MoveOn.org and the Democrat-Republicans

I caught about 2 minutes of the Ed Shultz show yesterday where he was critical of MoveOn.org's advertising campaign against Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer for the congressman's vote in support of The No Credit Card Company Left Behind "bankruptcy reform" bill.

Shultz and some of his callers thought this just provided amunition for Republicans and that MoveOn.org and everybody else should just lay off Democrats, no matter what they do.

Thankfully another caller weighed in that (1) MoveOn.org is a progressive, as opposed to a Democratic organization, so MoveOn.org is obligated by any 11th commandment or any such thing; and that (2) it's folly to just keep sending Republican-minded Democrats back to Washington all the time and expecting things to change.

Now, while agreeing with Shultz's last caller, I'm not arguing that MoveOn's action here was either wise or useful.

But I'm not impressed with the reasoning that we can't say anything bad about Democrats or else Republicans will use those charges against us. First of all, Hoyer will walk to re-election anyway. Second, the credit card company bill, unlike other economic related measures, had absolutely no valid purpose other than to reward Big Business. It isn't going to lower credit card rates, or increase jobs for the credit card companies.

I don't necessarily hold that on every business related matter that comes before Congress, that the interests of the economy and the nation as a whole should always be subordinated to the percieved interests of the poor or working classes. Sometimes its the case that measures which have either negative short term impacts or will prove beneficial overall are needed.

But in the case of the Paris Hilton Estate Tax Elimination bill, and the Leave No Credit Card Company Behind bill, there is no larger economic interest served. All these bills do is reward the upper classes and the business community.

When Democrats in Congress don't get this, than they deserve to be reminded, perhaps publicly, of what they were sent to Washington to do.