Watchers on the Hill, Part II

[Mythsaje]

Back after the elections, I made a post that suggested this Democratic Congress would be under far closer scrutiny than any one before it. And that seems to indeed be the case. We know within minutes when someone says something they probably shouldn't ("Impeachment is off the table") and know within minutes when someone says something we can cheer.

We are asked to show loyalty to the Democratic Party here. This IS DEMOCRATIC Underground, after all. But, as has been pointed out on more than one occasion, it IS Democratic UNDERGROUND. A little anti-establishment sentiment is probably tolerable.

I think it can be said we have good reason to be irritated with our representatives, including Nancy Pelosi. If I remember correctly, many here had high hopes for her Speaker-ship. A lot of folks feel let down, and I can't argue they don't have the right to.

When she said "Impeachment is off the table," it was my thought that maybe they were just waiting for more information. Basically a "As things stand now" deal. But to read about her praising Bush and his family, considering everything, just made me a little sick to my stomach.

We HAVE to hold their feet to the fire in whatever manner is available to us. This administration's crimes cannot be ignored, nor can they be swept under the rug once Bushco is out of office. We've seen (and lived through) the result of THAT happening the last time.

Sometimes one has to be a squeaky wheel to get something done. And having a public figure of some notoriety standing up and yelling some of the very same things WE say isn't exactly a bad thing. We don't have to agree with everything this person says, or champion her cause as a potential third party candidate, but we should at least recognize that she's serving a valuable purpose by spreading the debate farther than just these particular environs and ones like it. It NEEDS to be a national debate and, if by "attacking" weak-seeming Dems, it prompts the corporate media to cover things they'd ordinarily ignore, maybe we can just shake our heads and let it pass for now.

One of the things that concerns me is the possibility that there are enough Dems invested in the status quo that they have just enough reason to oppose or block vital investigations as do the Repugs themselves. They fear being dragged down into the muck because of their own connections and/or misdeeds. I'm not just talking about the obvious DINOs, but also those who have plunged their hands just a little too far into the corporate cookie jar. There are a lot of shady deals that benefited corporations and hurt the rest of us that got "bipartisan" support they shouldn't have received.

We ARE watching, and some of us aren't afraid to make noise about what we see.

They'd be wise to pay attention. Right now the Repugs are our rightful target, and they should be our first concern. But we shouldn't let the corporatists and the corrupt in our own ranks assume that they're unassailable.

They're not, and they shouldn't be.

[merh]

1. I have no problem with Sheehan or anyone else letting Pelosi

know that she will run against her, as a dem, if she (Pelosi) doesn't start paying attention to the base and remember who got her where she is and why.

As an independent, Sheehan would not be effective and a 3rd party race would risk splitting the votes between Sheehan and Pelosi, possibly allow a repug win (an easy theft).

Yes, the dems need to pay attention to us and I agree that the corporatists need to know that we won't let them destroy our nation as dems any more than we would allow repugs to do the same thing.

It's about maintaining power to be effective and to make things happen, independents hurt that effort, imho.

[Mythsaje]

2. It's not really an issue in that particular district, actually...

Or so I'm given to understand. They could split the "dem" votes down the middle and still the Repug wouldn't get enough to be a challenge to either of them, based on the last election results.

Which actually may be part of the point too, now that I think about it.