Why I’m No Longer A Democrat
From CNN: House Democrats will allow offshore drilling ban to expire. The Republicans would have talked mean to them if they didn’t allow drilling.
Also from CNN, Biden, Obama helped keep ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ alive
DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) — Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.
Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.
And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.
You really need to check your voting record before you start taking potshots at people over “earmarks”.
If a few people who supposedly “lead” the Democratic Party would actually do some leading; if a few of these leaders would actually highlight the accomplishments of the Democratic Party since they were handed the mess turned over by the Hoover administration; if a few people weren’t so ashamed of being labeled as a Democrat, that they don’t include party identification on their campaign literature; I might feel differently.
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…I hope what I’m about to say doesn’t damage opportunities for future exchanges, but I will take an opposing viewpoint on both items:
On the first item: Congressional Democrats have been fighting both Republicans and the failure of the MSM to clearly explain the uselessness of trying to drill our way out of the current high gas prices. If one links the desperate disgust of the American people over current gas prices, the disadvantages mentioned above, and the likelihood of coming stories of both federal customers denied a variety of federal services and all the same sorts of stories we saw (and I lived) back in 1995 about lower-level federal employees struggling with the loss of paychecks because of a lengthy government shut-down, Congressional Democrats stood a good chance of being cast in the Gingrich/Repub role if this thing played all the way out. Yes, it looks like another example of caving in, but – unlike most of the other past examples of spinelessness – this episode offered the real chance of turning the electoral story line upside down, putting the Dem’s on the wrong side of the story that everybody is trying to tell, and killing all the momentum for increases in Democratic-held seats in the House and Senate (and, yes, I realize that there are all sorts of reasonable arguments against what I just wrote)…
On the second item: This is a slime job by CNN on two fronts. Firstly, the objections raised by Biden about Palin’s assertion are that they are fundamentally untrue, according to the story line. His votes are immaterial; she claims she was against the Gravina Island Bridge earmark, when the record clearly demonstrates that this isn’t the case.
Secondly, the “reporting” that both Obama and Biden voted against diverting Bridge To Nowhere funding to Katrina reconstruction fails to mention that the vote on the Coburn amendment was 82-15 against, with only four Democrats voting for it. Furthermore, CNN’s statement that “both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project” misunderstands what the hell the reauthorization of the Transportation Bill means and probably intentionally hides the fact that there were all sorts of earmarks that were more expensive but apparently of greater value because those examples of pork barrel spending actually benefited REAL people who live in more densely settled areas and who are more deserving – by that very happenstance – of the advantages of federal largess than a bunch of rubes out in the sticks….
[deep breath]
Sorry ’bout that last bit. I seem to be caught in the bight of the line on this issue, but the fact is that CNN’s reporting on the first issue is totally lacking in context and it’s reporting on the second issue is fundamentally dishonest…
…geez. Did I go on or what? I should start a blog…
Jack, my objection on the drilling is the Democrats have done nothing after getting power other than accede to the Republicans at every turn. In a whole series of votes they have passed the Republican versions of the bills. What is the point of voting for them if they aren’t going to use the power when it is given to them.
My objection on the “Bridge to Nowhere” is that it is a very minor point when there are substantial issues about Governor Palin that are ignored. They have been acting like petty people, when they should be going after John McCain. McCain is the Presidential candidate and they refuse to go after him. I won’t go into the fact that there were two bridges in that bill that were both called “Bridge to Nowhere” and she is building one and not building the other. She opposed the Gravina bridge and won’t build it because she saw the real numbers after she was elected governor, but she is backing the second bridge near Anchorage. Ted Stevens put the money in the transportation bill, just like Robert Byrd loads it up for roads in West Virginia. The money was sent, but she isn’t going to build the bridge.
I don’t go into these issues or why her ex-brother-in-law should have been fired, or a lot of the other petty crap that the Democrats have been pushing because I’m tired of trying to get people to do a little research and learn the truth.
spineless, cojonesfree, brie chomping, chardonnay swilling surrender monkeys. Don’t ask me how I really feel about them.
I know, Jill, I know.
i know that to you the democrats giving in on offshore drilling seems like a major screw up… but that would lower the price of oil, as we would not be importing as much from other countries, which would in turn lower the price of gasoline… and here in north carolina the highest its 4.15 a gallon… which is frickin ridiculous… and by the way… the big oil companies are totally gounging the prices… cuz theyre assholes…
also it would allow us time to find more environmentally friendly sources of energy… so I’m all for that…
also, sarah palin was ALL FOR the bridge to nowhere, until it became an issue for Mccain and her campaign, and then she came up with the “thanks but no thanks for the bridge to nowhere”… by the way she had already spent 24million on the road to nowhere, which would be connected to the bridge to nowhere…
third, its not like obama and biden could necessarily do anything in the ways of major acts, all they can do as of now is vote on a topic or a bill, as they are only 2 senators out of many, but once they take their seats of power, they will have more influence over the house and senate. and why would it matter to you that they dont put their party affiliation on their literature, because we know that they are democrats… just as george bush doesnt have to put “fucker” on his literature, cuz most of the nation already knows he is a fucker…
McCain is Bush’s 3rd term
Obama for President ’08
MS
matt, you’re right about the oil companies’ price gouging, but the proposed new drilling won’t lower oil or gasoline prices.
The maximum effect of drilling off the US coast after the 15 to 20 years it would take to actually start pumping oil from these areas would be a reduction of 2 to 6 cents on a gallon of gasoline.
Oil is a global market and they will sell any oil from these wells to the highest bidder, which is why Alaskan oil is shipped to Asia and the West Coast refineries use Mexican oil. We import crude because it is cheaper than American crude. The oil companies are multinationals and couldn’t care less about the US.
You may be satisfied that Obama is a Democrat, but I haven’t seen any proof of it in his policies or statements. Actually, he sounds a lot like George HW Bush, and improvement over his son, but not a Democrat.
Stay safe, Matt, as you have a Nor’easter coming ashore tonight, and a tropical storm coming by later in the week. Another major problem with off-shore drilling.
I support the idea of “better” democrats because I think the republicans are a completely lost cause.
I think in many respects, I’d be happy if there was not one incumbent left after an election cycle.
That is the only thing that makes term-limits attractive – getting rid of the dead wood after a set period.
Party labels have no reliable meaning. Neither party enforces anything that could be called a set of core principles.
It’s nice to see that you continue to pound McCain in the cartoons.