Byron Dorgan Will Not Run for Re-Election
Just before the holiday, Democratic leaders forced Senator Byron Dorgan to forgo a key policy initiative–drug reimportation–so as to push through a stinker of a health care reform bill. And while he says his decision “does not relate to any dissatisfaction that I have about serving in the Senate,” over the holiday he decided not to run for re-election.
Although I still have a passion for public service and enjoy my work in the Senate, I have other interests and I have other things I would like to pursue outside of public life. I have written two books and have an invitation from a publisher to write two more books. I would like to do some teaching and would also like to work on energy policy in the private sector.
So, over this holiday season, I have come to the conclusion, with the support of my family, that I will not be seeking another term in the U.S. Senate in 2010. It is a hard decision to make after thirty years in the Congress, but I believe it is the right time for me to pursue these other interests.
Let me be clear that this decision does not relate to any dissatisfaction that I have about serving in the Senate. Yes, I wish there was less rancor and more bipartisanship in the U.S. Senate these days. But still, it is a great privilege to serve and I have the utmost respect for all of the men and women with whom I serve.
It has been a special privilege to serve with Senator Conrad and Congressman Pomeroy, who do an outstanding job for our state. And although he inherited an economy in serious trouble, I remain confident that President Obama is making the right decisions to put our country back on track. Further, my decision has no relationship to the prospect of a difficult election contest this year. Frankly, I think if I had decided to run for another term in the Senate I would be reelected.
But I feel that after serving 30 years, I want to make time for some other priorities. And making a commitment to serve in the Senate for the next seven years does not seem like the right decision for me.
This is a huge loss for Democrats–first and foremost because Dorgan is one of the good guys, largely uncorrupted by the nastiness of DC. In addition, it is almost sure to be a loss for Democrats, as Republican Governor John Hoeven would win this election in a landslide, if he chooses to enter it.
Senator Dorgan, thank you for your service. But you will be missed.
Which industry or corporate entity is Dorgan most likely to become a lobbyist for, I wonder?
Citizen fuckno:
Are you from North Dakota, are you from a midwestern state, do you have a fuckin’ clue who Dorgan is or what his politics are as seen through his actions? This is a loss that Democrats can’t afford… One Hung Harry Reid or Blanch Lincoln losin’ would actually make the Democrats stronger but Dorgan comes from a red state and has solid numbers and is NOT a Blue Dog. ObamaRahma fucked us regally when they forced ‘im out.
It appears that a good bet would be the Connell Company, a diversified global development corportaion dealing in real estate assets, mining, rice production, various other food production endeavors, investment banking and finance. They max out their individual contributions to Dorgan every year. A second choice might be the unions. My guess is that he’ll contract with both. Looks like a good retirement plan coming up for Byron.
I have a one-word response:
s__t.
Probably none. THe man has led the fight against contractor corruption. He has led a lot of other real progressive fights as well. He’s not one of those types.
I believe that he will focus on himself like most of the politicians are doing. I believe that a crisis is coming and whoever gets in is in trouble. However, if they are honest about the crisis that is to come about then I can see how real discussion can come forth. We need now is protectionism and NO FREE TRADE. This is the only way to protect the middle class. See we tried the NAFTA way but didn’t invest the money back into America. So now those that pocketed the money from the cheap labor overseas will go into hiding or yell from a distance like Dorgan or Dodd for more discussion on this go to my blog at chrisfromneenah.blogspot.com. Also you can go to heywhateversocial.info where I am posting more videos on all the facts on what to do and where we are going.
Has the iron fist of Rahm struck again?
Oh, I don’t know. Responding in this fashion might be one of the few things that would get Rahm’s attention.
Democratic leaders forced Senator Byron Dorgan to forgo a key policy initiative–drug reimportation–so as to push through a stinker of a health care reform bill.~~~~~~~~~EW
This was where I suspected Rahm to have rammed his fist of iron..
Oh, THAT.
Well, yeah, I didn’t name Rahm personally, I guess.
I read on Huff Po rahm is considering running for mayor of Chicago.
This truly does suck. Regardless what you may think of us on the right, we do value honor and integrity above party even if we may happen to not agree with one’s politics in general.
Too bad for your side and most likely for the country.
Dorgan is one of the good guys. He represents all his constituents no matter what party affiliation
One of my best friends came from a family of staunch Republicans – whatever the Republican equivalent of ‘yellow dog Democrat’ is, is what they are – Republican down the ticket. Anyway about 15 years or so years ago Sen Dorgan filmed a campaign commercial on their farm. It didn’t matter that he’s a Democrat – he represented them
except maybe 50% of them. he supported the stupak amendment. good riddance to misogynist jerks who think they own women’s bodies.
I hear what you’re saying but I would bet that the Stupak amendment is very popular there
that still makes him a misogynist jerk.
Agree; he appears to be one of 2 or 3 of the Senators most knowledgeable about the derivatives disaster (‘financial WMDs’, as Warren Buffet calls them). He knows a lot about commodities, market manipulation, and the economic disaster we’re in.
In my dreams, this makes him fearless in the upcoming financial reform hearings.
Very discouraging news to see that he’s had it with D.C….But one can certainly see why.
PrarieSunshine, how are y’all going to dig up a smart, hard-working candidate…?
“we do value honor and integrity above party..”
Well, based on that whopper, I would say you have little honor.
Sounds like you just said Republicans are against the country.
A real loss for the majority of Americans
I think Dorgan has been a great progressive over the years and I am very sorry to see him go. But I wonder, why, if he was contemplating leaving anyway, he didn’t simply deny Harry Reid that 60th vote and force the Leadership to go to reconciliation or the nuclear option to get a bill passed? My further question is, why won’t progressives say no, even when they have nothing to lose by saying it?
And my last question is: as long as they’re almost sure to lse the 60th vote anyway, why don’t they just use the nuclear optio.n, so that it is gone by the time they do lose that 60th vote?
Good question.
That is exactly what I have been thinking since the Senate passed the HCR bill.
