Write your comment in the form below. Be sure to 'Preview' your comment to make sure that it will appear as you want it to.
You Are Replying To This Comment:
yes and no
By Ben Adler
Mar 15th 2007
at 12:15 am EDT
While I certainly agree with Dana that the code pink camp out in front of Pelosi's house is a silly waste of time (wouldn't it be more useful if they lobbied for passage of a progressive bill that had a realistic chance of passing and being signed into law?) I don't entirely agree with commenter Joe about the winter DNC meeting.
I was there too, and I certainly think you could argue that it was rude to interrupt a speaker at that kind of event. But I actually thought it shed some light on the topic.
I myself had wondered why progressives in Congress seem so unwilling to pass any bill cutting off war funding, was it just because they feared rightwing backlash?
Well, Hillary Clinton responded to their heckling by explaining that you need 60 votes in the Senate and Republicans would filibuster any vote to cut off funding. I'm sure this is true and I hadn't realized that before.
So I thought that in some ways it was a productive internecine debate that they fostered, however rudely.
Okay, maybe hate is a strong word. But I've seen enough of women making themselves look ridiculous by wearing hot pink aprons, bonnets, and other acoutrements of traditional femininity, and then attracting all sorts of negative attention by heckling at public functions (such as the DNC Winter Meeting). Now they've really taken a step too far: they're camping out, Crawford ranch style, in front of Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home! For real! Give the lady a chance to work pragmatically to end the war! When was the last time any of these Code Pinkers tried to negotiate with the Bush administration and Congressional conservatives? As a very smart senior colleague of mine once said, "If you chain yourself naked to a tree to protest the war, the story will be, "Crazy person is naked, chained to a tree,' not 'End the war.'"
Werd.
Please remember that Campus Progress' terms of use do not allow promoting or endorsing any particular political party or candidate for office. Posts or comments that do this will be deleted.
!
I was there too, and I certainly think you could argue that it was rude to interrupt a speaker at that kind of event. But I actually thought it shed some light on the topic.
I myself had wondered why progressives in Congress seem so unwilling to pass any bill cutting off war funding, was it just because they feared rightwing backlash?
Well, Hillary Clinton responded to their heckling by explaining that you need 60 votes in the Senate and Republicans would filibuster any vote to cut off funding. I'm sure this is true and I hadn't realized that before.
So I thought that in some ways it was a productive internecine debate that they fostered, however rudely.