An excellent, outstanding idea. Why not, indeed.
That, and simply stopping the Senate in its tracks, are the only ways forward right now that I can see for our country and for the Democratic Party. The Senate is not doing the people's business anyway - so its actions are those of an illegitimate institution at this point in time, and it's about time the Democrats made clear to the country their profound disagreement with its present trajectory and with the grieviously harmful results of that trajectory. [I know, I know, I should dream on... But Flat-Top Tester is coming to town -- so you better get ready, D.C. "Democrats"...]
My guess is that after Arlen sent the letter and threat of subpoenas but made himself available to talk with the administration, Cheney made his little fake concession. Let's hope he is lying and Spector gets so pissed this time that he actually follows through.
Posted by Via at June 7, 2006 06:35 PMYour assessment of Harry Reid is a bit generous, is it not? Sure - he had one good day doing as you suggest, but how many other days did he let Bu$hCo have its way without lifting a finger?
What this situation exposes is that the political system is broken beyond repair. Partisan party politics has taken the country to a cliff and thrown it over. All that remains is to experience the crash when it hits the ground, so until then, enjoy the flight.
Posted by pessimist at June 7, 2006 06:35 PMSteve,
That would go a long way towards demonstrating Democratic values. Perhaps a letter or two to our newly minted Senator, and our hugely popular (got more votes than anybody but dip wad and Kerry in '04) Senator Boxer, along those lines, is in order?
What say you, Left Coasters? Here's DiFi's page, and here's The Right Honorable Senator Barbara Boxer's page.
Posted by Duckman GR at June 7, 2006 06:59 PMI bet Karl Rove is laughing his ass off at having found the flaw in the Jefferson-Madison reasoning that created our system of checks and balances. A system built on the self-interest of all concerned will falter if some of the parties concerned fail to exercise it. Who would've thought that the ultimate achievement of the Bush Administration would be to give us a group of politicians whose problem is that they're not self-interested *ENOUGH*?
(and yes, I'm talking about the gutless wonders of today's Rubber-stamp Republican party (granted, Dems aren't exactly beacons of bravery, but I was sure that the day Republicans stop being selfish, power-hungry pricks would be the day you can leave popsicles out in Hell), who should be investigated for conflicts of interest, because they act like they're members of the Executive Branch, instead of the Legislative)
Posted by Chris at June 7, 2006 07:03 PMExcellent idea. How many of us have been to a meeting where we have zero input and absolutely no one would miss us if we ducked out? Certainly our Congressional Dems are not of any use to a lickspittle Repub. committee. Perhaps they could do things such as constituant service instead of being patsies at hearings no one cares about.
I'm going to send a note to Durbin and Obama right now. Thanks for the excellent idea.
Posted by weinerdog43 at June 8, 2006 04:33 AMCome on now, it just wouldn't be "responsible" to do something dramatic in the face of the meltdown of our constitutional structure of checks and balances. The Republican masters would object and the state press would not be positive!
The Founders never foresaw parties, and they certainly never foresaw a political party that would place party loyalty over loyalty to the institution of Congress and the Constitution itself. Yet here we are.
Pessimist is right, enjoy the fall. Our old system cannot be repaired at this point in our history--it was intentionally destroyed by the criminal Republican party and all they have to replace it with is corporate authoritarian fascism. So twentieth century.
Great idea, though---it's what a bold, patriotic party that wanted to win would do. Just not what our Dems would ever do.
Posted by euzoius at June 8, 2006 06:15 AM