If anyone of the progressives had voted NO they would have stolen the power suppposedly bestowed on the Nelsons and Leibermans. They would have delayed the process so we could have educated and organized again for the public option and put the spot light on Obama’s hypocrisy on re-importation, reproductive rights etc.
Feingold, Sanders, Dorgan.
But I respect Dorgan and all that he has tried to do. He knew we would end up with the financial disaster we got after the repeal of Glass- Steagal. I hope he will become a strong voice outside of the DC cabal.
Sorry to hear about Dorgan but I have no sympathy for the Democrats. It’s not like they were using their 60 vote majority for governance or anything useful anyway.
Totally agree.
“60 votes” is just the current position of an ever moving goalpost. If they got 60, then it would move to 61.
Just as Democrats ask moderate Republicans to separate themselves from the radical core of the Republican Party, so to should pro Main Street Democrats separate themselves from the Democratic Party of Wall street and Big Business. Not running again is one way to do that.
The current House and Senate are such corporate funded swill pens, that persons of integrity like Ernest Hollings and Byron Dorgan can no longer abide the stench and are self-directed to leave.
That doesn’t really help. What would help is to get nasty and cause trouble and say no every little once and awhile.
That simply is not the way Things are Done in the U.S. House of Lords.
Swill pens?
How about corporate hog farms?
Corporate Hog Farms ?
OK, But we should differentiate … There is a Lower Corporate Hog Farm and an Upper Corporate Hog farm. Or the U.S. Swill Pens to capture them both.
I suppose that means there are multiple levels involved in living “high” or “higher on the hog”……when feeding at the corporate trough.
I was referring to the U.S. House of Reps and the U.S. Senate. Of course, the Ultimate Pigness level would be a political hack becoming a K Street Lobbyist.
From 2010 on Obama will have both the bipartisanship he wants and an excuse in not delivering.
Stunned.
Looks like Ed Schultz was as stunned as yourself.
Obama and Rahm must be giving each other high fives.
Don’t know if they are. They will lose this seat. That will make it harder to get anything done. I think Dorgan called their bluff.
I’d like to see the House Prog Caucus threaten to resign, too . . . and a few more Dem Senators.
Blowback? Not much . . . . ;-)
I would rather see them threaten not to vote for bills that offend the sensibilities of liberals.
On the contrary, Obama just lost a Senate seat to the GOP and a solid Senator. He may well be really annoyed with Rahm. They really shafted Dorgan on drug re-importation and handled it very badly. Regardless of Dorgans statement, he is probably fed up with the betrayal from his own Party and the unprincipaled sellouts in his midst.
Obama don’t CARE! See my #66.
He’s getting all he wants. He don’t CARE about re-election, it would appear. That’s pretty fucking clear, also, doncha think?
Once you bankrupt the country, “drown it in a bathtub” as it were – it would be rather difficult to describe the elimination of all entitlements affecting the least powerful most acutely, and privatizing everything in sight to raise money to pay for a Security State, as running the country.
.
Huh? What does that mean?
Too nice a guy to stay. Purely speculation, but I lay this directly at the feet of ObamaRahma. Dorgan clearly says he still has the passion. It is obvious he cannot pursue it with this administration. Maybe as you say it will get Obama’s attention..
Ditto that.
Maybe he will prove to be a person the progressives can rally around?
Ouch
Dorgan is one of the good guys and I hate to see him go. I imagine a reason that he didn’t mention is utter disgust. How can someone with integrity get anything done with the bunch of bought-and-paid-for people in the Congress.
Yep. IMO, he simply got tired of swimming in the cesspool.
which is all the more reason for the Republicans, who are desperate for bipartisanship,
to move ahead on immigration reform, climate change, DADT/DOMA, judicial appointments … /s
The U.S. Senate is an utter disgrace. The only answer is to abolish this den of thieves.
Better that it be liberated by the people. Kind of like how the Duma was liberated.
such nice words coming from a man who obviously disagrees with the current administration. maybe he should grow a pair and tell it like it is.
Oh my gosh this is horrible news.
I was lucky enough to have a conversation shortly after EMK’s death with Senator Dorgan as we both waited to board a plane. I had high hopes that he would carry the torch Teddy laid down. I am very sad he is retiring, although after the way his work was treated by the Democratic party during the reimportation battle, I am not at all surprised.
What will we ever do without him?
A cliche about chickens coming home to roost comes to mind.
Dorgan 2012
Man is THAT a thought . . . good one.
Excellent….
23 & 33,
that type of talk ignores the reality of the state of affairs of which Dorgan has nonetheless been dutifully a part of.
I think I will stick around this thread after all.
No Woman No Cry.
The PhRMA deal claims its first casualty.
I don’t think it will be the last.
Duly noted.
Political blowback.
Good for Dorgan for calling bullshit.
You got that right.
Perhaps this old son of North Dakota couldn’t stomach what the internalized ghosts of the NPL were telling him in his conscience. Rather than go on as a pawn, Dorgan scratched the game.
For those that don’t know what the NPL was, here’s a book … Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan Leauge
Thanks, John, I’d never heard of them in all my reading and not even in any studies in colleges . . . woulda thought a political entity like that would have been in my poli sci and com studies courses SOMEwhere . . .
It’s sort of an oxymoron these days; a populist (some would say socialist) movement started by anti corporate farmers
“the last year of governing” this is governing? bull… Please, this 60-vote handcuff thing is extremely weak. If Dems had backbone, we would find a way around this. But, I guess it’s all the excuse BO needs.
Huff Post says Rahm considering a run for Chicago mayor…..YES ! Go!
…and please, take Larry Summers and Robert Rubin with yah!
Don’t know anything about the author of this column which I just ran across, but thought you might enjoy the humor.
We had so few to begin with, and now we’re down by one.
Good man. I do so hope he’ll find a more comfortable and effective position of national leadership. He simply must.
I am going to agree with Jane. Jane will faint. In a broader sense someone who has a real populist record like Dorgan deciding to retire is much more significant than Parker Griffith who had the skeleton of a record deciding to switch parties.
Since we get republican bills anyway why does it matter?
