Hot Coffee, Sympathy, Family & Fire

All this week, our BooTribber family’s emotions have bobbed and weaved like a boxer in the ring against a much larger, vicious foe — dancing, fighting, lobbing blows, deflecting punches, keeping our chin down and our eyes straight ahead — as we’ve tried, singly and also united in seemingly great numbers, along with our allies in the U.S. Senate, to stop the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.

It’s late in the Alito match, and we’re weary and angry — here, have a cup of my fresh-brewed joe, and sit down for a minute — and we’ve lost the rousing momentum we began with. Even the fans of our Senate allies, including me, have been doubting them. (“Why didn’t he follow up on that question? Why did she ask this? Why did they let that go by?” And was it “A Hearing About Nothing,” as E.J. Dionne wrote?)

Jane correctly attacks media coverage for being part of our problem:

Every time it feels like some momentum is being gained, CNN blows it all away with the sweep of a facile headline. Pick up a paper or turn on cable news and on cue they are parroting all the GOP’s talking points — Alito’s a moderate, he’ll keep an “open mind” on abortion, and oh the poor frumpy sobbing wife.

And her story of the fate of a vitally important Knight Ridder article is a must-read, and deeply disappointing.

We can focus our frustrations in so many directions: The media, the lackluster performance of some Democratic senators, the evasiveness of Alito, and — as BooMan so sharply delineated it — the unbelievably depressing apathy of the American public.

But, we must keep fighting — through our flagging support for our Democratic members of Congress and our frustration with ourselves and each other. While it seems at times that only we can see ahead the terribly destructive force that Alito will bring to the Supreme Court, we must keep on.

I’m telling this to myself more than to you because right now I am a bit disillusioned, especially facing the spectre of looming defeat.

Here’s what Peter Daou has to say … below the fold, along with another positive outlook by Reddhead …

From Jane’s post:

Peter Daou has an important post up entitled “Bloggers in the Wilderness” about which he says:

This, then, is the reality: progressive bloggers and online activists – positioned on the front lines of a cold civil war – face a thankless and daunting task: battle the Bush administration and its legions of online and offline apologists, battle the so-called “liberal”” media and its tireless weaving of pro-GOP narratives, battle the ineffectual Democratic leadership, and battle the demoralization and frustration that comes with a long, steep uphill struggle.

Peter’s absolutely right. And this is what we’re up against.

But, oh, doesn’t that fight takes its toll on the spirit and on the body.

In December, Peter Daou correctly predicted the trajectory of the NSA domestic spy scandal — with the end being that it’ll likely fizzle out after some pro forma hearings in Congress.

Back then, on December 28th when I wrote about Peter’s views, we were working so hard on our 12 Days letter campaign and educating each other about Samuel Alito, and we were so full of energy and determination. And I particularly focused on CabinGirl’s 12th diary about presidential powers, because I felt — and still feel — that it is the most critical issue we face as a nation.

On a brighter note, Reddhead points out productively, “A number of the Democratic Senators were using their bully pulpit in these hearings to educate the public, sometimes in not so subtle ways, about executive power, and the overreach of the Administration in a number of areas, particularly in the area of controlling government through the administrative agencies regardless of Congressional legal mandates and in areas of national security and military policy.” (Let’s just hope that a few more people learned about the danger of an over-reaching executive branch.)

All along, though, the odds have been against us, and we know that.

And, all along, we realize that the only hopes we have are to continuing fighting, and to win in 2006 and 2008 … knowing that those election contests will be the toughest battles we’ll ever fight (since we know from experience that the GOP isn’t stupid and knows it’s got problems with the Iraq war, and will figure out ways to change the public’s focus).

BooMan is optimistic, he told me, that the Abramoff scandal will bring us sweet victories in 2006. I so hope he’s right. God knows we need a couple easy fights that don’t wear us out, leave us bloodied and bruised, and hangin’ on the ropes.

The other day, BooMan did a great job examining the GOP’s problems in “GOP Anxiety and Their Leadership.” You’ll want to read it all, but here’s a snippet to give you a lift:

The problem the Republicans have is that all their heavy hitters, the kind of people that have enough clout to be majority leader, are already deeply compromised by the ‘culture of corruption’. To find someone remotely clean, they need to dig too far down the bench. […]

I feel good about our chances for retaking the house. And the inadequate response of the GOP to the Abramoff scandal is the major reason why I feel confident.

……………….

We have to begin anew. We just have to:

It is a dangerous time to be an American. We live under virtually unchallenged one party rule, and that one party is on a rampage to make torture morally acceptable .Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman invite screaming racist Michelle Malkin to lunch, and today Peter Kirsanow is paraded before the Senate by the GOP as an “expert.” Both of these people applaud rounding up American citizens and putting them into concentration camps. (Jane, on Kate O’Beirne)

But we must look with care that we focus on winning:

Our dark and cloudy days shall soon pass. Because we believe it so.