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February 14, 2006
Way To Go, Chuck & Harry
Late yesterday came word that Paul Hackett, the Iraq War veteran who made a surprisingly strong special election run as a Democrat in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District last year, has withdrawn from the U.S. Senate primary there amid intense party pressure from Senators Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and the DSCC. Another brilliant move from the national "leadership" of the Democratic Party.
Hackett was pressured to step aside so longtime Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown, who has amassed a considerable war chest can run.
So let's get this straight: Hackett, an outspoken, maverick war veteran, who received 48% as a Democrat in a Congressional district where George W. Bush earned 70% of the vote, was deemed less electable statewide by those DC political geniuses (who have brought home so many victories lately), than a traditional inside the Beltway liberal Democratic Congressman. All this in Ohio, which last time we checked has been voting Republican for a while. Again, brilliant.
It's good to know party leaders have their finger firmly on the nation's pulse outside Washington. After all, poll after poll shows that not only are Americans fed up with GOP leadership, but that they just love the traditional Democratic Party, right? News flash, Beltway Democrats -- the public doesn't think much more of you than they do Republicans.
So, let's just continue to eschew new candidates, with new messages and no baggage -- real change agents -- in favor of more of the same. Instead let's just keep running, head first, into that political brick wall. After all, Democrats are suckers for self-flagellation, right? Some of us out here in the hinterlands might even get the impression you guys in Washington actually like losing.
In a year with so much electoral promise for an opposition party, Democrats have taken that first bold step toward snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Well, at least you're predictable. Is that Karl Rove we hear chuckling?
Posted by houtopia at February 14, 2006 09:27 AM