President Obama simply AWOL on DADT repeal & Biden does fundraiser for Blanche Lincoln

[Bluebear]

Disgraceful.

From "If your security guard is out having a smoke while your store is getting robbed, do you only blame the burglar?" by John Aravosis:


...Isn't it true that the Senate leadership is supposed to rally its own caucus for important legislation? And just as importantly, doesn't the President of the United States have his bully pulpit, in addition to other mechanisms for pressuring members of Congress on votes?

This past week, the Republicans led the charge to be sure. But it's also true that Senator Reid was unable to keep his caucus in line - two defected and joined the GOP filibuster, giving them enough votes to kill the bill.

And then there's the President. He was simply AWOL. While DADT repeal supporters were frantically trying to scrounge up the votes to block the filibuster, the President didn't lift a finger to keep Democrats in line, or to try to embarrass Republicans for the "un-American" act of voting against a defense bill (something the GOP routinely accused Democrats of during their years in the majority). Instead of calling members of the Senate about the DOD bill, the President was busy calling the WNBA champions. And instead of punishing Democratic Senators who strayed and sided with the GOP in an effort to kill one of the President's top campaign promises, VP Biden actually did a fundraiser for one of those Democrats the day after the ignominious vote.**

We've been robbed. And you'd better believe I'm pissed at the thief. But I'm also pissed at the security guard who I gave a lot of money to in exchange for his promise to be my fierce advocate. When the going got tough, he chickened out. And the funny thing is, now he wants me to hire his buddies for another two years.

I get that the bad guys are still out there. But I'm thinking it's time to look for a new bodyguard.

http://gay.americablog.com/2010/09/if-your-security-guard-is-out-having.html

**And today, the day after Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln joined the Republicans in filibustering the Defense Bill, and thus dooming the already weak-tea DADT compromise, was the President teaching Lincoln a lesson about slapping the President of the United States - her party's leader - in the face on one of his top priorities for the year? Hardly. Today VP Biden is out fundraising for Lincoln's re-election.

[LooseWilly]

1. Base? What base?

It's just more of the same... pursue Right-er and right-er voters to peel 'em away from the Republicans... holding power by governing like... the other side.

It's hard to be appalled when one has lost all vestiges of hope/faith...

[napi21]

2. Oh for god sake. Biden's trying to keep the Dem majority!

Blanche is the only DEm running in that stte and you ask WHY Biden is campaigning for her? Do you really want to turn the Senate over to McConnell?

[Bluebear]

4. Oh for heaven sake I am betting you didn't read past the headline, did you?

Did you?

Not one word about DADT, nothing about Lincoln joining in with the Republicans in filibustering DADT repeal, just as long as you keep your Senate, eh?

Thanks.

===

from paulinsf at Americablog: What today we call the Democratic Party is a perversion of the political party that I grew up with in the 50s, 60s and 70s. These fools think that they no longer need the support of labor unions, progressives, LGBTs and the other downtrodden.

They think that we will swallow down the bile in our throats and act against our own self interests by re-electing them time after time just because they aren't the freaking Republicans or the nutty T-Party. In my case at least, they are wrong.

Any politician who stands by and does nothing while I and others like me get fired for being gay, who stands by and does nothing while those like me get booted out of the military for being lesbian or gay, who stands by and does nothing while young LGBT people kill themselves rather than live in the hell of discrimination and hate, who stands by while I and others like me are told that we are not moral enough to get married, or to claim our loved ones on our taxes or on our social security accounts...Christ, the list goes on and on...

To those so called Democrats, I say FUCK YOU! I will NOT vote for you or anyone else in your party until you all start treating me as a living, breathing EQUAL human being. In the meantime you can take your pleas for contributions and for votes and shove them where the sun don't shine. I'm not going to vote for the Repubs, but I'm not going to vote for you either. Go get a real job, fool.

[napi21]

13. Yes I DID read past the headline. And I still say you're wrong!

Youre so concerned about some Dems not supporting repeal of DADT, what the hell do you think you're going to get with the Pubs? THEY won't even discuss the issue! I still say, no matter how angry you may get with some of the current Dems, a Pub takeover will doom every issue we as Dems want! If that's what you want so you can prove your point, fine Don't vote. But don't let me have to read your bitching when everything you hoped for goes down the tube!

