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Country Club Etiquette Trumps Legislative Results

By David Sirota

The recent headlines about President Obama working to crush primary campaigns against Democratic incumbents would be great fodder for a canned column looking at hypocrisy. Yes, it would be easy to read about the president trying to clear the Empire State’s primary field for appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and then pen a screed wondering how that squares with Obama promising… return to article

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    With the particulars, I agree. But while gathering signatures at a Pacific NW street fair to get support for the public option, I met a PA AFL-CIO rep and got a rude awakening when I asked if they’d support Sestak. Nope, he said, because Spectre is their “friend”, they have “agreements”. 

    Everyone,  including the upper echelon of the unions, thinks that it’s about having “chits” for favors. Everyone plays the Senators’ game, as if -

    They had as much incumbent-safety as a senator. You know, those 6-yr terms, longer than any other breed of politician, with only a statewide election to defend their seats, with almost no media glare compared to the President’s 4 yrs to begin reelection defense in 2 yrs, nationwide.

    Which I discussed w/the union rep and he was wide-eyed. So why don’t you use your platform to out the absolute power of the senate, where all progressive bills go to die? We’re ignorant. Outside of the Green Party, that wanted to simply demolish the senate, we ignore it at our peril.

    The rep left very thoughtful, after I told him that w/that 6-yr term, Spectre’s sure to pull a Lieberman within 1 yr, knowing he has 5 more to yrs to make one concession to unions and, w/the power of incumbency, stay on the senate until he dies. After all, Spectre already flip-flopped on EFCA. And how likely is it that we pass a non-watered-down EFCA before 2010?

    Teach, don’t preach. We know what we want and that we’re not getting it. The Senate is where we have to have laser-like focus on the national front. Lobbyists know it, so they throw obscene amounts of $$ at incumbents. On the state level, the same goes.

    Presidents and governors sign the checks, senators are ultimately the ones who write what’s on the checks, for what and to whom. So whenever you want a shake-up for progressive politics, link to the progressive’s ActBlue site and make it count. And push SenateGuru.com, where someone progressive finally got wise to following their every move.

    United States Posted by Inaru on Sep 26, 2009 at 6:08 PM
    Page 1 of 1 pages

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