“Since we get
republicancorporate bills anyway why does it matter?”Just a suggested edit option? ;-)
“I would also like to work on energy policy in the private sector”~Dorgan
Now I find that a somewhat tantalizing statement of possibilities…
Well, if you are interested go noodle around the Financial Times or Economist websites and put in ‘green energy’. But give yourself some time, could take awhile ;-))
Hmmm. What was it Rahm said? “There are no liberals left to get”?
I wonder if this is what he had in mind?
Yeah, the left is staying home this election cycle thanks to Rahm. Rahm’s hoping that the teabaggers will cross over in 2010.
Isn’t this actually to a certain extent good news? I don’t think it will fly for this administration to say they can’t get anything done even though they hold a majority – Bush didn’t have a sixty-seat majority and look at all that he accomplished. So this actually means – HA! – that whatever else is done can’t be watered down with the excuse that you’ve got to please Lieberman. In fact, one could posit a scenario where certain people have a little conversation with Lieberman and tell him that if he doesn’t drop his objection to some sort of Medicare expansion or public option on the next go-round, he won’t be chairing anything after November of this year.
Even better would be to assure Lieberman that a 59-vote majority won’t mean he loses any prestige or standing so please keep voting for cloture for our side . . . and then dump him immediately after the election. I’d love to hear him yammering on about people who can’t be trusted to keep their word; I think a lot of news folks would love to publicly kick him when he’s down.
Without Dorgan, Dems go from 60 votes for cloture to 59 without next year (plus all the other guaranteed losses to come). But sure, let’s kill the health care bill now and wait until after the midterms, when we have a non-governing majority, or maybe even a minority, that can’t pass squat.
Right! Kill this honorific Fascistic piece of crap ( the healthcare giveaway) now or forget about it later. The Gopers are nothing more then Big Corp. central and there apparently plenty of the same on the Dem. side. I doubt Obama would really even care. He’d have just what he wants Corp. party bi-partisanship.
Anyone who brings Fascism into a discussion about the health care legislation has already ended the conversation. There is no getting through there.
If we can’t get a real bill now, what makes you think we’ll get one later? And remember, the 60-vote threshold isn’t necessary — reconciliation (which is 50 senators plus Biden in the worst scenario) will preserve the public option and the Medicare expansion, which are the best parts of the House and Senate bills anyway.
Reconciliation would say goodbye to the ban on pre-existing conditions. Reconciliation would require the parliamentarian’s decision on every single piece of the bill. There is zero guarantee we would win all or any of them.
There is also less guarantee that 50 senators would back every provision that passed the parliamentarian. Lieberman, Nelson, Lincoln, and Landrieu have been the loud naysayers, but what about the moderate Dems who have been keeping quiet to leave the blame to the aforementioned?
Reconciliation moves us even closer to the midterms, guaranteeing likely defections from moderates like Bill Nelson of Florida, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jim Webb, Jon Tester, and even potential progressive losses like Feingold and Sanders. These are on top of the now guaranteed losses of Lieberman, Landrieu, Lincoln, and Ben Nelson. Is that really the gamble you want to take?
Dragging this out makes it more likely, frankly, that Robert Byrd will not make it to the final vote. It guarantees that the bill will become even more unpopular than it already is. It has to pass NOW, not later. And then we can regroup for the next battle.
The cold hard fact is this is the best chance we are going to have for many, many years. We are going to lose several Senate seats next year, and many more House seats. Contrary to wishful thinking, that will make it much harder, not easier, to pass quality healthcare legislation.
The American people need to see that the Democrats are capable of governing, capable of passing major healthcare legislation like this, even if it is highly flawed in many respects. If we come to them empty-handed, they are not going to thank us for failing to pass an imperfect bill. They are going to hand us our asses on a paper plate, and we are going to deserve it.
When many people “see that the Democrats are capable of passing major healthcare legislation like this”, they are going to puke and either not vote or vote against the Democrats who passed it. Some of those people are going to be Democrats. You give a somewhat slanted depiction of the reconcilliation process. It could be that way, but does not have to be if the Leadership plays hardball with the Parliamentarian, just as many times has been done in the past. It would only be the way you describe if the most craptastic, limp and ineffectual leadership imaginable, coupled with feckless tanking by the White House, were employed. However, you are undoubtedly correct that should be expected.
This “play hardball with the Parliamentarian” strategy sounds awfully vague. What specifically should we do to get them on our side for EACH AND EVERY CRUCIAL VOTE?
And that sums up my entire point! Why would you trust Harry Reid to run the landmine field of reconciliation successfully, when he can’t even get the public option through with 60 senators?!
You tell them what they need to do in order to stay Parliamentarian; if they do not agree, you remove them and install a more copacetic Parliamentarian. That’s what.
I am all for those kinds of hardball tactics. I do think comparisons would be immediately made to Richard Nixon, ala Saturday Night Massacre. But success would be worth it. However, that is just one of many hurdles with reconciliation. Do we really want everything passed expiring in 5 years?
It is exactly what the Republicans did in 2001 in order to pass their massive tax cuts. You might want to take a look at this.
Dorgan’s leaving, that is sad. Hope he has a wonderful ‘second act’.
Truthfully, David, I’m getting way bored at the kneejerk Cassandra-ish handwringing from my fellow progressive leftie DFH’s every time there’s an apparent extra challenge added to our problem list. Sure, I get that these days we have to look harder and harder for inspiration and confidence (I’m avoiding using the newly banned word ‘hope’), but we have to keep our heads up and keep reloading, looking for new and better ways of helping the progressive agenda become enacted and take this country forward toward reunion with its humane values and policies.
Worried crybaby WATB blogging, and commenting simply sucks life and energy out of our movement, which still has real contributions to make if we only keep working hard and pressing on, no matter what setbacks (imaginary or real) we face and no matter how grudgingly crazy the opposition.
But on the other hand, critical scold commenting is very helpful!!
Oh, and who is “David”?
What do ya mean, “who’s David?”
*g*
Actually, that’s the same thing that distracted me when I read that.
