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Monday, January 29, 2018

Read a MinnPost item, and see what you think. It is a waffle, mentioning Klobuchar.

This link. Not knowing author Sam Brodey personally, his posting list seems that of a negative-thinking cluck over progressives wanting a better and bigger voice and to not be ignored within their own party. It shows up in the Klobuchar-related item.

Go figure. Amy is at no risk of anything other than reelection by landslide margins as long as she runs, the opposition being sacrificial GOP lambs willing to take one for the party. Mark Kennedy was the strongest in that parade, a middle Republican of limited accomplishments, but he took the hit and was rewarded for it with an ongoing business and then academic paycheck. Kennedy was Sixth District Rep before the Bachmann years torched reality, which made him look better than he was, by comparison. For a political commentator Brodey seems attuned to listening to Beltway cocktail bar musings of this-and-that chatter more than he might be attuned to on-the-ground reality.

Klobuchar's seat is rock solid. Brodey should know that, and perhaps he does but then that would make his story of uncertainty moot and unpublished.

_____________UPDATE______________
More Brodey beltway bias related to the kick the can into February "shutdown" coverage? Who outside of the beltway really regarded that Kabuki theater stunt as still news? Brodey did. Let's look. This snark-titled item, midway, posits:

If you had, “Sen. Amy Klobuchar leads bipartisan group of senators to end impasse” on your Shutdown Bingo, well, congratulations! I reported this week that Klobuchar, working with about 20 of her colleagues, played a central role in getting Democrats to yes on a deal that would have been a non-starter just days earlier. (They dubbed themselves the Common Sense Coalition. There was a talking stick. Yay, bipartisanship!)

Not everyone was feeling the kumbaya vibes as the shutdown came to an end: the progressive base of the Democratic Party is furious that the majority of their senators voted to break the shutdown and in their view, surrender whatever leverage they had in exchange for McConnell’s word.

How angry, you might ask? Iraq War angry: a progressive activist told me that voting yes on this compromise is as bad as a yes vote on the Iraq War authorization was back in 2002.

That's the money quote [bolding and links in original; full NYT link here, for some reason a contracted link used there]. Let's deconstruct that in a bit of detail. A "base is furious" hyperbole, linking to an item clearly titled, "Senate Democrats’ Vote to End Shutdown Infuriates Some on the Left." Then, some contracts more to, "a [i.e., one unnamed] progressive activist told me ...as bad as a yes vote on the Iraq War" which means, perhaps, a tippsy individual might have peed on the coctail lounge floor in anger, while making hilarious analogies no fool could take seriously. Really. So what did NYT write, briefly excerpted but not tweet length:

Regardless of what happens in the Senate, progressive and immigrant advocacy groups said House Republican leaders will never take up a bill that would offer legal status to young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children without excruciating concessions on other immigration issues. They accused Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, and moderate Democratic senators of capitulating to protect senators up for re-election in November in Republican-leaning states.

“They blinked because they’ll always put the party and the success of the party first,” said Representative Luis V. Gutiérrez of Illinois, one of the leading Democratic advocates for immigrants, complaining that Hispanics got short shrift. “It’s the one word they know in Spanish: mañana.”

The hasty retreat by 33 Senate Democrats was particularly humiliating in the immediate aftermath of the anniversary of the Women’s March, which saw thousands of activists reconvene in cities across the country to protest against President Trump and congressional Republicans. Liberal groups such as MoveOn.org began urging members to sign up on Monday for rallies aimed at pressuring Republicans to protect the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

[...] “The grass-roots are rightly furious with a slew of elected Democrats,” said Ben Wikler, the Washington director of MoveOn.org.

It's a giant reach to even think to equate MoveOn.org with the progressive base. Bernie ran on economic screwing of the rest of us by the one percent; while another individual staged a convention balloon drop to the background singing of "Stronger Together." Bernie avoided that trap of not keeping eyes on the real prize. Bernie is crystal clear, consistently so; and Bernie is the progressive keystone. What in this Bernie agenda do you suppose Brodey misunderstands; or does he not care to take the care to be informed? There are only twelve points; none being taking it to the streets over predominantly Hispanic-centered issues. There is a different and separate coalition that can do that.

Presumably if Brodey would have secured face time interviewing with Bernie he'd have fallen all over himself to feature that in his item. So, some lesser anon. "progressive activist" of whatever mental mood fumed in a one-on-one chat, Brodey taking notes or holding a recorder.

BOTTOM LINE BRODEY: More anti-progressive cluck than not? Or soundly based? First, most people should think ending "shutdown" gaming even if by kicking a can down the road for weeks was a sensible, adult thing to do; no problem. Shutdown posturing is stupid to begin with.

I think we see a beltway hooey machine, whoever is oiling it to keep smooth functioning. My opinion of sheer gossamer spinning over what "the progressive base" thinks, aside from Bernie's twelve point concrete agenda, is as it is in Brodey's work and that MinnPost should elevate its publishing standards; yet, clearly, opinions can differ. MinnPost editorial decision making is an example of a differing opinion.

FURTHER: Same Brodey item, later than above quoted excerpt:

Meanwhile, the stocks of those Democrats who voted no on the compromise — including Sens. Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Cory Booker — skyrocketed in the progressive base. (Note: all these people are thinking about being president. So, too, potentially, is a certain Minnesota senator who voted the other way.)

[bolding in original] One who would try to yoke Bernie or Elizabeth Warren as kindred in spirit to Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand either has an unstated agenda or a tin ear for nuance. There are parallels for the first two; and then for the latter three; but little actual overlap of the separate sets beyond party membership and being to the left of Chuck Schumer and Tom Perez.

FURTHER: Take twenty minutes to better recognize "over-generalizing hooey" about what the true progressive base thinks and believes when the hooey is spotted in web-published items.