Marie Cocco hits the nail SQUARELY in the head in her recent column IMHO

[Proud Liberal Dem]

"The Unemployed Will Roar"
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090708_the_unemployed_will_roar/?ln

Specifically, this last paragraph:

"Any hot air expended trying to stop it serves no purpose but to fuel political fires. Remember, that is the whole point of those now huffing and puffing most heartily. They don’t want to figure a way out of this morass; they just want to figure out a way to unseat those now in office."

:thumbsup:

I'd say, with few exceptions, THAT is REALLY what we are up against right now, politically. Hopefully, Obama, Reid, et. al will keep this in mind before they maddingly keep insisting that we HAVE to listen to and work with people whom have absolutely NO interest whatsoever in the common good and helping the poor and less fortunate obtain access to basic health care coverage only to get "watered down" and ineffective health care legislation or "warmed over" status quo legislation that doesn't really accomplish anything at the end of the road.

I'm personally all for bipartisanship on health care reform and other issues IF all of the parties involved are GENUINELY interested in trying to improve things for the countless Americans whom can't afford access to basic medical care or are struggling with other concerns BUT we should NOT be beating ourselves over the head to try to negotiate with people whom, as Cocco suggests, simply want to figure out a way to block progress and get back in power rather than come up with genuine solutions to real problems.

[Captain Hilts]

1. She's a good, liberal, female columnist who now barely gets on op ed pages since her days

at Newsday and even appearances on Lerher News Hour.

Too liberal. Too female.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. Amazingly, I found her in my daily rag, the Indianapolis Star

Which is pretty amazing given the political make up of most of its readers (the letters to the editor section and online message board are both constant sources of babbling wingnuttery)

[Captain Hilts]

4. She used to write for Newsday. Now, she appears sporadically. Glad your paper picked her up. nt

[rocktivity]

2. Randi Rhodes made same point yesterday

The GOP strategy is to stop implementation of the Dem strategy--nothing more, nothing less--then use it as justification for getting voted back into power!

:crazy:
rocktivity

[depakid]

5. "IF all of the parties involved are GENUINELY interested in trying to improve things..."

Trouble is that there's a set of folks who really aren't interested- and haven't been interested in a long time.

What to do with folks like that?

Sideline 'em and take care of business.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. Exactly- totally agree

Otherwise, we just ALLOW them to block progress at every turn.

[depakid]

7. These are are the same sorts of folks who mess up any meeting you've ever had

So, when they pipe up, be nice enough, sidebar the stuff- and get on with business.

Sidebar stuff does get dealt with- just in order of importance.