The Republic of T.

This has been posted all over the progressive blogosphere by now, but it bears reposting and repeating.

Elizabeth Warren, who was passed over to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — her own brainchild — is now a candidate for the Massachusetts Senate seat currently occupied by Scott Brown. In that capacity, Warren recently answered conservatives’ cries of "class warfare" regarding President Obama’s new jobs agenda. What she said encapsulated precisely the message that every candidate appealing for Main Street votes, from the White House down, needs to repeat from now until November 5, 2012, and beyond.

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Here’s something to discuss at the "Voter Suppression and the 2012 Election: The Civil Rights Movement to Take Back the Right to Vote, breakout session at the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington, DC, October 3-4. Think you have a "right to vote"? Think again.

There is nothing in the constitution about a right to vote.

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Much as I loathe the woman, I’m hearing stuff that almost makes me consider donning a "Palin in 2012" button. Not because I want to see her elected (*shudder*). And not out of morbid curiosity

But because of what her candidacy could do to the election — and to the GOP.

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First, let’s just face it. For the next couple of years, at least, this is the end of any progress on jobs or the economy. Whatever legitimate gripes progressives had with the outgoing Democratic Congress, the got a lot done. More, in fact, than most others. Ezra Klein called it a “Do-Something Congress.”

That this has been the most “do-something” Congress we’ve seen in 40 years hasn’t made much of an impression on the public. Multiple polls have found that only a minority of voters know that the 111th Congress got more done than most congresses. That’s true even among Democrats. Nor has their productivity made the 111th Congress popular. But if they failed as politicians, they succeeded as legislators. And legislating is, at least in theory, what they came to Washington toz do.

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post dubbed the 110th Congress a “Do-Something Congress”, when the Democrats took over in 2007, in hopes it would get more done than the outgoing Congress.

WHEN DEMOCRATS take over the House next year, the regular workweek will stretch to a backbreaking five days — up from the now-customary Tuesday-through-Thursday arrangement. Members of the House and Senate — no doubt reeling from the two weeks they’ve worked since the election — will have a mere four weeks off after they leave town Friday. Hard to believe, but the new leadership actually expects them to come to work on Jan. 4 rather than enjoy the usual elongated holiday break as they wait around for the president to deliver his State of the Union address in late January. In the Senate, the weeklong March break is being eliminated and the two-week April vacation cut in half.

…It would be quite a change. The 109th Congress will have been in session for a grand total of 103 days this year, which, as Lyndsey Layton pointed out in yesterday’s Post, is seven days fewer than the “Do-Nothing Congress” of 1948. An ordinary full-time worker with a generous four weeks of vacation would have clocked 240 days of work during that same period.

With the GOP taking over the House, the likelihood is that we’re faced with another “Do-Nothing” Congress, at least in term of creating jobs, fixing the economy, etc. As Bill pointed out before election day, the country is about to be saddled with a Congress that not only doesn’t work, but one determined not to let the President work either.

That’s not just because of gridlock, though there will be gridlock. It’s because conservative philosophy basically holds that a “Do-Nothing Congress” is exactly as it should be. And that’s exactly the GOP’s victory may be a Pyrrhic victory. Hemmed in by by a base that wants one thing, major (though anonymous) donors that want another, and an American voters angry that not enough been done to ease their economic pain — and who want more done — Republicans won’t be able to make it work without abandoning their base, their donors, the basic tenets of conservatism, or Americans demanding solutions the GOP just doesn’t have.

It won’t work. That’s what we face for the next two years. The best chance Democrats have for 2012 is to give voters a clear choice that does work, by offering solutions founded in progressive values, making the case for them, and fighting for them.

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A few things become clear upon picking up Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders, the new book by Republican House members Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy. First, "young" is apparently a relative term in the GOP. Second, a better title might have been, Half-Cocked: Old Ideas From a "New" Generation of Conservative Leaders. And finally, half-cocked though they may be, these "young" guns are not shooting blanks. Their "ammunition" is as old as they are but still quite deadly. And we have the economy to prove it.

