People are pissed. Congress, you've gone and done it this time.
Man, this MoveOn thing has really got people pissed off. Ian at The Agonist pretty much nails it.
For a while now a lot of activist bloggers have been holding onto the last shreds of the hope ignited in November of last year - that electing a Democratic Congress make a real difference. This act has dispelled most of that. Practically every blogger I know is furious. This puts them, I might add, back in the camp with their readers, most of whom, judging from comments and from the polls, have been disgusted every since the Iraqi authorization bill went through. The honeymoon is over, and the Democrats who did this will reap what they sowed. Both they, and the netroots will be worse for it, but there is no way out - the real betrayal, in the end, was of the base, by these Democrats. And as Digby would say, for us to go crawling back now would be to act to them like they act towards the Republicans - as a battered wife crawling back to her husband despite the abuse.
The job now will be to support those few Dems who deserve it, to work on primaries and recruiting candidates and get ready for 2008. Working with the leadership is off the table - I personally will no longer be asking anyone to call on anything unless I believe the leadership will fight for the bill, rather than just make a token vote and let it go down easily. No fight - no support. I know I am not the only one who feels this way.
This thread at DU shows how the liberal community at large is reacting, and it ain't pretty. And Libby over at Newshoggers asks the $64,000 Question:
And why did Harry Reid even let this get to the floor in the first place? I listened for six years to the Democrats whine that they couldn't move their legislative efforts forward because they were the minority party and the majority leader blocked it. So why is the minority party now able to continue dictating the rules of the game? Take some control Harry. We didn't give you the majority so you could continue cowering to perceived power that doesn't even exist anymore, outside of the fevered imaginations inside the beltway's conventionally wise set.
You have to wonder what the fuck Congressional Democrats are thinking. We, The People will only put up with being screwed over so many times - and Harry Reid may have just gone one screw job too far. Democrats in the Senate have a lot of making up to do.