LOU DOBBS IS WRONG-- DESPITE EMANUEL AND THAT TYPE, THE REPUBLICANS REALLY ARE WORSE

In my world, when I've heard people chanting "Lou! Lou! Lou!" it's been rock'n'roll fans hoping that Lou Reed with include "Walk On the Wild Side," "Herion" and "Dirty Boulevard" in an encore. And now there are millions of American chanting for another Lou as well, CNN's unlikely Lou Dobbs. Dobbs has a new book out, War on the Middle Class-- How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back. Sounds something like David Sirota's brilliant Hostile Takeover-- How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government-- and How We Take It Back. I read Sirota's book twice (so far). I doubt I'll get around to Dobbs', although I haven't ruled it out.

Yesterday Ken documented Dobb's appearance on the Daily Show. Dobbs is out promoting his book, as authors do, and I caught him with Stewart as well as with a couple of other talking heads. Sirota's and Dobbs' book have a lot in common and both share the premise that big corporations have udermined our entire political system. Both thoroughly denounce the Republican Party, which is wedded, in every sense of the term, to Big Business and their selfish-- and quite devastating-- preceived interests. Sirota was as harsh with Republican-like DLC fake Democrats, the bought-off whores like Biden and Lieberman and Bayh, as he was with Republicans. But, unlike Dobbs-- from what I can discern from his TV appearances at least-- Sirota understands the difference between the Democratic Party per se and the Republican Party per se.

Who could disagree with Dobbs (a reformed Republican) when he says "The fact is that both parties are owned lock, stock, and barrel by corporate America and U.S. multinationals. And, if you examine their funding or where they stand with their platforms, where in the United States Congress do you find representation for the middle class today? There is $2.4 billion being spent by corporate America and special interests and social special interests in this country to persuade your lawmakers and mine to vote in whatever way is most amenable to them but not you and me... Corporate America and special interests own, as I said, absolutely without equivocation the legislative process and the electoral process and we've got to come to terms with that reality." Well, I guess I'm going to disagree.

That's because there is a difference. What Dobbs is describing is the Republican Party. It is 100% the Republican Party. It's what they believe in and what they are. There are too many Democrats who buy in to it as well-- way too many. But it isn't the Democratic Party. Yesterday I tried explaining to several well-healed Democratic activists why they must understand that Rahm Emanuel and his ilk are every bit as much an enemy to progressives and progressive values as Tom DeLay. They didn't want to hear it; they don't want to talk about "disunity" going into the midterms. What a joke!

When we add House candidates to our Blue America page there are several crucial questions that have evolved. We want to know that our candidates will stand and fight for women's choice. We want to be certain that our candidates will not knuckle under to the ugly face of bigotry. The candidates on our list all support a Murtha-like solution to Bush's Iraqi quagmire. And, just as important as the other 3, we support Democrats who will back campaign finance reform. Big corporate money must be removed from the political system. You won't find DLC corporate whores on our list of candidates. Sure I'd rather them win instead of any Republican-- to help the Democrats get control of Congress-- but... I don't kind myself. And when the Chuck Schumers and Rahm Emanuels and their pawns (like Rahm's conveniently well-placed Tim Mahoney in Florida and other corporate-oriented Republicans in Democratic clothing) get their hands on the levers of power... what then? A tarring of Democratic ideals and values with money-grubbing corruption and sleaze? Is that what we're fighting for? Understand the difference. Sirota certainly does. I don't think Dobbs does though.


UPDATE: NEWS YOU CAN USE-- IN THE MIDWEST

A friend of mine, Cliff Schecter, did a great piece for In These Times that highlights exactly why and how the economic populism of the kind Dobbs almost gets right and Sirota understands to a T, is helping Democrats pull ahead in Midwest and Border States districts. The "combination of corruption and corroded factories explains why there are three vulnerable GOP seats in Kentucky, three to four in Indiana, up to five in Ohio and possibly six in Northern and Western New York. In Ohio, Reps. Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland, prototypical Midwestern populists, are running, and Democrats are also leading in the races for the U.S. Senate and governor’s mansion. It is a bit remarkable when you consider that three of these four states voted for President Bush, and yet, this region could provide the entire net 15-seat gain the Democrats need to take the House."