Critique of a bad meme: "The Democrats in Congress are cowards."

[Perry Logan]

If I had a quarter for every time someone at DU has called the Congressional Democrats cowards, I could afford to run for President.

Political tip: if you hear something repeated that often, you've GOT to be suspicious.

The accusation of rampant cowardice seems unlikely on the face of it. Many Democrats in Congress are war veterans. The others were brave enough to get through life's challenges—earning degrees, pursuing careers, raising families, etc.—and then to take the further risk of running for office. How many Duers could do such a thing?

Suspiciously, many of the harshest critics of the Democratic Congress seem to know almost nothing about what Congress has been doing. These critics seem to get most of their impressions from the mainstream media, which will never report anything good about the Democrats. Judgements based on ignorance and disinformation--not to mention enemy propaganda--are not likely to be good ones.

I suspect most of the more vehement coward-callers are white males. For some reason, white guys are obsessed with matters of courage. They love to accuse other people of being cowards. So a lot of the "Democrats are cowards" stuff is just white guys spouting off.

(If the Democrats in Congress are really such flaming cowards, shouldn't we be asking why we always elect cowards? Are we dumb, or just easily fooled? Or are cowards terribly clever? Shouldn't we nominate and elect brave people in the first place?)

Or do the Democrats turn chicken when they finally confront those big tough Republicans? Are the Dems really terrified of a bunch of fat pedophiles? Maybe the people doing the name-calling are the ones who are afraid of Republicans...

In truth, passing legislation does not involve huge amounts of raw courage. Congress is not a fistfight or an action movie, and it's somewhat alarming that so many people think it is. It has much more to do with dull things like strategy and number of votes. The coward-callers may have slept through Government class.

Popular though it is, the cowardice meme doesn't hold up to a moment's criticism. If the majority of Americans are clamoring for impeachment, as many DUers claim, then the really craven thing to do would be to buckle to popular pressure and pursue impeachment, wouldn't it?

Why, yes it would...

So, popular though it is, the cowardice meme is not very penetrating. I think it tells more about the person uttering it than about reality.

[sendero]

1. It's probably ..

... the least villifying explanation for their actions I can think of.

If you don't like "cowardice", you are free to come up with your own.

Just don't try to sell "they are doing the right thing", because nobody's buying it, even the American public who rates congress even lower than Bush by a large margin.

[H2O Man]

2. You can tell

a tree by its fruit.

[iconoclastic cat]

16. In this case, a pussywillow. nt

[Me.]

26. That Says It For Me

though the tree is appearing, more and more, to be fruitless

[tom_paine]

48. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?"

http://scripturetext.com/matthew/7-16.htm

They most certainly do not.

[treestar]

3. In fact when you see the right wingers using it

You know you're right.

Anything repeated over and over again is suspicious. It also fits in with the right wing meme that opposition to any war, any time, is "cowardice."

Right wingers should be just glad that from their point of view the Dems are "doing the right thing." So when they start calling them cowards you know it's about the right wing obsession with winning and that their very positions have no substance to them - it's only about the game for them.

[mmonk]

4. "Cowards" is better than some alternatives.

What's left is ignorance of facts, they don't care so they push for their agendas, or they are in on the bush agenda. There are no good alternatives.

[DrDan]

5. well, for the sake of those of us who think the Dems are shrinking from their oversight

responsibilities, please use your vast wisdom to educate us as to the courageous efforts underway to deal with this corrupt administration that openly flouts breaking laws and setting unscrupulous legal precedents at every turn.

[Connie_Corleone]

6. It's better than me calling them "dumbasses".

[Zodiak]

7. Let's boil this argument down to its bare contentions

1. Democrats are not cowards because they got to the top, and you cannot be a coward and get to the top.

Answer: Actually, sucking up is another way to get to the top, and many people use it effectively. There is no bravery in sucking up. So your argument make the ad-hoc assumption that success=bravery. I disagree with that ad-hoc assumption. Also, the Democratic leadership are not war veterans.

2. Critics of Congress do not know anything about Congress.

Answer: This is a broad-brush argument. Many here have been playig close attention the what is going on in Congress. I know that I am a critic of the current Congress and I score Senatorial votes as a hobby. So you argument falls apart with just me...I would imagine the rest of DU would take umbridge with your assertion that they are ignrant of Congress, as well.

3. Critics of Congress are white guys.

I am not going to bother with a long refutation of this statement...it is absurd, sexist, and racist.

4. Why do we not talk about not electing cowards?

Answer: If you pay close attntion, we are. Many of us are discussion primary challenges to blue dogs, DLC Democrats and replacing them with populists or more progressive dems. Read around and you wil see this discussion continues in earnest.

5. The coward-callers slept through Government class because they do not understand strategy and compromise.

Answer: I understand both, as do many others (and I never got less than an A in government). What we do not understand is negotiating your strength away and getting absolutely nothing in return. What we do not understand is tactically allowing votes to be taken on bills when we had the power to not allow the vote at all. What we do not understand is alienating the entire rank and file in order to pursue a few voters in the middle that never materialize....that is not strategy, it is stupidity. If there is any benchmark of strategy, it is victory...and there has been very, very little of that. Not because we do not have the power, but because we refuse to use it.




In short, your 5 contentions are a mixture of ad-hoc assumptions, ad hominem attacks on your opponents, and an appeal that the people in government are smarter than we. None of these assertions ore true on their face, much less can hold up to stringent analysis. I would suggest using more cogent arguments in the future...and remember, accusing people of being white boys who slept through government class will not earn you many friends or converts.

[The Vinyl Ripper]

9. Nice deconstruction..

I like it when someone takes apart an argument phrase by phrase and blows it to smithereens.

:yourock:

[Perry Logan]

43. Even when he gets every point wrong? You must be easily pleased.

[tom_paine]

51. Considering it appears to be just the opposite, that he nailed your BS right off

I think it is incumbent to explain where his counterpoints to your ad hominem, etc. was "wrong".

Please be detailed and use logical, rational constructions in your explanation and limit ad hominems, if we are to take you seriously.

Otherwise it's just all sour grapes.

On another note, I notice as I was about to post a supportive "well said" post, which I will do as soon as I am done with this, that others had beaten me to the punch.

