[Dialogue] How Horrible!

[Adelbert Batica]

A leader of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party said it best in the 1930's:  
"Democrats and Republicans serve different shifts for the same cause; 
unless, of course, they have to work overtime...in which case they work 
together!"

My political "affiliation"?  It's "Republican", as in "For Whom the Bell 
Tolls" kinda "Republican".

Addi Batica
(writing in "allegedly" liberal Minnesota)


----Original Message Follows----
From: KroegerD at aol.com
Reply-To: Colleague Dialogue <dialogue at wedgeblade.net>
To: MICAH6-8 at topica.com, DavThom at att.net, 
nspmn at googlegroups.com,Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
CC: timcarls2 at msn.com
Subject: [Dialogue] How Horrible!
Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 17:42:59 EDT

Boy is this right on target!.  Michael Lerner hit the nail on the head  when
he posed the rhetorical question, (paraphrased)"why should we vote for
democrats when they don't have the courage to end this war?  How could they  
ever
have the courage to defend our country from the real threats we  face?"

What a horrible disappointment to have Amy Klobuchar, our  Minnnesota
Welstoneian hope, vote yes!

I feel abandoned and alone.  This is the political Dark Night of the  Soul.

Dick Kroeger



Published on Friday, May 25,  2007 by _Working For Change_
(http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/we_gave_them_our_hearts_they_g.html)
We Gave Them Our Hearts, They Gave Him A Blank Check
by David Sirota


It is a dark day in our nation’s history. That sounds melodramatic -  but 
it
is true. Today America watched a Democratic Party kick them square  in the
teeth - all in order to continue the _most  unpopular war in a generation_
(http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/24/poll_public_over
whelmingly_wanted_withdrawal_timetables)  at the request of the most
unpopular  president in a generation at a time polls show a larger 
percentage of the
public thinks America is going in the wrong direction than _ever  recorded 
in
polling history_ (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/24/opinion/p
olls/main2846638.shtml) .
The numbers are not pretty. First, _216 House Democrats  cast the key vote_
(http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll418.xml)  to send a blank check Iraq 
War
funding bill over to  the Senate. As I reported at the beginning of the day 
and
as the _Associated  Press_
(http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=3210812&page=2)  now confirms, 
the vote on the rule was the vote that made it
happen. As the AP said: “In a highly unusual maneuver, House Democratic  
leaders
crafted a procedure that allowed their rank and file to oppose  money for 
the
war, then step aside so Republicans could advance it.”  Nauseating.
In the Senate, we saw lots of promises and tough talk from senators  telling
us they were going to do everything they could to stop the blank  check. 
Some
of them bragged that they were going to vote against the bill  - as if that
was the ultimate sign of heroics. Then, _not  a single senator found the
backbone to stand up to filibuster_
(http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/mr_smith_if_you_are_there_your.html) 
  the bill  a la Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. To
quote the Big Lebowski, “These men  are cowards,” because apparently, 
Senate
club etiquette comes even before  the lives of our troops.
The blank check _sailed  through the upper chamber on a vote of 80-14_
(http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congres
s=110&session=1&vote=00181)  with 38 Democrats (the  majority of the party)
voting yes. In all, at a time when 82 percent of  Americans tell pollsters 
they
want Congress to either approve funds for  the war with strict conditions or
cut off all funding immediately, 90  percent of House and Senate Democrats
combined voted to give George W.  Bush a blank check.
The worst part of it all was the overt efforts to deceive the public -  as 
if
we’re all just a bunch of morons. House Democrats have the nerve to
_continue  to insist_
(http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/madame_chairwoman_you_are_very.html) 
  the blank check they helped ram through the House was all  the
Republicans doing, and that a sham vote on a GOP amendment today -  which
most Democrats opposed for show - was the real vote for the war.  But, 
again, as
the AP reported, it was their parliamentary motion - passed  so quickly and
under the devious pretenses of mundane procedural necessity  - that showed 
their
calculated complicity. Now, tonight, the Democratic  Congressional Campaign
Committee is actually _sending out  fundraising emails_
(http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/24/22420/8047)  claiming “the House 
just passed legislation
that  will go to the White House that includes critical issues Democrats 
have
been fighting for including canceling the President’s blank check in  
Iraq.”
Beyond nauseating.
I’m not a purist nor am I a “pox on both their houses” kind of guy. I  
have
worked to elect Democratic politicians and _I  supported Democratic leaders_
(http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2007/03/21/a-memo-to-the-progressive-caucus-on
-the-eve-of-the-iraq-vote/)  when they pushed an Iraq funding bill  that
included binding language to end the war. But what happened today was  
perhaps the
most stunning travesty I’ve seen in a decade working in  Democratic 
politics.
A Democratic Party that six months ago was elected on  a promise to end the
war first tried to hide their complicity in  continuing the war in the 
House,
and then gave a few token speeches as the  blank check sailed through the
Senate club. And it all happened, as the _New  York Times_
(http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/24/dem_leadership) 
  reported today,
because these Democrats believed criticism  from President Bush - the man 
who
_polls show is  the most unpopular president in three decades_
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18505030/site/newsweek/)  - “seemed more  
politically
threatening to them than the anger Democrats knew they would  draw from the 
left.”
Democratic politicians, Capitol Hill staff, political consultants and  all
their lobbyist friends sitting comfortably tonight in their Northwest
Washington homes believe the public thinks Democrats are “weak” because  
they don’t
more strongly support leaving American troops to be killed or  maimed in the
middle of a bloody civil war in a country half way around  the globe that 
had no
WMD and had nothing to do with 9/11. What they seem  unable - or unwilling -
to realize is that the public has believed  Democrats are weak not because 
some
in the party have opposed the war, but  because many in the party refuse to
wield the power the public entrusts  them with on all sorts of issues. At 
least
on Iraq - the biggest issue of  the day - the public’s perception has 
proven
right. As I wrote to one  congressional lawmaker in an e-mail correspondence
we had today: “The  spoils go to those who use the power they are 
entrusted
with, while infamy  goes to those who squander it.”
In the movie “Say Anything,” John Cusack famously laments after being
dumped that “I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen.” The American 
people  gave
Democrats their heart in November 2006. In return, Democrats gave  George 
Bush a
blank check in May 2007. We gave them our heart, they gave  him a blank
check. That will make May 24, 2007 a dark day generations to  come will look 
back
on - a day when Democrats in Washington not only  continued a war they 
promised
to end, but happily went on record declaring  that they believe in their
hearts that government’s role is to ignore the  will of the American 
people.
David Sirota is the author of the book _Hostile Takeover_
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307237346?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeAS
IN=0307237346&adid=0FHVNGWXGZSQMR0V6WND&) . To subscribe to Sirota’s 
regular
newsletter, go to _www.davidsirota.com_ (http://www.davidsirota.com/)  and
sign up on the left hand  side.
© 2007 David  Sirota





************************************** See what's free at 
http://www.aol.com.


_______________________________________________
Dialogue mailing list
Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

_________________________________________________________________
PC Magazine’s 2007 editors’ choice for best Web mail—award-winning Windows 
Live Hotmail. 
http://imagine-windowslive.com/hotmail/?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_mini_pcmag_0507