The Child Caucus

Over at Daily Kos there is a rather robust discussion over Cindy Sheehan's decision to run against Nancy Pelosi, as an independent, if Speaker Pelosi does not move to impeach the President immediately (here, here and here).

Ms. Sheehan can, of course, do what she likes . But what bothers me about her announcement is the "I am taking my ball and going home" mentality of some on the left. I understand that there is great deal of frustration with the way things are going, I feel that too. However, I get the feeling that with these folks, they thought the electoral victories in '06 was going to instantly result in a liberal paradise. Unfortunately, that is just not the case.

I will say that we are certainly better off now, then we were a year ago. Jon Tester is an improvement over Conrad Burns, Jim Webb is an improvement over George Allen, Bob Casey is an improvement over Rick Santorum, etc.

Yet, as we saw yesterday with the Republican obstructionism on Webb's Amendment or the lack of press coverage on its defeat, we still have quite a fight ahead of us. What this means is that if we want to build a political movement which will last well into the future, we need to develop some political maturity.

We need to understand that we can't win every fight, and more importantly, we need to understand why we lost those fights. We need to realize that the changes we made to the party in '06 represented a beginning and not an end. And, lastly, we need to be both patient and vigilant, in regards to our political leaders. The problems brought about by conservatives, are going to take a long time to undo yet we shouldn't let this serve as an excuse for our leaders.