The antidote to President Bush’s vapid and unrealistic repetition of increasingly dangerous delusions about everything from the continued occupation of Iraq to warrantless wiretapping to race-to-the-bottom trade policies did not come in the official Democratic response to the State of the Union address delivered by newly elected Governor Tim Kaine. (I teased blogger Ezra Klein about making fun of Kaine’s looks, but I have to admit that I was slightly hypnotized by the Virginia governor’s manic eyebrows and lullaby-like delivery. Ezra, good having that drink earlier this week to sort out our differences (few) and agreements (many)–substantive, aesthetic.)

I guess I now think the Dem leadership would have been better off tapping Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer if it wanted a "can-do-let’s-work-together-solutions-oriented" governor.

The real alternative State of the Union address was delivered earlier on SOTU day by California Representatives Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) who gathered at an event organized by the caucus, The Nation and the Institute for Policy Studies to outline an ambitious agenda. It included a speedy withdrawal of troops from Iraq, universal health care, public financing of campaigns, earned amnesty for illegal immigrants, fair tax policies that actually create jobs and meet the needs of working Americans and the poor, debt relief for countries struggling with poverty or disease, and a real plan to end our addiction to oil.

The bluntness of the CPC members was refreshing. (It’s worth remembering that if Dems retake the House, ten members of the Caucus would become chairs of committees. Think about Rep. John Conyers heading Judiciary.) Representative Jim McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, countered the president’s empty promises on health care, as well as the only slightly more palatable proposals of Congressional Democratic leaders, by declaring that the "only" answer to a burgeoning crisis is universal health care. Pete Stark, ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, called for Medicare for All. California Democrat Maxine Waters was equally assertive when she dismissed Republican and Democratic proposals for ethics reforms by asserting that nothing will change in Washington until special-interest money is squeezed out of politics by developing a system for publicly-financed elections. This was the kind of talk that Americans needed to hear and, as they prepare for a 2006 campaign in which control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs, we hope that Democratic strategists were listening to a CPC message that is far more likely to resonate with voters than the too-cautious approach adopted by Democrats in the dismal 2002 and 2004 campaigns. To listen to that transcript, go to the Institute for Policy Studies