The liberal blogs were the canary in the coal mine for the Democratic Party elite in DC.
Our party doesn't know how to negotiate.
Our party turned what should have been a triumph into a liability.
Our party tolerates people who sandbag it, in Joe Lieberman's case, he was richly rewarded for bad behavior.
Our party accepts RW memes and frames about what is possible and the limitations of what is and is not possible.
Our party has a lot of institutional quit in it.
That can't be laid at any one part of a greater fail.
It has to be laid at everyone's feet.
Including ours.
They are all to blame, because they all accept the culture and rules that hamstring the Democratic Party and its ability to govern.
We are to blame, because we got idiotically caught up in exonerating/blaming our own chosen one piece of the greater collective party-wide FAIL.
Only in the Democratic Party could Joe Lieberman endorse John McCain, and be feted and rewarded for it, and that establishment be shocked when he learns that it pays to be a backstabbing douchebag.
Only online could we get caught up in a "who is more to blame" piefight that did absolutely nothing to address the systemic failure in DC.
Jim Webb and Barney Frank both put out the same kind of insanely meek and feeble white flag press release last night.
You don't get a bigger wake-up call than Jim Webb and Barney Frank putting out the same FAIL.
There is a Culture of Surrender in elite Democratic politics.
This can't be blamed on Obama, certainly not as exclusively as some believe.
This can't be blamed on Harry Reid, or Nancy Pelosi, certainly not as exclusively as some believe.
But everyone of them played a role in last night's clusterfuck, because they all have the same party wide infection.
Our Party is sick.
Blaming a piece of a body-wide fail is like blaming a toe when you are bedridden with the flu.
All the calls late last night and this morning to do the exact opposite of what we should do.
"Go Right." "Be more humble." "Try to be less ambitious." "Wait for Brown."
Joe Lieberman cackled and sits in the catbird seat.
Like the liberal netroots all knew he would if he were enabled.
We have a wing of our party that exists to hamstring the rest of the party and they are proud of it. It's a feature and not a bug of their existence.
What healthy party has that?
There is something in the water of our Democratic Party that makes failure and surrender a viable option. And there are just as many liberals as ConservaDems who drink from that well.
We Stormed the Gates, yes, and now we see that the castle was and is filled with selfish jerks, cowards, and fools of all sorts of ideological schools of thought.
I've seen so much quit in the last 24 hours that it just makes me want to keep fighting more.
I hope, for our countries sake, that the vast majority of us use this pain and betrayal and frustration and use it to fight for a functional Democratic Party.
Even if they quit on Health Care Reform and march off the 2010 cliff.
We have to pick up the pieces, because we are the future of the Democratic Party. Because, even though we warned them a year out with the discord and discontent that should have been a warning, a lot of our side in DC simply doesn't listen.
A healthy party doesn't enable and reward somebody who plays the role that Joe Lieberman plays in DC.
It's not a liberal thing, moderate thing, or conservative thing.
It's a functional/sanity thing.
We are all, every last one of us, from those denigrated with circular aimed bile and venom as an "Obamabot" to "Firebagger", better for the Democratic Party than the establishment of the Democratic Party that runs the show in DC.
Last night was a brutal setback.
But it was also a message. To us.
Knowing that the end of HCR means 2010 is mass political suicide for the Democratic Party, no matter what your limits for what is and is not good or even adequate reform, there are powerful people who are preparing to go about taking a knee and staring at their feet today.
Even though its a suicidal move.
It's people like us who have to, and are, going to change the culture of the Democratic Party from top to bottom.
Because there isn't anyone else who is going to if we don't.