Time to Make a Polite Exit

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/12/24/11611/027

Time to Make a Polite Exit

by BooMan
Thu Dec 24th, 2009 at 01:16:11 AM EST


Bernie Sanders isn't a Democrat, he's an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate. He calls himself a socialist. According to Progressive Punch, he's the 12th most progressive member of the Upper Body. They rank him as first or tied for first on health care, opposing corporate subsidies, education and the arts, fair taxation, family planning, housing, labor rights, and issues of war and peace. The rankings at Progressive Punch favor senators who have been elected in the last two election cycles because they never had to serve under Bill Frist and cast deliberately difficult votes, but among the group of senators that have been in office since before 2007 only Jack Reed of Rhode Island has a better progressive score than Bernie Sanders (you might remember that I lobbied hard for Reed to get the VP nomination).

It was Bernie Sanders who introduced a single-payer amendment to the Senate health care reform bill. I don't think it is controversial at all to say that on health care, at least, Sanders is the best of the 100 members of the Senate. So, naturally, FDL Action is threatening him with a primary from his left because he is voting for the president's number one domestic agenda, the Senate health care reform bill. This is on a day when Jane Hamsher appeared on Fox & Friends and teamed up with Grover Norquist in some kind of conspiracy-laden pogrom against the president's chief of staff.

I was polite for a while. Anyone still left in the employ of FDL ought to consider heading for exits now. It ain't gonna get any prettier.

[Clio the Leo]

1. When do they get their own naughty metaphor nick name?

You know, if the other side is the Tea baggers? Surely we can find something.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. From KayInMaine commenting in the OP's post:

"FDL Douchebaggers"

I kind of like it.

[saltpoint]

2. The hot-head narcissists over at IceMongrelPuddle, in threatening to

primary Sanders, show their true colors.

They are not more to the left of Sanders, as Sanders is sufficiently left for almost anyone who considers herself or himself Left to begin with. A lot of left-leaners in other states would do just about anything to be represented in the Congress by someone like Bernie Sanders, and if they don't feel that way, they're fools.

Jane Hamsher -- if she wants to -- can stick her hindend out the bus window. But that significantly increases the odds of her getting whacked by a low-hanging branch.

She can't impact change so she throws a temper-tantrum and goes on FOX News and aligns with Grover Norquist, an established fascist.

Santa's gonna fill Bitter Jane's stocking with lumps of coal, all of them much deserved.

Meanwhile, I believe Sanders will cruise to re-election.

[babylonsister]

3. "IceMongrelPuddle"

:rofl:

Hey, saltpoint, I hope your holidays are happy, and here's to 2010 and more progress! :toast::fistbump:

[saltpoint]

4. babylonsister, the same good holiday wishes right back atcha, and

don't think I have forgotten or do not appreciate that you were among the very first people to predict this day's vote.

You were right real early and stayed right.

Happy 2010.

:toast:

[firedupdem]

11. "IceMongrelPuddle"

:rofl:


Perfect! :rofl:

Teabagger Jane....:puke:

[Cha]

15. It is a puddle for all the positive

impact they're having. Such a dog gone shame..to let yourself be exploited by the rw for all the wrong kind of attention.

[saltpoint]

18. Hi, Cha. I thought the same and then was asked if I thought Hamsher

was making a deliberate / desperate plunge for attention.

I'm kind of torn between either theory.

[Cha]

24. Hi saltpoint..

I'm with this poster..# 5.

POAS (1000+ posts) Thu Dec-24-09 07:22 AM
Response to Original message
5. To sit in the same pew with Norquist
is enough to make me suspect a persons motivations on an issue.

[POAS]

5. To sit in the same pew with Norquist

is enough to make me suspect a persons motivations on an issue.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Heck....a bill getting all 40 Republicans to vote NO means Hamster

is on the wrong side. Take note!

[BlooInBloo]

7. Don't go away mad, Teabagger Jane.... Just go away.

[tavalon]

8. Pogram? Isn't that over the top?

I dislike Rahm immensely. To be on the same side of an issue as Grover Norquist sure is odd but there it is. Rahm needs to go. He needed to never be there in the first place.

