Bye-Bayh Supermajority (and good riddance)!

Indiana Senator Evan Bayh (D) dropped the “bomb” yesterday, and declared that he will not seek reelection this fall. And he made this announcement 24 hours before the filing deadline for candidates who want to represent the Democratic party. I guess that’s Bayh’s way of sticking it to Harry Reid for bobbling the supermajority that was handed to him in 2008.

Many Democrats will lose sleep over this, but not me. In some ways this is a blessing in disguise. There’s a lot of pressure involved with having a supermajority in the US Senate, and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did not handle it well at all. Reid was too concerned with playing nice with the GOP, and being bi-partisan, that he forgot to do what the people elected him to do–deliver on the Progressive agenda the Democrats promised in the 2008 campaign. When you have a supermajority of 60 votes, you are shielded from the filibuster and essentially given the right to push through any legislation you want. It sounds easy, but in this day and age of career politicians Harry Reid was too concerned with getting reelected this fall, and wanted to appeal to the broadest swath of Nevada voters as possible. This meant crossing the aisle and extending a hand to the GOP. And when he did, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell slapped him.

And then started “The Great Democratic Dropout of 2010”: Christopher Dodd (Connecticut), Ted Kaufman (Delaware), Roland Burris (Illinois), Byron Dorgan (N. Dakota), and now Evan Bayh all decided not to run for reelection. At a time when the Democratic party should be celebrating victories in healthcare reform, financial reform, and a jobs bill, they have nothing to show for the full year in which they had an opportunity to get things done. So who can blame these Senators for quitting? They are probably just as frustrated as the rest of the country by how broken the Federal Legislature is.

So why is this a good thing? For starters, Evan Bayh was a very conservative Democrat and didn’t necessarily agree with the Democratic agenda. And I think that because of people like him the party has lost its identity, which contributed to their lack of cohesion and progress. If the Democratic party can retain 52-55 seats held by true Progressive Democrats in the election this fall, then there will be a will to fight the GOP fanatics instead of fighting internally within the party. Sure this will leave them open to the filibuster, but then the GOP will ultimately need to come up with some actual solutions and ideas of their own instead of playing Nancy Reagan Politics (“Just Say No”).

The Democrats have been in the driver’s seat and they went nowhere. Now they will have a chance to turn left at the next GOP stop light and drive a true Progressive agenda. If they don’t, then we may be seeing the end of the Democrats as we knew them.

But perhaps that will (finally) open up a lane for the Progressive Party Express.

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Political Football

"Pelosi takes the snap and hands off to Reid...he's looking for the hole..."

Politics, like football, seems to be a game of inches. It takes a team of people working under enormous pressure, against an equally enormous foe, to move their agenda forward towards the goal. Every inch in that direction is a test of will, determination, and strength. Pride, ego, validation, and ultimately money are on the line. Every inch forward is vital because progress for one side is regression to the other. Glory goes to those who win, because the fight is hard. People get injured along the way. Inch, by tormented inch.

But football, unlike politics, is an honest game. Put aside gambling, cheating, and Terrell Owens crying about Tony Romo for a moment, and consider this: when two football teams step onto the field they are both trying to beat hell out of each other. The Bears hate the Packers. The Jets hate the Patriots. Everyone hates the Raiders. The mission is clear: our team must win.

In politics we get this phony attempt at bi-partisanship, which is just a ploy to make the American public feel good about ourselves. Voters pull the lever for the politician that supports the issues that are important to that him or her. And I am sure “kumbaya” is not on anyone’s top-10 list of most important issues right now.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for a happy nation where everyone is getting theirs. I would like all Americans to be able to agree on some basic things like guns, abortion, human rights, and never letting Tom Delay dance in public again. But that’s not what America is all about. America is really all about football.

Why not just ram the ball through the opposition's weak defensive front?

In the Healthcare Reform Legislation Bowl the Democrats are the home team. They have the crowd mostly behind them. They have a great quarterback (Obama) who knows how to move the ball. Their offense (House of Representatives) is superior, but their defense (Senate) is pretty evenly matched against the GOP because of some weak spots in the lineup (Lieberman, Nelson, Conrad).

The Republicans are the underdogs in this game. They don’t have the numbers in the House to lineup against the Democrats, but they can score points off their own offense in the Senate by overpowering the Democrats’ porous secondary. In football this would be called the Blue Dog Offensive Scheme.

The Democrats are playing this too conservatively. Rather than playing to avoid mistakes or fumbles, they should just take the ball and play smash-mouth. Break through the GOP’s weak defense against a public option, and outrun them to the end zone.

In other words Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and her housemates have put out a bill on healthcare reform. The bill is now in your hands. If the Bluedogs like Lieberman, Nelson, and Conrad are gonna let the GOP run all over you in the Senate then use the power of cloture–you have the numbers for that. Get your team together on a bill that delivers what ALL DEMOCRATS said they’d do before the 2008 election, ram it through and do what you gotta do to get it on the President’s desk for a signature. If it upsets the GOP and their supporters, I can assure you that the voters will let you know if that’s a problem or not. 2010 is around the corner, and the voters will all have something to say on election day. Win this game now and you might just dominate for a long time. Losing it means losing many Democratic voters, your job, and likely losing control of the congress in a year.

Democrats were elected to run this country right now, and I want the agenda I voted for. NO COMPROMISES! Democrats, if you get an inch in this debate, turn it into a 55-yard kick return and take it all the way to the house–The White House.