CT Progressive

From the uncanny metaphor department, a fine quote from an article about a newly-elected Green Party Constable in New Canaan:

Stangler said he was asked by the Green Party to run for constable in June, the same month he graduated from high school.

Now that he’s studying at Georgetown, the 300-mile commute between New Canaan and Washington, D.C. could make it difficult to fulfill his duties. Fortunately, constables are able to decide for themselves just how much or how little they are able to accomplish as an elected official.

“We have had constables who, I believe, have never served papers,” Claudia Weber, Town Clerk, said. “We had a constable who lived in Germany. Out of all the offices, constable is the one where, if you choose to, you don’t have to invest a lot of time into the position.”

Weber added that, in a town with an active police force, like New Canaan, the responsibilities of a constable may be fulfilled by the police force.

“[Constable] is one of these positions that the state of Connecticut holds onto even though it really has no useful purpose,” Mike DeRosa, co-chair of the Connecticut Green Party, said. “It’s sort of like pet rocks: there’s a subjective meaning to something that has no specific meaning.”

No useful purpose, subjective meaning to something that has no specific meaning? Sounds just like the Greens to me.

As a bonus, a description of the campaign:

While Stangler admits that he didn’t campaign very seriously, he and a friend walked around Waveny Park during the annual Family Fourth celebration and tried to shake hands with as many people as possible.

“Many people didn’t want to talk to me. They thought I was delusional,” he said, who also added that he was wearing a straw cowboy hat donning an American flag. “I’d say I shook about 15 to 20 people’s hands. That was basically my only true campaigning, (besides) word of mouth and telling my friends and what not.”

Stangler’s July 4th campaigning efforts were followed by the Green Party’s Independence Day celebration on the steps of the Ferguson Library in Stamford where he joined members in playing music like Bruce Springsteen and the Grateful Dead while 2008 Green Party candidate for Congress Richard Duffee (who Stangler also campaigned for in 2008) read the Declaration of Independence out loud.

Commentary from John Cohn:

The ritual is becoming familiar. Health care reform passes a major political hurdle. And progressives don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Last time, the occasion was a vote in the House of Representatives. Health care reform passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats had extracted a major concession on abortion rights.

This time, it was a vote in the Senate–not on whether to pass a bill, but whether to begin debating one. This measure, too, passed by the slimmest of margins, but not before conservative Democrats and one notorious independent made clear they were prepared to shut things down later if legislation includes a public insurance option.

It’s no fun to watch this unfold. And yet this is the exactly the sort of drama you should expect for the next few weeks, as the Senate deliberations play out. [...]

For progressives, victories are more likely to come in the form of ground not conceded than ground gained. Every day that legislation doesn’t get worse is a day to cherish.

This was the exact problem that the healthcare advocacy community and bloggers foresaw in July – and why so many people were angry when Congress decided to wait around until after the August recess to schedule their vote. And when our Democratic Representatives lack the grasp of basic politics displayed by some blogger on the internet (all due respect), it’s easy to see why their base of supporters don’t see a good reason to come out and vote next year.

Via Matthew Yglesias:

I wondered yesterday how serious David Obey was about the idea of paying for the Afghanistan war with higher taxes. Today the answer seems to be that he’s pretty darn serious, with Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel and Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank joining Obey, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, and also picking up Conference Chair John Larson and Jack Murtha who chairs the Defense Appropriations subcommittee. That’s a blockbuster leadership lineup and a clear signal that any House backbencher who feels like jumping on this bandwagon is safe to do so.

The details of the proposal:

Dubbed the “Share the Sacrifice Act,” the six-page bill exempts anyone who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan since the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as families who have lost an immediate relative in the fighting. But middle-class households earning between $30,000 and $150,000 would be asked to pay 1% on top of their tax liability today — a more sweeping approach than many Democrats have been willing to embrace.

Contrary to popular opinion, we actually have to pay for the wars we choose to wage: a dollar spent in Afghanistan costs just as much as a dollar spent improving health care domestically. Congressman Murphy committed some time ago to bringing war funding under PAYGO rules:

I’m obsessive about putting all the war funding under the budget. The fact is, no one is having to sacrifice for this war except the soldiers who fight it, the families they leave behind, and the working men and women in the U.S. who have seen their safety net gutted in order to fund it. Paygo rules don’t apply to emergency funding, but the fact is that this funding can’t be considered “emergency” any longer. You are absolutely right - paygo rules should apply to this bill and all other supplemental requests.

by: Chris Murphy @ Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 19:49:51 PM EST

It’s good news that Congressional leadership has caught on to this idea. Of course, it’s not great news, since it reinforces the expectation that we’re about to see the war in Afghanistan expanded – but getting to a place where we Americans understand the costs of war (in dollar terms, at least) is a huge leap towards returning to sane political debate in this country.