Congressional Dems: Smell that? It’s coffee. Wake up!

The election results coming out of places like Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Virginia this week should be a wakeup call for Congressional Democrats.

Wow. Ernie Fletcher – Republic governor of the same state that has sent Mitch McConnell to the United States Senate without fail since Ronald Reagan sat in the Oval Office, the same state that gave George Bush 57% and 60%, respectively, in the last two presidential elections – gets tossed out on his ear in a huge landslide.

Oh – did I say, “Republic governor”? Excuse me, I meant, “corrupt Republic governor” – which might be a tautology; I’m not sure.

Yeah – the voters of Kentucky – not exactly the most rabid tree-huggin’, latte-sippin’, windsurfin’, gun-takin’, terrist-lovin’ bunch of folks you could find – overwhelmingly told the Republic governor to stuff it.

On the same day, the voters of Virginia decided that 12 years of Republic control of the state Senate was enough, and tossed the bums out. Ohio’s largest Republic-governed city decided it no longer wanted to be Ohio’s largest Republic-governed city. Voters in Mississippi gave control of the state Senate back to Democrats.

To what exactly do you think the generally awful showing of Republics on Tuesday was due? I’m gonna guess that it wasn’t – with all due respect and gratitude, and as much as Democratic Party regulars might want to believe otherwise – simply because of stellar GOTV work on the part of the local party faithful (although that no doubt played a significant role). 

No, I don’t think Tuesday’s gratifying election results came about because of anything the national Democratic Party has done to effect such an outcome; if anything, I’d say the results came in spite of the DNC. What has happened in the last four years to change so many people’s minds in Virginia and Kentucky and Ohio and Mississippi?  It certainly hasn’t been the implementation of the so-called “Democratic agenda” that has so enamored all of those voters of Democrats all of a sudden. So what is it, then? What does it prove?

It proves that the American people are waking up.

The American people are fed up with the actions of Republics over the past six years.  They are angry that they must be ashamed for their country, a country that was – for most of their lives – respected around the world.  They are appalled by the hypocrisy of the Republics over the past six years.  They are furious over the mismanagement, the criminal mismanagement, of the Republics over the past six years.  They have woken up to the catastrophe that has been the Republic Party over the past six years.  They are looking to the Democrats to address that catastrophe – hence the strong victories in so many state and local races this week.

But the story on the national front is quite a bit different. Unfortunately, so far, for the most part, Democrats in the 110th Congress have let the voters  down miserably; they have failed to do “The People’s Work” of which politicians on both sides of the aisle are so fond of speaking. But there is still time for Democrats to redeem themselves.

“The People’s Work”

Democrats are fond of rationalizing their failure to get results on the two issues most important to the voters who put them into power in November 2006 by trying to convince us that What’s Really More Important than what the voters said was important is something called “The People’s Work”. They would like for us to believe their bald-faced excuse that they “don’t have time” to pursue such matters as impeachment, or that they can’t risk appearing “too partisan” or “too political” or “too vindictive,” or that “it’s not what the American people elected us to do.”

Heh. Funny you should mention, “what the American people elected us to do.”

A Pew poll released yesterday found that 43% of those surveyed believe that the 110th Congress has accomplished “less than usual.” When that question was asked a year ago – in the last month before the November 2006 election, when the Republic Congress got turned on its head; in other words, when the question was asked about the Republic Congress in its last throes – that number was only 39%.

Let’s pause for effect here: A greater perecentage of the American people think the Democratic 110th Congress isn’t doing enough, than felt that way about the Republic 109th Congress just days before the November 2006 elections in which the Republics were thrown out.

Even more significantly, when asked who is to blame for such a lack of results, the shift since last year is startling:

Many of us have been saying anecdotally for many months that – completely aside from die-hard left-wingers and lifelong Democrats – many, many independent voters, as well as an increasing number of former Republics who have reached the breaking point watching their country destroyed by those bearing the insignia of their now-unrecognizable party, have been looking for someone – anyone – to smack the criminal BushCheney administration upside the head with a 2×4 and set this nation back on the proper path. (And, in that vein, if you have not read Leftcenterlibertarian’s excellent diary from the other day on this very question, you should.) In November 2006, enough such disgruntled Americans went to the polls that they got their wish: Anybody But A Republican took control of Congress. It only remained to be seen whether, in fact, the new Democratic Congress would do what was necessary to right the badly listing ship of state.

