i should have left the part about “writing off the south” out of my comment. it took away from my main thrust which is that well-organized, focused state democratic organizations have a tremendous role to play in national politics,

that there are quite a few poorly organized democratic state parties, and

that dean has focused like a laser on organizing state parties against the short term opposition of his own party.

the advice about “writing off the south” does show up in democratic rhetoric from time to time,

in this case, i was recalling a particularly goofy set of eight essays that appeared in the american prospect in january 2005,

but i don’t consider it a big deal. once the votes show up, the rhetoric will change. and organizing is what will make that happen.

as for pelosi and kennedy:

i have tremendous respect for pelosi, i think she is doing an outstanding job as a congressional LEADER.

for me, kennedy is another story. he has failed time and again to use his special status to help us deal with bush’s foolish actions and rhetoric. and the immigration bill, like the medicare drug bill, is not a good bill in my opinion.

Torture is a sickness. Give it another name – abuse or punishment of the helpless – it is still a sickness. It’s the same as voting “for” injecting our nation with syphillis or AIDS or typhoid. And it’s a sickness that, once embraced, spreads like wildfire through every means and even, uniquely, thoughtborne.

It also remains dormant in the lives of those touched by it, waiting to re-emerge.

Whether it is Bill Nelson or Sherrod Brown or Joe Lieberman actively endorsing and working for the spread of that illness – or HClinton or Obama dodging the issue and casting triangulated votes without every digging in and fighting for the cure – there’s not much more hope from the Democratic side than from the wholly depraved and degraded Republican side.

Also, have phoned his local and DC office many, many times in the past. The staffers just say they’ll pass the comment on to billy boy, but they sound quite apathetic……I doubt they do.

He really is a republican, and he neither said or did anything during the, still unresolved, congressional race for District 13. So we have Vern(used car salesman)Buchannan calling the shots in Washington. Bodes well for keeping the Catherine Harris tradition alive and crooked in Sarasota. I apologize, in advance, for bringing up the witch’s name.

I live in FL. Bill Nelson is reflecting the sentiments of his State.

Hey,……….I LIVE IN FLORIDA,TOO.

Nelson, aka Ted Haggard’s look alike,is in no way shape or form, “Reflecting the sentiments of her state.”

I work in the school district of my county, and have discussed billy boy with many, many voters. THEY ALL DISPISE HIM FOR THE PHONY-ASS GO-ALONG-GET-ALONG ASSMUNCHER HE IS.

Don’t speak for “US”, thank you very much.

mui @ 28

I just wrote Sen. Nelson and am eagerly awaiting his reply, which I will share as soon as I get it. I write him regularly here in the Sunshine State and now receive “updates” from his office sporadically. I first contacted him over his vote to gut habeas corpus and support torture not too long ago and received a rather mealy-mouthed reply along the lines of “9/11! Terrorists! The Muslim Menace!” with a little dose of “look at the good things I’ve done!” (Can’t really find any, Bill – you crow about stopping oil drilling off the coast and then caved to Republican “compromises”. That’s it, as far as I can tell).

You rock!

SquarePeg @ 10

Bill Nelson is no more than another Joe Lieberman. I live in Florida and voted for him because I thought he understood what the Democratic values were regarding fundamental rights, civil rights, etc.
Needless to say, he has been a huge waste of a democratic seat. He is Republican, should change his party affiliation and do the right thing. But we know how Republicans do the right thing. His voting record has been abysmal. Hopefully, we will get a true Democrat to run against this disgraceful man.

My connection is going boinkers. But my two cents: maybe all yous in Florida can write a letter to protest and see how Nelson responds. Then show us the response letter. (He’ll be sorry when he faces a primary challenge in . . . well, as long as it takes.)
I can sympathize, because “my senator” is HoJoe. If Nelson is anything like Lieberman he’ll send something back something totally unrelated, like on small business.

