Caving in to the most unpopular, reviled President in US history on a regular basis is infuriating enough, but refusing to let the GOP suffer politically for W's intransigence is about as self-defeating a Democratic political strategy as one can imagine
Bravo Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid, very clever way of holding W accountable, by giving Bush Jr everything he wants while simultaneously angering your already riled liberal/progressive bloc even further
AGAIN
Dems cave on spending
The Democrats’ capitulation Wednesday on the total domestic spending level is the latest instance of Bush prevailing on a major policy showdown. Bush and his Senate Republican allies have repeatedly beat back efforts by Democrats to place restrictions on funding for the war in Iraq as well as Democratic attempts to expand funding of children’s health insurance by $35 billion.
Democratic leaders said Wednesday that they would keep total spending at the strict $933 billion limit set by the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also abandoned a proposal she supported Tuesday to eliminate lawmakers’ earmarks from spending bills after she faced stiff opposition from powerful fellow Democrats.
This latest Democratic leadership capitulation is really past arrogant and insulting, it's almost as if the Democratic leaders are doing absolutely everything in their power to piss off the liberals & independents who helped smack the GOP around in November 2006
I've never seen anything like this in politics
The GOP is letting W drive it off the cliff in a doomed attempt to keep its wacko-wingnut base pacified, a base whose views are going to be crushed in the next Presidential election by a public fed-up and angry with the lies, corruption, empty arrogance and spectacular incompetence of this Administration and it's bipartisan political & media lackeys
At the same time, the Dems tell the liberal bloc to just STFU but keep dishing with the donations, as the Dems are slightly less odious than the GOP on torture, warrantless spying and strongly standing up for gay constituents and abortion rights, groups and views not preferred in the Rahm Emanuel-approved vision, which actively trashes one part of the Democratic base in the belief that it translates, somehow, into more votes for the party from "mainstream" voters
But there's also another aspect to this particular failure of the Dem leadership to hold W accountable for something, for anything
The refusal to let the GOP suffer for W's obvious leadership failures, while the poor and politically powerless will, once again, bear the brunt of this Administration's vile policies is a strategy that needs to change ASAP
Democratic leaders said Wednesday that they would keep total spending at the strict $933 billion limit set by the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also abandoned a proposal she supported Tuesday to eliminate lawmakers’ earmarks from spending bills after she faced stiff opposition from powerful fellow Democrats.
Pelosi told the Democratic chairmen of the House Appropriations subcommittees, the so-called cardinals, that earmarks would stay in the omnibus and that Democratic leaders would accede to cut spending to levels demanded by Bush to save 11 spending bills from a veto, said sources familiar with a meeting that took place in Pelosi’s office early Wednesday morning.
The Democratic cardinals rebelled against a plan suggested by Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) to save $9.5 billion by slashing earmarks. Obey hoped to use the money to minimize cuts to domestic programs important to Democrats.
To Recap
The Dems will not let the GOP suffer the same pain the non-Bush Jr supporters AKA "everyone else in the US" is going to feel regarding these funding battles
If these GOP pigs at the trough won't stand up to W, why should the Dems ensure a trouble-free raping of the public treasury for those putting loyalty to Bush Jr far above their duty to uphold and defend the US Constitution?
Obey has the absolute right idea here, make the W supporters feel the same pain everyone else has, make those Reps and Bush dog Dems hurt, and hurt HARD
If there's any group of people completely deserving of serious political pain at this point, it's those who have driven our country into the ground by degrading our military capabilities, politicizing our legal system, outing courageous, undercover patriots tracking WsMD, and are STILL sticking with the Bush Jr Administration
Weakening the liberal base while refusing to inflict damage on GOP political operatives is NOT a strategy that logically breeds success for the Democrats, it's the same infuriating DLC crap that's helped allow the current dismal state of what could be a truly great, noble and civilized society
And what makes this strategy of whimpering in fear of any GOP attacks is that so many of those same GOP charges were so thoroughly demolished by the Dems themselves in 2006, especially as it relates to competent/efficient war-time leadership, or being patriotic enough to decry the wasteful use of our military in advancing about as "anti-American" a vision to be found, a vision of torture, warrantless spying and a vast expansion of unchecked, imperial powers at the clear expense of our Constitution
And the Democratic leadership decided that those sticking with W shouldn't have to suffer for his sins, which is why Obey's threat to scalp the GOP by stripping it's members of their earmarks was shot down by those Democratic leaders who have failed to hold this President, or his sick agenda, in any kind of real check
There's much more in the article, and while there's still wrangling to occur, a few realities don't give rise to a favorable impression of the current Democratic leadership or strategies
There are more US troops in Iraq now, under a Democratic Congress, than there were under the GOP Congress
Regarding FISA, the Dems gave expanded powers of warrantless spying to, initially, Alberto Gonzalez-of ALL people-than already existed in their cowardly cave-in to W at the start of their August recess
I see no Democratic leadership that's actually held Bush Jr "accountable", or restrained his agenda in any meaningful way
When the strategy is basically let the GOP keep its earmarks, and spare W's backers any political pain, then it's more likely that capitulation-not vindication-will be the latest Democratic offering
The one lesson anyone learns from bullies, and their lapdogs, is that all too often, the only thing they respect is a show of force, a good, swift, crack across their mealy mouths, which is exactly why the GOP needs to fell the pain it's support of W inflicts on everyone else