At Last, Someone Gets It: William Rivers Pitt on the Fading Democratic Leadership

Had enough of the Cons blaming some of us for all that's wrong in America? Still stunned by verbal assaults by the folks over at New Republic or the DLC? Guess what? There's more, this time in the person one of our heroes (Barrack Obama), for the idiotic reason that we are appalled at the Roberts confirmation votes by Patrick Leahey, Russ Feingold, et al. While there was much to agree with Obama's diary on DailyKos, there were some real disappointments. Some of us are wondering who's next in the bite-the-hand that works for Dems parade (we work/we get creamed). But there's a ray of hope. Perhaps the most eloquent and passionate articulation of what so many Democrats are feeling is, as the saying goes, "What he said..." And so I turn to William Rivers Pitt, who said it all so much more eloquently than I:

"Matters have become so dicey for the administration that Bush was compelled to convene a counsel of crisis to confront the rising tide. The day after DeLay was indicted, Bush called newly-minted House Majority Leader Roy Blunt, House Speaker Hastert, Senate Majority Leader Frist and several others to the White House for a little chat. The meeting was partially motivated by bedlam within GOP ranks; California Republican David Dreier was supposedly headed for DeLay's seat, but was chopped down in a flurry of confusion which ultimately led to the ascendancy of the right-leaning Blunt. The larger discussion before this meeting, however, may well have been reminiscent of the last counsel held by Roman emperor Honorius as the Visigoths crested the seventh hill.

There has been one consistently missing piece of this puzzle, a piece whose absence would be unutterably galling had that absence not become so drearily predictable. With all that is assaulting the White House, the Republican majority in Congress, and indeed the entire substructure of conservative political philosophy, the absence of a vocal, united, organized Democratic opposition to crystallize the reality of our wretched estate and offer a compelling alternative is, simply, astonishing." William Rivers Pitt. Read More Here.

And so, as you get discouraged that no one gets it, some do. After this November, when (hopefully) we'll have trounced the Republican empty suit running for Virginia's governor, our next great imperative is persuading folks like Obama, who oughta know better than to scapegoat us. Republicans play to their base. Too often, Dems play to--the GOP too. No political party can survive that way. We will survive if enough folks roll up their sleeves to help, but then hold our elected representatives accountable. We'll more-than-survive if courageous Dems like William Rivers Pitt continue to make a difference.