If the person who deconstructed your poorly made non-points is so wrong, where are the posts slamming them?

[Blue-Jay]

69. eh. nevermind.

[Hydra]

36. Thank you for saying it so well

so I didn't have to!
:yourock:

[Elidor]

42. Thank you

I was just wondering if I felt like taking the time to do this. Now I don't have to.

[tom_paine]

52. Well said and true!

:toast:

[Perry Logan]

53. I'll see your deconstruction and raise you two reconstructions...

"Democrats are not cowards because they got to the top, and you cannot be a coward and get to the top."
What's to rebut? I didn't say anything like that.

"Critics of Congress are white guys."
Dude, you may have a reading-comprehension problem. I opined that a lot of the coward talk comes from white guys, who are obsessed with bravery.

"The coward-callers slept through Government class because they do not understand strategy and compromise."
Reasonably accurate paraphrase, but you then lose track of the topic at hand and go on to argue that the Democrats are stupid. Maybe I'll take up the "stupid" meme in another post.

"Why do we not talk about not electing cowards?"
Your best comment, inasmuch as you almost got the point. So let's try again:

Mind-boggling as it may sound, you're dead wrong in thinking the Democrats in Congress cowards. So your strategy of trying to replace them with better models is not so brilliant. I hate to be blunt.

The final zinger—about my OP being ad hominem—is pretty funny, given the subject of the thread, not to mention the frequently ad hominem commentary.

[Zodiak]

56. Nice try

but your arguments once again lack logic.

You made the point first that the Democrats are not cowards because they have degrees and ran for office. That was your point. I said that your point relies on an ad-hoc assumption that success equals bravery, which is not necessarily true. You have failed to deconstruct my rebuttal...only quoted back my paraphrase of your argument without addressing my answer. In other words, you skirted the issue.

I believe my reading comprehension is correct...you stated that the people criticizing Congress are white guys, and these white guys are obsessed with bravery. That is an ad-hoc assumption that all white men are obsessed with bravery once again. Once again, you failed to even address my argument at all, only stating that I misread your intent. Did anyone else on this thread not think you were calling Congress' critics "white guys"?

As far as your third point goes, it is perfectly legal when deconstructing one's argument to make points of my own. That fact that I did so does not negate my argument. Try once again to actually address what I said rather than brag that you can deconstruct it without putting forth any argument whatsoever. The kid next door might tell me he can kick my ass, but until he does, it is just so much bravado.

I also had two other counterpoints, but you failed to address those at all, instead once again stating that I am wrong to call Congress cowards (which you state after being deconstructed and putting forth this weak refutation) and stating that since you are right (in the absence of any evidence other than your logically fallacious opinion and your sidestepping rebuttal), then I am "not so brilliant" (read: stupid)

Well, I hate to be so blunt, as you put it, but you cannot argue your way out of a paper sack.

And this may be news to you, but calling someone a coward with a mountain of evidence of their cowardice in your hand is not an ad hominem attack, it is a debating point. First you state your assertion, then you back it up. I believe that six and a half years of total capitalution, our Constitution lying in tatters, the endless war, the refusal to hold anyone accountable, and the endless compromise with nothing in return are great starting points for putting together the argument that many of the Dems in Congress are cowards. If the shoe fits, wear it.

In the future, it would be best to read up on what a strawman is, what an ad hominem is, and what an ad-hoc assumption is. It would make your rhetoric far cleaner and you wouldn't open yourself to such meta-argumentative tactics n the future.

[Perry Logan]

65. I've got your logic right here.

"You made the point first that the Democrats are not cowards because they have degrees and ran for office."
You've now misstated my argument twice—and congratulated yourself both times for doing so! You can't rebut it till you get it straight.

But since you seem to be having trouble, let me try again: I was just saying the Democrats in Congress do not seem to have lived lives marked by obvious cowardice. On the contrary. It would be more useful if someone here could cite reams of data on what craven lives the Congressional Democrats have lived. If they're so chicken, it should be easy. But I have yet to hear a single corroborative fact--just the same accusations, repeated over and over again.

"You stated that the people criticizing Congress are white guys, and these white guys are obsessed with bravery."
Nu-uh! I said I suspect that a lot of the coward talk came from white guys. It's a conclusion based on observation. Calling it "ad hoc" is just name-calling.

"It is perfectly legal when deconstructing one's argument to make points of my own." Point of order! Who made you the referee of this match? It is in no way "legal" to change the subject. You were supposed to prove A. You forgot and proved B.

And congratulated yourself again. Doesn't that hurt your arm?

You have a habit of refereeing the debate—informing us how brilliant you've been and how obtuse I've been. This, too, is something I've often observed in white males with oversized egos. But it only further weakens your posts. If you were really mopping the floor with me, you wouldn't have to keep braying about it.

[hfojvt]

68. how about hyperbole?

"I believe that six and a half years of total capitalution, our Constitution lying in tatters, the endless war, the refusal to hold anyone accountable, and the endless compromise with nothing in return are great starting points for putting together the argument that many of the Dems in Congress are cowards. If the shoe fits, wear it."

That's all hyperbolic. Nice, stirring rhetoric, but hyperbole - "total, tatters, endless, refusal, endless".

However, I think it's true in one sense, since I started calling them 'doormatcrats in 2001'. Still, it is way too easy for keyboard warriors to call others cowards. Where is our own risk, our own courage? Progressives want elected officials to do what Progressives want, then the first thing we need is to be able to deliver support - media support, monetary support, volunteer support that will win elections. Democrats have faced powerful enemies - the vast right wing conspiracy. They have the confederacy of plutocrats against them, the rightwing noise machine, and its somewhat more respectable counterpart the M$M. And they have lost. Got hammered in 1994 at all levels. Gained no ground in 1996 or 1998 and got robbed in 2000.

One reason they got robbed - because 'the left' bailed on them. The same left which was unable to deliver victories in 1994, 1996 and 1998. Democrats did not fare well in 2002 or 2004. Daschle lost, Carnahan lost, Cleland lost and so on.

