We don't need an "opposition" party, we are our own damn "opposition" party.
A bloc of Senate Democratic moderates is quietly maneuvering to keep open the option of vetoing two of President Barack Obama's most ambitious agenda items this year -- climate change and health care reform.
Eight Democrats who want to water down new climate change legislation have already joined with Republicans and signed a letter opposing any attempt to use fast-track budget rules to prevent filibusters. Many of the same Democrats also oppose using those budget rules to prevent filibusters of health care legislation.
Nice. Who the hell needs to worry about Republicans, when we can't get our own party together?
Now one of the things we do love about the Democratic party is the fact that it's not full of a bunch of ditto-heads who just go along with whatever the administration wants. With that being said, I'm kind of pissed off that these so called Democrats are so willing to oppose allowing a simple majority to vote on issues instead of requiring 60 votes. The whole "we have to have 60 votes" thing is just plain dumb to me when a majority is 51. I think Chris Matthews was right on this point:
Hey, if you can't get a simple majority, then the legislation probably deserves to fail. Why require 60 votes?
And we also have Evan Bayh (thank GOD he's not the VP right now) and his "secret group" of 15 Democrats (3 or 4 of which don't want to be publicly associated with the group) via Think Progress:
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) officially announced the creation of his new Blue-Dog style coalition of approximately 15 "moderate" Democratic senators. As Roll Call explained last week, members of the group "acknowledge that they are seeking to restrain the influence of party liberals." During his announcement, host Joe Scarborough asked Bayh who is in the new coalition. Bayh said that while a press release on the group’s creation included the names of 12 senators, there are "three or four" who don’t want to be identified
If you're going to go out there and be a part of a group to oppose the liberal influence (that the PEOPLE of the United States voted FOR in November in case they slept through that) then they should be big enough to come out and state their views PUBLICLY. Don't be scaredy cats and hide.
So really, we CAN afford to have NO Republicans in Congress, the Democrats will easily cover their spots. SMH.
Also, I think I'm officially on the "fuck bipartisanship" bandwagon. Bipartisanship won't allow us to get ANYTHING done because apparently being bipartisan simply means being able to oppose anything and obstruct anything while refusing to offer any alternatives. And what's so bad about being "liberal"? We've had "conservative" for the last almost 20-30 years, and that hasn't worked out so well.
[Update 1:02 PM ET] Here's the list according to MSNBC's First Read h/t jalenth:
"Leading the new group are Democratic Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Tom Carper of Delaware and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas... [O]thers joining the group are Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Bill Nelson of Florida, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Mark Udall of Colorado, and Mark Warner of Virginia."
I am really disappointed to see McCaskill and Warner on this list, especially since I remember what they were saying during the campaign about helping Obama to realize his agenda/policies (especially Warner). In fact, Bayh talked up Obama's policies also when Obama was in Indiana. Well, we have our list now.