Democrats won a great victory last week, but already, infighting with the party, and some in the liberal blogging community are threatening to take down the very fabric of what got Democrats elected in the first place. Here are some examples.
1, John Murtha vs. Steny Hoyer; Incoming speaker Nancy Pelosi has a tough choice here. She is great friends with Murtha, an outspoken critic of the war, but she has said that she wants to govern from the center, and that’s where Hoyer is. Hoyer supports the war. How are the liberals going to react if Hoyer gets the nod?? Not too well I believe.
2, Chuck Schumer; A diary on firedoglake.com has a not to flattering piece on Schumer, and 12 reasons not to trust him. You are not going to trust a man who, along with Rahm Emanuel, brought home the bacon when it counted?? I thought the bloggers would get down on their hands and knees and thank Schumer for what he did, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen
3, Joe Lieberman; A diarist on Dailykos.com simply believes that liberals should just ignore Lieberman. Like it or not, Lieberman is the lynchpin of the Senate. Being so close, (51-49), Lieberman will wield a lot of power. How are you going to ignore that? Democrats are going to have to play ball with Joe on some issues. If Lieberman votes with Republicans, and the rest of the Senate is split, guess who gets to break the tie?? Ignore Lieberman at your own risk.
4, A lot of moderate Democrats have come out in recent days saying Democrats have to work across party lines. Carol Shea-Porter, Michael Arcuri, Ellen Tauscher, Heath Shuler, and others have echoed that fact. The progressive community wants no part of this. They think even the slightest agreements with Bush constituts treason. How is Pelosi going to handle this??
5, Jane Harman; Harman wants her job back as head of the intelligence community. Pelosi hates her simply because she hasn’t criticized the Bush administration enough on Iraq. If Harman doesn’t get the job, who are they going to give it too? Alcee Hastings? Please!!! Hastings is damn lucky he still has a job. If Hastings gets the job, the Republicans can now claim corruption gets rewarded. I have more, but these will suffice.
The Democrats have won a major victory, but in less than a week, rifts are already beginning to develop. If this continues, the Democrats will be known as a party that simply can’t get along with each other. I said in an earlier post that Democrats have a great opportunity to lead, don’t blow it!!! Well, if this is any indication of what’s going to happen, the people who voted Democrats in, me included, might be sorry they did.
