The "Professional Left" story has gotten a lot of traction today. Keith Olbermann is doing a Special Comment about it (which I think it going to be full of @#$%). Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is calling for Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to resign, (again?) which is so full of @#$% it almost deserves it own post as to how full of @#$% it is.)
Let me say that as a Liberal, I've had my own disagreements with the so-called professional left. I think Huffington Post cares only about generating clicks, not doing actual journalism. I think Markos Moulitsas, Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald write, talk and act like they've never had to get a vote (on the floor of any legislature) in their lives; and live in an ideological bubble every bit as pernicious as the one the Bushies live in. (Though Markos has gotten on my nerve waaaay less as of late). Ed Schultz has let the Klieg Lights go to his head. Keith is under the impression that he can always speak for me, and he doesn't (Jon Stewart on the other hand??). And the less political insight the President gets from Arianna Huffington (winner of .55% of the vote in her one shot at actual office), the happier I am.
So the long and short of it is, I agreed with Robert Gibbs.
I probably agree with Dennis Kucinich 98% of the time (the idea for a Department of Peace is just ridiculous) but it doesn't mean I like him, nor does it mean I trust him. The same goes for the others. Watching the Professional Left's behavior over the last two years has frankly been the thing that turned me into a Liberal who hates other Liberals.
I think there is a responsibility for those of us on Left to hold the President accountable, as he has asked. But there is also a responsibility for those of us on Left to deal in facts, to understand that ideology is a way of looking at the world, not a purity checklist (again, Republican behavior), to understand how, where and why a piece of legislation goes wrong, to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and most of all, to keep working.
Again, just because Health Care passed without a Public Option, doesn't mean it has to stay that way.
Simply put, for the last two years, the Republican Party and their Conservative base have been our enemies (and to any Republicans and Conservatives out there reading this, sorry...but the behavior of your ideological extreme has been nothing short of repulsive). The second that any Liberal starts confusing the President with your enemies,they've lost their way.
