Democrats Need to Lead, or Lose

S&P downgraded US debt from AAA yesterday, knocking Treasuries from their perch as the safest debt on earth. We will see what happens to yields on Monday, but so far it’s not clear that the markets agree with S&P. After all, this is an agency that had AAA ratings on subprime mortgage-backed securities not that long ago.

But in the meantime, the GOP is using the downgrade to attack Obama, saying “look what happened on his watch.” The president doesn’t deserve all the blame, but I understand why the GOP has seized the downgrade as a bludgeon. And in the same way, democratic operatives are putting the blame on the tea party and its refusal to compromise on deficit cutting.

But you know who isn’t saying anything? Democratic leaders. The White House, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi — they are all keeping silent on this. They are trying to be the “adults” and not play the blame game. I appreciate that high-mindedness, but here’s the thing: the game is being played, with or without them. If they stay silent then they just let the GOP control the narrative. You know the Sunday talk shows will be full of Boehner and Cantor and Romney and the gang piling on Obama for the downgrade.

The Democrats have to realize that they are in the middle of a street fight and if they don’t fight back they will lose. And they’ll deserve to lose. If you are going to suck ass at politics, then you shouldn’t be a politician. Regular readers know that I mostly support Democratic policies (with some huge exceptions that I ought to detail one of these days), but I sure don’t support Democratic fecklessness. The Democrats got rolled on the debt ceiling negotiation, and now they are getting rolled on the downgrade. It’s pathetic. Or, to quote a senior democratic official: “if this White House showed a gram of leadership on the debt crisis we could have avoided this historic embarrassment.”