Russ Feingold is just one in a parade of 'darlings'

[Stinky The Clown]

We on the left seem to be pretty desperate for 'heros'. Don't take this post as a slam to Sen Russ. I like the guy and (for the 08 obsessed) can support him if he becomes our eventual nominee.

But come on, people. Every time a Dem does something good, there is a shitload of talk about the person being our presidential campaign savior.

Others who have come in for this fast-rise-fast-fade adulation are Conyers, Boxer, Kerry, Edwards, Clark, and (I am sure I am leaving out your favorite fast-riser-fast-fader).

To be sure, each of these people have strong and loyal supporters. And that's a good thing.

But please ....... lets get a grip. One act, one statement, one brave moment, while worth celebration, does not translate to a whole presidential run. Let's sit back and see what transpires. I have a favorite, even now, just as most of you do. But I steadfastly refuse to adulte this person with posts everytime there's news about this person. Even if/when that news is meaningful and brave.

Celebrate the issue. That's worthy of a pst.

But let's not make the mistake of grasping at every brave act (straws, in some cases) as worthy of being given the honor of bearing our standard.

Even my personal favorite (who has been a favorite for years) right now has to earn my support.

Issues

06

K?

[wryter2000]

1. Conyers hasn't faded in my book

I'm still pretty much in love with Barbara Boxer, too.

But, I see your point. As wonderful as Jack Murtha is on the war, I'm sure we'd happy call him a DINO for some of his other views.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Egggg-Zackly!

(And they haven't faded in my book, either.)

[thereismore]

2. Fengold is NOT a fast-riser, fast-fader. Look at his votes OK? nt

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. and thank you for proving the point....

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Hahahahaha

:thumbsup:

[Stinky The Clown]

7. You COMPLETELY missed the point

Not even close.

Feingold is but one example .... read the post again. It isn't about Feingold.

[ladjf]

11. I read your post closely and was not sure that I got your point.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. The kernal:

"One act, one statement, one brave moment, while worth celebration, does not translate to a whole presidential run. Let's sit back and see what transpires."

[ladjf]

15. I don't disagree with most of your statement. However, at this

point, it might be a good political idea to start showing some enthusiasm for several of our top Democrats, including Feingold, Gore, Conyers, Boxer, Murtha, Clark and others.

[radio4progressives]

29. Feingold a One Act Pony? Wrong... that he is not.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. This is NOT a Feingold thread

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. You're asking for way, WAY too much rationality.

This place has gone completely emotionally unstable since 2004. I hardly even recognize it somedays.

[MuseRider]

5. I so agree, it is wonderful

when someone comes out and does something that we expect them all to do but damn. It annoys me a little but then these days anything they do that is remotely Democratic is nice so I understand it. The only thing that annoys me worse than this is "So and so speaks for me."

Ahhh, I am just being crotchety this afternoon.

[wryter2000]

14. Ooops

"Barbara Lee speaks for me" is one of her slogans and shows up on bumper stickers. She's also consistently wonderful. She's my Congresscritter, and she does speak for me.

[MuseRider]

25. That is entirely different.

She does speak for you she is your rep.

She is wonderful and I wish I had someone who represented me anywhere nationally.

Sorry, I am being a bit testy today, I did not mean to insult.

[wryter2000]

28. No sweat

I understand you're just envious because I have such an awesome Congresswoman. :)

[MuseRider]

31. Hell yes I am! n/t

[ladjf]

9. Why not? Who is your political "darling"? Why are you

worried about the rest of us looking for heroes? America damn sure needs a few.

[RufusEarl]

10. We as a party!

We do seem to be grasping for a real leader these days, and to be honest i don't see or hear one so far!

I'll work and vote for whomever gets the nod, but i would really like to have a real statesman/woman step up.

And when we win the 08 election, that person is going to have one helluva job getting this country back in working order.

So i hope when we do win in 08, we as a party can work to help our new president cause they're going to need all the help we can provide.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Well said!

Are we, as a party and as an aliance of compatible philosophies, capable of that?

[RufusEarl]

18. Not sure!

we are a complicated bunch. But thats what makes this party special, unfortunately the repughs march in lock step while we march in route step.