These people are in the trenches, while I sit in my easy chair. We finally have a little success, and instead of building on it in 2008, so many of us want apocalypse now! and are determined to attack Democrats for being unable to defeat Republicans. DU sometimes attacks Democrats so much that we might put the RWNM out of a job by doing it so much better.

We aren't gonna make their spines any stronger by stabbing them in the back.

[KharmaTrain]

8. So Few Really Understand How Government Works

Some expected the Democrats to start impeachment within hours of winning back the House and Senate last November...and were disappointed that didn't happen. Then they expected it in the first 100 hours and again were disappointed...some going as far as to say this is why people elected Democrats. No they didn't. Many who did cross over did so more as a vote against Repugnicans than for Democrats...a big factor that we forget at our peril. I see too many feeling the '08 election is in the bag...they may be more dissapointed than ever.

I had long said the goal for Democrats in '06 was to pull back from its own abyss of political irrelevancy. Many in the corporate media predicted the demise of the Democratic party following the '04 election fiasco. That didn't happen...but it also was the first step in a long road back. 12 years out of control of the House and 6 years of virtually no influence thanks to the partisan games played by DeLay, Rove and others. Many Democrats in the House had never been in the majority and there was a definite learning curve here.

Also, little due is given for the many good things the Democratic House has passed. Sadly a lot of this work is being bottled up by McConnell. Too many here have swallowed the corporate meme that its the Democrats fault...or they're weak or fractured..rather than to focus on where the real obstructionism is happening.

Wanna see a coward? Ask a Repugnican about "terrorists"...you'll hear every horror scenario possible. I heard some "67 year old grandma" on C-SPAN all but crying how "they're coming to kill us". This is the mindset we face in trying to move forward. It's not Democrats with the coward complex.

[mmonk]

10. "Works"?

[KharmaTrain]

14. Yep...Try These Bills...

The College Cost Reduction Act - H.R. 2669

Homeland Security Appropriations - H.R. 2638
State-Foreign Operations Appropriations - H.R. 2764
Interior-Environment Appropriations - H.R. 2643
The Energy Price Gouging Act – H.R. 1252
The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act - H.R. 2264
FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill - H.R. 1585
FY 2008 Homeland Security Authorization - H.R. 1684
Hate Crimes Prevention Act – H.R. 1592
D.C. Voting Rights Act – H.R. 1905
Rail and Mass Transit Security Act - H.R. 1401
Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 - H.R. 1255
Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 - H.R. 985
Reauthorizing Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund - H.R. 720
Employee Free Choice Act - H.R. 800
Requiring Medicare to Negotiate Lower Prescription Drug Prices - H.R. 4


All were passed in the House and have been stonewalled by McConnell through motions in the Senate as well as facing a veto from his assholiness. It's banking on 10 or 17 Repugnicans to hold back these bills and other changes.

Given a government that WANTS to work, it sure does. Removing the 10 obstructionist Repugnicans...either through pressure or at the ballot box...as well as a Democratic President would make a big difference.

[mmonk]

19. Where's the pressure to come from?

And legislation is not a substitute while our government is broken, and we the people are subject to risk through malfeasance because of connections and distributed guilt. The legislation is not enough, especially when it does not pass.

[KharmaTrain]

21. And Your Remedy Is???

Easy to criticize, so what do you suggest be done? Armed insurrection? Hell...it's tough enough to get a group of local DU'ers together for coffee, yet to try to energize sheeple to get off their asses. So...better to do nothing and complain? Honestly, what would you suggest be done in the current situation? How would you remove the Repugnican obstructists who are the major cause of this broken government?

"We the people" is a very overused argument. I use to do talk radio and always had wingnuts all using that meme...as though their opinions of that of their friends somehow represented how all felt. Blame is a dime a dozen, solutions are golden. I'd like to see the gold...

[iconoclastic cat]

22. Ooo! I know! A strongly worded letter! And then call their staff!

The punchline: Both should be something along the lines of, "Hey, I see that Ms./Mr. X is running against you in the primary. I'm going to donate and work to get her/him elected because you refuse to represent me or defend the Constitution. Now, get bent."

[mmonk]

37. My remedy is always apply the constitution and the rule of law.

Legislation is for when those things are in place. And sorry for the "we the people meme" but I didn't coin it.

[zalinda]

12. Yeah, what you said n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

15. Really, government works by our reps not reading bills they sign?

I had no idea.

[KharmaTrain]

18. As If Those Bills Were Going Really What Was Voted On

Look at the high jinks Don Young is accused of doing...adding an earmark after the bill is passed. Or let's go back to the golden days of DeLay where Democrats rarely got to see a final version of the bill...many were being rewritten as the votes were taking place. Yep, few had a chance to read the Patriot Act or other bills...and many voted NO...but it didn't matter with a Repugnican majority that played by its own rules. You really can't compare the corruption of the past 12 years with what's taken place in the past 8 months.

[iconoclastic cat]

20. So they shouldn't even bother to not vote for it, since it'll pass anyway

via these hijinks. Then why vote? Why donate to Democrats? Why hang out on this board?

[KharmaTrain]

23. Those Questions Only You Can Answer

If you feel the Democrats can't provide the leadership or whatever magic you desire, you have several options. One is to opt out altogether...as I know many Repugnicans will do next year. Their disgust is greater than the Democrats. I've canvassed Repugnicans in my area for several years and see many who had all sorts of big hopes a couple years ago all frustrated now that their votes and money were abused. So what's the alternative? Many see Ron Paul as that answer.

Considering this place is called DEMOCRATIC underground, it would seem natural to discuss the good and bad of the party. If you feel this party doesn't work for you and it's useless, then it'd be foolish to spend time, money and emotion in a lost cause. There are other places in this big blogosphere where you may find better answers to your questions. I appreciate your frustration...I have many of my own...but also I see the Democratic party as the best agent for any change...and that the work of '06 was just a first step...there's lots of unfinished business.

Sorry the world doesn't change as quickly as you'd like...

[iconoclastic cat]

24. You're totally missing my point.

Which may be my fault, since tone does not communicate well on discussion boards. What I meant is this: Simply because the Republicans may try to use tricks like that does not mean that the Democrats should stop trying to block them. It appears that they are not doing everything they can to stop or slow down the criminal junta that is the Republican Party, and saying that the wheels of justice are slow is no excuse for this lethargy.

