Comments on failure of Democratic leadership...

...in regards to this Schiavo debacle.

Excerpts:

"This column is not about Terri Schiavo and the wrenching spectacle that has surrounded her tragic fate. May she rest in peace.

It is about congressional Democrats and how they once again pathetically misread what moral values mean in a political context. May they miraculously wake from their persistent vegetative state -- or it won't be long before they are receiving their political last rites..."

"...While real political leadership is determining the direction the country needs to go and convincing the public to follow you down that road, Democrats keep choosing the path of least resistance. Party leaders have been sticking their fingers in the air, feeling which way the political wind is blowing, and then chasing after these zephyrs of public sentiment. Which is bad enough. But making matters much, much worse, they are consistently misreading the wind -- an affliction that has led to their being blown away in three straight elections.

The Schiavo case is a perfect example. Before the cards had even been dealt, Senate Democrats decided that the Republicans already held all the aces. So instead of calling Dr. Frist's bluff, they folded, sat out the hand, and headed into the kitchen to see what kind of sandwiches Felix was whipping up. Not a single Democratic senator formally objected to the pro forma voice vote that sent the Schiavo bill to the House, where, with a few notable exceptions -- especially Rep. Barney Frank and rising star Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida -- Democrats were nearly as compliant..."

The rest is just as good. http://www.salon.com/opinion/huffington/2005/03/29/schiavo/
You have to watch a very short ad to get a day pass in order to read the whole article. Nothing too bad.

is a great addition to the House of Representatives. I have met her several times and heard her speak. She will be a superstar.

I'm anticipating great things!!

If the Dems would have come running back to DC from their spring breaks, they would have been part of the POLITICIZATION of the woman's tragedy.

Anyone who thinks that the Dems should have ballyhooed any part of this tragedy is FULL OF SHIT. I don't care what side they claim to be from.

...the author advocated "running back" from anything. She was talking about public commentary.

The Dems let the GOP politicize the issue to the GOP's detriment...they would have been part of the POLITICIZATION of the woman's tragedy.

You gotta know when to hold 'em; know when to fold 'em. And this time, the Dems played their cards perfectly.

They were smart enough to realize that they had so much public support that GOP blowback on Terri's law was guaranteed. So they offered only token support and resistance, and now they're sitting back, munching their popcorn, and enjoying the show: a show that stars Tom DeLay as the psychotic hypocrite; Jeb Bush as the impeachable presidential candidate; Robert Frist as the video diagnostician; Randall Terry as the made-to-order religious fanatic; and George Bush as the uncompassionate killer of Baby Sun Hudson. Conspicuously missing from the marquee are the Dems as "culture-of-death" advocates!

:headbang:
rocknation

I can see Harry Reid telling those in senate to vote how you feel and then not another word out of this issue or you're gonna be on the Nightly News as some sort of Death Merchant

This should not be political as it's a personal tragedy and we should have no part of it! Period!

Very much agreed on that.

The Dems should have mentioned the 40 mil people without health insurance and the 36 million folks who are in poverty.
Also, the trashing of the safety net under this Bush budget.
We need to forcibly show our differences and not miss a chance to show how immoral BushCo is.

Until we contstruct our own MSM noise machine, we will have to find other ways to exhibit "force." In the meantime, we'll have to take any opportunity that comes along to let the GOP hurt itself--we can rant about our differences at a more appropriate time.

:headbang:
rocknation

...because whatever decision they made in regards to Terri Schiavo would have backfired in the long run.

Believe me, if we had the dems out there fighting against the repukes on the Terri Schiavo issue, MSM would be focused on villianizing these democrats into death merchants. With the democrats completely out of the picture, instead on the News we see these nutjob protestors, and parents who keep going back to the judges with every excuse in the book dispite 23 times saying "NO". And the polls overwhelmingly support that the Repukes fucked up in getting involved.

I think the Democratic Leaders made a wise choice in this particular issue. We're winning because the republicans have totally fucked up this issue.

The Democrats cannot continue to sit back and wait for public opinion to gel before taking a unified position. We (I hope) are a party the believes in certain things. We should be willing to fight for those things no matter what the public at large thinks.

It is exactly this kind of laying back on issues that kills us in national elections. People feel if the Democrats won't stand up for what they claim to believe in until they know it's popular, they won't stand up for the country in the world.

And I heard over and over the EXACT SAME BULLSHIT when Kerry let the Repugs smash him last summer. "Oh, he's being smart, he's letting them self destruct", "don't attack when your enemy is shooting himself", "He's playing chess with them", blah, blah, blah. If we don't change and start to really fight, the Repugs will continue to control the entire government.

bulls drop on the ground.

always costs us elections.

- The Dems are helping the Reps along with the votes, making Fristula gleeful about "bipartisanship."
- Polls show the Dems going down too.
Point is, if you're giving someone enough rope, you don't tie it around your own neck wil helping them hang themselves.
But love is blind for the loyalists.

...of this article was advocating any lengthy parliamentary fray.

Seems to me what she's talking about is presenting a unified front, looking compassionate and resolute, and generally underscoring the difference between them and the GOP.

A simple statement issued on behalf of the party would have sufficed. It could have revealed Democrats' understanding of where the state's sway over personal lives ceases. It could reflected an understanding of the issue's solemnity and complexity. But, most of all, it could have taken the "culture of life" tangent and turned it back on the GOP in spades. It would have been very easy to do without coming across as vultures, especially in comparison to the rabid reaction from the right.

The congressmen could have stayed on break and shown the restraint the situation required. It wouldn't have been a media circus, but it sure would have called attention to the crap going on across the aisle.

And it would have drastically underscored the hypocrisy of the right wing.

The impression many are left with right now is that the Democrats had no reaction or subtext or motivation, that they sat and stared blankly at the wall.

winning. and just wait until she dies.

It has now become commonplace that accusing those who are the most reasonable have become not reasonable but are now MURDERERS.

and it is taking hold. It was in the memo and everyone got it and everyone is touting that meme. She is being MURDERED. All it needs is an emotionally laden word like that, and the people eventually will absorb that and back off. Watch the polls and there is NO ONE who can refute that because in their wisdom, they were so wise as to not get involved so as to strengthen their position.

I think it was wrong not to come out and expose DeLay right off the bat for the clown he was. For the way the Constitution was trashed and for the way he advocated ignoring rule of law.

Given the polls at that time, we would have had support for that postion.

Instead the fear of some campaign against Democrats, overtook common sense.

I understand that the polls now are changing.

and some of us wonder why there is no stance taken on this position by Kerry or Clinton, who seem to be distracted with joining with Republicans in being concerned about video games that are too violent to be sold to a consumer.

That has turned off many who still hold on to some small amount of hope that a leader will emerge in this tragic and horrific display of a three ring circus.

There is NO leader. We want a LEADER. We desire to follow one, if only one would emerge to rescue our hopes from falling into dispair.

there is NO leader.

And what you do think that's doing to the overall credibility of the GOP? There's good news tonight!

:headbang:
rocknation