Steny Hoyer Is My Special Friend

From the Wikipedia entry on the characters Yakko, Wakko, and Dot from the 90s cartoon series The Animaniacs:

Although their initial havoc is generally good-natured, sometimes affectionate, and often merely annoying, any person who yells at them, tries to hurt them, or generally acts like a jerk will be labeled their "Special Friend," at which point the Warners exercise even less restraint with their mayhem.

Steny Hoyer is my new Special Friend.

Why is Steny my new Special Friend? Sirota got it, almost two years ago:

Here are some questions every Democrat in America should be asking: why is Steny Hoyer, the House's second-ranking Democrat, going out of his way to undermine the Democratic Party's message on Iraq? Why is Hoyer using his taxpayer-paid staff to place stories bragging about his efforts to shakedown corporate lobbyists? And why has Hoyer undercut his party on critical votes that would have helped Democrats craft a strong, crisp message?

I used to think it was because Steny Hoyer was just an extraordinary stupid person who had been insulated in the Beltway for so long that he was simply suffering from severe brain rot. But alas, I was stupid in thinking that. What's really going on is very obvious: Hoyer is waging a not-so-secret, but oh-so-self-serving campaign to topple House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) and assume the top job in the Democratic Caucus - a job he has coveted since Pelosi beat him out for whip a few years back. And he's waging his campaign even though it is destroying his own party.

That was 2005. Here in 2007, Steny's war on the war critics continues unabated. He is the reason we're in the mess we're in right now. He is intentionally and willfully trying to push out and marginalize the anti-war voices in the party and he is using the sugar and pork he gets to dole out in his role as Majority Leader to keep his DLC faction behind Bush's failed war.

Everyone here who screams "ZOMG RESIGN NANCY!!!" when House Dems fail on a given vote needs to pull their head out. Speaker Pelosi is the strongest and most reliable ally progressive Dems have in the party leadership. Hoyer is the problem, and screaming for Pelosi's head is exactly what he wants.

Second, every time someone here storms off in a huff when Dems drop the ball on war and security, Hoyer and the DLC smile and rub theirs hands together. Clue in, folks. Making progressives to despair and want to quit the field in disgust is exactly the goal of Hoyer's triangulation plan. He wanted to be Speaker, he didn't get it. To get another bite at the apple in 2008, he has to weaken Pelosi's juice in the party-- that means making us go away.

Now, in making Steny our new Special Friend we can count on the fact that the Usual Suspects are going to point and scream about how we're intolerant ideologues and purity trolls who cannot abide moderates in the Democratic Party.

Bullshit.

I don't want to push the Blue Dogs out of the caucus; it would be profoundly stupid and bad for Democrats in the medium and longer terms. Diversity is messy and hard to manage but it is also more durable, vastly so. You don't have to look any further than the current GOP to see the danger of tying a national political party to one narrow, cookie-cutter ideology: when the political winds change--- and they always do-- the whole party goes down the tubes. Think it sucks to be a Republican now? Wait two years. Or four, or even eight. They are only beginning their well-earned time in the wilderness. I don't want to repeat their self-destructive mistake by turning the Democratic Party into an ideological monolith.

The necessity of Dems standing united to end the war is not a matter of ideological purity, but of simple, practical political legitimacy. As a national party, Democrats explicitly ran on an anti-war platform. The nation responded in a tidal wave of support that washed them into power in both chambers of the Congress. That means that the public has every right to demand and expect that Democrats will do what they said they would do, and they will judge the entire party's legitimacy to govern based on their ability to make their promises stick.

Dems didn't get elected to write the Farm Bill, they got elected because people are sick of the stupid war and Dems promised to end it. By dividing the caucus on Iraq, Hoyer is putting the entire Democratic Party at risk by making it look like we can't deliver on our promises. Hoyer needs to be our Special Friend not because we disagree on foreign policy (though we certainly do) but because what he is doing is hurting, not helping, the Democratic Party.

So, how do we make ol' Steny our Special Friend?

• Stop undermining our own cause by attacking Pelosi for Hoyer et al's intransigence. The Speaker knows what's up and she's on our side; helping her helps us.
• Try gentle persuasion. Let Hoyer know that we know what he's up to and that he can easily save himself a serious amount of heartache by cutting it the Hell out and using his power to work with, not against, the caucus and the majority of the American people on this issue. No Democrat is my enemy, so let's give him a chance to do the right thing.
• Failing that, we organize, and fast. As in, this weekend. YouTube videos, complete deconstruction of his voting record, speeches, press releases, etc. Turn the spotlight on bright and hot. Give him a small taste of what it means to be our "Special Friend". No one of us has the time and skills needed for this, but together we can create a sustained wall of sound and fury.
• After that... well, after that, we ratchet up the heat. He gets the full "Special Friend" treatment I don't want to go there-- not yet, anyway-- but, at this point, nothing is off the table.

Too much depends on Democrats holding together to bring and end to Bush's insanity in Iraq. Up to now, Hoyer has gotten away with his triangulation ruse because he has kept out of the spotlight and let Pelosi take the hit. Whatever else happens, that ends now.