Last November, the same polling firm, Moore Insights, conducted basically the same poll, pitting a reanimated Rossi-for-governor against a not-any-time-soon-up-for-reelection Christine Gregoire. That poll showed the candidate who won in a landslide the year before losing by 6 points to the guy who actually lost, proving for once and for all that liberal policy is so obviously failing the American people that Dem governors would have lost not just in New Jersey and Virginia, but in Washington, too. (Ignore that 10 point margin of error behind the curtain.)
Nice try, but even the long-time Republican pollster Bob Moore admits his latest survey isn't all that authoritative. Kind of like the Washington Republicans. They’ve been a mess for so long it’s sometimes a wonder they hold any office at all. Remember ’96 GOP gubernatorial candidate Ellen “gay rights are special right for sodomites” Craswell? (If you don’t, her Wikipedia page is chock full of other gems.) More recently, Pam Roach, famous for years for tormenting other Senators, staff and attorneys, was locked out of the Republican caucus for bad behavior. And there’s the BIAW, which could also be spelled WA GOP PAC, going after (Republican) Attorney General Rob Mckenna, for going after them, for campaign finance violations during Rossi’s run in 2008. The most viable current Murray challenger, Don Benton, (who just squeaked out of the woodwork to announce this weekend) only lasted 8 months as state Republican chairman before running afoul of party leadership and getting the boot.
Pollster Bob’s been trying to put lipstick on this party for years, doing what a good propagandist is supposed to: convincing his employers that there’s hope, and striking what he hopes will be terror in the hearts of their foes. Dino didn’t even know his name was being pit against Patty’s. Moore used it for the name recognition. If that’s the best they can do at this point in the game, we’re doing all right.
None of this, of course, is keeping Patty Murray from exploiting the poll’s results to her ends. Alarming fundraising letters are already out, warning us to pony up for Patty’s campaign because those danged Republicans will stop at no underhanded Rovian dirty tricks to cut down the Democrats' Senate lead. In Patty’s defense, this is becoming standard practice for Democrats. A DSCC phone canvasser squawked at me the other morning, after my third “no” to their fundraising pitch, “Do you really want the Republicans to control Congress?” I reminded her that’s a silly thing to say to a “4 of 4” Dem voter, and hung up. Call me a dreamer, but I have more faith in voters. Does anyone really believe the GOP could pick up 11 senate seats? And keep in mind that the Republicans will be defending 19 senate seats and the Democrats 15. What really worries Murray and her party is not so much Rovian polling tactics but voter backlash. The cure for that? Well, if they can’t figure that out, the idea of a Senator Rossi may not be so far-fetched.
Like many a news junky, I spent much of last week eagerly awaiting the media reaction to President Obama’s first State of the Union. I wondered, would Paul Krugman pronounce that the speech saved or buried any hope for Main Street? I confess a morbid fascination for the spectacle of all the little heads in their little boxes frothing at each other over whether Obama dug the Democrats out from the Massachusetts “debacle.” Even more morbidly, I hoped for some Joe-Wilson-esque bad behavior from the extreme crazies, just because it proves what everyone already knows about them. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning again waiting for Jon Stewart’s take. The anticipatory tizzy was almost as good as waiting for the next season of Dexter (Will Dexter without Trinity be like Air America without Bush?)
And then I came to my senses.
Talk is cheaper than oil these days and it’s unfortunately nearly as profitable. I think we all need to keep that in mind as we stand ‘round our real or virtual water coolers this morning, listening to that coworker who doesn’t even bother to vote but once every four years. Network nabobs get paid to tell us what we already think we know. And what does contemplating the meaning of the President’s every word, pause and gesture, scoring his eloquence, obsessing over the Republican reaction, and wringing our hands over how it played to the electorate in Nevada, really do to help? Nothing.
And it risks drawing us into a cynical trap. Here’s some data worth keeping in mind as the SOTU post mortem proceeds: in a post-election poll in Massachusetts, by a margin of 47% to 32%, AFL-CIO voters, (who actually helped elect Beauhunk Brown!) felt the Democrats had accomplished too little. ACCOMPLISHED too little. Everyone is griping that Obama hasn’t done enough. That’s, um, a sign. I believe our goal as good progressives for the next three years should be to get our president and his party in trouble for doing too much.
