The Blogosphere

[Dr Ron]

I have a long post at The Democratic Underground related to Kos's book, comments on it at Crooks and Liars, and the relationship between bloggers and the party establishment:

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=2234

Needless to say, I don't have a favorable view of bloggers who lie about and attack the party's last candidate for President and expect to be taken seriously in the party.

[Mass]

1. Speaking about the blogosphere, how do you think they would react

if Kerry had sought censure without talking with any other senators, as apparently Feingold did. Who thinks he would have been acclaimed as a saviour.

Not me. My bet is that there would be posts everywhere saying that this is a dumb move and that we will lose 06 because of that.

[wisteria]

2. Yeah, where are the snark blog comments from Reid? How about

the outraged DLC? Not to mention KOS and MYDD. Not a word, no negatives at all. Personally, I think he is grandstanding and further, I think he taking this too far and giving the Rebubs something further to use against us in the elections this year in regards to security and defense.

[Mass]

3. I agree with the move, but it was done in a dumb way, as if he wanted

to be sure he was the only one sponsoring that.

If he had gathered at least a few Democratic senators standing with him, it could be seen as a reaction against the moderate democrats and republicans and make some sense, but, the way he did it, it looks like a self-agrandizing move, that does not help liberal and progressive democrats and does not help democrats generally, just Feingold.

[ProSense]

6. And the problem with this is

censure will not happen without Republican support. This is not the Alito filibuster attempt. If all the Democrats had voted against cloture, Alito would not be on the bench right now.

If every Democrat votes for censure, it sends a message, but does not censure Bush.

I read a comment somewhere, that Bush should have been censured for the port deal. I'm thinking about the aspect of secrecy and threatening a veto even though they circumvented the rules. Given that the public mindset isn't fully wrapped around illegal spying as it is around the port security aspect of the UAE deal, that would have really put the Republicans on the spot.

[ProSense]

7. Think this is

paranoia?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2510750&mesg_id=2510808


When Kerry introduced the line-item veto, some understood the ramifications of Bush using it and then Congress having to vote with or against him. A record on every line stricken. Like the port deal, Bush would have avoided a showdown that would reflect badly on Republicans.

[whometense]

4. Good point.

When I heard him say this my first thought was, oh, pandering to the Kossacks, are we?? THe lone righteous wolf. Didn't much like it.

[karynnj]

8. I agree - Kerry's name would be mud

There really are a lot of problems with this. When this motion fails, it will be trumpeted as a Bush victory. The other thing is that I think censure motions typically follow some sort of investigation. The problem here is that the investigation has been prevented, but it may still seem like a verdict before a trial. It is also a vote that will be hard for our side while easy for theirs.

Part of the problem is that due to secrecy there isn't even someone who can take it to court as we don't know who was impacted.

[Dr Ron]

9. Or they would attack Kerry for not calling for impeachment n/t

[TayTay]

5. We had an example of what a nice calll to the 'netroots' can do

on line. We had a Senator who basically asked for help and rewrote the liberal web and the focus of thousands and thousands of lib-web folks for 5 or so days. The resulting action brought thousands and thousands of calls to Capital Hill, and even took out the phone system for a while. (If memory serves, DU even divided into Alito Stuff and Non Alito stuff for a few days.)

It can be done. It has been done. I think a certain Senator from Massachusetts has proven this. That example can't be taken away, no matter who is hellbent for leather on rewriting history. The shame of this is that we don't have a chapter in that book online that shows what happens when people do listen to the netroots and do show up and ask, not for money but for help. It works. Just ask John Kerry.