Desperate times

McCain's suspension of his campaign is insincere bullshit. Its sole intent is to benefit him politically by:

• Freezing the status quo to stop Obama's rise in the polls
• Seizing the news cycle for photo ops (and they're all free!)
• Giving him the chance to pretend to ride to the rescue as if a Wall St. bailout were San Juan Hill
• Evading a debate for which he could never be sufficiently prepared (though in the mean time he'll try)

I'm sure as I can be that the last is what provoked him to do something. If the fumbling, bumbling, stumbling McCain is seen on a platform next to the brilliant, knowledgeable, and often eloquent Obama, the stark contrast will be undeniable. Since even Fox "News" has Obama up six points (warning: link blows up Firefox 2), another five-point shift would be the death of McCain's campaign anyway.

Obama should say, "McCain is welcome to suspend his campaign if he can't manage to advance more than one effort concurrently, but is that really what we need in a President?"

Or maybe Harry Reid has already done better:

"If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now," he added.

Update: Obama takes the best of both (at the same CNN link)!

"It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person [who] will be the next president," Obama said. "It is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once. It's more important than ever to present ourselves to the American people."

Update: I really should have been much snarkier about this, now that I think about it. Here are some possibilities:

• McCain: I haven't finished my homework, so I'd better pull the fire alarm.
• Granddad needs his nap.

Please feel free to compete in comments for best McCain no-debate snark.

No mention of continuous filibuster

Time lays the failures of this Congress on the Democrats with nary a mention of the stonewalling of Republican Senators.

Just because their approval ratings are at all-time lows and they are dismissed as a do-nothing Congress doesn't mean Democrats on Capitol Hill aren't keeping busy.

Given the logjam that has built up since Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, there's a lot to get through.

Of course, the media have never held the Republicans to account for their caucus-wide abuse of the filibuster. They don't like to beat up Republicans.

But Harry Reid gave his so-called colleagues from the other side of the aisle a pass, too. He should have been holding the Senate in session to make the Republicans filibuster every goddamn thing on television, instead of letting them filibuster by remote control.

Whoever is the next Majority Leader, pay attention. The Republicans are a highly disciplined, power-first enterprise. They don't care about traditions of comity unless they can use them against you. Think about that when you change the Senate rules.

Lieberman's only hope

Harry Reid has to keep smarmy jerk Joe Lieberman in the caucus of Senate Democrats. I don't have a lot of confidence in Reid, I'm sure he'd rather not be biting his tongue. I'm sure he'd rather not be choking down Lieberman's consistent bullshit.

Come 2009, there's only one scenario in which Lieberman caucuses with the Democrats: 59 Democratic Senators. Otherwise, he's out on his Fox-beloved ass. Let him caucus with John McCain and the Republicans.

Managing a legitimate result

For all the pundits, bloggers, and politicians who called on Hillary to quit, for all the tiresomeness of the endless primaries and their shallow coverage in the media, and for all the ridiculous complications of the Democrats' baroque procedure for selecting a nominee, I've come around to equanimity about Hillary's continuing in the race. It's best to see this process, however imperfect, to its end.

Think of the alternatives:

• The superdelegates short-circuit the process and king-make - either way.
• Either candidate drops out before actually being beaten.

Of course, Florida and Michigan bollixed up what would have otherwise been a clear procedural picture, and the DNC had to improvise. What they did was showcase an open process where everyone had a say. I'm sure there was some choreography behind the scenes, but they made a solomonic decision that didn't smack of one side cheating the other.

Wednesday, we Democrats will find ourselves here: The voters will have finished their say. The delegates they have already chosen are narrowly for Obama. The superdelegates have held back (enough!) from tipping the contest. They have let the voters choose so that the final outcome is legitimate. Based on Howard Dean's, Nancy Pelosi's, and Harry Reid's public statements, I believe that some Democrats in Congress decided to wait so that their votes would ratify the decision of the voters and not overturn it. Quite a restrained decision to be made in a smoke-filled room!

There's now a context in which to unite. That's still not guaranteed to happen. Whether it actually does hinges on Hillary's generosity and that of her core supporters. But to come out of the primary season in early June with a narrow but legitimate victory by one candidate is about all we could hope for.

