Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

The Outsider

by digby

Everybody’s chattering about Obama picking Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff. What does it all mean? I don’t have the faintest idea. Rahm is a political enforcer, so maybe that’s good news. It all depends on who he’s bringing the hammer down on, I suppose. We’ll have to wait and see.

I found this to be the most amusing bit of spin I’ve heard about the whole thing though:

When Emanuel led the Democrats’ efforts to take back the House in 2006, Axelrod was his chief political adviser. And, in the Obama campaign, Emanuel returned the favor. Although Axelrod tended to take a dim view of advice that was offered by Democrats dialing from a 202 area code, Emanuel’s counsel was always welcomed. “There are two branches of Washington,” one Obama adviser told me. “There’s official Washington and the pundits and the people who have spent a lifetime there and who have done things the old way. And then there are other people, like Rahm who aren’t purveyors of conventional wisdom. We don’t even consider Rahm a Washington guy.”

Okay…

“This beautiful capital,” President Clinton said in his first inaugural address, “is often a place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.” With that, the new president sent a clear challenge to an already suspicious Washington Establishment.

And now, five years later, here was Clinton’s trusted adviser Rahm Emanuel, finishing up a speech at a fund-raiser to fight spina bifida before a gathering that could only be described as Establishment Washington.

“There are a lot of people in America who look at what we do here in Washington with nothing but cynicism,” said Emanuel. “Heck, there are a lot of people in Washington who look at us with nothing but cynicism.” But, he went on, “there are good people here. Decent people on both sides of the political aisle and on both sides of the reporter’s notebook.”

Emanuel, unlike the president, had become part of the Washington Establishment. “This is one of those extraordinary moments,” he said at the fund-raiser, “when we come together as a community here in Washington — setting aside personal, political and professional differences.”

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Nail Biter

by digby

The latest on Darcy Burner:

Darcy is currently down by around 1400 votes, around 1%, with what looks like about a third of the vote counted. It’s impossible to tell what’s going to happen because the uncounted and counted votes are in clumps with distinct partisan leanings. That is, the counted votes are not representative of what the uncounted votes will look like. David Goldstein has the summary of what’s going on.

You can also mail in ballots in Washington until election day so we might not know this one for some days yet — and apparently there may still be a runoff recount. Keep your fingers crossed.

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Fixed

by digby

The villagers are whipping themselves into a frenzy over the prospect that Obama might not be as bipartisan as they insist he must be, but they needn’t fear. The Republicans will be putty in his hands.

After all:

Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Democrats. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don’t go around peeing on the furniture and such.

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The Resurrection

by dday

I couldn’t agree more with John Aravosis:

After eight years of having Republicans call me an un-American troop-hating fag-loving socialist, after months of John McCain embracing the hate to a level where his own supporters were calling out for Barack Obama to be assassinated, no one is going to be permitted to tell me with a straight face that “oh you know, both sides do it.”

Your side was abominable. Your side was hateful. Your side race-baited. Your side gay-baited. Your side lied like we’ve never seen in recent presidential campaign history. Your side used a tax-cheat who would do better under Obama’s tax proposal to be your everyman on the issue of taxes. Your side, in a veiled effort at race-baiting, said Obama doesn’t put his country first. Your side had the audacity to call Obama a socialist. Your side suggested he was a Muslim. Your side suggested he was a terrorist. Your side suggested he was Osama bin Laden.

Spare me the crap about how both sides do it. You people are a disgrace, you’ve been a disgrace for eight long years, and all your hate and lying and venom and vitriol finally bit you in your collective fat ass.

The effort to raise John McCain’s reputation from the dead has already begun. He’ll give a TV appearance where he’ll rend his garments and bat his eyes and talk about how sorrowful he was to see what his campaign perpetrated. And everyone in the Village will try to fall in line. It’s as predictable as the conservatives who will immediately blame President Obama for not fixing the economy come January 22nd (they’ll give him a one-day honeymoon).

