Patty-Cake

The DNC fight had better end with Howard Dean in that chair, because maybe it'll give Democrats a spine implant in Washington. Why does every Dem opening statement at the Condi Rice confirmation hearings, for example, begin with "You will be confirmed, Dr. Rice"? Does that need to be said?

It's a small point, but I just feel like we're seeing the return of the lying-dog Democrats, and it's up to the Democratic constituency to not let that happen. It has nothing to do with Rice, though outside of Barbara Boxer I don't feel that anyone held her to any kind of proper account for her role in the series of national security gaffes during this administration. It's about being an opposition party, it's about not being cowed in the face of the Republican monolith. Sen. Reid of Nevada has been better than expected, but his efforts (like bringing out FDR's grandson to protest his use in a pro-Social Security privatization ad) seem short-lived. The "status quo" candidates for DNC Chair being pushed by the likes of Pelosi and Reid include Tim Roemer, who voted against the Clinton budget bill and for the Bush tax cuts; and Martin Frost, who ran an entire campaign last cycle as a giant blowjob for President Bush (and he lost, by the way). The DNC Chairmanship is a partisan position, a position where you can advocate why your party has better ideas than the other one. It's not the role for an equivocator, a sellout, and certainly not a member of a right-wing think tank.

I can't stomach four more years of playing patty-cake. So far I've seen exactly one Senator (Boxer) and a handful of black Congressmen (Conyers, Tubbs-Jones) willing to be opposition Democrats. We need strong voices, both in and out of government, articulating progressive policies, not a group of suits twisted in knots.