How can you not love Maxine? Matt does some good work here with this post.

Hillary Clinton's strategy is to scoop up money from the elites, keep enough women to hold off from losing badly in Iowa and New Hampshire, and rack up huge margins in the black vote in the later states.  She's very strong among African-Americans and women, but that could change.  This is a big deal.  

Sirota Speaks for me:

Let's see - polls show more than two thirds of Americans oppose President Bush's escalation plan, less than a quarter support his handling of the Iraq War, and the vast majority of the country thinks the war was a mistake and wants an exit strategy. Meanwhile, state legislatures are aggressively moving forward with resolutions demanding Congress use its power to stop Bush's escalation. What's the response from some top Democrats on Capitol Hill? Undermining their own leadership, of course. Here's this from the Washington Post:

Mom, Dad: I understand you better now. I just hope that I don't have to experience a Cambodia style aftermath in the Middle East, even as that hope is small. Raw Story:

But another sizable group of House Democrats is set to propose a different course today. The Democrats' Blue Dog Coalition -- comprised of more conservative Democrats -- will hold a press conference on the war at 11:30 am. Their proposal appears likely to include important differences from Murtha's legislation.

Currently including 44 members, the group describes itself as primarily "dedicated to a core set of beliefs that transcend partisan politics, including a deep commitment to the financial stability and national security of the United States."

snip

But one aide was able to say that "the Blue Dogs are not calling for troop withdrawal tomorrow, and they're not cutting off funding, but they do want accountability and responsibility."

WaPo via Steve:

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

So sayeth the LATimes and I'm sure a host of other publications. I've been busy with ASOR and other stuff this week, so I'm a bit behind on my reading, but I just have to chime in, because the irony is killing me.

Let's take it apart, argument by argument.

n a battle that many felt Pelosi made unnecessarily bitter, House Democrats turned aside her personal pleas and arm-twisting and elected a Pelosi rival, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), to be House majority leader over Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.).

-snip-

Still buoyed by their election day victories, some Democrats were left wondering why Pelosi had injected herself into a bitter leadership battle with her last-minute support of Murtha over Hoyer, who had long been on track to claim the No. 2 job.

Dog whistle: Democrats are bitter. Rhymes with "angry" and "rabid." See America, they chose a crazed, bitter (lesbian) woman to lead you. All they can do is hate.

Lacking good smoke, Xan asks the very important question: how are we to tell the Dems to reform the media? You know that I think it's very important, and if you don't, you need to rethink things.

It's plain and simple to anyone paying attention: the SCLM and even the "balanced" media are organs of the Republican party at worst, and large corporations at best. It's so horrifying to me when I have to make the case to people who don't follow the media's many blunders and lies. I have American friends who honestly believe that the media is equally critical of Democratic and Republican interests. My European friends are fearful and terrified by it; more than one has remarked on the similarities to German press under the Nazis; given that their educational system actually teaches them about the past, I tend to be unsurprised by their reactions.

I'm not watching, but the word is that the Bobbleheads this morning are busy spinning away, and that Joe is joining them, constructing the meme that the election was a "victory for moderates" and a "centrist mandate" is the will of the electorate. Let's slap that bullshit down hard, right now.

Let's start with the actual makeup of the Democratic caucus. Boo's got the choice goodies, be sure to read the whole thing for a complete list to save and smack centrist memers with:

I am actually astonished at just how deeply the progressive caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus stand to DOMINATE this new Congress. It's staggering. There are black women all over the place wielding previously unthought of influence over policy and pursestrings.

It's enough to make a Republican apoplectic.

Yeah. More like this please:

WASHINGTON - Legislation aimed at President Bush's once-secret program for wiretapping U.S.-foreign phone calls and computer traffic of suspected terrorists without warrants shows all the signs of not moving ahead, notwithstanding President Bush's request this week that a lame-duck Congress give it to him.
Senate Democrats, emboldened by Election Day wins that put them in control of Congress as of January, say they would rather wait until next year to look at the issue. "I can't say that we won't do it, but there's no guarantee that we're going spend a lot of time on controversial measures," Democratic Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois said Thursday.

In Senate parlance, that means no.

Lambert and Chris are doing a little well deserved back patting, pointing out that without the Netroots, yesterday's victories would've been a lot less momentous. I basically agree. If there was record "voter anger" and tremendous potential in the electorate, it's still the case that Netroots activism helped the mostly clueless Dems take advantage of that. That's the good news. Here's the bad news: starting tomorrow, the job for the Netroots community just got harder, more important, and requiring of even greater effort.

Hobson's comment got me thinking: what is "hardball" and how much should Democrats play it? What do you think?

You've probably heard that the previous Republican Congress set new records for Fuck You-partisanship. Closed door sessions to which no Democrat was invited, writing legislation with corporate interests in private sessions, thrusting said legislation to the voting floor without allowing a Democrat to read it, stealing Democratic computer files from Congressional machines, hiding information about chickenhawk Page-lovers from Democratic members responsible for monitoring the page program...it goes on and on. So I ask you now: is turnabout fair play? Or is it time to return to true biparisanship, and bring back the Civil government of ages past?