Left Turn?
Liberals in Congress believe that 2009 could be their best year since the New Deal.
by Brian Friel
Sat. May 10, 2008
On the afternoon of April 9, the ballroom of Washington's Willard Hotel belonged to Bernie Sanders. The independent senator from Vermont with Einsteinian hair and an admiration for Scandinavian-style socialism stood before a few hundred like-minded liberal activists who had convened to contemplate the legacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal on its 75th anniversary.
The grassroots organizers, political strategists, and students at the event had spent nearly as much time in the hours before Sanders's speech bashing President Bush's two terms as they did celebrating FDR's four. So a couple of stabs from the Brooklyn-accented Sanders elicited roars of laughter from the crowd.
"I don't know where the hell they got this word from, 'robust,' " Sanders said, referring to a term Bush commonly uses to describe the economy. "It's always 'robust.' And 'strong fundamentals,' and 'sound'--all this crap." The liberals laughed. Sanders then explained his opposition to Bush's new Office of Management and Budget director, Jim Nussle: "I want somebody at OMB who can, at the very least, explain the reality of American life to the president." The liberals laughed even harder.
But in wrapping up his 10-minute pitch, Sanders urged the crowd to look past the Bush presidency. "The disgust for right-wing extremism and the Bush administration is very apparent," he said. "Our job is, now, to give the American people a progressive alternative." He admonished the Democratic Party to start "forgetting about their campaign contributors" and fight for national health care, tax increases on the wealthy, cuts in military spending, and an end to the Iraq war. "We need to galvanize the American people to demand radical changes in the way we do business," Sanders implored.
As the November elections draw closer, such heady talk is increasingly common among congressional liberals--or progressives, as many of them prefer to be called. From rank-and-file freshmen to committee chairmen, the Left is forecasting big electoral wins followed by major legislative action in 2009. "If you get a Democratic House, Senate, and president, you will see positive public policy changes that will outstrip anything since the New Deal," House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., boldly predicted on April 24.
much more at:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/cs_20080510_9602.php
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