We Mean It, Nancy and Harry.

I recently wrote a diary about putting Harry and Nancy on notice to not pervert the election results of 2006 into a business as usual clusterfuck.  Apparently, they still fear Republicans more than us.

That must change.  

Harry, Nancy, let go of the fucking anvil already.  Stop wrestling the Cheney administration for the title to this goddamned war in Iraq.  I'm afraid you're about to win.

We've held our noses.  We've sucked it up.  Time and time again, as you bring awful legislation to the floor, and send it to the President with the aid of Bush Dogs and Publicans.  The Democratic Majority be damned.  The election results of 2006 be damned.

No more.  No fucking more.

At the very least, we demand better leadership.  Leadership that is in step with OUR party -- not your Party, not Joe Lieberman's Party -- OUR FUCKING PARTY.  Get with the program, or get the fuck out of the way.  There are others ready, willing, and able to do what you can't won't.

I swear to almighty God, if you capitulate again, I will not rest until your heads are shorn at the World Trade Center site.

Get us out of Iraq, or be responsible for it.  Those are your only options.  You are not allowed to stand by until 2008.  

•  I'm sickened.

  We're not Republicans.  We don't cheerlead when there's not a goddamned thing worth cheering.

  by HarveyMilk on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:02:24 PM PDT

  •  You've got that right

    There are four choices:

    1. They are afraid

    2. They are opting for political expediency

    3. They have bought the neo-con/neo.lib/DLC line

    4. They will stand up for progressive working class issues ... now.

    Only one choice earns them my vote.

    by slatsg on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:33:37 PM PDT

    •  Jane Harmon was just on C-span

      One of the questions to her was based on the American people want OUT OF IRAQ and are way ahead of Congress on that issue.
      Paraphrase Harmon - yes the people are sick of the inaction in Congress and we need to find a compromise, a middle ground.
      But what is the "middle" between IN and OUT?  the Atlantic Ocean?

      by annefrank on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:45:54 PM PDT

      •  Middle-earth?

        No more fictitious than expecting Bush and the Thugs to compromise.

        by slatsg on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:07:39 PM PDT

      •  Tell Congressbitch Harmon,

        This is not an issue where you can compromise.  Either support ending this damn war or get the hell out of Congress.  Otherwise, you can expect a challenge at the next Primary Election!

        by Randall Sherman on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:55:00 PM PDT

•  This Party is dying from the stranglehold of

  monied interests coupled with a total failure of nerve.

  We helped them win in 2006, and we'll help them win in 2008. Unless we see a dramatic shift in their behavior, we won't be there for them in 2010.

  by gabbardd on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:09:08 PM PDT

  •  I don't have

    that kind of time.  They need to stand up, NOW.  

    by HarveyMilk on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:10:56 PM PDT

    •  They had a great opportunity to call bullshit

      this week, and they failed/refused.

      We're on the same side here, but I just don't see them standing up any time soon, if ever. They've passed at every opportunity. Even the carnival with the candidates at the hearings this week.  The candidates should have been barred from speaking altogether. Instead of standing up for the facts, they set themselves up to be smeared as partisans, which they clearly are. They favor their Party's power structure and their position within it far more than they favor the people of this country and its Constitution. Through their own inaction, they might as well have struck the matches themselves.

      by gabbardd on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:23:06 PM PDT

      •  I didn't watch the dog & pony show

        What did the Dem prez candidates say? or - not say. They didn't stick with the facts??

        by annefrank on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:28:38 PM PDT

        •  Here's the tscript of Hillary.

          She did bring up a few things to make him uncomfortable, but she never confronted him about the cooked books directly.

          I'll try to find Biden and Obama and Dodd.

          by gabbardd on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:37:00 PM PDT

          •  Oops, here's the link:

            http://www.mydd.com/...

            by gabbardd on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:37:34 PM PDT

        •  Here's more

          http://customwire.ap.org/...

          Sorry, and I really am, but I'm too wiped out to synthesize for you. Overall, I'd say they raised a few issues with him, but they didn't ask him to account for the flaws in his "report."

          For example, "How do you explain general, why your numbers on civilian violence in Iraq do not include car bombings? Aren't car bombs acts of violence?"

          Nobody asked him that.  

          by gabbardd on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:42:41 PM PDT

          •  Yikes! those are basic concerns round here

            Thanks for the links. :) Rest well.

            by annefrank on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:48:16 PM PDT

    •  Same here. If they want my support in 2008

      they need to act.

      by Horsefeathers on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:27:00 PM PDT

    •  I'm two years ahead of you

      I voted for Democrats in 2006 even though I had already left the party and become an independent because of the capitulating and the transparent complicity.  I will not be voting for any Democrats in 2008.  Their performance since last January has been so egregiously awful that the very least I can do is to completely blackball them in the next election.  I see no reason whatsoever, based on their performance, to trust them in any way, shape, or form, or to have any faith at all that they even WANT to end this war.

      by asskicking annie on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:35:28 PM PDT

      •  I'm getting there.

        And plenty of others are, too.  If they keep it up, 2008 is not going to turn out at all like they expect.

        by HarveyMilk on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:38:55 PM PDT

        •  Even some Democratic congresspersons are starting

          to see the light.  Check this out via Howie Klein:

          Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) is encouraging anti-war activists to find challengers to centrist Democrats, with the aim of moving the party to the left and ramping up opposition to the war in Iraq, to the chagrin of top Democratic aides.

          "You folks should go after the Democrats," Woolsey said in response to a suggestion from an activist during a conference call last month organized by the Network of Spiritual Progressives.

          "I’d hate to lose the majority, but I’m telling you, if we don’t stand up to our responsibility, maybe that’s the lesson to be learned."

          by asskicking annie on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:58:35 PM PDT

•  And, in the name of all that is holy...

