This Party Sucks, That Party Sucks, Let’s Just Stay Home

The Morning Joe Rebuttal for January 6th, 2010


Observations:


1) I just couldn’t be happier that Senator Dodd is retiring. What the Democratic party, what the Republican party for that matter needs, is fresh leaders who are willing to make a solemn oath to put people first. There is no legal requirement to make such an oath, but if you want any votes at all in an election, the voters at this point are going to require a contract, signed in your blood.


We have to weed out the Liebermans, we have a responsibility to the union to send representatives that will both serve our interests at home, and not shame our nation with juvenile obstructionism or petty larceny while on duty.


Chris Dodd was guilty of petty larceny while on duty as a Senator. What makes it worse is that it affected his judgment on future necessary reforms. He was going to be Citibank’s fair haired boy on financial reforms like the replacement of the Glass–Steagall Act. But on the way to the dirtiness, he was prepared to trot out the same old “tried hard” trick of a reform package that meant something when written, but was feckless upon completion of his work. One larceny followed by another, covered by a misrepresentation of intent.


You had a good career, and history will show that you knew that you would see Matt Taibbi’s face throughout the state of Connecticut while trying to convince the beaten down masses that your 7th term would be in their best interests, so you are going to quit while you’re temporarily ahead and hope there is not a Nurenberg-esque clawback trial while you’re still walking this earth.


2) Senator Dorgan can go right with him. Joe Scarborough and the cast were painting this as a big setback for the Democratic party and numerically they are absolutely right, but the intent of this Senator was not to prioritize health care and similar to the head of the Florida Republican party yesterday, Dorgan is leaving in protest of having to support a progressive agenda in the first term rather than just focusing on jobs.


I am not a subscriber to that, and if he feels that strongly about it, we will again need to bring anti-status quo people in. If it’s not in the cards in 20 years time in North Dakota, it’s still better than having reluctance in your ranks when you have some of the most important work ahead.


If we still have cloture, election reform, banking reform, tax reform, a balanced budget amendment with close the government down teeth, and avoiding a lost economic decade on our program, how can reluctance serve?


3) What on earth is the show doing looping Nancy Pelosi and not backing it up? You played the loop 6 times and never talked about it. Mika threw in the same canned “is she serious, I think she is” quote in a distressingly robotic form, and as a whole, your ensemble accomplished nothing.


Obama is telling Nancy Pelosi to take the awful Senate health care bill intact and shove it through the House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi has informed the nation with that quote: “he promised a lot of things on that campaign” that she is holding him accountable for the version of health care he advertised before accepting the “tried hard” Senate bailout bill.


I think it’s time for the nation in it’s insistence to not feel duped by Congress to stand in support of Nancy Pelosi as one person who is trying to move the conversation towards the 2008 election result and away from the usual Washington self serving status quo.


Admittedly, Nancy Pelosi doesn’t do herself any favors by using the “never been more open” rationale for turning down CSPAN at the informal conference. But, it appears she is bent on getting some concession for her work. And if you held up the work of Pelosi versus the work of Reid, who delivered and who was beholden to the insurance industry?


4) The American people are in no hurry to run to the Republican party. Michael Steele knows this and is actually pretty impressive in his attempt to get his party off of the rocks in time for the election. He has a mess in Florida, a bigger mess nationally, and he is not telling people what they want to hear. There is no air of superiority in the Republican party and that has been the one thing that has been their hallmark in my lifetime.


You can talk to them about the issues, you can talk to them about the country, but as recently as the week before the 2006 elections, a party line Republican would listen to you talk but be saying to himself: you have your numbers, I have THE numbers. This person is implying you’re wasting your time trying to reason, because they’re winning based on superior information, and are therefore superior.


Those days are gone. The Republicans appeared blindsided a week later. They aren’t finally recovering, Their former constituents are reforming under another mantra that reads like “we won’t get screwed again”. Michael Steele is in the same spot that the Democratic party is in. Voters are going to demand a contract that limits their representative from saying one thing and then doing the exact opposite while in power.


Promises just don’t cut it anymore.


That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.