Senator Norma Biden Sez:

“I’m am big. It’s the Party that got smaller.”

A sort-of open letter to Senator Christopher Dodd regarding this piece in the NYT:

February 8, 2006
Some Democrats Are Sensing Missed Opportunities
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 — Democrats are heading into this year's elections in a position weaker than they had hoped for, party leaders say, stirring concern that they are letting pass an opportunity to exploit what they see as widespread Republican vulnerabilities.

In interviews, senior Democrats said they were optimistic about significant gains in Congressional elections this fall, calling this the best political environment they have faced since President Bush took office.

But Democrats described a growing sense that they had failed to take full advantage of the troubles that have plagued Mr. Bush and his party since the middle of last year, driving down the president's approval ratings, opening divisions among Republicans in Congress over policy and potentially putting control of the House and Senate into play in November.

Asked to describe the health of the Democratic Party, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said: "A lot worse than it should be. This has not been a very good two months."

"We seem to be losing our voice when it comes to the basic things people worry about," Mr. Dodd said.

Democrats said they had not yet figured out how to counter the White House's long assault on their national security credentials. And they said their opportunities to break through to voters with a coherent message on domestic and foreign policy — should they settle on one — were restricted by the lack of an established, nationally known leader to carry their message this fall.

As a result, some Democrats said, their party could lose its chance to do to Republicans this year what the Republicans did to them in 1994: make the midterm election, normally dominated by regional and local concerns, a national referendum on the party in power.

"I think that two-thirds of the American people think the country is going in the wrong direction," " said Senator Barack Obama, the first-term Illinois Democrat who is widely viewed as one of the party's promising stars. "They're not sure yet whether Democrats can move it in the right direction."

Mr. Obama said the Democratic Party had not seized the moment, adding: "We have been in a reactive posture for too long. I think we have been very good at saying no, but not good enough at saying yes."

…

Since Mr. Bush's re-election, Democrats have been divided over whether to take on the Republicans in a more confrontational manner, ideologically and politically, or to move more forcefully to stake out the center on social and national security issues. They are being pushed, from the left wing of the party, to stand for what they say are the party's historical liberal values.

But among more establishment Democrats, there is concern that many of the party's most visible leaders — among them, Howard Dean, the Democratic chairman; Senator John Kerry, the party's 2004 presidential candidate; Mr. Kennedy; Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader; and Al Gore, who has assumed a higher profile as the party heads toward the 2008 presidential primaries — may be flawed messengers.
…

One of the party's most prominent members, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, has been relatively absent for much of this debate, a characteristic display of public caution that her aides say reflects her concern for keeping focused on her re-election bid. Mrs. Clinton, who has only nominal opposition, declined requests for an interview to discuss her views of the party.

…

In a speech last week in Washington and in an interview, Bayh of Indiana, who is considering a run for president in 2008, sharply criticized fellow Democrats who were arguing that the party should focus only on domestic issues and turn away from national security, since that has been the strong suit for this White House since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

"I think the Republicans are ripe for the taking on this issue," Mr. [Senator Evan] Bayh said in the interview, "but not until we rehabilitate our own image. I think there's a certain element of denial about how we are viewed, perhaps incorrectly but viewed nonetheless, by many Americans as being deficient on national security."
…

But former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the party's 2004 vice-presidential nominee and a prospective presidential candidate for 2008, said he thought Americans were eager to hear the contrasting case.

"What the American people are hungry to hear from us is, what is the difference?" Mr. Edwards said in an interview. "What will we do? How will we deal with the corruption issue in Washington? How will we deal with the huge moral issues that we have at home? This is a huge opportunity for our party to show what we are made of."
…

Dear Senator,

I was heartened to read your statement in the NYT today that you recognize the health of the Party is: "A lot worse than it should be. This has not been a very good two months." And that “"We seem to be losing our voice when it comes to the basic things people worry about.”

First let me say, good for you; the road from Triangulation Addiction to recovery begins with the admission that you have a problem.

Second, let me welcome you back to the Democratic Party.

Third, let me correct you on this “we” business. “We” haven’t lost our voice or focus at all. “We” have been here all along. “We” have been practically screaming for the Democratic Party to quit listening to its Wormwoods and Uriah Heeps who, each election cycle, council tarting yourself up in GOP-Lite Camo, curling up into an even tighter ball and hoping even harder that somehow everything will work itself out.

You see, Senator, at this political moment, our Party owns the only lemonade stand on Dune.

You have 100 million people lined up and ready to pay any price and bear any burden for just a sip of something sweet and cool; who are deathly sick from drinking the toxic "Fuck Everyone But Me" Patent Medicine the Republicans have been flogging from the last 20 years.

And the Democratic Leadership is whining about the location. And the signage.

Sorry, Senator, but you're spending way too much time wandering and weeping like Hamlet, publicly and loudly wondering about exactly how and when you should strike down your Uncle -- instead of just stabbing the bastard -- because I think you still believe that you are something you’re not.

You still believe you’re the Majority.

What you see in the mirror is The Majority Party...temporarily "at liberty" somehow. This is a corrosive form of Political Anorexia that you must get over; a form of bitterly ironic magical thinking which keeps you fat and slow and paralyzed with caution even though, in reality, you’re slowly starving to death.

