Category: Democrats

Same as it ever was.

The Washington Post predicts the status quo will prevail on Tuesday, with the GOP keeping the House and the Dems holding the Senate. Hmmm…ok. I suspect had 9-11 not occurred, we’d be looking at a 1994-like landslide against Dubya and for the Dems. But if holding the line is the best we can hope for right now, so be it.

Regime Change.

Rolling Stone writer William Greider thinks the Dems need to get rid of Daschle and Gephardt. I always liked Daschle – in fact, of the current (admittedly lame) crop of Democratic presidential contenders he and John Kerry were my top two choices. But after the Majority Leader’s capitulation on the Iraq resolution, I’ve definitely soured on him. [As I’ve noted many times here, however you feel about the (all-too-)suddenly all-consuming issue of Iraq, it is Congress’s job to declare war, not the President’s.] As for Gephardt, he’s been trying for too hard, too long. Somebody should’ve told him years ago that, in the media age, a man without eyebrows will never be President. At any rate, I think Greider’s point here is essentially sound — The Democratic leadership needs to stop imagining themselves in higher offices and start drawing lines in the sand.

R.I.P. Senator Paul Wellstone 1944-2002.


Oh no. This is horrible news. Wellstone was the progressive lion of the Senate. He’s going to be missed in so many ways. And, while it seems utterly rude to consider politics at this moment of personal tragedy, lest anyone else out there was at first imagining a Jeanne Carnahan scenario to save the contested Senate seat, his wife and daughter are also among the deceased. Will Governor Ventura appoint someone to the seat? Ted Mondale or Skip Humphrey? Whomever it is, I’m positive they won’t fill Wellstone’s shoes.

Paul Wellstone was one of the last champions of the little guy, fighting daily for campaign finance reform, corporate accountability, universal health care, and a cleaner, safer environment. When the Democrats were falling over each other to prostrate themselves before Gore, Wellstone broke ranks to support Bill Bradley. When all too many of his Democratic colleagues in Congress voted to cede their constitutionally-mandated authority to debate and declare war, Wellstone voted no to Dubya’s Johnson-esque power grab. In sum, Wellstone had in surplus those characteristics that are in such short supply in today’s Capitol — vision, compassion, and above all, integrity. In a sea of mealy-mouthed, equivocating liberals, he was a bold, fighting progressive.

And he is struck down in his prime. Meanwhile, Jesse “Race-baiting” Helms and Strom “Dixiecrat” Thurmond just go on and on and on. Sometimes the world seems so goddamn unfair I just can’t wrap my mind around it.

Don’t call it a comeback.

After Bradley and others turn the position down, retired 78-year-old Senator Frank Lautenberg gets the Torricelli slot. Considering the court battle, the internecine Democratic feuding, and Lautenberg’s resounding mediocrity, I’d say the GOP have just picked up a seat. Hopefully the Dems can make it up elsewhere.