Of course, all bets are off if Harold Ickes and Hillary take their beef to the floor of the convention.

Mean Joe Biden

Joe Biden obviously should be a reader of mine. Bullshit is the perfect word to describe Duhbya's tired old appeasement crap.

Still, while it's normal to be outraged, it's much better to mock him and to remind voters why they already hate his guts. I'd go with something like:

"George Duhbya Bush's tired, ugly, dishonest comments yesterday remind all Americans how much better off we will be when his Republican Presidency is over. Then we Americans can once again get past his habitual juvenile name-calling to the real business of solving problems."

Harry Reid actually sounds pretty good. Now if we can just get the rest of the caucus on the same message.

I say the moon's made of green cheese

The Bushists simply arrogate to themselves any power they want. Now it's the unilateral power to make treaties. Congress and the Democrats do nothing.

Here's what Article II, Section 2, paragraph 2 of the former Constitution says on the subject about the President's power:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;

In reply, the Bushists - one Jeffrey Bergner this time - say that "Congress already endorsed such an initiative through its 2002 resolution authorizing the use of force against Saddam Hussein." Oh, right, that exception is right there in the text - if you're hallucinating from boosting glue.

They don't actually believe this bullshit is valid. They know it's bullshit. They know that we know it's bullshit. They're just saying, "Stop us if you have the nerve."

Nancy and Harry don't. The Democrats continue to pretend this hasn't been happening since the get-go:

Bergner's letter, said Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), "creates the basis for a constitutional confrontation."

Ya think?

It's a shame. The old Constitution wasn't perfect, but it was a damn sight better than Duhbya making up new dictatorial powers as he goes along.

Mercy for the horse?

There's no reason to punish the horse he rode in on, but the right response to this little bit of whining is ... left to your imagination.

Or, in the politesse of Washington, "Send us nominees who aren't committed ideological Republicans hacks, and we'll consider it."

Crap, I just can't be polite when imagining a conversation with Duhbya.

Harry Reid, slow learner

Bipartisanship is a chimera of tasty bullshit. You'd think that Harry would have found a sweeter taste by now.

The Bushists will demagogue any issue, but they are particularly scurrilous when they think they can cut taxes for the very wealthy.

The impeachment remedy

Impeachment is a political remedy. It has due process trappings and procedural analogies to criminal procedure, but its only authorized punishment is removal from office and disqualification from eligibility for office, and it is specifically exempted from the prohibition against double jeopardy.

Impeachment was intended to be an extraordinary remedy, and that's why the Republicans were wrong to pursue it against Bill Clinton. If lying about blow jobs in Washington were extraordinary, we'd all know that the country was run by lesbians - and they'd be doing other things that the likes of Ken Starr would find unspeakable (but would document and footnote with prurient glee anyway).

The wimpy Washington Democrats have failed to make this distinction, too, or they would be able to distinguish between the Constitutional abuses of the Bushists and the marital abuses of the Clenis. Instead, Nancy and Harry let the conventional post-Democratic Beltway narrative and their own preference for playing it safe to bollix them.

Ironically, the Bushists' transparently bogus Constitutional interpretation of the Presidency constrains them to accept impeachment as political. If the President is immune from the law, as they have repeatedly claimed in a reprise of Nixonian defenses, impeachment is the only remedy between elections for an Executive run amok.

But logic and law don't work on these guys. Need an example? All the Republicans who pursued Clinton on grounds that no impact on government now blithely accept Duhbya and Darth's blanket claims of immunity.

The only goals the Bushist Republicans (practically speaking, all the party's officials) pursue consistently are their own power and tax cuts for the wealthy. When they have those, they don't need logic or law.

Originally a comment on Philosoraptor.

Props to Harry Reid

Keeping the Senate in pro forma session to block Duhbya's typically invidious recess appointments is the one thing Harry Reid is doing right, and I have to give him credit for it a second time.

Now, why can't he generalize the anger he feels about this to the whole goddamn Bushist apparatus?

January 2009

I once offended a local Democrat by deriding Joe Lieberman, and I haven't seen her at a meeting since. I wonder how she feels about Lieberman's endorsement of John McCain. I feel completely vindicated, much as when I pushed a racist voter away from my Congressional candidate in 1974.