It’s a true shame about Dorgan. The party didn’t deserve him, but it’s hard for his constituents.
Please put a drape over that before holding press conferences on your torture program, ‘kay?
On the summary at the mothership they added an excerpt from D-Days post ;-)
AHHH! Got it.
Yeah, Col. Travis told his men that at The Alamo, too . . . only they DIED for their convictions, and as we know the story as told, supposedly died WILLINGLY for their convictions.
I admire your ability to be positive and look for, um, things to do to further the fight.
Considering the american masses are surrounded and being mowed down into clippings I sure do admire your pluck and verve.
Everybody is.
This is just plain heartbreaking for a lifelong North Dakota Democrat.
Don’t know yet who will emerge on the Dem side, but doubtless now that he wouldn’t have to run against the formidable Dorgan, the opportunistic Governor WhoooooVen????? will soon announce.
Going back to puking now.
Sorry, Prairie. This is a real loss.
So sad. For all of us, but particularly for ND Democrats.
The Drug re-importation betrayal by Obama and the party was to much for this principled man. Theres no place in the cesspool of the Senate for such a man. How Bernie Sanders can stand it is beyond me?
Interesting. I’d just explained yesterday that the Senate was going to go Republican and the 2011-2012 term was going to be hung.
Not a gawddamned thing will happen, no legislation will pass.
Of course the rebuttal is that Republicans would surely not put themselves in a position where they would be labeled as obstructionist through the 2012 presidential election cycle, that they’d paint their way out of this.
Nope. This is their idea of conservatism: stop progress, prevent any forward movement on legislation which might be liberal. That would be considered a win. And with the loss of Dorgan along with seats which will surely go down in defeat, we are going to have a Republican do-nothing Senate designed to stop anything Obama might want to do.
This is the beginning of the end of the Obama administration right here. And maybe that’s what he wants, just to make it through his first and only term.
Thanks a bunch, Rahm. It’s been soooo fun. Now get lost.
You just described the perfectly executed plan of the bipartisan Third Way faction of this farce of a congress.
They win, we loose.
The uprising/revolt will be a chaotic, spontaneous event.
I did actually use the word “revolution” in the same discussion about the change in the Senate majority.
I don’t see how this is going to change without serious action by the citizenry. The average Joe is going to have to become immersed and engaged.
And/or vote 3rd party.
And which third party in this country has a critical mass of support essential to winning?
Been there, asked this question. The problem is that it takes decades to make the change happen, far longer than expected, and even longer than most Americans have the patience for.
Rayne, I admire your political instincts, but this…
…is completely wrong.
I realize we have a 2 party system that exists in the popular imagination as two monolithic homogeneous entities of political thought, but they are not. Each party is a coalition and it is the shifting of both coalitions that determine each electoral outcome.
We. do. not. need. a. third. party. to. win. It is sufficient for a third party to syphon off enough votes to produce a loss. Then the majority party in question will have no choice by to gravitate toward the disaffected part of their coalition and to deliver enough of what they want to keep them in the fold.
The abject failure of progressives in Congress and progressive voters is due to their failure to comprehend how to move the margins in the party coalitions. It is not done by capitulating on policy goals and delivering unwavering support no matter what. It is done by obstruction and a willingness to permit failure in the short-term to achieve a long-term goal.
I will have the opportunity to vote in 2 weeks. I am very much looking forward to voting for the 3rd party candidate to make it abundantly clear that I will no longer support either of the major parties as they currently conduct themselves. Unfortunately, as I understand it from the latest poll only 1% of us will vote 3rd party (pretty much the same as in every election here). For all those talking about how the public has to rise up and whatnot, until we break out of our self-imposed crippling mindset of binary politics, there will be no change in either party.
Interesting point.
I’m voting for Coakley.
In my opinion, your vote is a “protest vote”…
In reality, won’t it help Brown?
How would you view my vote?
Hiya BSL — I hope you saw the apology I left you on another thread before New Years, I’ve been feeling bad about needlessly offending you, so I hope you saw it, but if not, I apologize again : )
I don’t blame you or anyone for voting for Coakley. We all have to vote our conscience and do what we think is best. Yes, my vote has the potential to help Brown, but given the tiny percentage reflected in the poll, me and my fellow 1%ers will in fact have no influence at all.
For the moment though, lets assume a different world, one where disaffected Republicans and Democrats of all stripes chose to support 3rd party candidates to send a message to their respective parties. That could easily determine the outcome of the election and then both parties would be motivated to bring their disaffected brethren back into the fold.
Since we are in MA, we can neglect the influence of disaffected Republicans throwing the election to the Dem, so lets just think about a scenario where Coakley (who should win in a landslide given the demographics) loses to Brown (again, we are assumming third parties only shift the balance of power, they do not have the support to win outright). What does this mean over the next 6 years?
Well, the Dems will have 59 seats and poof! There goes the magic number of 60. Harry’s and Barry’s 60-vote playbook has to get tossed right out the window, because now they don’t have the votes. That means they have to resort to reconciliation, which would arguably be more likely to produce more progressive results. And they have to play hardball with Republicans if they hope to pass anything at all. That might actually be a good thing for Dems, it will force them to change their sniveling habits.
Will Brown have the power to really do much harm as a freshman Republican from liberal MA? Doubtful. Like Romney, he will be eschewed by the tea set and as a freshman will not be of much interest to the leadership.
Meanwhile, consider what Kerry and Kirk have done for us. Both voted against the Dorgan reimportation amendment at the behest of the WH. DLC, party faithful to the core, even though Kerry’s office still had the nerve to tell me that he supports drug reimportation after the Dorgan vote. In other words, our Dem Senators are not to be trusted.
I had been planning to vote for Coakley in the primary based mainly in response to her swift repudiation of the Stupak amendment. Capuano, true to form, came late to the realization that voting for Stupak was politically disastrous for him. Plus, he showed his true colors over the summer when he kept weaseling over the public option. But the day before the election, Coakley had Bill Clinton making robocalls for her and that was it. Triangulating Bill is the heart and soul of the DLC and that told me that Coakley represents the corporate wing of the party just as Kerry and Kirk do.
