The excited base

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/10/03355/4942
The big talk today on DailyKos is that the Democrats are fighting back:

Democrats in Washington and around the country are organizing for a year of confrontation and resistance, saying they are determined to block Bush’s major initiatives and thereby deny him the mandate he has claimed from his reelection victory last November.

Four years ago the Dems took the bait and switch of Bush’s call for bipartisanship but they won’t be fooled again:

Bush has opened the year with calls for bipartisanship, telling newly elected members of Congress last week that he hoped to work across party lines to solve the country’s problems. Democrats, however, appear to have little interest in building bridges to the White House, saying they do not believe Bush is genuinely interested in cooperation or compromise with the opposition. “The president’s idea of bipartisanship is, ‘Here’s what I want to do, join me,’ “ said Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “It isn’t about negotiating. It isn’t about compromise. It’s almost this belief that they have the monopoly on what’s best for the country.”

(Go New Jersey!)

Where did the Dems find their new backbone? Well, the blogs are taking credit for giving them the media cover required to do this, but I think it’s a couple factors:

• The Dean movement proving that fighting works better than, uh, not fighting. Duh. Though it was insulting that at the time the DNC didn’t “get it”, its good to see that now that they’ve lost what should have been an easy win, they’re starting to understand.
• An excited base. The base got excited in the last election and now is organized and working hard. With the elecetion over, there’s a lot of idle hands looking for good things to do. We’re calling our reps, demanding that they fight. this is the point that the media isn’t covering
• The blogs giving them media cover (gotta give them some credit)

Last week was a turning point for the Democrats. The strong show of force from the excited base telling the Dem leadership, “Damn it, if you aren’t going to fight, we’re going to fight for you.” Not just the letters and phone calls, but the appearance of hundreds of people, many from Ohio, demanding that the Dems start fighting. Make them fight for every inch. As they say, “if the people lead, the leaders will follow.”

The tea is in the harbor.

To make sure that they continue, we need to keep up the support: Encouraging Dems to keep fighting and pressure to the Republicans to keep them on the run (letters, phone calls, lobbying).

Didn't the Dems predict this 3 years ago?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/1/9/234855/7257
Oh, yes, we did. In fact, we lost an election because Bush convinced people we were wrong.

(no subject)

"Still, notably absent in the coverage was a question ... posed in letters this week: Democrats are standing up for the right to vote of all citizens. Why aren't the Republicans?" (link)

and yet in another article on the same site someone points out:

"... Harry Korrell, the lawyer for the GOP, said: 'If you can't tell who won an election because of errors and mistakes, you have to rerun it.'"

Oh wait, Harry was talking about Washington State, where the DEMOCRAT won the Governor race fair and square, but the Republicans are trying to use their dirty tricks to overturn the election. The first quote is about people fighting for social justice, freedom, and the REAL American way.