States for the last six years.

Glenn,

Right there is your cover blurb for a new book you should write called, "US Government Lawbreaking 2001-2008".

The extreme rightwing goal of spreading Americanism across the world is ruined by their ongoing efforts to flush moral authority down the toilet.

They just don't get it. Moral authority was America's primary international political capital until Bush took over.

Jebbie,

Welcome to the Democratic Party

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

The party apparatus changes all the freshmen congress people. Idealism wears off and they soon become what Twain called "America's only native criminal class" but the stategy of entryism and incrementalism doesn't mean there is no hope for a third party or that you must focus on one or the other strategy, not both simultaneously. For an effective third party to emerge today it may need to grow from humble beginnings in local and state politics. Nationally, they haven't had much luck for almost 100 years.

And I can tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. Maybe it depends on the sensitivity of the individual's palate.

Shorter Joe Klein: "Democrats are beyond reproach, so long as they act like Republicans."

"i weep for what has become of my country. i NEVER could have imagined that the democratic 'leadership' would be so craven, so cowardly, so utterly without any allegiance to this country, that they would so enthusiastically embrace kidnapping, rape and torture as foreign policy instruments."

My sentiments exactly. I feel like someone who is just finding out a close family member - someone I love, have supported and defended - may in fact be a serial killer. How could this happen behind my back? How did they cover it up so well? What do I do now?

What do I do now?

Back in the 90s I watched the extreme right-wingers give up on the government, declare it illegal and irrelevant, and form bands of armed militias, refusing to acknowledge any but their own authority. It made me shiver. I thought they were kooks (I still do), and I don't want to become them, but on the other hand I have to wonder if my country - the United States of America, founded by angry, brilliant, patriots who were willing to sacrifice so much to create a new democracy that valued truth and integrity - is capable of reacquiring the principles - PRINCIPLES! - that we were once so proud of.

Has the Republican party, this alien species that has seized our political system, found the chink in our democratic form of government that allows people like them to successfully manipulate the voters in ways that ensures their success? Because lets face it, these Republicans are some of the most incompetent politicians this country has ever seen - and look what they have been able to accomplish! What if next time, their assault is led by a clever, charismatic politician?

A few days ago I re-read the Declaration of Independence and I felt the same anger the authors felt when they penned these words... "... that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..."