Like fading royalty living in down-at-the-heels exile far from their lands, the Democratic Leadership continues to delude themselves, holding on to a tattered fantasy that they’re still ensconced in the Winter Palace, issuing proclamations to an attentive nation.

They’re not.

They’re in the Motel Six out on I-88, slapping around their Sancho Panza for not making sure the room had Skin-O-Vision before he booked it, and arguing with the night manager over whether the continental breakfast comes with Danish.

“Don’t you know who We are!” they thunder.

Of course we do; You’re Norma Desmond.

You used to be big. You’re not anymore.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, you can be Big Again. Seriously, if you can just quit acting like the Keystone Kongress for five minutes and learn a how to focus your energy through a lens of Party Discipline and get beyond repeating your Recovery First Step like a fucking mantra ("We have a problem We have a problem We have a problem." We Get It. You Have A Problem. Now what?) and take actual action, you can kick the GOP around the block and back again

With millions and millions of fans and supporters cheering you on and covering your back.

So in that spirit, let me offer you some simple, easy-to-follow hints for making that Long March back to power:

1. Quit whining and hit them already.

2. None of you is bigger than the Party. None. And because of that;

3. Tell men like Joe Biden to Shut The Fuck Up and quit acting like a rookie dancing in the end zone after his first TD every time he even thinks he sees a TV camera. His buffoonish antics embarrass us all. The Ailto hearings could have been about substance if any one of you had bothered to coordinate a strategy beforehand, instead of reacting like skanks on ElimiDate trying to out-preen each other.

4. So quit whining and hit them already.

5. Fire Bob Shrum and the Shrumettes. They’re losers, and their advice always boils down to watering down or outright jettisoning our values, moving another hundred miles to the Right, and hoping we can pick off a few pity votes. Instead…

6. Hit the GOP where they bluster. Go into their house. Seduce their wife. Kick their dog. Quit mincing and triangulating and fencing with rubber-tipped epees, and Charge Right At Them With A Fucking Broadsword. It freak’s em out.

7. The Republican Party as it is currently constituted is our enemy. Not your “Dear Colleagues”. Not “My Good Friend”. They have been lying about us, calling us traitors and cowards and weaklings for twenty years. They have taken us into disaster – abroad and at home – time and time again. They are destroying this country. They are the Bad Guys, get it? And what have you been doing? Wringing your hands and bitching that, “There’s no call for that kind of language.” So…

8. Stop waiting for the referee or Jesus or Mommy to show up and make the GOP “fight fair.” That day will never come, and if the GOP Leadership ever started behaving like sportsmen and statesmen instead of con men and Klansmen, their Party would collapse tomorrow. Divisiveness and hate is all they have. They know it, and it has served them well because the DLC keeps deluding themselves about that simple, central fact. They are not nice men. They will never be nice men. And if they offer to shake your hand, they’re only doing it so they can slit your wrist.

9.So be decorous, and you don’t need to swear, but quit whining and hit them already.

10. Joe Lieberman is not your pal. He is a Fifth Columnist Conservative Republican. Tell him to quit the Party or get with the program. Also calling him a Quisling would make me very happy, but I realize you can only go so far.

11. It is past time to call the GOP out for being a Party of traitors, liars, looters, cronies and nuts, so when in front of a microphones, speak in simple, declarative sentences.

12. The answer to any question should be one of the following:

13. “Because Republicans are liars.”

14. “Because the Republican Party is racist to its core.”

15. “Because Republicans do not care about America.”

16. “Because George Bush is the best friend Osama Bin Laden ever had.”

17. When the MSM stooge who posed the original question rhetorically shoot back with something along the lines of, “But…but…but, you can’t really believe that?!” push back. Very Hard. Tick off a few examples of Republican Treachery and ask, “No, Chris. The question is, why don’t you believe it? WTF is wrong with you? Are you a plain old idiot, or just another paid-off, right-wing, Jeff Gannon whore?”

18. In other words, quit whining and hit them already.

Lastly, a few words about this “Only saying ‘no’ won’t sell” blather.

This is just so fucking ridiculous; another example of Democratic Leaders falling for the head-fake. Accepting the predicate of GOP Talking Points and then trying to debate on terms they dictate.

For Christ’s Sake! When a mother stands between her child and a thug with a knife and says “No!” she’s not being “negative”. She is defending her family.

Why don’t you get that?

We are asking you -- begging you -- to interpose yourself between our values and the thugs and who are trying to destroy them. Between our Constitution and the criminals who are trying to shred it.

Where in the Hell is your ferocious, patriotic passion to defend our nation on those grounds? Under those terms?

Damn it, Senator! Find the passion and the words will come: just ask King, or Churchill or Gandhi or ten thousand others who aren’t famous, just brave and clear and strong.

But if you don’t have that fire in your belly, all the whining in the world about the marketing and message-positioning will make no difference. Because if you can’t get up a Big, Steaming Angry over what these fuckers are doing to our country – if you aren’t passionately committed to the proposition that our values are worth fighting for by fighting all-out against the people that are trying to crush them – you will lose every time, and you need to step out of the way for someone who cares enough to fight hard and bare-knuckled enough to win.

Because Americans will tolerate ear-biting and eye-gouging, but they will NOT stand for (or vote for) a pussy bawling that the other boys are playing too rough.

Stop waiting for them to play nice. Stop waiting for the cavalry to come and save us.

You are the cavalry.

So quit whining and hit them already.