When Walter Cronkite gave his rare editorial perspective on the war in Vietnam, LBJ is reported to have remarked “if I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”
For Democrats, losing the Washington Post Editorial Board is akin to LBJ losing Cronkite. If the WaPo Board thinks you’re screwing up, you must really be screwing up. They do, given this harsh editorial in yesterday’s Post.
And the Senate Democrats in Virginia are. Not content to let Republicans overreach on social issues, as I’ve noted in comments on many of the other budget stories we’ve posted here at Bearing Drift, they’ve decided to do some overreaching of their own.
The difference here is that Republican overreaching doesn’t threaten to shut down government in Richmond, harming all of the people the Democrats are constantly championing. Public sector workers, the elderly, needy families. How are they going to look these folks in the face and try and convince them that only Democrats care about their plight when those same Democrats let the government shut down for no good reason?
And even the Post recognizes that the Senate Democrats don’t have a good reason for doing what they’re doing. They’re calling it “overreaching, self-serving and cynical” and noting that the policy disagreements the Democrats have are a “flimsy” layer of excuses to force power sharing in the Senate.
What they couldn’t win on election day and what they couldn’t win in court, they’re now trying to win through extortion.
And even the Post is calling them on it.
Time to wake up, Senate Dems. You’ve lost the base of your own party. Stop stalling and get us a budget.
