Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid have driven Congress' approval down to historic lows. ZOGBY's latest poll show lethal numbers for the 110th that cut across the political spectrum.
Among Democrats, just 19% give Congress positive marks.
Among Republicans, just 13% give Congress positive marks.
Independents are even more unhappy, only 8% give Congress positive marks.
The 110th will go down as the least popular Congress ever.
Posted by Christopher at July 19, 2007 06:33 AMYes, Paradox, I hear you. I am one of those going for the impeachment part, yet still will do as you are going to, will vote the dem ticket in 08, no matter who the candidate is.
What I want to know is not how we keep the democratic party if it goes down as you say, but more how we save the republic if we let cheney/bush get away with the war crimes, and the high crimes and misdemeanors that they have committed against me and my fellow citizens? I think it will be all downhill, and may be already lost? But as I read your stuff, I realize I need hope..., and that we need to head down this tough path to impeachment.
And Chris, how the heck can it poll any other way when the press is feeding b/s to the public?? Watch the BBC, get your news from the net, and maybe these polls won't be so bad.
And to all of you, lets demand that Reid do this over and over again until the public GETS the MESSAGE that the repubs are the obstructionists.
After all, it is the way the Senate is supposed to work, do not give the repubs an inch, ever again. They won't be able to stand the heat.
Posted by KC Bill at July 19, 2007 06:43 AMAnd Chris, how the heck can it poll any other way when the press is feeding b/s to the public??
It's not the press. This Congress really does suck. There is a lot of crappy press out there, but the American voting public wants change and these guys have been enablers and incompetents given their duties to the Constitution and those who voted them in.
You may wish to pull a straight Dem ticket, but I refuse to reinforce the bastards in that fashion. They'll have to work for my 08 vote, something they have yet to do. The only good thing on the horizon is those candidates doing primary challenges against the DINOs. They'll get my money and support, and I'll support a moderate republi-con over any DINO Dem. The DNC gets nothing from me ever again.
I will never again be a Dem. And I will never again tolerate Dems who piss on the floor and roll over so these cocksuckers can scratch them on the belly. I will be god damned if I'll tolerate that nonsense. Grow a pair and call these people what they are: Vaginas for the massive dicks of the lobbys, because that has been the one true business of this Congress. From Madam Sparkle Pelosi to Reid who packed his family with lobbyists, they are all about the money.
Posted by phidipides at July 19, 2007 07:33 AMphidipides - Did you see where President Batshit Crazy Bush is now considering military action against Pakistan? This administration is out-of-control and Pelosi has given Bush a "Pass" to do whatever he wants without fear of impeachment. Bush is now the bully on the block and no one can stop him. Thanks, Nancy.
Posted by Christopher at July 19, 2007 07:39 AMI guess I've been really confused, but I thought Pelosi was Speaker of the House....the House of Representatives...the one that voted FOR withdrawal from Iraq under Pelosi's lead. If that can be considered giving Bush a "pass", then there really is no room for success, is there?
Posted by T2 at July 19, 2007 07:55 AMThe "Pass", T2, was telling Bush "impeachment is off the table." I hope that helps clear up your confusion.
Posted by Christopher at July 19, 2007 07:58 AMI'd love for the Dems to win. I wish that the ~12-20 Senators who have disingenuously sided with Repugs on important issues -- and been burned or hurt the party -- felt the same. The issues aren't small potatoes, either.
They have included torture to fish for evidence, greasing activist movement conservatives onto the SCOTUS without a proper vetting, abstinence-only measures that actively kill women, men and young people, the wanton rape of the planet and worse of all, to enabling and continuing a needless war of aggression -- and that's not even the full list.
And what did they use for barter on these issues? Usually, something that was not theirs to give: the inalienable constitutional rights of the GOP's menace du jour, people who didn't provoke having a bullseye painted on them, but who nonetheless were vilified for whimsical, shallow, sleazy reasons.
Other times, the backroom Dems shredded bits of the constitution itself, obliterating due process or habeas corpus.
In short, they participated in the chop shopping of America or agreed to stand idley by, watching it happen and calling it "comity" or unity or moderate (gooey) centrism. That's like the lookout for the criminal gang saying s/he's didn't really participate in the robbery, which is bullshit.
Dem leadership is saying that people like me, activists who have served the party for years (and have the audacity to complain about being shoved aside even before ballots get done being counted on election day) have to haul ass and get a Dem elected to the WH or the GOP will stack more whackjobs on the SCOTUS.
HUH??? Where was this sense of urgency from the same assholes who annointed Roberts and Scalito to the SCOTUS without an honest and thorough hearing? Who allowed the WH to stonewall, lie about "lost" documents?