But alas, the unwillingness of the 110th Congress over the past 10 months to stand up to the continuing abuses of this administration – indeed, to too often actively enable such abuses – has led many who just a year ago laid the blame for such moral gelatinousness squarely at the feet of the Republic Congress, to now blame equally the Democratic Congress, as shown by the above chart.

So, Congressional Democrats – please explain to me again just exactly how this strategy of not standing up to the criminals of the BushCheney administration is helping your electoral chances in 2008? And, just to be clear, let’s cite this from the Pew press release yesterday (emphasis added):

Overall, 43% say the current Congress has accomplished less than recent sessions, while just 5% say it has accomplished more; 42% say it has accomplished about the same as past sessions. These ratings are comparable with those for the Republic-led Congress in 2006, shortly before it was voted out of power.

There will be those Democratic “strategists” who will argue that, “But, but, but – what the voters meant when they said that Congress ‘hasn’t accomplished anything’ is that the president’s veto threats have prevented us from moving forward the Democratic Agenda. He’s kept us from doing The People’s Work!

“And of course,” they will go on, “we know that’s what the voters meant when they said Congress ‘wasn’t accomplishing enough,’ because, after all, we are leaders, and those silly voters – *sniff* – are merely advocates – and, therefore, we know best what they really want. I mean, really, there’s a difference between Congress ‘accomplishing’ things, and holding the administration accountable for its actions. Gosh!”

Ahem:

“But we can’t impeach! Look what happened the last time Congress impeached the president – it was a disaster! The voters will turn on us like hyenas if we make this a political circus!”

Do you think we’re that stupid? Do you honestly believe the American people can’t tell the difference between what Bill Clinton did – and what the Republic Congress did in response – and what George Bush and Dick Cheney have done, and what the Democratic Congress must do in response?

Please don’t insult the American people.

And please don’t ignore reality – that’s a Republic failing. The reality, as shown by the numbers in the latest Pew poll, is that the American people are intelligent enough to recognize what “The People’s Work” really is.  They are intelligent enough to recognize that investigating the possible impeachment of a president and vice president who have been responsible for:

– the use of torture

– the illegal warrantless wiretapping of innocent American civilians

– the outing of a covert CIA agent during a time of war

– the profligate waste of hundreds of billions of dollars in an illegal, unjustified war of aggression, most of which has gone to big business and Republic campaign donors

– the sacrifice of thousands of American soldiers in the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression

– the virtual destruction of America’s armed services in the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression, to such an extent that the security of the nation is at risk

– the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians in the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression

– lying to Congress and the American people about the rationale for the same illegal, unjustified war of aggression

– the criminally negligent abandonment of a major American city during a natural disaster that was foreseen, and the subsequent breathtakingly cavalier mismanagement and sometimes actively obstructionist interference with rescue and recovery efforts

– actively engaging in and abetting obstruction of justice with respect to congressional investigations, including defiance of duly authorized Congressional subpoenas of White House personnel

– supporting, orchestrating, and taking part in an active effort to deceive the American people about the status of the environment, particularly with respect to global warming

– would truly constitute “The People’s Work.”

By the same token, the American people recognize that spending scores of millions of dollars on investigations into nonexistent financial improprieties and impeaching a president for lying about a blow job is not “The People’s Work.” The American people know the difference.

The DCCC’s thoughts on “The People’s Work”

Ironically, Democrats might even have sort of understood why they were sent to Congress by the voters back in November 2006. From the DCCC website:

Taking America in a New Direction

Last November, the American people said they were tired with [sic] the way business was done in Washington. They demanded a change in leadership and new direction for our nation.

