Are Democrats Too Nice?

I saw this article in the Stamford Advocate, via the LA Times written by Jonathan Chiat, and thought it was quite interesting to say the least. It essentially lays out the political minefield that is Washington D.C. I have been engaging in a discussion with E-Luv's Big Mouth, about how much accolades Senator Jim Webb should get for delivering the Democratic response to the state of the union, and for his non-diplomatic response to the photo opportunity with the President, just after he is elected a few months back.

The gist of today's rant, is that we have to remember it is going to be very difficult if not impossible for the new comers and the new party in power to always walk the straight and narrow, or to speak softly but carry a big stick, or keep ramming new legislation through the respective bodies. I hope that Democrats do not become as arrogant, conceited and cocky as the republicans did over the past 12 years. One thing that helps keeps legislators in line is the 1st amendment, which allows citizens and the press to question their representatives to ensure that they have our best interest in mind, not those from the 1600 Pennsylvania or K Street. (Do you hear me Senator Lieberman? Probably not, since he is doing busy doing his best job to ignore the will of the people in his own state)

Anyways, here is some snippets from the piece:

MOST OF us have probably always suspected that when fresh-faced young members of Congress get to Washington, there is a quiet, whispering voice urging them to abandon their youthful idealism and acclimate themselves to the ways of the capital. Now I know it's true, because one of those voices decided to conduct his seduction in broad daylight.

Last week, the Washington Post, the bulletin board of the political establishment, published an Op-Ed article imparting advice to incoming Democratic members of Congress. Its author was Toby Moffett, a former Democratic member of Congress from Connecticut.

Moffett's advice, which was written in bullet-point form, began with just a slightly unsettling undertone. He urged new members not to go home too often, to make friends in the building and to cross the aisle. This is typical good-old-boy establishment stuff. The mask was pulled off completely by point No. 4: "Befriend some lobbyists."

Befriend some lobbyists? Here it was, the voice of the devil, inexplicably doing his business out in the open.

The final, parodic heights of the exercise were reached when the reader made it to the bottom of the article, where the author was identified as working at "the Livingston Group, a lobbying and consulting firm." Now that Democrats have retaken control of Congress after 12 years as a beaten-down minority, all the pundits are asking whether they'll succumb to the temptation to be nasty to their former oppressors on K Street. I think the real temptation, as Moffett illustrates, is to be too nice.

So it is quite clear that former members of Congress from both parties can be enticed and seduced to go work for the dark side, I mean those scum bag lobbyists. It is truly a shame that the person who is giving this advise, and clearly biased advise, is doing so on behalf of the people that were told by their very own constituents to avoid. What irony, and if that is not enough, check out when Moffet came to be elected:

Now, to be fair, there are plenty of good reasons why Democrats can't just wipe clean all the excesses of GOP control — not least being that Republicans still hold the White House. The danger is that they'll stop wanting to do so.

The last big wave of reform Democrats came in 1974, after Watergate. They were young and famously idealistic. One was named Toby Moffett.

How slowly has Toby Moffet forgotten what brought him to Washington DC in the first place? That is truly a tragic irony.

Added 1/25/07 7:58 PM from a response to a comment on from this posting on Mens News Daily, which I thought was worth sharing here:

..one thing I always give credit to the republicans is the ability to organize and with that ability they have time and time again been able to perfect the art of dirty tricks. Whether it is CREEP or Swift Water, they have always tried to bend the rules. The problem with the unorganized Dem's is that when they try to pull off funny stuff, they always get caught.

However, I find it hard to believe that Dem's don't care about the troops. They care as much as an republican. To say one party is not patriotic is a ridiculous arguement. Regardless of their ideaology, they still are Americans and doing what they feel is best for the country regardless of political party.

Almost every red blooded American supports the troops. They are doing there jobs with honor, defending the country, and following orders. We need to get over the divisiveness of the political party and together come up with a strategy that will allow us to define "winning" if that is what ultimately gets us out of that quagmire.