This is what the Democratic Party does; it's who they are. They're willing to feign support for anything their voters want just as long as there's no chance that they can pass it.

We're going to have to get off the couch. And directly confront the three branches of our government. Obama's White House. The Democrat-controlled Congress. And the for-profit health insurance corporations.

Officials tasked with helping push the Employee Free Choice Act through Congress are growing concerned about the possible defection of Senate Democrats in a debate that is bound to be heated and close.

House Democrats killed a resolution Wednesday that would have called for an ethics committee inquiry into the relationship between campaign contributions and earmarks.

One gets the feel on Capitol Hill among some fairly sharp people of a lack of horizon, a paucity of progressive determination, a sense of being overwhelmed by the corporate forces still bearing down on Congress—easily the most powerful branch of government under our Constitution.

But Burris' record as state attorney general contradicts this squeaky clean image. It shows Burris to be more like a stereotypical Illinois politician: He steered state business to friends, gave state jobs to family and later, as a private lobbyist, benefited from his political ties.

On its Web site, the association pledges corporate interests will get "special opportunities to interact with governors and their key staff." The group's Corporate Affiliates Program gives donors varying amounts of access to the governors depending on how much they pay.

Ignoring the pleas of those calling for a more credible figure, Senate Democrats have instead chosen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to lead the Senate Committee on Intelligence. Feinstein was among those who falsely claimed in 2002 — despite the lack of any apparent credible evidence - that Saddam Hussein had somehow reconstituted Iraq's arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, as well as its nuclear weapons program.

'Democrats seem to lack a common man who can just win a good, old-fashioned election," said Rep. Tom Reynolds. "They've got seat-warmers, seat-sellers and the making of pillows for the seats of royalty. No wonder the public wonders what's going on in Washington."

World-famous linguist, media critic and foreign policy analyst Noam Chomsky compares Obama's rhetoric with his actions so far.

The House Intelligence Committee's top Democrat said Tuesday he has recommended that President-elect Barack Obama keep the country's current national intelligence director and CIA chief in place for some time...

Some of the biggest corporate names in the Washington influence game backed Republican incumbents before the 2008 elections, only to donate to their Democratic vanquishers afterward.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat, according to a criminal complaint filed by federal prosecutors listing several allegations of corruption by the Democrat.

Senior campaign officials said Mr Obama...will also appoint at least two Republicans to senior cabinet positions.

Indeed, the Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, have actually voted with President Bush's agenda, making them complicit in his acts, not valiant opponents defending our liberties.

The current financial crisis presents an opportunity to scrap the failed policies of neoliberal economics and make America's economic policy both stronger and fairer. By rejecting band-aid solutions, taking decisive action to stop the bleeding, holding the culprits accountable, and reforming our financial system to address the root causes of the crisis, we would do future generations a great service.

With the focus on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, appropriators quietly executed an end run around challenges to the thousands of earmarks slipped in the must-pass, year-end spending bill.

When you start with the fact Al Gore, despite his Nobel Peace Prize, still cannot explain his way out of the inconvenient truth of his 10,000-square-foot home, no matter how many solar panels he slaps on his roof, you know we're in the slim-and-none ballpark.

Most Americans would be surprised to learn that today's presidential debates are tightly controlled by a private corporation that was founded by Democratic and Republican party bosses in order to stifle competition. The Commission on Presidential Debates is thoroughly corrupt, from the well-connected lobbyists who run it to its sponsorship by big-money corporate interests and its undemocratic exclusion of independent voices.

"Both the Republicans and Democrats have given the financial services industry everything it wanted. The finance sector has endless amounts of money to influence politics and can outgun the bank regulators every time."

"If they (the oil companies) want to drill offshore, we'll say OK," [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi told reporters.

"We're here to hold the Democrat Party accountable," said Jason Hurd, one of the veterans at the front of the procession. "We voted them in to end this war. They've not done that. . . . We want our brothers and sisters to come home now, not later. Now."

The veteran Delaware senator has been one the leading congressional supporters of U.S. militarization of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, of strict economic sanctions against Cuba, and of Israeli occupation policies.

