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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (5241)	11/7/2002 10:31:16 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

Amen!

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (5241)	11/7/2002 11:13:17 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

You are right, Pat! We should yell and scream at our Democratic leadership. I don't blame Daschle as much because I don't understand how anyone who is or was the leader of the Senate would have a great deal of time to speak up for the party. The duties of pushing legislation b4 the Senate must be awesome, and he had to go back to South Dakota to mend fences. Senator Daschle has been harshly attacked by the Bush people even though he wasn't running for office. They ran very nasty campaigns even though Daschle wasn't campaigning. I heard Daschle tell one of the news anchors that he had never been through such an experience. Now, I hope that Senator Daschle will find the time to speak out on the issues with a very loud voice. I understand why you are angry though.

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (5241)	11/8/2002 12:00:08 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Tiptoeing to Defeat "There was a time when Democrats had some fire. "I never give them hell," said Harry Truman. "I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." The New York Times November 7, 2002 By BOB HERBERT The Democratic Party is like an army that dutifully goes off to battle but leaves its ammunition and its principles behind. It's bad enough to lack the firepower that you need to win. It's worse to not even know what you're fighting for. Despite the economic burdens that the middle and working classes are shouldering, despite the two million jobs lost and the scandalous concentration of wealth and income in the precincts of the very rich, the Democrats have yet to offer a compelling alternative to the reverse Robin Hood policies of the G.O.P. Throughout this year's campaign, the Democrats let the president bang the cynical war drums on Iraq whenever and however he wished. Other important issues - the economy, employment, the administration's appalling environmental record, the threat to abortion rights and civil rights posed by the president's federal court nominees - were largely pushed aside, to the delight of Republicans nationwide. Republicans didn't win control of the Senate on Tuesday. The clueless Democrats lost it. There was a time when Democrats had some fire. "I never give them hell," said Harry Truman. "I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." That was then. Now the Democrats proceed on tiptoe, always afraid they might say the wrong thing, vote the wrong way, get burned. The party of Roosevelt, Truman and the Kennedys has morphed into the party of timidity. Consider the fiasco in Minnesota. Many of the Democrats who loudly lamented the loss of Senator Paul Wellstone in a plane crash had for years considered his fierce commitment to principle to be, at best, a little weird. He had an agenda and there was room in it for working people and the poor. Democrats have come to think of that as dangerous terrain. But when Senator Wellstone died, the national Democrats, panicked at the prospect of losing their one-vote hold on the Senate, were quick to exploit the sympathy factor in an effort to save his seat. And that backfired. When a televised memorial for the senator turned into a now-notorious campaign rally (at which Democrats were cheered wildly and some Republicans were booed), voters were turned off in large numbers. It was a fiasco that extended beyond Minnesota. Not only did the Democrats lack a message, they seemed also to lack class. The bottom line: Paul Wellstone was actually ahead in the polls at the time of his death. Walter Mondale, who was dusted off and sent out to run in his stead, was defeated. In New York, which should be Democratic heaven given the party's lopsided registration advantage, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Carl McCall, lost to the Republican incumbent, George Pataki, by 16 points. Mr. McCall, a decent, affable man, did little more in the campaign than wave his résumé. He rallied no one and he lost big time. The leadership void among Democrats is dangerous for both the party and the nation. The courts are being shaped by right-wing Republicans for decades to come. And there is a particular need for elected officials willing to fight for the interests of ordinary families and individuals who are struggling to keep up with such fundamental expenses as mortgages and tuition. Affordable housing is a huge national issue, and alarms that are increasingly loud are summoning our attention to the problems of hunger and homelessness. These are issues that get incredibly short shrift in a plutocracy. They are Democratic issues. Or at least they were when the Democrats had some fire. A fresh start is needed. New voices and new strategies must be heard. It's time for Democrats everywhere to look in the mirror and determine who they really are, and what they really stand for. Those who favor what the Republicans favor are not really Democrats. Lyndon Johnson is not held in very high esteem at the moment, which is too bad. He never ran away from the poor and working people. He brought us Medicare and Medicaid and student loans and Head Start and Upward Bound and consumer protections and housing assistance - just a whole litany of those sorts of things. But that was another era, when Democrats had energy and ideas and values they believed in and the courage to lead. nytimes.com