Cuppa Joe Loserman

I've seen this teaser several times now:

Coming Up Sunday, Jan. 4
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., on why Howard Dean must not be the Democratic nominee for president.

Great...nothing like fighting within the ranks.

Dean, to his credit, has said that any of the candidates could defeat Bush in 2004--maybe that isn't true to the letter, but it's a good sentiment to have--especially considering that Rove will go negative early and often. But the other side of the coin is tired old snots like Joe droning on about the Vermont governor somehow being "unelectable." Josh Marshall, to his discredit, has likewise been piling on of late.

The rules seem to be: if it's the DLC attacking Howard Dean, then it's ok. If Dean, on the other hand, outlines a strategy that isn't Republican Lite, then he's attacking the core values of the party. Hmmn.

If the DLC wants to whine a little bit, fine. Their candidate of choice, the aforementioned Cuppa Joe, has been abysmal on the campaign trail. In fact, calling him Cuppa Joe is an insult to a good strong cup of coffee. Joe L. is more of a bottled decaf frappucino (or however StarChucks spells it)--watery, weak, tasteless, and ineffective. So I can see why his supporters are a little upset. But that doesn't mean they should burn the house down.

I'd like to think, regardless of who becomes the nominee--and right now, it would take a sea change of hurricane force to knock Dean out of the catbird seat--that the Democrats would unite in defeating George W. Bush. But the DLCers seem to be hedging their bets.

DLCers--HELLO!!! If you recall, your Prez., Bill Clinton, played this game for most of his eight years in the Big House. His reward was an impeachment trial, that, fifty years from now, will be a case study in hypocrisy. Clinton played ball with the neo-cons, and they, in return, publicized the most ludicrous charges against himself and Hillary (Vince Foster, anyone?).

The fact is that the neo-con movement will chew up and spit out ANY Democrat who plays by their rules. They aren't interested in compromise, because they know their agenda is extreme. So it's time the opposition did JUST THAT--oppose. It's not like we don't have issues. On the contrary, WE'VE GOT the issues that the general public considers important. It's simply a question of maing sure the lower life form also known as the mainstream media is forced into covering these issues, as opposed to getting lost in the artificial fog that Rove will be spending untold millions of dollars generating. And, with new media becoming gaining in importance daily, this is a real possibility. And, no, I'm not including myself in the new media--at best I'm sort of the equivalent of a vanity candidate. But there are plenty of folks doing solid work. And they can definitely keep the pressure on the idiot journalists which pass for the free press.