They did not need to vote on a bill they had not read, and if crap is tacked on to it in the dark of night, they should raise hell.

The fact that they don't shows that it is they who have given up, not me.

[KharmaTrain]

32. No Excuses Needed

I'm definitely not here to excuse. I'm frustrated as well. Common sense and human compassion scream out at all the injustice I see. I hate the tricks and games that I see as so destructive...that's costing lives and livelihoods every day. I see a lot of suffering and it frustrates me that progress, if any, is slow. But, again, I ask what are the alternatives? What can realistically be done to affect changes I would like to think we both share. Not just us, but many in this country. Yep...it's a frustration that's deep and conflicting.

All I try to do is examine why things are the way they are. Maybe through this examination a real solution can be seen or a better understanding of the issue can be presented. I long ago set low expectations for politicians...I've met too many, but I don't see any viable alternative at the present time. The world is full of greys and it's hard to function when you have such polarized extremes that always distort the shades.

Again, I think you give short shrift to many Democrats who voted NO on many of the bills you cite that weren't read. My Senior Senator has voted consistantly against this war for profit and many others but had to face a lot of criticism for doing so...and he's the Senate Whip...Dick Durbin. Do we abandon him or work to help him have more Senators and Representatives who think and work like he does?

[iconoclastic cat]

33. I don't want to abondon any of them!

Especially Durbin! What we need, however, if for people like Durbin to do literally *everything* possible to stop Bushco and the Republicans. No less. And that will take torches and pitchforks.

[Fovea]

11. Wow.

You make several assertions that don't have much weight.

The Angry White Guy is not the only stereotype bashing the Dems in congress.

Courage is not just about being an action movie hero. See 'Profiles in Courage' by the late John Kennedy for a further explanation.

The kind of courage my party is not showing is precisely the sort that does not need a large percentage of the population to show up with torches and pitchforks on the mall to validate.

The part of the Puggie party the Dems are afraid of is not the Grand Old Pedophile wing, it is the whackjob anthrax sending and election rigging part.

The Democratic party may use the word leadership to describe itself, but leadership does not fear the voter or the ballot box, it defends them against all threats foreign and domestic. It doesn't need a gun to do that, it needs the courage of one's convictions in the face of fascism, as well as theocratic mania.


At this, our present leadership has proved worse than craven, they have proven themselves feckless and inept.

[iconoclastic cat]

13. Both weak *and* stupid.

I'll say it as many times as I goddamn please when they sign a bill like the FISA update without reading it. How's that for a meme?

[porphyrian]

17. How exactly is that a "bad" meme?

It's no Christianity, but it seems to be surviving just fine. What's funny is that you're trying to substitute it with your own. Let's see which one wins.

[Perry Logan]

46. It's bad because it's simplistic, ignorant, ad hominem, and almost certainly false.

Other than that, it's as brilliant as you think it is.

Go ahead--say it a few more times. You KNOW you want to...

The ceaseless repetition of such an inane comment--even within this thread--is itself cause for alarm. Rational people do not talk like parrots, then repeat themselves again if challenged.

[porphyrian]

50. Whether you agree with the message or not is irrelevant.

You obviously know little or nothing about memetics. Do some research and then maybe we can talk. Until then, perhaps you should stop using the word "meme" to avoid confusion.

[NavyDavy]

25. i don't know why you try to convince some here at democratic

underground, they miss the dem part of this site and no matter what our congress does it will never be good enough for these nay sayers....but god they do love coming here and name call like a bunch of kids...as i always say if you don't like the dems there are plenty of non dem sites you can go to where you can rant all you want.....just my opinion

[porphyrian]

27. Are you a fan of irony? - n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

29. Irony, as a literary form, is dead. Also dead: Satire, farce, parody. nt

[porphyrian]

31. Aaa! I see dead literary forms! - n/t

[Javaman]

34. And her I was thinking that I was the only one that thought that.

cheers.

[Forkboy]

40. Yeah,it's just like goldy and bronzey.

:P

[porphyrian]

41. To be fair, those have more yellow in them...

...but I'm not a colorist. Lots of my friends have yellow in them.

[Perry Logan]

47. I hear you. But one has to try.

[in_cog_ni_to]

28. One word: ANTHRAX. 2 words: DEATH THREATS. 2 more words: ILLEGAL WIRETAPS.

No matter how loud the cry is for Impeachment, if they've been threatened with death, blackmail, extortion, NOTHING will make them brave enough to do what they should be doing....unless or until the blackmail/extortion is exposed to the public...WITH PROOF.

[iconoclastic cat]

30. We should start asking that question directly to them.

Instead or telling them to get off their butts, we should start a deluge of calls asking if they have been blackmailed into compliance.

[Perry Logan]

49. If that were true, the Dems wouldn't be investigating the Dickens out of the Repugs.

[Hydra]

35. Ah, I wondered when the apologists would come back out of the woodwork

Most of the people on DU who are calling them cowards because they don't want to accept the more likely case:

They are Traitors.

I can hear the desperation behind the calls of "cowards" or "weaklings." It is far more palatable for us to believe that they folded because they couldn't help it, rather than the idea that they threw us under the bus.

Your assertions have been efficiently deconstructed by a previous poster. I can only add that your excuse of "There is a deeper strategy in play" has been ridden into the ground. Bush has gotten everything he's wanted, and neither he nor his cronies have had to give any ground to do so.

I'm sick of people like you trying to muzzle the people like me who know what needs to be done and how to do it. If you don't have any ideas other than "Stay the course" then get out of the way!

[Akoto]

38. I liked Bill Maher's line recently, on Larry King ...

Something like: "Where are my Democratic heroes? They were so furious over Bush's spying, they legalized it."

[CTD]

39. I prefer "spineless".

What's the point of being a majority opposition party if all you do is roll over for the administration like you did when you were in the minority?

Bush got his war funding. He got his surge. He got his warrantless wiretapping authority. He's thumbed his nose at every attempt at oversight.

What's the point?

[HughBeaumont]

44. Gee, looks like another P & R.

I elected this congress to NOT give the Failure Fuhrer blank checks and they . . . well . . . HAVE.