I just wrote Sen. Nelson and am eagerly awaiting his reply, which I will share as soon as I get it. I write him regularly here in the Sunshine State and now receive “updates” from his office sporadically. I first contacted him over his vote to gut habeas corpus and support torture not too long ago and received a rather mealy-mouthed reply along the lines of “9/11! Terrorists! The Muslim Menace!” with a little dose of “look at the good things I’ve done!” (Can’t really find any, Bill – you crow about stopping oil drilling off the coast and then caved to Republican “compromises”. That’s it, as far as I can tell).

The choice last November was between Cruella De’Ville protege Katharine Harris and Nelson; talk about the lesser of 2 evils! Nelson is a former state aparatchik and astronaut and he spends much of his time in Tampa with the soldiers at CentCom. I can’t believe that he isn’t aware of the effect that torture has on our country both here and abroad and safety of our soldiers.

We have recently learned that Mel Martinez used Rove’s dirty tricks to narrowly defeat Betty Castor in his Senate race and now we find that choosing Nelson over Harris wasn’t much of a choice after all. We’re basically screwed coming and going.

All of the wealthy, white retirees, Cuban nationalists, and Christianists who narrowly vote to keep Repbulicans in power in Florida and nationally are beginning to feel the effects of voting against their own interests as the state plows recklessly forward into massive property tax cuts for the wealthiest homeowners of the state with a compensatory cut in local services.

We are about to suffere massive cuts in such evil pork projects as: road and sidewalk maintenance, water purification and sewage, public libraries, firefighters, police, teachers and schools, public libraries, and senior services.

CUT TAXES! is the only refrain they are capable of, despite the fact that we have no state income tax in Florida and the property taxes are the base of most local municipalities budgets, all run by Republcians too, of course, and they are screaming “Foul!” and the governor responds “Cut out all that wasteful spending and you’ll be fine!” Who needs ambulances that are timely or public libraries anyway?

Florida will long pay the price for the follies of 2000 and we deserve all of it, IMHO.

Just called Nelson’s office.

The number is (202) 224-5274.

Told the staffer that torture is profoundly un-American, and that Abu Ghareb destroyed America’s effectiveness in Iraq, and we are paying the price.

I urge FDLer’s to do the same.

Excellent!

re: howard dean

the single most principled, passionate, and capable (in terms of leadership skill) democrat in national office today.

the only democrat i know, gore included, who will call a spade a spade anytime.

as for rham emmanuel vs howard dean -

it’s lemons and oranges. their time perspectives were completely different.

emmanuel had a very short-time perspective – mid-june to nov, 2006. he did his job in that short time.

dean has a long-term perspective. he has delivered and will continue to deliver.

you only have to understand what a complete shambles the democratic organizations are in some states to see the tremendous potential of dean’s approach.

in my time in georgia, for example, the democratic party organization/machinery has been both little in evidence and incompetent in execution.

the potential yields from creating a competent political machine where none have existed for decades are enormous.

the notion that the south should be written off by democrats is just democratic head-in-the-sand stupidity that fails utterly to take into account the very rapid changes going on in the no-loner-rural south -

- larger, well-educated black middle class with immigration from the north and west

- hispanic and asian immigration

- increasing political influence of large cities

- dying out of the south’s hyper-christian culture

- dying out of white racists.

but georgia is just one example.

i’m sure there are others in the inter-mountain west or the lower midwest

if dean is allowed to complete his work, i’d guess he will have become a democratic saint in about twenty years.

No one I know is arguing “writing off the South” so much as “don’t let the Blue Dogs trip us up”. We never see blue-state Republicans running against their own leadership as being too conservative, but Blue Doggies in the the South and elsewhere beat up on Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi and other standard-bearers of the Democratic base.

The number is (202) 224-5274.

Told the staffer that torture is profoundly un-American, and that Abu Ghareb destroyed America’s effectiveness in Iraq, and we are paying the price.

I urge FDLer’s to do the same.