My fervent hope is that the Senate Majority Leader who defeats Harry Reid in January of 2009 will drum Lieberman out of the Democratic Party caucus. Could it be more clear that he's not a Democrat? You have to wonder about Connecticut Democrats who voted for him.

Politics 101

Harry Reid has not been as big a disappointment as Nancy Pelosi, simply because I didn't expect much from him. I had great hopes that she would bring some liberal sanity to Washington and, more important, that she would have the guts to make some things stick. Reid, I hoped, would at least tame the Bushist penchant for appointing extremists to Federal offices. Even with those low expectations, he has been underwhelming, though I was thrilled at his pro forma sessions.

Now, Mitch McConnell is dictating budget terms to the Senate Democratic majority! McConnell says:

I think we are being consistent here against higher taxes, consistently against greater regulation, consistently against creating new causes of action in bill after bill after bill...

Consistently against democracy, I'd say. Doesn't he remember who lost in 2006? Doesn't he remember his own anti-filibuster rhetoric in the previous years. Of course he does. His principle is winning, not consistency. He's playing hardball, while the Democrats play blind man's bluff.

The proper response to McConnell is not quite a Cheneyism, "Mitch, we're going to let you f--- yourself on C-SPAN every evening until you're too sore to go on. Have at it."

Then Reid has to do something besides sending tallies to the press about how many things the big bad mean Republicans have filibustered. He and the Democrats have to provide the media with pictures and sound bites. Make the smug and doughy face of McConnell represent the GOP's intransigence. Make them vote against cloture on TV every damn day. Put together a cogent video press release about it every day. The media are about as lazy as Duhbya - you've got to give them something that goes down easy.

Have a Democrat make a reasonable but obviously frustrated speech every day. Make the Presidential candidates do some of them. Tell them all to keep it short so you can control the message that winds up in the news. Podcast and Youtube the speeches. Tell the American public that the Democrats have a bill ready to negotiate but that the Republicans' position is that they'll hold their breath until they turn blue unless they get everything they want, even after losing in 2006.

If you have to twist some arms in your own caucus, do it. Tell Joe Lieberman his fucking furniture will be out on Constitution Ave. if he defects.

What's amazing is that the Democratic "leadership" has spent their adult lives in politics and yet have managed not to learn even the most basic facts about it. When your opponent is playing a vicious game, you have to show the electorate that in colorful, memorable, and sometimes vicious ways.

Let the Republicans shut down the government again. Just make sure the voters know who's doing the shutting. What you want is for Duhbya to veto the omnibus spending bill because it has something in it he doesn't like. That's what McConnell is protecting him from. So, tie the two of them together and pin the blame on them. They deserve it.

Shit, this is politics, not needlepoint.

Where'd that quote come from?

No real journalist would use faux in this context without attributing it to someone, but in this case the lazy reporter thrusts forward Republican propaganda. These pro forma sessions are needed to keep Duhbya from arrogating yet more power.

Not a Reid in the wind

The Senate remains in session to prevent recess appointments. Finally, Washington Democrats give us something to be thankful for!

Grab some cash and make a stash

Not rich enough to hire lobbyists? Sorry, you middle class little people get the check. The investor class's wallet is in the other Ferrari.

Why not tax this income as ... income? The only rationale advanced in the story is some dark and vague possible adverse economic effect. Couldn't that effect just as easily be positive - maybe move some creative minds back into creating value instead of siphoning off cash with the pretext of financial market efficiency?

Americans used to be embarrassed by selfishness, but that is so retro at this point.

Lead, follow, or get out of the way

Harry and Nancy, this newspaper gets delivered to your office every damn day. Today would be a good day to pay attention.

The usual suspects

Let's hope that readers only read till the jump. The first part of this is pretty much on target. The base (e.g. me) is outraged at the Washington Democrats' willingness to compromise pretty much everything away. How is it that the Republicans can stop anything they want in the minority while the Democratic majority can't stop a leaky faucet?

