One of the Senate's most vocal progressives is demanding that the Democratic Party commit to voting against filibustering health care legislation now that, with the impending arrival of Al Franken, the party has 60 caucusing members. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called on the White House and Democratic leadership in Congress to ensure that party members agree unanimously to support cloture on legislation that would revamp the nation's health care system. Democratic senators on the fence, he added, could still oppose the bill. But at the very least they should be required to let the legislation come to an up-or-down vote. "I think that with Al Franken coming on board, you have effectively 60 Democrats in the caucus, 58 and two Independents," Sanders said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "I think the strategy should be to say, it doesn't take 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. It takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster. I think the strategy should be that every Democrat, no matter whether or not they ultimately end up voting for the final bill, is to say we are going to vote together to stop a Republican filibuster. And if somebody who votes for that ends up saying, 'I'm not gonna vote for this bill, it's too radical, blah, blah, blah, that's fine.'" from Sen. Bernie Sanders

 from Sen. Bernie Sanders

I often quote something Robert said to a group of fellow prison teachers, which seems an apt metaphor for any effort at change: "Some of the people we work with will already have redeemed their lives. Others, no matter what we do, will be back in here again. And for some, our efforts will make all the difference. We will never know which group is which, but that should not serve as a deterrent to our efforts."

Robert just wrote this open letter to Obama, challenging him to reach for his deepest levels of courage in being honest about what we face after decades of pillaging our economy. I'll miss his wise voice.

The Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party today is the Minnesota arm of the national Democratic Party, the oldest political party in the world. Its history is distinctive, however, because it also has its roots in third-party protest movements. The DFL came into being in its modern form when the Minnesota Democratic and Farmer–Labor parties merged in April 1944.

from Minnesota DFL Party

 Congratulations to Senator-elect

Al Franken!

DLC | Overview | January 5, 2009 The Democratic Leadership Council is an organization of elected officials and politically active citizens working together to develop new and effective policy solutions for our country's most important challenges, at every level of government. These ideas are grounded in the great progressive political tradition that has given America its best leaders and most enduring accomplishments. Like a lot of Democrats, we believe there are four overriding challenges facing America today: making America safe in the midst of a global war against terror; building an opportunity society at a time of great economic insecurity; providing a cultural atmosphere conducive to working families; and reforming a broken and corrupt political system. from