Bill.Scher's blog

Bumped- SEDER 

Way too many folks rolled over when John Roberts and Sam Alito were nominated for the Supreme Court. And now we're seeing the consequences.

In my recent book, I characterized the conservative judicial activist agenda as "elitist government, no longer representative of and responsive to the people, handcuffed from insisting upon responsible corporate behavior, but free to subject all Americans to one group's version of morality."

And today, we're seeing that vision in all its glory.

A majority of the Senate supports adding a provision to the Senate energy bill now under consideration, requiring that 15% of our nation's electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2020 -- an increase from the current 2.4%, and a significant step, if only a step, towards building a clean energy future.

But Senate conservatives are blocking its passage with a filibuster, as the provision lacks the support of 60 senators needed to overcome the procedural tactic.

Well, that's not quite right.

Hey everyone, the following is an email from me that just went out to supporters of Campaign for America's Future, about next week's Take Back America event. Hope to see you there! -- Bill

Not yet registered for Take Back America 2007? Well, there's not another day to delay! Online registration closes tonight at Midnight.

In this fifth year of Take Back America, we've hit a record of thousands of already-registered attendees. In less than one week, they'll come together to reignite the fire needed to transform last year's historic election victories into concrete and lasting change for the common good.

Please join them and our growing list of confirmed speakers and progressive champions, including...

• Elected leaders Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Mike Gravel, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Sen. Barack Obama, Gov. Bill Richardson, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Jon Tester, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Maxine Waters, and more.
• Leading activists including Wade Henderson, Anna Burger, Carl Pope, Eli Pariser and Ned Lamont.
• Famous Deans, both Democratic Party Chair Howard Dean and Democracy for America Chair Jim Dean.
• Unexpected speakers like Seinfeld's Jason Alexander and former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca.
• Cutting-edge bloggers including Atrios, Matt Stoller and Digby.
• Progressive media figures such as Air America's Thom Hartmann, The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel, and the one and only Michael Moore -- who will be giving Take Back America attendees a sneak peek of his latest film, "Sicko."

In one of Sen. Harry Reid's first radio addresses after the Democratic victories in November 2006, he said the new majority's first guiding legislative principle was "bipartisanship"; Democrats "intend to reach out to President Bush and our Republican colleagues in Congress." The Democrats' last guiding principle would be "results," because "it's time Democrats and Republicans worked together to achieve results."

Four months into the new Congress, how's that game plan working out?

There's not a lot of results. And you can blame all that attempted bipartisanship.

Time and time again, Democratic leaders have sought to accommodate the conservative Republican minority and craft compromise legislation. And in almost every case, it has led to bad or no results.

 BUMPED FROM OPEN MICS--- see below for podcast of Sundays Show -sls

Originally posted at the Campaign for America's Future blog

On Sunday, Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., defended plans for a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, saying, "The president can keep him. He has the constitutional power to do it. But we have the constitutional power to try to pressure the president to understand that Gonzales is no good."

Today, documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald reminded Schumer and the rest of Congress there's another constitutional power at their disposal: impeachment.

ImpeachGonzales.org features a bruising short from Greenwald's Brave New Films, depicting Gonzales' incredulous evasions regarding the Prosecutor Purge. And the site's impeachment petition has scored over 25,000 signatures in less than a day.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., speculated that the prospect of a no-confidence vote would prompt Gonzales to resign .

However, others have presumed that bipartisan condemnation and persistent negative media coverage would make resignation inevitable. Yet he's still there.

Impeachment is not only justified -- political interference in our justice system surely meets the "high crimes and misdemeanors" constitutional standard -- but because we have a White House that thumbs its nose at the public will, it may be the only resource to oust the man who is destroying the credibility of the Justice Department.

But don't kid yourself.

Removing Gonzales by no means solves the problem of politicization of the Justice Department, and does not hold everyone involved in the Prosecutor Purge accountable.

There is no guarantee, and no reason to expect, that President Bush would appoint a replacement that would end the politicization -- since undermining the civil service is a central goal of his presidency and the conservative movement .

And ousting Gonzales does not answer the critical question of the Prosecutor Purge: Who put the prosecutors' names on the purge list and why?

By threatening subpoenas, Congress has been trying to get White House officials to testify in public to get that question answered.

Conservatives calling for Gonzales' resignation hope that it would "put this behind us," so Congress will stop trying to get it answered.

But we can't put this behind us until that question is answered, and everyone involved is held accountable.

Gonzales must go, but it does not end there.