[Bluebear]

16. Who said I wasn't voting? Whatever, LGBT rights never has interested you.

[jillan]

17. +1 - Biden has already stated very clearly that he wants DADT repealed. We have

a rough election coming up. Biden is excellent on the stump.

[Bluebear]

18. You can stump all you want for Lincoln, that seat is gone.

Her vote certainly was dubious at best anyhow, the only consolation.

[Dawgs]

14. "just as long as you keep your Senate"

Nice!

Shit on the ONLY party that will be able to end discrimination of gay people. That's a good strategy.

[Bluebear]

15. Yes, Of course! It's gays "shitting on the party".

Whatever.

[Ken Burch]

11. She's ALREADY doomed to a landslide defeat...

Campaigning for her, instead of ELECTABLE or re-electable Dems elsewhere, is a waste of time and money-and could COST us seats in other places by pouring money down a rat hole in Arkansas.

[Bitwit1234]

12. I say this is correct even a bad Democrat is better than ANY

REPUBLICAN. At least they vote with the Democrats some of the time.

[BzaDem]

3. As far as I know, Lincoln and Pryor only voted no after 41 Republicans voted no.

So while it is certainly despicable that Pryor and Lincoln thought such an action would get them votes in their elections, it is fundamentally different than if they would have voted no had they been the decisive votes. My guess is that if their votes were decisive, they would have voted yes without a second thought.

So this really comes down to whether or not you blame Obama for not switching a Republican. But if you knew how the Senate worked, this wouldn't even be a close question. Mitch McConnell simply exerts much, much more influence on Snowe and Collins than Obama ever could hope for. Both have much more to worry about from the right fringe of their party than the left-leaning voters in their state. The more Obama tries to convince them otherwise, the better they look to the Republican electorate of Maine, which will ultimately decide their fate.

Furthermore, the procedural posture of the vote made it even more likely that Snowe and Collins wouldn't budge. In the past, bills have time for lots of amendments, offered by both sides. But this time, there simply wasn't time on the Senate calendar for Reid to allow Republicans to offer many amendments. Why wasn't there time? Because McConnell was able to gum up the works so much over the past several months that mid September was the first time Reid could even bring up the defense bill. Given that there weren't time for Republican amendments, Snowe and Collins would have voted with their leadership regardless of the bill in question or what it contained.

So in the end, the blame rests squarely with Republicans, for a) gumming up the works so much that the defense bill couldn't be introduced until late in the game, and b) voting no, using their previous gumming-up as an excuse.

If you are looking at this situation naively, it would make sense to try to find one simple explanation for everything (Obama is a bigot, Obama is not a good bodyguard, Obama doesn't care about LBGT issues, etc). However, looking at the situation in a naive way is not a good method of analysis. Sometimes, the easy explanation is actually not the correct explanation, and you have to look beyond the cover and into the chapters to see what is really going on. This is one of those cases.

Looking at the situation in an intelligent way, it becomes clear that Obama is not to blame, and the Republicans in the Senate are to blame.

In fact, lots of credit should be given to Obama for how far this has come. As you point out, Obama can have influence on the more conservative Democrats (at least somewhat moreso than any Republican). And he has used this influence to get the bill this far, from getting enough votes in the House for the amendment, to getting enough Democrats on the Senate Armed Services committee to vote for the amendment (where there is no such thing as a filibuster). Both were in doubt before the White House exerted its influence.

[Ken Burch]

5. Why are they even bothering raising funds for Blanche?

We all know she's hopelessly behind.

They need to triage her out of the equation.

[Bluebear]

7. DLC is thicker than water.

[Ken Burch]

9. And if it means some non-DLC dems LOSE Senate races...

well, I'm sure Will Marshall and Al From will just be HEARTBROKEN...

:puke:

[BzaDem]

8. Likely because they promised her they would if she voted for HCR.

She was one of the 60 decisive votes for the bill.

Though I would agree that absent any promises, it would be a complete waste of time to raise money for her. She is behind by 30+ points.

[Ken Burch]

10. I understand the promise thing, in part, but then again.

Now that she's roadkill-to-be, what could she do to them to get payback if they didn't?

[KakistocracyHater]

6. so much for Obama's charisma, he doesn't lead he just follows

what a shattering disappointment. They need to make a crying smilie.......

[Nikki Stone1]

19. The WH rushed through a bunch of Recovery Act money for Lincoln through USDA

to help her in this election.