I still feel that the majority party of the moment, the Republicans, try to delegitimize all efforts of Democrats, even the very pale efforts at policy, by personal attack and mudslinging. Open policy debates are out of the question, it seems, by the efforts of both Democrats and Republicans.
By example, I came here with a straightfoward concern and questions and your commenters assail my intelligence and motives with insults and sarcasm. My first impulse is to respond in kind, but dialogue and learning is more important to me than being right or toeing any company line. You recited a litany of Democratic misdeeds. Fair enough. Any Democrat could cite a similar list of Republican misdeeds. This doesn’t solve anything. We used to have dialogue and compromise between the majority and minority parties. Do we still want that, and if so, the minority party, whoever it is, must have a way to dissent and oppose that is respected and heard by the majority, or we have moved away from a two party system.

You have broken his heart and maybe, just maybe he watched Brit Hume Fox News tonight and heard Mort explain why the Dems are such a sorry lot and why they are reduced to the behavior they displayed yesterday. Surely ed can then figure out all his questions for himself. D’ya think? Yeal, me neither.

1. Politics stops at the water’s edge. The stunt pulled by the Dems yesterday had absolutely nothing to do with “getting to the truth.” The truth has been out there dissected to death by the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee, The Butler Commission in Great Britain, and the Dulfer Report. How much more “truth” do you want. Isn’t it just a little bit strange that all of those bodies found exactly the same thing; that pre war intel was not “twisted” in any way shape or form. That the majority of the world’s intel services believed that Saddam had huge stockpiles of WMD? That Clinton and the Democrats believed the same thing?

You live in a world where the truth doesn’t matter -at least objective truth. When Democrats can say with a straight face that voting machines in Ohio were hacked from a remote location and vote totals changed, why can’t you see that the overwhelming majority of thinking people are laughing out loud at you?

The same goes for the “twisting” of intel before the Iraq war. The spate of leaks by the CIA after the war ended and no stockpiles of WMD found were a blatant attempt to shift blame from their own sorry asses to the Administration. As usual, they missed the big one.

The problem is that the Dems have no idea how to act as a minority party. Viscous personal attacks instead of policy alternatives. I can tell you that both Ronald Reagan and George Bush #41 worked with Democrats for the good of the country when you were in the majority. But the dems refusal to offer any alternatives whatsoever except naysaying the Republicans has gotten tiresome and worn. It is why even with all of Bush’s troubles you don’t have a ghost of a chance to take back the Congress.

The American people simply don’t trust you.

Nice snarky comment, but nothing resembling a thoughtful answer to my questions.

I am an independent and am not looking for a pissing contest. I asked Mr. Moran to define the role of the minority party in the United States at this time, whether minority rights are of any significance, if a two party system is still relevant, and exactly how the minority party in a two party system is supposed to legitimately impact the political process. Nothing in your response answers these questions. A thoughtful response is still welcome.

Now before I forget your question, the manority is expected, among other things, to act with proper decorm instead of deceitful efforts to confuse the easily confused.

Perhaps I am wrong, but the general impression left by Republican politicians is that since they are in majority control of the administrative and legislative branches of the federal government, Democrats should sit down, shut up and stay the hell out of the way. Are their any legitimate tools for a minority party to use? If so, what are they? (Apparently using the actual rules of the Senate is not legitimate.) If there are no legitimate roles or tools for a minority party to influence political decisions, the logical conclusion is that a two party system of government is no longer viable. Your response, please.