WTF is wrong with these people?

"But if he runs, he's going to have some 'splaining' to do, as Ricky Ricardo used to say," Mr. Kerrey continued. "People remember him saying, 'I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party' - which means the liberal wing of the Democratic Party."

"Which Howard Dean are we talking about?" Mr. Kerrey said. "If we're talking about the Howard Dean who was governor of Vermont, I would say fine. But if it's presidential candidate Dean, I would say probably no. The committee has got to figure out how to keep people like me in it. If he's firing people up and he's saying we've got to swing to the left - it's harder to swing along with him. And hell, I live in New York City. I don't live in Nebraska anymore."

That whole lying liar thing is spreading I guess. The "Democratic wing" as Howard was kind enough to explain so many times during his campaign, is not about left, right, up, or down, it's about having a goddamn spine and standing up for fundamental American principles of fairness and justice. That Bob Kerrey is either too stupid or too lazy and continues to believe the SCLM's perverted contortions of Dean's positions during the campaign, instead of listening to the man himself, is shameful. Just shameful. In the speech Howard gave just yesterday he made it quite clear that left, right, center are not his concerns. Instead:

The question is not whether we move left or right. It's not about our direction. What we need to start focusing on... is the destination.

[...] We cannot be a Party that seeks the presidency by running an 18-state campaign. We cannot be a party that cedes a single state, a single District, a single precinct, nor should we cede a single voter.

When some people say we should change direction, in essence they are arguing that our basic or guiding principles can be altered or modified.

They can't.

On issue after issue, we are where the majority of the American people are.

What I want to know is at what point did it become a radical notion to stand up for what we believe?

Over fifty years ago, Harry Truman said, "We are not going to get anywhere by trimming or appeasing. And we don't need to try it."

Yet here we are still making the same mistakes.

Let me tell you something: there's only one thing Republican power brokers want more than for us to lurch to the left -- and that's for us to lurch to the right.

What they fear most is that we may really begin fighting for what we believe -- the fiscally responsible, socially progressive values for which Democrats have always stood and fought.

Howard's fundamental message has not changed since I started listening to him 18 months ago. It's too bad that idiotic Democratic "leaders" like Bob Kerrey are too wedded to their own RNC-talking-point-based pre-conceptions to actually shut their yaps and listen for a change.

A pox on both parties. In the words of MaryScott over at dKos:

And while we're at it, let us put on notice all the spineless, capitulating, groveling, sniveling so-called Democrats: BE DEMOCRATS, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES.

But that would leave, what, seven unscathed Democrats after our purge? How fucking depressing. This whole situation is scandalous and pathetic. We have no Party. We have a loosely knit group of politicians suffering from Battered Wife Syndrome who meet every once in a while to buck each other up so they can go crawling back to the House for another round with their abusers.

[...] It's easy for me to vilify Lieberman. He's obvious. But Kerry? My hero? It's taking me time to come to terms with the fact that John Kerry is not the Saviour of Democracy and America that I hoped he would be. And I still reserve the right to allow that he may know just a WEE bit more about politics and the way the world works in his rarified atmosphere than I do. That said, however: THE GODDAMNED WORLD IS COMING TO AN END. When, exactly, will it be acceptable to start SCREAMING YOUR HEAD OFF ABOUT IT? When, exactly, will the elected members of the Democratic Party stop acting as if the future of their individual political lives is more important than the future of the WHOLE CIVILIZED WORLD?

WHY is there not a unified voice coming from the Democratic Party, proclaiming loudly and clearly that George W. Bush and his Administration are RUINING THE WORLD? WHY is there not an outright WAR going on in the House and the Senate? Why is the first refuge of our elected Democrats always CONCESSION and bullshit BIPARTISANSHIP? For the love of motherfucking GOD, people, the Republicans have NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER in bipartisanship. What they want is to eradicate the concept of opposition. What they want is Republicans and RepublicansLite. Whipping boys. And THEY HAVE IT.