Reply #637: Not the truth...

[Anthony Noel]

...Lieberman's role in killing the PO as you describe it is the Dem party line. It in no way accounts for the lack of leadership on the Administration's part that's at the crux of the matter, i.e., the fact that Lieberman was not stripped of his committee chairmanship and thrown out of the Democratic caucus, for example. And again, reconciliation could have been used to include a PO in the same way it was used to pass the health care legislation.

Further evidence, from the progressive standpoint, is the classic fold of Kuchinch in the House and Feingold in the Senate on their PO pledges, along with 59 and 29 others in these respective chambers. Either of these coalitions could have stopped passage of the shit-sandwich, three-steps-back health care bill, but Obama chose to threaten THEM - large contingents of progressives - rather than smaller-in-number ConservaDems like Lieberman. If that is "action liberalism," you can keep it!

As to the DADT, if Gates can suspend enforcement (which he did), Obama certainly can - and it is his standing as CIC which opens that door. The Senate fold on DADT is yet another case of Obama not leading. At some point you go to the Senate and threaten people with losing the party's endor$ement in the next election if they don't wake the hell up. Obama - more accurately Rahm Emanuel, though Obama has ultimately responsibility - not only refused to do this again and again on issue after issue during this administration's first two years, but actually thought by NOT doing so they were "winning"! The failures on the PO, on DADT, on EFCA, on Cap-and-Trade and the severely watered-down FinReg are clear evidence that Dems compromised as if they were in the minority, rather than leading as the majority they actually were.

For all these reasons, what this tread characterizes as "action" liberals (I call them "Clintonites") are the clearest indication of what's wrong with the Democratic Party. You don't see Righties coddling Republicans who, for example, support abortion. Why do Lefties tolerate spineless Dems to the point that the party which is supposed to represent them has become a corporate-owned, center-right party at best?