Maybe you're right about the fact that it isn't cowardice.

But that's only because it kind of smacks of COLLUSION instead.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

45. Well, chalk up another quarter.

The Democratic Congress is a group of cowards.

[Raster]

54. I'll step up. I am the originator of "Cowards or Collaborators."

And I created that meme to be concise and to avoid any confusion, and most importantly, to ask the most critical of questions we face today. Many, many persons of all political persuasions made the success of 2006 happen, and against great odds, I might add. Every dirty electoral trick in the book was used to defeat or at least diffuse the undisputed will of the people. We the people have been chided and harangued for so long that we did not care enough about our democracy to participate, and we proved that is not the case. And, if you allow honest, unbiased analysis of the voting, it will show the people won even bigger--and probably more seats in Congress--than reported.

And please, don't throw out "impeachment can't happen over night," or "you don't know how government works," or the ever-popular "just be patient, give it time." NO! I will not be patient. We put the current majority in Congress to begin bringing these criminals to justice, not drive the getaway vehicle. Inaction is acceptance. The ol' "we'll just wait this out" approach won't work this time. Certainly no one expects things to change overnight, but we do expect them to at least BEGIN TO CHANGE.

Members of Congress are our employees. They work for us, the people of the United States. They damned well better start acting like it!

Wake up America!:kick:

[Perry Logan]

63. Investigations, anyone?

While you've been kvetching, Congress has been at work investigating. You just didn't know it:

Current and Past Investigations

* Abstinence-Only Education
* Abu Ghraib Prison Abuses
* Administration Oversight
* Arsenic in Drinking Water
* Census Data
* Chemical Regulation
* Cheney Energy Task Force
* Congressional Preemption of State Laws
* Corporate Accountability
* Correspondence Regarding the Testimony of Secretary Rice
* Defense and Security
* Dietary Supplements
* Disabled Veterans Tax
* Disclosure of CIA Agent Identity
* District of Columbia
* Education
* Elections and Voting
* Energy Policy
* Enron Investigation
* Environment
* Federal Government Operations
* Fifty Caliber Rifles and Ammunition
* Flu Vaccine Crisis
* Food Safety
* Global Terrorism Report
* Global Tobacco Accord
* Government Use of Propaganda
* Guns
* Head Start
* HIV/AIDS
* Holocaust-Era Insurance Restitution
* Hurricane Katrina Response
* Information Technology
* Iraq Intelligence and Nuclear Evidence
* Iraq Reconstruction
* Medicaid and Medicare
* Medical Privacy
* Medicare Bill Cost Estimates
* Member Reports
* National Missile Defense
* Nursing Homes
* Open Government
* Politics and Science
* Postal Service
* Prescription Drugs
* Price Discrimination
* Public Health
* Seven Member Rule
* Social Security
* Steroid Use in Sports
* Surgeon General Independence
* Terrorism
* The Tillman Fratricide
* Tobacco
* U.S. House Ethics
* United States Congress
* Veterans Health Care
* Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
* Western Energy Crisis
* White House Use of Private E-mail Accounts
* Workplace Injuries
http://oversight.house.gov/investigations.asp

[Raster]

66. And to what end? More investigations? Here's a very straight-forward action item:

Impeach Dick Cheney. The majority of this country favors immediate impeachment. There is no doubt of "high crimes and misdeamenors." If Congress wants the granddaddy of investigations, here ya go!

[warren pease]

55. "Suspiciously, many of the harshest critics of the Democratic Congress...

... seem to know almost nothing about what Congress has been doing."

I was waiting for a list of accomplishments, but you didn't follow through. So I'll supply a couple:

Caving on domestic spying

Refusing to bring articles of impeachment against Cheney to the House floor

Caving on funding the Iraq occupation

Failing to use Congress' power of the purse to curb BushCo's rabid militarism

Failing to at least impose a timeline on Iraq withdrawal

Failing to challenge any of the recent executive directives that even an idiot would concede lay the groundwork for martial law, define which agencies will run the show, and legalize stealing your assets if you oppose administration objectives

Caving on all wingnut judicial appointments

Failing to challenge the administration's insane assertion that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite government-sanctioned military force, is a terrorist organization, while failing to classify the Navy Seals or Army Special Forces similarly

Failing to produce a single indictment, or even a workable contempt citation, after weeks of Senate and House hearings on everything from high crimes in the DoJ to stealing elections

And, my personal favorite, voting 97 - 0 on the Lieberman resolution which means the Senate considers BushCo's assessment of Iran's threat capabilities to be valid and just cause for further aggressive posturing. Hello Tehran, just like Baghdad only they fight back better


And that's just off the top of my head. There are numerous links for each, but I don't have the time to bother including them right now. Just google for yourself if you question any of these statements.


Now then, that's what Congress hasn't done; what have they accomplished while I wasn't watching -- besides a pathetic minimum wage increase that falls well short of a living wage.


wp

[Perry Logan]

62. And here's some of the stuff you left out...

These are just some sample headlines. Links to the full stories are at my website, http://perrylogan.org/:

Senate passes ethics bill. In an 83 to 14 vote, the Senate today joined the House and passed legislation requiring that "lawmakers disclose more about their efforts to fund pet projects and raise money from lobbyists, a move some called the biggest advance in congressional ethics in decades."

House passes four bills to “to improve counseling and care for the tens of thousands of military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.” One “requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide outreach and mental health services to those who served in either campaign.”

House expands children’s health insurance program. The House defied a veto threat from President Bush today and passed SCHIP legislation that would give 6 million children health insurance, "while making deep cuts in federal payments to Medicare HMOs."

Congress Approves 'Massive' Bill Endorsed By 9/11 Commission
Karl Rove subpoenaed.

House bans permanent bases in Iraq.

House Democrats propose legislation that would make it harder for overseas companies to use tax havens to avoid taxes on U.S. profits.

House bans permanent bases in Iraq.

Contempt citations issued. In a 22-17 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved "a Resolution and Report Recommending to the House of Representatives that Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten be cited for Contempt of Congress."