How? The best I can come up with is that we keep doing what we have been, just more of it. Read all your emails from Fuse, MoveOn and Save Darfur and 1Sky and send those letters and sign the petitions and forward them. Don’t unsubscribe Organizing for America. Get out to a rally or two . Make another donation to a progressive group that’s working on the ground in your community to organize people around their best intentions and altruistic impulses. Broke because you’re out of work? Spend a chunk of your unenjoyment volunteering for one or more of those groups – they need all kinds of help (including blogging).
And since it’s fair to assume that many of you reading this do all the above and more, maybe it’s time to put some extra work into getting a multiplier effect for our efforts. Let’s hold those watercooler pundits’ feet to the fire. Let’s get them on our lists, at our rallies, dialing for our phonebanks, donating to our organizations, becoming fans of our Facebook pages, haranguing our electeds every chance they get. And not just them, but anyone we know who talks a good talk, but perhaps needs a little encouragement, enticement, inducement, or guilt tripping to walk the walk. You know you know someone who means well, but just needs a little push: the “Sure I voted for him, but you know, it’s just biz as usual in DC” types. We elected the guy. Now more than ever he needs our help (I just got the email two minutes ago: “Dear Darrin… I cannot do it alone… Thank you for making it possible, President Barack Obama.” C’mon folks, he’s begging us!)
So, while Glenn Beck keeps busy comparing the first-ever State of the Union address by an African American to one of Castro’s four-hour lectures, and Rachel Maddow poo-poos it for lip servicing the middle class, and NPR presents a thoughtful analysis of what it means for the future of pea-patches, the rest of us can congratulate and thank the president for another fine speech, and then get on with the important work: making sure he knows that while we still like his rhetorical flare, we’ll all be a lot happier when the Democrats get busy and give us a reason to regain our hope.
The latest twist on the long road to healthcare reform has me wondering how those people who don’t like the thought of Washington bureaucrats dictating our health care choices feel about a cabal of Washington religious fanatics doing it instead?
With the insertion of the Stupak Amendment, and it’s radical restrictions of the right for millions of women to choose an abortion, into the House version of the health care bill last weekend, we may soon have an answer. To avert that catastrophe, it’s now up to the Obama administration and majority of Democrats who don’t want healthcare reform held hostage by ideology to stick to their guns and make sure the Stupak Amendment, the worst back door assault on Roe v Wade in decades, does not make it into the final version of the bill. (For a full description of the amendment and what it will mean for women’s right to choose an abortion, I’ll defer to the experts: Planned Parenthood.)
Putting the abortion debate into the middle of healthcare reform could prove to be one the biggest bumps in the road to insuring millions of people who currently go without healthcare. The blame rests on the C Street Group of legislators – including the likes of famously philandering politicos Mark Sanford and John Ensign – of which Democrat Bart Stupak is a member. The gang gets this moniker because they all bunk at a house at 133 C Street, Washington, DC, owned by a conservative religious organization that many have labeled a cult. The location of the C Street house, right next door to the Capitol, embodies in a frighteningly literal way this group’s agenda of eliminating any and all space separating church and state. The house is owned by a cabal known as The Family, a shadowy religious organization founded by an evangelist determined to establish Washington DC as the capitol of God’s kingdom on earth – with members of his organization calling the shots from behind the scenes.
After the millions of women who will lose abortion coverage if they already have it, or those who will be denied it once they sign up for a plan subsidized by federal funds (a plan they will be obligated to join), the next victims of the Stupak Amendment are members of more rational, less Knights-of-the-Templar-esque, faith communities. I’m referring to the majority of Christians, of all stripes, who understand the pragmatic healthcare needs of the many outweigh the ideological fervor of the few. Stupak has left them scrambling to distance themselves from their anti-woman, anti-choice brethren. Here's a statement from Christian leaders who are standing up for health care reform and against the Stupak Amendment.
These are the people, many of whom belong to pro-life institutions like the Catholic Church, who recognize that the emotional depth charge of the abortion debate will only sink the effort to provide the basic right of healthcare to the 50 million of their fellow citizens who currently go without. They made a choice to put the health care first, and it’s a shame that a fringe claiming to speak for them should overshadow reason.
The long and short of it is this. The Obama administration has said it will fight to keep Stupak out of the health care bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid need to hear that the forty-odd Dems who voted with the Republicans (all of them except Ohio rep Mary Jo Kilroy, who deserves some sort of award for standing up to fundamentalist ideology) can’t hold their party, and America’s health, hostage to their pre-1972 belief system. Here’s a link to a petition aimed at them. Sign it, let them know how you feel, then pass it on to everyone else you know.
fusewashington.org/page/s/stupak
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