The Curmudgeon

If there is a more sorry sack of spineless shit excuse for a Senate Majority Leader than Harry "I have to borrow my balls from Mitch McConnell's handpurse" Reid, your Curmudgeon isn't sure he even wants to know about it. For entirely too long, the nation has waited for the Democratic Party to act like, well, just act. The time for waiting needs to be over. It is time for leaders to lead.

We've heard the "be patient- let the Democratic party get a real majority in the Senate" line, and so we waited. We waited and waited and watched the shameless and brazen cabal of Republicans throw out threat after threat of filibuster- not actual filibusters, just the threat of a filibuster. We saw how this pretty much ensured that damn precious little (save the open rape of the treasury by the wealthy elite) happened, and how this lack of action was placed on the plate of the Democratic party come elections.

And the Democratic Party won HUGE across the board despite that.

So now that the Democratic Party has that 'real majority' in the Senate, has there been any sign of leadership? Nope. The first and most obvious, most easy step would have been to drum Joe Lieberman out of the party caucus. No more chairing committees, no more of his droopydawg jowls flapping for the criminal cabal and the loyalist rethugs, none of it. It didn't happen, of course, and the Joe Lieberman who stood at the RNC and supported Grampy McSame and Milfy Winksandflirts, the Joe Lieberman who questioned Obama's patriotism, that Joe Lieberman was welcomed back into the fold, with vapid and flaccid promises of new-found loyalty.

It really shouldn't come as any surprise then, now that the 111th Congress has begun, that Harry Reid has continued to be a craven coward and let the tempo be set by the minority party, the party who overwhelmingly lost in November. The stimulus bill which President Elect Obama wanted ready for his signature at Day One- nah, that is off til February now. And when it comes to seating new Senators- even provisionally- well that would require stones well beyond Reid's feeble ability.

A Curmudgeonly bit of advice to the Democratic Leadership- whatever little bit of patience vested in you is dwindling quickly. It is time to start leading, and that means taking action. Leading means not backing down from weak-willed challenges. Leading means forcing the damn issue. The nation is facing some very dicey times, and continuing to be the collaborateur with the political factions and failed ideologies which have wrought this nightmare will not save the day.