Obama, Rahm, and Harry Reid have been protecting a lot of phony Dem Senators.

The questions we must ask, is why doesn’t the senate ever vote?

If Obama, Rahm and Harry Reid wanted full transparency they would have let Senators vote for the Public Option or Against the Public Option.

Harry Reid provides cover for phony Dem Senators all the time.

FDR, LBJ, would have force Senators to vote for or against their proposals.
The idea being let the people see who cares about their wel-fare and who does not.

The idea of attacking Jane is more foolishness by this stupid white house.

Remember Men Lie
Women Lie
Numbers don’t Lie

The filibuster is another smoke screen for phony Dems.

Blanche Lincolm, Evan Byah, Ben Nelson, Joe the Liar, do the bidding for a lot of other phony Dems.

Harry Reid and Obama do not want to force Phony Dem Seantors to vote on anything controversial, because this would open up these phony Dem senators to attacks from the people who voted for them.

Hey, Jane, didja catch how Dave Weigel — who you spanked so effectively a few weeks back — was trying to get revenge by hanging you with the blame if Tamyra D’Ippolito had faced Dan Coats and lost in November? As if the efforts being made by Red State, the National Review, the right-wing Washington Examiner, and FOX News itself were, y’know, chopped liver in that regard?

(Though it looks like, even with much of the conservative media infrastructure helping her, she still came up short.)

Jane, you rock. Keep up the great work.

Jane, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t stop the horse from turning around and shooting the messenger. What will the DCCC attack on Jane be when this is the headline:

BARON HILL LOSES BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL; CONCEDES DEFEAT, says “Evan Bayh and I agree, this is all the fault of those liberal bloggers!”

I never thought I would say: John Mellencamp for Senator! Everyone can agree we all need little pink houses for you and me. He only needs 500 signatures from each Kritter district to get on the ballot. But would our corporate overlords allow such a thing?

I wish Marc Ambinder WAS breathless, as in, “unable to speak and too focused on wheezing in air to type”. And besides, what’s wrong with pressuring “blue dogs” into retirement? That faction within the national party is a disaster for progressive reform and has hugely contributed to the apparent failure of the Democrats, now that they hold power.

Is there a Democratic party platform, or not?!

Support the platform on the basis of which you get admitted into the party and you can hold on to your ‘seniority’ privilege. Fail to support the platform and you get demoted.
It ought to be this simple.

For clarity, what you’re saying is that Baron Hill is losing to his Repub opponent by 8 points?

Already, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is blasting Democratic activist Jane Hamsher for using Survey USA to essentially poll-pressure Blue Dog Democrats into retirement.

The idea the Dems don’t have internal polls of their own telling them this before we knew is funny. Marc knows this every political writer knows this.
But fine we get the blame we get the power.
Also Marc if our poll was bogus the Dems have Pollsters they would spot a bogus poll.
What you have just done Marc was affirm the facts of our poll. All we did was publish those facts on the net.
We did not create the facts the polls measured.

Jane –

Keep leading this charge for Democrats to act like Democrats and you may need someone to test your food and start your car.

Well, it looks like our poll may have mucked up Rahm Emanuel’s plans to slide Baron Hill into Evan Bayh’s seat without a primary.

Money well spent.

And he already has a campaign song that I like – Our Country.

BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL

I don’t remember who said it or the quote verbatum but it went something like;

“if a democrat runs as a republican they will usually lose to the republican”

Who’da thunk us DFH liberal bloggers would have so much power, influence and sway?? I thought that we were just “retards” beyond notice, value or having anything worthy to say.

Ain’t it interesting? We GOTV for these grifters; we toss our hard earned cash at their campaigns (well, I used to do that; not any more); we write letters to the editor & blog & send out emails & sign petitions and all that falderol & balderdash, but when we show up and demand that our elected “betters” do what we ‘lected them to do, why then they have a $hit-fit and tell us dfh’s to stfu.

And then act like we have no meaning or value or that they don’t need to pay any attention to those peons over there…. (imperious hand wave).

But – eh? – then some things start rolling, and suddenly these grifters can’t take the heat, so they’re jumping outta the kitchen. But not before they give us DFH’s the big old finger on the way out the door.

Sheesh. Go, Jane! See Jane GO! Go, Jane!! We got your back.

Numbers don’t Lie?

Really! “Lies, damn lies, and statistics!”

Was never uttered then.

Numbers lie. One has to understand the source, the methodology, the questions used, probable error, sample size, significance or he sample and so on.

