Newsflash: it’s not going to happen. if there’s one thing I have learned, it’s that this administration (like the rest of the Democratic party) likes the money and energy that progressives contribute to election campaigning, but it is not very excited about passing their priorities (please do not give me a lecture about how “health insurance reform is the same as “health CARE reform”, or how the financial regulations are “the best we could do given the circumstances”). This is, after all, the adminsitration that dumped Van Jones because Glenn Beck had a hissy fit. The same Democratic Party that voted (unconstitutionally) to defund ACORN, because of a different doctored video.

It’s not going to happen. I eagerly await what these same supporters, who now say that if Sherrod is not reinstated that the administration has “has no spine and no brain”, will do when that reinstatement doesn’t occur.

Happy to be proved wrong… but i don’t think I will be.

And yet… and yet… I am wondering if Obama has led the Republicans into a trap.

We have seen the family planning funds get ejected, and still the GOP plans to vote en masse against the bill.

We’ve seen mortgage modifictaion get cut and still the GOP plans to vote en masse against the bill.

The bill is filled with tax cuts the GOP insisted on, and still the GOP plans to vote no en masse.

It’s beginning to look to me like the GOP opposes ANY STIMULUS AT ALL NO MATTER WHAT OBAMA GIVES THEM. And yet there is no denying that Obama went out of his way for the GOP, certainly farther than most Democrats like me would like.

I am no Obama fanboy. I’m not one of those people that comes up with excuses for politicians behaving badly. I’m not easily persuaded.

But I think this time, Obama may have led the GOP into a trap. The public overwhelmingly supports some kind of stimulus. Obama has very publicly tried to get the GOP on board, and just as publicly, the GOP has said no. It’s the standard “Lucy-pulled-the-football” play… but this time I think Obama pulled the football, because (despite my strong objections to pulling family plannign funding etc.) the Democrats can say “look at everything we did to get the GOP on board! We are trying to “change” our politics, and the GOP simply doesn’t want to cooperate! Blame them if the economy fails!”

I think Obama plays a decent game of chess.

Thanks guys: that’s two more people I won’t be giving money to in 2008. Two more people who like to claim the mantle of “leader”, but don’t live up to the title.

Pathetic. Scared of a President with 28% approval.

What’s the difference between a Democrat and weasel?

The weasel actually has balls, and is known for being a tenacious fighter.

Democrats said they did not relish the prospect of leaving Washington for a Memorial Day break — the second recess since the financing fight began — and leaving themselves vulnerable to White House attacks that they were again on vacation while the troops were wanting. That criticism seemed more politically threatening to them than the anger Democrats knew they would draw from the left by bowing to Mr. Bush.

Oh, boo-fucking-hoo, Mr. 28% might gasp criticize them. Boo fucking hoo.

What a bunch of whiney ass titty babies.

“It’s time for bipartisanship, it’s time for open government, transparency, and it’s a time for results,” Reid said. “There must be a new direction in Iraq,” he said…

Well it seems that when you’re breaking your explicit promises to the American people that you’re going to end the war and refuse to send blank checks to the President, you might as well break a few more promises as well. Like those promises about transparency:

Today is the day House Democrats are expected to vote on Iraq – except, news out of Washington this morning says the leadership has come up with a nifty little trick to try to prevent the public from seeing who voted for giving Bush a blank check, and who voted against it.

If you thought Democrats were behaving like cowards by caving into a President at a three-decade low in presidential polling and giving him the very blank check they explicitly promised not to give him during the 2006 election, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We are watching the rise of the Dick
Cheney Democrats – that is, the rise of Democrats who endorse governing in secret and hiding the public’s business from the public itself.
[snip]
Here’s how it is expected to work today in a process only Dick Cheney could love (though you never know – it could change at the last minute). Every bill comes to the House floor with what is known as a “rule” that sets the terms of the debate over the legislation in question. House members first vote to approve this parliamentary rule, and then vote on the legislation. Today, however, Democrats are planning to essentially include the Iraq blank check bill IN the rule itself, by making sure the underlying bill the rule brings to the floor includes no timelines for withdrawal, and that the rule only allows amendments that fund the war with no restrictions – blank check amendments that House Democratic leaders know Republicans will have the votes to pass.