So now here I am. There is no progressive to support. I will make my lonely protest vote. And I will hope to be more persuasive over time with those whose votes are captive. But fwiw, most people view politics as you do, so I expect to be camped out here in the wilderness for a long time to come ; )
Gotta love your passion and enthusiasm…
So glad your voice is heard in the political debate.
It sure beats the dismal science (economics), although with the meltdown,
economics is far from dismal.
Your points are well taken.
Earlier in my life, I did vote for a third party candidate. Later, I had
“wasted vote” regrets.
Agree with your assessment of Capuano… that’s why Coakley is a refreshing alternative…
Thanks for the apologies… none is really needed … your heart is in the right place.
And, we can both agree that the Patsies will tip-toe through the playoffs, and take the Super Bowl?
Only if my Packers aren’t there to take the Lombardi Trophy back home where it belongs ; )
Thanks for being gracious about my excessively sharp-tongue : )
Go Pats and GO PACKERS! Enjoy the play-offs BSL, see you on the trash talk…
They’ll become engaged when they are standing in soup lines, their children are in rags on the street and their wives are turning tricks for teabaggers.
“Revolutions are fought by those whose ribs are easily counted.”
Now, what are those obesity stats,again for the US?
If revolution is what you have in mind then what steps will actually get you where you want to be?
I say we:
-send a petition to Congress declaring the public’s intention of non-compliance with mandates and take legal measures to prevent it’s passage.
– place on state ballots in ’10 propositions facilitating recall provisions of all elected officials for cause
– buying of prescription drugs from abroad in large numbers
– boycotting large banks and financial institutions by transferring funds to community banks
And other measures to de-fund the institutions that thrive and relay on our funds.
Obama and his admin don’t want to get anything done that isn’t BEING done.
FISA, TARP, HCR, Bank/Fin Reform will fail, too . . . . Obama is getting all he wants, and all the corporate feudalists want. That should be pretty fucking clear by now, ya think? (yes I’m pissed, about losing Dorgan, and all of the sitch)
his stmt says ENERGY, what is in N Dakota for energy, not my focus…
what a big blow for the middle class, as utterly disenfranchised as I am with the Dem, Dorgan was a good guy
seeing McCain and Dorgan work the floor trying to get rx reimportation done and seeing 15 GOP Senators cross over and vote yes for it and then to have the Democrats kill it, after all the years working on it…
well I think he is just done.
It all feels pretty damned crushing at this point, I concur. Hard on a few pols, harder and hardest on the rest of the ‘we the people’ . . . .
In ND, probably wind energy. Maybe solar.
Huge supply of lignight coal and some pretty big oil reserves too.
What is in North Dakota in energy?
Wind farms. They are the next bubble as Matt Taiibi says. Like the dot coms and housing ..but the money will go straight to Wall Street. Enron was into wind energy…Larry Summers as a managing director of D E Shaw Group backs corporations like UPC and many wind farm spin offs.
Here in ME where I live First Wind owns the state govt. No newspaper will print the truth of this most corrupt organization. Larry Summers was supposed to have gotten out of D E Shaw Group..but I wonder. All the illegal stuff going on here could not happen without high up accomplices.It is like Cheney and Halliburton.
If Dorgan goes into wind energy lobbying…it won’t look good for who he is. Didn’t he vote for the bankruptcy bill?
Coal and oil.
Rayne is upstairs!
Michigan: The Road to the Governor’s Office Takes a Sharp Turn
Instead of the Cratic Party, perhaps it should be renamed as the CrashnBurn Party. Self-immolation was not so Western a concept until this Democratic Party made it one. Gobsmacking.
Thank you, Sen. Dorgan, for your service.
this will not be a do nothing congress, they will turn to the right and do so actively.Sorry.
Pure speculation, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Obama/Rahm’s sledgehammer tactics had something to do with this.
Rahm and Obama’s “alienate the base” strategy is working wonders. Even a moderately progressive like Dorgan is feeling alienated. Now they’ve lost a seat (I don’t think the Dems will hold this one). Hope they’re happy. Only 59 more to go, Rahm/Obama.
Like some have said here, I hope this gets Obama’s attention, because he’s had a tin ear to progressive legislation so far.
See my #66 . . . Obama is doing exactly what he and his want to do.
‘Getting their attention’ means nothing to them . . . they are disenfranchising any vestige of corporate opposition politically, legally/legislatively, culturally and socially. They are in full support of the corporate structure and are breaking the backs of any resistance to corporate feudalism.
The fact that Dorgan had to specifically mention his dissatisfaction with the Senate as NOT being a reason he was retiring, makes it all the more plain that it had very much to do with it. Thanks for that Rahm & Obama!
Of course Dorgan said it wasn’t because of HCR, but I am convinced that it is. This is a ringing condemnation of what the Senate has become. Good for Dorgan, in deciding there is more to life than ramming one’s head against an ornate marble wall.
He didn’t say anything specifically about health care–just about the Senate more generally.
Me, I hope people like Carl Levin and Sheldon Whitehouse, who support reimportation but voted against because they, unlike Bad Nelson, buy party discipline, think very seriously about why Dorgan is retiring.
I’m sorry to see Dorgan decide to leave the Senate. But as I have mentioned before, as painful as it is to see busloads of American seniors coming to Canada to fill their prescriptions (particularly from hard-hit border states like Michigan and upstate NY), importation of Canadian prescription drugs is not a solution to high drug costs, and may have bad repercussions for Canada. Prescription drug prices in Canada are lower than in the US for two reasons: one, Canada regulates the price of patented prescription drugs through the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board (PMPRB),which creates a ceiling price in Canada. Two, single payer provincial health plans use their market clout to negotiate prices with drug manufacturers. The PMRB price controls are only on drugs that still have patent protection – the price of generic drugs, by contrast, can be higher in Canada than in the US for certain drugs.
