It’s time to Fight Them Harry!

Our country is being held hostage by our political class.  Every day the headlines just keep getting worse.  This lame duck session of congress has put partisan excess on display.  Now is the time to stand up to the Far Right.  Democratic leadership has been far too conservative and far too pliable.

Here’s the Appalling headline setting Peace against Civil Liberties via Wonk Room:

Sen. Corker Threatens Reid: If You Bring DADT Repeal For A Vote, We’ll Walk Away From START

Other Republican Senators — including McCain and Graham — have privately hinted that they would oppose ratifying the treaty if the Senate voted on DADT, but Corker is the first lawmaker to publicly threaten to walk away from the measure. Last night, Reid filed cloture on DADT and DREAM and promised to hold cloture votes on both measures on Saturday, before returning to the START treaty. Reid has also promised that he would accommodate six or seven days of debate on the measure.

Corker’s description of DADT as “partisan” is surprising in light of the increasing Republican support for the measure. Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME), Olympia Snowe (ME), Scott Brown (MA) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) have pledged to vote for the stand-alone repeal bill. The measure is also supported by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the overwhelming majority of the American people. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll released earlier this week found that 77% of Americans support ending DADT, the highest level of support since the poll began asking the question.

This is surreal.  Corker thinks that issues like Civil Liberties and treaties negotiated in the interest of the American People are just “campaign promise types of issues”.  Listen to what this man’s says and be prepared to be outraged. Any decent Republican should distance themselves from Corker’s misguided attempts to confuse public will with his narrow political interest.

Lindsey Graham is indicating he may not vote for START because of the DADT repeal.   This is the new Republican Meme:  It’s “poisoning the well” despite it being the will of the majority of the people and in keeping with our constitutional precepts of equal rights.

This is a tweet from ManuRaju from Politico:

Sen. Graham may vote against START, saying DREAM/DADT push has “poisoned the well.” “The lame-duck is beginning to smell up the place.”

What smells is that it’s taken us nearly TWO years to start discussing the issues that Democrats were elected on.  We expected immigration reform.  We expected discriminatory laws against the GLBT community to go away.  We expected bold steps to end the recession brought on by 8 years of reckless GOP war profiteering.  These are fights for  basic Democratic party values that should have started a long time ago.  Senator Reid only has a few weeks left to do the right thing by the voters.  My hope and prayer is that he stays and fights.   The president leaves for Hawaii tomorrow morning having used what little prestige there is left in his office to push through the Tax Cuts for Billionaires plan. Obama obviously doesn’t care enough about these issues to stay and fight!  Please let Henry Reid behave like something other than a Reagan Democrat. Stick to your guns and your voter’s intent!