Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame

[BonnieJW]

By Matt Taibbi
December 15, 2010 5:34 PM EDT

In an era of Democratic waffling and compromise, the Independent from Vermont actually stands up for what he believes in

Bill Clark/Roll Call via Getty
Not long ago I was sitting at home writing something for publication – I won’t say what, except that it was a passage about a certain politician on the Hill. Out of habit I launched into a description that was full of nasty and personal language, and I was about to press on to the next part of the piece when suddenly I hit a mental speed bump. A voice in my head whispered – this really happened – “If you write that shit and Bernie Sanders sees it, he’s going to be disappointed in you.” So I went back and removed the gratuitous body blows from the article.

I thought about this when I watched Bernie go through his amazing one-man filibuster against the Obama tax cut deal last week. Week after week, month after month, we watch politicians who disappoint us, not just as leaders but as people, failing to achieve the basic life-competency standard we expect of most grown-ups, doing things we wouldn’t tolerate from 15-year-olds. Whether it’s Mark Foley writing sexy letters to little boys, or Charlie Rangel or Duke Cunningham or Jerry Lewis doing the pay-for-play game, or even assholes like Orrin Hatch roaring with partisan excitement when the individual mandate – his own idea – was recently declared unconstitutional by a federal judge (who himself has financial stake in the health care business), these guys fail the common decency/honesty test with unnerving regularity. It’s sad but true, but in 99.9% of all cases, you wouldn’t think of looking up to an elected official as a moral role model. Which is why Bernie Sanders is such a rarity, and people should appreciate what he’s doing not just for his home state of Vermont, but for the reputation of all politicians in general.

I was in Washington last week and visited Bernie in his office, mainly to talk about the incredible results of the Federal Reserve audit, about which I’ll be writing more in the upcoming weeks and after the New Year. The audit of the Fed was undertaken because Bernie and a few other members of congress fought very hard during the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform debate to force open Ben Bernanke’s books, and as a result we now know the staggering details of the secret bailout era. We know that Citigroup received $1.6 trillion in loans, and Morgan Stanley $2 trillion, and Goldman Sachs – the same Goldman Sachs that bragged about how quickly it paid back its $10 billion TARP bailout – over $600 billion. We know that hedge fund billionaires who moved their corporate addresses to the Cayman Islands to avoid U.S. taxes were rewarded by their buddies in government with huge Fed loans; we know that the U.S. government likewise has been extending massive loans to a variety of Japanese car companies at a time when many American auto workers in Detroit have seen their wages cut in half, to $14 an hour. There’s that and there’s more on the outrage front, and we know it all because Sanders kicked and screamed and stamped his feet about Fed secrecy until just enough other members of the Senate decided to go along with him.

I’m bringing this up now to put into context what Bernie did on the floor of the Senate last week, standing up for eight hours and 37 minutes to make a case that the hideous deal that Barack Obama cut with the Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts was an outrage to the very qualities that matter most to this politician, common decency and common sense. While everyone else in Washington was debating the political efficacy of the deal – the Hill actually published a piece talking cheerfully about how CEOs found a “new friend” in Obama, while the New York Times shamelessly ran a front-page “analysis” talking up the deal’s supposed benefits to the middle class and the political benefits from same that Obama would enjoy – Sanders blew all of that off and just looked at the deal’s moral implications. Which are these: this tax deal, frankly and unequivocally, is the result of a relatively small group of already-filthy rich people successfully lobbying an even smaller group of morally spineless politicians to shift an ever-bigger share of society’s burdens to the lower and (what’s left of the) middle classes. This is people who already have lots of shit just demanding more shit, for the sheer rotten sake of it. Here’s how Bernie put it:


Read the whole thing
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bernie-sanders-puts-barack-obama-to-shame-20101215

[mmonk]

1. I tried to send this to the greatest page but was cancelled out.

Hopefully someone else will.

[Horse with no Name]

16. For some reason

when I hit rec, it credited me TWO! So consider yours given back!:thumbsup:

[mmonk]

66. That works.

:)

[elocs]

87. No, somebody just hit Rec at the same time you did.

The same as when you hear posters crying about how they gave a thread a Rec and nothing happened because someone gave it an UnRec at the same moment.

This whole obsessing about Rec/UnRec is about as juvenile as junior high school.

