I Haven't Forgotten

It's been a busy week in the part of my life that doesn't involve the Internet, but I haven't forgotten.

Glenn Greenwald hasn't forgotten, either:

The campaign we announced back in March to target "Bad Democrats," which has now evolved into Accountability Now and the Strange Bedfellows coalition, is designed to develop strategies for addressing that dilemma (I first announced and detailed how that coalition works here). Grounded in the premise that the Democrats are going to control both houses of Congress for the foreseeable future -- a premise virtually nobody disputes -- the primary objective has to be to alter the behavior of those who control the Congress.

Increasing the Democrats' margin of control doesn't achieve that goal. It does the opposite. Conveying to Democrats that you will support all of them no matter what they do, no matter how egregiously they trample on your values, only ensures that they will ignore your political priorities and values even more. Working to expand the margin of control Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel and Harry Reid already enjoy -- further entrenching them in power -- only ensures that they will be less responsive and accountable. Only by attaching a serious price to their enabling of these extremist, destructive policies will their behavior change. If they are rewarded with greater control and greater comfort for doing what they've been doing, then it's just guaranteed that they'll continue to do the same thing. Only if they suffer losses and have their power threatened from this behavior will the behavior change.

Accountability Now and Strange Bedfellows: The strategy and rationale

It's time to make the people who have collaborated with the crimes of the Bush Administration pay. They'll pay with their jobs, or with the power they have in those jobs. Glenn's right that we can't reward cowardice and craven opportunism and expect our government to be responsive to our needs. They need to know that we citizens are in charge, and that they took an oath to defend the Constitution, not the telecomm and oil companies.

So, tomorrow we bomb, metaphorically speaking.

Be there.