Time to kick some ass

Watching the complete and total collapse of the Democratic party after some attorney general no one outside Massachusetts has ever heard of lost a special election would be comical if it weren't for the episode's impact on future elections. Why should I or anyone else send money to or vote for a group of people who can't seem to plan for certain contingencies? It's about leadership, and I'm not seeing any.

There are two scenes in the George C. Scott masterpiece Patton of note. The first is the opening, when Scott, as Patton, stands before a huge American flag. He notes Americans will not stand for losers:

Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed.

That's as true now as it supposedly was during WWII.

The other scene comes up during the Sicily invasion, when "Patton" summarily replaces a commander with his immediate subordinate, giving the new guy a set amount of time to accomplish a task or else he'll find yet another leader.

The punchline is the American electorate has spent more than a decade watching Rethuglicans find a way to implement their agenda in Congress with vote margins much narrower than those enjoyed today by Dems. Now, they are watching the party fall into complete disarray with its signature issue, health care reform, over Scott Brown's election. It's ugly, it's unseemly and it's not the least bit confidence-inspiring. More important, it will lead many on-the-fence voters to conclude Dems don't stand for anything if they can't finish this job.

There are times when leaders need to kick a little ass to get things done. Whether it's Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and/or Barack Obama, they need to get their shit together, come up with a plan and implement it. And it needs to be done before Obama's State of the Union address next week.

DCR

[Edited to correct a couple of typos, and later to correct image URL.]