Allowed the nominees to refuse to answer questions, and who stepped aside to let the right wing flying monkeys massage the media into accepting inappropriate nominees based on blondness of hair or on how much he loved his mama and how hard kweshtions made his wife cry?
I deserve better than that; so does my family now and into the future. I'm a free range Independent, but open-minded. The most I can promise right now is that I'll watch performances in Congress, listen to what individual candidates have to say and weigh whether the kind of representation they promise to offer is genuine or BS.
I'm not advocating this position for others or pretending there's any kind of movement here. I just won't condone, enable or endorse certain things.
Posted by Ellie at July 19, 2007 08:11 AMWhy doesn't Pelosi get the Dems in the House to cut off funding? This is another reason she is such a bad Speaker.
Posted by JohnT at July 19, 2007 08:27 AMJohnT
Well said. If the Democrats, the alleged anti-war party, are sincere about bringing this illegal occupation to an end, then they should follow Kucinich's advice and simply not vote for any more funds which is keeping this idiotic war machine afloat. Otherwise, more Amercan servicemen and women will end up dying and becoming maimed and crippled for absolutely no justifiable reason whatsoever. Bring the troops home safely-now.
Posted by Erroll at July 19, 2007 08:38 AMI assumed that might be your tack, Christopher, and I too thought Pelosi's impeachement statement to be a blunder, tactically. But I don't think Pelosi or any of them were elected to Impeach Bush. They got the majority status to stop the Iraq war, and in that role, she at least got her chamber to vote the right way. If impeachment is the only yardstick you wish to use in determining Congress' success, more power to you.
Posted by T2 at July 19, 2007 08:43 AM"...something snapped and changed with a fury in the Democratic base after the latest Iraq war funding approval." -(Paradox)
-It may 'snap', but it always returns back home again, where it subsides, smoldering into a wretched meaninglessness.
The cumulative, protracted incoherence of the modern Democratic resembles nothing so much as chickens coming home to roost.
A strong ideological foundation cannot be built over night, and only resurrect itself in moments of crisis (fascism).
What the Democratic failed to realize is that there has always been an ongoing, unabated crisis in America.
That crisis is America itself.
Did the thousands of American millitary and terror bases all over the planet just appear overnight with the advent of Republican fascism and Dick Cheney?
No, that has been a work of constant, ongoing and unremitting progress, totally irrespective of political affiliation.
The Democratic party cannot ever becoming a truly oppositional party when it itself, bears so much responsibility for the coming fascism from the outset.
Posted by Jill Bains at July 19, 2007 08:47 AMThey need to get unruly and stay unruly, as far as I am concerned.
Posted by Judith at July 19, 2007 09:45 AMPelosi got one vote vetoed on war funding, then machinated a vote to hide the vote that 80% of Dems voted for war funding. Too many more Dem victories and they'll be difficult to tell from the r-cons. I think for some Dems it's all made better when Reid swoons a bit with that appalling "beagle needs a treat" look as he, with bated breath, so woefully states that they just don't have the votes and Dems need to keep clapping for Tinkerbell.
But Princess Sparkle Pelosi DOES have a pretty smile as she hits the lobby-run fund raisers. That's a plus. And Reid's boys are making an assload in loby fees. God damn, ain't being a politician rough!
We need a bunch more people like Donna Edwards to take the Dems forward. Otherwise, they are nothing more than rhetorically more moral republi-cons in their words, not actions. And for a note, the way Steny Hoyer looks in the Edwards video is the way all Dem elected officials should look when the unwashed electorate talks to them. They need to realize there is no free pass. They are accountable.
Posted by phidipides at July 19, 2007 10:36 AMThey need to get unruly and stay unruly, as far as I am concerned.
Seconded. The day my reps don't fear or respect me is the day my opinions and liberty are consigned to the crapper. It goes for agents of both parties.
Posted by idiosynchronic at July 19, 2007 12:39 PMPhid - thanks for that link to Donna Edwards. She's damn impressive. If she can start putting some emotional conviction into those very good stump positions of hers, she'd be unstoppable.
Posted by idiosynchronic at July 19, 2007 12:48 PM"They need to realize there is no free pass. They are accountable."
-( phidipides )
Is this part of your audition for the Daily Show, or what?
Saying this with a straight face, really cracked me up.
"THEY ARE ACCOUNTABLE!"
The Democratic party plutocracy is trembling in fear!
Posted by Jill Bains at July 19, 2007 01:39 PMIs this part of your audition for the Daily Show, or what?
A guy can hope.
I am hoping something, anything, makes these DINOs realize that they can be replaced...especially by replacing a few of them. Business as usual reeks more and more, and more.
Posted by phidipides at July 19, 2007 06:16 PM