Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Those Damnable D.C. Democrats

LET RUSS LEAD. Hey, D.C. Democrats, stop being so afraid.

[Lockhart] sees no political downside to Senator Feingold’s
proposal—and likewise sees much desperation in the Republican spin that
it would be another self-inflicted Democratic wound that would haunt the minority
party in the fall elections. All the G.O.P. bluster about an early vote on
the Feingold proposal to smoke out weak-sister Democrats for elimination in
November, Mr. Lockhart said, “is complete nonsense.”

He said: “One simple rule of politics is that
the more ferociously you’re pushing your talking points, the less you
believe in them. The Republicans jumping so hard on this tells you that they
believe they’re in a really vulnerable position—that this issue
is not the winner they thought it was.”

Greg
Sargent

God bless Joe Lockhart, not a member of the fainthearted faction.

Sargent's take goes beyond the Lockhart quote and focuses on something
very important. He calls out BullMoose,
as I did on the censure issue, but he also says the Moose followed Rove's script,
doing exactly what the Brain wanted. This problem is systemic and deep, spreading
out across the Democratic Party. If it doesn't change, the 2006 elections are
going to be bleak.

D.C. Democrats should start listening to Feingold and Murtha,
both of whom have revved up regular folks and Democrats. It also wouldn't hurt
for them to take to heart what Bill Kristol said this past weekend when he praised
Feingold, not to mention consider what it means. Having the courage to go straight
at Bush on an issue on which he's been strong is the bottom line. Doing so,
Feingold showed strength of character, purpose and leadership. What BullMoose
and others suggest is an approach that will alienate regular Democrats and others
longing for the Democrats to lead. With due respect, BM and others are wrong.
Russ is right.

There are inherent risks to leading. People don't expect leaders
to always be right, but they do expect our leaders to take risks on issues that
matter. President Bush's abject overreach of executive power on the NSA illegal
spying is just one of those situations.

Sargent also talks about the penchant D.C. Democrats seem to
always have of running, for fear of losing. I'd add, they also do the running
before the people have even had time to digest the idea being presented. D.C.
Democrats love to step on each other's message. It happened when Jack Murtha
came out for redeployment. It happened next with Russ Feingold on censure.

There is a larger problem with the D.C. Democratic fear and back
peddling, which was seen immediately when Feingold proposed censure through
the awkward response from Nancy Pelosi. It's the reason communities out here
on the web are so pissed off, frustrated and generally demoralized by D.C. Democrats.
People just don't understand why they are running from Feingold. No, let me
restate that. They don't understand why Democrats are running on everything.
They wonder if Democrats will ever stand up and make a fight. This brings up
an even larger problem, which is that if Democrats don't start standing up they'll
find the November elections a humongous disappointment that they helped orchestrate
through their own timidity.

People are sick and tired of the D.C. Democrats not taking advantage
of open opportunities to not only express dissatisfaction, but to lead everyone
in a new direction. Legal scholars can talk about the illegality of Bush's NSA
wiretapping program all they want, but if the Democrats remain mute it soon
becomes another missed opportunity to hold Bush accountable, which is at the
heart of the NSA censure battle. Glenn
Greenwald has led the fight on the web, along with FDL,
whose large community can make all the difference in this fight, but not with
D.C. Democrats choosing to run and hide, rather than join the battle.

At least Joe Lockhart gets it.

The communities in the blogosphere get it too, because the people
out here are yearning for a D.C. Democrat to stand up and lead us out of the
Republican abyss. We can't do it alone. D.C. Democrats shouldn't take people's
disaffection with Bush to mean they'll come out in droves in November. They
won't if Democrats don't inspire them.

The reality is that Bush rage has turned into Bush fatigue, with
the 2006 elections possibly becoming a screw you moment, when the electorate
chooses not to choose. Chris Bowers uses the Duckworth
surprise squeaker as an example of what we could all face in November. Even
Bush mentioned the need to get voters out today in his ad nauseam town hall meeting.

Bush fatigue, coupled with Democratic Party frustrations and feelings of
paralysis by the people to affect a political outcome, could be a disaster for us in November
if D.C. Democrats don't wake up, start listening and decide to lead, or follow those who do want to risk everything to do just that.

People are going to need a reson to support Democrats in November, so D.C. Dems better figure out how to give them one. Feingold leading censure is one. Murtha trying
to get people's attention on Iraq is another. But this inside the beltway bull
that Dems should stand back and let the Republicans keep screwing up is not
going to inspire the base to support them. It will just end up pissing everyone
off further so that their helplessness opens out into apathy.

I know it's recess for Washington, but let's hope somebody saw
Sargent's blog post besides us.