I'm sorry, but nothing positive is going to come of the next year and a half. Pelosi and Reid aren't going to have great legislative accomplishments to point to. Duh! Anyone who has ever watched the Republicans bargain in bad faith - the only way they negotiate - can see this. Why can't Pelosi and Reid? Restoration of habeas corpus is not going to happen.

What to do then in the sixteen long months before Duhbya and hopefully a whole bunch of other Republicans have gone the way of the dodo? Politics!

• Turn over every rock in the executive branch.
• Force the Republicans to filibuster publicly. Every time they block a good idea privately they win. Show the voters that they are working against the national interest.
• Block any judicial appointment to the right of Stephen Breyer.
• Hit the media every day with messages that separate us from the GOP.
  

In other words, don't think that politics means exclusively fund-raising.

The bad part of this article is the insinuation of Republican talking points into the dominant media narrative. I'm so f---ing tired of hearing Stephen Hess and Stuart Rothenberg tell me all the things that the Democrats are not going to be able to do. Boo-hoo, the Dems won't be able cure the common cold! You don't see that narrative about the Republicans until they actually leave office - and still Tom DeLay and Newt Gingrich and even the old fossil Alan Simpson keep showing up on TV.

Part of the problem is the Dems themselves. Michael Capuano, a good liberal, nonetheless objects to the "Petraeus" report, not because the damn White House is writing it, but because Petraeus himself supported the escalation. C'mon, guys, get it straight. When the other guy is not credible, you have to kill his credibility.

Retirement at 60

Harry Reid may fantasize about a Democratic Senatorial sweep in 2008, leaving no cloture problems. Well, probably not - that would be a stretch even for a Washington Democrat. There are two levels of Democratic win in the Senate in 2008:

• Bugger off, Joe Lieberman
• Nirvana

Nirvana - 60 reliable votes - is about as likely as Megamillions (and I blew $10 last night for a few hours of irrational hope), so a realistic Democrat would aim to tell Fox-in-the-henhouse Joe to go caucus himself.

Since even 2008 will not give Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, Reid needs to concentrate on turning non-wingnut Republicans into votes for cloture. It's not polite, it's not friendly, it's not chummy, but we need the toughness of a gutsy majority leader. I'm still waiting.

Cancel Congress's summer recess

Dear Nancy and Harry,

Please do the right thing and cancel Congress's summer recess. I know that you want a vacation like everyone else, even if you don't want it as much as the Vacationer-in-Chief. But it's the right course to stay in Washington and keep after the Bushists, who are rotten to the core.

Stand together in the Capitol rotunda together and make these points:

• The obstructionism of Republican Senators has stagnated the legislation America needs - SCHIP, stem cells, Iraq withdrawal, a dozen others. When the Republicans give up standing in the schoolhouse door, they can take a vacation, but not until then.
• Investigations into the deep corruption of the Bush Administration cannot wait even a day. If your colleagues across the aisle will pressure Duhbya and Darth to give up their ridiculous claims of executive privilege, they can take a vacation, but not until then.
• The Iraqi Parliament may think it deserves a vacation. We disagree. The Republican Party has influence in Baghdad and should be hammering Maliki and his coalition to make some real progress. Americans are dying on a daily basis to keep Maliki in power. The least he and his cronies can do is work toward something on a daily basis. We can't keep the Preznit from taking August off, but the Republicans in Congress haven't earned a vacation and won't get one until they get something done about this, too.
• Yes, we Democrats would love to have an August break. We have families, too. We need time off to recharge and refresh. But we see the sacrifices that normal Americans make, especially the awe-inspiring sacrifices of our uniformed personnel and their families, and we Democrats believe it is a small sacrifice for us to work through August.
• If the press wants to mail it in from Martha's Vineyard, that's up to them. We Democrats aren't looking for coverage, though that would be nice; we're looking for progress.

And since you control the calendar, I'm sure you can schedule your home-state downtime in big enough weekend chunks to do some good. Just don't let the Republicans know until the last minute.

Of course, an important benefit is no recess appointments!

Best regards,
LL

What Harry Reid should say to Joe Lieberman

"Back our candidate or you're fucking out of the caucus."

And then, come 2009, throw him out anyway.

On Roger Ailes.