Pelosi promises congressional contempt charge for Harriet Miers.
House Democrats Move To Intensify Battle With Bush Over Health Care
House passes the College Cost Reduction Act, which "would boost college financial aid by about $18 billion over the next five years and cut federal subsidies to lenders," the "single largest increase in college aid since the GI bill in 1944."

Today House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt requesting documents related to political interference with the work of the Office of the Surgeon General.

Sens. Leahy and Specter introduce amendment restoring the habeas corpus protections stripped as a result of last year’s Military Commissions Act. The legislation would restore basic civil liberties to roughly 12 million legal permanent residents of the United States.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is “expected to move swiftly to conduct hearings on the commutation."

Democrats Consider Plan to Cut Funding for Guantanamo Bay Prison, Forcing Its Closure

SENATE SUBPOENAS WHITE HOUSE, VP'S OFFICE

House Judiciary Committee To Hold Hearings On Bush Clemency Powers
Reacting to the Office of the Vice President’s assertion that it is not an “entity within the executive branch,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) announced that he will introduce an amendment to cut off funding to Cheney’s office.

House To Bush Admin: Comply With Subpoenas Or Face Contempt
Senate Judiciary Committee Issues Subpoenas For NSA Domestic Spying Documents

John Conyers (D-MI) announced the launch of a new web page, to respond to the growing number of current and former Justice Department career lawyers and other employees raising concerns about politicization in the Department.” The page “provides a secure method for DOJ employees to communicate what they know to Committee investigators.” Congress to investigate Bush’s signing statements.
Congress Passes Major Gun Control Legislation in over a decade, spurred by the Virginia Tech campus killings and buttressed by National Rifle Association help. The bill improves state reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to stop gun purchases by people, including criminals and those adjudicated as mentally ill.
Senior House Democrats threatened Thursday to issue subpoenas to obtain secret legal opinions” and other Justice Dept. documents related to the NSA’s warrantless domestic surveillance program, “the most aggressive action yet by Congress in its oversight of the…program.
Senate Judiciary Committee announced it was preparing to approve legislation to restore habeas corpus on Thursday.
House oversight committee is expanding its investigation “into ties between jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House
The House plans to trigger another veto showdown with President Bush this week by clearing legislation that would expand federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
The Senate Armed Services Commitee has passed legislation “that would grant new rights to terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including access to a lawyer regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial.” It would also “narrow the definition of an enemy combatant and tighten restrictions on the types of evidence used to prosecute and keep a person detained.”
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have introduced the Healthy Families Act (HFA), which would guarantee that workers receive at least seven paid sick days each year. Tell Congress to support this legislation here.
House passes flag bill Bush opposed. Governors could order federal facilities to lower their flags to honor fallen military troops under legislation passed by the House Tuesday.
House Democratic leaders have decided to use their Honest Leadership and Open Government legislation from the 109th Congress as the basis for the lobbying reform bill that the House Judiciary Committee is expected to mark up this week. By doing so, the leaders are on a trajectory to meet key demands made by left-leaning advocacy groups favoring strong reform.
New union bill has the power to level playing field after conservative idealogues gutted workers' rights
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a measure Monday to force the Pentagon to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move the trials of Al Qaeda suspects to the United States.
Congress Probes Allegations Of Wrongdoing In Bush Reading Program
After more than a decade of government inaction, gay-rights proponents in Congress have gotten several major bills moving through the Democratic-controlled chambers, a development that could result in the greatest expansion of federal protections for gays and lesbians in US history.
Kucinich Officially Moves To Impeach Cheney
Congress To Pass Bill For October Troop Withdrawal
The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism.
House and Senate Democrats reached a deal Friday afternoon on a package of tax cuts that will accompany a $2.10-an-hour increase in the federal minimum wage.

The Democratic National Committee sued the Justice Department, demanding it turn over any e-mail traffic with the Republican Party on the U.S. attorneys controversy and criminal investigations.

House Democrats propose bill to give shareholders at public companies a formal say in executives' compensation packages.

The House yesterday passed the Taxpayer Protection Act, to protect taxpayers against "identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks." It also makes it "easier for taxpayers to retrieve property lost as a result of a wrongful Internal Revenue Service levy and directs the IRS to notify lower-income people that they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit."

House to Begin Probe Into 2006 Florida Election

In the wake of a news report that the Election Assistance Commission altered its findings to overstate the pervasiveness of voter fraud, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today asked the Senate Rules and Administration Committee to look into the matter.

President Bush is threatening to veto a Senate intelligence bill that’s laced with provisions that would force the White House and spy agencies to be more responsive to Congress
Senate Passes Bill To Widen Stem Cell Research
Kucinich demands answers on $4 gas as domestic policy chairman
Congress To Probe Lynch, Tillman Misinformation
By 280 to 152, the Democratic-controlled House voted to require sponsors of the pet spending items to be publicly identified, a move that sponsors say will do away with some of the most egregious waste of the taxpayers' money.

A separate vote to reinstate the "pay as you go" rule 280 to 154. It requires that increases in spending on entitlement programs be offset by savings elsewhere, so as not to raise the budget deficit.

The new House rules bar members from taking gifts, meals or trips paid for by lobbyists, or the organizations that employ them. The rules also ban lawmakers from using corporate jets and reimbursing the owners.

House Democratic leaders prepare legislation that would permanently shift the tax burden from the have-nots back to the have-mores.
Dems Call For Investigation Into Bush Appointment Of Swift Boat Donor
“The Office of Special Counsel confirmed to ABC News it has launched an investigation into General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan, probing concerns she may have violated a ban against conducting partisan political activity at government expense by participating in a meeting featuring a presentation by a White House political aide on GOP election strategy.”

Waxman To RNC: Turn Over Your Emails

House Bill Will Bring Back Paper Ballots

Nearly five months after Florida Republican Vern Buchanan narrowly defeated Democrat Christine Jennings in the state’s 13th District, a congressional committee has organized a task force to investigate the controversial election.
Dems Pass Bill To Bring Troops Home In 2008
Another criminal investigation has begun in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where two elections officials were found to have rigged the 2004 Presidential Election recount.

