The Game, Not the Season
Jan 30th, 2006 at 7:38 pm by Susie
First of all, let me say thanks to everyone who got on the phone, sent a fax or an email today. You made a real difference. We had 22 25 senators support a filibuster today when on Friday, we had one. Do remember to thank those who showed courage.
And let’s keep things in perspective: The opposition’s been putting out that kind of exhausting, concerted effort for 20 years now. We’ve just started - with little help from the party, I might point out.
I suggest those of you who have been giving money respond to the next direct-mail appeal by writing a short note: “Until the congressional Democrats get a spine, I will give only to those individuals on whom I can count to represent me.”
This might be the single most useful thing we can do. Because if all that money that was going to the DNC and the DSCC goes instead to the senators who listened to us, we strengthen their hand. If they’re sitting on a large pot of money, the wafflers will have to come around to get a piece.
One of the things we’ve learned today is that the “liberal special interest groups” John Cornyn loves to demonize ain’t worth shit. For all the support Linc Chaffee and Olympia Snowe got from NARAL, what did NARAL get from them? We saw it today: Bupkis.
You see? There’s really no such thing as a “liberal” Republican anymore. Silence means consent, and these good little Germans do what they’re told. Don’t forget - especially when corporate media pet John McCain runs for president.
Now we’re on to the next fight - the NSA wiretap hearings. Get ready.
Because when the going gets tough, the tough get going. “To-GA! To-GA! To-GA!”
Damn well said. We have to learn to think of ourselves as outsiders and fight like outsiders.
That isn’t the end of the world. When the country was founded, a majority were outsiders — not white, male property owners. The outsiders have progressively forced their way inside. The current right wants to shove a lot of us back out. So we have to organize like outsiders, expecting very little from the Democrats except when we make them behave.
Sure, it is awful. But there really is no choice.
A handy website to remember:
U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote Summary - 109th Congress, 2nd Session
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_109_2.htm
Seems Like Good Advice…
Susie:
I suggest those of you who have been giving money respond to the next direct-mail appeal by writing a short note: â……
In 2004, I sent all my political $$ to individual candidates and orgs like MoveOn — not a cent went to the DNC.
Speaking of the DNC. what role did Howard Dean play in this affair? (Not a rhetorical question — i truly don’t know.)
Well everything was made very clear today. This vote is not to be forgotten. Next November.
Dean has no role in how the Senate votes. I’m sure he had an opinion, but I doubt if he was even consulted. You think Terry McAuliffe ever was?
Atrios banned me from commenting on his site. I sit here comtemplating freedoms and liberties and their loss. This is life in the bizarro world of 2006. Allies should harbor allies, despite the, uh, strange bedfellows thing. Ask him why he banned me, becasue he won’t tell me why.
Power. Isn’t it a great thing? Duncan Black knows how it feels…
Why do I get the feeling that this big outrage now suddenly stopped after the cloture vote?
Isn’t it just as plausible to continue to fight to get senators to vote “no”? Or is this even less likely than a filibuster because we don’t trust republican senators? Apparently, we can’t even trust democratic senators; so why not continue?
In my mind, it should be easier to vote “no” than to engage in a filibuster, shouldn’t it?
It would actually have been easier for them to vote yes on the filibuster, because if they were already voting to approve Alito, it could be explained as “I’m voting to allow further debate.”
I wouldn’t donate to the DCCC or DSCC, but I think that Dean’s DNC is providing a valuable service in helping state parties to organize at the precinct level. We need this basic infrastructure badly.
January 31, 2006; 11:00 P.M. PST
Dear susiemadrak:
Your reference on January 30 on your own website to “firedoglake” to the rollcall vote to extend debate and allow filibuster on the Alito nomination was unprintable. “firedoglake” was so riddled with advertising or other form of web decay that my dial up internet connection could not print the listing of votes on the filibuster issue without the computer system becoming “jammed”. /s/Allen