[IsItJustMe]

16. You need study his record before you start shooting from the hip.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. I didn't shoot from the hip ... but **you** may have ....

The post was NOT (repeat: NOT) about Feingold. And you read it as such, you're the hip shooter.

[ClassWarrior]

19. If it's not about Feingold, then it's about you scolding DUers for...

...getting excited when our people do good stuff.

Either way, it's sad.

NGU.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. Get excited about ISSUES .... 06 ..... honest voting ......

but not personalities ..... and surely not elevating personalities based on one issue. Yoiu may well so informed and pure that you never do that. In which, ignore me and my posts.

But you know damned well what I'm talking about.

[IsItJustMe]

21. You are one that said

...One act, one statement, one brave moment, while worth celebration,...

Many people are supporting him because he has stood out for years now on stands of principle. If you really knew anything what-so-ever, you would know this.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. One more time ..... this is NOT about Feingold. Go start your own thread

instead of hijacking mine ..... k?

[SteppingRazor]

23. In some sense, I have to agree...

it always disturbs me to see Democrats -- ostensibly, the party of the thinking man -- drawn into the Cult of Personality. I'm sure we can all think of a few DUers who believe that one particular Democratic politican can do absolutely no wrong and should be the DNC's annointed candidate for '08 -- and WOE BETIDE anyone who disagrees with them.

I think it's extremely dangerous to blindly support one politician, regardless of his previously held positions, at the expense of what is good for the party, what is good for the nation, and what is good for the voter as an individual. The Cult of Personality has no place among thinking, level-headed Democrats.

[Stinky The Clown]

24. Thank you .... a big part of the point I was making

particularly is saying we can and should celebrate and discuss the **issue** ... but when it becomes personality, it isn't good.

[TreasonousBastard]

26. Yeah, there sure is a lot of forest/trees blindness...

around here. The Hero of the Day is often not what he or she seems to be, and the villians that pop up are often not so bad after all.

And there are those who simply go on plugging day after day and get little recognition at all.

Republicans don't have a whole lot of heros either, not that we care all that much about them, but they simply have a crew that has grabbed power. Ain't no Eisenhowers, or even Reagans, on the horizon there.

I think the whole country has become too cynical. After years of Whack-a-Mole slamming of everything and everyone bothering to stand up for something, we almost automatically don't trust them. But, we have have to have a hero somewhere, so we have the daily superperson.

"We don't need another hero
We don't need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond
Thunderdome"

[Stinky The Clown]

27. Funny that you mention that ......

My political 'hero' is and long has been Charlie Rangel.

Would he even get close to me endorsing him for president? Not hardly.

My second biggest hero is Barney Frank. Ditto on the backing for prez.

Not cuz they don't think like I do, but because they could never get elected.

My current prez favorite? A hero of mine, to be sure .... but not the top one. Or third or fourth or fifth ...... but a a person I deeply respect, find myself in a tolerable level of agreement with (+/- 90%) and who I know can win if nominated.

[Turn CO Blue]

32. "If it is to be, it is up to me."

We don't need a hero. These men (and women) are only human, and the ones you mention are maxed out (timewise, energywise, and wisdomwise.)

I am going to have to be the hero. You have to be the hero. This is supposed to be a government of the people (that's the plain ol' proles), not a government of the "millionaires with law degrees and influential backers".

What we need is NOT a hero, but a velvet revolution. We need all of us to stand up at the same time, call at the same time, draw the line at the same time, refuse to spend one damned dime at the same time, or sell all of our stock at the same damned time.

V said that the people shouldn't be afraid of their government, but the government should be AFRAID of the people.

[ulysses]

33. fair points, although I would point out

that some of us have been admirers of Russ since long before the censure thing. :)

[Hippo_Tron]

34. I liked Russ well before the censure

I liked Russ when he voted against the Patriot Act. I liked Russ when he voted for Ashcroft. I liked Russ when he was lobbying for McCain/Feingold. I liked Russ when he voted against the IWR. I liked Russ when he voted against renewing the AWB. I liked Russ when he voted for Condi. I liked Russ when he voted against Gonzales. I liked Russ when he voted for Roberts. I liked Russ when he voted against Alito.

