Kuttner Tell it Like it Is for Progressives in Congress
On Huffington Post today, leading progressive thinker Robert Kuttner says out loud and clearly what i've been thinking and saying perhaps not so clearly for a long time. If the Democrats want to regain the real power the electorate clearly wants them to have, they need to start sounding and acting like Democrats instead of Republicrats or Demublicans.
He calls for two immediate steps to be taken if the Dems want to retain their majorities in Congress.
First, he says, scrap the filibuster. Amen.
Second, he says, it's time to strip committee chairmen of their powerful roles if they don't step up to the podium and act like Democrats. He points specifically to Max Baucus (Finance) and Chris Dodd's likely successor on Banking, Tim Johnson. Dodd is retiring and Johnson, aka the Senator from Citigroup, is next in line for the chair of that powerful committee. Dodd's been weak enough. Johnson would be a disaster, effectively giving the Republicans a strangle-hold control of the group for the foreseeable future. There are probably a handful of other Democratic Senators who should be unseated from chairmen's jobs but perhaps something less drastic -- like imposing some party discipline for a change -- would work just as well with less emotion and in-fighting.
I like these ideas, both because they are overdue and because they are things the Democrats can control. If they don't want to be turned out of control for their complete inaction, they must grow a spine and start acting like the power brokers they are. If they don't, then we get the kind of government we deserve.
