Democrats Gone Dumb?

So here we are, in the first weeks of 2009. There are Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, and a Democrat is getting ready to be inaugurated. So how has the Democratic Party made such a mess of things already? Let's leave aside for now the ongoing drama around the Minnesota Senate seat. That one may not get resolved until Al Franken is up for re-election six years from now.

In New York, Gov. David Paterson seems under increasing pressure to name Caroline (Ya Know) Kennedy to replace Hillary Clinton.



All manner of backroom maneuvering is alleged there, but don't sell Paterson short. He's surprised people (friend and enemy alike) before. Yet for almost comic idiocy and incompetence, nothing beats the charade now going on to replace President-Elect Barack Obama.

Let's be clear at the outset. There are enough bad actors in this scenario to make the late Ed Wood smile.



Inarguably the list begins with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Allegedly trying to sell a Senate seat is bad enough. Getting caught talking about it in vulgar wiretaps is (or should be) embarrassing. Refusing to step down while your case is adjudicated is chutzpah squared. But then, Blago actually appoints someone to the seat. Said appointment, Roland Burris,accepts the appointment, and actually tries to present credentials in Washington, only to have them rejected. Are you laughing yet?

And that's only the half of it. Democrats, in both Illinois and Washington, seem determined to give this seat to the opposition. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for reasons best known only to himself, contacts Blagojevich before the firestorm of his arrest erupts. He lobbies Blago for his preferred replacement, according to published reports, and proceeds to badmouth three other possible choices. Trouble is, all the choices are black. Seems Reid didn't think any of them could hold the seat in the next election. Someone please call me the next time someone tells Harry Reid who can win an election in his home state of Nevada, and he actually pays attention.

Then there are the Illinois Democrats themselves. They're about as scared of losing that Senate seat as Harry Reid is. However, their bumbling has given Rod Blagojevich the wiggle room needed to appoint Roland Burris. They were gun shy about calling a special election, and taking immediate steps to oust Blago. Now it's costing them in the court of public opinion. I can almost see the Republican ads when the seat does come up for an actual election. "Don't let Harry Reid and the Democrat Party tell you who your next Senator should be. Vote for (fill in the blank, most likely Paul Kirk)". After the majority leader's reported meddling, even some black folks in Chicago might pay attention to that one.

So now it supposedly comes to the rule of law, and whether the Senate can legally bar Roland Burris. Taking no chances, the former Illinois Attorney General played the God Card this past weekend. Speaking at a church, Burris invoked the Almighty, telling a God fearing congregation that the Lord had touched Rod Blagojevich, and that's how he, Burris, was chosen. Yep, it's come to that. A career politician says (with a straight face) that a foul mouthed benefactor was touched by God to make a political decision.

Yes, Rod Blagojevich is innocent until proven guilty. But what about the other players in the sad tale? Can the Democrats get past their own ham handed attempts to resolve this? And what of Barack Obama? Can he continue to remain above a fray in his own home state?

Is this a blip on the screen, or a harbinger of problems to come for the party now in power?

Update......Update......Update!!!!

The Lord must truly work in mysterious ways! If God touched Rod Blagojevich, as Roland Burris said the other day, what's to explain Harry Reid's change of heart? He's gone from "We won't seat him" to "He's a nice man", from the guy who threw Burris out into the rain to the guy who invited him in for a chat. Burris met with Reid and Dick Durbin today, and now there seems to be the possibility that he could be seated in the Senate after all. A few things need to happen, but what appears to have happened is somebody called Harry Reid a racist and he didn't like it much.

Ahhhh, politics!

Why Can't We?

President-Elect Barack Obama certainly chose a resonant slogan with "Yes We Can."

And, of course, he did, as did we...the American people. As we turn the page to 2009, and face frightening challenges on a number of fronts, it's time to transition from "Yes We Can" to "Why Can't We?"

There are fundamental changes that need to be made in how the nation functions, and politicians will make these adjustments faster with some prodding from the public.

And so, this humble blog presents:

"Why Can't We?" These are objectives that can be done, and ought to be done as priorities for a better America.

Why can't we ... produce cars and trucks that pollute less, are more road reliable, and are more fuel efficient?

This past fall, we saw Detroit's Big Three come to Washington hat-in-hand to ask our elected representatives for help. Yet even now, we have no firm pledge from them to do things differently. In fact, you can see the carmakers' commitment to business as usual in their commercials and the vehicles they market.

Do we really think a hybrid Cadillac Escalade that gets 21 miles to the gallon on the highway represents progress?



The most fuel efficient car now sold in America gets 48-51 miles to the gallon of fuel.

Why can't we have the option of buying a car that gets 75 MPG? Impossible? Not really.

In fact, one US carmaker sells a car that gets almost that much. Trouble is, you can't buy it here. Come to think of it, college kids regularly create vehicles that clock several hundred miles to the gallon. Public pressure is already being applied to the Big Three in the form of unsold SUV's clogging dealer showrooms. That is, dealers that remain open.

Are we prepared to let elected officials pledge our dollars to carmakers and in six months have no clue how it's been spent. or whether better products are coming to market? Why can't we indeed!

