CAROLE V. BELL: Perspectives

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>> Election Reaction: Dissenting Opinions

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Peter G. Peterson| Russell Train |John Dean |Clyde Prestowicz

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Voices of Dissent

Despairing democrats can take solace in some surprising post election fallout. For one, there's growing conflict within the Republican party over these mych vaunted cultural issues.

Second, several prominent liberal voices of dissent are fired up and providing intellectual fuel for the fight ahead. Maureen Dowd, Lawrence O'Donnell, Jon Stewart, and Eric Alterman and friends -to name just a few of the already outspoken dissenters during the campaign- have all become even bolder since the election. They're pretty mad. And for now, they're not going to take it any more.

Lawrence O’Donnell sounds an alarm on the McLaughlin Group

O'Donnell plays the money card with the red states!

“The big problem the country now has, which is going to produce a serious discussion of secession over the next 20 years, is that the segment of the country that pays for the federal government is now being governed by the people who don’t pay for the federal government.”

Blakely: " Did you say secession? Are you calling for civil war?"

O’Donnell:
“Not war. You can secede without firing a shot. 90% of the red states are welfare client states of the federal government. They collect more from the federal government than they send in. New York, and California, Connecticut, the states that are blue are all the states that are paying for the bulk of everything this government does, from the war to social security and everything else and the people in those states don’t like what the government is doing. That can not hold.”

Maureen Dowd's Rant: Outing Chris Matthews and More

Anyone reading her columns this week knows Maureen Dowd is pulling no punches. She's been venting freely, attacking and ridiculing all sides post-election - from Kerry and Shrum to Rove, Bush and the entire Christian right - and subtlety is not on her agenda. Today though, Dowd did something even more dangerous than that. She outed Chris Mattthews as being on the liberal/Democratic side of the cultural divide (and probably also the election).

Matthews had flirted with political candidness early in the campaign, but then retreated when he got publicly smacked down by a Republican Zell Miller and others. Today, however, he couldn't hide.

Dowd said the following in answer to Chris's prompt, "Maureen Dowd, Tell me something I don't know" in the ritual closing segment of the roundtable:

"I'll predict that the rapture's coming, and you and I, Chris are going up and all these hypocritical conservatives who tell people not to do stuff that then they get caught doing are not."

Chris looked stunned. He's been dodging that association for a while now.

Stewart and Helms Nail the Mood Moving Forward

Stewart: "With the country still bitterly divided, don’t you think Bush is going to have to make some concessions at least ?

Ed Helms: Concessions? Jon, this is a man who lost the popular vote last time and interpreted that as a mandate.

This time he won straight up 51 to 48 percent. To him that’s a shutout. You can be sure things are getting done around here, Jon. Word of advice. If you want to have gay sex or visit a library, it’s probably you last night to do those things.”

An Important Reminder and Some Advice from Altercation

From an Altercation Blogger:

"A mandate never really exists, not even as a result of an actual landslide. It is not something you win; just ask Tom DeLay and the Impeachers, if you don't believe me. It's something you claim. It is something you are granted, usually by people who ought to know better. It's a vast and enormous bluff. Quite simply, if the Democratic senators follow Recommended Plan A above, then C-Plus doesn't have a mandate, no matter how hard Little Russ stamps his feet when Jack Welch whistles. And anybody who thinks 51 percent is license to end the progressive income tax, chloroform Social Security, create a permanently troglodytic federal judiciary, invade Teheran, and generally take the national polity back to the 1890's is betting heavy behind a low pair. Don't fold. Don't call. Raise."

Candid Views from the Reasoned Right

Prominent conservatives comment on the current political situation. All videos republished with permission from Mother Jones Magazine.

Peter G. Peterson: The Commerce Secretary in the Nixon administration explains that the Republican Party "has lost its moorings" in recent years.

Conversation with a Conservative: Russell Train
Russell Train, head of the Environmental Protection Agency under Richard Nixon, explains that the Bush administration has declared "war" on the environment.

Conversation with a Conservative: John Dean
The former counsel to President Nixon says the way the Bush administration has governed has been "worse than Watergate."

Conversation with a Conservative: Clyde Prestowitz
The Reagan administration veteran explains that the last four years of Republican rule have put the country on the wrong track.

>> Commentary on Marygate

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