DC’s quest to silence Elizabeth Warren

[DonViejo]

For the liberal star, DC's establishment perversely defines success as keeping her head down and not making waves

BY DAVID SIROTA

To know that the Washington media manufactures narratives wholly divorced from pesky facts is to simply compare last week’s Politico article on freshman Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with the actions of the senator in the same week.

In a vacuum and without actual evidence, Politico declared that Warren has a “quiet plan” to become a “silent senator” – one who refuses to speak out on controversial issues and therefore creates an image for herself that is “a sharp departure from her rousing campaign and outspoken consumer advocacy.” Yet, that very week, Warren showed she will likely be the opposite of a “silent senator.” She did this by slamming Republicans obstructing the nomination of a consumer regulator, publicly grilling negligent bank regulators and generally mustering a dominating performance at her very first committee hearing, thus generating national headlines.

What’s revelatory is not that rags like Politico fabricate story lines in order to fill their content quota and generate cheap web clicks. Nor is it shocking that other derivative political media obediently echo the story, repeating it as ironclad fact. After all, sloth and penny pinching have been around since the dawn of time (or at least since the dawn of the Internet), and so news organizations’ decisions to take the lazy and cheap route of just making shit up is hardly surprising.

No, what’s important here is what Politico actually got right in its story: namely, that the assumption in Washington is, indeed, that silence is a virtue – that, in other words, the best thing for a newly elected liberal senator to do is shut her mouth, go along to get along, play by the club’s rules and not make any waves. Summing up that Beltway conventional wisdom, Politico writes that only by “flying under the radar” can a liberal “star” like Warren develop a “reputation as a serious legislator.”

-snip-

more:
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/beltway_to_elizabeth_warren_shhh/

[gateley]

1. I honestly don't know what her leanings are - if she's indeed a liberal or not, but it irks me that

Sirota slaps that on her when the issue is economics. Both conservatives and liberals probably feel the same outrage she does knowing how we've been screwed. I hope they (the public) listens to her for the right reasons, and doesn't tune her out because they believe she's a "liberal".

[sheshe2]

2. Washington can "assume" what it wants.

That may have been what use to be, however that doesn't mean it is right. It is past time to shake things up in Washington.

Sen. Warren is going to be a strong voice for, we the people. That's why we sent her there!
Please proceed, Senator!

[bemildred]

3. I'm pretty sure Ms Warren is more than a match for DC. nt

[SteveG]

4. I don't see them peddling the same advice to

a Republican freshman Sen. Cruz. Hypocrites.

[DFW]

5. And thereby revealing their true colors

Which have always had rather a reddish hue in the first place.

[Frustratedlady]

6. Well, for one, he's a man. They think it'll be easier to bully Warren.

The only safety for her is for the people who begged her to run and supported her all the way, to push back on those who are trying to shut her up. She can't do it alone.

I think DU can handle that task.

[SteveG]

15. I think she is tough enough

to take it and give it back in spades. She seems to have the knack of embarrassing them in public. And the best part is, she has reality on her side.

[spooky3]

11. From the Sirota article:

"Before pondering the implications of that assumption, let’s first remember that in a capital city which tilts everything to the right, the same standard is not applied to conservative lawmakers. When, like Tea Party darling Marco Rubio, they “keep (their) head down and nose to the grindstone,” it is newsy precisely because a refusal to rock the boat is seen as out of character for newly elected Republicans. Meanwhile, rarely – if ever – do you see the Washington media portray junior boat-rocking firebrands like Rand Paul or Ted Cruz as unserious, stupid or politically harmed by refusing to “fly under the radar.” On the contrary, their iconoclasm is often presented as predictable, politically acceptable and even laudable – but definitely not a threat to their establishment credibility/credentials.

Case in point is Cruz, whose bombastic channeling of Joe McCarthy just earned him a slobbering New York Times profile praising his “zeal of the prosecutor,” trumpeting his behavior as “a jolt of positive energy” for conservatives, and touting him for making “his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years.” He may be drawing some flack from a few Senate Republican veterans, but that was depicted not as a negative, but as proof that he’s “Washington’s new bad boy.”"

[Scuba]

7. Elizabeth Warren is going to steamroll Washington, then Wall Street

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

[emsimon33]

9. Elizabeth Warren is a person of integrity and intelligence--two qualities sorely lacking in DC!

[spooky3]

10. One huge advantage of being a chaired professor at a top school is that you don't have to sell your

soul or integrity to keep a job as Senator. She doesn't have to pander to anyone as she can always return to her well-paid, highly respected position.

I'm sure that her only concern at this point is how best to achieve what she wants to achieve as a Senator. That may mean playing certain games in Washington, but if she does that, it will be with a goal in mind that does NOT include kissing *sses simply to keep her job in the Senate.

[GiveMeFreedom]

12. K&R for post and

Senator Warren.
I hope she becomes a leader in Washington, kicking ass and taking names.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

13. I don't know who DC is but if I was Warren I would

go after them.

I would love to stand for political office. I would not stup up!

[mvd]

14. K&R

She tells the truth to bankers and gets marginalized for it? Compared with CRUZ? Just shows how the status quo will stop at nothing to avoid change.