Making temporary common cause with adversaries is as common as fishnets in a burlesque show. Markos allied with some of the most nauseating right wing bloggers on the issue of 'net neutrality. Obama teamed up with Coburn on the internet spending database. Grayson teamed up with Ron Paul (the original teabagger) to audit the Fed.
So can we spare ourselves all the faux outrage over FDL's using the arsenal of one enemy against another?
Rahm Emmanuel, a guy who has never shown the netroots an ounce of respect, colludes with Norquist's corporatist forces a LOT more often than anyone on the true left.
It's appropriate to debate strategy about HCR. It's a tough read--accept what may or may not be better than nothing, or risk all to try to force Reconciliation to get something much better. Not an easy call.
But let's get real. The Blue Dogs have been aligning all along with the worst of the right wing to filibuster HCR.
The Blue Dog corporatists are perpetually, amorously in bed with the Norquist types. No, they don't necessarily go on FOX Noise (though Lanny Davis does, of course), or declare an official alliance, but they collude where it matters most--in Senate votes.
All this drama reminds me of when the centrist Democratic Party swung its big guns around and took aim at Howard Dean. It wasn't Republicans who took him down--it was entrenched Democrats, with Rahm in the main turret.
FDL is playing bad cop. The strategy is worthy of critique--primary Sanders? Really? But the endgame is to try to force Reconciliation, an understandable (if risky) goal. Reconciliation has been used successfully to pass all kinds of things, including bills that contained elements that only peripherally involved the budget (remember the Contract On America?).
The left needs its bad cops. It needs its mouthy Alan Graysons, and its snarling Jane's. It needs its far-left flank, and it needs to get pushy. Otherwise, the corporatists will ignore and insult and laugh at the netroots and progressives until they need a platform or money or phonebanking, then when they're done using us, they'll go back to their regularly scheduled mockery and disdain.
So can we kindly unclench our derrieres about FDL's "betrayal", please, and go back to discussing tactics?