There is no question: The change people want is not greater preservation of national forests, or a broader redistribution of income, or a healthcare plan that stresses economies of scale versus the free market, or any of that gibberish to which losing Democrat after losing Democrat has lashed him or herself.

The change people want is results. They want a sense that their leaders are invested in them, and not in some unseen, unknown force. This is why lobbying reform, even post-Abramoff, is not capturing the imagination, because people so doubt the ability of Congress to police itself.

What are these results? A balanced budget, broadly available health care, schools that educate, a secure nation, protection of values that enhance our collective sense of good, a foreign policy that protects our interests and makes allies, to name a few. In other words, they want results that protect what Ruy is writing about: the common good.

Democrats have been committed to orthopraxy--right practices, primarily to maintain our interest group support--for too long. It is time we focused on orthodoxy--right beliefs and, namely, the common good--and open our eyes to the possibilities around us for supporting those beliefs.

Posted at April 28, 2006 6:14 AM in response to The Politics of Definition + Crashing the Gate = The Winning Formula?

A change begins with Democratic candidates capable of winning in every state. A change begins with a Democratic majority in the Senate. A change begins with recognizing--and embracing--that you win races one at a time with candidates capable of winning those races.

Instead of attacking Democrats who win in red districts and states, we ought be embracing them, because without them, Pat Leahy will never chair the judiciary committee and Nancy Pelosi will never be speaker. And, in case anyone's missed it, Tennessee is a pretty red state.

Even with that, the Ford campaign has outraised every other in the race (last quarter, the campaign outraised all three Republican challengers, all of whom previously have run statewide races--combined).

Everywhere Rep. Ford goes, he talks about change. But the change people in Tennessee want is not one ideology for another. They want results. They want affordable health care, and they don't care whether a Republican or a Democrat figures it out. They don't want $3 gas, and they are agnostic about who delivers it. They support the military--and the stated goals of the Iraqi war--but they want a plan to win, and they are recognizing we don't have one.

With George Bush in office for nearly three more years, the only way to deliver those results is to change the Senate. We need 6 seats to get to 51. There are 6 states where we have a great shot to do it. And Tennessee is one of the 6. With the sole exception of John Edwards in 1998, when was the last time anybody could say that about any Senate candidate in any Southern state?

Mark Warner and Max Cleland, two guys with a pretty good understanding of what it takes to win in the South, enthusiastically campaigned in Tennessee with Ford last week. They did so because they know Ford can win. And it's in the party's interest--and the nation's--for him to win.

Posted at April 25, 2006 5:06 AM in response to Amanda's question for Donald Rumsfeld--and my answer

From the first president to do invitation-only appearances only, what's so surprising? This Administration has been roughing up dissenters for six years. It wasn't done to impress the Chinese. It's just their nature.

Posted at April 21, 2006 3:54 AM in response to George Bush, You're No Reagan

Yet even as Elisabeth sails with the prevailinfg winds, she still lets slide one of the President's unchallenged "facts."

"I'm going to say it again: if I didn't believe we could succeed, I wouldn't be there," he said at the nearly hourlong session in the White House press briefing room. "I wouldn't put those kids there."

Kids?

The average of California National Guard members killed in Iraq is 31. One Tennessee Guard member killed was 54 and a grandfather. The average age of regular US Army soldiers killed is 27.

These aren't high schoolers plucked from an inexhaustible senior class (Bush's metaphor, not mine). George Bush has uprooted fathers, husbands, providers, and, yes, grandfathers from their families for a war without purpose and without end and sent them to their death and dismemberment.

These are no "kids." These are men, sir, men engaged in a far noble pursuit than you were at a comparable age, and who deserve far more than your patronizing lip service.

Posted at March 22, 2006 10:15 PM in response to Straight-Line Projections

Roy Blount perhaps put it best from his travels on the Mississippi River: "I learned that a nutria will rear up and bare its orange teeth when it feels threatened." That's apparently me.

Posted at March 16, 2006 3:04 PM in response to Ways and Memes For Intra-Party Discussion

Having been called a nimrod, a castrated neutria, and ignorant about my lifelong home in one post, I suppose I should encourage this particular conversation to go offline. But at the risk of getting called more names, and because I think I've been called out, I'll dive in.

The conversation is worth having online. The idea of open-source journalism, for example, can only happen out here. The ability to share experiences from campaigns--as opposed to rants from the keyboard--can only happen out here. This site, in particular, usually fosters the best in discussions of ideas, not merely ad hominem rants.

To that last point, I didn't write that Marin County liberals don't know squat about Tennessee. What I wrote was that Democratic candidates from Tennessee can't draw votes from Marin County. We're a different place. Maybe y'all missed it, but George Bush carried this state by 14 points. We do the best we can in our state as we find it (we have a Democratic governor, a majority of the legislature, the Secretary of State, Comptroller, and a majority of the Congressional delegation to show for it). We welcome anyone, with the hospitality for which we are justly famous, who wishes to come and work beside us.

Best regards,
N. Rod

Posted at March 16, 2006 1:50 PM in response to Ways and Memes For Intra-Party Discussion

The most effective way to handle Allen would be to elect Jim Webb to the Senate.

Posted at March 13, 2006 8:08 AM in response to The Opposition

I love Molly Ivins, too, but we just had an election 16 months ago and if those numbers translated to votes, we'd be knee-deep in the Kerry Administration. But they don't, and we aren't.

Further, Congressman Ford isn't running for senator from America. He's running for a seat in Tennessee, which deprives him of the opportunity to pull votes from Marin County. You can disagree with the Congressman, as he noted, jexster, but if you really want Sens. Boxer and Feinstein in the majority--as we all do--then there's no denying the math. We all need Harold Ford, Jr. in the Senate.

Posted at March 12, 2006 6:29 PM in response to When we fight together, we win

I read it to mean the fight Ford is taking to our opponents, the way he is drawing their fire, the $4.4 million he has raised, the support from the Vice President of the United States (the last one we could be proud of, anyway) who hosted a fundraiser this week that raised $350,000 more before the port ads took off, the success on the ports issue, the national attention he is drawing to this race, the fact that the National Journal and washingtpost.com this week ranked the Tennessee race among the top 9 in the country.

That, I think.

Posted at March 11, 2006 4:44 PM in response to When we fight together, we win

Dawn, you didn't offend.  I apologize if I appeared to take offense too easily.  This subject is close to my heart.

We wrestled with a lot of guilt about our decision to adopt internationally.  After several hurtful and unsuccessful experiences with fertility drugs and surgeries, we began pursuing adoption. Our choices were many and hard.  Infant vs. older child.  Caucasian child (which we are) vs. a child of another race.  Domestic vs. international.  There are many choices we made about which we continue to feel guilt and remorse.  I cannot say that what we did is the right path for everyone.  Others could second-guess us.  Ultimately, however, I know our path was best for us, and for our daughter, who, miraculously, is the perfect child for us. 

I don't know what is best for your friend, Dawn.  Our experience has firmly convinced me that anyone--anyone--with enough love in their heart to parent can, and should, adopt a child, and that government should bring families together, not keep them apart.  After that, I can't say.  Issues like these are complicated.  What isn't complicated, however, is the joy in a safe and happy child's eyes, and the love that shines through them.

Posted at February 27, 2006 5:46 PM in response to Banning Republican Adoption