It would be nice:
East Bay For Democracy, a chartered Democratic Club outside San Francisco, will introduce the censure motion on Saturday at the state party’s executive board meeting in Anaheim. The Governing Board of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party and the Progressive Democrats of America are also backing the measure.
In addition to her move to back Mukasey, critics have lashed out at her decision last month to vote to confirm Judge Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Southwick’s opponents charged that his record on the bench in Mississippi demonstrated that he was both racist and homophobic. The Congressional Black Caucus, Human Rights Campaign and People for the American Way opposed his nomination.
The censure resolution faces an uphill battle. In order to be considered by the full executive board, it must first make it through the party’s resolutions committee, which must approve the text unanimously.
As Howie Klein and Glenn Greenwald note, her shady votes to steer huge government contracts to her husband should have triggered an ethics investigation long ago, and it should definitely be on our radar as something to push for in the coming months.
Bush has a 9% approval rating in California. Whatever she perceives her interests to be, they are not in line with those who live in the state she represents.
Editor’s Note; here’s a direct link to the Courage Campaign petition.
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1?
Such a deal.
Yes! Definitely censure her!
Sweeeeeet !
the idea!
Though I agree with this it begs the question,
why don’t they do this to Lieberman?
Hasn’t she declared she’ll vote for telecom immunity?
Elliott @ 5
InDEED, Chicadee!
Bustednuckles @ 6
Because he’s a declared Independent?? I don’t know if that’s the reason, but it sounds like a JoeLie defense.
Who cares about that gas bag of a senator. She should be picketed and booed and made to feel like the heel she is. What a repulsive human being.
Power corrupts.
eCAHNomics @ 7
As of this morning, my understanding is that she hasn’t taken a stand, but is said to be leaning against it. Hard to believe.
kdh22 @ 9
Ahh, yes, that minor detail.
Thanks.
well, if the East Bay CA rep has to apologize for his remarks about soldiers dying for the president’s amusement…i wonder how our critters will respond to senators voting for judges who are racist and/or tolerant of torture?
Dang, I posted this two threads back…
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28655
Bustednuckles @ 12
I thought he had re-registered as a Dem when they moved – no?
Bustednuckles @ 6
Although Short-ride has supposedly re-registered as a Dem, he is still officially an Independent member of the JoeLie party.
The link at the top goes to the general HuffPo politics page. The specific piece from which the quotation comes is by Max Follmer, entitled “Feinstein Faces Dem Censure After Backing Mukasey“
Bustednuckles @ 12
C&L has the story (sorry I forget names so quickly) of the wingnut who thinks JoeLie ought to be given the R VP nomination…as though this were a compliment!
Laura Doty @ 11
She’s way past leaning.
Laura Doty @ 11
Nope-she’s for immunity. Here’s the link. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/…..3T97BN.DTL
dakine01 @ 16
JoeLie and his neo-con buddies did a lot of research before ‘the coup’
Perhaps Mukasey should investigate her “dealings”…ah..the irony.
do-si-do @ 18
That would be Little Billy Kristol who has been spectacularly wrong across the board on most everything but how other neo-con artists think.
DiFi is merely a symptom of a very sick and dysfunctional Democratic Party. America needs a Movement, not a half-ass corporate happy face political party.
From an ACLU email I received today:
But, for all the reasons others have noted, hard to believe.
Anyone know of DiFink/hubby business interests. Might help to shine some light in the abyss. Though the Senate ethics (definite oxymoron) committee is run by Barbie Boxer so no light there.
Laura Doty @ 25
She has learned a lot from Arlen – tease and then capitulate.
gag factor. Picture of Difi with Chimp via C&L
Maybe the FISA vote should be held off during Mukasey’s newly, reconstituted investigations of the legalities of the program….
Twain @ 27
They look a lot alike, too. Separated at birth?
Bluetoe @ 24
If the DLC hadn’t done their dirty work with corps, there might not be a D party we could work on.
We need more than a new party, we need a revolution. The body politic is sick through and through. We are trying to save a patient which has some much injury that it is nothing but triage.
Let’s get on with it and have a re do.
