Brian Beutler digs into the unpleasant, but very necessary, task of figuring out how much the Democrats sucked last week. The short answer is a whole goddamn lot. The why of it is interesting, though:
It's a real disappointment, I think, that the Republicans in both chambers have either a better understanding of parliamentary procedure or a greater willingness to use it to their advantage. I'm not a student of modern Republican political history, but I'd speculate that this comes from their 40 year absence from Congress in the mid-to-late 20th century, and the revolutionary spirit with which they regained power in the 1990s--basically, that, as an energized movement, they come to the Hill everyday intending to win.
It seems to me that by the end of the 109th Congress, Democrats had become a much stronger opposition party than they were only a few years beforehand. But they were still learning when they became the majority party and I still get the sense that they still somehow have no idea how impressive the machine they're up against really is.
We're also finding out just how much power an obstinate executive really wields when he doesn't care about his own popularity and has no successor whose political fortunes he must protect. Bush may not be able to push anything even resembling an affirmative agenda forward, but he's proven able to block just about everything the Democrats have sought to pass.