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(If They Could Turn Back Time, Pt. 2)

When I heard Rand Paul’s statement about the civil rights act, I had a sense of deja vu. Not only that I’d heard them before, but that I run into the peculiar conservative phenomenon they represented: wanting have it both ways on an issue when conservative “values” are “repulsive to the mainstream,” and to most people’s sense of decency. It usually happens when they’re caught saying what they mean, and then claim to have been misunderstood, “taken out of context,” or merely speaking in a “hypothetical” sense.

Until Rand Paul though, I’d only ever heard it spoken aloud on the subject of marriage equality. At the time, it was Sen. John McCain’s response to a question about marriage equality, saying that he was fine with same-sex couples having “private ceremonies” but against marriage equality.

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Tea bags are meant to be tossed out. They are useful, at most, once or twice in their lifetimes. Beyond that, they lose flavor and strength, eventually becoming weak as water itself. If kept around beyond their usefulness, they become unpleasant and even unhealthy, as they start to smell and begin to mold. Or they dry up and eventually crumble. Either way, they become useless.

What’s true of tea bags is also true of teabaggers. However, tea bags are tossed out when they outlive their usefulness. The same can be true of teabaggers, but only if Democrats have the political will to make it so.

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I’ve been kind of bogged down in other things during this most recent election, but I’ve been watching the news from Virginia, New Jersey, New York and — yes — Maine. I’m still mulling over Maine, and recovering from yet another election night when I went to bed hopeful and awoke to find those hopes dashed.

I’ve been out of the marriage debate for the past year or so. The disappointment of proposition 8 coupled with the political minefield that was the post-mortem on that, and stepping on a few of those mines myself, I decided to disengage from the discussion for the most part. I’m still figuring out how to talk about marriage equality and avoid saying things that are apparently unsayable, and thus avoid being attacked for saying them.

That said, I may have something to say about Maine and marriage later. In the meantime, though I don’t often read DailyKos anymore, I did today and I find myself agreeing with Kos about the lessons Democrats should learn from this election.
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It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Republicans. Trounced in November’s election, faced a popular president, and a voting public that seems to have rejected their conservative politics, now they’re stuck with Rush Limbaugh as the de facto head of their party.

No matter how much they deny it, the parade of conservative politicians rushing to kiss Rush’s ass after daring to criticize his rantings makes it pretty clear whose in charge.

The thing is, it’s not just Rush.

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Context.

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“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

~ Martin Luther King Jr., “I’ve Been To the Mountain Top”

“Its been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

~ Barack Obama, Victory Speech, November 5, 2009

Yesterday ended, really ended, an election more haunted by history than perhaps any other in this nation’s history, and particularly haunted by a man whose dream of equality and justice gave voice to the hopes of many in his generation, and literally gave hope to so many in mine. So, it seems appropriate that — bookending his campaign — Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech for the Democratic party’s nomination on the 45th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, and took the oath of office and give his inaugural address one day after the holiday acknowledging what would have been King’s 80th birthday.

There is much, so much to celebrate in this moment. And much sobering reality we must remember.

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So, we got punked on the bailout? Here’s an idea to keep in mind for a condition on the next $350 billion installment.

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[Ed Note: Graphic NSFW images below the fold.]

As I write this, I’m watching president George W. Bush grant pardon to Stars and Stripes in 2003, on a television show about turkey. At the same time, I’m reading about another who seeks pardon from president Bush, and pondering the irony that the prisoner should have to seek pardon from someone whose crimes — the number and nature of which vary depending on whom you ask — outnumber his own and outweigh them in seriousness.

Not to mention who has the bigger body-count.

His name is bound to inspire fits of apoplexy, and plenty of people won’t read any further once he’s mentioned, but John Walker Lindh is seeking pardon.

