Friedman wants Dems to win back each chamber by "only one seat"

[BurtWorm]

:eyes:




http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/opinion/04friedman.html?hp

...New York Times columnists are not allowed to endorse candidates, but I checked the rulebook the other day, and there’s no rule against rooting for a general outcome. So here is my fervent wish: For the sake of the country, I really hope the Republicans lose the House and the Senate to the Democrats — by one seat in each chamber.

It is so important that the Republicans lose, because if the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice team can get away with the grotesque incompetence they have exhibited in Iraq — a war that was not preordained to fail, but was never given a proper chance to succeed — it makes this country look like a banana republic.

If on the morning after the election these people come out smirking that their efforts to scare the public into voting again for their candidates worked, and therefore they can just stay the present course in Iraq — which is not working — it will send a terrible message about our democracy. It will tell us that the country is so divided, and so many districts gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, that performance does not matter any longer. Unless you are caught sending e-mail to a Congressional page soliciting sex, your seat is safe.

If we have any chance of salvaging Iraq and solving some of our real problems at home, it will only be as a result of some electoral shock treatment delivered to a Republican Party that has failed to demand even the most minimal competence and planning from its leaders.

But the reason I want the Democrats to win by only one seat in both the House and the Senate is because I want them to have such a slim margin that they will have to govern from the center — to look for bipartisan fixes to the country’s major issues, which is the only way they can be addressed.

[SharonAnn]

1. I sort of agree, but a margin of 1 is too slim. Maybe 2 or 3.

With a margin of 1, a death or resignation could change the balance back again.

So, just a little insurance might be in order.

I think that every party ought to have close competition, it makes them better. In business, competitors make us better, too. Of course they make us work harder and reduce our profit margins so we try to eliminate them and become a monopoly so that we can have all the power and the money and become bloated and ineffective. Wait! That sounds like our government!

[BurtWorm]

4. I want the Dems to win decisively, so the Repubs will have to sweat

on the outside for a few decades before they get their gloms on power again. Enough with Republicans. Please!

[Toucano]

2. I vote won't mean "govern from the center".

It will mean reach the lowest common denominator.

To reverse Bush's failures, we need a super majority. Veto proof votes on every piece of legislation until this nightmare is over.

Of course, I don't expect that. But if I had my druthers...

[JeffR]

3. Mmm, right. Because the Republicans are just such a

bipartisan bunch, a Dem majority would be able to get so much done with their eager help.

Hard to believe someone pays Friedman to write this stuff.

[Tatiana]

5. And here I thought David Brooks had the NYT mealy-mouthed faux

centrist label on lock-down.

So kind of Friedman, who fellated Bush and pushed heavily the illusion of US troops being greeted as liberators by Iraqis, to wish for a Democratic majority in both House and Senate. If I hadn't read his 100% pro-Republican, pro-war in Iraq columns years ago, I might be inclined to believe he actually felt this way.

[Cha]

28. Yeah, I'd like to throw a

glass of vino in his turtlenecked face.

[Marr]

6. Sorry, but when the right is advocating dictatorship, you don't

"govern from the center".

I'm sick of moderates and I'm sick of our slow but steady drift into neo-feudalism. What we need is serious populist reform. We don't need "centrism", we need to rip the power out of corporate America and give it to the people who live here.

[Raksha]

14. My sentiments exactly! n/t

[LostInAnomie]

7. Sorry, but 51% of the seats means we have a mandate...

... and that the people have given us political capital. Political capital that we mean to spend... on impeachment.

[ComerPerro]

19. Damn right on that

[Ignacio Upton]

8. Great, then our Democratic pols will regress back into 2002 mode

For fear of losing control of Congress, they will pander to the Right-Wing Noise Machine at every turn.

[keopeli]

9. So, it's ok to govern from the right or center, just not the left?

"because I want them to have such a slim margin that they will have to govern from the center"

This editorial attempt to moderate a veiled endorsement is a whimpy, pansy-ass way to take a stand.

What the author is really saying is that he likes almost everything about Bush, but wants a marginal checkpoint by rational people. If the Republican party had ANY rational people, the author could stick to a Republican meme. Since they don't, a reluctant endorsement of a moderate Democrat is acceptable.

Drivel.

After 6 years of War Republican Style, I'm ready to try War Democrat Style. I'd prefer PEACE, but I'm a realist.

[cascadiance]

10. A one vote margin gives too much power to the DLC...

... and their corporate sponsors, who already control the Republican party. Even if the Dems have a one vote "majority", corporate America will still have a majority control over congress then. We need to have a sizable enough majority where we can put together new legislation at a national level like public campaign financing, which won't happen if the corporate elements have control of a congressional majority (whatever party has "power"). A big majority will allow us to do more constructive legislation I think, and really change the way that Washington does business (literally).

[Jacobin]

11. "a war that was not preordained to fail"

That's where fat Tommy loses me every time.

He probably thinks we coulda won Viet Nam, too

[Cha]

29. friedman shoulda suited up

..hell, they'll take 'em old in Iraq.

[stopbush]

12. I want the NYT to cut their columnist staff by "just one person."

Guess which one?

[truthisfreedom]

13. i want the pendulum to swing back. i want blood... i want thugs in jail.

i want public humilation, investigation after investigation, and the complete reversal of every damned thing this group of thugs has done to our once great country.

[FrenchieCat]

15. Fuck Friedman!

Doesn't he also think the World is Flat?
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0374292884.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[TexasLawyer]

23. Friedman pimped this war in Iraq

as a great idea. I hate the man.

[seabeyond]

16. a party of herding cats. we need 10 seats. lol lol n/t

[Swamp Rat]

17. I want Friedman to hold his breath for only 10 minutes.

[TexasLawyer]

25. Swamp Rat---

That is your best one ever! Thanks!

[Swamp Rat]

26. Thank you!

That was from last week. I finished this one last night:

[ComerPerro]

18. He's an asshole, I've known it for a while

and his "World is Flat" book only proves it even more.

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Duh? What a moron. That means the Bush Mafia will be 2 plane crashes away

from control of Congress again.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

21. Just as long as we win

I still think it will be a miracle if we actually take back control of both chambers. These scumbags of the GOP will do anything, legal or illegal to make sure it doesn't happen.

[Renew Deal]

22. I'd be happy with that.

Though I would like a little more room in the House.

[alittlelark]

24. Planned pre-cognition?

Friedman ia an embarrassed and embarrassing HACK.

I am astounded that he is still printed.... anywhere.



WTF???

[Cha]

27. Fuck you friedman.

It the neocon insane far right and we have to go left to bring it anywhere near the so called middle. YOu and your "middle"..what no big tax cuts?

[Malikshah]

30. Is it OK if Friedman steps 6 inches too far off the curb and is

sideswiped by a bike messenger.

Lord, if there was ever a need for some to catch writer's block...

Tommy-- just go back to school and learn about Sophistry-- you may not like what you see, but it may just shut you up for a while.

Reflect, Tommy. Then apologize profusely. Then try again.

[Beelzebud]

31. Friedman is a billionaire only looking out for himself.