And So It Begins

Watch the corporate media coverage of the Dems' plan to expose the Republicans' obstruction in the Senate and you will know deep in your heart of hearts why impeachment of any but the most wildly non-establishment Republican is simply not a realistic option at this time in our history.   That said, getting the public more comfortable with the idea of impeaching BushCo and Cheney is a brilliant, noble and absolutely vital thing to do.  As long as impeachment stays out of the hands of what Digby calls The Village and the loathsome Gatekeepers of that Village, then it will be an effective way to raise public consciousness of the volumes of crimes this administration has committed.   It is, perhaps, the only way to do that. 

UPDATE:  The TPM team will be following the coverage of GOP's successful filibuster of Reed-Levin.   So far:

Since the media hasn't been able to bring itself to use the f-word (filibuster) in describing the GOP's procedural maneuvering, I'm not optimistic that the coverage of the defeat of the Democrats' proposal for a withdrawal timeline will be much better.

We've already picked up on some doozies. The vote to end debate and proceed to a vote on the Democrats' withdrawal amendment was 57-42, with 60 votes needed for passage. So that's 57 senators voting to end debate and proceed to a vote. How does FOX News report it? The Democrats proposal failed 57-42, as if only 42 votes could be mustered for the Democrats' position.

Comments

[KathyF]

You know, I got up yesterday morning all excited that finally, I would be able to watch American news live. I checked all the blogs that were supposedly live-blogging the event, and no updates all morning (all night). Then I went to CSPan and let it run while I did other stuff. Pretty boring.

But John Kerry droning on in the background while I wrote a post yesterday may have been responsible for its strange tone. Either that or the novel I've been reading, set in 1660 England. Yeah. One of those.

[eRobin]

I think that the Dems really don't get the importance of PR and media blitzing. I left this comment over at Avedon's:

They are capable of stalling the funding but they are not capable of withstanding the media storm they will face when they do. They would need to throw comity out the window, put together a real unified front and hit every media outlet - including blogs and local papers/radio/whatever in every state - with the same message over and over again: the GOP chooses party over country every time and this war is no exception. They would have to devote all of August to delivering this message at home. They would have to name names on television. They'd have to think of clever new ways to get the message out. They'd have to NOT BACK DOWN when everyone appeared to turn against them and the going got tough.

Do you think they have that in them?