Pachacutec

VIDEO: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid discusses reasons for keeping Joe Lieberman in the Senate Democratic caucus. Reid volunteers that he recently went to Leiberman and said, "Joe, I need money from you." He describes Lieberman responding, "Will $250 thousand be enough?" Lieberman did then give $250 thousand to the DSCC.

Senator Dick Durbin was asked on camera to offer an example of a meaningful vote where Joe Lieberman helped the Democratic caucus. He rather pointedly declined to do so, and characterized the question illegitimate. WATCH IT!

Bill O'Reilly wouldn't sign my loufa. Video.

Speaker Pelosi got questions about war and telecom immunity that put her on the spot, and after blaming all of Congress's failures on the Senate, took the opportunity to stand up and provide wandering, nonresponsive answers to the next question. Why? She's a weak Speaker with a serious internal challenge to her authority from the Maryland conservative Majority leader Steny Hoyer, who is very popular among House Dems. He's there for them and he's a very able manager.

"The GOP has pummeled swing-district Democrats for refusing to back President Bush's update of counterterrorism surveillance laws and for last week's budget agreements that will allow most, if not all, of Bush's tax cuts to expire in 2011. Davis said the issues are not getting political traction now, but they could before November." -- The Washington Post

There's really not much more to say about this that has not already been said elsewhere, but I just wanted to pile on a bit, as it's gotten beyond disgusting. Ferraro's unrepentant comments are beyond the pale and the Clinton campaign should take serious, serious crap for keeping her on the campaign finance committee. This kind of unreconstructed, race blind idiocy (at best, blatantly ignorant racism at worst) needs to be called out by Senator Clinton, personally, in my view.

So, we have no progressive candidate. We have no Wellstone, no Feingold, no ideologically based movement person. My question is this: which of these candidates is more likely to reveal an inner Lieberman of some form once in power? I don't have an answer. People can believe what they choose to believe, but both candidates have Liebermanish historical tendencies and both propel narratives reminiscent of Lieberman, the earlier years. The ultimate question I will have for supporters of either candidate during these days of pie fights will be, whoever gets power, what will you hold your winning candidate accountable for once in office, assuming s/he wins? If your winner gets some accountability fire from people who once supported your opponent, will you simply defend your winner, or will you join in for merited criticism?

Lest anyone miss the point, this armchair psychoanalysis is total, hot, steaming bullshit, projection masked as insight. I'm trained and I would never make the presumptive leaps laced throughout this dotard's putrid drivel. May as well diagnose Terri Schiavo from a video screen. Broder, like Russert and the rest of the celebrity pundit corps, see what they see because they believe what they believe, not vice versa, regarding any Democrat, most especially the Clintons, and most especially Hillary Clinton. And yet, they lack the honesty or integrity as a smugly sated class to acknowledge the ways they create the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable to discuss as political "reality" throughout the country.

So, the week Donna Edwards trounces Al Wynn, the House decides to flip off the administration on the "Protect America Act" FISA bill with telecom immunity. Donna campaigned a lot on this issue, and Wynn was in the pocket of the telecoms. Coincidence, or not?

The untold story of the Mark Pera campaign is the way the national netroots and local activists have worked so closely to promote a grassroots candidate who takes progressive stands on immigration and the enfranchisement of migrant workers. Mark Pera's incumbent Bush Dog opponent, Dan Lipinksi, it horrible on immigration issues, but local grassroots coalitions for Pera are huge.