Election day was such a moment. Not only did the Dems win back the House and Senate, but it appears to be an odd moment for the Dems themselves.

In the mainstream and alternative media, there seems to be a consensus that the Dems won with an anti-war & anti-corruption mandate. So why is the mainstream media also firm that moderate-to-conservative Dems are the reason we won?

As readers know, I'm not the happiest camper with DCCC chair, Rahm Emanuel, especially what he did to IL's 6th district. Which is why I'm still trying to sort all this media coverage out when the mainstream media is crowning Rahm, ignoring Howard Dean's 50 state strategy, and cheering on moderate Dems.

I caught John Nichols on FAIR's podcast yesterday talking about this very thing. Thank the goddess! I was starting to feel like just a sore loser celebrating a moral victory/someone else's lose. The IL 6th district was the center of Rahm's strategy. And he lost.

Emanuel poured as astonishing $3 million into her campaign. It bought her a three-point defeat.

And I'm sure that is not even counting all the GOTV efforts that various pro-choice/feminist orgs put into this race. I have a friend who worked HARD on this campaign and I know it was tough for her because she was such a Christine fan. But she was one of the many who licked her wounds and kept on fighting for the party's sake. Or even just to fight against Roskam. I don't blame her at all, in fact I admire her ability to do that. I guess that's why she's more of a politician than I am.

Sheldon Drobny as even more to say about Rahm's crowning.

The fact is that Emanuel's cause is his own power and control. How could the chair of the DCCC put cronyism before country and party? Emanuel may have fooled the nation and his colleagues in the House, but many of us know him as an old time Chicago party hack which was his prime duty as an advisor to President Clinton. He made millions of dollars as an investment banker after leaving the Clinton adminstration. When he ran for Congress in 2002 he called me for financial support and I gave him the maximum contribution. One year later when I was forming Air America Radio I called him for financial help and I got the cold shoulder. He was not the slightest bit interested in progressive talk radio.

Emanuel has opposed Howard Dean's 50-state strategy for the Democratic party, which again shows his short-sighted approach to politics. The Democrats have an excellent opportunity to influence red state voters and build a lasting foundation for the Democratic party. This falls directly against Emanuel's philosophy of concentrating money and power into proteges of Emanuel's. This policy is inopposite to a sensible 50 state grass roots strategy as suggested by Dean.

I've heard some activists say that we have to win the Congress back first, then we can deal with this infighting. That we need a Congress that is in the Dems hand and then all of our issues will be safe.

So here it is boys. You have the Congress in hand. You promised to protect abortion rights - of course you also pushed anti-choice candidates on us (Casey). You talk about how wrong this war is - but fail to give us a solid answer on withdrawal.

Sometimes it is really true, careful what you wish for. I'm a progressive feminist Democrat. And I believe that it is time to deal with these issues as a party. Yes, we have a huge tent, but let's get down and dirty. Will we be the party that protects teenagers from back alley abortions? Will we be the party that says we can't export democracy with shock and awe? Will we be the party to reclaim family values by truly valuing all families with paid parental leave, quality healthcare, and marriage equality? Because I'm one Democrat who would rather be screwed by an anti-choice GOP Congress than an anti-choice Dem Congress.

Game on.

Labels: abortion, feminism