[Undercurrent]

9. Huh?

This latest push by Jane/FDL, her teabagger allies, and Fux news buddies has nothing to do with getting rid of Rahm.

This has to do with getting rid of Bernie Sanders. This is insanity on steroids!

[Cha]

12. Yeah, it's crawling into the gutter to team up with grover norquist..

but, hamsher doesn't mind mixing up with the vermin to get on tv.

Paul Krugman on grover norquist..

"Why do I want to see movement conservatism crushed? Partly because the movement is fundamentally undemocratic; its leaders don’t accept the legitimacy of opposition. Democrats will only become acceptable, declared Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, once they “are comfortable in their minority status.” He added, “Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/opinion/10krugman.html?_r=1&hp

[cali]

13. The only people they could get to primary Bernie from the left are

utter loons. Credible people like David Zuckerman, a Progressive Party state legislator or Paul Cillo former state legislature, who may or may not be more "left" than Bernie, wouldn't dream of running against him.

[jeanpalmer]

14. Have to go along with FDL on this one

Bernie betrayed his values and totally capitulated on this one. He went from supporting single payer to supporting the bloated mandated insurance system, seemingly just to get a few million $$ for his state's Community Health Centers. I thought that CHC money was for the whole country, but if that's just an earmark for his state, that really is a crass betrayal. Bernie needs to wake up. I can see why people would be pissed. Can't blame them for trying to hold his feet to the fire.

[cali]

16. codswallop. this is simply bat shit crazy

And please don't repeat a flat out lie. Bernie got 10 billion for a network of CHCs across the country that will provide primary care, mental health care, low cost or no cost prescriptions and dental to millions and millions of people. VT will, at the most get 2 new CHCs.

You clearly don't have a fucking clue, honeycpie, about this legislation. Pathetic.

[jeanpalmer]

17. Voting for a $2 trillion boondoggle

to get $10 billion for CHC's. Not cost effective, and it's unnecessary. The CHC funding can stand on its own. Separate it out and have a vote on it by itself. Frame it as providing health care for the unemployed. It would pass easily. But don't wrap it up with this mandate piece of crap. They're using a few inexpensive goodies to get the expensive mandate passed. Can't you see it?

The CHC's already received money from the stimulus, I think it was around a $1 billion. And that's a good start. Adding more makes sense. CHC's are the model we should have pursued for the entire reform effort -- they're low cost, get rid of insurance and all associated problems, if they're run by the government they take profit completely out of health care, reduce paperwork, etc. etc. Instead, Congress is going to pass a high cost private insurance system that betrays progressive principle. And Bernie is right there to vote for it. He fell down on this one. It shows how desperate these people are to pass anything they can call HIR.

Why the insults? Before I give Bernie a free pass on the CHC funding, I'd like to see how much of it goes to his home state and how much goes to the rest of us. FDL suggested the funding was for Vermont only/or primarliy. I'll bet his home state gets more than its share. Is that the deal he cut to vote for this monstrosity, because before he got this deal for CHC's, he was very critical of the bill. So I see what FDL is complaining about. And I agree wirh them. This whole process from start to finish has been one sad spectacle.

[ClarkUSA]

21. "$2 trillion boondoggle"? Why do you keep repeating that Faux News talking point?

You must really like the sound of bullshit hitting the wall.

[Arkana]

19. Bernie Sanders is in the unique position among US Senators

of having NO left flank, so how exactly does FDL think they're going to primary him out?

[avaistheone1]

20. Jane isn't going anywhere.

I don't agree with her about Bernie Sanders. However, she is a brilliant woman with more brains and audacity than most of DC put together. She has done a great deal of good for progressives.

Sorry to burst your bubble but Jane Hamsher will remain at the front of the political scene.


btw was it really necessary to put up another thread on this forum about this when there already is another one knocking Hamsher on the very same topic?

