OK. This is where I get off.
I suppose this might end up with a GBCW tag on it, but that's not really true. I'll be back.
Now, I have never registered as a Democrat. I usually skip the primary votes, simply because I don't care. I'm pulling the lever for whomever wins the Democratic nomination anyway.
But after the public humiliation of Pete Stark, I'm just too embarassed. As of right now I will not work for anybody's campaign in 2008. I'm not giving any money.
There is no Democratic party. Nothing that I recognize anyway.
And please, I don't want to read any horseshit about how Stark volunteered that apology. I'm not buying that. And Cleaver is my Congressman--oh yeah, he's getting a pissy call tomorrow. (At least he just abstained.) This is exactly like the fucking Durbin foot-not-in-mouth moment, but that, if memory serves, was in 2005. Things were different, although not that different. America is practically jumping up and down, trying to get somebody's attention so we can turn the war off. The war that nobody wants, not even the troops we're all supposed to be "supporting" in some vague, abstract way. At least the ones that I know, anyway. (Oh yeah, and then there's Afghanistan, the war everybody fucking forgot about before it was even fucking over. Ugh.)
I simply cannot fathom what the fuck is wrong with the leaders of this party. They are the most risk-averse group of people in a high-risk job I've ever heard of. They just refuse to rock the boat, even though that's exactly what's being demanded of them. That's why they were given the majority in not only the House but the Senate.
What was the number fucking one issue in 2006? Iraq.
This is not rocket science.
I was willing to wait, but it's October. Surely, last November, we didn't expect the new Congress to immediately wrest control of the ship of state from the madmen in every particular. But just as surely, we figured by the time the next World Series rolled around, something would have been accomplished.
Boner and McConnell (with much help from Bush, and the still strangely-quiescent press) have been beating Reid and Pelosi about the head and shoulders. Where is the fire? Where are the fucking insults? When has American politics ever been nearly as fucking polite as we seem to be laboring under the delusion of? Desperate times call for desperate measures; where is the urgency to act on the part of the Democrats? That little tiny clip of video of Dean yelling in Iowa has really set the party back quite a bit further than we thought, hasn't it? There's not one but two fucking wars on--why the placidity? Why the elevation of decorum above everything else?
Oh wait, Stark found the key to the room where they keep all the dry powder, and stole a little, and boy did they do everything they could to make sure everybody knew Democrats don't agree with anything as craaaazy-wazy as what he said.
I'm just fucking disgusted. Clearly, we're not getting through; they loved the fucking money, they loved the support, but where the hell are they when we need something from them?
There was the MoveOn thing, there's been cave after cave on FISA and Iraq funding....
Look. I know, I know, we've all been through a few of these type of diaries. I'm not voting for any Republicans and I'll troll anybody who even fucking mentions Ron Paul.
Could Nancy Pelosi or Steny Hoyer or Emmanuel Cleaver stand here and with a straight face tell me that they're going to need my help two Novembers from now? But why should I bother to stand up for Democrats when they can't even stand up for themselves?
This is about knowing who your friends are, and who your enemies are. The Democratic party, it gives me great pains to say, can't keep them straight.