September 25th, 2007
Looks like Senator Lieberman and his fellow neo-conservatives are not happy with just one war, they’ll like to start another, right smack in the middle of the powder keg that’s the Middle East:
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke forcefully this afternoon on the Senate floor against the Lieberman-Kyl amendment. Durbin described the “sense of the Senate” legislation as a “dangerous effort to put us on the record for the use of military force in Iran.”
Noting that the language of the amendment suggests the use of “military instruments,” Durbin said:
What does that mean? Does that mean we are supporting the invasion of Iran? That we are supporting military tactics against Iran? Shouldn’t we be extra careful in the language of these resolutions when we find that the authorization for force for Iraq has dragged us into a war now in its fifth year, a war longer than World War II with bloody and deadly consequences for the United States and innocent Iraqis.
March 2nd, 2007
And this is where we, Progressives, stand… establishment Democrats counting their few gold coins, while Roman soldiers point their lances in our direction…
With the announcement that Lieberman is going to give the Democratic radio response to Bush on Walter Reed, it’s pretty well confirmed that progressives are shut out of the Congressional halls of power. First it was Feingold’s defunding proposal being poleaxed, then Hoyer winning the Majority Leader contest, then it was Murtha’s plan sandbagged by Blue Dogs, then it was Reid allowing Fox News as the anchor for the Nevada Presidential debate, then it was Joe Biden and Carl Levin failing to do anything substantive on Iraq, and now it’s a full-throated embrace of Lieberman. And yes, this was Harry Reid’s choice.
From what I understand from talking to a few progressives on the Hill, the freshmen in Congress are being extensively ‘trained’ by Rahm Emanuel’s DLC band of consultants and pollsters, which is one reason they’ve been silent.
August 13th, 2006
Once again, sufficient reason to suspect that the Bush administration is at it again with their partisan exploitation of our nation’s war against terrorists. As we’ve learned, just a day after a strong critic of Bush’s Iraq war — and a distraction it represents from the actual war on terror — won the Democratic primary in Connecticut, we just knew that the public discourse just had to change… so, instead of the results of the Connecticut primary dominating the news headlines, the public heard of a foiled terrorists plot coming out of England. And now we have this:
Source: U.S., U.K. at odds over timing of arrests
British wanted to continue surveillance on terror suspects, official says
By Aram Roston, Lisa Myers, and the NBC News Investigative Unit
NBC News
Updated: 8:13 p.m. ET Aug 12, 2006
LONDON - NBC News has learned that U.S. and British authorities had a significant disagreement over when to move in on the suspects in the alleged plot to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners bound for the United States.
A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports.
[...]
The British official said the Americans also argued over the timing of the arrest of suspected ringleader Rashid Rauf in Pakistan, warning that if he was not taken into custody immediately, the U.S. would "render" him or pressure the Pakistani government to arrest him.
August 8th, 2006
Once again, Chris Matthews, a man that swoons at the sound of his own voice, proves himself to be the biggest ass and peddler of disinformation on TV. Here’s Matthews asking Ned Lamont if he had anything to do with with Joe Lieberman’s web site being down:
Never mind, of course, that if Matthews and the other useful idiots in the main stream media had done any "investigative journalism" they would’ve found what this — and other — intrepid citizen found out, namely: Joe’s web site was hosted by a crappy company that could not hold up to high traffic demands on the web site.
UPDATE: Marty Kaplan weights in on Matthew’s oft-repeated attack on Liberal bloggers:
It’s funny: the entire District of Columbia is built on the exact same process that Chris Matthews describes, except that instead of people using keyboards, they use phones, and instead of blogging, they use their access to print and broadcast media, and to one another.
I lived and worked in politics and journalism in Washington for eight years, and every day, the inviolable morning ritual was that people read the papers, they watched television, and then all day long they called one another to ask, "What do you hear?" The biggest difference between the daily routine of the Beltway chattering class and the blogosphere is that the Gang of 500 (as The Note calls them) has been replaced by the dispersed and inherently more small-d democratic netroots.
August 7th, 2006
Tomorrow night we’ll find out just how close the barbarians have come to crashing the gates of the DC establishment.
Anyone following national politics at any level knows that Sen. Lieberman is in the political fight of his life against challenger Ned Lamont for the Democratic nomination for Connecticut’s Senate seat; and, all things remaining as they are, tomorrow night’s victor should go on to win Connecticut’s general election in November — because the state is considered a safe "blue" seat.
A lot of pixels have been devoted to chronicling the Lieberman/Lamont race and, of late, there are a lot more pixels being devoted, by both camps, to downplaying expectations given the stakes of tomorrow’s out come. That said, I think that David Sirota has it right:
Here’s the deal folks: No matter what the outcome tomorrow - and I sure am hoping Lamont wins - we should all remember that last point: the fact that Ned Lamont and the progressive movement have mounted such a serious challenge to an entrenched incumbent with such a massive corporate-backed warchest is a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT. In the course of just a few months, a guy who has never run for office took on one of the most well-funded, insulated politicians in America, who used all of his clout and cashed in all of his favors to get other Big Time members of the Establishment to help him. If Ned gets within 15 points of Lieberman, it is a display of real strength, and it is a major step forward in our movement.
In his post Sirota describes four possible outcomes to tomorrow night’s Democratic primary. Here’s the outcome I’m crossing my fingers for:
Lamont wins big (by more than 5 points): Again, Xanax and Prosac fly off the shelves of DC pharmacies, though this time so does Immodium, because the Democratic Party elites get so scared, they collectively and uncontrollably begin soiling their pants. Incumbents begin worrying about whether their votes to sell out to Big Money or to preserve the Bush administration’s "stay-the-course" nonsense in Iraq will draw them a serious primary challenge. Suddenly, votes by the Democratic caucus in both the House and Senate become far more unified. Instead of huge numbers of Democrats undermining their party on core economic and national security issues, there is more party discipline than has been seen in a long time because suddenly, every Democratic lawmaker realizes that they, too, might have to actually answer to voters.
Go read Sirota’s post — and keep your fingers crossed, too, for a big Lamont win.
