Reply #145: Thanks for saying all that. You really nailed my own feeling

[Raksha]

about this fiasco. I've been forced to conclude over the past few days that the Dems in Congress are MORE afraid of the right-wing attack machine, the great Wurlitzer, than of anything else on earth. They are more afraid of it than they are of Bush and the neocon mafia and DEFINITELY more afraid of it than they are of the voters, no question about THAT! And worse yet, they let the other side know it, in no uncertain terms.

The RWWs on another forum I frequent are all crowing about Bush's great "victory," and it's killing me. And YES, they are calling the Democrats weak and spineless--what else would you expect? I can hardly stand to read their posts these days.

To me it seems like the old RW memes are rapidly losing their effectiveness from overuse: Support our troops, fight them there so we don't have to fight them here, and blah blah blah. The Dems COULD have taken the chance of standing up to the attack machine now, but seem to have chosen not to. I guess they just didn't quite have the nerve, and I can understand that in a way. The political landscape is strewn with the bodies of the Great Wurlitzer's victims: Dan Rather, John Kerry, and even Al Gore in 2000, although he seems to have recovered and come back swinging. So in a way I don't blame them for being afraid, but SOME DAY they are going to have to stand up to the attack machine. And they just made it that much harder for themselves.