The truth is, we had no idea Vic Snyder was 17 points down when we polled his Arkansas district a week before the Brown-Coakley election, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t retire because it was false.

Rahm’s strategy on Healthcare, Jobs etc is turning toxic for the Dems they see another loss of the House and Senate in their future.
This will be the second time Rahm helped the Dems lose power.

Yes, that is something I should’ve added to the post. My bad.

“these grifters can’t take the heat”
___

Succinct. Utterly on point.

Rahm needs a victim to blame and all those political pundits who need Rahm for scoops are getting his back by blaming you Jane.
However assuming the voters believe what the news reports say all this tells voters is that you one upped Rahm, that you are more powerful than Rahm.
Just what kind of *cough* political Machiavelli admits weakness publicly?
And then keeps on doing the same things rather than change course?

Obviously, running solid polls is all about pressuring certain candidates to behave in a particular way. Shit.

Hey Mr. Ambinder: I think you have the Survey USA results confused with the results (and subsequent spin) being generated by the DCCC. If I’m wrong about that, then hows about you whip out your data?

We’re waiting….

What kind of a moron gives someone they don’t like credit for bringing them down when they did not bring them down?
Normally liars lie to try to benefit themselves.

First of all, I’m confused:

A word to the wise: don’t look to the the twitchy and the hyperventilating as role models of political sophistication.

Is Ambinder twitchy and Weigel hyperventilating or is Ambinder hyperventilating and Weigel twitchy? Or are they both twitchy and hyperventilating?

But more importantly:

Ambinder goes on to say that Bayh “really grew to dislike the influence of liberal activists on his Senate colleagues.”

Liberal activists? Influence? Yglesias:

One annoying recurring feature of talk about the present political situation is the presumption on the part of the centrist members of congress who’ve been driving the legislative agenda that the left has, in fact, been driving the legislative agenda. It’s worth reviewing the mainstream liberal policy agenda for the 111th Senate:

— A $1.2 trillion stimulus.
— The forcible breakup of large banks.
— Universal health care with a public option linked to Medicare rates.
— An economy-wide cap on carbon emissions, with the permits auctioned.
— Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
— A path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
— An exit strategy from Afghanistan.
— An end to special exemption of military spending from fiscal discipline.
— An independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency.
— The Employee Free Choice Act.

None of these things have happened.

…

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2010/02/what-do-liberals-want.php

Influence indeed…

Do we have any proof the Dems or the GOP waste money on funny polls when they can just make up the results? :)

I guess that Rahm thinks that with all the whoring corp campaign contributions, he can shove any shitty candidate into any office of his choice. Contempt for all the voters, not just the f’ing progressive retards.

As far as this progressive blogger is concerned, your passionate advocacy for progressive values has rocketed you to the top of my list of blogs that must be read.

You are Rahmbama’s worst nightmare….and thank God for it.

Most importantly, thanks for speaking truth to power.

I really thought Rahm and the Blue Dogs would bring down the hammer on Jane because of this but these arguments in the press are weak weak weak!
Rahm needs to hire a better class of toady reporters. Rahm when you pick up toads they pee in your hand.

Question: Is Evan Bayh really John Edwards’ Love Child?

Wow…Jane is kicking some serious ass today.

I see ‘liberals’ pointing to the:
– corrupt PhRMA deal,
– appalling insurance company giveaways,
– continued anti-trust protections for healthCos
– inability to create a public option, and
– failure to enact a government regulated (not run, but ‘regulated’) exchange

But I don’t think it’s simply ‘liberals’.
I think it’s anyone who spends half hour a day, even with the evening news on while making dinner.
I think that a whole lot of people across a wide political spectrum are completely fed up with these kinds of deals, followed by Senate intransigence and endless committees and ‘bipartisanship’, which turns out to be 99.9% political theatre.

I’m not at all surprised to learn that polling would find some things that might be deeply alarming to DC, and ‘duh’ to the rest of us.

using Survey USA to essentially poll-pressure Blue Dog Democrats into retirement

Because that has been a very successful strategy in the past. I’m not against seeing blue dogs pull out but if it was this easy a person might have expected someone to try it before. “See this poll shows that you can’t win so I’d like you to give up right now. Really, I’m telling you this only because I don’t agree with your politics.”

He seems to think that candidates never do their own polling and the only way they would know they should give up without a fight is if the poll tells them they don’t have a chance. Ambinder clearly believes that the only thing that stands between his pet blue dogs and winning every race is if some shows that is not necessarily so. That or someone says they disagree with them when they sell out to corporations.