Enough. You show your true character when put under the spotlight. John McCain showed his, and proved himself winning to go to any lengths to extend the glory to which he feels entitled. I’m not particularly interested in letting bygones be bygones. The Democratic nominee got multiple threats on his life as the anger of McCain-Palin rallies reached a fever pitch.

McCain will have to live with himself. And anyone that tries to throw him a lifeline will hear from me, at least.

Always And Forever

by digby

…it’s good news for Republicans:

They lost the presidency, at least five seats in the Senate, and around 20 seats in the House. They are officially out of power. But considering how bad the damage might have been, the GOP actually had the best night they could realistically hope for under the circumstances. Looking back at our races to watch, just about all the conservative Republicans in traditionally red territory held seats needed by the GOP to avoid a blowout: Senators Roger Wicker in Mississippi, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky and, probably, Saxby Chambliss in Georgia, along with House members John Shadegg in Arizona, Cynthia Lummis in Wyoming and the Diaz-Balart brothers in Florida. It looks like graft-convicted Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska will somehow retain his seat long enough to get expelled, and his ethically and temperamentally challenged porkmate, Don Young, was reelected as well; Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota survived her McCarthyite rant on Hardball, and Ohio’s similarly obnoxious Jean Schmidt once again avoided a well-deserved early retirement. Republicans even ousted four first-term Democrats before they could get entrenched in deep-red districts — not only the clearly doomed Casanova Tim Mahoney of Florida, but Nancy Boyda of Kansas, Dan Cazayoux of Louisiana and Nick Lampson of Texas. Democrats did knock off a few fire-breathing right-wing targets: wacky Bill Sali of Idaho, who protested a minimum-wage hike by introducing a bill to repeal the law of gravity; Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, who once declared gay marriage the greatest threat to America; Tom Feeney of Florida, an escapee from the Abramoff scandal; and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, who ran ads calling her Christian opponent “godless.” They also defeated some impressive Republicans who could have helped lead the party out of the wilderness, like moderate Congressman Christopher Shays of Connecticut, conservative Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, and pragmatic Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, who had hoped to swim upstream into the governor’s office. Still, it could have been worse. After eight ugly years of AIG, WMDs, Abu Ghraib, Enron, Blackwater, freedom fries, yellowcake, record deficits, Fannie and Freddie and Brownie, Mark Foley and Duke Cunningham and Tom DeLay, the Republican Party should qualify for a bailout. Retiring GOP Congressman Tom Davis memorably declared that if Republicans were a dog food, they’d be pulled off the shelves — and their usually well-funded candidates were badly outspent this cycle. But they’ve survived to fight for more kibbles in the future.

Yes, all in all it wasn’t a bad night at all for the Republicans. Unless you believe that repudiation of their party by a majority of the country is bad, of course.

And, needless to say, none of this means that Obama can actually try to enact his agenda. That would be ridiculous without a landslide 50 state victory, a filibuster proof Senate and a veto proof majority (not that he’d need one) in the House, right?

Well, it all depends on if you are a Republican or a Democrat. Republicans eke out victories and get mandates:

Wolf Blitzer, CNN anchor: “My sense is that the president will see this as a mandate on his policies, because the Republicans also did very well in the House of Representatives, did very well in the U.S. Senate, picking up seats in both. He gets over 50 percent, 51 percent. And he’s going to see this as a mandate in the next four years to try and move the country in the direction he wants it to move. He will try to bring the country together in the short term, but he’s going to say, he’s got a mandate from the American people, and by all accounts he does.” [CNN election coverage, 11/3/04]

Democrats win big and need to resist the impulse to overreach.

[T]he experience of President Bill Clinton‘s rocky early months — remember gays in the military? the BTU tax? — suggests the steep political price of governing in a way that is, or seems, skewed to the left. This risk is particularly acute for Obama, whose opponents have painted him as a leftist extremist. The good news is that his advisers seem exquisitely aware of this trap and determined not to fall into it. There are other reasons to be optimistic that Democrats can resist overreaching. For the current congressional leadership, the memory of losing control in 1994 still sears; when Clinton took office, it seemed unimaginable that Democrats would ever lose the House. Now, the enlarged contingent of Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats applies additional countervailing force.

