POLITICIANS FEAR AND HATE THE GRASSROOTS-- AND NOT JUST REPUBLICANS

Except just before election time-- when Smith supports his constituents

I started reading David Sirota's new book, The Uprising on my trip to DC this week. It's enthralling and I can hardly stand putting it down. I'm sure I'll be talking a lot about it for the next few weeks and I'm planning to go hear him speak Monday evening in Culver City at Brave New Films. Right in the beginning he makes some points about the fear and loathing DC Insiders feel towards populism and democracy and I want to quote them today before I talk about why we've seen some Republicans suddenly voting with the Democrats on major substantive issues of late. Sirota is a big fan of the Declaration of Independence. He reminds us in his into that "the rulers of this country 'derive their powers from the consent of the governed'-- and 'it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish' the existing order through an uprising when the elite starts wielding power exclusively for its own interests." Put on hold for a moment that there is no better description of the Bush Regime than the previous 10 words and let's look at some quotes from the corporate media enablers who have worked most closely with Bush-- and with McCain, the rubber stamp Republicans and the Vichyssoise Dems-- to hoodwink the rest of us.

The Washington Post's David Broder issued a breathless jeremiad warning that "a particularly virulent strain of populism has made official Washington altogether too responsive to public opinion." He is ably backed up by New York Times columnist David Brooks, who declares that "polarized primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics" and prays that the "renegades who rail against the Establishment [get] eclipsed by the canny Establishmentarians."

You may be poo-pooing this example because Broder and Brooks are the two worst Insider kiss-asses writing about politics and no one pays them any mind anymore. Apparently though, big wigs at both political parties do. The NRCC has decided to ease candidate selection-- which they blame for their 3 recent catastrophic losses in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi special elections-- out of the hands of untrustworthy rank and file Republicans. And, even more outrageously, Chris Van Hollen is following suit at the DCCC, something his Tom DeLay-like DCCC predecessor Rahm Emanuel and Chuck "Lizard Brain" Schumer at the DSCC have been doing for years.

The insiders hate democracy and hate the voters whom they refer to, contemptuously, as the "great unwashed." We (over)-pay their salaries-- and even allow them to set their salaries and define their own ethics-- and they spit in our faces and do what they can to usurp our constitutional rights.

On Tuesday conservative Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) explained this contempt in the heat of a battle over Medicare. Democrats on the Finance Committee are trying to pass a bill that, among other things, would improve access to low-income beneficiary assistance, parity in Medicare co-payments for mental health services and enhanced prescription drug coverage for HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. Predictably McCain and McConnell are leading the GOP against these proposals and most Republicans are willing to join yet another McConnell-led filibuster against Americans. Grassley groused that he expects some Republicans to cross the aisle and vote with the Democrats.

"They obviously are going to get some Republicans because some Republicans are up for election," he sputtered. In other words, if they weren't up for re-election and didn't have to face the voters in November they wouldn't be voting for measures the public feels are important; they would be voting-- like they usually do-- for measures the special interests who finance the GOP feel are important. Grassley was particularly concerned about Finance Committee members Gordon Smith (R-OR) and John Sununu (R-NH), normally two docile and dependable rubber stamps, who are both in jeopardy of defeat because of their zombie-like posture towards the entire Bush agenda for the past 7 years. Grassley is even worried about Pat Roberts (R-KS) who never questions anything that comes from the White House and, more than anyone else in the Senate, has worked diligently to cover up all of the Regime's crimes regarding Intelligence manipulation.

Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is not up for re-election this year and, unlike her colleagues, is supporting the Democratic measure because she agrees it is the right thing to do. Her support is adding unbearable pressure on Maine's other senator, the far more rubber stampoid Susan Collins who feels she will be forced to cross the aisle again, a journey she hates making. She, however, is up for re-election-- and her opponent, Rep. Tom Allen, is a major proponent of health care reform.