In the last few days, a tidal wave of condemnation has crashed over Congressional Democrats, following the asinine votes to condemn MoveOn.org in both chambers; TDG's take is here, and it wasn't pretty.

But it's too late, the idiocy has been read into the Congressional Record and thereby the history books, where it will stand imperishable until the end of days, unless Congress strikes it.

So what to do? John Hall, NY-19, has a moderately creative approach that should do something to quiet the base; a resolution to condemn Rush Limbaugh, noted drug addict and radio host.

Okay, fine. Condemn the man, and God alone knows that he deserves it many times over. But here's the thing: have the Democrats even learned their lesson from this? Do they understand that they're not supposed to help the republicans when these happen to be suckerpunching their allies?

And above all, do they get, at a deep and visceral level, that the anger over this vote was more pronounced because it was a last straw piled on failure after failure after failure?

We shall see. Me, I remain warily hopeful.

In an era when all Americans favor universal health care, (even a majority of Republicans) why don't we have it already? I asked four progressive Congress Members from the New York area, who were not endorsers of John Conyers' "Medicare For All" bill, HR 676, what were their views of that universal single payer plan. I asked Joe Crowley, John Hall, Nita Lowey and Nydia Velazquez.

While I got some information about the views on all four, the answers of only three are below. John Hall (Northern Westchester, Putnam, Duchess, Rockland & Orange), perhaps wisely, decided he wanted to post his health insurance views directly. (You may have noticed he's signed on as a new blogger on the lower right hand side of the page).  read more »

SiCKO, the Michael Moore documentary on health care and health insurance opens Friday to a chorus of articles, publicity, and policy debates. Shamelessly building Harvy Weinstein's movie promotion, I called the offices of four fairly progressive New York Congress Members: Joe Crowely, John Hall, Nita Lowey and Nydia Velazquez. None of them are co-sponsors of HR 676 -- the bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers. (For a description of the bill click here, for a list of current co-sponsors click here "Why doesn't the Congress Member support HR 676?" I've received answers which I plan to post tomorrow. In the meanwhile, check out these SiCKO assessments from The Nation and from Truthdig. Then, go see SiCKO and call your Congress Member in the morning. Or, more immediately, click here to sign onto the AFL-CIO campaign to improve health care.

Last night, at Judson Memorial Church, I went to a party thrown by Progressive Source Communications  read more »

Power affects the people we elect in odd ways. Two examples:

One of the people I met with Tuesday while lobbying the Legislature for smaller class sizes in NYC, was my Assembly Member Brian Kavanaugh. He ran an anti-establishment campaign in the Democratic party primary, has long progressive service at the City Council. I thought he'd be a fire-eater, a dragon slayer. He wasn't he carefully explained that, in his view, this was not the year to make a stand for smaller classes and that the legislature could revisit the issue in years to come. Mind you, a perfectly reasonable position. He saw no urgency in reigning in Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein.

Mr. Kavanaugh's low key response reminded me of a disturbing email I got from my favorite Congress Member: John Hall. There, he explained to me that "I didn't run for Congress to cast a protest vote; I ran to change the course of our country." Further he said he would not vote with the Congressional "Out of Iraq" caucus and would support Speaker Pelosi's somewhat confused (in my, extremist, view) to end the war in Iraq.

I, of course, want the politicians I vote for or campaign on behalf of, to use their office as a soap-box on which they can take courageous stands. Both of these guys have been in office only a few weeks and they are already sounding as timid as Chris Quinn has become. She, at least, has gotten to wield some actual power.  read more »