Now the guy’s got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week no matter what. Business bad? F you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? F you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? F you, pay me.
It’s Payday.
Naturally, as Susanhu noted, some paid consultant believes that the blogosphere is not to be taken seriously, that it is little more than an ATM, but this should come as no surprise – if bloggers are exercising power (i.e. influence) over the process then that means that someone is losing power and influence. Who is that someone? Paid consultants. So what is a paid consultant inevitably going to say about bloggers? “They’re an undeniably good fundraising source (because if I could deny it then I would, but the numbers don’t lie) but you don’t want to seem like you’re their captive – after all, you’re my captive.”
My solution is simple – declare war. Any Democrat who votes for cloture (or worse, actually votes for Alito) gets a primary challenger, and if the primary challenger loses then we fund and work for his/her Republican opposition. If folks aren’t willing to go to war over this nomination then they are wasting oxygen with their continued existence within the Senate’s chambers. Can you imagine what would happen if a soldier on D-Day said, “I don’t think that shooting at the Germans is such a good idea – they might get angry and shoot back.” Two to the dome – we can’t afford dead weight. If we’re going to lose then let us lose while standing and fighting for what we believe – not bending over, on our knees, taking one for the team; I don’t get down like that. Sometimes you have to speak softly while at other times The Bat<sup>TM</sup> must be unleashed.
Batter Up!
I’m with The Rude One on this: Politics is about power, [m-f’ers]. Use it or lose it. Sure, sure, there’s easy principles to defend in blocking Alito because of what Alito believes, but there’s also the pure assertion of power against those who seek to disempower the rest of us. The Rude Bar Analogy is on point as well: In the end, if you don’t stand up and fight for the one thing you’ve said you’ll throw down on, then you may as well say that you don’t actually believe in anything. You gotta be willing to get up out of your seat and tap that [a-hole] on the shoulder and tell him to step outside. It’s time for the Democrats to put up or shut up, and if they punk out then the blogosphere has to put up or shut up – the time for talk is over.
Of course, if we can’t wage war then we need to sit down, shut up, give money and excitement to the paid consultants, and stay out of the professionals’ way. What say ye?