When the Democratic Party holds its convention the week after next, members of Congress will be able to hear singer Kanye West at an all-expenses paid party sponsored by the recording industry.

Electing a good president these days is the art of the impossible. But we can still choose issues wisely; we can still fight for, and define ourselves by, such issues rather than just obediently walking in the shadow of someone who is almost certain to disappoint us.

Many adults in the U.S. are voicing support for a new option in the country's political scene. 56 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. should have a third major political party in addition to the Democrats and Republicans, up six points since June 2004.

Mr. Farber’s activities are a public display of how corporate connections fuel politics — exactly the type of special influence that Mr. Obama had pledged to expunge from politics when he said he would not accept donations from lobbyists.

Faced with mounting pressure from voters to respond to record gasoline prices, some senior Democratic lawmakers Tuesday opened the door to a compromise with Republicans that would open more land on and offshore to oil and gas exploration and production.

House and Senate leaders agreed yesterday on surveillance legislation that could shield telecommunications companies from privacy lawsuits, handing President Bush one of the last major legislative victories he is likely to achieve.

More than a year after Congress pledged to curb pork barrel funding known as earmarks, lawmakers are gearing up for another spending binge, directing billions toward organizations and companies in their home districts.

Two U.S. senators, two former Cabinet members, and a former ambassador to the United Nations received loans from Countrywide Financial through a little-known program that waived points, lender fees, and company borrowing rules for prominent people.

The Democratic and Republican conclaves this summer in Denver and St. Paul, Minn., will be financed overwhelmingly by private money from some of the nation's largest corporations...

America's founders, it turns out, were not as smart as we thought. They assumed that Members of Congress would do their duty and prevent an American president from acting as though he were king.

The U.S. has been on a madcap spending spree on wars and weapons having little, if anything, to do with combating terrorism, nothing to do with the imaginary threat from China and everything to do with sustaining an enormously bloated defense industry.

A $182 million tax break for Weyerhaeuser, tucked inside the farm bill, is expected to help the century-old timber company fend off a major restructuring sought by Wall Street.

No plans for Memorial Day? Then hurry: Seats are still available for one of the best, not-to-be-missed congressional delegations of the spring season -- featuring a night at the opera -- "Tosca," of course -- in Venice!

The pharmaceutical industry, long an ally of Republicans, has increasingly worked itself into the good graces of the Democratic Party and by doing so has helped block the Democrats' top prescription-drug initiatives.

Nader, perhaps better than anyone else, has grasped the long, disastrous rise of the corporate state....And it is better to stand up and fight, even in vain, than not to fight at all.

AP started it in their lead story on Ralph Nader's announcement that he is running for president: "He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida."

The Senate handed Bush a major victory by voting to broaden the government's spy powers and to give protection to phone companies that cooperated in his program of eavesdropping without warrants.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have treated the military budget as sacrosanct with their Senate votes and their campaign rhetoric. Clinton is particularly clear on the record as favoring spending more, not less, on the military.

The electorate does not want simply a change in leadership; for the Democrats to take over the White House or the Republicans to take control of Congress. Rather, they want something new and different; they want an independent candidate to run for president.

We are left with corporatized, conservative compromisers who add mightily to the argument that the Democratic Party should be forced to change its name to end the consumer fraud it purveys. What should we do about it?

It was the new Democratic majority's inability to work across the aisle that ultimately ensured failure. Like the Republicans they had replaced, senior Democrats chose confrontation over cooperation.

The Senate (reportedly still under Democratic control) seems determined to help President Bush violate Americans' civil liberties and undermine the constitutional separation of powers. Majority Leader Harry Reid is supporting White House-backed legislation that would expand the administration's ability to spy on Americans without court supervision...

And the worst of it is that the Democrats, who should have been in a strong position -- does this administration have any credibility left on economic policy? -- appear to have caved in almost completely.

Let's face it: Every single presidential candidate with a veritable chance at victory, Democrat and Republican, is in the hip pocket of King Coal.