Pete Stark, What the Fuck?

I sent an email to Pete Stark. It said: “You’re the man!”

Boy, do I feel like an asshole now.

Pete, last week, tried to insert a spine into the globulous pile of flesh that is the Democratic Party. He called out the Republicans, and had the gall (or, I thought, the balls), to assert that the troops were dying for the “President’s amusement.” Man, is it ever about time that a Democrat sounded off like that.

Too bad it lasted less than a week.

Earlier this week, Pete Stark was back on the floor of Congress. Hooray! The champion of the 70+ percent of Americans who are against the war and the President’s policies, Pete boldly takes the microphone and…cries?

He fucking choked up and shed tears while apologizing for his remarks.

What planet do I live on?

How do you have a lazy shit like me email you in praise of your manhood, and then turn around and act like an eight-year-old girl being scolded by her teacher? Or, more to the point, how do you criticize a lying, war criminal of a President with a 24% approval rating, and then do such a fast 180? Why are you caving when more than 70% of the country is in sympathy? What the hell happened to you?

I mean, I don’t get it. Or, maybe I do…

Over and over again, Democrat after Democrat, complete and total capitulation. I mean, there are hundreds of Dems, they can’t all be that weak. They can’t all agree with the President. They can’t all be ignoring the polls. They can’t all be this STUPID!

But, they can all be that greedy.

My guess is that lobbyists for our nation’s large corporations have been in contact with the Democratic leadership since before November of 2006. They have been telling Rohm and Hillary to “stay the course with the Republican plan, and the cash will flow to them.” It is the only thing that makes sense.

The war makes corporations money, and keeps oil prices high. The telecom corporations want immunity from the illegal spying they have been doing since before 9-11. The medical insurance companies and big pharma want no inroads into national health care. And even though most Americans want an end to the war, alternative energy, their civil rights and a fix for the high cost of health care, the Dems have been beyond challenged in meeting these needs; they have been totally ineffective. They have earned their pay.

And their pay is: double the political contributions of the Republicans. That is what Democratic fundraisers are getting from corporate donors right now. Now, think about that. I am so pissed at Democrats that I won’t give them a nickel (hell, I might not even vote for them). And yet corporations are so happy with them that they are shoveling the cash their way. With those wheelbarrows full of cash will come electoral victories, and more power. Power to write and pass pro-corporate legislation, which will net yet more containers of cash. Nancy Pelosi becomes Tom Delay!

This is the only scenario I can think of that makes any sense. Why else would the Dems betray us so thoroughly? Why else would their capitulation be so complete, when they have been poised for a year to crush the Republican opposition?

Why else would Pete Stark go from roaring tiger to timid schoolgirl in less than a week? Only the lure of giant piles of cash, or the threat to take said pile away makes sense.

Nothing else about the Democratic Party does these days.