If large imports of Canadian prescription drugs to the US are allowed, the price in the US may fall on certain drugs, but the rational response of the drug companies will be to resist the price demands of the provinces, or threaten to limit or not to supply certain drugs at all in Canada. I am not suggesting that we should beggar our neighbours at all in the case of drugs – just that the refusal of Congress to regulate drug prices or use Medicare’s buying power in Part D should not be the reason to look to Canada as a safety valve when we have made better public policy choices, and the result may impact very badly on Canadian patients who need affordable prescription drugs too – drug coverage in Canada is generally subsidized only for seniors or private health plans.
Your arguments against allowing Americans to buy patented drugs at the lower price aforded in Canada make absolutely no sense.
If more Americans buy patented drugs from Canada everyone benefits except American drug makers. If Canadians rceive a subsidy to pay the Canadian drug price good for them, but Americans are not recepients of that subsidy and for them it is still a bargain to buy their drugs from Canada.
If American drug makers don’t like losing customers to Canada that’s tough shit. They can either compete with subsidized Canadian prices or go out of business or bring their prices in line with Canada.
“If American drug makers don’t like losing customers to Canada that’s tough shit. They can either compete with subsidized Canadian prices or go out of business or bring their prices in line with Canada.”
Perhaps I was not clear enough on how it works in Canada. First of all, Canadians do not receive a “subsidy” to buy drugs – the regulated price is based on a basket of drug prices from other industrialized countries, and additional savings are achieved through negotiation. Second, there is not a separate Canadian drug industry (anymore) – the major drug companies are international conglomerates, based largely in Europe and the US, and I believe that they certainly would cut back the supply of drugs to Canada or stonewall or play hardball with our provincial health plans if they perceived a threat to the US price structure – Canada being less than 10% of the population of the US and an even smaller amount of their profits and business.
What you seem to be suggesting is that drug makers in the US and Europe would engage in collusion to fix artificially high drug prices solely for the purpose maximizing profits, which is prohibited by WTO rules and also by anti-trust laws, I believe.
Otherwise drug makers would have a free hand to set higher prices for patended in Canada just because they lost market share from the US. I do not beleive that sort of price manipulation is allowed under current relevant law.
I fail to see any nobility in Dorgan’s decision to step down at this juncture. It is a betrayal on his part to cede further control of the Congress to the irresposility of Republicans.
Giving up the fight in the thick of battle when every advocate for the public’s interest is needed is to knowingly harm the very public he claims he wants to serve. Making the prospect for better legislation that much harder is not the action of a man with any sense of loyalty to the public.
Faint hearted and ineffective advocates for the public good abound and we certainly don’t need any more to be wilting at this time. We already know that Obama’s presidency is on a path to abject failure, we do not need Dorgan’s help in facilitating the pace of that failure.
I think you may speak too soon. He mentions writing books. Isn’t that how a lot of people who become leaders of movements begin?
We progressives right now are carrying on the conversation as to whether it is best to work within the Democratic Party or to separate ourselves. Let’s just see what evolves.
I am less inclined to see the praiseworthiness or advantage of leaving a position of Senator which allows one to make an immediate impact for the better in favor of one where your influence is tenuous at best, such as teaching and writing. Take a Kennedy for instance whose motivation and perseverence was relentless and look at what he accomplished through good times and bad.
The measure of a man is his willingness to persevere when things are tough. And things right now are very tough. This is not the time to quit.
The country is being beseiged by big business in collusion with government and he is in a position to stem the tide to some extent. Abdicating that role now is unconstionable.
The measure of a man is the use his mind not his testicles to decide when a cause is hopeless. :-). I am not going to judge him negatively until I know more of the situation.
It is likely we are both more right than wrong.
You make a strong case for one side of the argument.
The other side is that change must come from outside the ObamaRahma administration, especially for a Senator who was humiliated by the administration, a sure sign what power he has will be diminshed. Lieberman and Nelson have power because the administration wants it that way.
.
When you are out gunned and out numbered and the people that are fighting you are the leaders of your party then your really only have your strategic position to negotiate with. If he did that, which we will never know for sure, and they told him to “make their day” then he would have been obliged to follow through. Might not have happened that way. Maybe it did. In any event there are always reasons for doing things that may lead to better outcomes that rubber stamping current policies.
If he doesn’t think he’s going to be useful after the end of his term (given the mindset of the alleged leadership, that wouldn’t really surprise me), then it’s his right to not run.
If you don’t like that, then you can run for that seat.
Damn straight. Dorgan worked very hard for drug reimportation, had a 60-seat senate and the Dem. WH to do it with, and they jacked him over anyway. Ultimately, parties are only worthwhile if they allow members to achieve desired outcomes. Otherwise, they simply become money-laundering operations.
Beleive me there is nothing greater that I could wish for than to assume to a seat in the Senate with all the power that provides. That’s not the issue.
The issue is what greater public purpose is achieved by Dorgan’s withdrawal from the Senate. The answer is none.
So for him to claim that in quitting he is still serving the public is false and his action is achieving the opposite. That he is quitting out of disenchantment with the Senate does not harm the public any less.
Has he done any of the preliminary work for the election? Signatures on petitions, any of that sort of thing “in the bank?”
It would be great if he is playing hard ball with this statement, but I suppose there is no hope that he will get something like drug re-importation so that he will stay?
Obama will get nothing more than what he can get between now and November, WRT “change.”
This is very sad news.
Obama will work more effectively with Dorgans Republican replacement. It’s the 3rd Way don’t you know?
In a slightly more perfect world the choice to not run for reelection would have been a Senator to the west. Baucus being far and away my first choice. As for Jon Tester, well, I’d just settle for him giving me my campaign contributions back.
Certainly the timing of the announcement seems to suggest that the insurance reform fight had something to do with his decision. The quote sounds like he feels that he has no chance to accomplish anything that he might be proud of within the current senate. The drug reimportation from Canada would have been win for him and for the people he was elected to represent.
The politicians and lobbyists who want people they can control will certainly rejoice when Dorgan is gone. The rest of us are the probably the losers. If this is about the majority of the Democrats letting him know that he should sit down, shut up and follow orders then this may not be the last change.
David Dayen is upstairs!
House Leadership Speaks On Health Care Negotiations
Waytogo Marcy over at Commondreams!
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/05-9
Goodbye, Democratic majority. Allow me to congratulate Rahm Emanuel.
True. But he did say he experienced dissatisfaction, and that said dissatisfaction wasn’t why he was quitting. I think the dissatisfaction was drug reimportation. Anyway, it’s a damn shame.
Why do some people always expect the worst? Dorgan was one of the good guys, and will be missed by moderates and progressives alike.
That’s the problem with politics. You always lose the good ones first; they don’t have the stomach for the nastiness and how low you have to stoop to survive, even if they’ve lasted quite a few years already. Anybody know what his polls looked like yet, or for sure whether he had a viable candidate to run against him or was his a so called “safe” seat (until now, of course. I understand there is some chance the current governor may run for his empty seat.)?
in terms of directed invective
I’m pretty good
And happy to apply my skills,
Especially against rahm emanuel whose family background I consider problematic for a presidential chief of staff.
BUT
The invective directed toward emanuel these last
Severl months he been misdirected.
Need I remind all
That
Emanuel serves, contingently,
At the request of prez Barack Obama.
Todayslies @120 and above
I am I informed by your comments.
They ring true to my ear.
Sorry, Emptywheel but I’m not buying the story about Dorgan being a progressive.
If he really had believed (and believed forcefully) in drug reimportation, why didn’t he hold out and get it (especially since Obama himself campaigned for it too)? Lieberman held out and got what he wanted. Nelson held out and gained a lot for his state. Even Bernie Sanders gamed the system.
Dorgan probably was a nice guy, but a fighter for progressive causes? Not so much.
Remember the anonymous “With Dorgan, it’s always about him” slander (or words to that effect) from some Democratic Senate/White House staffer-hack in the midst of the drug reimportation stalemate, as reported, I think, by Ryan Grim @ HuffingtonPost?
For those who may have missed how the (Democratic) sabotage of Dorgan’s drug reimportation amendment went down in the Senate last month, in this Seminal diary I collected (continuing into the comments) a fair amount of what little public evidence there was of the backroom plotting. [Robert Menendez of New Jersey, for one, Chairman of the DSCC, at least made no secret of his ferocious, though very disingenuous, opposition to the Dorgan amendment.]
Byron Dorgan is one of the few true workhorses of the Senate floor on the “Democratic side of the aisle.” Dorgan can go toe to toe with Jeff Sessions, for example, in the speechifying department, and Dorgan’s commentary is generally very informative, heartfelt, thorough and clear. I will miss Dorgan’s presentations, and his obvious drive to make things better for the average American. Even though – absolutely contrary to the anonymous smear I mentioned – that drive generally seemed to stop just short of seriously rocking the Party boat.
I think the best gift Senator Dorgan could give his state and his nation, in his remaining year as a United States Senator, would be to buck the top-down Party dictates when they conflict with his principles, in order to give it to us (and his colleagues) straight – as, in a way, I think his sudden resignation just did.
With respect to the O admin’s health insurance bill,
I don’t think I have ever had a stronger sense of congressional instability
Or a stronger sense that this is a bill no one wants.
That is in contrast, for example, to the Clinton admin’s nafta legislation.
The vote there was, if I recall correctly,
Also very close.
But once voted, the issue seemed settled.
My sense is this may not be the case with the insurance de reform bill.
There seem to be very unstable,
Mainly because there is no prez energy
And no prez leadership.
And now Dodd too?
And now DOdd too.
Dorgan and Dodd. That is a lot of good hair lost in one fell swoop.
And how long before Dodd goes to work on Wall Street?
I thought he was all ready doing that
Dorgan, South Dakota, wind sector booming
Sorry North Dakota
Lots of helmet hair – makes me wonder if D. Feinstein is next.
Why? She barely campaigns, and she always wins. I’d sure like to know why you think she won’t run again, if you’d be so kind.
Exactly.
Wow, it appears we have a lot of potential teabaggers here. It sounds like you are starting to get as disgusted with your lobbyist loving legislators as we are with ours.
All aboard the Tea Party Express, departing soon for wherever your disgust
leads you!
All kidding aside, Sen Dorgan’s attempts to bring sanity to the madness will be missed by all, whether they know it or believe it.
ObamaRhama… nice, can I steal that?
By all means. Please do. But ObamaRahma works better
Rahm and Obama FUCKED Dorgan over bigfuckingtime by backing big Pharma over Dorgan’s drug re-importation amendment. He – Dorgan – had been PROMISING North Dakotans of all political stripes that THE first thing done by their senator when the Dems have the Senate and Presidency was to rescind the Bush-era ban on drugs from Canada. It was supposed to be a “slamdunk.” Um, but Rahm Emanuel and that sell-out son-of-a-bitch president we have FUCKED this guy right in the ass. So, Dorgan fucks Obama back by saying: see ya!!!
Good. Obama sucks and deserves it. Phony asshole. I am a Grijalva Democrat who has grown to HATE Obama. All after walking for him in the snows of NH in 2008 and giving him all the extra money me and my bf had at the end of every single week. I will NOT. Repeat: NOT, be duped again.
Bill Ritter, Gov of Colorado, has announced he won’t seek re-election, either.
What if the reality we have to accept is that we cannot pass decent legislation as long as big insurance, big pharma, a corrupt finance industry is in charge. What if this is the truth we must accept in order for us to solve the real problem? It seems to me, this bill would be putting “lipstick on a pig” (so many layers of fun memories in that one). In other words…denial of the reality. We cannot change what we “refuse” to accept. I feel that this bill is “denial” of the truth and that it leads us in a direction that can never give us a solution to the problem.
