Cowardly Dems '06, like Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in '04, elevate IGNORANCE if not STUPIDITY to high religion...
Here we are, the summer of 2006 barrelling down on election day 2006, and the Senate Dems and DLC Dems are as clueless, pathetic, and AWOL as Al Gore and John Kerry were in their respective presidential campaigns.
To repeat, America is MIRED in the Bush-Cheney-Repuglican nightmare, because neither Gore nor Kerry knew what the hell they were doing, and both were so arrogant and so egotistical that they thought the election(s) were ABOUT THEM, and not that they, by grabbing the Dem. presidential nomination, were the last hope, and last defense, for MILLIONS of American citizens against the outrages and atrocities (literally) of the Bush right-wing big-biz/fundamentalist reactionary blitzkreig.
Al Gore thought the election was about himself, and about "moral values." He failed to notice (was too stupid to notice), that BOB DOLE *lost* the campaign of 1996 running a "character" and 'moral values' campaign. That is, when given a flat-out choice between a regressive Republican agenda and a forward Democratic agenda, voters had the sophistication to see BEYOND Bob Dole Republican sound-bites, and Clinton's inherent weaknesses, and vote for the candidate with a progressive agenda. In retrospect, Clinton's 19966 theme "A BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE" sounds a little quaint or even corny... but it BEATS THE HELL out of Gore's 2000 "Social Security lock-box" drone.
Gore STILL hasn't figured out that people the world over don't like being lectured to, except (as Frank RIch mercifully points out for us in his NYT review of Gore's global-warming docu-movie) students who are on their way to getting an education. Don't get us wrong - we understand that there is a fine line between students applauding a lecture, and business groups applauding a guest speaker. But AL GORE NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE DIFFERENCE, which is why he was NEVER popular even among his fellow Senate Democrats.
Which is why Al Gore was so willing to throw in the towel in Florida vote-recount 2000. Bogged down by so many personal insecurities, Gore thought the election was a mandate on HIS popularity, and he said, in effect, "Well, if everyone doesn't love me enough to give me a clear majority in Florida, I will do the honorable thing and throw in the towel.... for the good of the nation."
But IT WASN'T ABOUT AL GORE and his personality or popularity... It was about giving us Democratic Voters some PROTECTION against the depredations of the Right-Wing agenda, the one that want's to treat the US treasury as their personal piggy-bank; the agenda that believes the hyper-wealthy - Texas oil billionaires and plantation overlords - have NEXT TO NO RESPONSIBILITY for what we call "the common good," what the signers of the Constitution called "the general welfare." Radical, reactionary righties look at the "tall white mansions, and little shacks" of the ante-bellum Confederacy and segregation era South and see A DESIRABLE OUTCOME. George W. Bush already runs a TORTURE and ARREST gulag of prisons and rendition prisons - and wants EVEN MORE POWER and MORE SECRECY. What if the president's agents, whether private contractors, US military personel, or even foreign "allies" such as Afghan warlords - descend on a village in Afghanistan and round up 100 males and label them all as "terror suspects"? In Bush-Republican-world, THOSE MEN HAVE NO RIGHTS, and need not even be listed as US prisoners - UNTO ETERNITY. THAT - absolutely unfettered powers for a Republican war-lord presidency - are the Alpha and Omega of right-wing political desires.
Getting back to Al Gore, he was TOO CLUELESS to understand the opportunistic nature of the "GET CLINTON LYNCH MOB."
Ok, it was a "white collar lynch-mob," as oppposed to pathological townsmen with ropes, guns, and torches, but it was an opportunistic lynch mob that over the years tried to make "LINCOLN BEDROOM!" and "the president fired his travel agents!" into HIGH CRIMES and misdemeanors!! LITERALLY!
Gore and his campaign were too block-headed with insecure egotism to notice that Clinton had won in 1992 and 1996 BY SELECTING A WHITE MALE Democrat FROM A SOUTHERN STATE at both the top and bottom of the ticket (that would be Clinton, Arkansas, and Gore, Tennessee.) Despite Dole's dour campaign, in 2000 Gore BOUGHT INTO the Repuglican "moral values" BS, Gore and his campaign staff TOO STUPID to read the Molly Ivins/Lou Dubose book "Shrub", about Texas Gov. Bush's dismal record in Texas, and that KARL ROVE was the evil force behind both Bush Texas election campaigns.
ANY DEMOCRAT giving KARL ROVE and his Repuglican hatchet-men the high-ground in a "Moral Values" political campaign is abject INCOMPETENCE... bordering on OUTRIGHT STUPIDITY.
Yet that is where we Democrats find ourselves in the summer of 2006, with ONLY Ned Lamont, an outsider fighting to represent Connecticut's liberal, independent, and Democratic voters, putting his all in a campaign to DEFINE the Bush administration as WRONG ON EVERYTHING.
