Calling Ralph Nadar -
Last year, much heavy weather was made of Nadar's "betrayal" of the progressive cause by running against the oleaginous Al Gore, Among the organizations that berated Nadar's lese majeste was the Sierra Club. Well, Sierra Club, what do you think of your big dumb dead Dems now? According to a nice piece in the Times today, Bush's energy bill, routinely denounced by Dem bigshots when it was wheeled out, was quietly voted for by Dem bigshots when it was on the floor. Roll of Shame in a minute. First, two quotes from the NYT article:

"One decisive factor appeared to be support for drilling and opposition to substantially higher fuel efficiency standards among Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Representatives Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Edolphus Towns of New York, Earl F. Hilliard of Alabama and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina were among Mr. Bush's supporters on both measures. Each refused to comment."

Why would they refuse to comment? Perhaps because they were selling their constituents down the river? Unfortunately, they could do this because they know their constituents don't know it. The ranks of the enviro and consumer movements are lilly white, and this is beginning to tell in the kind of pull these groups can exert. It doesn't have to be this way. God knows, the most egregious environmental crimes wrought against human beings in this country by the oil companies and the highway lobby are aimed against black and hispanic neighborhoods - for example Cancer Gulch, the extraordinary concentration of refiners and petro-chemical factories south of Baton Rouge in Louisiana - which I presume Bennie Thompson knows about.

"Environmentalists were also stung by the opposition of several senior Democrats. In addition to Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Bonior, Representatives James L. Oberstar of Minnesota, the ranking Democrat on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; Paul E. Kanjorski of Pennsylvania, the minority whip at large; and Martin Frost of Texas, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, all voted in accordance with the president on at least one of the two major energy amendments."

That's right, kiddies - the Dem minority leader in the House and the Whip voted for Royal George's Flush as in, flush the environment down the toilet. There will be a progressive movement in this country - I'm sure of it - AS SOON AS WE DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH THE HEART OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!

And while we are at it about the progressive coalition - guess who did the watercarrying for the Auto companies about blocking raising the CAFE standards - that is, blocking raising that requirement for fuel efficiency in cars, which - attention to those of you enamored of Bill and Al's excellent adventure in the White House - hasn't been raised since the Gipper's funfilled decade? The UAW, that's who. On this issue, Unions in this country are still adhering to the Peronista standard - the only thing that counts is money, the corporations have the money, let's play with the corporations. Well, they've been beaten by the corporations every time they take this stance. It doesn't seem to matter, however - the George Meany learning curve seems set in concrete up there in Detroit. Plus, the threat to cut jobs - always the standard tropism of the Big Three whenever they are poked about, oh, getting rid of lead in gas, or making cars that don't explode like balloons filled with gasoline - seems to galvanize unions like the volts zipping through Frankenstein's monster. But this is an instance which might cost them - after all, they need the environmentalists to block trade deals (giveaways like NAFTA).
I'd like to give you a hall of shame - the names of the 36 Dems who voted for the bill - but you have to parse out the individual Dems at the Roll Call supplied by Yahoo.