Its a shame that the disgraceful Feinstein and Lieberman have been given and retain so much power in our government. We have a long way to go to purge our party of these individuals who represent the interests of corporations over citizens.
I think she might have a picture in a closet somewhere, but she doesn’t seem to be aging well anyway.
As for telecom immunity – I keep telling her to vote no, but since I’m sure she never sees any of the e-mails and faxes opposing her positions (we don’t have enough money to get her attention), I’m also sure it won’t make any difference.
We have a fig leaf democracy! We live in a fascist country run by and for corporate interest and the wealthy.
THAT IS AMERICA today.
It’s all kabuki now.
DiFi needs a little care and attention from Code Pink, me thinks.
VP Droopy?
Oh yes, please Joe, run. Please. And while you’re at it, we can find a way in CT to force you out of your seat.
Uh, oh…Negroponte’s going to Pakistan…
Domestic Spying Inquiry Restarted at DoJ
from emptywheel’s 4 Days on the Job and Already Mukasey Has Lapped Gonzales, she says “But still, I’m happy to start with baby steps if you promise we’ll keep walking.”
Why should anyone or corporation receive retroactive immunity?
LS @ 38
lordy, the revolution starts as soon as he arrives.
LS @ 38
Think he’s selling the “el salvador option”?
SanderO @ 40
because they are patriotic companies only trying to help /s
Bustednuckles @ 6
CT Democrats booted Lieberman out of the party and nominated Ned Lamont, what more could they do?
mui @ 42
That is his expertise.
She is rich and powerful so lets make her unpopular first. Lets make her an object of jokes. Lets make sure she knows that it does not matter which Dem wins the presidency.
Once we get a majority her and Holy Joe will be investigated for everything we can think of.
When Al Quieda takes over Pakistan because she and Joe insisted that our troops keep wasting their time in Iraq instead of going after Ossama.
We blame her! If oil goes up to $5 a gallon we blame her! We blame her for losing the Iraq War, after all she protected the presidents losing approach to this war for for so long that now their is no chance of Iran ever being a stable country or American ally.
You don’t break the law trying to help. Why have laws?
Bob Brigham at Calitics has a great summary of how far and wide this idea has spread since last night:
w00t !!
[Mod Note: Given the number of links in this wonderful comment from our friend TSF, quoting it will result in the mods needing to manually release your comment from moderation.]
SanderO @ 47
laws are for the little people
mui @ 37
Oh yes, please Joe, run. Please. And while you’re at it, we can find a way in CT to force you out of your seat.
Nice thought but CT is one of the states that allows a candidate to be on the ballot for both VP and Senate (which Short-ride did in Y2K) so little chance of kicking him out of office if he ran as an R candidate in ‘08.
SanderO @ 10
Um, that’s pretty much what the censure *is*.
Twain @ 41
It would only serve him right. I’m sure there are still Nuns who pray for Justice for Negroponte and the rest of the School for Americas crowd.
hackworth @ 33
In the Senate, power derives from seniority, not just party. If CA loses Feinstein, the biggest state in the US moves to the back of the line, regardless of its size or contributions. It’s easy for those outside of CA to call for dumping her, but the state suffers by doing so.
People may mock KKKristol’s promotion of Lieberman as GOP VP but make no mistake the traditional MSM will propel a ticket with Lieberman. He is promoted by the MSM as a statesman of bipartisanship (bullshit of course). Russert, Matthews, Hume, Fred Hiatt et al will drool all over themselves over the thought of Lieberman as a GOP running mate.
Badwater @ 52
is this where we get into game theory?
where’s Nash when you need him?
The difference between JoeLie and DiFi can be measured in inches.
Both are AIP*C stooges.
http://www.peterbyrne.info/fei…../index.htm
this is a series on Feinstein and “the conflicts.”
SanderO @ 32
Getting the Blue America candidates elected is a good start. Most of them are doing a decent job so far, right? Purging the D party of corporatists – a few candidates at a time – will take less time that starting up a third party. We are having some successes. The problem is that the beltway type incumbents hold the leadership positions in the committees. How can we get the corporatists kicked off the committee seats?