[ClarkUSA]

22. "she is a brilliant woman with more brains and audacity than most of DC put together"

:rofl:

[jenmito]

25. Yeah-her and Sarah Palin both!

Keep supprting the teabaggers! :rofl:

[avaistheone1]

27. Interesting. You are an expert on teabaggers.

Given you and the teabaggers are supporting the Afghanistan escalation. You, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol, and all those teabaggers.

[ClarkUSA]

32. No, but you're an admirer of a rabid Hamster who stands with teabaggers against HCR...

.... and teams up with Grover Norquist.

"You, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol, and all those teabaggers" indeed. :eyes:

[jenmito]

35. You voted for the guy who supported an escalation in Afghanistan.

But none of the people you named support a date for starting to withdraw. ;)

[Cha]

26. Too bad you don't like all the exposure hamsher is

getting for her narcissistic exploitation by the rw idiots such as grover norquist and really fucking up by calling for Senator Sanders to be primaried.

I have no doubt that she will remain front and center for those who will March with her into Teabagger Hell.

[avaistheone1]

28. I believe it is you who are marching to Teabag hell with the teabaggers

who support of the Afghan escalation. Are you going to be holding Ann Coulter's hand there?

[Cha]

30. Yeah, go ahead deny reality I would expect no more from

someone who doesn't want jane hamsher's history exposed on DU.

<snip>

"It has come to my attention, that somehow a filmmaker and blogger named Jane Hamsher, who seems to be the new leader (appointed by whom I don't know) of a portion of "left progressives" has proposed a new political alliance with Teabaggers.

While idly skimming comments today in a diary here on DKos, this factoid happened to catch my eye. The reference was to recent statements she has made on the Huffington Post, a place I rarely visit, unless it is to follow a link posted here.

I realize that this person has her own blog. Found that out during the health care debates around here. Never been there.

Deoliver47's diary :: :: Curious I went over to HuffPo, to read what this woman had to say, barely able to imagine that anyone in their right mind who calls themselves a "leftist" or a "progressive" or a "feminist" would countenance an un-holy alliance with a rabble of racists, reactionaries and anti-abortionists.

Sure enough. There it was. I read on. Even more amazed, I read the comments section (though they are not as easy to read as the ones here on Kos).

They ranged from outright adulation, to calls from teabaggers for a Palin- Hamsher ticket to defeat Barack Obama.

Oh. my. word.

I examined my coffecup - took a sniff, suspicious that perhaps my cat had dropped something into it. I must be delusional.

Since I know nothing about her at all...and had no idea that she was my "new leader" and "spokesperson" for leftists and feminists I did what we all do and headed over to wiki to find out some more about her political credentials to lead a movement from the left.

Hmmm. Nada. Zilch. No organizing experience, no electoral experience (that's okay, though cause my leadership in the past like Mrs Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcolm and Martin didn't have any electoral experience either).

She produced a film. My. I don't go to movies much so pardon my ignorance. She wrote a book about it. She got a blog. She is now on tv regularly as a leader of the "health care reform" movement. A pundit. Saw her on Kos tv."

?????

<more>
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/12/20/817242/-Update-2:-Sorry-Miz-Jane-Hamsher.-No

[ClarkUSA]

33. No, but you're an admirer of a rabid Hamster who stands with teabaggers against HCR...

... and teams up with Grover Norquist against the President's chief of staff.

"You, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Bill Kristol, and all those teabaggers" indeed. :eyes:

[jenmito]

23. K&R. I exited from her mailing list as soon as she sent me an email to kill the bill.

She looks fringier and fringier with her RW allies.

[avaistheone1]

29. I am surprised you didn't do it earlier.

Though I think you are right winger. You seem to be quite a war monger. Very much in the Bill Kristol and Ann Coulter vein.

[jenmito]

31. I'm as much a war monger as the guy you supposedly voted for.

Why did you vote for a war monger?

[yurbud]

34. I question the wisdom of making common cause with Norquist, but just once I'd like to see

Rahm and Obama take on a high profile Blue Dog, DLCer, or Republican. It is a little disconcerting to see the Obama administration praising and dumping on exactly the same people the Bush administration would praise and dump on.