Gene Lyons

I agree Democrats are going to have to come up with a better counteroffensive against the GOP noice machine. Right now the GOP is getting the upper hand over health care and other issues, and Democrats are frittering away their majority if they allow this to continue.

Such tactics won't be effective overnight, but the GOP didn't "win" over suckers overnight, either, with their lies.

The Blue Dogs

of the Democratic Party are the major obstacle to any meaningful health care reform.

If they supported single-payer, for example, these conservative Democrats would not be re-elected or get big bucks from health insurance interests, but their lack of will guarantees we won't get anything worth a crap out of Congress.

The Senate, of course, is much, much worse.

The Health Care Mess

With the Blue Dogs threatening to screw up any kind of meaningful health care reform, who needs the GOP.

In the end, this has little to do with "liberal vs. conservative" but has everything to do with who is more on the take from corporations.

Harry Reid Shenanigans

The dumbass "blue dog" Democrats like Evan Bayh can't get it through their thick skulls that if there is increased government spending, the fucking deficit takes care of itself when there is more revenue generated from the increasing number of jobs created through government stimulus and when the rich and corporations start paying their fair share of the tax burden. But because the only way Bayh and other "blue dogs" from "conservative" states can get elected is by being slightly to the left of the garden variety fascistic Republicans, they have a lot more clout than they deserve with Senate and House leaders such as our very own Harry Reid.

It's like these people, as well as Obama, live in a time warp and don't understand the need to ditch the same old neoliberal crap in favor of policies beneficial to people, i.e., to act like the real Democrats of yore.

With "Friends" Like the Blue Dogs,

Democrats don't need the Republicans as enemies.

And yes, the "blue dogs" really do represent the same economic elites as the GOP and don't give a rat's ass about the vast majority of people.

Meanwhile, the whiny Republicans, who won't even begin to work with the administration or with the Democrats in Congress, are bitching about the lack of "bipartisanship.".