So far, so good, right? (Well, except for the grammatical error, I mean.) Yeah, well, guess what the very next sentence says? Do you think it crows about the Democrats’ successes in halting the occupation of Iraq? Does it, perhaps, sing the praises of congressional Democrats in putting a stop to illegal wiretapping of American citizens? Or maybe it recounts the rigorous questioning various administration officials have faced under oath when subpoenaed by Congress?

Sadly, no. None of those has actually happened – YET! No, what does the very next sentence on the DCCC homepage, the literal banner trumpeting the most significant achievements of the Democratic 110th Congress, say about what great successes that 110th has brought back to the American people after being entrusted with the awesome power of the world’s greatest legislative body? You’ll be pleased to know that

Democrats have raised the level of civility and fairness in the House while delivering on the issues that our [sic] important to our nation.

[Diarist’s note: You just can’t make this stuff up.]

Wow. Thank you, House Democrats! I am horribly afraid yet somehow oddly resigned that the heightened level of civility and fairness in the House has been and will forever remain the signal achievement of the 110th Congress.

The Republic take: A separate reality

I guess you can read into these results anything you want; the Republics certainly have.

But maybe – just maybe – another benefit of this week’s election results is that they will serve as a shot across the bow for Republics in Congress – in other words, a few Republic heads on pikes at the city gates might help to clarify exactly what happens to those who cling desperately to The Party of Corruption and War.  Carried to its logical extreme among its own members, the Republic mantra of, “Fuck you – I’ve got mine!” is cannibalizing the party. It’s like the ultimate Ponzi scheme (as home buyers in Virginia’s once-very-red Loudoun County are finding out, to their great chagrin), where unless you’re at the top, you’re on the bottom. Impending political death has a way of focusing the mind wonderfully.

It wasn’t until the wise men of the Republic Party paid him a visit in the summer of 1974 that Richard Nixon truly understood that he had no choice but to step down.  The Republics, acting not out of an elevated sense of duty to the Constitution or to the country, but rather out of that most base instinct operating inside the Beltway, political survival, in essence told Nixon, we can’t afford to keep you anymore.  Nixon was the anchor still tied to  the Republic Party, and he threatened to drag down everyone on board if he stayed in office.  It was a political calculus, pure and simple.

It may be that the results of this week’s elections will cause more than a few Republic congressional candidates (those of the incumbent variety) to sweat a bit, to loosen their collars, to hear footsteps, to cast furtive, targeting glances around them, in a way that betrays their abject fear of losing their positions of power and influence.  It may be that the results of this week’s elections will bring those Republics just that much closer to the point where they will send a delegation to sit down with George W. Bush or Dick Cheney and explain to them The Way Things Are – because,  at that time, we will have the votes to impeach.

A parting thought

So I’m listening today to a recorded interview that local progressive host Marc Germain on LA’s KTLK 1150 has done with Howard Dean, and Marc asks Gov. Dean why impeachment is off the table. Dean responds, going right down the talking points: (1) It’s not what the American people want; (2) It’ll divide the country; (3) It’ll take too long; and (4) Congress will get nothing else done in the meantime, just like with the Nixon and Clinton impeachments.

Oh. My. GOD. Please, Governor Dean, I love ya dearly, but please don’t make me embarrass you with the facts. OK, if I have to: (1) In fact, the American people almost assuredly do want it looked into; (2) I’m sorry – divide the country? Yeah – into the flat-earth crowd and the rest of America, who believe in the value of preserving the Constitution; (3) The Clinton impeachment took less than 13 months from start to finish, from the day Linda Tripp first walked into Ken Starr’s office with her taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky to the final vote in the Senate; (4) Uh, I’m not quite sure how this stacks up, but during the 93rd Congress (during which the Watergate affair was investigated and impeachment articles drawn up), the Senate alone introduced more than 4,200 bills. So far, halfway through the 110th Congress, with no impeachment in sight, the Senate has introduced just over 2,300 bills. The House numbers were 17,690 bills introduced during the 93rd Congress, 4,112 bills introduced so far during the first half of the 110th – and besides, Gov. Dean, are you implying that, even if it were true that “nothing got done” during the Watergate investigations, that it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do?

Thanks for reading!

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