Senator Salazar is not the problem. Bashing him is harmful to all of our long term goals. Change is a slow process and overreacting to every defeat is useless.
When was the last time a Supreme Court Justice was successfuly fillibustered? Been a while huh? Sen. Salazar was in no position today to vote no on cloture. Why would he put his political life on the line for a doomed proposition? Does Supreme Court Justice Pryor sound better to you? Would you have him fillibuster every nominee until 2008?
You should be thrilled that a number of US Senators heard our voice and made a stink. Believe it or not this is progress. You don't go from the DLC/Clinton Democrats to Progressive Kos Democrats overnight.
Believe me, they heard us louder then ever before. Our time will come, but every great achievement takes time. We have to make it financially and electorally feasable for politicians to share our views. Luckilly, GW and Dobson are pushing more and more people into our camp. Hang on for the ride and fight on until we win. Attacking Salazar may feel good but it's misguided.
Take Sen Specter for example. He is the ultimate politician. He is not a wingnut by any stretch of the imagination, but when the wingnuts began to control his party he gravitated towards them. It will happen with the Democrats too once the Progressive base takes back control of our party. I voted for Specter back in the 80's because he was pro-choice and pro-labor (and I was young and naive). He's neither of those things any more because the Club for Growth stuck a Toomey up his ass. Salazar and the rest of the so-called DINO politicians are the same type of creatures. They only have power if they get elected. They do what they think they need to do to keep getting elected. We need to change their perception of what it takes to get elected. Let's face facts, the House and Senate are not oozing with progressive democrats these days. Attacking Salazar does nothing to change that.
Hopefully we can start with Lieberman (or maybe the next guy if we are not powerful enough for Lieberman) and show them that they better recognize us just like the Republicans do with the religious right. The only way to do that is to stick together and work like hell. The Republicans are really sticking it to us now, but soon this will all just be a bad nightmare if we continue to expose them for the Dobsonite wingers they have become. In the mean time, take a deep breath and move on to the next fight. Ken Salazar is a symptom. The problem is that pandering to the "center" is all we know. Change that and the symptoms will take care of themselves.