This means that when the public goes to look for the real vote on the Iraq supplemental bill, the public won’t find that. All we will find is a complex parliamentary procedure vote, which was the real vote.
[snip]

If this secretive behavior seems familiar, it should. You may recall that in the past two weeks, the same Democratic leadership that is now trying to hide its votes on Iraq negotiated a secret free trade deal with the White House, steamrolling its other key Election 2006 pledge to stop lobbyist-written trade policy. The legislative texts of the trade pacts in question remain concealed from the public, though K Street lobbyists have told reporters they have received “assurances” that any of the much-touted provisions that purport to protect labor and the environment will be written to be unenforceable.

Read the whole thing, and then consider doing what i did today: I called up the DNC and asked to be removed from their mailing list. Later this week, I re-register as an Independent.

Elections have consequences all right: and one of those consequences is that you gots to dance with who brung you.

And while I’ll still be accepting blog-ads from the Democratic Party, I will be explicitly encouraging my readers not to donate time, money, or energy to any Democrats running for national office. Not one.

In the case of the typically responsive Senate Majority leader, it’s a failure to take you off hold. A recording of Harry Reid’s voice tells you that someone will be with you as soon as possible: then you sit on hold for ten-fifteen minutes before hanging up. This curious high volume of calls continues through the next 48 hours. Including after 5:00 PM.

In the case of Senator Arlen Specter, who’s been getting hell from right and left, you simply take the phone off the hook.

Funny isn’t it: the people we elected to lead the country, because they were capable of making tough decisions, really don’t want to hear from any of their constituents.

That’s a serious problem: I don’t give money or political support to people who only want to talk to me when it’s convenient. Gonna be a tough campaign year.

Thanks to the inaction or belated action on the part of Democrats, the country is in the following situation:

The loser of the 2000 election was appointed to the position of President;

We’re stuck in a war based on lies so obvious a two-year-old could see through them;

The Supreme Court is stacked;

habeas corpus has been repealed;

Americans are now held hostage by credit card companies charging rates previously known as “usury”;

and the President was allowed to escalate the war with another 41,000 troops (and is currently secretly adding another 200,000).

Oh, and the price of gas is going up again (so much for the oil revenues paying for the war in Iraq and greater energy security).

Yesterday the Democrats said “Sorry, that stuff about timelines to bring the troops home just isn’t going to work out.”

If I was the conspiratorial type, I might be tempted to think this was a deliberate effort on the part of both parties to keep the America people bent over a barrel.

You owe us, motherfuckers. You OWE us.

Harry Reid’s message to the anti-war progressives who helped return his party to control of Congress: “Thanks for the help, now fuck off.”

How else to interpret the Democratic leadership’s apparent decision to send Bush a war bill dropping our single most important demand, and their single most important promise, a timeline to bring our troops home?

On Sunday, AFP reported that “US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday an Iraq war funding bill will pass Congress this week despite fierce opposition from Republicans who say it amounts to “surrender.” The country’s top Democrat said a bill containing a timeline for the withdrawal of US troops would be submitted to President George W. Bush by next weekend, when Congress breaks up for a week for the Memorial Day holiday.

This is the exact opposite of what was reported late Monday night and this morning. Count me as one Democrat who doesn’t appreciate being spun like a top, who doesn’t appreciate being lied to, and who will not get behind any measure that keeps our troops in harm’s way.

What part of “28 percent approval rating” do the Democrats not understand? What part of “unpopular war” is so hard for the Democrats to grasp? What part of “losing your base” is it that the Democrats can’t quite get their heads around.

This bill is a disgrace. Call Congress.