Dems Learning to Punch Back

For far too long, Democrat has been synonymous with Doormat. Too civil and gentlemanly to call a liar - a liar. Too polite, too nice, too gentile, too fucking wimpy. And most of the time their number one enemy isn't the political opposition - it's been the media itself. Asking leading questions that might as well be - "So just when did you stop dating your sister?" In response, the Dems sputter and stammer in shock and appalled surprise, unable to even form a coherent sentence, let alone a cogent argument.

Well, it seems that during the last week things have changed.

We've had Howard Dean's brilliant smackdown of Wolf Blitzer.

Wolf: "But didn't Democrats also ...?"
Dean: "No."
Wolf: "But isn't this ...?"
Dean: "No. There is absolutely no evidence that any Democrats took money from Jack Abramoff."

And while people were halfway through they're normal head-nodding chants of "That Crazy Dean is at it agai...." Bloomberg pops up with a report the proves he was absolutely correct.

You had Al Gore's tour-de-force performance on Martin Luther King's birthday. Connecting the dots nicely between the COINTELPRO program that spied on King illegally in the 60's to today's current warrantless taping by the NSA.

Chris Matthew compares Osama bin Laden's new tape to Michael Moore and John Kerry steps up in his first post on Dkos to put him right in his place.

There's something that doesn't sit right with me when, on the day Osama Bin Laden resurfaced in a disturbing audio tape, cable television ends up in a game of name calling as a war protester is compared to Osama Bin Laden.

That's reason to be outraged - but even more outrageous is the fact that in a flurry of sound bites what was lost was a real discussion of the fact that more than four years after the devastating attacks of 9/11, more than four years after George Bush boasted we wanted Osama "dead or alive," more than a year after Osama Bin Laden showed his hateful face in yet another video, this barbarian is still very much alive and boasting of additional attacks against the United States.

Media Matters does it usual excellent job of showing WaPo Ombudsperson Deborah Howell a thing or two about real journalism, and she throws a hissy fit.

She then went on to claim in a post on the WaPo message board that Jack Ambramoff "made substantial campaign contributions to both major parties" - despite clear evidence that this isn't true. The result led to a vertible flood a posts on the WaPo site pointing out the error (er, falsehood, lie or just plain bullshit- take your pick) and a few attacking Howell personally. WaPo of course considered the reasonable and rationale thing - then did the opposite and shut the entire board down.

Meanwhile Rachel Maddow hits one out of the Park on The Situation:

Maddow: This is a global war on terror. This is a war for you or for us to win. You need patience...He sounds like Ken Mehlman when he's saying that only less gay. I mean this is ridiculous.

Tucker Carlson: (obviously taken aback and shocked)ooph... well, I'm gonna blow by that comment. uh... but I will say... whoo... you just blew my mind for a second...

Being the fine stalwart standard-bearers for truthinesss that they are MSNBC then proceeded to censor the exchange out of their transcript. That's journalism for ya - facist style.

Then John Kerry comes back on "This Week" and practically channels Dkos with a solid five minute speach that runs the gamut from Abramoff ("This is a Republican Scandal"), to Tora Bora (yes again), to Katrina (cronyism, lack of proper oversight), his oppostion to Alito ("Unitary Executive"), to NSA Wiretaps (Totally Illegal) and completely around the barn - barely stopping for breath in the process. Whew.

Oh, and even Senator Hillary (I'm so moderate I drink negative-fat milk) Clinton is breathing fire with her "They run the Congress like a Plantation/This is the worse Administration in History" remarks.

Looks to me like the Dems are finally on a Warpath!

And with so many scandals - and not those phony Filegate/Whitewater/Vincegate kind of shit-burgers but the real deal - with real indictments of real Members of Congress (Tom Delay), real high ranking members of the Administration ("Scooter" Libby) , SEC investigations (Bill Frist), guilty pleas for accepting bribes ("Duke" Cunningham), as well as giving out bribes (Abramoff/Scanlon), Abu Ghraib/Gitmo, Secret Military Prisons (Hey, just like in 24 Season 1!), the 2nd Katrina Disaster- Hurricane Fema, the impending Medicaid Part-D Prescription Drug Meltdown, Rollercoaster Gas Prices, Warrantless NSA Wiretaps, FBI Busywork at Pizza Hut, the DIA Spying on little old Quaker ladies - how could they not being on the verge of being batshit crazed?

It's about damned time.

And think the Saipan Sex/Sweat Shops (which I wrote about last April) receiving support from Tom DeLay and Insider Day Trading from Bill Frist's Office haven't really even broken yet (Yes, I know Webb Hubbell, Susan and Jim McDougal were all convicted - but not for anything they did as agents or members of the U.S. government, they were prosecuted for being FOB's -Friend's Of Bill - in order to get them to "Flip" on Whitewater. Jim eventually caved before he died in prison, but he obviously had nothing to give.).

The Reich-wing has been calling Dem and Liberals "moonbats" and "loony-left" for decades, while as far as most of the actual members of the Democratic Party are concerned most their representatives since Jimmy Carter have little more than roadkill for the Repubs latest set of attacks on their way into Office and back to cushy positions with lobbying firms. And the media has been the willing accomplice of the Right as they protrate and pretzel themselves into creating a false "balance". (Any and all half-brain assertions have to be proffered as an "equal" argument to actual facts)

They just might have learned that if they're going to call you "Angry Liberals" no matter what - you might as well sharpen your elbows and knock down some bodies in the process.

Vyan