What is it with the Democratic sellouts like Ambinder? Are they looking for a scapegoat or just afraid to admit that failing to do the things that your voters require is a losing strategy? Defending blue dogs like poor little rich Bayh from the mean ole liburls is quite the winning strategy.

What a great read!

Thanks Mz. Hamsher!

Now, while Armbinder is obviously repeating Veal Pen rhetoric spoken by others he cites (DCCC, Bayh, etc.) and such, he’s only guilty of OMITTING the details Mz. Hamsher demurely points out about Bayh, DCCC, Rahm and the other centrists.

So, I dunno, I can’t find Armbinder any LESS guilty nore any MORE guilty than the rest of the Veal Pen Scribe Wanna Be’s.

He didn’t really TAKE sides against Mz. Hamsher or progs (mis labeling them as liberals is Veal Pen Speak ain’t it) but is guilty of idiocy for omission of reality. It’s typical Veal, and not just for breakfast anymore, it’s 24/7.

As one of my fav americana (albeit Canackistani) singer/songwriters penned once (loosely translated here): “She’s spooking the horses, and she’s scarin the DCCC.”

Ahh, Fred Eaglesmith, what a hoss.

See Jane Go!
Go! Jane, Go!
See Jane Run!
Run! Jane, RUN!!!

Sure would like to be able to vote for a Mz. Hamsher somewhere, anywhere by 2012 . . . I’d vote early and often!

I love the smell of spooked neolib, BlueDog, Status Quo 1% rich fucks in the morning!!!!

I’m thinking Rahm read the classic’s comic version of Machiavelli’s the “Prince “

ROTL, I don’t think in my lifetime (57) I’ve ever seen the masses so FULLY and obviously expressing displeasure in such polite ways.

By the masses, I mean the entire general public, not just the prog/libs/antiwar OR the 23% batshit crazed Xtian Birthin Tea Baggin Aryan misogynist homophobic wing nutz.

The general dissatisfaction across the board on general living conditions on the part of SO many is incredible.

It’s bigger than Civil Rights and bigger than anti Vietnam it seems to me (NO disrespect to those two movements, whom I was active in as a teen).

What I don’t understand is why this large element is so damned POLITE at this point, for the most part.

Especially the progressive and more liberal elements of the masses.

By now, I would have expected the stewing and frustration to have exploded a bit into organized public displays of disobedience and protest . . . but it hasn’t.

What worries me is that this stage, planned and non violent protest, might never happen. That the frustration and general stewing will just explode (by some on the right) into the streets and cause some SERIOUS societal blowback on us all.

Like I said, so many, so frustrated, for so long, with basically no public displays large enough to force change on the system. Spooky, like Fred Eaglesmith’s song . . .

Well, isn’t THAT special!

Jane has this rather inspiring habit of rubbing their noses in facts that make these posing politicians and the former Fourth Estate hacks that pretend to hold them accountable look like the whores they are.

When the greatest number of pigs squeal the loudest, FDL really brings home the bacon.

Nicely phrased! What’s not to like about pork products!

*G*

Numbers don’t lie, but the people translating what they are saying often do.

Husband and wife get paid by the industry in whose favor the elected one exerts all his legislative power. And those who pay attention know that this has become almost the dominant paradigm in Congressional marriages.

When did we as a nation abandon the concept of “conflict of interest” by just defining it out of existence?

A pitchfork up the ass is WAAYYY too good for these quisling parasites.

[Mod Note: And please no further down this path. We've been round and round on this merry-go-round with you before]

I’m givin’ up cussin’ for Lent so let me get this outta my sistem

Ambinder is a fucking douchebag.

Rahm is an asshole.

palin is a prick

Nothing. Swine Flu hadn’t been discovered when Orwell penned the last paragraph of Animal Farm.

Happy Mardi Gras, BFL

Paczki Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“When did we as a nation abandon the concept of “conflict of interest” by just defining it out of existence?”
___

There IS NO “conflict of interest” from the pols’ POV. They know full well whose interests they serve. The notion of serving the individual voters who elect them long ago became a tedious, if nominally obligatory, platitude.

Indeed. I have similar thoughts and questions. As interesting as it is to watch such as Bayh fold tents and skedaddle, the remaining question is: what’s next?

Would like to see a whole lot more feet on the street, but I think many don’t see that action as bringing results. I’m not sure myself. But I agree that the country at large is quite fed up. Neither party is doing a damn thing to make any real improvements; they’re all pigs at the trough grabbing everything they can before it all comes crashing down.

