Permanent Minority

. At a critical juncture in mid-August, Senate Democrats told the Washington Post that they “will not launch a major fight to block the Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr.” The front-page story quoted “more than a dozen Democratic senators and aides” who remained unnamed but who deflated serious efforts to expose Roberts’s extreme right-wing agenda.

Toward the Majority

. Twenty unions and grassroots organizations came together to protest the votes cast by New York Democratic Representatives Greg Meeks and Ed Towns in favor of corporate-written legislation like the Central America Free Trade Agreement. At a high-profile press conference, the group released a letter to House minority leader Nancy Pelosi demanding that Meeks and Towns be removed from their committee positions. The pressure sends a message to Democrats that there are consequences for selling out.