And they want to know why we hate Bush?
Step 1: We must consolidate behind a candidate who will fight BUshCo 100%. One who is not wishy-washy. There are a few running who meet this standard. We know who they are.
Step 2: We must realize that we will not get a second chance - and that our energies must be totally applied to exposing EVERY Bush/Repuke atrocity. We know what they are.
Step 3: We must not forget which spineless DINOS helped bring us to this sad state of affairs, whether by corruption, fear, ignorance, laziness or a combination. We know who they are.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16827-2003Dec19.html?referrer=emailarticleHey, They're Taking Slash-and-Burn to Extremes!
By Charles Babington
Sunday, December 21, 2003; Page B01
Congress's minority parties have suffered indignities for decades, but few could top the insult that Republicans dealt to Democrats this fall. When House-Senate negotiators began a series of closed-door sessions to craft an ambitious Medicare overhaul, GOP Rep. Bill Thomas summarily announced that he would allow not a single House Democrat -- and only two Senate Democrats -- in. His edict was a jaw-dropper, given Congress's long history of letting each party appoint its own representatives to these all-important "conference committees." To add injury to insult, the banned lawmakers included the Senate's Democratic leader, Tom Daschle.
Whether it amounted to cool Republican efficiency or an assault on fairness and democracy, politicians and the American public had better get used to it. Thomas and his GOP colleagues brushed aside Daschle's complaints and enacted their bill -- aided by a now-infamous three-hour House roll call -- with less minority party involvement than on any major issue in recent times. Congressional Republicans and the Bush administration now appear poised to press other initiatives with barely a pretense of seeking Democratic input. The strategy could go on for years if Republicans keep their House and Senate majorities in 2004 and Bush wins reelection -- certainly a plausible scenario.
What's taking place is more than bare-knuckled partisanship, though there's plenty of that. A potent confluence of events and personalities is changing Congress. Will that matter beyond the Beltway, or even Capitol Hill? Republicans say the Medicare bill would have come out the same even with a semblance of greater Democratic input. But some congressional scholars see tactics that, while perhaps ruthlessly expedient in the short run, seem destined to generate future animosity and retribution. "I honestly believe that policy suffers when enacted in this way," says Thomas Mann, who monitors Congress for the Brookings Institution. "There really is something to be said for a more open, deliberative process where you give full airing to issues and you try to build a larger majority. I don't believe major social changes are sustainable with margins like this."
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