I know part of the problem with America these days is the coarsening and the hardening of our social discourse, but I hope you will forgive me when I ask, in all seriousness and with relatively controlled anger, where the fuck are the Democrats on this Bunning bullshit?
There are people who work in the halls of marbled buildings and relatively swanky glass, concrete and stone edifices within blocks of where I sit who have brains much larger than mine who probably know better than me about political strategy. But I am just going to say this because if I do not I fear my head will explode into a pulpy mess from bottled up piss-vinegar rage.
Democrats should be lined up in a row in the Senate right now, moving to extend unemployment benefits through unanimous consent, and when Bunning stands up to object in his bitter old man way, they should be pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding and pounding him.
Pounding him with this kind of fire:
And NOT with this kind of milquetoast, weak-tea, limp-dicked, watered-down, pitiful mewling that Harry Reid exhibits here:
Here's a transcript of Harry Reid's hell-hath-no-fury on display in the clip above:
(looking at the podium) I would hope (pause) that for the, uh (pause, accompanied by a 'gee-what-can-you-do?' double-thumb shrug) people I've described here (pause) who are just, just wanting us to d-do our work and get that done, I would hope that my friend would not object to this. (Looks up from podium with sad-sack face, sniffs indifferently)
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present your Democratic majority Leader. And in summation, I hope you will allow me the small sin of all-caps, some modest profanity, and extraneous punctuation and permit me to say ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS FUCKING SHIT???
I mean, Durbin sort of tries in that clip, but come on!
Yes, yes, yes, I understand that Harry Reid could force a vote to end the debate and the extensions would pass within a couple days. And I get that most Senators are already back in their home states, meaning that benefits will likely not be renewed until next week, and yes, I get all that.
But my patience -- my patience, which is almost boundless in scope, limitless in elasticity, zen-like in perfection -- is running the fuck out. I am a Democrat, and many days a proud Democrat, but my party is making me insane with the Mr. Softee Nice Guy Act.
I ask you, friends and neighbors, where the Hell are Democrats?
And it's not just Bunning! I mean, it would be easy enough to have Senator after Senator after Senator take to the floor and test this doddering old fool, and along with bashing his idiocy and hypocrisy do a number on the entire intransigence and obstructionism of the Republican Party of which this is a piece. It would be so simple!
The complaint is broader. Why oh why oh why don't we see more of someone like Rep. Xavier Becerra, who did this yesterday:
Democrats like Becerra should be on Meet the Press rebutting Republican nonsense! Week after week! But noooooooooooooooo, Democrats can't assert themselves and use their power even to get a booking on David Gregory's pathetic little puppet show! We have to see fossils like McCain -- fossils who lost an election -- bobbing up and down spitting out talking points like a goddamned ticker tape every. Fucking. Sunday.
I get it that we can't rely on the mainstream media and folks like Gregory to exercise good judgment and reach out to, you know, effective and popular politicians with interesting ideas. (Also: I saw David Gregory at Washington National Airport a few months ago -- mind you, this was in, like, October -- and he was leaning against a rail at Gate 35, talking on his BlackBerry, and he was wearing white pants. White pants! In October! His judgment is not to be trusted.) But the Speaker's office should be telling David Gregory and the other fucking Muppets that infest my television every Sunday that if they don't book the people the Speaker's office ponies up, the well of access will run dry.
I'm no Machiavelli, and until recently I thought Sun Tzu was a lunch entree, so it's not like I'm an evil or even benevolent fucking genius, but it seems to me you don't need to be a genius to figure this out!
I am filled with perfidy and outrage. Perfidy and outrage over the complete jellydicking of politics 101 by the Democrats. I want to pull my hair out. Literally pull my hair out! I saw that clip of Bunning and heard the deafening silence from the other side, and I got so mad I reached for the copy of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure I always keep at my side, and I threw it against a wall. And I love that book! Seriously, they are driving me insane.
How can Republicans, the most vile, contemptible villains of the last decade be so good with messaging, and Democrats absolutely suck at it? WHY WHY WHY WHY?
Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?
Endnote: Do yourself a favor and go and watch that whole Kennedy clip, all seven minutes of it. Then tell me the last time you heard a Democrat take to the floor and show that kind of passion in speaking out against Republican obstructionsim.
The filibuster is killing our Senate, and the Senate is killing our Republic.