Over at MyDD, Louise Slaughter has posted what I see as a pathetic and disingenuous little bromide to attempt to placate the rage on the left, over today's ignominious actions on the part of the majority. While they bask in the ruddy glow of their "Profiles in Self-Interest" moment, the activist base of their party grows increasingly disgusted with them. Appropriately so, in my estimation. Even in their holding of a majority in both houses of congress, they still seem quite willing, and able, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and then lie about it, as Ms. Slaughter did, over at MyDD. As evidence of that, I offer up a response to her post, by the estimable David Sirota:
Louise:
Thanks for this post, but you are very carefully avoiding what you - as Chairman of the Rules Committee - know quite well is the crux of the issue. Everyone who knows anything about Congress knows that the power of Congress rests in its rules, and in the majority bringing rules to the floor with their own underlying bill.
The rule you passed today had no real underlying bill. Instead, it allowed two votes - one on much-needed domestic priorities (which I have no problem with) and one on a Republican plan to give President Bush a blank check. Not only did you not start the debate with an underlying Democratic bill that includes any kind of binding timelines, you didn't even allow a vote on an alternative to the Republican bill.
What you did, in other words, was behave exactly as David Dreier would have behaved had he still been House Rules Chairman and wanted to give President Bush a blank check. Having worked in the House for five years, this is what the GOP did. They passed rules allowing only up-or-down votes on Republican legislation, with no votes allowed on Democratic alternatives.
What you could have done - had you honestly wanted to end the war - was brought legislation that included timelines to the floor. If you felt generous, you may have coupled that legislation with a rule allowing the Republicans a chance to offer an amendment to strip out the antiwar language (but I stress that you didn't have to do that either, as Republicans showed during their rule of the House). If you had proceeded this way, the debate would have started on Democrats' turf. If you really wanted to pass it - as you did the original supplemental which was vetoed - you may even have attached the minimum wage to it directly, so as to make it that much harder for Republicans to vote again. Let me say again - THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU DID WHEN YOU PASSED THE ORIGINAL BILL WITH TIMELINES SO WE ALL KNOW YOU KNEW WHAT YOU WERE DOING DIFFERENTLY TODAY.
But as I said, that's not what you did. You passed a rule allowing the House to consider only the Republican blank check. That is beyond a travesty. For a majority party to use its rules power to give the minority party an up-or-down vote on a bill that runs counter to the election mandate that brought the majority to power - and to allow that up-or-down vote to occur without even the possibility of an alternative - is, in a word, unprecedented.
The question that arises to me is: Just how much fundamental contempt do these people, who are supposed to be on OUR SIDE, hold for us? When Louise Slaughter, who is supposed to be one of our champions, comes into one of our gathering places and just Makes Shit Up...well, what is one to think? That the poor dear is having some short-term memory problems? That there are a number of objective realities out there, vying for our attention?
I see it as "Geez, we really love you guys when we need money or some motivated people to row the slave galley at election time, but when that's done, please go back to living in the basement. We'll try to remember to throw some roadkill down the stairs, so you don't starve".
But you know what worked? What drew Slaughter out? Our collective and quite public rage. They know it's out there and they know it can hurt them. They know they have screwed multiple pooches with this one.
So what to do?
Stay enraged. White hot anger, conveyed in the icy tones of doom, not screaming. Keep conveying it to them. Don't stop telling them tomorrow. Keep telling them, mailing them, calling them, faxing them, emailing them...every goddamned day, until it sinks into their thick and self-involved heads. Chronically loosen their bowels with that rage. Make them twitch like Herbert Lom in "The Pink Panther" movies. Get them carrying a burning coal of worry around in their guts, every day, until they start acting the way WE elected them to act. Give them more sleepless nights then they ever thought possible.
Rage: It's working. Don't stop now.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
