Carol Shea-Porter for Congress

- notes for The Fighting Dems on a Daily Kos blog - 10/29/06

Wes Clark and Carol Shea-Porter: A New Direction for the Democrats

We seem to be at the end of things when habeas corpus, a pillar of democratic government, can be swept away overnight almost without discussion in Congress. And we have been hearing these same radicals in Congress and in the Oval Office these last weeks endorsing strategies of torture which have never been even vaguely considered in sound and moral government, and tragically, some of these barbaric and unconstitutional tribal practices have been echoed by leading Democrats.

The Democratic Party is going through a period of change. But it is also a day of awakening. There is new energy and a new climate of discussion, a new willfulness and a new sense of urgency; a new sense of duty. It is a new wind which I didn't feel in 2003. But I got a glimpse of it when General Wesley Clark and Carol Shea-Porter faced reporters after political speeches at the American Legion Hall in Manchester , New Hampshire , two weeks back.

"We know what the Geneva Convention means," said Shea-Porter. "We know what is right. We don't need this discussion."

Carol is a military wife and teacher running for Congress. She and General Clark spoke with one voice about the crisis our country faces.

General Clark's determination, willfulness and drive might have been too rich for the mainstream in 2003 because the mainstream was not yet ready to face the crisis and its challenges. But now it is ready to accept the crisis and ready to address the challenges. General Clark is now becoming the representative figure of the Democrats. His authority is felt to be authentic and is intuitively trusted. He has risen through a waning force; Joe Lieberman's chicanery and Bush appeasement, and a positive charge ?Tammy Duckworth's sincerity and passion and Jim Webb's intelligence, integrity and assertive sense of duty.

I see this same force awakening here in New Hampshire with Carol Shea-Porter as well. Most all present at the Legion Hall were former soldiers and military spouses, and Carol talked to us straight and as one of us, as Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neil, Mary McGrory and Jack Kennedy once did, and with a clarity and determination that the Legion Hall hadn't heard in many years.

This is becoming the new condition of the Democrats and it will become the new forum. Appeasement and denial are falling off like scales and Democrats are rising through the maelstrom. Wes Clark, Eric Massa, Jim Webb, Tammy Duckworth and Carol Shea-Porter are leading the charge for the Fighting Dems to a new century. They are bringing a new direction to our country and a new sense of duty to the Democratic.