Ambush!

Thinking back on the past year, it seems to me that the Democrats in Washington were caught in an ambush, a slow motion ambush to be sure but an ambush nonetheless. They tried to work with Republicans. They compromised. The Democrats did just about everything on health care finance but tell the Republicans and their Blue Dog allies, that they would agree to anything as long as the Republicans would allow a bill a bill called health care reform to pass Congress. All to no avail.

As we begin 2010 the Democrats are in the position of the traumatized survivors who weathered the initial fullisade: standing in the killing zone scared shitless. Infantry training taught me how to respond to an ambush. Attack the motherfuckers head on. Hell, they're going to kill you if you don't move and the last thing they expect is for you to attack. If you're still alive after the first shots, you've got nothing to lose. Yeah, you might still end up dead but maybe you won't if you spook the hell out of the ambushers and drive them off.

If the Democrats are going to salvage anything from their majority in the 111th Congress, they might as well attack by pushing for meaningful change and telling the Republicans to go to hell. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It worked for Harry Truman.

Another year of trying to work with the Party of No will simply leave the Democrats standing in the killing zone, watching themselves die.