FDA to enact rules to prevent experts with ties to drug industry from advising the FDA

The House Administration Committee will convene a special task force to look into the ongoing controversy of Florida's 13th district congressional race
The Wounded Warrior Assistance Act of 2007, a bill aimed at “making immediate improvements in the treatment…of wounded combat veterans passed the House Armed Services Committee by a 59-0 vote Tuesday.”
Senate Cancels Bush Admin Power To Unilaterally Name US Attorneys…
Rep. Jane Harman introduced a bill to require all light bulbs produced or used in the U.S. to meet current fluorescent bulb standards (60 lumens per watt) by 2012, 90 lumens by 2016, and 120 by 2020.
Top White House Staff May Face Subpoenas
Democratic Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio has hired an avowed critic of Israel to work on his subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Congress Investigates Plush VIP Ward At Walter Reed.
This week, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) introduced legislation to provide health care coverage to all children. The Children’s Health First Act would boost spending on SCHIP by $50 billion and encourage states to cover all children with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level.”

“Buried in the $124 billion House version of the wartime supplemental appropriation is an order to the Defense Department to release a report on the April 2004 death in Afghanistan of Army Spc. Patrick Tillman,” whose death by friendly fire Army leaders tried to cover up.
Yesterday, the “House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a measure that barred the closure of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.”

A bill granting Washington, D.C. “its first full-fledged seat in the House of Representatives passed the Judiciary Committee yesterday, clearing the final hurdle before a vote by the entire House, expected next week.”

Democrats to open hearings on CIA leak on Friday. The Star Witness Will be Valerie Plame.

The Federal Communications Commission drew an ultimatum from the House Energy and Commerce Committee telecom panel: Return to your traditional role of consumer protection or else. "When the FCC loses sight of its proper role, consumers suffer," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., told FCC commissioners at a hearing Tuesday.

A Democratic plan to require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq passed its first test on Thursday as the House Appropriations Committee voted to endorse the proposal, overcoming Republican opposition.

Under attack for improprieties uncovered in its showcase literacy program for low-income children, the Department of Education will convene an outside advisory committee to oversee the program, known as Reading First, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Wednesday. Facing tough questions at a hearing before a Senate subcommittee considering appropriations for the Bush administration's signature education law, known as No Child Left Behind, Ms. Spellings also promised to clean up the reading program in other ways.

The two election workers from Cuyahoga Co. Ohio who rigged the 2004 recount were each sentenced to 18 months in prison and the judge stated that he felt they were not telling the whole story and that they were covering for someone.

A new bill requiring the mandatory disclosure of donations to presidential libraries has made its way out of committee and is headed for the House floor.

The House passed three bills that would “roll back administration efforts to shield its workings from public view.” The measures would “streamline access to records in presidential libraries, expand safeguards for government whistle-blowers, and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”

Bush's prosecutor power grab is backfiring.

Leahy Says He'll Subpoena Rove, Discusses Potential Crimes

The Senate voted 60-38 to approve legislation “to implement many of the remaining reforms suggested by the Sept. 11 commission.”

Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely.

The Chairman of the House's Oversight and Government Reform Committee has sent 11 letters to Condi Rice requesting info on the fraudulent Niger/uranium claims.

House approves bill spending $1.7 billion over five years for cleaner water. White House, forgetting the $9 billion a month spent in Iraq, says the cost is too high.

Hillary Clinton calls for GI Bill Of Rights.

Democrats add billions of dollars to Iraq war budget, earmarked for medical care, housing, and training.

"The House of Representatives voted today to create a new congressional committee, devoted solely to addressing the issue of global warming. Legislation creating the new ‘Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming' passed 269 to 150, with 44 Republicans voting in favor of its creation."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and other senators met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this afternoon. According to Schumer, Gonzales said the White House will not oppose reversing the PATRIOT Act provision that allows U.S. Attorneys to be installed without Senate approval.

"thanks to voter outrage and a one-year moratorium imposed by Democrats after taking over Congress," the "number and cost of pork-barrel projects is way down" after years of record pork-barrel spending.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman announced he will hold a hearing on whether White House officials followed appropriate procedures for safeguarding the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson

Dems Push Legislation To Withdraw Troops By Fall '08

Senator Byron Dorgan introducing legislation compelling George W. Bush to actually go after Osama bin Laden

Senate Votes 51-46 to Let Airport Workers Unionize, Give 45,000 Screeners the Same Union Rights As Border Patrol, Customs And Immigration Agents; Bush Threatens Veto.

Congress has begun hearings on the substandard care for veterans at Walter Reed.

The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 would nullify the Bush executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

subpoenas will soon be issued in the matter of the allegedly coerced firings of U.S. Attorneys in the Department of Justice. A vote will take place tomorrow in the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on whether to issue the subpoenas to Justice Dept. officials Carol Lam, David Iglesias, H.E. Cummins, III, and John McKay to compel them to appear before a subcommittee hearing next week.

The Judiciary Committee will also hold hearings next week on matters related to "Election Reform and Irregularities."

[warren pease]

70. An impressive list...

Now tell me exactly -- exactly -- what any of this has done to ameliorate the toxic effects of the bush administration on this country's poor and middle classes, boost regulatory oversight of everything from environmental destruction (and I'm not talking about Jane Harmon's band-aid fluorescent bill) to the intentional poisoning of cats and dogs by our very bestest trading partner, the off-shoring of jobs, the offshore movement of corporations such as Halliburton to avoid US regulatory oversight (pathetic though it is) and US taxes (light as they are), the rapid acceleration of the national security state, the taboo against blaming BushCo for the New Orleans disaster, the dismemberment of the bill of rights, the continued race to the bottom in everything from torture to health care, the monopolization of 80 percent of mass media by five hyper-conservative corporations, the removal of twitchy nut cases like Gonzales and Rice, the inability to enforce a simple subpoena, the acceptance of Federalist Society wingnuts into the federal courts with only token opposition, the unwillingness to use their best weapons -- impeachment and implied contempt -- to get some answers and maybe even a little fucking respect...

I see a hell of a lot of proposals to hold hearings and conduct investigations, but I don't see any results. Or did I miss Gonzales' perp walk? I see a lot of "calls for," but nobody's answering those calls apparently.

