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I occasionally have the chance to listen to Bill Press’s morning radio show, but had been having trouble listening for very long recently because Press had taken on the mantle of Booster Club member, actively defending Barack Obama as Obama and his team engaged in hippie punching leading up to the midterm elections. That is why it was so surprisingly refreshing to catch a bit of the program this morning and to hear Press and his listeners ranting this morning about how they will completely give up on Obama if he caves in to Republican pressure and extends the Bush tax cuts for the highest income brackets.

Matt Bai claims that his version of the trouble with Social Security comes from a non-partisan organization. I don’t think Peter G. Peterson qualifies, and neither do groups he funds.

The Urban Institute rapturously supports the economic policies of the elites, including gutting Social Security. Details may matter, but statutes can be changed at the expense of the workers of America.

Yesterday, The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait wrote a rather odd post about how silly it is for progressives to be disappointed with Obama, since really, the President of the United States can’t do too much about policy.

Sierra Club loyalists were quick to defend the club, saying that the Sierra Club is a “grassroots organization” and that the article “insults those very volunteers and every Sierra Club member who has ever volunteered to help with an environmental cause.”

There was absolutely no insult meant towards those that donate their time and money to the Sierra Club’s efforts. Quite the opposite. I respect the work that committed grassroots environmentalists do, and believe it’s important to ask if there are other organizations out there more deserving of their support. I do not believe that the Sierra Club, which has aligned itself so tightly with political and corporate interests, is providing leadership worthy of those efforts.

The Sierra Club’s alliance with elite interests has turned it into the antithesis of a “grassroots” organization.

Fawning enviro groups have become such complete Washington DC creatures that they don’t know how to be advocates from the outside any more — their primary function is to give political cover in the midst of a PR battle. They have abdicated the role of non-partisan watchdogs, and the public should find new organizations independent of party control in which to place their trust.

BP supplies the Vampire Squid with ink.

Just as the choice groups sat on their hands for the Nelson amendment in the health care bill, just like the Sierra Club remains mute in the wake of an oil spill the size of Delaware, there will be nothing more than progressive window-dressing in opposition to cutting Social Security benefits this time around. Any of these groups utter so much as a whimper in response to Durbin’s very alarming statement yesterday? Nada. Zip. Zero.

The idea that the right is more “authoritarian” and top-down than the left is absurd. Conservatives successfully organized to keep Harriet Miers off the bench for having an insufficient record, they kicked Arlen Specter and Charlie Crist out, and they’re getting ready to expel Bob Bennett — very much against the will of the party. The GOP had to get on board or lose the support of their base. Meanwhile, Democratic leadership still celebrates Joe Lieberman every day, rubbing our noses in it for ever having had the audacity to challenge him in the first place.

The new Wikio blog rankings are about to be released, and because of our rather impressive surge, they gave us an advanced peek. FDL has jumped to ninth place among all political blogs, and considerably higher if you are looking at the so-called left side of the blogosphere.

I’d like to think that FDL’s growth is the result of contributors, moderators, support staff and all the commenters and readers working tirelessly to provide original reporting, meaningful analysis, and a place where policy is valued over personality, and results mean more than rhetoric.