I am finding work with the large Democratic trifecta in D.C. to be generating more news and work than really any other time period during the last five years I have spent blogging. Really, now that we are actually governing, there is so much more to do than the endless focus on elections, strategy, infrastructure building and message analysis. None of those other areas of work have disappeared--we simply have added an entirely new, exciting and time-consuming layer of activity onto our political schedules. It is both exhilarating and exhausting. For example, today, I didn't even have time to listen to, much less blog about, the cabinet confirmation hearings. Better examples: there have been 28 Quick Hits so far today, our most in quite some time. Also, I am still talking with Matt from time to time, and he says that his workload has exploded in size now that he is a staffer.
Part of the reason there is so much work is that there are a lot of congressional offices that actually seem willing to talk and / or work with us. In the last couple of days, we have received responses to our inquires of several offices, including both Pelosi and Reid. Some offices and organizations are even starting to email us our the progressive legislation monitoring project. It feels as though there is a real opportunity to play an active role in government over the next eighteen months, and that is getting me pretty pumped.
Here is another great piece of news I did not have time to write about today: the House Financial Services hearing on releasing the next $350 billion of TARP funds. Check out this great work by Better Democrat Alan Grayson, pressing the Fed Vice-Chair on the lack of transparency on how the money has been spent:
When the final totals are finished early next month, Obama will win the White House, Democrats will number in the high 250's in the House, and the high 50's in the Senate. Given these numbers, we should be able to pass a helluva lotta legislation. As such, while I know the urge to savor victory and give Obama the benefit of the doubt is massive, right now is actually the time to make requests and / or demands on what sort of legislation we want passed, not the time to sit back and smile.
STATE BLOGS
