Daily Kos: Dems problem isn't Obama, it's Congress. STILL.

[dennis4868]

Thu Mar 17, 2011 at 02:39 PM EDT.

Greg Sargent makes a point that needs to be repeated continuously regarding the carping of Congressional Democrats that Obama "lead" them when they can't come to an agreement themselves:

Maybe it’s fair to blame Obama’s lack of leadership for the Dems’ failure to articulate a coherent alternative vision to the GOP’s austerity/cut-cut-cut frame. But at what point do Congressional Dems take some responsibility for their own internal bickering and their own perpetual willingness to lend rhetorical support to the GOP’s fiscal worldview?
The President made a successful case in the State of the Union for the country to invest more in several areas while freezing government salaries and spending at current levels in other areas; threading the needle on the deficit issue. Congressional democrats, rather than building on that message went their own way and have yet to come to an agreement despite the attempts Schumer has made to put everyone on the same page. AND Despite the fact that the President has been out there every day since the SOTU detailing investments that should be made and legislative vehicles that could be used. Rather than amplify this message, Congressional Democrats have ignored it to their detriment. While Obama is talking jobs; Congressional Democrats say nothing on the subject and Republicans talk cuts (a message Senate Moderates decide to amplify like Mark Warner and Co.). We read a lot about how Obama is now FDR, but FDR had Huey Long in the senate fighting to his left. Huey Long made clear the Republicans were stuck in one place, FDR was the middle and in his opinion the country needed to move left. He created space for FDR to maneuver; FDR didn't do that at all. FDR took the opportunity to present his ideas as centrist.

Skip....

That to me is the fundamental problem with all the critiques of the White House I read on Daily Kos. The image this site and frankly the entire political press is that the President is the center of political gravity; no. Political gravity rests in the states as the 2008 primaries showed, as the tea party protests showed, and as these state budget fights are illustrating from WI to OH to IN to FL.

The President has only as much space as Democrats go out and create for him; like quarter back he's got to throw the ball before he gets sacked by the political machine gunning for every one of his policies. But this White House has no defenders in Congress and precious few in the blogosphere.


The entire article is here...http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/17/957405/-?detail=hide

I know the narrative here is to blame Obama 24/7 for everything, not congress (especially the senate), but I think this editorial makes some good points.

[vaberella]

1. FINALLY!! That's what I've been saying from the bloody beginning.

I finally found a dailykos post I could agree with.

[TheKentuckian]

2. Folks started trying to hold the worthless crapwads in Congress accountable

and the administration swooped in to defend the worst of the worst in our party and called those wanting to get progressive candidates elected fucking retards.

We didn't go after Obama first but he made himself responsible for the turds when he campaigned for them and opposed folks that would seem to support his agenda.

Y'all do not get to paly 3 card monte with who is to blame and who needs to be flushed out.

I believe there is plenty to go around both ends of Pennsylvania Ave.

[vaberella]

8. What are you talking about?! Please... n/t

[Armstead]

13. The point is it is a systemic problem in the Democratic Party.

It's not all Obasma's fault. But his centrist behavior is a symptom.

There are many great progressive/liberal Democrats with spine in Congress. But they often face as much resistance from the centrist corporate conservative leadership of their own party as they do from the GOP.

The problem as I see it, and what I think he is referring to, is the fact that the core of the Democratic Party has become too timid, ineffectual and too beholden to the same corporate/Wall St. oligarchs as the GOP.

No real meaningful progress will be made until the energy of the liberal and progressive base of the Democratic Party has at least as much power (and preferably more) as the DLC centrist corporate wing which does its best to stifle real populist reform.

[TheKentuckian]

15. I'm talking about a serious effort to replace shitball semi-TeaPubliKlan incumbent DINOcraps

with more progressive candidates that the White House and the DNC opposed and derided.

If Congress is the problem then Congresscritters must be replaced with those willing to advance our agenda but you loose the right to finger point that it isn't Obama causing the drag when he backs the clowns that are supposedly blocking and watering down his alleged agenda.

Fucking retarded, indeed.

What is fucking retarded is playing the three card monte with the future of our country in an effort to appease radical regressives, corporate big wigs, and comfortable weathervane "centrists" that also want to shovel money at the wealthy and minimize their tax obligations because they subscribe to or have been propagandized to swallow bullshit supply side theories hook, line, and sinker.

You cannot protect obstacles and then blame them for failure.

[Kdillard]

3. Always has been and will continue to be.

[vaberella]

7. Yup, yup! n/t

[Tippy]

4. K&R

[bigwillq]

5. Congress is pretty awful (nt)

[SkyDaddy7]

6. OMG! THANK-YOU! THANK-YOU! THANK-YOU! dennis4868

And to the author of this TRUTH PIECE! I can't believe this is actually posted here on DU! Thank-you!

[brentspeak]

9. I don't see Kos' name on that diary entry, do you?

It's not some official Daily Kos "editorial" -- just some anonymous Daily Kos forum member's personal diary entry. Could be your own, for all anyone knows.

[emulatorloo]

11. Original: The Democrats’ misplaced frustrations by Greg Sargent

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/the-democrats-misplaced-frustrations/2011/03/03/ABIZtwk_blog.html

[jenmito]

10. K&R. THANK YOU! n/t

[emulatorloo]

12. Rec n/t

[Armstead]

14. Congressional Democrats are not a monolith

There are some really great progressive and liberal members of Congress. Like the ones who fought as hatrd as they ciould for a public option in the health care reform bill.

But there is also a large contingent that are either so conservative they should be Republicans, or are too timid to stand up for anything or who have been bought and sold by the oligarchs or have otherwise been absorbed into the beltway Status Quo.

The problem many of us see with President Obama is that he has not given clear backing to the liberals/progressives to give them more clout and -- on the contrary has gone out of his way to placate the conservaDems. And he has actually said or tacitly authorized statements that undermine and even insult progressives and liberals.

So, although Congress has been both inept and obstructionist, President Obama has not exactly gone out of his way to help to empower those Democrats who have been attempting to make actual progress.