Notice how we put it "Lamont is fighting to represent Connecticut voters," instead of "Lamont wants to take the Democrat nomination away from 18-year incumbent senator Joe Lieberman." BECAUSE THE CAMPAIGN IS *NOT* about Joe Lieberman or Ned Lamont, but about REPRESENTING DEMOCRATIC VOTERS who feel dispirited if not betrayed by the Bush-Republican leadership and reactionary agenda. Of course, the primary is about Democratic Party voters, and the general election is about ALL the voters in Connecticut. And the Lieberman campaign is striving mightily to present Joe Lieberman as the candidate of the majority of voters in Connecticut. But as we here at C-dems.blgspt.com have pointed out, Joe Lieberman BETRAYED the MAJORITY of voters in the 2000 race, he BETRAYED the Black Congressional Caucus by NOT SIGNING ON to their petition to investigate serial, chronic, and massive voting fraud in Florida in that 2000 election; and across the board, Joe Lieberman CONTINUES to BETRAY ALL VOTERS who are not in the top 20% of the national economic pie - voters George Bush proudly calls "some call you the elite, I call you 'my base'." (To laughter from Bush's campaign-donor audience.)
IF Al Gore threw the towel in too early in election 2000, made a huge error in selecting Joe Lieberman as his running mate, couldn't rally "liberals," environmentalists, and progressives to his banner without alienating Bradley and Nader supporters, didn't understand that the way for Democrats to win presidential elections is to select TWO progressive but business-friendly white males from southern states for the ticket; and couldn't impart a POSITIVE forward vision with repeating droning refrains like "social security lock-box", well, JOHN KERRY was EVEN WORSE.
If Al Gore went SOFT on the Record of Texas Gov. George Bush's record of BUDGET SLASHINGS while giving huge TAX CUTS to Texas' wealthiest corporations, John Kerry was AWOL through the entire summer of 2004. Pat Oliphant, the Washington Post cartoonist, drew up a cartoon of John Kerry and John Edwards as RIP VAN WINKLE, growing long beards while SLEEPING through the election season of 2004.
Like Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 MADE THE CAMPAIGN ABOUT HIMSELF. Kerry instructed the Democratic convention to SALUTE HIM AS A WAR HERO.. and then stood there stupid, useless, and immobile as George W. Bush and Karl Rove unleashed the SWIFT BOAT SMEAR MOB.
ALL John Kerry had to do to rebut the SWIFT BOAT SMEAR MOBBERS was get in front of the American TV audience and say (by name), "John O'Neill, _____, and _____ said that they served with me in combat, and from this perspective they think I am unqualified to become president. They have a right to disagree with my positions about the Vietnam war, BUT NOT ONE OF THESE Swift Boat Veterans for Bush EVER SERVED *WITH ME* in combat - - - they either served in a different theater while "in country" in Vietnam, or served in the same region long after I had left."
THAT's IT! THAT is ALL John Kerry had to do to rebut the Swift Boat Liars for Bush!
But instead, as we all know (and to repeat), Kerry #1. MADE THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION a referendum on his Vietnam War record as a hero, and then #2. STOOD THERE LIKE AN IDIOT as Karl Rove went after that image and smeared it as surely as Rove had smeared VIETNAM VETERANS John McCain, Tom Daschle, and Max Cleland before!
THIS WAS ABJECT political INCOMPETENCE and NEGLIGENCE on the part of John Kerry - to ALLOW the SAME TACTICS Rove used against McCain, Daschle, and Cleland TO BE USED ALL OVER AGAIN, at NO political cost to Bush or Rove!
John Kerry TOOK OUR MONEY, and ROBBED US voters of a SPIRITED campaign, a SPIRITED, ENERGETIC DEFENSE against the lies, smears, and atrocities of the Bush White House record, and Republican Party "divide, smear, and conquer" agenda.
WHICH brings us to the summer of 2006, with even Senator Barbara Boxer rushing to - REACTIONARY JOE Lieberman's defense???
Lieberman has cost Democrats THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION of 2000, the midterm elections of 2002 (by sitting on, quashing, and short-sheeting the Senate Enron investigation); has done NOTHING to stand up for Democratic voters DISENFRANCHISED by the Bush-Diebold vote-rigging machine... yet Barabara Boxer and the DLC 'Democrats' WANT TO HELP JOE SABOTAGE future Democratic Party goals on behalf of millions of voters.
Well, the summer of 2006 is roaring along - Memorial Day and July 4th are already ancient history - and so far, of the din of midterm elections 2006, ONLY Ned Lamont has broken the ice of CONFRONTING the ATROCIOUS record of the Bush administration - - - and one had to watch CSPAN to even see that.