  ...NO MORE lame excuses about not having enough votes!  You don't NEED any votes.  Tell Chimpy McDipshit and his gang of thugs, "You have all the funding you are going to get.  Use it to withdraw from Iraq, or you WILL be impeached.  (Yes, all it takes is a majority in the house to impeach, and that is all we need to begin investigations unfettered by calims of executive privilege.)

  by Ken in MN on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:12:43 PM PDT

  •  Leaders don't Do the Right Thing

    because they know it will make them popular or help them win.

    They do it because it is the Right Thing to do.

    Unfortunately politics in DC has no moral compass or a spine these days.

    Money corrupts and they have recieved too damned much of it from corporate lobbies.

    I am in the Clean the House and the Senate mode now.

    They all suck.

    They are all tainted.

    They all need to be replaced.

    We need fresh minds and people with integrity.

    And from where I sit there are only 2 people in Congress who deserve to be re-elected:

    Feingold and Kucinich.

    It is time to throw the rest back.

    by wild salmon on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:19:51 PM PDT

    •  Tell the profressives in the House...

      ...They should stand up and object to EVERY routine unanimous-consent request brought up on the floor by the Democratic leadership until they wise up.  Bring the House a standstill and make Pelosi look like the worthless and spineless coward that she apparently is!

      by Randall Sherman on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:58:43 PM PDT

•  You realize, of course . . .

  . . . that you and I simply do not understand politics.

  How many times do we have to hear that the Senate can filibuster everything?  Every time I hear that, I want to scream, "SHOW ME HOW THE SENATE REPUBLICANS CAN APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR THIS OR ANY WAY BY FILIBUSTERING, YOU F***IN' DIMWIT!"

  by Endangered Alaskan Dem on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:16:05 PM PDT

  •  Shouldn't type while angry

    "WAY" should be "WAR" of course.

    by Endangered Alaskan Dem on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:16:57 PM PDT

  •  "We're an empire now,

    and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

    by Fernando Poo on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:38:17 PM PDT

    •  That quote put shivers down my spine

      and it has turned out to be true.  Sadly, so true.

      by adigal on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 04:16:32 AM PDT

•  OMG the angry left

  Sheesh this diary could've been written by Osama himself. Luke, the force is with you! Crush the evil empire with one f'n word! Yep we're all nuts here.

  by onionjim on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:45:08 PM PDT

  •  They haven't seen angry,

    yet.

    by HarveyMilk on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:48:53 PM PDT

  •  And this comment could have been written ...

    a Republicam lackey.

    by slatsg on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:59:47 PM PDT

  •  There are millions of people

    who have a vested interest in seeing the occupation of Iraq end.  Osama is not one of them.

    by Endangered Alaskan Dem on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:03:38 PM PDT

  •  a zero for the osama reference

    it was bullshit when kerry, gephardt and edwards did it to dean in '04, and it's bullshit now.

    by wu ming on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:17:55 PM PDT

•  They are alienating their base

  For over 30 years, I've ALWAYS voted and I've ALWAYS voted Democratic. For the first time ever, I feel like if things don't change I'm going to just sit out the next election. I can't be the only one who feels this way.

  Inaction in a time of crisis. That's an expensive way to try to preserve your popularity...

  by Horsefeathers on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:48:57 PM PDT

  •  This is why we need John Edwards!

    He'll speak straight to the people - no BS.

    by annefrank on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 08:51:03 PM PDT

  •  I, too, am a Democratic supervoter, Horsefeathers

    And I, too, may find something better to do on a certain Tuesday in November 2008.  

    by Endangered Alaskan Dem on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:06:46 PM PDT

•  Voters need to realise they Do. Not. Care.

  These "leaders" (and I use the term with dripping sarcasm and disdain) have proven, without doubt, they they could give a rat's ass about what the voters think of their failure of leadership, their betrayal of the people who voted for them, our troops, ending the war, holding Bushco accountable, restoring our civil liberties or anything else relevant to saving our dying democracy.

  Craven and calculated power hungry and corrupt to the CORE is what are Congress Critters are.

  None of this shyte would be happening, unchecked, unless the so-called Dem Congressional Leadership wanted it to happen.

  Impeachment is off the table.
  Ending the war is off the table.
  Bringing our troops home in the next decade (aside from in body bags and on gurneys) is off the table.
  Restoring our Bill of Rights is off the table.
  Hell, our democracy is off the table.

  Fuck these people.

  I will not and can not, for patriotic reasons (I love  our Constitution and our Bill of Rights even if Congress does not) ever vote for any of these posers again.

  Throw my vote away on a 3rd party?

  No.

  I will gladly vote 3rd party and plan on it in 2008.

  Voting for these neocons and oligarch wannabees posing as Dems would be throwing my vote away.

  Dems have no one to blame but their elected leaders for the complete rejection of the Dem Party candidates by Indy voters in 2008.

  They sold out everyone who ever believed in them and for what?

  They will reap in 2008 exactly what they have sown.
  Fooled us once..........

  by wild salmon on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:15:49 PM PDT

•  this type of crap

  is how dems lost the majority in 1994. and to be clear, i'm talking about pissing on the voters who sent them there.

  by wu ming on Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:19:14 PM PDT

  •  Did any of the leaders pay the price...

    or just the newly elected?  

    by Fernando Poo on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 12:09:49 AM PDT

    •  gephardt fizzled in the presidential primary

      and daschle lost his senate seat eventually, so perhaps a little.

      by wu ming on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 02:34:03 AM PDT

      •  Neither was a result of the '94 wave.

        Or a result of not listening to their base.

        by Fernando Poo on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 11:55:42 AM PDT

        •  fair point

          i got a bit off-topic there.

          by wu ming on Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 03:40:52 PM PDT