SlowpokeBlog

It has almost become banal at this point to criticize the Democrats in Congress for their fecklessness, but what can you do? To their credit, they have done a few things, like raise the minimum wage, embarrass the Bushies with S-CHIP (even though it was vetoed), and pass the Ledbetter Act in the House and Fair Pay Restoration Act in the Senate to overturn that beastly Supreme Court decision on sex discrimination. Often these efforts go underreported, while foreign policy dominates the headlines.

I also understand that being a politician isn't as easy as it looks, that people on all sides are constantly heaping scorn on you for things beyond your control. The fact that Code Pink has been harassing Nancy Pelosi at her home for months only makes me empathize with Pelosi. Juvenile behavior like that isn't helping anybody.

But the Dems' constant caving on anything related to terrorism or war, including most recently the Mukasey nomination, reveals a lack of principle and a lack of discipline. Are they going to be afraid of the Republicans' calling them "weak on terror" forever? When does the buck stop? They're going to be smeared no matter what they do, so they may as well go on the offensive. It's not like they'd be going against public opinion.