At what point do GOP Congressional folks

[salin]

realize that looking like they are merely tools of the administration isn't good relection strategy?

The slumbering giant that is the public has not only awoken, but is beginning to wipe the sleep out of its eyes.

The party that has marketed itself as the "tough guys", the bullies with fight (which used to appeal to some parts of the sleeping giant on a gut level), are now looking like weaklings who cave to the will and bullying of a very increasingly unpopular president.

I, for one, don't mind your (GOPers) lack of awareness - as the longer it goes on the more likely your losses (at the polls) increase. But it is making for some very interesting political viewing.

Sad thing is that there are some elected dems who are still playing from the 02 playbook - and also haven't realize the gigantic shift in public opinion - and are still "strategizing" from fear (as in voting for the Patriot Act) - as in fear of retaliation at the polls. But that aside doesn't change the appearance of the GOP as a mere apparatus/tool of the WH.

[acmavm]

1. They don't give a shit what they look like as long as they get that

'campaign' money and voting maching support.

[salin]

2. but there comes a point

where glitzy ridiculous ads begin to backfire when the slumbering giant resents the persons behind the adds; and if the voting machine results are so far off from popular opinion, esp after there has been enough bzzzz over the past several years about the voting machines - there will be a serious blowback problem (it is the scenario in which it is possible to envision some national strikes - if for example... santorum suddenly came from a 20 pt poll deficit and won... and that scenario were repeated across the country.) The trick of stealing elections by voting machines is that it has to be done where things are fairly close and thus there is some "credibility" in the public's minds eye to the end results. Were the results to be incredulous - I think there would be a public reaction that would be historical. Too many people have woken up.

Point being - public perception and revulsion goes too far - those things (media campaign and voting machines) won't be enough. At least in my humble opinion. One or two more election cycles, however, that lead to a congress that further enables the authoritarian/totalitarian bent of this administration - my opinion goes with yours - our whole society could be transformed into an open dictatorship.

[intheozone]

5. I agree with you about the voting machines,

it seems the elections can be stolen only if the candidates are running in a close race. They can't flip the results unless the public can fooled into believing the end result. That is why Dems have to stress this issue and tell the public how important it is to vote. Dems need to win by a very large margin or the Repubs will flip the vote count and steal the election, like they did in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
Dems need a landslide vote in 2006 or they won't take back the Congress and we won't get out government back.

[salin]

6. the odd thing

is that the GOP seems to be compliant to create the circumstances for such a landslide.

WH bully tactics are now becoming news items (as in Rep. King as critic of DP deal... goes public after a WH briefing that he does not believe the deal was vetted at all for Natl Security.... suddenly finds a congressional delegation to Iraq... rejected - probably just the first retaliation) - which makes the caving of Frist, and watercarrying of McCain look more and more suspect and "toolish."

Just wait til the fun and games of bushco pushing "immigration reform" and the backflips the toolish GOP in congress will pubically do to justify backing bush and shutting down any policy debates. Or the fun and games of rationalizing the waves of problems with Medicare Plan B. And then there will be whatever insane way the WH tries to pretend a civil war isn't occuring in Iraq - and tries to justify some sort of lesser scale military action against Iran - with the GOPers in congress transparently selling their soul to roveco.

[ristruck]

3. We need to Demand a change!!!

The tide has turned and there is momentum. We must press for real change. We do NOT HAVE TO SETTLE. WE DO NOT HAVE TO THINK ABOUT WHO IS ELECTABLE. This is the beauty of what is happening. We need to ramp up the pressure and expect more than just a win. We must expect the right kind of people to win. The GOP should be worried. They are going to get clobbered. Mark my words, it is not going to be pretty. We get the house in 2006 and the White House and Senate in 2008. Vote for progressives not politicians.

[salin]

4. I agree they SHOULD be worried

and some are... but they appear to be more worried about the blowback of rejecting the whims of the president.

At this moment it looks like a 1974 opportunity - where more dems won and more progressives joined the elected dems rank. Frankly if the bushco keeps pushing the envelop there will come a point where we will have to ask if we are about to enter one of those odd historical eras where an entire party begins to fade/disappear... we are far from that point, and we haven't seen such a thing in one hundred years... but the sea of change on the ground (in terms of popular opinion) is beginning to appear as a fundamental shift and rejection of a lot of GOP type assumptions.