Robert Reich on the enthusiasm gap between Dems and Republicans

Robert Reich is right. At some point you have to give your supporters something more than "at least I'm better than a Republican." I think the Democrats are already on the verge of losing a significant chunk of the gay vote (and money), and I suspect constituencies concerned about health care, climate change, Wall Street reform, and immigration aren't far behind.

I had dinner the other night with a Democratic pollster who told me Dems are heading toward next fall’s mid-term elections with a serious enthusiasm gap: The Republican base is fired up. The Dem base is packing up.

The Dem base is lethargic because congressional Democrats continue to compromise on everything the Dem base cares about. For a year now it’s been nothing but compromises, watered-down ideas, weakened provisions, wider loopholes, softened regulations. Health care went from what the Dem base wanted — single payer — to a public option, to no public option, to a bunch of ideas that the President tried to explain last week, and it now hangs by a string as Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid try to round up conservative Dems and a 51-vote reconciliation package in the Senate. The jobs bill went from what the base wanted — a second stimulus — to $165 billion of extended unemployment benefits and aid to states and locales, then to $15 billion of tax breaks for businesses that make new hires. Financial regulation went from tough new capital requirements, sharp constraints on derivate trading, a consumer protection agency, and a resurrection of the Glass-Steagall Act – all popular with the Dem base — to some limits on derivatives and a consumer-protection agency inside the Treasury Department and a rearrangement of oversight boxes, and it’s now looking like even less. The environment went from the base’s desire for a carbon tax to a cap-and-trade carbon auction then to a cap-and-trade with all sorts of exemptions and offsets for the biggest polluters, and now Senate Dems are talking about trying to do it industry-by-industry.

These waffles and wiggle rooms have drained the Democratic base of all passion. “Why should I care?” are words I hear over and over again from stalwart Democrats who worked their hearts out in the last election.

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North Korea's mime traffic cops

From Boing Boing:

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When Glenn Beck spits 'progressive' does anyone else hear 'Jew'?

As someone who has been studying far right bigotry for 17 years now, I listen to this compilation of Glenn Beck talking about "progressives," and I hear the same bigotry used to smear Jews over the years - but instead now the word being used instead of "Jew" is "progressive." Listen to the language. An infection. A disease. A cancer. They lie, chat and steal. Creeping their way into the system under the cover of darkness. They hate the Constitution, they distort history.

Also, note how Beck is now trying to demonize the word "progressive" the way Republicans spent the last several decades demonizing the word "liberal." More from Crooks and Liars, and here's the compilation of Beck.

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In high risk gamble, HRC promises DADT will be repealed this year, and disagrees with WH spokesman - says repeal must happen before Nov. elections

America's largest gay civil rights group last night laid down a clear benchmark for the Obama administration, Congress, the Democratic party and itself. Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese promised an audience of his organization's donors and members that Don't Ask Don't Tell will be repealed this year.

That's great news if true. But it sets a clear deadline for all the parties involved. A deadline that is currently, and clearly, not on track as of this writing. I give HRC credit for putting its reputation, and its organization's future, on the line by promising that DADT will be repealed this year. Come October, we'll know if HRC, and the Democrats, still matter to our community. Read the rest of this post...

Frank Rich: 'the unhinged and sometimes armed anti-government right...is making a comeback'

Frank Rich takes a closer look at the Teabaggers today, following on CPAC, the "chilling" article about the teabaggers by his colleague, David Barstow, and the attack on the IRS by Joseph Stack. As much at the GOPers want to own the teabaggers, that's not quite the case. The true teabagger hate them, too:

The distinction between the Tea Party movement and the official G.O.P. is real, and we ignore it at our peril. While Washington is fixated on the natterings of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Michael Steele and the presumed 2012 Republican presidential front-runner, Mitt Romney, these and the other leaders of the Party of No are anathema or irrelevant to most Tea Partiers. Indeed, McConnell, Romney and company may prove largely irrelevant to the overall political dynamic taking hold in America right now. The old G.O.P. guard has no discernible national constituency beyond the scattered, often impotent remnants of aging country club Republicanism. The passion on the right has migrated almost entirely to the Tea Party’s counterconservatism.

The leaders embraced by the new grass roots right are a different slate entirely: Glenn Beck, Ron Paul and Sarah Palin.

Some elected Republicans fit into this group, too, including Reps. Michelle Bachmann and Steve King. The future they see for the is country is pretty scary if one doesn't fit in with their world view.

And, the constituency for Republicans on Capitol Hill is Wall Street, the big banks and the insurance companies. Those institutions are universally loathed right now by people across the spectrum. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

It's "White House Health Care Summit, the sequel," today on the shows -- without Obama and not at the White House.

Almost every guest on all of the shows was at the White House on Thursday. Today, we're going to find out how the summit translates into reality. Basically, we'll learn that the GOPers aren't going to compromise on anything.

Here's the question: Which GOPer brings the 2,400 page bill as a prop? Eric Cantor did it at the White House -- and got smacked for it. Will he do it today on NBC? Since Republicans have no solutions, they rely on props and gimmicks.

And, of course, John McCain gets a slot. John McCain is the most sought after Sunday show guest ever. Ever.

The full lineup is here. Read the rest of this post...