I hate to keep asking this....but

[TrogL]

when is somebody going to start talking about the Senate and House.

If if a Democrat wins the White House, he needs Bills to sign other than the latest Republican pork barrel budget and DOMA of the week.

[Zero Division]

1. Damn Good Question

I've been wondering about this myself. We go on and on about all the great things our favorite candidate will do in office but often forget that all they'll be able to do with the Republican majority is put a stop to the worst parts of their agenda (not that that's a minor thing, though). We cannot afford to forget about this.

:kick: for an extremely important reminder

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. President Dean can issue dozens of executive orders

And nullify the entire Bush agenda. Just like Bush did to Clinton.

He would have the bully pulpit to beat the Republicans in the press.

He would be able to nomintate hundreds of judges over his two terms and some would have to get through the fillibusters.

His VP would be able to cast the tie breaking votes in the Senate.

He would be able to give all the government agencies their marching orders and set the tone for the next 8 years.

And I agree we need to take both houses back, but it's not like we'd be pissing in the wind if President Dean made it and congress was still GOP controlled.


FUCK BUSH Buttons, Stickers & Magnets

[Eric J in MN]

2. after the Democratic convention, we won't be able to give money

After the Democratic convention, we won't (generally) be able to give money to the nominees' campaign, since he'll be running on the $74 million in public financing he'll receive.

At that point, we'll be asked to give to Congressional candidates.

[Kenneth ken]

3. meetups

I think meetups should be looking at their group and finding candidates to run for these offices.


There are 435 open seats for the US House. I do not think the Democratic Party leadership will choose to contest them all.

There are about 33 seats in the Senate up for election.

I think a meetup should find a candidate to run for office (in some areas maybe the Dems will field a good candidate, so those may not need to come from the meetups.) and then reach out to other candidates' meetups in their area and come to an agreement that they will support the candidate who wins the nomination.

So, The Kucinich meetup in Hoboken NJ finds a person to run for the house seat in that district; reaches out to the Dean meetup in Hoboken Nj, which has also deteriined who they want to run for the house seat in that district, etc. for each candidates meetup group.

Then, when a Presidential candidate is nominated, say Carol Moseley-Braun, the various meetups in Hoboken all get behind the person who was chosen from the CMB meetup and help to get that person elected.

The campaign strategy is easy. CMB is running for President, and I am running for the House seat in district ## for one reason only - to help get her agenda passed into law. If you like CMB, vote for her, and also vote for me!.

Same in the Senate.

* - feel free to change candidate names in any portion of the above where you dislike the candidate named. The underlying idea still applies.

:bounce: anyway, that's my idea, but I don't much care for the DLC nor any of the other so-called party leaders. :bounce:

[Sugarbleus]

5. Yes, excellent question..

I've been thinking this all along. I continue to watch via C-span when the house and senate are in session because the repugs are STILL trying (sometimes successfully) to shove some hideous bills through to law. We are watching Iraq and debating candidates here and the legislature is continueing to pass crap.
Indeed, how are we to take back the legislature from the right majority?

[Kenneth ken]

6. kicking

because I'd like to see some more replies to this thread.

[QC]

7. Good point. If the Clinton years taught us anything

it should be that having the White House without Congress is not so good.

Imagine what Clinton could have done with a supportive Congress. Instead, he spent most of his time stopping the loons in Congress from turning the country into a medieval theocracy.

[loudsue]

8. BEFORE the repukes "redistrict" the entire country???

That would be good....getting some judges and legislators over to our side who would actually SUPPORT a Democratic agenda!

Whatever it takes to take our country back. I think we need to start marching in the streets to take our VOTES back!!

www.blackboxvoting.org


:kick::kick::kick:

[Kenneth ken]

9. dangit *kick*

still looking for thoughtful responses to the question raised...

[PATRICK]

10. grassroots not just money

A lot of these campaigns can only be boosted beyond the predictable with a strong grass roots campaign for EACH candidate. Yes, that is how far one has to go if adding a new dimension to the party. Generally, if Labor backed a candidate, it would offer real feet on the ground, mouth to phone support and that is still what the GOP really fears and hates about their support, more than the money which has not yet broken through to REAL meaningful donations from the millions of people who should.

I hope the sizeable deans grassroots is branching out and using some of that experience. It may be a chief reason why Dean would get local endorsements and coattails. Stranfgely though there is a disconnect this time between the putative candidate of the "movement" and the grassroots growth itself. Is it transferable, growing, or annother particularist phenom that will burn out with their main guy? Will it rival or work with the other feet and hands constituencies?

Ignore the small minded garbage, the posion, the panic, the nervous wonder of birth pains and the unknown.

Everyone has to get together and pull together. With all duue respect to dean's energizing leadership this movement of public involvement for once IS from the ground up. No William Jennings Bryan has yet coopted the progressive gathering. No one "above" gets it as the base burns beneath them with a democratic phoenix being born. No messiah being destryoed by the bad guys will discourage or change it. There are and can be no messiahs- just Americans becoming real Americans and doing their democratic job. Looking for leaders who will do theirs.

[ACK]

11. Praise the lord in frickin' heaven ... YES!

Where are the outrage threads on all pile pork crap they shoved through the congress?

No, we are as bad as the damn media sometimes bitchin' and fussing about Sadamm's impact on ... well .. everything.

Remember, kids the only reason that freak Raygun was even worse than the shrub is the fact that the Dem Congress with brave men like Tip O'Neil would not put up with that junk.

Everyone muses why there are not investigations and outrage about this, that or the other topic. I will tell you why!

They ownzed our ass.

They got the Congress, the Whitehouse and the frickin' Supreme Court.

We have to take it back. This is the revolution. This is the most dangerous hour of American Democracy with a one-party system just around the corner people.

Organize, fight and damnit even compromise if you have to but we have to take it back people.

[Kenneth ken]

12. TrogL - this thread has boat anchors

attached to it. I'm not sure why, because it's a good question. I have started a thread based on this in Politics and Campaigns - at least there it won't fall to page 8 so quickly.

edit:syntax