No more Mr. Nice Guy

Think back on how it has been for the last eight years. Remember how people were put down, mocked, and verbally pissed on when they spoke up, spoke out, spoke against the Bush administration. Remember how members of the Republican Congress wouldn't tell Democrats where the committees were meeting. Remember how the assumption was that there would be a one party rule for a thousand years because it was the Republicans time and they deserved it.

Remember. And read what Digby said:

If this election is close they will fight back any of Obama's proposals ferociously. They see such elections as illegitimate four year respites from rightful Republican rule. They will not see themselves as having been repudiated, but rather having been failed by both Bush and McCain --- because they were apostates. True conservatives never give up, never give in, never ... compromise with Democrats.

Liberals are going to have to decisively defeat the modern conservative movement in a big election if they want to move past this partisan fighting. As long as each side is roughly equal in numbers, and the races are close, this will remain a pitched battle.

Let's hope this will be a big decisive progressive win in November. But --- let's not count on it. I think the smart money is on a close election, which means there is no margin being nice to Republicans. They certainly aren't going to be nice in return.

They are going to actively resist, deliberately poison the well, lay landmines, block legislation, undermine, sabotage, delay. They are going to fight tooth and nail against anything at all that the Obama administration will want. They will purposely hurt the country if it hurts Democrats.

Know this and be prepared. Because if Obama wins, we are going to be told we must forgive and forget.

I'm not going to forgive something that has not been repented, regretted and changed. I'm not going to forget the relentless hounding of Clinton or the eight horrible years of Bush. We can make nice, but it will be on Obama's terms, not dictated by the very same people who broke this country, trashed our government, and think that we can just sweep the shards under the rug and pretend that bygones will be bygones.

Because everyone knows that if they were to regain power tomorrow, they'd do exactly the same things over again.