Remember all that stuff Bush got passed during the time when he had 60 Republican votes?

[DFW]

No?

I should hope not. He never had 60 Republican Senators, and yet got a LOT of evil stuff through the Senate.

51 votes is a majority, and there are all sorts of parliamentary tricks that can be used to get stuff through.
Not all of them are really considered legit, but the Republicans used them often enough (sadly, with a little
from a few DINO friends at times, but we still, with 57 votes (I do not count Lieberman or Ben Nelson as reliable,
and even Baucus is shaky) we have more than they ever had under Cheneybush. Time to stop extending the hand of
bi-partisan friendship while there are still a few fingers not yet bitten off.

We have about 7 months before Congress does a slow fade and works on the mid-terms.

That means about 7 months to get some substantial work done, have something to show for it, and justify to the
country that it did the right thing to elect such a huge majority of Democrats in the first place--either that
or let an electorate with a notoriously short memory fall prey to TV ads and elect a slew of Republicans because
Obama didn't cure cancer in his first year in office.

Obama and the Democrats in Congress HAVE gotten some serious stuff done, no two ways about it, and we should never
forget that we have Sotomayor on the Supreme Court and not another Alito clone. Environmental stuff, the stimulus,
even if it was too small, at least got passed. We ARE phasing out of Iraq, and have not given the engagement in
Afghanistan an open-ended green light. There is stuff that would make up a long list, even if it doesn't serve
for spectacular page one headlines. But most government stuff ISN'T spectacular page one headlines.

Even so, we NEED some spectacular page one headlines, because it's an election year, and in a time when a state
like Massachusetts can elect the likes of Scott Brown over Martha Coakley to the US Senate, we are not dealing
with a nation of MENSA members. This is why I think that our Senators and Congresspeople, working with an energized
and PARTISAN Obama need to charge ahead and get some serious headline-garnering stuff done, and if the Republicans
continue to be the party of NO, make them wear the label--large and visibly.

Brown's election is not the end of the world. 9 more like him in the Senate is another matter.

The time to avert a train wreck is NOT 2 seconds and 20 feet before collision.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Now here, we have your eminently sensible voice!

I could not agree more with your thoughts.

Brown's election is not the end of the world, no matter how it feels right now.

However, it is a huge psychological blow. I hope that it will cause Obama to turn away from his attempts at bipartisanship and kick some Republican (and yes, some blue dog Dem) ass.

We have time to avert that train wreck......if we get a move on, NOW.

Recommended.

I thank you!

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bjorn Against]

5. And that is exactly why the DLC is not to be trusted, they fully supported Bush's worst policies.

[CTLawGuy]

3. if there were 41 Dennis Kuciniches in the Senate when Bush was in office

would he have had nearly the success he did?

if you take 41 republican equivalents to Dennis Kucinich and put them in the senate, you'd have our current Senate and what Obama has to deal with.

[Jennicut]

4. Obama does not have any moderate Repubs coming over. Conservadems played along with Bush.

Face it, we have about 45 real Dems in the Senate.

We have Snowe and Collins. Specter already came over. The ladies from Maine are not playing along. The conservadems are not helping.

[TheDebbieDee]

6. The conservadems are the $hit on the bottom of my shoe!

I won't give a dime to the DNC for the upcoming elections in November......but I'll do what I can to give to individual candidates that I like!

[Jennicut]

7. I personally will help Blumenthal try and hold the Dem seat in CT.

Not sure who else I will help though.

[zbdent]

8. despite all the media accepting whatever comes out of a Repug's mouth as Gospel straight from God's

lips, THE DEMOCRATS WERE NOT CONSTANTLY FILIBUSTERING EVERYTHING BUSH LAID FORTH ...

And ...

Bush pretty much got whatever he wanted, and the Repugniconvicts pretty much got whatever they wanted.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. Please list the Republican equivelent of the "Blue Dog Dems"

[tekisui]

11. The blue mutts have overstayed their welcome and given everyone

fleas.

They were elected as Democrats and they should have been whipped into line long ago. Fuck 'em. They are doing more damage than good. Yes, we have the chairs, but that's it.

No more conservatives in the Democratic Party.

Really, the blue mutts are just one more excuse for Democratic inaction and weakness.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

12. How do you "whip them" into line?

Everyone says they should be whipped into line, but nobody says how this should be done.

[tekisui]

13. Threaten them with support in 2010.

Block their home projects. Support their pet projects if they stay in line. Threaten them with primary challenges if they don't play ball.

Once they are in, they will follow the money. The Dems hold the power and should use it, instead of bending over at every term.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

15. Most of them are from conservative districs. How do you prevent them from jumping ship?

With the way some of them vote now, it would not likely make much of a difference if they were Dem or Repub except on a few issues. But if they are Republican, they will vote 100% party line with the Republicans even if the bill is to make it rain gold ingots.

[tekisui]

17. Make them vote with the Dems on the big issues.

Let them throw bones (in the form of money, not conservative legislation or obstruction) to their districts. As long as they bring home the bacon, the voters won't care how the reps voted. When we are passing meaningful legislation, everyone wants to be on the side of the winner.

Allowing them to corrupt, weaken and block good bills hands our power over to the opposition. You can't out conservative a repuke.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

19. I think that is probably the way to go.

[frazzled]

10. By circumventing and running roughshod over the Constitution

most of the time.

Hey, they're all doing it, why shouldn't we?

[treestar]

21. Yeah, the unitary executive and all that

I thought that idea was rejected, but apparently not.

At the same, we resented Bush acting like that, and the Republicans.

So wanting turnabout is inconsistent.

And Republicans don't want much done. It is harder to pass affirmative bills.

They also could invoke terra for everything and did, and a nervous public went along.

[ProSense]

14. Doing evil shit is not getting things done in Congress. Obama

has been extremely effective.

[Cha]

18. Yeah, that's another important point..wtf did they pass?

[Cha]

16. When bush got things passed

they didn't hold themselves accountable to pay for it, either.

[Clio the Leo]

20. He also didn't have an opposition party that was abusing the filibuster....

... HUGE difference.