Thank God for that. The last thing the American people gave Obama, with huge majorities in both houses and a large electoral vote win, is permission to enact his kooky, left wing agenda.

The good news is that the villagers seem to think it’s ok to pass SCHIP and Ledbetter so that’s something. He’s going to have to get their permission if he wants to do anything more “radical” than that. After all, it’s not like he has a mandate.

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Bittersweet

by digby

As thrilled as I am that the country has begun to shake off the curse of the GOP, this still hurts:

Voters put a stop to same-sex marriage in California, dealing a crushing defeat to gay-rights activists in a state they hoped would be a vanguard, and putting in doubt as many as 18,000 same-sex marriages conducted since a court ruling made them legal this year.The gay-rights movement had a rough election elsewhere as well Tuesday. Ban-gay-marriage amendments were approved in Arizona and Florida, and Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. Supporters made clear that gays and lesbians were their main target.

And naturally, the first words out of many of the gasbags’ mouths were that this means the country is still “center-right” and that there is no mandate for progressive change. Last night Doug Schoen was all over Fox saying the “ballot measures prove it.”

Honestly, I’m wrung out and I don’t even care about that at the moment. The political implications are what the spinners will make of it. But these hateful propositions winning makes the victory bittersweet. How people can vote for the first African American president in American history, with all that implies, while simultaneously voting to discriminate against gays is testament to the incoherence of American politics and the lack of clear cut philosophy guiding people’s choices. Everyone says there’s too much ideology in our politics but I’d say there isn’t enough. There isn’t enough common sense either. Discrimination against others just because you don’t like how they live their lives is against the very essence of the two pillars of America — liberty and equality. To fail to see that even as you vote for an historic, important first African American is incoherent.

I keep hearing about how this will right itself in the long run, that it’s just a matter of waiting until this new generation gets old enough and then gay rights will magically be “granted.” I hope that’s true. But to paraphrase a saying that’s been overused lately — in the long run all of today’s gay partners and gay parents will be dead. These soothing tones of “patience” and “don’t worry” don’t mean much when you consider that you only have one life to live.

It’s terrific that we are seeing a decline in racism to the extent that we are able to elect a black president. We’ve come a long way and there’s no taking anything away from those who waged the struggle over all these centuries. But our society is not truly changed if it’s still writing discrimination into law.

It’s as if we just can’t be America unless we are taking active steps to marginalize somebody.

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First And Second Chances

by digby

There are many things to be said about Obama’s victory and people much more erudite and talented than I will be writing about all of it over the next few days. For me, there are twp things that are important and deserve at least a passing mention this morning after.

The first, of course, is what I referenced below. The election of the first African American president is inspiring for all the obvious reasons. I was never one who believed that we wouldn’t ever elect a black president. But I assumed that he would have to be a conservative Republican in order to win — a sort of Nixon/China deal. It is a sign of something very, very promising that this country elected a black Democrat.

The other thing is this:

“Your election raises great hopes in France, Europe and the rest of the world,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a letter to the president-elect. “I have just sent my warmest congratulations to Sen. Obama,” said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown from his office at 10 Downing Street, before pointing to his country’s “special relationship” with America. “I have talked to Sen. Obama on many occasions and I know that he is a true friend of Britain.”

Newspapers around the world seemed upbeat, and the most positive press in Britain appeared to come from the two papers owned by News Corp. (nyse: NWS – news – people ) owner Rupert Murdoch. “One Giant Leap For Mankind,” proclaimed The Sun, a right-wing tabloid that is widely read in Britain, while The Times of London had a picture of Obama with the headline “The New World.”

“Historic” seemed to be the buzzword of the day, used in the headlines for the South China Morning Post, the Times of India and El Mundo of Spain. Many papers like Le Monde of France and Spain’s El Pais also referred to a fulfillment of the “American Dream.”

