Pirate's Cove

On one hand, the Times is joining the party of this information, ie, that the lefties are pains in the ass not just to Conservatives, but to their own peeps, a little late. On the other, how bad are the Nutters acting to get the NY Times to notice?

The article starts out comparing Barney Frank to Barney the Dinosaur (yikes!), and how much trouble Barney the former is having with liberal gay and lesbian groups. Apparently, Barney is not "gay enough."

Mr. Frank, in an hourlong news conference on Thursday, defended himself and said he would press ahead with the bill knowing that by not including the transgender language he could attract enough votes to get it approved. But he also expressed frustration that the Democrats were hampering themselves.

“There is a tendency in American politics for the people who feel most passionately about an issue, particularly ones that focus on a single issue, to be unrealistic in what a democratic political system can deliver,” Mr. Frank said, “and that can be self-defeating.”

But that is the problem (well, one among numerous) that the liberal base has: they feel. Their is little thought involved. Sure, feelings come in to play with the Conservative base, too, but, we  tend to  let the facts rule over feelings, rather then devoting our causes to mostly feelings and hyperbole. And the liberal base is unrealistic in their demands. Thing is, the rhetoric emanating from the Democrat leaders, including the elected ones, empowers the nutters to make these demands.

“This is a moment of truth for responsible liberals in the Democratic Party,” he added.

Barney made a joke! There is little truth on the left, mostly feelings. Which side contains the largest amount of people who are Truthers?

The times tries to soft pedal the underlying issues, basically that the left wing kook base is livid over the way Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and the majorities they lead are not pushing hard left legislation. And the Times sure won’t mention that the Left is apoplectic that electaDems are not pushing impeachment, and haven’t made retreat and defeat happen yet.

Representative Adam H. Putnam of Florida, chairman of the House Republican Conference, said Democrats were struggling with tensions between the party’s liberal wing, which provided money and support for the 2006 elections, and the views of many freshmen Democrats who won office in moderate or conservative districts.

“The freshmen who actually won seats in districts that had voted for Bush, in conservative-moderate districts, having nothing in common with Code Pink or MoveOn,” Mr. Putnam said, referring to the antiwar groups.

“The base turns on them in every single case,” he added. “So at some point they have to stop falling into the trap of constantly playing to the base and try to solve problems.”

They dug their grave, and now they have to lie in it. If you play with fire, scarecrow, you will get burned. And the left wing kooks have lots of fire, and, seemingly, lots of time when they aren’t actually working a job.

On a separate note, but still part of the same story

But many gay rights groups said they were truly angry and bewildered, especially because the compromise involves a bill unlikely to be signed by Mr. Bush. A coalition of some 280 groups sent Mr. Frank a letter urging him to include gender identity in the bill to be voted on soon. “What we are talking about is stripping out a part of our community for a symbolic vote, which in our opinion does not advance the struggle for civil rights for our people,” said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Why should one group be given more "civil rights" then another? Isn’t that against the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution?