akirlu | Not Your Status Quo Auntie (Reply)

I was mulling this evening, between fits of ill temper on mailing lists, and a prolonged but unhappy bout of dog wrastlin' (Sarah needed both pilling, the application of an Elizabethan cone collar to prevent from her licking at her medicated self. I succeeded at the former, only slightly bruised and broken. Failed miserably at the latter. Sarah is now wearing boys' boxer briefs. Size XS.), about how digby and kos and them other uncapitalized lefty bloggers have in recent months expressed a certainty that House and Senate Democrats need to wake up and smell the fait accompli, Neo-Con-neanderthal-Republican-strong-arm-control-of-the-Congress wise. In particular, they need to learn that attempts to work with Republicans as if quid pro quo politics were still in effect only get them bitch-slapped to the mat when they give up meekly on one thing (say, an Attorney General confirmation) and then grovel back later, pathetically hoping to get a little quid. (Or is it quo?) Doesn't happen. This particular gang of Republicans take their cues from W. and Tom Delay, two men who believe that cooperation is weakness. The Democrats, I said to myself, need to figure out that the status quo ante no longer applies.

What you have here is a status quo uncle. Every time the Democrats say uncle, it just reinforces the status quo: the Republicans think they're cowards and expect an even faster roll over next time.