States rights is a republican concept. Are we a nation or a bunch of states with conflicting interests?
Bluetoe @ 54
They will be in good company, Lieberman is a drooler too.
Bluetoe @ 54
Don’t forget Hannity.
Good let them.
if censure precedes recall…
dakine01 @ 50
Yes, I know. I am frmo CT. But while he’s away, the kids will play.
Elliott @ 55
Or Neil Young for that matter!
Badwater @ 53
Barbara Boxer was elected the same year, although she’s the junior senator. They drew straws, as one needed to fill a short-term when Wilson was elected Governor, iirc.
We wouldn’t lose much, and seeing DiFi and Richard Blum behind bars would be worth losing her “seniority.”
What we need is term limits.. two elections and they are all gone.
do-si-do @ 18
That was William the Bloody(That’s the one and only Bill Kristol) himself.
SanderO @ 64
Bad move, I think. Baby goes out with the bath water and you get rid of good people who have major good sense and know-how. Term limits make sure that the people in office are always less knowledgeable. Think Robert Byrd – a treasure.
Twain @ 67
Except for that minor matter of him being in the KKK.
SanderO @ 65
Simple solutions to complex problems-we don’t do that here.
hackworth @ 57
I think we just have to hunker down and do it incrementally. Grass roots. Populate everything from the bottom up with progressives or at least non corporatists and push it up.
Kind of like what the Moral Majority started doing in the mid 80’s o.O
raven@68
It turns out to be a net benefit that he stayed in the Senate long enuf to change, n’est pas?
raven @ 68
Well, at least he is capable of admitting he made a mistake. I think he has apologized a few hundred times for being a product of his times with that.
TeddySanFran @ 65
Agree. Censure her. She hasn’t done anything except kiss Repubs anyway. BTW, has she criticized McCain for his tacit agreement with the town hall mtg participant about Hillary being a bitch?
eCAHNomics @ 70
It has left the lobbyists in charge, as they are the most knowledgeable, in Sacramento. There’s also an unseemly and counterproductive game of musical chairs that doesn’t really open up slots for new people without expensive and futile intraparty progressive-v-progressive challenges.
The best term limit is the ballot box.
eCAHNomics @ 72
Hmmm, I’ll have to think that over.
Wow! Bush is at NINE Percent? In CA??? NINE Percent?
LOL, that’s amazing!
jgmurphy @ 76
Yah, I’m surprised that you could find 9% to say they support W.
On March 4, 2001, Byrd said race relations:
“Are much, much better than they’ve ever been in my lifetime…. I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us … I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, ‘Robert, you can’t go to heaven if you hate anybody.’ We practice that. There are white n*******. I’ve seen a lot of white n****** in my time. I’m going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.”
This will drive the wingnuts batshit:
jgmurphy @ 77
Yet, impeachment is off the table for reasons that no one in power feels obligated to articulate beyond a few trite bromides.
eCAHNomics @ 76
They are Disney executives.
TeddySanFran @ 73
amen, the ballot box.
eCAHNomics @ 80
Can’t wait to hear who balances Markos!
mui @ 42
There must be Pakistani death squads to train and arm.
Elliott @ 83
Except when the ballot box is a machine from Dibold.
Oh, Dear! You really think this action; a censure by the California Democratic Party is going to get Diane F. in line?! Please, get real.
Ms. Feinstein is a very senior and powerful Senator. If you intend to chastise her (as I wish you would) you need to operate on her playing field…. and that, unfortunately, is NOT California. It is the US Senate.
Where is Harry Reid? Has he removed Ms. Feinstein from her Committee assignments? Where is Barbara Boxer (and California House members?). Has Ms. Boxer publically rebuked Ms. Feinstein?
Although I sincerely appreciate the intentions of Californians to ‘censure’ Ms. Feinstein, I question the effectiveness of these efforts.
If you’re going to play political hardball, you need to get on the real playing field… The Senate and her financial supporters. If you cannot fly to DC and take some of her financial supporters with you, there is NO game.
Besides, she is going to retire (and take her ‘war chest’ with her) so she is not really a Democrat (or progressive) any longer. She is an Independant now.
