Democrats need to grow a backbone (St. Petersburg Times)

[kurth]

Democrats need to grow a backbone
By BILL MAXWELL
Published October 1, 2006

... Do we have a double standard, one for Republicans and one for Democrats, for being acceptably nasty and mean? When Howard Dean took over as the Democratic national chairman, I hoped that other Democrats would study the straightness of his backbone and grow one just like it. Dean came into the job showing his utter contempt for right-wing Republicans. I was convinced that he was the man for the job, that if Democrats were to regain any semblance of respectability and real authority, they would have to face reality and start playing the GOP's brand of smash-mouth personal politics. Well, after six years of George W. Bush in the White House, his lunatic war in Iraq and a GOP-led, do-nothing Congress, I am even more convinced that the Democrats had better start fighting back - and with brass knuckles, a la Bill Clinton when he recently outfoxed Chris Wallace. But first let us get back to Dean. As far as I am concerned, he has told the truth about the GOP and Bush. If he has erred, it has been on the side of harshness, not dishonesty or hypocrisy...

Now, right-wing pundits are portraying Clinton as a maniac let loose in civil society, all the while forgetting that for the last month, Bush has been running around the country like an angry and desperate commoner who might "lose it" at any moment. On Thursday, Bush - the most powerful person in the world - was in Alabama back to name-calling, referring to the Democratic Party as the "party of cut and run." Then what is the GOP under Bush? The "party of mess up but won't fess up"? Republicans and their media flacks exhibit self-induced amnesia when they accuse Democrats of being "uncouth," "shrill" and "crude" when Democrats respond with equally nasty names and accusations. They forget, as hypocrites are wont, that they gave then-presidential candidate Bush a bye when he whispered to his running mate, Dick Cheney: "There's Adam Clymer, major league a------ from the New York Times." Imagine if Al Gore or John Kerry had said something like that. Republicans forget that Vice President Cheney told Democratic Sen. Patrick J. Leahy to "f--- yourself" on the Senate floor.

Republicans forget that one of their darlings, columnist Robert Novak, imploded on CNN's Inside Politics when Democratic operative James Carville accused him of being a right-wing stooge. Novak replied: "I think that's bull----. ... " He stood, unclipped his microphone and stormed off the set. The GOP remained silent. Conservatives guffawed when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to Democrats as "girlie-men." Well, who is the girlie-man now? The Terminator has come to his senses to keep his job...

Some final words from Howard Dean as he responds to a challenge to one of his attacks on Republicans: "This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough. We have to be tough on the Republicans. Republicans don't represent ordinary Americans and they don't have any understanding of what it is to go out and try to make ends meet." Nasty and mean, yes, but acceptably so.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/01/Columns/Democrats_need__to_gr.shtml

[Olney Blue]

1. Kick/recommended.

Thanks for posting!

[Zodiak]

2. When Dean speaks with fire in his belly...

he speaks for me.

Nuff said.

[pat_k]

3. Voice your outrage! voiceoutrage.com

http://voiceoutrage.com

[ninkasi]

4. Great article

I hope Democrats take Mr. Maxwell's excellent advice. We need to speak out, loud and clear, to let Americans know that they can have a Congress that is not just a rubber-stamp for Bush's toxic policies.

Now, the Republican party has gone so far over any previous line of acceptable behavior, not speaking out is the same as condoning their criminal behavior. They have no moral authority left.

They have been the party of greedy, grasping hypocrites, who have hidden behind a flag they are not worthy to wave. They act as the party of values, when their own values are in the gutter. They have become so totally corrupt, that we need to speak out now, so that people can see that we are the only party who addresses what ordinary Americans need.

We are not the party of torture, illegal invasions, selling out America's natural resources, and hypocritical sexual predators. Those are the property of the Republican party. They are the party that is content to ship American jobs overseas, and preside over the destruction of the middle class, while piling more and more treasure upon the already wealthy.

We should stand up straight and tall, and let Americans know that we stand for the opposite of what the other party does. We need to learn to speak out, and never back down.

[ProSense]

5. Kerry on Bush Defense of Failed Policies in Iraq, Afghanistan

09/29/2006

Kerry on Bush Defense of Failed Policies in Iraq, Afghanistan

“Bob Woodward says the Administration is in a state of denial. It’s worse than that. The lying needs to end and the incompetents who gave us a Katrina foreign policy have to go. The Administration has a stand still and lose policy in Iraq which isn’t the center of the war on terror, and a cut and run policy in Afghanistan which is the center of the war on terror. The only clear thing about the president’s policy is that it’s clearly not working.

American troops are coming home without arms and legs, for a strategy our military and our leaders know won’t work, and a policy that worsens terrorism. The repetition of presidential platitudes in daily speeches only compounds the immorality of a policy that is reckless with young Americans’ lives, and leaves America’s moral authority in tatters.

We have seven times more troops in the crossfire of a civil war in Iraq, which our intelligence agencies confirm fuels terrorism, than we have in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda roams free. Rhetoric about providing money to rebuild Afghanistan is hollow from an Administration that has cut aid to Afghanistan by 30% this year, and even requested 67% less than that for next year. Even Don Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday we need more troops in Afghanistan, but President Bush remains stuck in a state of denial.

This administration cut and run from the truth, and every day this administration refuses to face reality is another day they play into the hands of the terrorists. President Bush needs to start telling the truth, and acting on it.”

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4323

[n2doc]

6. Hopefully they can still recognize one when they see it