It does seem to me that there did used to be some sort of leadership in the past in our nation, but anymore it’s just a pathetic bunch of grifter clowns, losers & @$$holes all trying to tell us, the peons, how they “know better” as they jostle one another for the spoils of war.

Daddy WarBuck$ has come a-calling, and all of the pols are beholden.

Thanks again, Jane, for holding their pig trotters to the fire.

I guess we gotta call Rahm out on Facebook if we want him to pay attention…

Yeah: serving the needs of the plebians doesn’t come into the equation anymore, if it ever did.

Right country, wrong era

Pegging Rahm’s policy poisonings and political backstabbing to the Renaissance misunderestimates his tactics against the background of America’s current predictament.

It’s Rome as the empire inexorably collapses from within and without.

The former republic asks, “Et tu, Rahm?”

It must be really irritating to the establishment Dems that some progressives have refused to get into the veal pen and await their slaughter. To think that they might have figured out that they don’t have to believe the “you have nowhere else to go” and “we’re doing the best we can” and “if you don’t fully back us up, you’ll be stuck with President Palin” crap must be terrifying.

I am personally really glad that they are taking this fight to the progressives. My biggest fear has been that all their stupidity will be chalked up to liberal stupidity because most people don’t know that liberal and Democratic are nowhere near synonyms. It’s hard to get the word out that you shouldn’t take out the frustration on true liberals or progressives because we hate this shit as much as anyone. Rahm is doing us the favor of making this point publicly. Progressive candidates need only point to how angry the bought by corporate money insiders were at the progressives to prove the point that not all candidates running as D, especially in states where it is harder to get on the ballot as anything but D or R, are more of the same. This is going to be an anti-incumbent wrecking ball and I’m grateful for any help in showing that progressives are not part of the incumbency problem. Smooches, Rahm and your press buddies!

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE!!!!!!!

great comment.

It’s my personal opinion that O’Rhamabama and the New Democrats don’t even want to win the mid-terms. The super majority has been a super embarrassment for them. After the election they can get back to blaming everything on the Republicans except their losses which they will blame on, you guessed it, Jane and the childish liberals.

That’s an interesting hypothesis. They have certainly made themselves look like fools with the supermajority.

Rahm thinks he’s a political mastermind I mock him when I compare him to Machiavelli.

Machiavelli was about sucking up to the prince, so they do have that in common.

YEAH JANE AND FIREDOGLAKE!!!! Blue Dog Democrats SHOULD ALL RETIRE…with or without a poll showing how their decisions and voting out of touch with their constituents.

Now, if only you could push poll Harry Reid to retire.

Yep, people lie when they set UP the poll/survey then they spin numbers and lie some more, depending on who’s paying them and why!!

Sy and you are all over it!

Two upper division college courses in Stats taught me that, along with some simple and basic work I did as a beginner for a health research non profit long, long ago.

Jane, I’m hoping you’ll start to use your awesome super powers for good as well as evil. Maybe scare Congress into passing a worthwhile health care bill, or make it easier to unionize, or stop wasting so damn much money on all these wars we’re still involved in, even though we quite clearly were against them for at least two election cycles.

You know, when you have the time. ;-)

Anything anyone does to foil Rahm Emanuel and his anti-american people agenda deserves a medal of freedom :)

Really? We’re trying to pressure Blue Dogs into retirement? Where? Well, he doesn’t say.

If you aren’t, you should be.

“BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL”

Watching these puppets dance is actually getting entertaining. Hey Rahm – you know, your performance review is coming up in a few months. Ain’t looking good man, Dean did a much better job. Anyway, sleep well.

“… what’s wrong with pressuring “blue dogs” into retirement?”

Not a damn thing. It is the essence of democracy to work and vote for those that support your positions and to work to defeat those that do not.

Instead of accepting the blame for defeating blue dogs we should stand up and take credit. Let’s shout it from the rooftops, “Act against our ideals and we will take you down.”

Got to love it. Great timing.

Well done Jane.

I believe it was Harry Truman. And where is Harry when we need him!

What is it with the site? Are you democrats? Trying to help democrats? Obviously not. FDL is a hater blog. Eating your own. I won’t be coming back to this site anytime soon.

@anindianavoter: g’bayh, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.

How many times do I have to say this? The Dems are losing to the Repubs because they are putting up the worst fucking candidates ever. Why do they have a death wish?