The Wimpy Empty Suits Undermining Dems on National Security (DLC's Bayh)

[leftchick]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/the-wimpy-empty-suits-und_b_15388.html

<snip>

I promised myself that on my vacation this week, I would try to block out politics, but in even briefly reading the newspapers from my vacation outpost, it becomes painfully clear why the Democratic Party is perceived so poorly throughout America: because for every courageous, stand-on-convictions Democrat out there, there are other wimpy empty suit Democrats running around undermining the party for their own personal gain - no matter how stupid, pathetic, hypocritical and weak they make themselves look in the process.

The case in point this week is Democratic Senator Evan Bayh (D). You remember Bayh - he's the stiff, corpse-impersonating guy from Indiana who likes to tell everyone what a great, strong, macho national security leader he is and what a supposedly "tough and smart" national security strategy he has. Every morning this week I have opened a new paper - USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times - and there is the smug, smiling Bayh making headlines running around the country with this "tough and smart" mantra, creating straw men in his own party that he says are "afraid" of national security, and essentially regurgitating Fox News talking points about Democrats supposedly being "weak" on security. Adding insult to injury, this sententious, chest-thumping, just-bomb-em-all-back-to-the-stone-ages lecture aimed at courageous war critics like Marine veteran Jack Murtha comes from the privileged son of a Senator who has never had to serve in a combat area and who unapologetically voted for the Iraq War - a war which Americans believe has severely weakened U.S. national security.

The pathetic nature of Bayh's behavior is two-pronged. First, from a political perspective, Bayh thinks he is making himself look "tough." In fact, he is making himself - and the party he claims to care about - look like a cowering, wimpy, whiney, gutless coward. He is behaving like a kid who was beaten up on the schoolyard, and now is so emotionally damaged by that treatment, he feels the need to run around as an adult telling everyone what a wimp he and his party is - when in fact its just not true.

Scott Shields summed up the result of this behavior:

"If even Democratic lawmakers are telling the media that Democrats don't appear strong, they're helping to perpetuate that narrative...Representatives from Procter & Gamble don't go on CNBC and talk about the fact that the perception exists that Tide could do a better job of removing stains. They just show evidence to the contrary. This kind of message craft, starting from a negative assumption, is unheard of in the corporate world. It's a lesson Democrats need to learn if they're serious about winning the hearts and minds here at home."

.... :applause: