This, people, is what Leader Nance comes up with when it's time to justify her stratospheric 9% approval rating. In her speech at Denver, she burbles:

I am very proud of the Democrats in Congress. Working with Majority Leader Harry Reid in the Senate, here are some of our accomplishments:

After years of inaction by Republicans, in our very first act, we passed the 9/11 Commission recommendations to protect the American people. That was just the beginning.

Indeed.

We helped rebuild the Gulf Coast for the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

How's that working out?

We put recovery rebates into the hands of more than 130 million families.

And now that bounce is gone, and we're more fucked than ever, and the really poor didn't get a dime anyhow.

We passed legislation to keep hard-working American families in their homes and to keep toxic toys out of the hands of our children.

(Not all toxic toys, though. And not all children. As evidenced by the behavior of our famously free press this primary.)

We increased the minimum wage for the first time in ten years.

We improved fuel efficiency for the first time in 32 years.

We passed the largest college aid expansion since the G.I. Bill 64 years ago.

We passed the largest veterans' health care funding in the 77 year history of the Veterans Administration.

And, we enacted a new G.I. Bill to thank our veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by sending them to college.

Wars which are still cheerfullly going on. Some "thanks."

All this would be a reasonably competent performance for a Congress that wasn't facing, oh, a completely out-of-control executive (impeachment off the table, sternly worded letters), the trillion-dollar fiasco of death and looting in Iraq (nada*), global warming (nada), the collapse of the credit system (nada), an "health care" system based on the business model of denial of care (nada). And on and on and on.

And you know how Leader Nance wants us to think of her?

"Think of me as a lioness."

You know Nance, I'm thinking of a lioness right now. I know what a lioness looks like and I know how a lioness acts. And the lioness I'm thinking of? Her name doesn't begin with "N."

But I do have one question:

Why isn't gutting the rule of law and the Fourth Amendment by giving the telcos retroactive immunity on your list of accomplishments? You, Harry, and Obama worked so hard together to make it happen, but it's not on your list!

"Lioness." My gawd.

NOTE * Re "Nada": Hearings can be had. Hearing can even be co-ordinated. Framing can be done. Groundwork can be laid. Subpoenas, having been issued, can be enforced. And on and on and on and on. Again, it's wrong to think of the Ds as "spineless" or "imcompetent" or "weak" or go all "Oh, if only there weren't, gee, all these forces arrayed against us." This is the D leadership's vision for the country. They genuinely believe this is the best they can do, and all that needs to be done.

What you see is what you get.