Nov 8th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Target: Obstructionism
It’s good to see Harry Reid started to tackle some of the more egregious acts of obstructionism being mounted by the GOP minority in the Senate. A wise man has been trying to convince me over the past week that it’s a mistake for progressive media to focus so much attention on “tea party” antics and it would be better to focus on this issue and try to turn up the heat on it. You’re never going to get a mass public fascinated by the minutia of senate procedure, but I think people can understand that it’s a big problem when key government positions can’t be filled in a timely manner.
6 Responses to “Target: Obstructionism”
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November 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
In my opinion, the American People should be very grateful for the passage of the House Healthcare bill by Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats.
I remember going to see Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean speak at a local fundraiser in Bryn Mawr here in the Philly suburbs during the worst days of the Bush Administation. In my opinion, they show the best of what’s in the Democratic Party.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
i am not a wise man, but i also think progressives give far too much attention to the tea party fringe. we end up having unnecessary fights or engaging in polemical contests with people who just don’t matter and that takes energy away from trying to move or persuade those who do matter, legislators and soft supporters or potential soft supporters of our ideas.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
You’re never going to get a mass public fascinated by the minutia of senate procedure…
In the past (I’m thinking of pre-’94) the right has actually done a fairly good job of mobilizing (parts of) its base around fairly obscure real or imagined procedural issues. It can be done.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
In my opinion, the American People should be very grateful for the passage of the House Healthcare bill by Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats.
I have to say, I’ve never been a huge fan of Pelosi (who apparently grew up in the Baltimore neighborhood in which I used to live, who knew?), but I’m very appreciative of the job she did on this one. If a decent bill gets passed, she will have been one of the biggest reasons why, maybe the biggest.
November 8th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
It took the Senate like a month to extend unemployment benefits for the roughly 210,000 people whose benefits had expired by then. One hopes it doesn’t take 5714.285714285714285714285714285
days for the Senate to cover the 40,000,000 (or whatever) people without health insurance.
November 8th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
It would be a lot easier to get masses of people interested in Senate procedure if the leadership would make examples of their Republican opponents. The obstructionism on unemployment benefits should have been highlighted by forcing cloture votes immediately and yelling bloody murder if Republicans dared obstruct. The issue is an automatic winner for Dems — stick it to the Repubs — and make noise about it. But no, gotta pretend the Senate is a collegial body.