Nathan Newman wrote:
>Kos had more coverage of the fight
>over the bankruptcy bill by far than any comparable mainstream media source
-That's nice, but what was the real-world effect of this? The -bankruptcy bill passed, and with a lot of Democratic votes. Since -you're all about influencing politicians rather than making gestures, -did it change a single vote?
Possibly, the more important result was that Dems who voted for the bankruptcy bill are being marked for primary challenges. At least with that group of Dem activists, Joe Biden was declared the antichrist and not even thinkable as a Presidential contender on the basis of his support for the bill. The agitation on the bill made it a party line litmus test, a way to define that the Dems stand for working class issues.
In the House, there has been a lot of focus on the House members defecting on votes like the bankruptcy bill and CAFTA, with lists like the "Faithless 15" sprouting up. See http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=10306
And now, partly because of the high profile given the issue, a lot of progressive Dems are demanding that the victims of Katrina be released from the bad provisions of the bankruptcy bill. The issue is how to build from one vote to the next battle to use tools of opposition to build a case for the next election.
Nathan Newman