Legal Commentary

The Firebagger On The Hill

By Big Tent Democrat

The Chief of Staff of a Democratic Senator writes to TPM:

[I]nstead of pressing our political advantage--which was also clearly the right policy choice [. . .] we flinched[.. . .] Voters could have had a last and important impression about who was on their side and who wasn't, but gracious to a fault, we didn't want to anger anyone, and the result was predictably awful.

Now it appears that we may well make the same mistake again[. . .] If that's what we do, it will make President Obama's many comments about fiscal responsibility an utter joke -- how can we talk about decimating Social Security, raising gas taxes (which hit low and middle-income folks disproportionately hard), raising fees for veterans' health care, messing with student loans, etc., when we're going to blow a $700 billion dollar hole in the budget because of our concern for folks who make $250k and over, who are doing more than fine? Or because those bad Republicans are just too mean? [MORE . . ]

There is a prevailing view among many people that both parties are dominated by the rich, and that voting doesn't really make a difference. If we want low and middle-income Americans to think we don't have the spine to fight for them, then how are we going to convince them to vote for us? If David Axelrod has an answer for that, I'd like to know what it is.

(Emphasis supplied.) I suspect that Axelrod's answer is that the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on November 11, 2010 (boomark / email).