An article in Indian newspaper The Hindu suggested that Obama’s election could help resolve the separatist issue in Kashmir, while Pierre Avril, a blogger for France’s Figaro newspaper, said that Brussels would now want to “forget the Bush years.”

Abdul Rahman, a reporter for the Iraqi satellite TV channel Al Sharqiya, told Forbes.com that there were two different reactions to Obama’s win in Iraq. “Those who are against the political process are optimistic,” while others are more concerned about future political changes. “The rumor is that Obama will change the whole political process.”

Obama had said in his speech that “to those who would tear this world down–we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security–we support you.”

One of the most frustrating missed opportunities of the last eight years was rejecting the outpouring of support from around the world after 9/11 and failing to create a new regime of cooperation and common purpose in the age of globalization.

It looks like America might just be given another chance. Let’s hope we get it right this time.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream” Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the “unalienable Rights” of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: “For Whites Only.” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”¹ I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest — quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of “interposition” and “nullification” — one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”² This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day — this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

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Bold Progressives

by dday

Alan Grayson has defeated Rep. Rick Keller to pick up a seat in the House for the Democrats. This one is great. Grayson is a better Democrat, a guy who went after fraudulent defense contractors who were wasting taxpayer dollars in Iraq. He’s a bold progressive. He’s going to be a leader in Congress.

Here’s Grayson on the Bush Administration:

I’m running because I’m fed up with the government mismanagement, the Bush administration’s shameless pandering to war profiteers. I think they set out on a deliberate course to make this war good for the people who were their friends. And I want to try to hold them accountable when I’m in Congress. When I’m in Congress… the Bush administration’s worst nightmare is going to be me with subpoena power because I know everything that they’ve done, and I’m going to hold them accountable for it.

Matt Stoller: But wait wait, let me just interrupt you there, the Bush administration’s gone in 2009.

Alan Grayson: Oh but all the people they set up as the new kings and queens of America are still around. What Eisenhower said, that we need to fear the military industrial compex, has become true because they have manufactured a five year war that they want to perpetuate for a generation or even a century so that they can keep lining the pockets of their friends, the war whores.

Matt Stoller: So, people are going to say, let bygones be bygones, or let’s have some sort of truth and reconciliation commission, what do you think needs to happen?

Alan Grayson: We don’t need truth and reconciliation, we need punishment. We need people to be held accountable for all the mistakes that they made that have screwed us up in this war and screwed us up in this economy. The economy is falling apart, the chickens are coming home to roost. You cannot spend $10,000 for every man, woman, and child in America for a war that never should have taken place in the first place.

Matt Stoller: But be specific, what do you mean by punishment?

Alan Grayson: We’ll put people in prison. We’ll take away the thing that they care about the most, their money. They stole, they hurt the troops, they killed people, they hurt the taxpayers year after year and they’ve destroyed this economy. They’re not going to get off scot-free.

Matt Stoller: Who’s ‘they’?

Alan Grayson: The people who have been running this government and their assistants who have been running companies like Halliburton. Think about it, we have a Vice President who was the head of Hallburton, who got a $23 million parting gift from them when he became Vice President. And he was the one who instigated this war and made Halliburton the largest army contractor in existence.

Awesome.

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Wrong

by digby

The segregationist, discriminatory scumbags from “Yes on 8” just had the nerve to send me — a resident of the godless People’s Republic of Santa Monica — a robocall with the voice of Barack Obama saying he doesn’t believe in gay marriage.

Eat this:

Joe Scarborough just went OFF on the Republican Party. He said “it wasn’t that long ago that Republicans thought they would have a permanent majority. They thought this country was a center right nation: WRONG!”

He went on:

“This is a total repudiation of the Republican brand. This is a party that is out of touch not only with the American electorate but their own base.”

Scarborough is pissed. This is going to be a good night.

Pat Buchanan: “I think, frankly, we could be on the cusp of a new era.”

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