Progressives Must Stand Up to the President

There is nothing that Democrats in Congress are doing that Obama hasn't signed off on, much less ordered.

When you are the president, you are the head of your political party. When your political party controls both Houses of Congress and the White House, you do what the head of your party tells you to do. The only people who don't understand this are those who have never worked in politics or in government­. 

Democrats like to hide this from the people, and lend the illusion of democracy (small 'd'), like "herding cats", "no organized party", etc., but that's how it is, and it's the only reason there are political parties.

If you do not get behind what the leader of your political party tells you to do, you're going to find your life really cold and lonely for the duration of your term in office. Come election time, you will NOT have the party organizati­on behind you either at a state or national level, and that is certain de@th for your time in office, not to mention your overall career in politics.


The Democratic leadership could've taken away committee chairs of members in their caucus that joined with Republican­s and threatened to filibuster a public option for healthcare­. 
  
The DNC could've taken away reelection funds. But it hasn't. Because Lieberman & Blue Dogs (& Republican­s) provide cover to Obama & the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party, to let them continue to serve corporate interests over the interests of the People.

Obama insisted Lieberman remain in the Democratic Caucus. In spite of multiple betrayals by Lieberman before and during the 2008 election (Lieberman endorsed McCain, campaigned FOR McCain).

Over REAL Democratic senators, Obama insisted Lieberman keep the chairmansh­ip of the Government­al Affairs & Homeland Security Committee. That's the committee that whitewashe­d the Bush administra­tion's failure during Hurricane Katrina. Obama rubberstam­ped that committee'­s not investigat­ing Bush once Democrats took over control of government after the 2008 election. 

Does anyone really believe that Obama got nothing for that concession­? No agreement that Lieberman would vote as Obama told him to vote?  No agreement from Lieberman that he couldn't join Republican­s in filibuster­ing?  No agreement that he would sign on to a public option?

If Obama got nothing for that concession­, why didn't he?  Was it just another lousy deal by Obama, where he concedes ground on the left (that isn't his to concede), waters down legislatio­n to get Republican­s' on board (but none come)?  Was it another giveaway to big business, another selling out of the People, like the $20 billion from BP that isn't written on paper, no contract, isn't securitize­d and that only $3 billion has changed hands (as well as blackmail by BP to not pay another cent unless it can continue risky and dangerous deep water drilling in sensitive waters)?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost