few days

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Prosecutors will ask a judge to dismiss all charges in the sexual assault case against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn at a court hearing on Tuesday, the New York Post reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.

The Manhattan district attorney's office will file a motion recommending the case be dropped and laying out the chronology of events that led to that point, according to the Post.

Strauss-Kahn, who has denied the allegations, was once seen as a leading contender to be president of France until a maid, Nafissatou Diallo, accused him of sexual assault on May 14 at New York's Sofitel Hotel. He was arrested and forced to resign as head of the International Monetary Fund a few days later.

This is a man who has had his life destroyed over a bogus allegation and over-zealous prosecutors. He has already been given a life sentence and it wasn’t one imposed by the courts. Hopefully those responsible will be held accountable.

Like many others, I have spent the last few days really contemplating what will happen in the elections this November. As much as I want to be optimistic, I just can’t bring myself to it. Democrats are looking at a very dark mid-term and, as Peter Daou puts it, these are “dark days for the left”.

But what happened? What caused the rapid fall from glory for President Obama over the past two years? When he was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States, Barack Obama enjoyed one of the highest approval ratings in history. Now he is treading water to keep from hitting bottom. I believe there are three main factors that play into this; healthcare, economy and war. I want to take a minute and look at what happened with each of these issues and how it turned the base sour on the President.

Make no mistake about it. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the GOP slowly implode since the 2008 elections. Sure they have had what appears to be little upticks, but overall they have been suffering a very slow and painful death. But there is a danger in all that and we are now seeing it.

Today Eric Cantor took to the television cameras to proclaim that the violence aimed at Democrats is the same thing he has been undergoing the past few days. In this instance he highlighted that someone shot out the windows of one of his campaign offices. As more details come out from the local police, we quickly learn that Cantor wasn’t telling the actual story. If this was deliberate or not is something to be debated at a later date, but what we do know is that the bullet that broke through Cantor’s window was a stray, randomly fired in the air and with just enough force to penetrate the window, but not the blinds behind the window.

Then you have John Boehner out there trying to weasel his way out of his “dead man” comment about Rep. Steve Driehaus (and to add a little more interest to that, I literally live on the boundary between Boehner’s district and Driehaus’).

This is the problem with today’s GOP – they have no leadership. Everyone is vying to be the defacto leader of the Republican Party, so they all go out and make their own absurd statements. Imagine if the GOP had a true leader that exhibited common sense. This would be a person that would say “let’s stand beside the Democratic leadership and jointly denounce this activity”. That would have a real impact, but instead we have various high level Republicans making statements that is only worsening the situation.

Just now on MSNBC, Eliot Spitzer said, “this isn’t health reform, it’s health expansion”. That is exactly right. Reform failed in Congress, but expansion is currently on its way to becoming law. And, as Spitzer says, expansion isn’t a bad thing, but stop trying to sell it as reform.

Of course the Democrats will never admit that. Their platform has been reform, and if they try to call it “expansion” then that gives the opposition fuel for one of their favorite claims – socialism. However there is a bad side to that. The Democrats trying to bill this as “reform” is putting off the base, the people who have fought for real health care reform all their lives. They are left with the feeling that this is it. Once this is done we won’t get anymore, and that’s a sediment that can very well be true as I have laid out over the past few days.

If Democrats had a problem getting the votes to pass the most progressive parts of the bill now, it sure won’t be easier later when their numbers aren’t as great. I certainly hope the people out there pushing the “fix it later” meme aren’t really expecting the Senate to see a 65 or 66 seat Democratic majority. We’ll cure cancer and most diseases before that happens.

Bill Maher has made news the past few days for going after President Obama for not being tough enough. Here he is last night talking to Keith about it:

Bill is right. President Obama needs to stop being “nice”. The Republicans have shown they have no desire to work with him or the Democrats, so we need to just forget about them. Instead Obama should start pushing through exactly what he wants. For Republicans the honeymoon was over at 12:01 on January 20, 2009. No need for our side to try and extend it.

After yesterday’s back and forth of rather or not Jane Harman got the New York Times to hold the wiretapping story in 2004, it is now confirmed. She in fact did:

Congresswoman Harman spoke to Washington Bureau Chief Phil Taubman in late October or early November, 2004, apparently at the request of General Hayden. She urged that The Times not publish the story. She did not speak to me, and I don’t remember her being a significant factor in my decision. In 2005, when we were getting ready to publish, Phil met with a group of congressional leaders familiar with the eavesdropping program, including Ms. Harman. They all argued that The Times should not publish. The Times published the story a few days later.

Harman did so at the request of Michael Hayden, Bush’s National Security Adviser.

This lady is a traitor all the way around. Being a traitor to her party is bad, but being a traitor to our nation is unacceptable. I hope the Democrats do the right thing and start an investigation of their own. She also shouldn’t be allowed to remain on any committees during this time.

We are hearing that a lot lately. It is a very tough situation to wrap your head around, but while people are saying we should let the auto industry go, no one is saying what to do with the millions of jobs it will cost.

It’s not that we need to bailout the auto industry, it’s that we need to secure the biggest sector of the manufacturing division. How does the opposition plan on employing all the people who lose their job when the American auto industry goes the way of the pet rock? What about all the diners, uniform suppliers, parts suppliers, and other businesses that are needed and supported by the auto industry? How do you save the towns that will be totally destroyed by the closing of their local auto plant?

Everyone can say no so easily, but no one can give plans on how to deal with the results of that no.

That’s why I have been behind Pelosi’s plan. Do I really want to see us throw $25 billion at the auto industry, when we don’t even have things like universal healthcare? Of course not, but I also realize we need the auto industry. If they are to get the money then they get it with strong conditions tied to it. Restructure the auto industry. Make them more efficient. Force them to produce cars that compete with the foreign market and help our environment.

Here are some interesting things I have heard on various shows over the past few days.

Michael Crowley has some good advice, which I feel is right now. Obama does not need to get mad, despite how many popular bloggers on our side of the blogosphere are calling for rage.

The calls from the blogosphere over the past few days for Obama to get mad about the McCain/Palin side show have been deafening. Should Obama go out and act like McCain is really getting to him? I respect a lot of these bloggers, but I strongly disagree with their analysis of what's happening. To understand it is to only look back 100 or so days ago. Obama was in one of the tightest fights against one of the best political machines this nation has ever seen. During that time, Clinton became more angry over things, all while Obama remained calm. We know how that race ended.

Something else to remember is that this campaign season is still young. It just really started last week. If Obama goes negative now then he will have to keep it up. With almost two months to go before the first ballots are punched, it's still to early for that. Americans don't want two months of negative messages from a candidate. Save that until October. The fact that McCain is going this route so early will help, and in some polls is already evident.

So perhaps the bloggers who are citing doom and gloom if Obama doesn't heed their advice could take a little from me - Chill Out. Just remember - it was McCain who decided to honor 9/11 with negative attacks and lies. It was Obama who took the high road and waited until after the anniversary of 9/11 to start hitting back harder. That's a message we should all be conveying.