THANK YOU, "Democrats," for WET BLANKETTING *ANOTHER* vital election season.
To repeat, America is MIRED in the Bush-Cheney-Repuglican nightmare, because neither Gore nor Kerry knew what the hell they were doing, and both were so arrogant and so egotistical that they thought the election(s) were ABOUT THEM, and not that they, by grabbing the Dem. presidential nomination, were the last hope, and last defense, for MILLIONS of American citizens against the outrages and atrocities (literally) of the Bush right-wing big-biz/fundamentalist reactionary blitzkreig.
Al Gore thought the election was about himself, and about "moral values." He failed to notice (was too stupid to notice), that BOB DOLE *lost* the campaign of 1996 running a "character" and 'moral values' campaign. That is, when given a flat-out choice between a regressive Republican agenda and a forward Democratic agenda, voters had the sophistication to see BEYOND Bob Dole Republican sound-bites, and Clinton's inherent weaknesses, and vote for the candidate with a progressive agenda. In retrospect, Clinton's 19966 theme "A BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE" sounds a little quaint or even corny... but it BEATS THE HELL out of Gore's 2000 "Social Security lock-box" drone.
Gore STILL hasn't figured out that people the world over don't like being lectured to, except (as Frank RIch mercifully points out for us in his NYT review of Gore's global-warming docu-movie) students who are on their way to getting an education. Don't get us wrong - we understand that there is a fine line between students applauding a lecture, and business groups applauding a guest speaker. But AL GORE NEVER UNDERSTOOD THE DIFFERENCE, which is why he was NEVER popular even among his fellow Senate Democrats.
Which is why Al Gore was so willing to throw in the towel in Florida vote-recount 2000. Bogged down by so many personal insecurities, Gore thought the election was a mandate on HIS popularity, and he said, in effect, "Well, if everyone doesn't love me enough to give me a clear majority in Florida, I will do the honorable thing and throw in the towel.... for the good of the nation."
But IT WASN'T ABOUT AL GORE and his personality or popularity... It was about giving us Democratic Voters some PROTECTION against the depredations of the Right-Wing agenda, the one that want's to treat the US treasury as their personal piggy-bank; the agenda that believes the hyper-wealthy - Texas oil billionaires and plantation overlords - have NEXT TO NO RESPONSIBILITY for what we call "the common good," what the signers of the Constitution called "the general welfare." Radical, reactionary righties look at the "tall white mansions, and little shacks" of the ante-bellum Confederacy and segregation era South and see A DESIRABLE OUTCOME. George W. Bush already runs a TORTURE and ARREST gulag of prisons and rendition prisons - and wants EVEN MORE POWER and MORE SECRECY. What if the president's agents, whether private contractors, US military personel, or even foreign "allies" such as Afghan warlords - descend on a village in Afghanistan and round up 100 males and label them all as "terror suspects"? In Bush-Republican-world, THOSE MEN HAVE NO RIGHTS, and need not even be listed as US prisoners - UNTO ETERNITY. THAT - absolutely unfettered powers for a Republican war-lord presidency - are the Alpha and Omega of right-wing political desires.
Getting back to Al Gore, he was TOO CLUELESS to understand the opportunistic nature of the "GET CLINTON LYNCH MOB."
Ok, it was a "white collar lynch-mob," as oppposed to pathological townsmen with ropes, guns, and torches, but it was an opportunistic lynch mob that over the years tried to make "LINCOLN BEDROOM!" and "the president fired his travel agents!" into HIGH CRIMES and misdemeanors!! LITERALLY!
Gore and his campaign were too block-headed with insecure egotism to notice that Clinton had won in 1992 and 1996 BY SELECTING A WHITE MALE Democrat FROM A SOUTHERN STATE at both the top and bottom of the ticket (that would be Clinton, Arkansas, and Gore, Tennessee.) Despite Dole's dour campaign, in 2000 Gore BOUGHT INTO the Repuglican "moral values" BS, Gore and his campaign staff TOO STUPID to read the Molly Ivins/Lou Dubose book "Shrub", about Texas Gov. Bush's dismal record in Texas, and that KARL ROVE was the evil force behind both Bush Texas election campaigns.
ANY DEMOCRAT giving KARL ROVE and his Repuglican hatchet-men the high-ground in a "Moral Values" political campaign is abject INCOMPETENCE... bordering on OUTRIGHT STUPIDITY.
Yet that is where we Democrats find ourselves in the summer of 2006, with ONLY Ned Lamont, an outsider fighting to represent Connecticut's liberal, independent, and Democratic voters, putting his all in a campaign to DEFINE the Bush administration as WRONG ON EVERYTHING.