[Lucky 13]

2. k&r

[sasha031]

3. K&R

[kentuck]

4. Why don't you start a poll?

And see how many would vote for Sanders over Obama? Would he even get 5% of DU?? :sarcasm:

[bullwinkle428]

6. Way to miss the point entirely.

[kentuck]

7. Sorry.

I will add the sarcasm marker.

[bullwinkle428]

32. I'm sometimes slow to pick up on sarcasm when the label isn't there -

I offer my apology for jumping on your case!

:toast:

[xiamiam]

8. i would vote for sanders in a heartbeat..nt

[True_Blue]

23. X2

[WinkyDink]

26. There's a solid chance he'd get my vote. I like Liberal men of principle.

[Plucketeer]

44. I'd vote for ANY persons of principle, but...

in DC, such folks make hen's teeth look nuisancely common.

[Poboy]

5. recommend

[seafan]

9. The simple truth: The Obama/McConnell tax deal is a rotten scam.

Matt Taibbi:


December 15, 2010

.....

(Senator Bernie) Sanders blew all of that off and just looked at the deal’s moral implications. Which are these: this tax deal, frankly and unequivocally, is the result of a relatively small group of already-filthy rich people successfully lobbying an even smaller group of morally spineless politicians to shift an ever-bigger share of society’s burdens to the lower and (what’s left of the) middle classes. This is people who already have lots of shit just demanding more shit, for the sheer rotten sake of it. Here’s how Bernie put it:


"How can I get by on one house? I need five houses, ten houses! I need three jet planes to take me all over the world! Sorry, American people. We've got the money, we've got the power, we've got the lobbyists here and on Wall Street. Tough luck. That's the world, get used to it. Rich get richer. Middle class shrinks."



I contrast this now to the behavior of Barack Obama. I can’t even count how many times I listened to Barack Obama on the campaign trail talk about how, as president, he would rescind the Bush tax cuts as soon as he had the chance. He stood up and he said over and over again – I can still hear him saying “Let me be clear!” with that Great Statesman voice of his, before he went into this routine – that the Bush tax cuts were wrong and immoral. He said more than once that they “offended his conscience." Then, just as he did with drug re-importation and Guantanamo and bulk Medicare negotiations for pharmaceuticals and the issue of whether or not he would bring registered lobbyists into his White House and a host of other promises, he tossed his campaign “convictions” in the toilet and changed his mind once he was more accountable to lobbyists than primary voters. He pulled an Orrin Hatch, in other words, only he did it serially.

I can live with the president fighting for something and failing; what I can’t stand is a politician who changes his mind for the sake of expediency and then pretends that was what he believed all along. You just can’t imagine someone like Sanders doing something like that; his MO instead would be to take his best shot for what he actually believes and let the chips fall where they may, budging a little maybe to get a worthwhile deal done but never turning his entire face inside out just to get through the day. This idea that you can’t be an honest man and a Washington politician is a myth, a crock made up by sellouts and careerist hacks who don’t stand for anything and are impatient with people who do. It’s possible to do this job with honor and dignity. It’s just that most of our politicians – our president included, apparently – would rather not bother.

More and more people are figuring out that restoring the people's wealth consists of safeguarding our homes, our jobs, our health care, our education, our civil rights, our Social Security and Medicare, our national security, and the dismantlement and heavy regulation of the corporate vampires that are feeding on us.


This president can keep the change.

[fasttense]

81. I am done with Obama, I am done with anything Obama related.

I will never again make phone calls, send money, attend rallies for Obama or Democrats who associate themselves with Obama. He is a liar.

He said he would end the billionaire tax give aways, instead he extends them and sets up Social Security for failure.

Our economy will get bad, real bad and it will be due to Obama's failure to act.

He is a corporatist, a Hoover RepubliCON and a liar.

[Selatius]

10. I think it's a sad commentary that a man like him is an independent, and not a Democrat.

He doesn't have to carry the baggage of a whole party except his own words.

[pocoloco]

24. Thank God He isn't a Democrat!!

[mmonk]

74. Being an independent makes him resistant to arm twisting

and money withholding threats.

[treestar]

11. He isn't President

He does not have to deal with any of the fall out.

Didn't he vote against extending unemployment? Why isn't he thrown under the bus for that?

