We face a challenge, a seeming battle to the death between the Party of No, and the Party of Now.
But that's not really what's going on.
The argument coming from the "Professional Left" is that the President hasn't been "Progressive Enough" for them. They've argued that if only he'd charged harder to get the things they wanted him to get - the Public Option, Dawn Johnsen, Gitmo Closure, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, A Bigger Stimulus, No More Too Big to Fail - we would have these things now.
They argue that he weakening these efforts to appeal to Republicans, gave away the store and got nothing for it - but these arguments ignore one simple reality. We got PLENTY for it, and the people standing in the way aren't (just) the Republicans, it's been Democrats.
First yet again, let recall what Barack Obama has accomplished.
Not since FDR has a President done so much to transform this country
Yeah, Barack Obama's problem is that he's just not "Progressively Pure" enough. He's hasn't held from to Core Progressive Values.
And just where have we heard that kind of talk before?
Time and time again it on various legislative matters the ultimate issue has rested - with a Democrat. Be it Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh or Bart Stupak the issue has repeated been more about herding all the Democratic Cats into the same direction then getting the Republican Dogs to heel.
Joe Lieberman is the one who torpedoed the Public Option, not Barack Obama.
Bart Stupak nearly blew up everything in the Health Care Bill over Abortion Language, not Barack Obama.
Ben Nelson took down Climate Change.
Over and over again, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow and Ed Schulz - yes, all of them - have said "Why not go Whole Hog and get Everything!" And the simple answer is that you're more likely to end up ultimately - with nothing, which is exactly where we are on Climate Change/Energy Legislation right now.
We have to remember that Barack Obama isn't President of the Progressive Party - he's President of the United States, All of it, not just the Progressive Parts of it. There literally isn't a majority progressive party in this nation except for the Green Party (IMO). By reaching out with more Conservative Ideas, Barack Obama isn't just playing naive Charlie Brown to Lucy's perpetual Football Snatch, he's keeping OUR Party together enough to get these bills passed.
I think Robert Gibbs absolutely had a right to be frustrated (and if we get to Bitch, so does HE), because everyone criticizing him is arguing that he just "Doesn't Understand - If you'd just do it Our Way, it would all be better..."
Maybe there's something We need to understand as well.
The problem is, that all the "Profressional Left" (Which was the article authors term, not Gibb's) can't point to a single case - NOT A SINGLE CASE - since the first Bill Clinton Congress, where the "Hard Charge" has worked out well for the Democrats. Sure, the Republicans can often get their agenda rammed through because they have Lock-Step Cohesion on their side, and they can usually count on getting a few Conservative Democrats to peel over on the close votes. Democrats Don't Have that Luxury. We have a Democratic Majority, but not a PROGRESSIVE Majority. We've seen time and time again that we can't count of ANY Republican Votes on just about anything, but furthermore - We Can't Count on All the Democrats to Stay Together either. Here in this recent argument between Anthony Wiener and Joe Scarborough, this is made clearly evident.
The point is that BOTH Scarborough and Wiener are correct. Scarborough argues here the same thing that the "Progressive Left" has been saying for some time. "You Already Have the Votes, just do it YOUR Way!" Technically that's true. Wiener Counters with "Where were the REPUBLICANS?" and that's true also. The Hypothetical that Joe presents is that Democrats could have passed the 9-11 Health Care bill through regular order, but that would have also meant allowing a ton of Republican Amendments on the Bill, which probably would have brought up Immigration Issues and hence they might have started to Lose Democratic Votes - OR if they'd taken yet another tough vote on Immigration we might Lose Those Democrats this November. As we've repeatedly seen the most likely scenario would have been you STILL wouldn't get Republican Votes, and you'd likely start losing Democratic Votes either immediately or later.
This we've seen over and over again.
This is a HARD TRUTH that I think we'd all do better to remember - you can't always get what you want, when you want it - but to finish lyric - you might get just barely what you need.
The hard pill that the White House has to swallow is that Democrats often act like their own worst enemy. Because Obama hasn't delivered on the Most Progressive of his agenda items, many of which he specifically promised he'd accomplish - such as Closing Gitmo - he faces a growing enthusiam gap of disillusionment, of Hope turning to Hopelessness, of Change turning to Apathy.
We can not Afford to let this happen.
This is frustrating business, but we seriously need to hold it together. We can't allow the difficulty of the process, the deal making and the compromises, the actual negotiations and Politics to dampen our spirit - because the tide on the Right is Rising, and it's completely polluted with Corexit 9500.
Again, we just had one of the greatest period of Legislative Victories in nearly 70 years - no, it's not perfect, of course it isn't - but are we seriously willing to let that get Flushed out of Spite? Out of Pique? Out of Hubris to prove we're right and Gibbs is wrong?
Just remember this is who the Republicans are.
These guys are against health care for 9-11 First Responders. They're against lettings Cops, Teachers and Fire-Fighters keep their jobs. They're against Tax Breaks and Better Loans Options for Small Business. They're against putting the tax load back where they used to be when our Economy Grew More than it EVER HAD IN HISTORY. At the same time they're FOR Taxing the POOR, raising the Medicare Eligibility Age to 69, Putting Social Security on the Stock Market (decreasing it's returns), and repealing or defunding Health Care Reform. And they're willing to STOP AT NOTHING to do it. They're more than willing to Lie, more than willing to Demogogue and RACE BAIT to accomplish their ends. By Any Means Unnecessary.
Remember Terry Schiavo? Remember the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill? Remember the "FISA Fix"? Remember the Patriot Act?
Make no mistake here, because that is exactly what we're facing AGAIN.
Speaker John Beohner!!
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell!
LET. THAT. SINK. IN.
.
.
.
Now think again about writing that "Robert Gibbs SUCKS" diary, and think instead about how the FUCK we're gonna get the damn VOTE out and keep these bastards from regaining power and driving our Country right back into the ditch again?
Criticism is fine, criticism is necessary, criticism is exactly what any honest Democracy needs - we all certainly don't need to agree - but let's cool down the tempers and focus on the real enemies to progress and reform.
And those Enemies don't include Robert Gibbs.
Vyan
(Just for the record I'm not a unlimited Obama apologist, I've got a lot of beef with his handling of COREXIT and Health Care for Cleanup workers in the Gulf, as well as the size of the Stimulus but I'm not willing to throw him or Gibbs under the bus over it... not with the horrid GOP alternative waiting in the wings for us to do exactly that)