The Democrats need more Weiners

"Democrats would be better off if more of them acted like Weiners," says Dana Milbank in The Washington Post. Rep. Anthony Weiner, that is. Most Democrats retreated into silence as the first anniversary of President Obama's signature health care law approached this week, failing to counter "Republican accusations that the legislation is socialist, unconstitutional, bankrupting the country, destroying the medical system, and generally bringing about the apocalypse." But Weiner (D-N.Y.) had a different approach. The "Brooklyn-born streetfighter" held six events on Wednesday to defend the law, loudly and publicly firing off a string of "snappy comebacks to the Republican accusations." He also called on his Democratic colleagues to "stop cowering" as Republicans press for repeal. They should listen. Here, an excerpt:

Weiner, certainly, doesn't cower. The liberal Democrat who aspires to be mayor of New York often earns his surname with his partisan rants on the House floor, his campaigns against Clarence Thomas and Glenn Beck, and his opposition to Obama’s tax-cut deal last year.

In general, neither Democrats nor Republicans lack for hotheads. But in this case, Weiner's brand of politics has some merit. As Republicans push daily to undermine the new law, the Democrats play under Marquess of Queensberry rules, answering the opposition's often-scurrilous allegations with earnest pleas not to "relitigate" the past. In wishing away the fight, they are losing it.

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Read the entire piece at The Washington Post.