He didn't get tax cuts for just the lower end and not the rich. He did not do anything.

[liberation]

49. Yes, we can't!!!

[tomp]

59. lame as ever. nt

[me b zola]

69. Why were unemployment benefits even tied to tax cuts?

It never should have been. :thumbsdown:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

12. My god, if we had 60 Bernie Sanders --

imagine where we could be as a nation. :cry:

[polichick]

17. The U.S. would be an amazing place - instead of a failing empire. nt

[nashville_brook]

21. even just a handful of Sanders...and a Wellstone thrown in for good measure.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. I am a huge fan of Sanders, but he's wrong on this.

And he's wrong for one very specific reason - if he didn't like this deal, as a Senator, he had every right in his capacity to work to get a better deal. This is yet another case of Members of Congress not taking responsibility to do their own damn jobs. They had plenty of time to work on this issue, and the Obama administration practically begged them to bring the very deal Sanders would've wanted up for a vote before the election. Sanders did not urge Reid and Pelosi to do so, nor did he make any efforts to ensure that there would be enough votes to pass that bill. After the election, neither Sanders nor anyone else in Congress made any efforts to get a "better deal" done, and in the absence of that, someone had to do something.

If you shirk your responsibility, you can't be pissed off at the outcome. Sanders knows better than this and I'm very disappointed in him. It will not make me any less a supporter of his, however.

[Sherman A1]

53. Are you sure he never talked to anyone the Bush tax plan

early on? I wasn't in every conversation that he had and I suspect you were not as well.

I have seen him during morning speeches in the past talk about issue that are important to working people, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he at least is up to speed on the issues.

That the Congress did not act until the last minute, does not mean that any of it's individual members were not discussing or pushing the issue.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

96. Bottom line - he didn't get a deal done.

No one in Congress did. That alone makes it disingenuous to criticize a deal when they had every opportunity to do something better, but didn't.

[Sherman A1]

99. We are simply not going to agree

You apparently do not like Mr. Sanders for some reason, so I think it best we call it a day.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

101. Wrong - I love Sanders.

I've long held that HE is the guy DU should hold up as a hero instead of Kucinich. But the fact of the matter is, he is wrong on this issue.

[jtown1123]

91. He is not a member of either party or leadership therefore has no pull to work out a better deal.

He tried to convince Dem Leadership to work out something better (Harry Reid) but he is a dolt. Of course he urged everyone to heed his warnings, but, he is not a Dem therefore has no pull. That's the way Congress and Senate are played.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

97. Bullshit - he's treated like a Democrat for all intents and purposes. (nt)

[OHdem10]

14. Is it fair to compare? Really what we see is the fifference between

a Liberal and a Pragmatic New Democrat.

Liberals have the passion, fire and have core principles which they
will defend ferociously.

Start with Pragmatic. It is what works rather than defending a set
of principles. What I can get becomes the objective.

Our Party has become DLC New Democrat. Pragmeatism with a conservative
bent.

At the present Conservadems rule, so it is unfair to compare
Bernie . Do not get me wrong. I love Bernie and thank God
he is there reminding American people of what the Democratic
used to be about. If you can believe it, at one time the
majority of Democrats would have been more like Bernie(in beliefs
and principles. That is why at one time he was a socialist.
Our party being Conservative, now Bernie just appears Liberal.
Perhaps this helps explain frustration on the Left.

[polichick]

15. What a combo - Sanders and Taibbi, both truthtellers who are helping...

...to expose the fraud and corruption that is so much a part of our government.

k&r

[Still a Democrat]

18. Bernie Sanders Gets Nothing Done

It's easy to drone on about what you like or don't like and just say no when you're not getting anything done.

[hfojvt]

19. getting nothing done is better than doing something really, really bad

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/89

0 >>>>> -140,000,000,000 (zero is much greater than negative 140 billion)

[ProudDad]

28. +1000

You took the words right out of my mouth...

It's easy to get unprincipled, evil shit done in the Corporate States of America...

[Vattel]

35. -140,000,000,000 >>>>> -280,000,000,000

doing something really, really bad is better than doing something really, really, really, really bad

What is my point? If only I had one.

