CT Blue

One of the very first blog posts that I ever put up on the internet complained about the fact that Democrats were wusses. I don’t think that post is findable, as it was put up on an short lived blog that resided on my Apple IDisk, a service long since shuttered. The problem lives on, and it’s good to see that Markos, of the Daily Kos, is hammering away at the hapless Democrats. This time Elizabeth Warren, of all people, reveals her inner wuss by saying she will vote for the stunningly unqualified Ben Carson for Secretary of HUD

Sen. Elizabeth Warren explains why she will be voting to confirm Ben Carson as head of HUD:

Yes, I have serious, deep, profound concerns about Dr. Carson’s inexperience to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Yes, I adamantly disagree with many of the outrageous things that Dr. Carson said during his presidential campaign. Yes, he is not the nominee I wanted.

But “the nominee I wanted” is not the test.

You have a vote. You can either cast a vote saying “I want this guy heading the department,“ or you cast one that says “Oh hell no, I don’t want this person heading the department.” So yeah, that is exactly the test. 

via Daily Kos

Exactly right. On Saturday three million people demonstrated that they understand what has happened to this nation, and millions more who could not be with them in body were with them in spirit. Yet few if any of the Democrats in Washington really get it. It seems like a no-brainer to me. We’re I a Senator, I’d vote against every single one of his nominees. They are all unqualified, or if qualified at all, they are qualified to destroy what they will be sworn to protect. If the Democrats want to channel the energy of those three millions they have to prove they get it too. It’s time to fight. No compromises.

I’ve mentioned before that I was impressed with an article in Scientific American in which the author or authors demonstrated that the best way to get someone to change his or her behavior was to engage in tit for tat. We’ve been tatted for eight years, and even if a newly elected Republican were sane, at least four years of titting would be in order. So far as the appointees are concerned, as Markos points out, they are going to get in anyway. They don’t need Democratic votes, and Democrats will get nothing in exchange for those votes. The Democrats need to demonstrate that they will resist as much as they can. It’s truly remarkable that after the last eight years any Democrat in the Senate, much less almost all of them, would think there is any advantage to trying to work with the Republicans.