The Chickensh*t Caucus Wins
Just after posting this, President Biden said he will end his reelection bid. The Chickensh*t Caucus won.
Is this a good thing? It certainly injects some excitement and energy into the campaign. VP Harris will make a great candidate and a great president. That’s not the issue.
The issue is the way in which Biden was pressured to drop out, which leaves me with a very sour taste. Anonymous leaks from within the Democratic party, overkill news coverage from the New York Times, Washington Post and TV networks, topped off by a cascade of cowardly politicians running away from their own president was not the way.
It could have gone much differently.
Let us set a recent scene. The “Republican” party was set to nominate as its candidate a man judged to be our worst president. In office, his only legislative accomplishment was a deficit-busting tax cut. (Note: Republicans only care about the deficit when a Democrat is president.)
His callous disregard for science led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans during the Covid pandemic. He cozied up to dictators he admires, like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jung Il, while shoving aside our most cherished Western allies. He stole classified documents and refused to return them. (Forget the joke of Judge Aileen Cannon. Look at the photos.)
Anything else? Oh, yes, he led a coup to overturn a free and fair election that he lost, blaming is then-vice president for not illegally stopping the electoral count, calling local officials to “find” him some votes, urging on the mob he brought to Washington on January 6. He was convicted of 34 felonies around business fraud, and was found guilty of sexual assault and defamation. He lies constantly and cares nothing for anyone but himself. We know this and much, much more.
Against this candidate, the Democrats had one job: Get behind an admittedly frail but thoroughly accomplished Joe Biden like the Philadelphia Eagles’ Tush Push play and get him over the finish line in November.
Instead, thanks to the Chickensh*t Caucus, the Democrats formed a circular firing squad and commenced to blazing away.
It started in the usual way, with blind quotes from Democratic insiders, or senior Democratic aides or Democratic lawmakers raising doubts about Biden’s health and mental acuity. By this time, most news organizations had explained away Donald Trump’s similar behavior as “just Trump.” But for the Dems to start pissing all over each other — that’s chum in the water for sharks, and reporters did as they are programmed to do, at first.
Of course, the story has now snowballed way beyond that original start. Everything Biden says, or doesn’t say, is fair game. One Congressman said Biden “didn’t seem to recognize” him, although that seems sort of squishy. The Biden who not long ago blasted a great State of the Union speech and out-maneuvered Republicans in Congress, now is some feeble old fart.
The “but.. he’s old” storyline generated by the press hive mind has now surpassed “but..her mails” as another of the political press’s excesses and lack of judgment and self-control. I have no doubt that none of the news organizations campaigning to push out Biden by running multiple stories daily will take any responsibility for what might come next, just as they didn’t by stomping all over Hillary Clinton. (If you think this is a new phenomenon, go back and read the classic “Boys on the Bus” by Timothy Crouse from 1973.)
Imagine what would have happened if the GOP operators had tried to spread the Biden infirmity story and reporters were met at every turn by Democrats saying, yes, but we don’t care — Biden and VP Harris are still far superior to Trump. To be fair, some stories did have the Democratic defense. To be accurate, that defense was some 20 paragraphs down in the story so that it would never get read.
Instead of a lede like, “Sources said President Biden is showing signs of infirmity, but Democrats are stoutly defending him as still superior to Donald Trump,” we got paragraph after paragraph of anonymous sniping, which then led to the deluge.
The first debate obviously didn’t help matters. But instead of caving, Democrats could have risen to Biden’s defense, as Republicans defend their rapist candidate.
But.. the polls, you say. Polls exist to measure sentiment at the moment the poll is taken. That sentiment is based on perceptions formed by outside information. If the only story being pushed is that Democrats say Biden is a problem, then polls will reflect that. Sen. Sanders and AOC are voices in the wilderness, along with Jen Rubin at the Washington Post.
I have lost a lot of respect for many politicians and pundits I have come to admire over the years. Particularly infuriating are the former Obama people. Do you mean to tell me the smart people who got a Black man elected president couldn’t come up with anything better than to dump on Biden? I don’t care what subterranean enmity exists — the greater good mandates they get on board with the program.
And what is in the water in California? Rep. Nancy Pelosi, perhaps the greatest speaker of the House, and people like Rep. Adam Schiff and Zoe Lofgren are not only calling for Biden to leave, but to have an open mini-primary. Not only is that totally impractical, but dumping Harris would certainly anger some key constituent groups, to say nothing of ignoring how Harris has grown into the vice presidency and is now a great contributor to the cause.
The fleeing donors similarly are having their fee-fees hurt. Instead of stepping up for the principles they supposedly believe in, they are complaining, anonymously of course, about a call with Harris. It’s easy to pile on, isn’t it?
Meanwhile, Trump’s minions are salivating about implementing Project 2025, their plan to dismantle the government (the parts of which the Supreme Court hasn’t already torn down) and ruin the lives of people who support Trump.
I don’t know what will happen over the next few weeks. The members of the Chickensh*t Caucus think they took the right path. To quote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.” Even with Biden pulling out, the manner in which it happened was unseemly.