[Enthusiast]

63. Thank you, plus one....nt

[pocoloco]

25. Catch any of those straws??

[Better Believe It]

27. He doesn't get anything bad done. Other Democrats get really bad things done ....

especially when they get into a bi-partisanshit love affair with Republicans.

[Name removed]

37. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

42. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[liberation]

51. Bush got a lot of things "done"

I take that by your metric you consider Mr. Bush a success.

[Selatius]

55. So, I'm guessing getting the Federal Reserve audited was "getting nothing done"??? Am I right? nt

[tomp]

60. isn't it better to get nothing done than to get the wrong thing done? nt

[sabrina 1]

61. Really? And why is that? Because the sellouts in the Senate

work for Corporate America and there are not enough like Sanders to win for the people. The very fact that he can't get anything done for the people, is more proof of how bad things are. You have just made the case that Matt Taibbi is making, however unintentionally.

I wonder, if you were on a sports team and you found out that the rest of the team intended to throw a game for money, how would you, alone, manage to prevent them from doing so?

[Enthusiast]

62. Minus one.....nt

[olegramps]

75. Many fear this "getting something done" may well undo Social Security.

[Octafish]

90. Built in ''tax hike'' mantra coming due in 2 years.

Then we'll "have to" cut SS benefits.

It's genius -- evil genius.

[jtown1123]

92. HELLO! Do you not understand how the Senate works?

Bernie Sanders fights harder than everyone in the Senate but cannot get shit done because he is not part of the Democratic party, therefore holds no leadership positions or has any influence on the Dems because he is independent. He is a voice of reason, but you cannot blame him for the Dems not heeding his advice.

[BrklynLiberal]

20. I consider Sanders a hero. At least he tried to point out the flaws in this capitulation.

That is a hell of a lot more than most of the other Dems did.

[Canuckistanian]

22. At least the RWers would be able to call him a socialist and be RIGHT

Obama is nowhere within shouting distance of being a socialist.

[defendandprotect]

40. Which would be rather ironic as he recited his values/agenda ...

there might be a huge "aha" among the populace upon hearing what he stands for?!

[flying rabbit]

29. WWBD? nt

[pleah]

30. K&R

[DeSwiss]

31. K&R

[PhillySane]

33. Bernie is a Socialist

And unfortunately, this tag doesn't get a lot of play here in the good 'ole US of A. However, many institutions that we have incorporated into our daily life, social security, medicare and any program that the government runs to benefit society, ARE socialist programs. We are, in part, socialists. You might even argue that TARP was the biggest socialist program ever initiated by the US government, and I am sure many years from now, it will be viewed that way. But since the beginning of the 20th century, the word "socialism" has been tagged by the wealth class as a product of our enemies. Those who would try to defeat the US, capitalism and the free markets. They have sold this to the general public as a dirty word (like fuck, piss, shit and the rest of the seven that George Carlin defined in the seventies, but should have added socialism to). It's not a dirty word, anymore than the rest of them. We do it everyday. We just can't say it on national TV.

The Republicans sell themselves as the anti-socialists. This dates back to a time when the "enemy" was socialist. Those enemies don't exist anymore. We are borrowing money to fund our wars, tax-cuts and bailouts from socialists. Yes they like being capitalists now, but in their hearts, they are still socialists. These socialists, in fact, aren't doing too bad right now. In fact, they're doing pretty well. And, they've proven to all the world (although they still can't kick that Totalitarian moniker) that a little capitalism mixed with a little socialism is a pretty nice mix. If you throw some good 'ole fashion democracy in there, you might just have the perfect society.

And this brings me to another dirty word. Oligarchy. Not many people want to say this word.

Merriams's Definition of OLIGARCHY

1: government by the few
2: a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes; also : a group exercising such control
3: an organization under oligarchic control

I'd like to hear more people say this word on a daily basis. I'd like people to know that this is a much dirtier word than socialist.

This is what our government is becoming. This is the true enemy.

[defendandprotect]

39. Bernie is a better Dem than most of them.. and he can run on a Dem ticket ....

We would need a very stable VP -- Tom Hayden? Michael Moore? Grayson?

Any other suggestions?

[Stardust]

41. Remember this classic? TDS welcomes the GOP to the Twin Cities

[dreamnightwind]

47. ":I'd like people to know that this is a much dirtier word than socialist"

Oligarchy. There, I said it. Great point.

We need to put the socialism back in the Democratic party.

[gkhouston]

84. "Pragmatist" comes to mind. n/t

[Enthusiast]

64. Very nice post, PhillySane.

Welcome to the DU. "OLIGARCHY"

[TBF]

68. Those who would try to defeat ... capitalism and the free markets

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Bernie is a democratic socialist to be accurate. Welcome to DU.

[PhillySane]

73. Actually, as of 2008

The oligarchs have already defeated the free markets. They beat the socialists to it.

[TBF]

80. If defeated=looted, than yeah I'm with you on that. nt

[sulphurdunn]

34. I don't think it's a matter of our politicians

electing not to do their jobs with honor and integrity so much as it is their lack of a psychological capacity to do so. That and not some failure to make an ethical choice is what renders most of them unfit to hold any office of public trust. A most profound question then becomes understanding how they ever came to be where they are and how to remove them, because I think our lives may depend on it.

[bertman]

36. My take is that even the good politicians who really want to do what is right

for the working class still have to get re-elected; therefore, they think they have to NOT piss off the big money donors who will help them in their next campaign.

Now with so much riding on how much air time and what kind of ads a politician can run the demand for $$$$ is what drives them. Even if we had some who were willing to say "Screw the money, I'm going to vote for principal" like Alan Grayson, Patrick Murphy and many others, they tend to get KO'd by the money boys who finance the opposition.

It's a corrupt system. Bribery that has been made legal.

But, back to the subject of Bernie Sanders. He's one of my heroes. Whoever said that he never gets anything done is full of crap. Bernie was the guy who got the community public health clinics funded in the Healthcare Deform Bill. One of the few decent parts of that abomination.

Bless You, Bernie. You da man!!

REC.

[liberation]

50. Exactly, the problems are deeply systemic

and just changing the president for a nicer smarter fellow and a bunch of slogans aren't gonna be the magic antidote to fix any of the systemic flaws.

[Selatius]

56. That's the point, though. Bernie's money is mostly grassroots. He doesn't have corporate donors.

He beat the last guy to shit when Bernie was elected with like a 60-40 spread, and that year, the Democrats didn't dare put somebody against him but opted to simply throw their support behind him when he did win.

[TBF]

70. Well that's partly true -

here is the info re Bernie's contributors:
http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=n00000528

Top 5 Contributors, 2005-2010, Campaign Cmte
Contributor Total Indivs PACs
eScription Inc $25,200 $25,200 $0
Baron & Budd $18,000 $18,000 $0
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union $17,000 $0 $17,000
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $16,500 $0 $16,500
Communications Workers of America $16,250 $1,250 $15,00

eScription is a corporation, Baron & Budd is a most awesome law firm in Dallas, TX, and the others are unions.

I will say his record is better than most.

[PhillySane]

76. Just thought of this

Do we know if any of the TARP money recipients donated to politicians while they still had that money in their hands? Even before or after they got it for that matter? Was it in fact legal for them to do this?

[Selatius]

86. It depends on how you define "individual." Corporations can't contribute but individuals can.

If you worked for, say, Bank of America when they received the bail-out loan and were one of the ones who received a bonus at the end of the year at that company, there likely wouldn't be a requirement that you declare the bonus or the paychecks you received from that company as having contained any partial amount of the TARP money.

As far as political contributions go, you'd only have to specify that you work for Bank of America, and opensecrets adds your total to the total of other individuals who also work for that bank who contributed to any particular politician. If a bunch of you contributed to Barack Obama's campaign, opensecrets will show the total amount all of you contributed from Bank of America to Obama.

[PhillySane]

71. That's the Problem

The political process has been stolen away from the masses who don't have access to that kind of cash. It either needs to be governed back to the people, or we need to take it back through massive grassroots action.

[TBF]

79. Massive grassroots action -

we've been doing that for quite some time. I personally think it's going to take much more than that.

The communist party of Greece (KKE) recently:



This particular photo 11/3/2010 (http://www.athensnews.gr/portal/8/33021)

That is what it takes.

[spooked911]

85. I agree-- where is our action?

Is anyone organizing? If so, who is organizing to fight economic disparity?

