Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

The Makings of a DINO-crat

We have no political parties. We've never had much of them --I mean the Democrats, the Republicans. We have one party --we have the party of essentially corporate America. It has two right wings, one called Democratic, one called Republican.
- Gore Vidal - Counterpunch interview, Mar. 14, 2003

"The Republicans are 95 percent corrupt and the Democrats are 75 percent corrupt. They are accepting money from the same corporations. And of course, that is going to corrupt you."
-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. --
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Fascist America

I saw a link at FireDogLake some time ago that I thought worth pursuing. The story, from Howie Klein, is about Darcy Burner who is described as "the quintessential Blue America candidate."

She nearly made it last year when she first challenged rubber stamp Republican Dave Reichert in an upscale suburban Seattle district, WA-08, and drew 122,021 votes to his 129,362– an incredible accomplishment. In fact, it has made a few careerist pols start licking their chops thinking they could step in and take over where she left off. One, a Republican with two first names who says he’s a Democrat now, is going to declare Tuesday.

Facing possible elimination of their candidate Reichert in the next election, how do the Republicans respond? They enter Republican state senator Rodney Tom in the Democratic primary, that's how. This is far from the first time they've done something like this, and sadly, they usually get away with it. Sometimes, like in the notable case of Joe Lieberman, a Republican can make an entire career of campaigning as a Democrat, caucusing with them, and then voting with the Republicans when crunch time comes. Well, Ned Lamont's primary challenge smoked ol' Joementum out of his hole, but how many other politicians are wearing the D in public but thinking the R all day and night long?

Michael Moore said it best in his 2001 book Stupid White Men, (and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!)
"If a Republican runs for office against another Republican, a Republican will win every time."

He goes on to list no less than 54 Democratic Congressmen, and 5 Senators who voted a minimum of 30% of the time against liberal bills, and/or for Republican legislation. Among the most notable were Senator Zell Millar, (D? - Ga.), who voted with the Republicans 100% of the time; Representative Ralph Millar of TX backstabbed his own 80% of the time; dishonorable mention went to William J. "Popsicle" Jefferson, who may have voted R only 30% of the time, but showed himself to have Republican values in other ways.

Astonishingly Joementum isn't even on the list. I guess he was still in stealth mode back in '01. It gives one pause that LIEberman almost became the first Republican to be elected Vice President on a Democratic ticket. That's how bad things are.

Here's a sampling of votes on issues that Glenn Greenwald posted on his old Unclaimed Territory blog some time ago, when the Republicans still held a majority in the House and Senate. He was demonstrating the lockstep that Republicans march to, but equally revealing is the number of Democrats that didn't even pretend to provide opposition. Some of these votes (like the Alito and Roberts confirmations) may be some of the most disastrous measures ever foisted on the American people. Like the 5-4 majority of Republican appointees who decided Bush v. Gore in 2000 wasn't bad enough!

Vote to confirm John Roberts to the Supreme Court:
Republicans (56-0) -- Democrats (22 -22)
Cloture vote on Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court: Republicans (54-0) -- Democrats (19-25)
Vote on Authorization to use military force in Iraq:
Republicans (48-1) -- Democrats - (29-21)
Cloture vote on Bankruptcy Bill:
Republicans (55-0) -- Democrats (14-30)
Cloture vote on nomination of Priscilla Owens to appeals court:
Republicans (55-0) -- Democrats (25-18)
Torture/detention bill:
Republicans (53-1) -- Democrats (12-33)

That last item, voted on Sept. 28, 2006 - giving Bush nearly unfettered authority to detain and torture even US citizens - is telling. A dozen Democrats, nay a dozen Americans voting for such a measure is outrageous beyond words. Kvatch recorded the vote here. Glenn Greenwald broke it down.

Democrats in favor (12) - Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.).

Republicans against (1) - Chafee (R.I.).

Jeffords (I) voted against.

Here's some more evidence from FireDogLake of another side of the same phenomenom, which they call rootstrapping. "The practice of courting grassroots money and activism solely to attain elective office, thus securing the advantages of incumbency and making future grassroots support unnecessary. See also: Carney, Chris and McNerney, Jerry."

Much of politics in America is deception. That's known as false advertising in commerce, and can lead to criminal charges. In warfare it's called a false flag operation, and if you get caught at it you are subject to being shot on site as a spy. Yet, during a campaign a candidate can freely advocate one position, then vote for the opposite once elected without repercussion. The value of a person's vote is negated if that person is making a choice based on false information.

Full disclosure: I wrote the bulk of this post back in July, and it kind of fell through the cracks. The thing is, from time to time the Democrats remind us of just how lame they are - most recently with the disgraceful caving of Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein on the confirmation of Michael Mukasey, and perhaps even more infuriating (if that's possible) - Steny Hoyer's attempt to block Dennis Kucinich's motion to impeach Dick Cheney. The latter measure only passed because some of the Republicans on the committee thought it would be an embarrassment to Democrats if it was allowed to go through. Let's fervently hope that this decision backfires on them bigtime.

Anyway, it looked like it was high time the subject of DINO-crats and their contribution to the fascist takeover of America was put out there for discussion. The latest betrayal isn't just the straw that broke the camel's back. It's more like another shovelful of dirt being thrown over the grave of democratic rule.

Video: here's a very recent example of why I think Joe 'false flag' LIE-berman is even more despicable than the Republicans who at least wear their own party's label.

"Grossly Unfair"

BTW, if you follow no other links from above, please treat yourself to the Gore Vidal interview in its entirety. The man is a patriot of impeccable intellect, and a national treasure.

"Now, as we well know, we're a Lieberman or two away from the kind of one-party rule that'd make Stalin say, 'Goddamn, wish I'd've thought of that.' " -- The Rude Pundit --

TAGS: Democrats, Betrayal, Dick Cheney, Impeachment, Oh Yeah!