Example…Here’s an example of what I mean…I think this bill “feeds” and “rewards” corruption. So, let’s say you have a child who is exhibiting emotion regulation problems and throws a fit, whenever this kid does not get what he wants. The problem to some parents is the fit…to other parents the problem is that the child throws a fit when he doesn’t get what he wants. So if the parent, gives the child what he wants whenever he throws a fit, or even more strongly reinforcing, only occasionally when he throws a fit, the child will continue to throw fits whenever the child does not get his way. The short term reactionary parent, will stop the fit by giving in. It solves the short term problem, but will never decrease the behavior. In fact, over time this child’s problem will grow…and when the kabosh is finally put on this kid, the retaliation will be catastrophic to the whole household and maybe have broad implications for society as well. This kid will not learn to regulate himself and will likely use drugs or find some other way to modify the “fits” he feels.
However, if an enlightened parent, sees the truth, sees the big picture, and understands that giving in to the “fit” reinforces the behavior, the enlightened parent can extinguish the behavior by refusing to reward it. The behavior will stop and solutions will be found. The child will learn to regulate his response to being told “no”.
In a larger sense, I cannot get away from the fact that this bill rewards and reinforces “negative behavior” from these insurance companies. It puts absolutely no limit on them. In my opinion, this bill has implications for the long term picture which means that we will not “fix” this problem later. It’s like saying…”he’s throwing a fit in the store…I’ll give him the candy and work on this problem later”. It cannot be done this way. It won’t work this way.
American needed to say NO to the insurance and pharma industry. We needed to make it clear that we would not be controlled by them. This was MORE important than getting a bill passed. (which is the equivalent of giving in to the fit to stop the fit).
The big picture is the one we need to pay attention to…and in my humble opinion we cannot get to a place of limiting the power of these entities by rewarding them with more power. It just doesn’t work…and is not logical.
Dorgan has been polling low against popular three-term Republican governor John Hoeven, said by Ed Schultz to be a snobbing country club Republican.
It might be good to check out what those rural radio stations in North Dakota are broadcasting.
The question is who is he clearing the decks for. Earl Pomeroy? At any rate it puts pressure on Democrats to pick up one more Senate seat if they expect to have a filibuster-proof Senate majority before adding in Sanders and Lieberman. Two likely pickups are OH and NC.
In other news, the Texas Democratic Party failed to field candidates in six Congressional Districts, one of them being held by Republican Louis Goehmert. So we will have to listen to his inanities for another two years.
That simply is not going to happen. The 60 vote caucus, for what little it was worth to start with, is toast after November 2010.
They’re broadcasting exactly the same thing (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck) that’s being broadcasted throughout the rest of the country. Unfortunately a big part of the reason can laid at the feet of Bill Clinton when he signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996
There used to be local content by local DJ’s talking between songs and after the top of the hour news, but that changed with the homogenization of the message through corporate control. The citizens have been brainwashed by the national radio hosts who have vilified Dorgan for voting his conscience as opposed to the corporate agenda.
And the corporate agenda became conflated with patriotism; you’re with McDonald’s or you’re against America; you’re with Target or Walmart or you’re against America; you’re with Ford or Dodge or Chevy or you’re against America;
And the most important message; you’re a Republican or you’re against America. This works especially well because Teddy Roosevelt (Republican) owned a ranch in a small town in the Badlands called Medora before he became president. This is especially ironic because Teddy Roosevelt was probably the most anti corporate of all the presidents, at least in the last hundred years
There used to be a humanity, and even if you agreed to disagree, you remained friends … No more.
There used to be a local DJ on a radio station in Bismarck who had an hour long talk show – after three hours of music – where he would talk about the topic, or topics, of the day. John Hruby was his name. Anyone who called in, got to talk. Nobody got filtered, or put down. Everyone’s opinion mattered. No yelling. No blustering. Everything was food for thought
That evidently ended when Clear Channel bought out the family that owned that station and small network of about 5 others (possibly their tv stations too). Useless trivia: I took guitar and banjo lessons from one of the daughters of the family that used to own the station
I have a very distinct feeling that this is a big reason why Sen. Dorgan isn’t running again
If a you want to do is “vote for a winner” then you go ahead and vote your poll results, Republican or Democrat. If you want good governance, though, you don’t get to indulge yourself in instant gratification of only voting for polling winners.
You have to lose battles to win wars and you have to be someone whose vote must be won. If you won’t set personal standards and you vote for “winners” no matter who they are and what they do, then you deserve what you get. You become the needy, battered wife who would rather be beat up by a bad person who has contempt for her than to be alone. Oh – but wait – um, you can “reform” them even when they have no consequences to their actions, right? Maybenotsomuch.
Late to this thread, but I wanted to point out a nice bit of irony from Dorgan’s statement:
What amuses me (sort of) about this is if Dorgan becomes an energy policy lobbyist he might finally be in a position to actually write some legislation. Funny that one has to retire from the Senate to become a legislator, no? ; )
This kind of round of announcements has never happened like this before. Something is going on.
We know the Admin was involved in at least two (Cherry and Dodd) if not three (Ritter) of these. So that’s not surprising. It may be that Dorgan knew when Dodd was going to announce and pre-empted. Or it may be that, given the travel schedule of Senators, Tuesday is like Monday and therefore teh first day he could announce.
When you screw over your friends they go home
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/5/822250/-Dorgan:When-you-screw-over-your-friends-they-go-home
The BS in this comment has been removed.
Ooops. You lost another one animavert. Don’t mess with the mods; they are my friends. – bmaz
Jane, honey, didn’t you say back in May that Dorgan was evil cause he voted against cramdown and his wife was a lobbyist who lobbied against it and he needed to go.
Why, yes you did.
http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/05/byron-dorgans-wife-lobbied-against-cramdown/
Now you shed tears for the retirement of le grande progressive Byron Dorgan who would railed against just a few months ago. My how things change! Could this be why everyone laughs at you?
I’m sure it’s just an innocent oversight, but if you’ll scroll to the top of the page …
Perhaps you have overlooked the central fact that this post was not written by Jane??
I was responding to her comment agreeing with this;
Dorgan helped to kill a major progressive plan this administration wanted, the cramdown program, and HE’S a victim!?!?
Oh, okay, didn’t see that. Very well then.
I think perhaps nrafter530 was responding to Jane’s comments at 29 and 31.