I Agree With Senator Durbin

I do.  I like honest leadership.  I just don't think I can get it from the Democrats.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois today decried the Republican domination of the controls of government in Washington.  In the Democratic weekly radio address he's calling for honest leadership.

Although he admitted that "neither Democrats nor Republicans have a monopoly on virtue," he said the GOP's "unprecedented concentration of power" is to blame for "preventing government from dealing with the real needs of our nation."

There are problems, Sen. Durbin, that you'll need to acknowledge if you wish to have a share in the leadership of this nation.

1. In this radio message you identify problems, and non-specifically criticize the of the administration and Congress, but you and your party haven't proposed a single viable solution.  For instance, you feel the plight of the uninsured, but the Democrats prime solution, universal government healthcare, is one you know won't be accepted by Americans, due to the inevitable rationing, long waits and price controls that stifle innovation.  You want "energy independence", but don't want America to increase it's oil drilling or refining capability.  You criticize the easy-to-criticize Medicare drug plan, but the Democratic proposal at the time was even worse.
2. It's hard to take Democrats seriously when, for example, Al Gore plans a speech to critique the NSA communications intercepts (I refuse to call them "domestic spying"), but he was VP during the Echelon program (hat tip: Ken Wheaton).  Or when Sen. Clinton demands hearings on body armor, but fails to show up because she has a luncheon with Harry Belafonte.  Or when Senator Kennedy tries to use publication of satire to brand a Supreme Court nominee a racist.  Or when Senator Reid's practice of 'civil discourse' includes calling the President a "loser" to high school students.  I could go on.  When they stop doing such silly things perhaps we can take them more seriously.
3. Of course, for head scratchers indicating a lack of seriousness necessary to be a leader, you only have to look to your past statements.  Let me refresh your memory:
   If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners.

If you want to be taken seriously, and have a chance to lead, then be serious.  Stop painting government run whatever as the pinnacle of efficiency and value; stop playing politics with national security and terrorism; treat serious problems seriously, instead of reflexively opposing everything Republicans propose; and stop publicly treating the man that a majority of Americans picked as president the way you're treating him.

Linked to Wizbang's COTT XLVI.

Comments

[Anna]

Read the title of the post and got a little scared there, Giacomo! ;) There are some voices that come on the radio or TV and I just have to change the channel. Durbin is one of them. (they don't say anything new anyway.)

[Giacomo]

It is a scary title, isn't it. I guess I was thinking back to the last day of October when I wrote it.