Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don�t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex education and contraception, fine, but don�t jack with stuff that is pure rightwing firewater.

I can�t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can�t even see straight.

Look at their reaction to this Abramoff scandal. They�re talking about �a lobby reform package.� We don�t need a lobby reform package, you dimwits, we need full public financing of campaigns, and every single one of you who spends half your time whoring after special interest contributions knows it. The Abramoff scandal is a once in a lifetime gift�a perfect lesson on what�s wrong with the system being laid out for people to see. Run with it, don�t mess around with little patches, and fix the system.

As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to run on thirty-nine of them. Here are three they should stick to:

1) Iraq is making terrorism worse; it�s a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.

2) Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.

3) Single-payer health insurance.

Every Democrat I talk to is appalled at the sheer gutlessness and spinelessness of the Democratic performance. The party is still cringing at the thought of being called, ooh-ooh, �unpatriotic� by a bunch of rightwingers.

Take �unpatriotic� and shove it. How dare they do this to our country? �Unpatriotic�? These people have ruined the American military! Not to mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world. Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs and hurricane relief.

This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.

Who are these idiots talking about Warner of Virginia? Being anodyne is not sufficient qualification for being President. And if there�s nobody in Washington and we can�t find a Democratic governor, let�s run Bill Moyers, or Oprah, or some university president with ethics and charisma.

What happens now is not up to the has-beens in Washington who run this party. It is up to us. So let�s get off our butts and start building a progressive movement that can block the nomination of Hillary Clinton or any other candidate who supposedly has �all the money sewed up.�

I am tired of having the party nomination decided before the first primary vote is cast, tired of having the party beholden to the same old Establishment money.

We can raise our own money on the Internet, and we know it. Howard Dean raised $42 million, largely on the web, with a late start when he was running for President, and that ain�t chicken feed. If we double it, it gives us the lock on the nomination. So let�s go find a good candidate early and organize the shit out of our side.

Molly Ivins writes in this space every month. Her latest book is �Who Let the Dogs In?�

http://progressive.org/mag_ivins0306