And those two election workers from Ohio who got 18 months each for rigging the 2004 elections? Now that's hard time, considering the offense only involved subverting the entire democratic process and fucking the entire world into another four years of BushCo's lunacy. And speaking of hard time, is Libby still walking around? Why hasn't Congress exercised its authority to drag him into a hearing on the Plame case and make him testify under oath, using implied contempt as an extra incentive to open his fucking mouth and tell the truth for once?

And that bold initiative to force a troop withdrawal by fall 2008... WOW! Now that's strategy. Force an end to the Iraq occupation just in time for war news to disappear at election time, thereby giving the GOP a free pass on that miserable debacle as well. "War? What war? I didn't see any war. And thank you for your support." Meanwhile, several hundred more troops and several tens of thousand more Iraqi civilians will die because Pelosi allows a string of supplementary appropriations to come to the floor for a vote, instead of simply killing them in committee and strangling the war by impoverishing the pentagon -- as if that were even possible.

And about impeachment... Given that all of the above offenses are direct results of BushCo's poisonous policies, and given that the democratic "leadership" continues to say they have more important things to do than engage in "partisan vendettas," how on earth do they expect to alleviate these problems they're so assiduously working on without eliminating their source? It's like praying to JEEEEEEEzuzzz and expecting a cancerous tumor to just disappear through divine intercession.

But I'm a reasonable guy; give me cause to correlate these "accomplishments" you cite with actual blows against the empire and I'll read with interest.


wp

[Jed Dilligan]

57. Ah, so the burden is on us

to do meticulous research and discover all the wonderful things our representatives are doing for us.

Funny, I never had a boss that was willing to do that for me. My bosses have always expected to hear about the great things I'm doing WITHOUT having to strain themselves.

I don't give a rat's ass whether they are cowards or fire-eating musclemen, I voted them in to get rid of this war and this president and they've had almost two-thirds of a year. Tap, tap, tap my toes are saying.

[PATRICK]

58. Quoting and interpreting

Dems and using the fear word is the mysterious habit of the press. The reporters on that beat cast this intramural fear to the readership who gets understadnably peeved because fear means something more painful and tangible that career headlights flickering and decorum and tradition problems. of course, pols quoted as being afraid or using the word themselves- if they actually do- don't help when they don't think how this sounds to a soldier's family with uninsured children whose pension disapeared in the market, jobs to India and house to the loan sharks.

But the editors know how this sounds and why and for what purpose it can be used. Or else they too are too pigheaded fans of the great political game.

Somehow job traditions and perfomrance and clubbiness- despite partisan wars with a renegade criminal illegitmate mrophing of a once merely despicable bankers' party- easily supercededs law and responsibility. That has been a long time happening in DC with seasonal hypocrisies about changing all that. In a crisis it is built with a crease that neatly folds. That is called order and proper priority. If someone folds the mumbling paper and pockets it like a quiet veto, that is called- in other nations- a coup d'etat.

[Raster]

59. And when those Representatives duly elected by the People, charged with protecting and defending

the rights and interests of the People, and also preserving that which guarantees those rights, refuse to discharge their duties, they are called accomplices.

And again I ask: Cowards or Collaborators?

Wake up America!:kick:

[PATRICK]

60. They defer to collaboration

with fatally flawed reasoning that by the habit of many legislative bodies compromises the highest priorities and loses the others they thought they had gained. In a clearer challenge sometimes courage as in profiles in Courage examples cited by JFK has a lonely stage. The Spanish Parliament defied armed soldiers and they were spared when the King backed up the law. On the other hand in Russia you have Yeltsin holding back a coup with rifles and a bullhorn and years later people cheering as Yeltsin directs the army to blast down the Communist holdouts in the parliament.

In the crisis we see the humdrum procedure keeps trying to reassert itself agains the unfaced singular ruling reality of an illegal coup d'etat determined to subvert the law. It is more absurd fantasy than cowardice. They even think it is a shared fantasy with the American people because all the news media tell them so. When reality hits then they really get scared- unfortunately still of the unmoving president they did not outmaneover than us. If they could extend their legislative smarts to political smarts for a change it might help us believe we had a viable POLITICAL party. And if they could swallow their procedural dignity and cope with the crisis as it is and not as they think the script should be they might be a real Congressional body. The reality is that a good chunk of that august body is THE enemy and represents no portion of the actual American majoirty. And to many dems have been philosophically corrupted.

[bbgrunt]

61. if it walks like a duck.....

[Perry Logan]

64. And if it doesn't...

[Raster]

67. Well unfortunately we haven't been faced with that choice.

[Perry Logan]

71. Scenario problem: the Dems are acting the OPPOSITE of how cowards would behave.

I can't help but notice that the Congressional Democrats' behavior blatantly disproves the cowardbot thesis.

The cowardbots say over and over again that public opinion is overwhelmingly for impeachment and for ending the war. They cite Congress' low approval ratings as proof of this.

But if the Democrats in Congress were really so craven, they would fear the public's growing wrath and vigorously pursue impeachment and an end to the war. That would be the really chicken thing to do.

So, whatever our representatives are doing, it can't possibly be because of cowardice or fear. The cowardbot thesis can't withstand even a moment's criticism.

[Perry Logan]

72. I demand corroborative evidence!

Believe it or not, badmouthing people is not the coolest behavior in the world.

Calling an entire group of people cowards simply because they voted in a way that displeases you is especially bad.

Maybe your parents were too busy to tell you about this. Or maybe you were raised by Republicans...

I've supported my viewpoint, by posting a huge list of recent Democratic accomplishments (about which the cowardbots knew nothing). It seems odd that cowards would send out subpoenas and do investigations of the people they're afraid of. That's corroborative evidence, which I presented to back up my position.

OK--now it's your turn.

Cowardbots, get out there and research the craven careers of the Democrats in Congress. Do they sleep with night lights? Do they run away from dogs? Are they shy at parties? Are they terrified of public speaking, afraid of public restrooms? Do they roll their eyes when they walk past graveyards? Do they frequently hide in closets?

Get to work, cowardbots. The time for smears is over. Now you have to back up your contention. I'm especially interested in seeing the poop on the war veterans.