Hey Chris - just when you thought you went over your last edge...
I've held you in high regard over the chiding of my liberal/progressive friends over the years (both terms are just fine - get over it). I have complimented you on matters when we agreed and disagreed. I have looked the other way when you made your stupid sexist mistakes, excusing you as someone who doesn't know how to avoid "stepping in it" (and as a feminist, I can tell you, that wasn't easy).
But nothing - not your gratuitous, fun-for-one visits from Tom "He-Who-Should-Be-Behind-Bars" DeLay, or your buddying up with your inhouse racist Mr. Buchanan - nothing prepared me for your unglued recent attacks on the left regarding the health care debate. Your treatment of people with honest intentions and who've developed a longstanding track record of integrity is appalling; your nonstop narrative that we should all be forced to debate this through the lens of the most partisan, corporatist tip - is beyond the pale.
Then to top all that off, you call me - and people like me, "not real"? You claim we don't vote, and we like to sit at home and bitch? I didn't think you could afford to slough off your viewing public, but at any rate, I'm shocked at your lack of understanding of who we are or what motivates us.
Your treatment of the former DNC chair, Howard Dean, was outrageous and beneath you. This is a man who the base of the Democratic Party overran the wishes of the DLC in 2004 and gave Mr. Dean the Chairman's job (that will be Dr. Dean to you). Dean's point of view is at least as valid as Lieberman's. But for some reason, while Dean was trying to discuss these points, you instead shouted unfounded accusations at him, put inflammatory words in his mouth, and kept repeating the insane assertion that Dean was afraid of Lieberman, because Dean didn't want to focus on someone who is fast becoming irrelevant. Let's get this straight: Dean, like us - isn't afraid of the guy. We're goddamned sick and tired of him, and he has played out any semblance of credibilty. We simply don't wish to give him one more minute of our thoughts, and he doesn't represent our party. Since you wouldn't let Dean tell you, hear it from me - that is, if you're capable of listening to a figment of your imagination, bitching on their couch.
For you to be that unglued - that off the wall - deserves an explanation. What gives? What's your motive? If you're going to be so rude, you better come clean on your objectives and impetus to this flagrant abuse of your guests and our esteemed and trusted advocates. That wasn't Hardball; that was water-carrying.
Dean attempted - unsuccessfully - to state that Medicaire's costs are a fraction of current insurance carriers' cost due to the low administrative overhead. What are you afraid of, that you wouldn't let Dean state this? Dean was ready to enumerate specific problems with this bill, and you wouldn't let him speak. Instead, we got to hear paid-off Ms. Landrieu talk about "mediocrity we better believe in or else."
And then you were at it today with Wiener, one of the brightest, most skilled champions of this reform; the guy who has been working tirelessly, endlessly... but you - decided to come out with this new bizarre bullshit - which if it weren't you, would be a segment on your sideshow.
I'm glad Wiener put you in your place, as you continued to try to superimpose the accusations onto him. He actually treated you better than you deserved, and did well (as usual) sticking to the positive message he is about. He did give you the priceless parting shot you've been begging for: in response to the worn out "don't let the best be the enemy of the good, he quipped, "But, Chris, you ain't perfect and you're not even very good."
In your zeal for god-knows-what, you couldn't even leave people like me alone. People who have changed the polling for acceptance of this bill from a majority to a minority overnight. People like me, who searched in vain after 9/11 to find a political refuge from the kind of propagandic tripe you and others like you pumped out at alarming rates and volumes, and found sanity in an online, non-corporate assembly of citizenry. It has been my political home ever since.
If you must know, the last time I lived in my parents' basement was 1981, and have been voting since then. But because of Kos and places like it, I not only vote, I'm involved. I contribute to the Democratic Party, to liberal causes, and to candidates who support the Democratic Party platform (it wouldn't hurt you to re-read it). I have been involved in both the 2004 and 2008 election on the ground, and I'm not going anywhere. I am not laughing and this is not a game. I am not content to sit on my couch and bitch.
You better get afraid, if that's what the reality of me means. Because with all due respect - pardon me, sir, but I am no fiction.