Subject: Halperin's Take
From: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 23:54:15 -0500

Not sure I agree 100% but interesting...

Halperin's TakeIs it hyperbolic to say the Democratic Party is in the midst
of a nervous breakdown? I have been covering national politics since 1988,
and I don't remember a situation quite like this. The signs of a crack-up
are everywhere. Democrats still think they can somehow win a news cycle by
demonizing John Boehner. Chuck Schumer goes on the Senate floor and suggests
Democrats are getting the same political mileage out of "millionaires tax"
that Republicans have gotten over the years from using "death tax." Politico
has a story with blind quotes from Hill Democrats who are furious that the
White House isn't using some sort of mythical leverage over Republicans to
extract concessions in exchange for extending all the Bush tax cuts --
including continuing to try to trade for DADT and the Dream Act (rather than
things dealing with jobs). Two members in good standing of the Professional
Left -- moveon and the PCCC -- are spending its members' money on TV ads
demanding that the president exercise this same mythical leverage to stand
up to the GOP. Democrats are understandably -- and largely justified in
being -- frustrated that they lost an election based on Republicans
defending tax cuts for the wealthy that are only expiring because of a
budget gimmick championed by George Bush -- and based on criticism of their
apparent lack of concern over the deficit, by a party that has shown no past
or current seriousness about deficit reduction and the hard choices
involved. Losing those political fights was as inexplicable as it was hard
for the Democrats. Maybe that's why Thursday seemed to have donkeys melting
down all over the place.

Read more: http://thepage.time.com/2010/12/02/donkey-doozy/#ixzz171NqLDRN
-- 
Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
[email-masked]