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If nothing else, this election revealed how far we have come and how far we have yet to go.

Yes, there’s the irony of celebrating the historic election of Barak Obama while simultaneously mourning the passage of Proposition 8 and the other anti-gay ballot initiatives in Florida, Oklahoma, and Arizona. But this started way before November 4th. It started, this time, with a decision — conscious or not — by the McCain campaign to play to the basest of its base.

I said to myself at the time that, whether McCain won or lost, there would be a price for that tactic; one that John McCain would be among the last to ever have to pay. As president, there would have been no way he could have united the country. And even in the aftermath of his loss, we will continue to live with the belligerent bigotry and racism he and his running mate stirred up from their bottom-of-the-barrel base.

The evidence? The rise in hate crimes in the wake of the election.

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If you’re like me, and like a lot of other people, you probably woke upon November 5th wondering what the hell happened. The country appeared to take step forward. It looked like we were making progress. Unless you were gay, and maybe wanted to get married, now or someday.

In that sense, it was kind of a letdown. And though we’ve all had a chance to blog about it ad nauseam, until now most of us haven’t had a chance to  pose questions to the leaders of the campaigns to defeat the initiatives. Until now.

Bil, at BIlerico is  hosting a liveblog today at 7 p.m. with Kate Kendal, Nadine Smith, and Barbara McCullough Jones. They’ll take your questions about Prop 8, Amendment 2, and Prop 102.

You can sign up below to get an email reminder of the liveblog.

Sometimes the most pointed — or preposterous — comes from unexpected sources. This time, it’s The Onion providing the former and the Wall Street Journal serving up the latter.

The best satire comes wrapped around a grain of discomforting truth. Daniel De Groot unwrapped one in a headline from The Onion that should give Democrats something to think about. Read his post for more on that.

The jaw-dropper, though, comes from the Wall Street Journal, (hat-tip to Steve Benen at Political Animal) where they’ve apparently learned well (or not so well) something Rick pointed out earler: Conservatism never fails; it is only failed.

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It’s been a long, long time coming
But I know, a change is gonna come.
Oh, yes it will.

Sam Cooke, “A Change is Gonna Come”

At 11:01 p.m. last night, after the polls closed in California, I just had to call someone. I’d spent the night at the National Public Radio headquarters with a bunch of other bloggers, live-blogging the election results. I called home and spoke briefly to my husband, then found myself walking aimlessly down a hallway. I stopped in a reception area, looked at the night sky from the second story window, and though how strange it was that the world — my world had changed so dramatically — yet the sky looked just the same.

And I thought about the people who didn’t live to see what happened that night, and the people who never thought they would — but did.

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And so the night begins. I’m off to NPR, where I’ll be joining a bunch of other political bloggers to cover the election results into the night.

With any luck it won’t be a long night. The popular vote graphic on their site is encouraging.

I’ll put it this way. If Virgina, Florida and Pennsylvania report for Obama before the Metro stops running, I’m going home. Same if Ohio, Florida, and Virginia report for Obama; or if Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida report for Obama; or some combination of the three.

In the meantime, we wait. I and write two different posts for tomorrow, and wait to see which one I publish.

OK. Not that we didn’t already know this, but they have none.

Leaving no potential avenue of attack unexplored, the Republican National Committee has decided to bash Barack Obama over his October visit to see his ailing grandmother in Hawaii.

Of course the visit itself is not being criticized, but rather the way the campaign paid for the nominee’s unscheduled detour. On Monday afternoon, the RNC blasted out a complaint from the California Republican Party charging that “Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama’s personal use” for the trip. That proposed issue for the FEC to investigate is one of five violations alleged by California Republicans in their complaint (which you can read in its entirety here).

“Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. This was the right thing for any grandson to do — at his own expense — but it was not travel that his campaign may fund,” said California Republican Chairman Ron Nehring in a statement Monday.

And then there’s the question of class…

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