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NOTE: I've re-titled this. A comment of mine kind of sums-up my take on Democrats and their current position. I've reprinted the comment at the bottom of this intro.
Rather than 2 dairies over the next several days or week, I'm just writing-up 2 related things that have been on my mind over the past week or so. Pick and choose which, if any, is/are worth your deigning to read and comment on.
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I. Democrats begin assembling circular firing squad.
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II. Republicans don't want to "play the blame game" re: Neo-Robbery Barony -- or do, and just want to project their blame on Dems.
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Dumb Lummox
[Democrats]'re like the defensive tackle who accidentally intercepted a pass and finds himself all alone at the 1-yard-line, stunned, ham-handed, knowing he's in A Very Special Place, but likely to trip over his own, dumbass feet before he can stumble across the goal line.
We're the home crowd screaming from the stands: "Just walk forward, you dumb lummox! Just walk forward!"
Below the fold...
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I. The Circular Firing Squad (again).
So, Evan Bayh's got himself a "Moderate (read: 'Make Mitch McConnell Happy') Democrats Caucus" in the Senate to throw sand in the eyes of the Obama Administration during the upcoming budget -- and national priorities -- battle. Credit to NYT reporter David Herszenhorn, who this Wednesday noted:
"Mr. Bayh, who was passed over by Mr. Obama as potential running mate, has emerged as one of his administration’s more vocal Democratic critics."
Full article
So here we go again, a cadre of Capitol Hill Democrats vowing to behave like Republicans Lite. And where's that gotten us?
For 30 some-odd years, the great majority of Capitol Hill Democrats were not part of the 'rush to deregulate', or prop-up fossil fuels at the expense of investing in alternative energy, for example. Those are pretty much wholly-owned, proud positions of the GOP. No, what the Democrats' problem was (and for Bayh's little coven, still is) was this need, urge, tug to want to "go along with" the Republicans -- no matter how stupid, screw-ball, or shockingly insane -- their craven policy/bill/initiative was/is.
So, have Democrats been championing deregulation, have they been endorsing the concept of "No Oversight is a Good Thing!"? No. But when a cadre of Capitol Hill Republicans do just such a thing, they can 99% bank on getting enough "let's try and get-along" Democrats to help them out and catch their back.
Off the top of my head the only times I recall Democrats sticking together over three decades were re: apartheid sanctions, Martin Luther King, Jr. day, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of '93, several 'health-of-the-mother exception' votes on abortion-related bills, and this past "Stimulus Package" vote. Note how these were Democratically-lead votes and issues, though.
The only Republican-championed bill/effort/initiative that (again, off the top of my head, I'm sure there're more (and some may tell me about them, vociferously, in the Comments hereunder, but the fact that they don't come readily to mind says something in and of itself) that over a generation Democrats have really, really united to shoot down and deride was the GOP's (and Bush's) ghoulish Terry Schiavo theater (oh, and Reagan's Robert Bork nomination). Many say that Bush's Katrina dumbassery was where the country began to turn against him and a GOP majority on Capitol Hill. No, it was Terry Schiavo, several months earlier.
When Democrats united against an act of cretin Republican chicanery, Americans rallied behind them, the Democrats. When Democrats wring their hands and mince-about and try to "go along and get along" with Republican initiatives that they, the Democrats, know is detrimental to the American citizenry (like deregulating Wall Street, cutting taxes for those who least need tax cuts, or the Iraq War Vote (AUMF) they inevitably, and justifiably, get labeled as "partners in crime". That's not exactly accurate, though: more like "aiding and abetting".
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II. The Economy and "The Blame Game", or: "The Big Distract".
It was only this past Thursday that I wrote in a Comment (responding to someone saying that the AIG bonuses flap was getting "overblown" in comparison to the larger issue):
"It's symbolic and symptomatic of all that's been wrong with our financial system for the past almost 30 years. I fear when this story is no longer the "Flavor of the Day" and many Americans go back to focusing on 'Dancing with the Stars' or some such thing..."
Right now (7:13 a.m. Central) the Feature Story on the Yahoo homepage is: "Salary for 'Dancing' Stars"
Heh.
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At any rate, dovetailing with the foregoing "Democrats' Circular Firing Squad" thoughts, is the GOP tactic of, well, lying and/or saying, "Now we don't want to play the blame game" whenever this or that policy or initiative of theirs blows up in America's face. That's what we have going on with the U.S. economy now, what with the GOP and Fox either trying to blame President Obama and his 2-month old Administration for 8+ (or, arguably, 30) years of GOP economic dumbassery.
I know that this is hardly "new news" to any progressive, but I believe GOP mendacity and refusal to assume responsibility for pushing their economic religion on the rest of us (with, all to often, Democratic complicity) can ever be over-stated:
Look at McConnell argue with himself (the foregoing clip was from ***, the following quote, from February 4):
"'What you have to do, it strikes me, is have some kind of parameters that don't have the government basically running the private business,' McConnell said, according to ABC News' Jonathan Karl. 'It is a tough challenge. I think we are all appalled by these -- some of these executive salary arrangements and bonus arrangements and perks and all the rest. On the other hand, I really don't want the government to take over these businesses and start telling them everything about what they can do. Then you truly have nationalized the business. So it is a delicate dance to try to prevent blatant abuses and still not have the government as a result of taking an equity position in the government telling them, for example, you can't pay dividends or you can't -- I mean, things that are just ordinary business practices. We have to resist the temptation to basically dictate to these businesses how to run every aspect of their operation.'"
Mitch McConnell
Source
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Then you had Dick Shelby say this back in September:
"It should be up to the board of directors of a private corporation to set the compensation of an executive; it shouldn't be Congress's role,"
Source
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Shelby's now "assailing" the AIG bonuses.
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And, as I've reported here and elsewhere, Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus, Ranking Minority Member of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises opined at last week's hearing on the AIG debacle:
"The failure to regulate; the failure of oversight by the Congress. We're to blame."
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"The government has got to get more involved [in regulating companies like AIG]..."
To which Democrats should be responding: "What's this 'we' stuff?" Of course and as noted above, Democrats have too often acted as willing accomplices to GOP assclownery, like this, from Spencer Bachus, from less than two years ago (speaking on hedge fund regulation):
"[President Bush's 'President's Working Group' (PWG)] endorsed an approach to hedge-fund regulation that relies primarily on market pressures and incentives to contain risk. The PWG concluded -- correctly, in my view -- that market discipline, together with statutory limitations restricting access to hedge funds to wealthy investors, can sufficiently mitigate industry risks. By emphasizing the importance of free market forces rather than the heavy hand of excessive government regulation, I believe that the PWG has struck the right balance in regulating the activities of these highly innovative investment vehicles.'"
Cong. Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama)
Investment Advisor July 11, 2007
Conclusion
Democrats need to stand up for Democratic, Progressive Principles and stop being such nebbishes. Such hand-wringing milquetoastes. When they do stand up, they usually win.
And that's good for our country, and the world.