Nausea alert: Do not read this on a full stomach if you're a Progressive, who has had it up to your eyeballs with some elected Democrats regularly accepting prison shower-room, Ned-Beatty-in-'Deliverance' treatment from Republicans and then meekly saying "Thank you, sir, may I have some more?"
Because what you're about to read is the Washington, D.C. version of just that.
Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) issued a joint press release yesterday announcing that they want to convene a group of Republicans and Democrats in the new Senate to "build on the success of 'Gang of 14'" and "forge bipartisan consensus on key issues in the 110th Congress."
"I couldn't be more pleased to join with Senator Mary Landrieu to build upon the success of the bipartisan Gang of 14 with a group committed to bringing comity, consensus and legislative achievements back to the halls of the Senate," said Snowe. "The American people are tired of partisan attacks and intransigence from the Congress; they are rightly demanding results. And Senator Landrieu and I believe this group will serve as a productive catalyst to bring the Senate together across party lines."
Not to be outdone, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) also heralded the arrival of a similar entity yesterday, also issuing a joint statement saying they are forming a "Bipartisan Members Group to create an opportunity for Senators to know one another better across party lines."
Landrieu and Lieberman have sidled right up alongside Alexander and Snowe, making grand statements about how it's time to come together and guessing -- incorrectly -- what message the American people delivered in a loud, clear voice on election day. And, like the weak-kneed centrists they are, their capitulation is very much akin to the wife who reunites with her abusive husband because he mumbles "I'm sorry, baby" after breaking her nose for the third time.
Isn't it convenient for Snowe, Alexander and other Republicans to initiate this transparent maneuver and now extend a hand across the aisle for something other than slapping Democrats? Isn't it just freakin' amazing that this change of heart comes right when they are voted out of the majority on a clear mandate of the people and now have to themselves face the legislative life Democrats have lived for years?
And true to their ongoing status as political followers and not leaders, Landrieu and Lieberman -- putting aside the fact that Holy Joe can no longer even be considered a Democrat -- lap it right up and forget who it is that over the last few years would not have pissed across the aisle if a Democrat was on fire.
If you plan on slitting someone's throat you have to have them sit in front of you. That is how I see the current move for bipartisanship. Ask to ride in the backseat while you keep anyone from looking in the trunk .Keep them occupied with flattery while you finish the trip you started.I think their are more than a few Republicans in Congress who have to prevent any meaningful investigation into the conduct of Congress and the President in the last 6 years.A lot of evidence is buried in plain sight. Junk in the trunk.
Nothing of substance has been investigated or accounted for since 2000 when the thieves hijacked the bus. Changed the paint and drove so fast, hit all the potholes and busted up the undercarriage. We got the keys back but ,they plan on driving the agenda from the back seat and let's hope the Democrats just kick them to the curb.We Democrats had to hang on to the mud flaps for 6 years.
by
cluelessfl (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 184 comments)
on Friday, December 22, 2006 at 7:31:43 PM
Starting with holy Joe Lieberman, he won't eat ham while he has the Air force drop bombs on your kids, and continuing on with any of the many holy lechers for Jesus; moving on too Nancy Pelosi and the best face lift on the hill...
This is clearly in a strange way a very humorous bunch.
Continuing on with surviving a suicide potty attack, and then taking impeachment off the table.
All the while "ET" is having a "Mutilated Cow" and tossing it in the missile launch field of Malmstrom Air base in Montana.
There is a reason that this gang of many laughs at us.
Hopefully "ET" will continue to prevent an all out nuclear war and hold down our nuclear war fighting elite, long enough for us to shut down the nuclear war machine.
.
by
Patrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 424 comments)
on Friday, December 22, 2006 at 9:09:59 PM
Bob, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this.
But if you're still registered Democrat, you're the one going back to the abuser who has sent you to the hospital barely clinging to life after a beating on numerous occasions, just because they pretended that if you came back they might possibly think about apologizing.
They have never apologized and they never will. Why do you stay with them? In most cases it is a combination of financial dependency, a sense of loyalty and obligation, combined with an impaired survival instinct.
"But what would I do if I left him?" cries the abused wife. "No matter what he does, I still love him."
"But where would I go if I left them?" cries the abused Democrat. "No matter what they do, I still remember back when they were nice to me and all the potential they had."
Your party isn't going to kiss your ass as long as you keep kissing theirs. They've been conceding to Republicans and supporting the Republican agenda for six years now, and you really expected them to change just because they have a majority? If one of your loved ones was on crack for six years, I think you'd be considering tough love and rehab, if you hadn't thrown them out already.
Get help, Bob, while you still can. Because when the Democratic/Republican coalitions have outsourced your job, foreclosed on your home and car, and cut all the social programs that might have enabled you to survive anyway, it will be too late.
--Mark
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Saturday, December 23, 2006 at 3:01:45 AM
Bob, I'm not suggesting that you join a third party.
Venezuela used to have a two-party system every bit as much as corrupt as ours. But when the people finally had a chance to vote for a man of the people, instead of a party candidate, even with traditional election rigging the two parties between them were unable to muster more than about 6% of the vote and Hugo Chavez became President.
and let ordinary Venezuelans explain to you the difference between a corrupt two-party system in a sham representative democracy, and a genuine participatory democracy.
If you should decide that you'd like to know what government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is really like, you'll stop voting along party lines and start getting involved with non-partisan anti-globalization, electoral reform, and peace groups in your area. You're a grown man and you don't need a party to tell you what you want and who to vote for. You already know what you want and you know darned well who thinks the same way you do and who doesn't.
The day you really tell the Democrats to kiss your ass and walk out the door, is the day you'll truly become a progressive and be able to join us in the struggle to make the world a better place. We've been waiting for you to wake up for a long time, and we know you'll have a lot to contribute once you're free of that cycle of abuse. You're already mad as hell, now all you have to do is realize that you really don't have to take it any more.
--Mark
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments)
on Saturday, December 23, 2006 at 3:59:15 AM
You had me worried for a minute there, Bob. I thought that maybe these bipartisan lawmakers (tripartisan, counting Lieberman) had actually proposed some sort of measure, or declared their support for the 'surge' in Iraq. If all they are doing is declaring their mutual admiration and opining about how glorious bipartisanship is, then let them make all the fine speeches they please on that point. It's a semantic null, full of sound and fury, etc.
I would go even further, and say that I am in favor of bipartisanship. In fact, let me extend this offer to all the Republicans in both houses of Congress: you are all welcome to vote with the Democrats on any bill, at any time. We won't even whine, as you did under Bill Clinton, that you are stealing our ideas. As a matter of fact, why not throw out your party platform and adopt ours as a substitute? The American people seem to like ours better, anyhow.
by
David Conrad (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments)
on Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 11:59:13 PM
5 comments
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Nausea alert: Do not read this on a full stomach if you're a Progressive, who has had it up to your eyeballs with some elected Democrats regularly accepting prison shower-room, 
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