Feinstein has been selling us out since the 70s. I don’t think there’s much that’ll stop her from doing it to us now.
eCAHNomics @ 31
That’s a depressing thought!
I’d prefer to think that it was despite the DLC, rather than because of them.
Bob in HI
Badwater @ 84
you do have a point there. But with a ballot box and paper ballots; and those ballots counted in public, and counted in fairness…
TeddySanFran @ 84
Drudge? Jeb? Rove?
So many greats to choose from!
LS @ 29
You mean, to give Addington plenty of time to browbeat Mukasey about the importance of covering their tracks?
Oops, sorry, my cynicism escaped and was running loose.
Bob in HI
TeddySanFran @ 84
Will Markos be able to respond to Newsweek and the balence commentor in particular if they start lying about the Left or favoring the right. You know business as usual in the MSM .
Public humiliation is a powerful force, one which will be soon be brought to bear on Feinstein in spades.
Feinstein’s behavior will change, you can take that to the bank.
JakeIn Florida @ 86
She may be planning to retire but I don’t think she can take her “war chest with her” any longer. IIRC, the only options available is to give it away or turn it into a PAC and give it away. They have not been allowed to pocket the cash for a number of years now.
LS @ 38
Oh, THAT’s going to make it all better. I was telling a friend of mine today that there are really no sympathetic figures in the Pakistan story right now. You’ve got an egotistical general/president who’s just declared martial law, a corrupt and narcissistic former PM (and a woman, to boot!), and several thousand lawyers. Lurking offstage is Osama bin Laden (Remember him?) and a bunch of nukes that may or may not be secured. It’s like a Shakespearean farce on steroids.
TeddySanFran @ 84
or how many they use to balance him.
LS @ 38
Trying to undo Cheney’s mischief? After all, isn’t Cheney our de facto starion chief for Pakistan? He seems to fly over there several times a year to give Musharraff his marching orders.
Bob in HI
Things Come Undone @ 92
talkleft has this under the headline: Kos sells out. http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/11/13/174656/16
JakeIn Florida @ 87
I am doing what I can. Since I cannot fly to DeeCee with her contributors, would you have me do nothing? Of course not. So I am doing what I can.
What are you doing?
Elliott @ 90
We do have a wonderful Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, who seems ready to battle the voting machine machine to the death.
dakine01 @ 95
and there’s power in choosing who receives that war chest.
Frank Probst @ 95
Can we at least admit that the fact that Bhutto is a woman is totally irrelevant to anything? Or are you trying to imply that that should be a relevant fact for folks to consider?
TeddySanFran @ 101
that’s nice to hear! seems about the only way we can rid ourselves of them
But DiFi’s writing a book: “Profiles in Fearfulness.”
bobschacht @ 98
I’m sure that Condi will make things better by looking sternly at some TV cameras somewhere.
Frank Probst @ 96
Jeeze. That pretty well sums it up. What a farkin’ mess.
This WH will now expend enormous amounts of energy trying to get the PAkistan balls up to somehow work to it’s (perceived) advantage. The fact that any administration would sit idly, or in fact stupidly, by and let this Pakastani mess collapse into a world wide disaster frightens the hell outa me.
Thank goodness we can vent our outrage here at FDL. Thank you Jane. By the way. Met with Kate Michleman last weekend. Am sending our Naral membership dues to Donna Edwards instead. Thank you.
TeddySanFran @ 74
I can’t second this enough. Read and weep, for we have nothing but clusterf*ck coming out of Sacramento these days.
here comes the sun upstairs
upstairs http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..s-the-sun/
dakine01 @ 103
No, we can’t. What we may be seeing is a struggle within our own administration playing out in public in Pakistan. I think maybe Musharraff is Cheney’s dog in this fight, and Bhutto is Condi’s (and Negroponti’s) dog. If it wasn’t for Bhutto, the opposition to Musharraff would not have a face.
True, the lawyers may have been able to shake things up enough on their own, but Musharraff can arrest their leaders, slit their throats, and dump them in some canal, and Americans wouldn’t even notice. They can’t do that to Bhutto, because she’s too high-profile. What we have here is a high-stakes game of international chess, IMHO.