Notice how we put it "Lamont is fighting to represent Connecticut voters," instead of "Lamont wants to take the Democrat nomination away from 18-year incumbent senator Joe Lieberman." BECAUSE THE CAMPAIGN IS *NOT* about Joe Lieberman or Ned Lamont, but about REPRESENTING DEMOCRATIC VOTERS who feel dispirited if not betrayed by the Bush-Republican leadership and reactionary agenda. Of course, the primary is about Democratic Party voters, and the general election is about ALL the voters in Connecticut. And the Lieberman campaign is striving mightily to present Joe Lieberman as the candidate of the majority of voters in Connecticut. But as we here at C-dems.blgspt.com have pointed out, Joe Lieberman BETRAYED the MAJORITY of voters in the 2000 race, he BETRAYED the Black Congressional Caucus by NOT SIGNING ON to their petition to investigate serial, chronic, and massive voting fraud in Florida in that 2000 election; and across the board, Joe Lieberman CONTINUES to BETRAY ALL VOTERS who are not in the top 20% of the national economic pie - voters George Bush proudly calls "some call you the elite, I call you 'my base'." (To laughter from Bush's campaign-donor audience.)
IF Al Gore threw the towel in too early in election 2000, made a huge error in selecting Joe Lieberman as his running mate, couldn't rally "liberals," environmentalists, and progressives to his banner without alienating Bradley and Nader supporters, didn't understand that the way for Democrats to win presidential elections is to select TWO progressive but business-friendly white males from southern states for the ticket; and couldn't impart a POSITIVE forward vision with repeating droning refrains like "social security lock-box", well, JOHN KERRY was EVEN WORSE.
If Al Gore went SOFT on the Record of Texas Gov. George Bush's record of BUDGET SLASHINGS while giving huge TAX CUTS to Texas' wealthiest corporations, John Kerry was AWOL through the entire summer of 2004. Pat Oliphant, the Washington Post cartoonist, drew up a cartoon of John Kerry and John Edwards as RIP VAN WINKLE, growing long beards while SLEEPING through the election season of 2004.
Like Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 MADE THE CAMPAIGN ABOUT HIMSELF. Kerry instructed the Democratic convention to SALUTE HIM AS A WAR HERO.. and then stood there stupid, useless, and immobile as George W. Bush and Karl Rove unleashed the SWIFT BOAT SMEAR MOB.
ALL John Kerry had to do to rebut the SWIFT BOAT SMEAR MOBBERS was get in front of the American TV audience and say (by name), "John O'Neill, _____, and _____ said that they served with me in combat, and from this perspective they think I am unqualified to become president. They have a right to disagree with my positions about the Vietnam war, BUT NOT ONE OF THESE Swift Boat Veterans for Bush EVER SERVED *WITH ME* in combat - - - they either served in a different theater while "in country" in Vietnam, or served in the same region long after I had left."
THAT's IT! THAT is ALL John Kerry had to do to rebut the Swift Boat Liars for Bush!
But instead, as we all know (and to repeat), Kerry #1. MADE THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION a referendum on his Vietnam War record as a hero, and then #2. STOOD THERE LIKE AN IDIOT as Karl Rove went after that image and smeared it as surely as Rove had smeared VIETNAM VETERANS John McCain, Tom Daschle, and Max Cleland before!
THIS WAS ABJECT political INCOMPETENCE and NEGLIGENCE on the part of John Kerry - to ALLOW the SAME TACTICS Rove used against McCain, Daschle, and Cleland TO BE USED ALL OVER AGAIN, at NO political cost to Bush or Rove!
John Kerry TOOK OUR MONEY, and ROBBED US voters of a SPIRITED campaign, a SPIRITED, ENERGETIC DEFENSE against the lies, smears, and atrocities of the Bush White House record, and Republican Party "divide, smear, and conquer" agenda.
WHICH brings us to the summer of 2006, with even Senator Barbara Boxer rushing to - REACTIONARY JOE Lieberman's defense???
Lieberman has cost Democrats THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION of 2000, the midterm elections of 2002 (by sitting on, quashing, and short-sheeting the Senate Enron investigation); has done NOTHING to stand up for Democratic voters DISENFRANCHISED by the Bush-Diebold vote-rigging machine... yet Barabara Boxer and the DLC 'Democrats' WANT TO HELP JOE SABOTAGE future Democratic Party goals on behalf of millions of voters.
Well, the summer of 2006 is roaring along - Memorial Day and July 4th are already ancient history - and so far, of the din of midterm elections 2006, ONLY Ned Lamont has broken the ice of CONFRONTING the ATROCIOUS record of the Bush administration - - - and one had to watch CSPAN to even see that.
THANK YOU, "Democrats," for WET BLANKETTING *ANOTHER* vital election season.
posted by verifi at 6:21 AM
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