Dianne Feinstein is a fairly typical Democratic Senator from a solidly blue state. In 2002,
she voted to authorize the attack on Iraq. Throughout the Bush years, she repeatedly
stood with the GOP to fund the war without the conditions and timetables sought by some of her fellow Democrats.
Major progressive organizations see a golden opportunity to
resurrect the public option, and are preparing a campaign, which will
include television ads in Nevada, to pressure Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid to get on board.
For weeks now it's seemed more and more evident that instead of
significant, meaningful healthcare reform, we are--if we're
lucky--going to wind up with something akin to health insurance
reform.
Now that their summer of bluster is over, conservatives may
congratulate themselves on a job well done. The stout-hearted defenders
of freedom declared that government could never work, sometimes citing
examples of misgovernment drawn from periods of conservative rule to
make their case.
When it comes to policy positions, I certainly agree with the Democrats far more than the Republicans. (Do the Republicans still have policy positions? Does really, really hating the president, making decisions based primarily on hurting the president politically instead of what is good for the American people, and lying about the president's programs in an attempt to scare people qualify as a policy position? I'd say not. But I digress ...)
Congratulations to Al Franken!
Thanks for taking down the pestiferous Norm Coleman, who had usurped
the seat of Paul Wellstone and who had refused to give it up for way
too long.
Good riddance, Norm Coleman.
And take that, Bill O’Reilly, the big bully who trashed Franken at every opportunity, and then some.
Franken is also to be praised for his pioneering work in progressive
talk radio, having launched Air America when many, like O’Reilly, said
it couldn’t be done.
Congressional approval to continue funding of the ongoing war in Iraq, a major segment of the $90 billion supplemental appropriate package, passed on Tuesday thanks to heavy-handed pressure by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., against anti-war Democrats.
This has led to great consternation here in her home district in San Francisco, where anti-war sentiment remains stronger than ever.
Fellow Americans, and fellow Democrats and Obama supporters, we are
at a moment of truth, a pivotal turning point -- in the form of what
happens in the next days and weeks with robust, universal health
reform. A fork in the road socially, economically -- and politically.
It could go either way depending on Obama and the Democratic
officeholders many of us worked so hard to elect. They have the power
to act, but will they use it -- or lose it?
Over the past few days, we
reported
on how the White House and Democratic Congressional Leadership waged a
dirty campaign to scare up votes to support another $106 billion in
funds for their wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, several of
the so-called anti-war Democrats who left their principles at the House
coat check on their way in to vote Tuesday are trying to explain away
their hypocritical votes.