[TBF]

93. Well they started purging us with the Palmer Raids (democratic administration that time too) -

and pretty much finished up with McCarthyism. We've been without a strong left since the 1950-60's. There are little pockets of us here and there. We look to the KKE of Greece for guidance -

"On the 15th of December the 14th general strike in the space of one year (from 17/12/2009) took place against the barbaric anti-people measures of the social-democratic government, which has the support of the EU and IMF.

The 24hour strike mobilization, which the All-workers Militant Front (PAME) called, embraced every sphere of the economic and social life of the country: Production halted in the factories, public transport stopped, the airports and ports ceased to function, the schools and universities closed, while the hospitals serviced only emergencies...

...The KKE fought in parliament against this anti-people legislation, while the communists and the class-oriented trade union forces which are rallied by PAME played a leading role in the strikes in a series of sectors, which had been in progress from the beginning of the week...

...Aleka Papariga, head of the KKE delegation which participated in the central strike rally of PAME in Athens and in the massive march which followed, made the following statements to journalists “No consent. No ceasefire. Secret and official measures have been scheduled to be taken up until 2014.

Either the people will be bankrupted, or the political system, we will fight against it, we will box into a corner and eventually overthrow it. There is no other choice. 20 years ago the workers could gain some victories through their struggles, but today we need radical change and only the people can bring it about.” ..."

http://inter.kke.gr/News/2010news/2010-12-16-strike

WE.DO.NOT.CONSENT - such strength and clarity in that statement.

[PhillySane]

98. Small Fires Starting

here's a link to a post from last night, 22 Arrested Protesting Foreclosures

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=25151&mesg_id=25151

Looks kind of meek compared to what they did in Greece, but I applaud their courage and hope we all join in. Sign me up.

[spooked911]

102. that's awesome-- but we need those rallies to be 1000x bigger

and in every city.

I would go-- but I just don't have time to organize... wish it wasn't so, but that's the hard reality.

[defendandprotect]

38. Bernie Sanders in 2012 -- he can run on a Dem ticket .... with Grayson....

or Tom Hayden --

We're all crying out for liberal leadership -- preferably from Democrats -- !!

Will they respond?

[jtuck004]

46. They have. n/t

[RoccoR5955]

58. or Kucinich! n/t

[WinkyDink]

82. See his vote.

[RoccoR5955]

95. OK then I take it back... How about MY Congressman...

Maurice Hinchey, from the 22nd district of NY?

[DeadEyeDyck]

43. K & R

[TriMera]

45. k&r. n/t

[earcandle]

48. What a great guy. I learn the thoughts, intentions, and points of a wise, caring man, while

the genre is still in existence.  

Bernie, get some tape on yourself... give us our lessons, our
youth have been deprived. 

[democrank]

52. Matt Taibbi is right.

Bernie Sanders DOES put Barack Obama to shame because he`s on the side of the people not the oligarchs.

[FlyByNight]

54. K & R

Big fan of both Senator Sanders and Matt Taibbi.

:thumbsup:

[xchrom]

57. Love taibbi! Nt

[Enthusiast]

65. K&R nt

[Vinca]

67. Thanks for posting. I love Bernie and I love Matt Taibbi.

[delightfulstar]

72. K&R, He certainly does put him to shame....

You know why? Because Bernie actually (*gasp*) GETS IT, unlike so many in DC. He cares about what happens to his constituents, and fights for them. That's the kind of leader we need.

[LWolf]

77. That he does. nt

[Hubert Flottz]

78. Bernie has a spine!

[russspeakeasy]

83. Obama put himself to shame. He didn't need any help.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

88. Imagine, a politician who actually stands for something!

We still have a few among the Democrats, but they are disrespected by their own party.

The rest seem more intent on compromising with the Republicans (so they'll be invited to all the right cocktail parties?) than on doing what the American people need.

[madrchsod]

89. fdr and lbj would be ashamed of what is happening...

both men fought for "the great unwashed" in our country.


i know i`ll never see it but maybe in the future america will grow up and become a civilized society.

[Overseas]

94. K&R. I really appreciate Bernie for having done his filibuster example.

He said so many things I wanted to tell my Democrats. I have indeed said many of the same things in emails to my representatives.

[ecstatic]

100. Dream on. nt

[lib2DaBone]

103. Bernie Sanders/Alan Grayson 2012

[L0oniX]

104. [phone]