Once again, Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald gets it exactly right.

First, from his latest column in Salon.com on the reemerging “Blame the Left for the Massachusetts Debacle” bullshit meme:

In what universe must someone be living to believe that the Democratic Party is controlled by “the Left,” let alone “the furthest left elements” of the Party?  As Ezra Klein says, the Left “ha[s] gotten exactly nothing they wanted in recent months.”  The Left wanted a single-payer system, then settled for a public option, then an opt-out public option, then Medicare expansion — only to get none of it, instead being handed a bill that forces every American to buy health insurance from the private insurance industry.  Nor was it “the Left” — but rather corporatist Democrats like Evan Bayh and Lanny Davis — who cheered for the hated Wall Street bailout; blocked drug re-importation; are stopping genuine reform of the financial industry; prevented a larger stimulus package to lower unemployment; refuse to allow programs to help Americans with foreclosures; supported escalation in Afghanistan (twice); and favor the same Bush/Cheney terrorism policies of indefinite detention, military commissions, and state secrets.

The very idea that an administration run by Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel and staffed with centrists, Wall Street mavens, and former Bush officials — and a Congress beholden to Blue Dogs and Lieberdems — has been captive “to the Left” is so patently false that everyone should be too embarrassed to utter it. For better or worse, the Democratic strategy has long been and still is to steer clear of their leftist base and instead govern as “pragmatists” and centrists — which means keeping the permanent Washington factions pleased.  That strategy may or not be politically shrewd, but it is just a fact that the dreaded ”Left” has gotten very little of what it wanted the entire year.  Is there anyone who actually believes that “The Left” is in control of anything, let alone the Democratic Party?  The fact that Lanny Davis — to prove the Left’s dominance — has to cite one provision that was jettisoned (the public option) and another which the Left hates (the mandate) reflects how false that claim is.  What are all of the Far Left policies the Democrats have been enacting and Obama has been advocating?  I’d honestly love to know.

And he takes on the Obama loyalists who have been prone to the same BS analysis, too:

And then there is the “Blame the Left” theme from Obama loyalists, who actually claim that the Democrats’ problems are due to the fact that the Left hasn’t been cheering loudly enough for the Leader.  I recall quite vividly how Bush followers spent years claiming  that the failings of the Iraq War were not the fault of George Bush — who had control of the entire war, the entire Congress, and the power to do everything he wanted — but, rather, it was all “the Left’s” fault for excessively criticizing the President, and thus weakening both him and the war effort.

To insist that the Democratic Party’s failures are not the fault of Barack Obama — who controls the entire party infrastructure, its agenda, the news cycle, and the health care plan — we now hear from Obama supporters a similar claim:  it’s all the Left’s fault for excessively criticizing the Leader.  A couple of days ago, Josh Marshall promoted — and Kevin Drum endorsed — a post that made this claim:

And we can look no further than Howard Dean, and MSNBC, and Arianna Huffington, and, yes, some columnists at the Times and bloggers here at TPM–you know, real progressives–who have lambasted Obama again and again since last March over arguable need-to-haves like the “public option,” as if nobody else was listening. They’ve been thinking: “Oh, if only we ran things, how much more subtle would the legislation be,” as if 41 senators add up to subtle. Meanwhile the undecideds are thinking: “Hell, if his own people think he’s a sell-out and jerk, why should we support this?”

The reason “the Left” criticized the Iraq War was because . . . they thought it was a bad thing and thus opposed it.  The reason some on the Left have been criticizing the health care plan and other Obama policies (the ones I listed above) is because . . . they think they’re bad things and thus oppose them. For instance, health care opponents believe that forcing Americans to buy private insurance that they can’t afford and/or do not want is bad policy and will harm the Democrats politically.  That’s what rational citizens do:  they support proposals that they think are good and oppose the ones they think are bad. What are people on “the Left” supposed to do:  go on television and into their columns and lie by pretending they support things that they actually oppose, all in order to sustain high levels of affection and excitement for Barack Obama?  Someone who would do that is what we call a dishonest propagandist and party loyalist, and, in any event, is unlikely to have any credibility with anyone beyond already-converted, fellow Obama admirers

Oh, but Greenwald wasn’t finished with the Democrats…at an online roundtable discussion over at the New York Times website on the repercussions of the MassSen debale on the Democrats, he swiftly and decisively debunked the mountain of denial which the Democrats were piling up to spin the loss and blame liberals and “the Left”:

Of course, Greenwald will be criticized in some quarters as just another DFH blogger and a purist…but that’s par for the course.