Cowardly cowards (D - Cowardland)

Dadahead wrote a post so perfect and dripping with disgust that I need to quote it in full:

Obama, Kerry, Clinton, Schumer, Durbin; none of them will even comment on Feingold's proposed censure of the president.

However, Kos digs up a list of senators who were willing to censure President Clinton for the Lewinsky affair, a list which includes Kerry, Schumer, and Durbin (as well as Kennedy, Lieberman, and Reid, among many others). This is maybe ever-so-slightly unfair, since in that context a resolution for censure was advocated as an alternative to impeachment, a possible compromise. But if these Democrats want to use that as an excuse, they will have to admit either that President Clinton was deserving of censure but President Bush is not, or that they supported the censure of Clinton even though they didn't actually believe it was warranted. Or I suppose, as a third possibility, they could say that they believe Bush is worthy of censure, but that they still don't support the resolution, but this would be more or less tantamount to admitting that they are cowards.

Let me make this clear: I'm frustrated and mad as hell at the Democrats, not because they won't risk their political neck on some pet issue of mine or another...there's no glory in heroic defeats in politics...but because their cravenness even extends to issues where, if they only had the courage to buckle down and take a firm stand, they could get the whole country on their side.

I know I've made this point once before...having Russ Feingold twisting in the wind out there with nobody getting his back makes him look ridiculous, the whole democratic party look weak and the NSA wiretapping scandal look like it's just no big deal. Yes, of course it is a big deal that we have a president who is disregarding laws and trampling on civil liberties, and wouldn't it be wonderful if the voters would recognize that from the facts of the case with no prompting. But that's not the way things work. The Republicans love to snipe that the Democrats only criticize without having a plan...well that's the job description of the opposition party! They're in power...they're the one who should have the plan, while it is our job to criticize and keep them honest...instead, all I hear is the opposite...Republicans criticizing Democrats for having no plan. This is like the driver who is getting lost criticizing the passenger for not knowing where they're going.