Harry Reid's leaderhsip qualities are accurately reflected in the sound of his voice.

I'm not sure if I've been anonymously dissed and/or dismissed, but so far I haven't found any wounds or blood on my person.

Like Aycharaych, I've always tended to be an outsider, a non-joiner, one who feels more oppressed than liberated in the institutions and organizations in my life. And I'm surely stubborn!

But I have never believed that everyone else thinks the same way I do, if indeed they "think" at all in the sense of sober, rational reflection or ratiocination.

I agree with Tempus' 07:24 AM comment. I am not inconsiderate of the fitful glimmers of honesty and integrity displayed by Democrats like Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich. I would vote for the latter, and will even consider holding my nose and voting for John Edwards.

On the other hand, last night I steeled myself to watch John Conyers on "Democracy Now". His negative response to Amy Goodman's question regarding whether Conyers is supporting committee members who've recently advocated impeachment is more typical of the Democratic Party establishment; I was both saddened and angered by Conyers' mealy-mouthed, transparently lame rationalizations for leaving impeachment off the table, where Conyers obviously has come to feel that it belongs.

I don't know whether Conyers was gelded by Madame Nhu Pelosi, or whether he has genuinely abandoned his former principled advocacy of impeachment. But he's co-opted beyond rehabilitation at this point, and in this regard he personifies the present Democratic Party.

I hope I'm wrong, but the principled Democrats are so few and far between that it's unlikely that they'll form a critical mass of reform powerful enough to heal, or cure, the entrenched establishment Democrats who've owned and taken control of the Party.

Incidentally, although I'm not sure what anonymous' vague and ambiguous brief intended to convey, during the course of my life I've noticed that expressing strong convictions comes off to some as being "closed-minded". C'est la vie.

When did you stop beating your wife?

Would you rather throw the baby out with the bathwater or just drown the little bugger in the tub like Grover Norquist? Just a little over thirty years ago it was the Republican party that went to Nixon and told him it was time to step down. Party politics is a reality. Deal with it. Even Ron Paul knows that. He's not running as a libertarian, is he?

because he worried that millions of dollars in new spending would not be paid for by cuts in other programs.

Truly amazing! So we have to pay for the millions for gun control, but puttting the war on the credit card is ok?

Ignore that last post about babies and bathwater.

I don't disagree with you either.

But, the discussion this morning is not about drugs. The discussion, as proposed by Mr. G., is about Harry Reid and his feckless posturing about what Chris Dodd is up to.

I repeat what I said last night.

You come across like a bully, and, you commit a grave error in debate by talking off-point.

I hear you as a working guy, and I'm sympathetic. I've worked for a living, and I also, at one time, jumped in some handy ditches while trying to avoid a rain of random rockets when I was pleased to be attending an unexpected party known to all as the Tet Offensive.

Shock and awe. Here's one for all you do ...

You talk as though you broke your pool cue in a pub, and as you keep drinking, you're yelling at everyone, nay daring them, to hand you their cue so you can finish the game, which is actually a game with yourself.

Stick to the subject, and think about your tone.

That would help.

In the parlance of professional media discussion, this is Glenn's prime time. Your posturing is bad form. Get it?

You raise an interesting point about Conyers and impeachment.

Let me pose a question, assuming you've been reading Glenn for awhile: Reading Glenn for awhile do you get the impression he seems to be calling for impeachment much of the time or something else. If something else, what is it? And if not impeachment but you think he should be, why do you suppose he isn't?

...do Democrats realize that the last time the gov't had the ability to spy without warrants they were the targets?

I mean Nixon saw them as a "threat to national security" and wanted the offices at Watergate bugged - if the breaking was not discovered, who knows how history would look like today.

The government wants to spy without warrants, that is the issue in a nutshell - tele companies wants immunity because they know eventually someone non Muslim will be the mistaken subject to eavesdropping.

I cannot fathom the leadership of Reid. Any Democrat who thinks this power will be available to the party's next WH occupant is high.

To the degree its couched with "I dare you to answer" then it seems design to pick a fight and derail the thread.

I'm not trying to pick a fight, it's the only way I can get people to answer.

Go back and read my previous posts.. I've posted on topic on this thread.

You agree with me that voting for a candidate who supports the drug way is helping the slide to fascism in this country, and yet you will vote for them anyway.

Talk about the lesser of two evils.

My senator Dick Durbin who is Majority Whip and Reid’s deputy has done a good job of representing his constituency and veterans. I do not know what he has said and done behind the scenes regarding the deplorable actions of his boss on FISA and the weak leadership Reid has provided. I believe that the netroots should question his loyalty to his boss versus the constitution as I have done in the following email letter to him. If you want to send him something similar his link is http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm.

Dear Senator Durbin,

I have always been one of your strong supporters and believed that you have voted on my side of the issues in the senate, especially your strong support of our military and its veterans. However, the actions and statements by your party boss in the senate Harry Reid over the FISA bill and senator Chris Dodd’s filibuster greatly concern me. I have been concerned for some time over his weak leadership even though I understand that the Republican’s use of filibuster and the 60 votes to override a veto do not make it easy to get things done.

I believe that if you do not find a way to convince senator Reid and yourself because you apparently supported his willingness to let our constitution be attacked and in essence backed the Republican’s defiant disregard of my and your liberties, that you are doing a disservice to your mentor and my and your hero senator Paul Simon.

It seems very clear to me that not only does senator Reid want to allow retroactive immunity when the senate reconvenes in January, he also insults the efforts of Americans like myself who helped launch senator Dodd into standing up for our constitution.

I want you to explain to me how you can repeat your support of senator Reid in January considering what Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com in his 12-21-07 article Reid and company target the true enemy: "Dodd and his allies" has said about how I and my netroot colleagues are being dismissed because I was one of the strong and early supporters of senator Dodd’s belief in protecting our constitution. I urge you to read the entire article and ponder these excerpts:

(not listing for GG commenters due to taking up space)

Anyone listening to Dodd, Kennedy, Feingold, Wyden, Nelson, Boxer, Brown could clearly tell that these patriots were emotionally and honestly supporting our constitution and were hardly motivated by helping Dodd in his presidential efforts. You must feel as insulted as I do for your boss and his spokesman to imply that.

I will be unable to understand any effort by you to provide immunity to the telecoms because it will forever protect the law breaking by the Bush Administration. I will not understand any decision to be loyal to your boss over our constitution. I don’t think senator Simon would understand it either were he still alive.

Your boss and you have provided too much protection to the law breaking, dishonesty and political manipulations of voter emotions by the Republicans. If you do not stand up for senator Dodd, the netroots community and our constitution on FISA, then you do not belong in a position of Democratic leadership. It is long past time to take a firm stand and not back down to the thug tactics by the Republicans. If they were in your shoes, they would never act so cowardly.

Please examine your conscience and don’t make a political decision to back your boss, make a decision to back our democracy and constitution. Resign your position if you must to make the kind of courageous stand our nation needs at this most critical moment in history.