In praise of Steve Benen...a favorite excerpt from his postings today....

[quiet.american]

DU'er Cha first pointed me towards Steve Benen's blog "Washington Monthly" -- Steve's analysis is among the best - .... this excerpt from one of his recent postings brings it home....
http://washingtonmonthly.com/

I don't expect the public to have an extensive knowledge of federal policymaking history, but I at least hoped Americans would realize the scope of recent accomplishments. We are, after all, talking about a two-year span in which Congress passed and the president signed the Affordable Care Act, the Recovery Act, Wall Street reform, student loan reform, Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, new regulation of the credit card industry, new regulation of the tobacco industry, a national service bill, expanded stem-cell research, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the most sweeping land-protection act in 15 years, etc. Policymakers might yet add to this list in the lame-duck session.

Some of these efforts have been years in the making. In the case of health care reform, politicians have been talking about a major overhaul for a full century, but it took this Congress and this president to get it done.

This Congress has been about as many accomplishments as recent Congresses? Seriously?

Again, maybe you agree with these accomplishments, or maybe you think they were mistakes. That's not the point here. What's worth acknowledging is that we haven't seen this many accomplishments, on this scale, in decades. Norm Ornstein has characterized this Congress as being the most productive in 45 years. Rachel Maddow recently went further, observing, "The last time any president did this much in office, booze was illegal. If you believe in policy, if you believe in government that addresses problems, cheers to that."

Whether rank-and-file Democrats realize it or not, this is why the Republicans' right-wing base is as animated this year as is it --it's not because Dems are pushing a lot of key progressive priorities that have languished for years; it's because Dems are passing a lot of key progressive priorities that have languished for years.

Had to edit to say:

Proud of our President. Proud of our Democrats. :kick:

[yowzayowzayowza]

1. Yipperz! Frequently impressed by his stuff.

Thx Cha!

:hi:

[quiet.american]

2. Cheers, Yowza (from QA) :) nt

[Cha]

3. Brought it home!

Thank you so much for this piece from Steve, quiet.american! It's so brilliant to be able to appreciate this President and his Admin while we have him..not after he's gone and some dope takes over.:)

Gotta tip my hat to babylonsister for turning me on to Mr Steve Benen, political analyst with a bent towards humor(it helps with so many idiots as adversaries), who supports the President but is very much a realist like all the supporters I know. :fistbump: