By Steve Hynd
As I type, Sen. Bernie Sanders is well into his seventh hour in a landmark speech denouncing Obama's cave on tax cuts for the rich and the way in which the middle class is being ass-raped to provide the funds. It's being called the "filibernie" even though it technically isn't a filibuster - there's no business scheduled for today that he's preventing movement on.
Some are calling it a cynical move by Reid to let his left wing blow off steam, but Sanders has been around a long time and I feel would be unlikely to give so much time and energy to such a ploy - unless, maybe, he felt the exposure would catapult him into a new stage of his political career, like becoming a contender in 2012. We can only hope.
Karoli over at Crooks & Liars has some footage of the epic speech, Bernie talking about child poverty in the US as compared to other industrialized nations:
And writes:
standing on the floor of the Senate and speaking for what is now over six hours is worthy because:
- It gets facts and arguments into the record.
- It gets facts and arguments into the face of people who might not pay attention otherwise.
- It is the best scenesetter for reforming the filibuster to make them actually stay and talk I've seen yet.
- It is an opportunity to spark and stoke some populist anger on the left, similar to the way they've done it on the right.
The Nation reports that Sanders seems to have helped some Dem Senators find both their spines and their consciences. Whatever else Sanders may be doing, he's successfully captured the news cycle and the gestalt of leftie anger with Obama's presidency and the current Democratic Party's Whiggish capitulation to their corporate overlords.
The Class War that has been bipartisanly enabled by both main parties is now very much on the political agenda for 2012. It's going to be interesting to see where this goes. My own thought is that a primary challenge to Obama and third party runs on 2012 have both become very much more likely today.
Oh, and Obama calling up Bill Clinton to do his talking for him in defense of the tax cut extension won't do a bit of good. Bill helped set up this class war and letting him take the presidential podium shows weakness on Obama's part in the face of Sander's criticism
Bernie is a gem and he's trying not only to save the country but to save Obama and the Democrats from themselves. I listened to some of it on Thom Hartmann this morning.
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