The Hill, via Raw Story reports on a little complicating factor in our efforts to take our country back from the kleptocrats:
“With control of the House within reach for the first time in more than a decade, Democratic lobbyists say they’re feeling unusually intense pressure from House Democratic leaders to open their wallets and help their party close the deal,” reports Tory Newmyer.
“But Democratic lobbyists are rising to the challenge, a dozen Democratic consultants said, upping their personal contributions and making the case to their corporate clients that they need to pony up as well,” the article continues.
From The Hill:
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) “has been pretty blunt with people,” one Democratic lobbyist said. “Now, people downtown are finally paying attention and believing.”
“There’s been a significant increase in House Democratic fundraising activity. Folks are really working it hard,” said another well-placed Democratic lobbyist.
With recent media coverage and poll numbers suggesting a Democratic takeover of the House, aides and lobbyists alike said the fundraising pitch is becoming an easier sell.
Yeah, I know we need the money. That’s the problem. It’s an ugly thing to see Rahm Emanuel shaking down the corporations with the threat that (what?) Democrats might actually do something anti-corporate and pro-worker/consumer?
Things are looking up for November. But we cannot think that things end there even if we win both houses of Congress. We are not doing all this work just to see a Democratic version of the K Street project.
The fight never ends, does it.
it sure doesn’t, but there is uphill and downhill fighting.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Boo. The real work begins after the election. So much needs to be righted and changed not the least of which is REAL election reform where the lobbiest for the big corporations no longer run our country and elect our government. We have years of tough work ahead of us if we do get control of the congress. There will needs be a constant dialog to get these politicals in line with what is really important to the people of this country.
We have a 1.5 party system. Republicans and Republican Lite. Everyone sucks at the corporate teat. There really is no choice as long as the cost of running elections remains as high as it is.
Reform the electoral process and big money will stop being more important than the voters.
The biggest scam is the need to use TV to reach the disinterested voter via emotional ads. The stations extort money from the parties using the threat that any politician who opposes their corporate interests can be made “invisible” by the simple expedient of never reporting on their activities.
Either public funding of elections, or requiring a reasonable amount of free air time should be a goal. There should also be limits on how much air time candidates can buy and when.
Changing this will be hard, the Supreme Court seems to think that money equals speech and keeps knocking down progressive ideas for change.
Exactly. I wish I had more confidence that Dems will even talk about real electoral reform, let alone do something about it. This is one reason the founders were strongly opposed to a party system at all, to say nothing of a so-called two-party system. It will take nothing short of revolutionary change to wrest control of the electoral hen house away from the weasels in both parties.
For now, the best we can do is put Dems in charge of Congress so that at least there will be some people in power who can think, who care about their country and the hopes that accompanied its creation. As long as we are solely controlled by fools, criminals, and liars, there is not even a chance of discussing the basic requirements for maintaining a democratic society. The next two national elections will only be a start, but a start is better than sinking deeper into kleptocrat muck.
David Sirota had a great take on this the other day at Huffpost. The title was something like “Even if Democrats win in November, the fight is not over”. Of course he’s right. True reform is not going to come until we start electing officials who are beholden to our special interest group — their electorate — and only to that special interest group.
There’s a diary about that that needs to be written, but I have to do my Working Together first (and am squeezed for time on it).
Only the Democrats and Republicans believe we have a two party system.
Careful perusal of the Constitution of the United States will reveal no such limitation.
Nah, all the third parties do too. Otherwise they’d do us all a favor and start referring to themselves as ‘2nd parties’ 🙂
I just received a call asking me how I would vote in the PA Senate race and then the PA governor’s race. You answered by pressing 1 for repub, 2 for Dem, 3 for other. After you finished, the caller said it was a poll paid for by the Santorum campaign. Hmmm, I wonder what this is about.
My picks were 3 for senate and 2 for governor!
Similar polls were being taken in Indiana a few days ago. They were automated calls.
The polling here was not identified with a campaign or party.