If you support Barack Obama, you should vote for Al Franken for one simple reason: Republican filibusters.
In the last session of Congress, Senate Republicans shattered records for filibusters, holding the Democrats’ agenda hostage. Norm Coleman was an active participant in that process. If the Democrats have 59 seats in the Senate, you can count on Coleman to vote for every Republican filibuster. Only with Al Franken in the Senate can Barack Obama hope to pass his agenda in Congress.
Divided government has its advantages in times that are less ideologically charged. Unfortunately, these days the Republicans have proven that they’re willing to hold up almost any Democratic bill, simply on the basis of sheer partisanship. Don’t let them do it! Al Franken is one of two or three Democrats who could put the Democrats at 60 seats in the Senate.
Don’t think filibusters are a problem? Just check out some of the bills Republicans have held up in the Senate, courtesy of the Senate Democratic Caucus:
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Six years ago, Paul Wellstone’s plane crashed near Eveleth. I was very new to Minnesota at the time; I had been here for less than six weeks. I didn’t really know Paul Wellstone then, and I felt myself fairly detached from the incident, especially compared to the rest of Minnesota, whose grief was palpable.
Since then, I’ve learned a lot about Senator Wellstone, because he is still very much present in our state’s politics. Particularly amongst progressives, Wellstone still represents the very best of our politics, and his name is invoked frequently. His legacy only seems to grow over time.
Speaking of his legacy, I’m so glad that his mental health parity bill finally passed this year. It’s a shame he wasn’t here to see it, but in a lot of ways, it still never would have happened without him.
One of the best lines I’ve read in a long time. Aaron writes:
Thursday night’s VP debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will be like watching panda bears juggle sticks of nitroglycerin. Ain’t nobody knows what’s gonna happen, but we know it’ll be interesting.
Looking for the snarkiest debate coverage in town? Join me and Political Muse from Liberal in the Land of Conservative as we provide live commentary on the first presidential debate via Twitter.
You can follow our coverage by adding us as friends on Twitter: @JeffRosenberg & @Political_Muse. Or, if you don’t have a twitter account and don’t want one, I’ll have widgets up tonight featuring our latest comments.
P.S. You can also use Twitter to subscribe to a feed of Daily Liberal headlines by following @TCDL
End of debate summary: Debate ends in at least a tie, maybe a slight win for Obama. McCain needed to make major gains here. He’s in trouble.
This last week was pretty busy; lots of news, and more importantly, the launch of the new, prettified Daily Liberal. I didn’t quite get to some of the stuff I was planning last week, so I’ve got a lot in store for next week:
- An explanation of the housing crisis, and why David Strom is wrong to say we should bring back redlining.
- The conclusion of the Daily Liberal Mapping Project, with CD2, CD1, and a statewide wrap-up.
- What the Democrats need to do to shrink the GOP for the next decade.
- More of Norm Coleman’s record.
- As always, commentary and analysis of news as it happens.
Thanks for reading!
The redesigned and prettified Dailiy Liberal is now up. It’s also got some added features, and hopefully I will be introducing a few more features over the next month. I’m probably not completely done tinkering, with the site, but there shouldn’t be many changes to this design.
Hopefully, the new site is a lot more attractive and easier to navigate. There are now a lot of options on the sidebar for finding previous posts. I’ve also set up a few ways to easily find posts related to what you’re reading. Now that I’m running on Wordpress instead of Blogger, I’ve also been able to add a number of features behind the scenes that should make my job easier and allow me to focus on content.
There are a bunch of ads on the site, but I think they’re mostly out of the way. I’ve tried to find places to put them that would not interfere with usability.
What do you think? Please let me know what’s good and what needs work.
UPDATE: I’m having a bit of technical trouble with the new site. It should be cleared up by tomorrow, but for today, things may be a little wonky. Sorry!
There probably won’t be anything posted on the blog this weekend. I’ll have my hands full with a few family functions. I’m also working behind the scenes to put together a more professional-looking blog for your viewing enjoyment.
Next week, I’ll be back to full strength. Here are some of the things I have planned:
- Continuing analysis of Norm “W” Coleman’s record. Next week, I look at his record on Agriculture.
- The Daily Liberal precinct mapping project continues. We’ve looked at maps for CD8, CD7, and CD6. Next week, we look at CD5, CD4, and CD3.
- Is the Independence Party still relevant? I’ll discuss what the recent cross-endorsements of DFL Congressional candidates means.
- As always, commentary and analysis of the news as it happens.
Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you’ll stay tuned!
The collapse of the I-35W bridge a year ago today was a horrible tragedy that I hope is never repeated, in Minnesota or anywhere else.
Thanks so much to all of my readers! After just a couple short weeks, the blog is getting a lot of attention–and I have you to thank for it!
I’ve got some good stuff planned for next week:
- Continuing analysis of Norm “W” Coleman’s record. You won’t believe how often he’s voted against veterans’ benefits.
- I’ll explain why the Republicans’ “Drill Here, Drill There, Drill Everywhere” plan won’t help ease the pain at the pump.
- The Daily Liberal precinct mapping project begins. For the next three weeks, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we’ll explore the political climate in each of Minnesota’s congressional district, with maps that show the characteristics of each precinct.
I hope you’ll stay tuned!
It’s great to see the blog starting to take off and get a bit of traffic. It’s been about a week since I started adding additional content to what I write for MN Campaign Report. Thanks to all of you who have been reading!
Up next week:
- Norm Coleman continually refuses to support transportation security
- 3 decades of conservatism and our national “me-first” attitude
- Updates to the Conservative-to-English dictionary
- Maps! (assuming I buckle down and get my research done, the first of a batch of maps will appear Friday)
- More…
The Star Tribune is reporting that the Winona bridge will reopen on Saturday for passenger cars. However, it will remain closed to commercial trucks, and cars will not be able to pull any trailers, including boats.
I find it quite ironic that trucks will still be unable to use this major crossing. As I’ve written previously, if you read Tim Pawlenty’s argument against investing in our infrastructure (PDF link), he writes that this will harm our economy. What could be more harmful than being unable to ship our products to the rest of the country?
Jeff Rosenberg | November 3, 2008
