I would work hard for a Hillary/Lieberman ticket

I would beat down doors for Hillary/Lieberman. I would fly across the country to swing states for GOTV operations for them. I would donate my hard-earned money to the campaign. I would serve in any capacity as an official attache or strategist for the campaign. I would carry signs and happily risk being pelted with objects by passing red-state motorists for Hillary/Lieberman. It would be an honor and a privilege to do these things for the Hillary/Lieberman campaign.

Or for Biden; or Dodd; or Kucinich; or Gravel; or Richardson; Obama; or Edwards; or Wes Clark; or Al Gore.

Any Democrat would be great, for that matter.

Today should be a constant reminder to any progressive sitting on the fence, insisting that they will positively not vote for any one of our primary candidates for any reason: the stakes are too high to allow one's personal feelings about specific votes on Iraq, bankruptcy bills or allegiances to the DLC to stand in the way of doing what is right by our country.

Today, as we all know, the Supreme Court insisted that the EPA do its job in acting on reduction of greenhouse gases responsible for global warming--and it did so by the narrowest of 5-4 margins. The four rightist members (Scalia, Roberts, Alito and Thomas) stood firmly and unsurprisingly in opposition to justice and human decency, as they usually do.

Remember: the balance of the court hangs by thread. Five are sane, if not exactly progressive; four are nuts. All they need is one more nut.

Just ONE more rightwing activist judge, and you can say goodbye to commonsense rulings like this one. For the next decade or more, regardless of who wins the House or Senate, if a Republican takes the White House, the probability is that the the balance of the court will shift dramatically.

And there will be no solace or comfort in the nature of the Republican president: even the likes of Rudy Giuliani has pledged to nominate judges like Alito to the court, in the hopes of assuaging his distrustful wingnut base.

There is also little solace or comfort to be derived from the ages of the justices--especially the sane ones. Unfortunately, the nuts are comparatively young while the moderates are no spring chickens. Here's the list:

Stevens: 86
Ginsburg: 74
Scalia: 71
Kennedy: 70
Breyer: 68
Souter: 67
Thomas: 58
Alito: 57
Roberts: 52

Given the fact that incumbent presidents rarely lose elections, if a Republican takes the White House in 2008, it will probably be eight years before a Democrat can replace him. At that point Stevens will be 94 years old--if he survives that long.

And I'm going to say something somewhat controversial here: our immoral, misguided and inept invasion and occupation of Iraq will be a blip on the radar screen compared to decades of future Supreme Court rulings--especially those concerning the balance of power between the Executive and the Legislative branches. In the long run, we and the people we have violated in the Middle East will recover from our criminal actions in Iraq. The world will not so easily recover from runaway climate change and a runaway Imperial Presidency.

What that means is that I will fight like hell for whichever Democrat comes out of the primary process next year. Even if it's Hillary. Even if it's Biden. Even if it's Ben freaking Nelson, with Joementum as his running mate.

Now don't get me wrong: I will do everything in my power to ensure that a progressive we can be proud of graces the national Democratic ticket in the fall of 2008. But should we fail in that endeavor get a DLC centrist, occupation-justifying candidate, I will still work my heart out to ensure that that Democrat gets swept into the Oval Office.

And the same should go for anyone who calls themselves a Progressive. Or a Liberal. Or an Environmentalist. Or a Libertarian. Or an Economic Populist. Or an Anti-War Activist.

The stakes are too high to do otherwise.