Bob in HI
I’ve been writing nastygrams to Feinstein for so long that I don’t ever read her boilerplate replies…I don’t know WHAT her game is- but she doesn’t seem interested in changing it. My guess is that she doesn’t plan on running for re-election and sees this as the term to stock up the bank account-
nomolos @ 107
FWIW, I don’t think Kate Michelman is doing anything with NARAL now. She moved on a number of years ago.
She’s been in Washington too long. She caught the disease. One can’t help it. If you’re around narcissistic, self-serving liars eventually ya git it. The only cure… Get Leiberstein the fuck out. She’s way past her usefulness to the country.
mui @ 63
Maybe I missed it, but exacly who will be the Pres. candidate on this dream team?
It may make sense to the (below the) Beltway types, but what will the Repubase think of a Mormon/Jew or a Divorced Catholic/Jew and I am now sure what McCain professes to be/Jew?
Will Huckabee run alongside someone who has no interested in being perfected?
I missed the name, and I am missing the logic.
If there ever was one.
bobschacht @ 111
Bob,
I have no problem with dealing with Bhutto as a person. I’m just saying that her being a woman should be totally irrelevant to how the dealings occur. Bhutto as the face of and proxy for folks in DC like Rice or Negroponte is fine. The fact that she is a woman is of no merit or bearing on the situation.
dakine01 @ 113
She did indeed. She was hot on the campaign trail for Edwards
nomolos @ 117
Good for her! (although I would not be surprised if she’s not extremely disappointed over the direction NARAL has taken).
dakine01 @ 118
We all wore NARAL stickers from 20(?) years ago. She was very moved. I did not ask her what she thought about NARAL thses days. I thought about it but decided that I did not want to put a person I admire into an uncomfortable position. That question will go unanswered.
This house will not support the direction NARAL national has taken.
dakine01 @ 103
I see it more as interesting casting than anything else.
eCAHNomics @ 80
“Balance with a conservative”??? Ha! They’ve already got a stable-full writing for the rag. Try Richard Wolffe, Michael Isikoff, the Supremely Evil George Will, Evan Thomas, Howard Fineman, Fareed Zakaria, Eleanor Clift.
Although “some” might claim that these latter names aren’t really “conservative,” read their copy. They’re everything that’s wrong with the MSM.
I spent all day Friday – 8am till 5pm calling her DC & SanFran offices and could not get through because of the busy signal. I presume that the calls were all along the same liones regarding her position on telco retro-immunity. If there’s a recall afoot, where do I sign on? I am so done with her!
Lieberstein!
Once DiFi is Censured, Nancy P is next, for taking ‘impeachment off the table’.
She and her clan of DINOs are complicit in bushs crimes, she doesn’t deserve to remain speaker.
RECALL!!!
Recall of DiFi takes 1.707 Million signatures.
Just FYI.
Kick the bitch to damned curb! She’s Joe Lieberman in a dress.
I read this in a few places. no recall for federal office holders, meaning senators…
ever since her days as Mayor of SF, which went her way due to a tragic assination which she was quick to exploit, she has always been a corrupt, opportunist.
none to bright either.
Bluetoe @ 24
Asselephants and Corpocraticrepugs.
Skankey Hoyer and the dem leadership are neo -pathetics. No better than the fascists in the White House, they are in fact enablers, aiding and abetting deceit, fabrication and lies of the fascist scum in the White House.
In wonder how many of Pakistain’s citizens said, the executuve will never silence the judiciary?
Well the neo-cons, excuse me, neo-fascist are a cancer which must be “disembowled” as sure as terrorists are a threat to freedom, these fascist will risk everything to maintain power and control, just like Pakistan’s dictator.
When American Vets are arrested for protest, ie “exercise of free speech,” of our fabricated involement in Iraq, fascism is alive and well in America.
Cheney’s presence at the tomb of the unknown…. disgusting!!!!!!!!!
Has anyone considered the possibility that DIFI made a deal to keep DOJ from investigating her husbands contracts?
Elliott @ 55
Don’t forget, Nash was a West Virginian!