Pox This

by digby

One of the kings of the FoxDemocrats, lubriciously polishing Roger Ailes’s shiny apple, says:

Fox political analyst Bob Beckel mourned last night that Sen. Joe Lieberman’s endorsement of John McCain is “the price…us Democrats pay for MoveOn.org and others who drove Joe Lieberman out of the party,” said Beckel. “They campaigned against him actively and raised money against him and he was beaten in the Democratic primary. … Now we’re paying the price and all I can say is ‘a pox on their house.’”

Yeah, it’s a real loss.

But Beckel speaks for a lot of Villagers, not just the one’s who are directly paid by Rupert Murdoch. Even sitting senators who buck the complacent “don’t make trouble” party line are dismissed as irrelevant:

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the decision had nothing to do with the efforts of Dodd and his allies

Right. The fact that Dodd was willing to hold up the business of the Senate all the way through Christmas if he had to (and some others decided to act like United States Senators instead of potted plants) had nothing to do with it. Ok, Harry, if that makes you feel better.

Both FDL and Greenwald have done in-depth tick-tocks and post-mortems which are well worth reading. I do think it’s worth repeating however, in case any of you don’t know this, Jane Hamsher was the one who got this ball rolling when she asked Dodd, out of the blue, on the radio if he’d filibuster the bill if it didn’t have immunity. When Dodd said yes there was a palpable feeling of excitement at the possibilities. Naturally, everyone hoped it wouldn’t come to that, and a lot of people worked very hard to that end. But the idea that a Democratic senator might stand up on this was electrifying.

This is a tough issue for politicians because it requires explanation and it’s easily spun by lying demagogic Republicans:

After the House passed surveillance legislation that did not include retroactive immunity, the National Republican Senatorial Committee accused House Democrats running for the Senate of “putting the rights of known terrorists ahead of the safety and security of Americans.”

That’s the message that’s going to be out there so it’s not really surprising that politicians don’t relish parrying such attacks with the necessary long explanations about what really happened and the fourth amendment and domestic switching stations etc. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t fight it, but we should at least grant that it’s a challenge. When someone like Dodd stands up as he did, and others follow, you actually have to give them extra kudos — and you have to let them know that despite all the caterwauling from Villagers like Beckel, there is some benefit for them in doing the right thing: namely our ongoing gratitude and support.

During the last election, when Governor Dean’s campaign sputtered, I immediately thought that it was great idea to promote him for Democratic Chair. It had long been nothing more than a big donor fund raising machine and needed to become something with at least some attachment to actual Democratic voters if the Democratic party was going to function as an actual … party. The Dean campaign and his subsequent election to chair the party was the first real sign of the new progressive movement “crashing the gates,” and it was an extremely important one.

I think the same thing is true for this moment with Chris Dodd. He ran for minority leader some years back and lost to Tom Daschle by one vote. He has the ambition and the ability, clearly, and has received the support of many of his peers in the past. It makes much more sense to have the leadership hail from solid blue states so that they aren’t constantly having to look over their own shoulders as they try to shepherd (or obstruct) legislation. So I agree with many others in the blogosphere that Chris Dodd would be an excellent majority leader and his election to that spot would send a very strong message to people like Bob Beckel that if they insist on wishing a pox on our house, they are wishing a pox on the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

Rupert will happily pay his salary anyway — he’s vying for the coveted Pat Cadell asskisser award anyway — but nobody but the crotchety old men who watch Fox News will pay any attention to him. Over time, as they further withdraw to their wingnut ghettoes, we may even find that the Republicans no longer send the Democrats scurrying for cover whenever they call up a hissy fit. It could happen.

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