Comments on: Are Democrats Enabling Bush Administration “Radicalism?”

By: GreenDreams

GreenDreams — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:46:26 +0000

well said, gray

By: Gray

Gray — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:09:55 +0000

“They are in the game for winning”
Really, this is so important I want to emphasize it further. Look at the work and the stated opinions of Markos Moulitsas, Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, to name only the most prominent examples. Do you think those guys are loony liberals, living in a dream land? Then you haven’t paid attention to their blogs. They are focussed on achieving the best possible results, not on breathlessly running after some liberal fantasies. And their organizing work that helps numerous activists finding opportunities to get involved in the campaigns will make an impact in 2008.

And much more so than the bunch of moderate bloggers who whine about partisanship, but won’t descend to actively support a candidate that better fits their values and interests. Those lurkers at the sideline won’t have any clout with the next administration. An opportunity wasted.

By: Gray

Gray — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:55:41 +0000

“The â€œBlue Dogsâ€ tipped the election, not Greenwald and the Kossacks.”

Since it were the close races where republicans incumbents were defeated, sure the ‘blue dogs’ played an important part. But where does the idea come from that Kossacks and other blogger initiatives didn’t turn the tide? Would for instance Webb would have had a chance if not for the bloggers who supported him at a critical point when the Dem establishment didn’t seem to care? And he wasn’t the only example of a more conservative Dem who neverless received support from liberal grassroots. You seem to forget that KOS, MyDD and all activist blogs are entirely partisan. They are in the game for winning and don’t hesitate to chose between the lesser of two evils. And you’ll even see most of them gathering even behind Hillary if (IF!) she wins the primaries. Kerry would have been better than Bush, and Clinton surely trumps Giuliani from a liberal point of view. Kossacks and other partisans will work hard to ensure the age of republican madness and incompetence is over. And blue dogs will happily accept every support they can get from this side.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 01:19:11 +0000

Mr. Moderate,
The FISA court itself is in violation of the 4th Amendment. A secret court is antithetical to the idea of an open democracy.

Now our government doesn’t have to adhere to the very minimal check on government power that was the FISA court.

1984 wasn’t supposed to be used as a manual for our government.

By: Mr.Moderate

Mr.Moderate — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 22:43:36 +0000

It is hard to express the level of my disappointment in the Democrats. Not only did they kowtow to Bush, but they kowtowed to a proposal that further expands the wiretapping beyond anything that it was before. Now the administration isn’t requesting this suspension of civil liberties without court review for just terrorists but all people, including U.S. citizens! I hope that I’m reading it wrong and someone can point to me a clause where they do limit this to terrorist suspects and/or non-citizens. PLEASE someone correct me and show me that we have lost our defacto right against unreasonable search and seizure.

By: No Peace Without Justice

No Peace Without Justice — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 22:19:25 +0000

The “Bolsheviks” controll Bush, the Congress and Washington. Keep Voting….The Dice has Sixes on all Squares.

By: Rudi

Rudi — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:51:53 +0000

DS – Don’t let the Kossacks or the right leaning bloggers/commenters hear this. The meme is that the Democrats are shifting or controlled by the very Liberal netroots. This ignores the history of the past Democratic coalition. Southern Democrats were very conservative, and untill recently were DINO’s. Now the Republicans represent the South. But a more important group is the Goldwater wester libertarian Republicans. This group may be happier with Paul,Tester and Schuler than Gingrich and Delay. The Bluedogs may now wear cowboy boots and hats.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:47:06 +0000

The â€œBlue Dogsâ€ tipped the election, not Greenwald and the Kossacks.

Go race by race. Rudi’s right and it’s something I’ve been saying for some time.

By: Rudi

Rudi — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:19:27 +0000

The Liberal Left was outraged by the Senates actions, but din’t blame all on Democrats. They’ve only controlled the Senate for 8 months prior to a 2 year period. While some Demoncrays are enablers, they don’t rise to the level of Pat Roberts or George Allen. A large majority of the “Blue Dog” wing that won in 2006 voted with Bush on FISA in both the Senate and House. Tester was a one of the exceptions. Greenwald may be upset, but the 2006 Democrats were more Tester and Schuler than Kucinich and Feingold. The “Blue Dogs” tipped the election, not Greenwald and the Kossacks.

By: George Sorwell

George Sorwell — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:18:04 +0000

The one substantive item I got from reading Greenwald is that everybody, even Russ Feingold, agrees there’s a gap in what FISA covers.

If President Bush is unwilling to compromise–and surely he is–should Democrats leave that gap uncovered?

It’s astounding to me that this is being covered as a defeat for Democrats, instead of as evidence–more evidence!–of the President’s unsuitability to lead our country.

Once again, our media is only interested in covering the horserace, not in matters of substance.