Where are you Speaker?

[Zachstar]

Your party is starting to fall apart.

By the 31st Clinton will appeal the ruling and this will go the convention...

WE WILL LOSE IF IT GOES TO THE CONVENTION!

Will YOU endorse so that fence sitters will endorse or will you continue you worry more about the two challenging your seat for congress?!

I am waiting. And I am not impressed so far. All I see is a group of political cowards.

[MADem]

1. It is the job of the Speaker to keep the HOUSE in order. It is the job of the Chairman of the

Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, to keep the PARTY in order.

I always liked Howard, but he really fucked up on this FL-MI business.

And by "we" I assume you mean the members of this forum who are supporting Obama.

The other "we"--the rather underrepresented "we" here--would "win" in that circumstance.

Madame Speaker is the Speaker for the entire House. She leads ALL THE DEMOCRATS in that body. Not just the Obama or Clinton suppoters. She's RIGHT to keep her mouth shut. Why piss off half her constituency within that legislative chamber any sooner than needs must?

You seem to expect that she'll endorse Obama. She's a woman of a certain age, though. One who fits a demographic predisposition for a particular candidate.

What will you do if she endorses Clinton?

Assumptions are curious things, you know.

[Zachstar]

2. If she endorses Clinton then that is fine.

I just can't stand political cowards.

If she thinks Clinton NEEDS to go to the convention (And of course the win of a repub president in 2008) then she needs to give her a vote of confidence. But to stand on the side while the party is being torn apart is beyond belief.

And yes it is being torn apart. Note election 1980.

[MADem]

4. It's not cowardice. It's representing everyone. She's not wanting to

cut out any group.

She isn't using her position to 'tout' for one candidate or another, when it might be easy to so do.

That's actually being a LEADER. IMO. It is the opposite of cowardice--it's terribly brave, in fact, to resist that pressure to take the easy way out.

Election 1980 didn't "tear apart" the party. A president who appeared wimpy, and a young lion whose weaknesses were only beginning to come to the fore, raised some hell. Democrats weren't terribly enamored of either one. That's why the Reagan Democrat was born.

That's not the case here in this election. We've got LOTS of people of who like BOTH of the candidates. Some of them--though certainly not all-- are jerks who like one EXCLUSIVELY (even though they are very alike) and some of the voters are just morons who like sports contests disguised as political races. Some are shitstirrers. We have those in every race.

If Carter had been as decisive as FDR on the domestic front, as well as the international arena, and not allowed DESERT ONE to become a military potluck of all branches, when it should have been a one or two service gig, tops, he wouldn't have given Teddy an opening. Carter failed to lead, he failed to use the full force of the nation effectively, and Ted saw that weakness and, realizing that it was probably, in terms of age and timing (Joan was ready to leave, but she would have stayed if he made the grade), his only valid shot at the White House, jumped into the breach.

What "tore the party apart" was LOUSY CHOICES. Wimpy McAngstRidden VS Drunken, Coking Fuckaround. Put on a Sweater, Turn Out the Lights, Carry Your Own Bag, and Freeze To Death in Your Home, and Deal With Those Odd-Even Gas lines versus Cocaine, A Dead Pretty Young Staffer, Drunken Parties at Toney Island Resorts and a Wife Who Looks Traumatized For Good Reason. Ted wasn't always a gracious, sensible politician and certainly not always an elder statesman--he was a bit of a problem back then in the coke-sniffing eighties--he barely held on until he grew up and shaped up. That's the ONLY explanation why a doddering old film actor looked halfway "good" to some people by comparison.

Now, through the long lens of history, we are better able to see the finer qualities of both Jimmy Carter and Edward M. Kennedy. But we don't USE a long lens of history when we pick candidates for the Presidency. We use more of a BE HERE NOW approach, a "What have you done for me lately?" attitude.

It's just how it is...! Pelosi is smart to stay the hell out of the way. She still has to be Madame Speaker when this is all over.

[Zachstar]

3. Kick