Why can't we ...have universal health care in this country? There are anywhere from 41-46 million Americans who spend a part of their day worrying about getting sick. That's because our health care system focuses its priorities anywhere but on people.




Insurance companies, hospitals, stockholders, drug companies and their lobbyists all seem to prosper, and any attempt to talk about making sure all Americans have access to quality care is met with the battle cry of "socialized medicine". We must start from the notion that good health is an American right, not a privilege.

As we are challenged with the responsibility of eating better, exercising more, not smoking , and the like, our elected officials must come up with health care reform that provides quality care and services for all. Whatever the cost, it's better than having families who pay more for health insurance than they pay for their homes. No matter what you may hear, it works in other countries, not perfectly, but it works.

Why can't we ...have better education for more of our young people? In a perfect world, educators would make as much if not more than star athletes.

Certainly no one would argue teachers have less responsibility. Assuming that won't happen anytime soon, we need to ask if the American education system works hard enough to replicate success. The short answer is no, it doesn't. We have some of the best schools in the world, and ...some of the worst.

Sadly, the best and worst coexist in some cases in the same city. In too many instances we have allowed academic rigor to disappear from our classrooms. We tell our kids they need to get educated primarily to land a good job. We neglect to tell them knowledge is important beyond employment.




We need to recognize where our education bar is, then raise it! If half our young people can't read at or above grade level, we need to commit to making that 75% during Barack Obama's first term. We also need to recognize that funding education is important, but it's not the sole determining factor in creating educational excellence. People are. That would be teachers, administrators, parents, students, and yes, concerned Americans.

The above are but a few areas where we should be asking "Why Can't We?" There are certainly others, but we've got to start somewhere . Are these few things able to be done, or at least worked on? You tell me.

Why can't we ...

Baby Boom Challenge

As we move into a new year, many of us are focused on the need to jump start our moribund economy. It certainly will be Job #1 for our new president. At the same time, however, America faces a different and more daunting challenge. It's one that will take a supreme effort on the part of those that recognize it.

It can't be met with rhetoric from myriad of divides that haunt our society: Black vs. white, liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, gay, vs. straight. If left unmet, this challenge threatens to gut any economic recovery that takes place in the future.

Think for a moment about some of the more outlandish stories that dotted the American landscape in 2008. From Eliot Spitzer to Rod Blagojevich, from Plaxico Burress to Bernie Madoff, from Kwame Kilpatrick to Ted Stevens to John Edwards to AIG to the Big Three carmakers, a common thread emerges. It's one of greed, entitlement, stupidity, and cluelessness. And even these stories scratch the surface of what the nation must address, and fix. It can't be fixed simply by electing the nation's first black president and looking to him to wave a magic wand.

Fact is, America's soul is damaged, and too many of us either refuse to admit it or don't recognize what has happened.

This blog is certainly not the first place to speak to this malaise. My man Steven Ivory has written eloquently in eurweb.com about the need to mend our damaged fabric. The purpose here is to build on what others have recognized, and throw down a gauntlet to a specific group to take the lead in addressing the problem.

What needs fixing in this country is our moral compass, our sense of ourselves, and our resolve to leave a better world for our children than what we inherited. And what group needs to take the lead in remolding the American spirit? It is the responsibility of my generation, the so-called baby boomers.



As our eldest creep toward retirement, an honest assessment of our stewardship of the nation would leave quite a bit to be desired.

It is that generation of men and women born between 1946 and 1964 that benefitted from an enormous expansion of the US economy, and at the same time changes in the nation's moral fiber brought on in large measure by the civil rights movement.



It was also our generation that saw the need 40 years ago to change America's direction. We were young then, and the ethos of the counterculture was at the same time well intentioned and unfocused. It is now almost two generations later. Many of us have grown children and grandchildren. It's time for us to dig deep, and start asking questions that may be painful, but are certainly necessary.

We can start by asking ourselves whether what we say we want in the life of this country is actually what we end up paying for. Put simply, many of us decry the cultural excesses that we ourselves consume.

Whether it's the endless diet of "reality television" we watch, or the banal, self aggrandizing music we listen to, we need to ask ourselves whether this is the best we can do. This isn't about censorship but about discriminating consumption.

Most of us don't realize that as we encourage the production of shows like "The Real Housewives of Whatever" we know less and less about the rest of the world because our media has closed foreign news bureaus because they aren't profit centers.

Whether we want to admit it or not, our consumption speaks to our values, to what we hold dear, to what is important to us. If spending $100,000 on a sweet sixteen birthday party appears normal to our youth, will spending time with family and friends ever suffice? If over the top behavior is rewarded with media exposure, how do we reward what is normal, caring, and nurturing?

If a half-hearted effort gets you a passing grade in school, why bother striving for excellence? I believe if these fundamental issues aren't addressed, we can expect more, not less of the behavior we say we abhor.

And why, you may ask, does the baby boom generation have a special responsibility to join the struggle for the nation's future?



It's not simply that which we were given, although that would be reason enough. It is our numbers that mandate the work we must do. Those numbers represented the hope of our parents for the future we'd inherit.

That we've been imperfect vessels is inarguable. Yet if our time as young people taught us anything, it should have been the notion that yes, we can change the nation, and the world.

Baby boomers and children of baby boomers, your comments please?