Russ doesn't have a record that DU approves of 100% of the time. That said, even when I disagree with what he does, I believe that his motives are pure and that he is doing what he believes in. That's different than some of the darlings on DU that do a good thing and everybody cheers about them every now and then.

You are right that there have been moments that DU has bashed Feingold, but I think that if you look deeper there is a solid group of people on DU, myself included, who support him even if we don't like the way he votes on the issue of the day.

I don't support Russ for president because of one moment. I support him because I know exactly what he stands for and because he has a record to prove it. I can't say the same for Evan Bayh or Mark Warner. I don't really know what they stand for and their records on national issues are not all that impressive.

[Stinky The Clown]

35. Your support is reasoned and just fine with me .......

But this post was not about Feingold or anyone else. It was about the raising of one person or another at one time or another and the cheerleading that follows.

As you support Feingold (all well stated in your post, so I support my favorite. That's a good thing.

But that's not what I'm posting about here.

[Hippo_Tron]

38. But you used Feingold as an example of a larger group

I'm saying that Feingold doesn't belong to that group.

[cascadiance]

36. Heck I liked Russ back in the 90's when he voted against CDA

He was one of only 5 senators that voted against the Telecomm act that included the unconstitutional Communications Decency Act as well as the loosening of all of the media controls that have given us the likes of NewsCorp, GM, Sinclair Broadcasting, Clear Channel and other increasingly smaller numbers of companies controlling our media landscape with the consolidation it allowed. He also earlier help author McCain-Feingold, which though it was compromised to death, shows that he prioritizes fixing our campaign financing system, which in my mind should be THE priority for Democrats to fix when they get back into the majority again, even if the DLC may want to fight them on that. Feingold has a LONG track record of doing what's right! The censure resolution just confirmed my feelings that he is the right guy for 2008, not had me turn my head towards him then.

I, like you, don't like to get hung up on personality swings either, but I think you need to see that many people's reasons for supporting Russ is more than just what you are criticizing as a problematic strategy that many of us have for picking those who we support. I can think of others that fit more what you're describing than Feingold that should have been listed as examples instead of he (Hillary?)...

[windbreeze]

37. Perhaps......

The top guys should pay attention then...the reason this is happening, is because we have a thirst to see our elected Dems stand up and be counted...that when ONE of them does so...We charge after them as though we have been out in the desert for years and they have the only drink of water left...They are like a mirage...

I recall Gore giving a speech a couple months ago...all of a sudden all we heard was Gore, Gore, Gore...I recall Murtha speaking out...same thing Murtha this, Murtha that....Rangel, Reid, Obama, Conyers, Boxer, even Pelosi have had their moments...I am not by any stretch of the imagination, undermining or discounting what any one of them might have done as an individual..what worries me is that...the whole situation begins to smack of desperation....and I wonder how obvious it is to other voters?

It makes me sad to see us so in need, that instead of expecting these actions from those we elect on a regular basis....we are reduced to celebrating when they remember...THEY work for US..They aren't doing us any favors...watching out for us, IS what they were hired to do...but in the back of my mind, I find I wonder what motivated the individual to do what he/she did...did they reap personal benefits?...did they do it for us or for themselves? cynical, disgusted, saddened...keeping my hero worship in check...and watching...sick of the polls that reflect the nonsense of the moment, also...no offence meant..kinda glad someone addressed this situation....
windbreeze

[SaveElmer]

39. Works the other way too

One wrong vote or act...and down they go into "Repub-lite" land....

I even saw some nasty comments about Feingold after his Roberts vote!

[ldf]

40. its called desperation politics

we are SO desperate for SOME indication that any ONE of our democratic leaders "GETS IT", that we immediately latch on to any trace of loyalty to the original core democratic principles.

it's sad, isn't it?

and, unfortunately, those very same democratic leaders are counting on that very desperation. they know we have nowhere else to go. (all together now, can you say "hillary"? i knew you could....)

and THAT is REALLY sad!

:cry:

[ClarkBayh 2008]

41. We all respect Feingold

And he would be a terrific secretary of HHS, or even secretary of WAR.
BUT HE SHOULD NOT BE PUMPED UP FOR THE NATIONAL TICKET.
THAT WOULD BE ELECTORAL SUICIDE.

National election nominations may need to go back to smokefilled rooms if leftys keep this up.