Dorgan was a progressive populist champion on many issues over the years

[Armstead]

Dorgan was a progressive who hasn't always gotten a lot of attention. Not a flashy guy. But he has been among those, like Wellstone, Bernie Sanders and progressive House members, who supported and championed liberal progressive and populist policies over the years.

When the whole "free trade" nonsense was being relentlessly pressed, Dorgan was one of the few on the Senate floor and elsewhere trying to inject an alternative view that we were screwing ourselves and needed to be careful about how we liberalized trade policies.

He argued forcefully against the deregulation of broadcasting, and advocated for keeping the rules that limited ownership of broadcast stations and requiring some level of accountability by stations.

He fought against repeal of Glass Stegal banking regulations.

More recently, he wanted to include drug importation in health care reform.

He'll be missed.

[IndianaGreen]

1. Thank you for your informative post

K&R

:kick:

[Odin2005]

2. K&R

[rockymountaindem]

3. I know. I saw that on the treadmill at the gym.

This is some serious bad news, particularly if they're talking about maybe resurrecting Glass-Steagall next year. He would have been a powerful voice in that on down the road.

[depakid]

4. Always sad to see people who "got it right" -objectively, leave the scene

likely to be replaced by ideologues or partisans.

[TheWraith]

5. He was the guy who proposed a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. nt

[sabrina 1]

6. He is smart. He was one of only eight

Senators who voted against the Repeal of the Glass/Steagal Act, saying at the time that it would probably cause huge problems down the road. His remarks after its passage, while the rest of the Dems were celebrating were prescient. It must have hard being one of so few (one of the eight was a Republican) to stand his ground and not give in to pressure to 'get on board'.

I can only imagine how he would have been dealt with on blogs by party loyalists since Clinton was the president who signed away those regulations. I'm sure we would have been told to be grateful for the crumbs Clinton managed to extract from the Republicans. He did manage to keep them from rescinding the Community Reinvestment Act, always a target of the right wing, and we would have been told that for this should be grateful I'm sure.

I'm really sorry to lose Dorgan, he was also, together with McCain, part of the Indian Affairs Committee that uncovered the Abramoff Affairs. That was incredible to watch on C-Span but never made it to the MSM.

He is not a seeker of the lime-light, but from what I know of him, he did a good job for the people he represented, or tried to in the face of not getting much support from his own party.

More recently, I think he felt betrayed after an amendment regarding the re-importation of drugs which would have saved the American people billions of dollars which he attached to the HC Reform bill was removed. He had a bi-partisan agreement for this amendment and he suggested it's removal was backed by the White House, because of their deal with Big Pharma. It was one of the few times I saw him lose his cool.

For progressives, he will be a huge loss ~

[ProSense]

7. Everyone has a hero

Dorgan voted for DOMA, the IWR and the Nelson amendment.

[brentspeak]

9. Your heroes are apparently corporate stooges who screw over the little guy

[ProSense]

10. Bitter? n/t

[brentspeak]

11. About Dorgan leaving and having his amendment nixed by the White House -- who wouldn't be?

I answered my own question: a toad-like fan of corporate stooge politicians wouldn't be.

[freddie mertz]

16. Which means you like him then, right?

He had a mixed record on some things, thanks to many years in the Senate.

But he stood up on drug reimportation this year, which was a good thing, and was poorly treated by your "heroes" for it.

[Armstead]

19. Aren't you the type who usually rails against "purity tests" and "demanding the perfect"?

Progressives are constantly being told by so-called "pragmatic" Democrats that we're too concerned with "ideological litmus tests." So its ironic to see your snide litte remark here.

No Dorgan is not perfect on every issue. I wish he was better on energy and social issues, and was not happy with any of the pro-Iraq-War Democrats. But at such times, he is not too far off from the Democratic "center." Has YOUR hero Obama been a champion of gay marriage rights?

But on many issues that really matter concerning wealth and power Dorgan has been very good -- better than the conservative centrists and wafflers.

[HughMoran]

8. crap

just heard he was not running again

[stevedeshazer]

12. K & R, I agree entirely.

Dorgan is a straight talker. There aren't very many of those in politics.

It pays more to tell lies. It makes you rich.

Byron Dorgan never resorted to that.

[David Zephyr]

13. I wonder if the backstabbing he took over his Canadian drug bill had any weight with him?

K&R on your OP

[freddie mertz]

15. I was thinking about that too. He was poorly treated by the Rahm Emmanuel WH on this.

He really stood up on principle, only to be knifed in the back by the WH-Big Pharma backdoor "deal."

I wish him well in the future.

[Mass]

14. "populist: yes. "progressive" not that much. but I agree he will be missed.

(his record on social issues and energy policies is fairly bad, though it is difficult to know whether it is because of personal beliefs or because he is representing North Dakota).

[Armstead]

18. I realize he is a mixed package in that sense -- But, on balance, progressive

I'd say he IS progresive on most economic issues -- not so on Energy and some social issues.

[WeDidIt]

17. This is a massive hit to the progressive agenda

It is unlikely that even should a Dmeocrat win that seat, it will be as progressive as Dorgan.

It's sad, but this is what happens when you stab somebody on your side in the back, and yes, Dorgan was stabbed in the back.