I just received the following from Dwight Pelz [PHOTO CENTER], our newly elected Washington State Democratic Chair.
(PHOTO: From Progressive Majority of Washington State site)
“Re: ”Maria is not The Enemy”The Right Wing Republicans that control Washington DC are committed to eliminating the Middle Class in America. They want to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions, and our employer-based health care system. They do not believe in public education, or access to higher education for low income students. They do not believe in building mass transit systems, or in repairing roads and bridges. They do not believe that Global Warming is a problem, nor that clean air and clean water are an amenity to our quality of life. They oppose a woman’s right to choose, and civil rights for all Americans. They have judges like Alito lined up like Seahawk fans seeking Super Bowl tickets. They wage a senseless, immoral war in Iraq, while needlessly provoking international tensions in countless other locations. They are pursuing a titanic shift in income allocation in America from the middle class to the very rich, and they intend to saddle generations with mountains of debt.
They hope that Maria Cantwell is defeated in seven months.
Your Choice.
Dwight Pelz
Update [2006-2-3 19:49:12 by howieinseattle]: Goldy from Horsesass.org looks at Cantwell’s voting record as well her current opponent’s recent political history and chimes in from a different angle, with the same recommendation.
Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com. 
From the Dwight Pelz for State Chair campaign site. Pelz was elected last weekend.
Great way to win friends and influence people. Send them an obnoxious “you are either for us or against us” message. And they wonder why people leave the Democratic party.
are we doomed to have this conversation over and over while Rome burns?
The comment posted from the Washington Dem didn’t say how she was the democratic ally or friend either.
Defensive response is not a positive action from the dems.
What conversation is that?
how many Senators are we going to withhold our support from in an election that most pundits predict will be razor close for control of the Senate?
Let me just give an example here.
He have 44+1 Senators.
Jeffords is the plus one and he will be replaced by the Socialist Bernie Sanders. So that puts us at 45.
How are we gonna get to 51?
Here are out most likely or at least most plausible pickups.
Harold Ford picks up Bill Frist’s seat
Bob Casey picks up Rick Santorum’s seat
Jon Tester picks up Conrad Burn’s seat in Montana
Sherrod Brown or Paul Hackett pick up Mike DeWine’s seat in Ohio
Matt Brown or Sheldon Whitehouse pick up Lincoln Chafee’s seat in Rhode Island.
Claire McKaskill picks up Jim Talent’s seat in Missouri.
We must get 6 out of these 7, without losing any incumbents or lose Sarbanes and Corzine’s seats.
Can we afford to turn our backs on Cantwell even if she deserves it?
Thanks for the clarification.
Some folks are very clear that ANY Dem is better than an Rep. That certainly simplifies things.
The cloture vote has put me into a crisis of sorts, trying to make sense of it all.
Quoting from your post in another thread:
I’m starting to think of the 2006 elections in terms of ER triage. The Republicans are bleeding our country dry (in so many ways!) while they have control of all 3 branches of government. We’d all like to see the Dems shift to the left, but we desperately need to do something to stop/slow the bleeding while we work on getting more candidates with more progressive values elected. Dem control of the senate would at least slow the downward slide while we work toward the change we really want. So you work towards both at the same time.
The cloture vote makes me really question this:
Dem control of the senate would at least slow the downward slide while we work toward the change we really want.
The Democrat organizations pull on the string of party unity and support was very much weakened for me by the example given by the 15 senate Dems who did not honor the call for party unity and support with their vote on cloture.
It made their vote “no” vote on confirming Alito just an empty gesture – a posturing for solicitation requests or newsletters to constituents.
Can they ask me to do what they are not doing? Of course they can. Dang it rankles!
I COMPLETELY understand your anger. But for the upcoming elections, we have 2 choices: see the Republican majority increase, or see the Democrats take back nominal control of the senate. Since we’re already intimately familiar with the Republican way of running things (and I don’t recall things being as bad whent the Dems had the majority), I have to go with wanting to see the Dems win big in 2006. That said, there’s no way in hell I can vote for Bob Casey.
The Republicans have worked for 30 years to do what they’ve doe. It can’t be undone overnight, and we have to start somewhere. To quote an old attorney I know: “You work inside the system and outside the system at the same time to increase your chances of getting to a reasonable solution quickly.”
I see three choices:
As for me and my house, I endorse Option 3.
Anger is a part of it for sure.
So here I am also in PA. (sigh)
Responding to the BT commuity’s call for local involvement, I am considering going to the nearest local Dem meeting which is a dinner with a speaker who will speechify on Bob Casey. (Very heavy sigh)
I’m following Pennachio’s campaign wondering if/how to get involved.
I note BooMan’s list of who might be added to the Dems in the Senate and he has Casey listed.
So, do I invest my time and energy in a campaign (Pennachio’s) with the understanding I am doing the “right” thing, though more than likely useless thing, or do other things which might be more useful (not sure what these would be) and cast my vote for Casey in November?
Cast my vote for Casey?! (retching) That would require more than holding my nose! Also noted is your: That said, there’s no way in hell I can vote for Bob Casey.
No wonder I like fiction so much more than this real life stuff!
I didn’t know you were in PA…
If you’re really pissed, go to the Dem meeting and take some Pennacchio flyers with you to hand out while the speaker speechifes about Casey. (You can download those at http://www.chuck2006.com somewhere under the get involved tab). Fight back. Support primary candidates you agree with now.
Worry about November in November.
You could ask the same question about Joe Liebermann. If he stays in the Senate, is that really all that different from electing a Republican to replace him?
Not that I think Maria is nearly as bad as Joementum, but her positions on the war are very perplexing, and I don’t think anyone has yet heard a good explanation of why she voted for cloture.
We really need one of two things: Either the Democrats we have need to start acting like an opposition party, including going along with Party discipline* when necessary, or we need to elect Democrats who will. Otherwise we might just as well close up Congress and do the best we can. Maybe we can go into business. Me, I think I’ll set up a business selling rubber stamps. I hear they’re the next big thing.
* as in “A disciplined response” rather than in the sense of punishment
I believe this is what’s known as a “rhetorical question.”
Apparently that toxic myth will go on forever as jellylike Dems quiver in fear somebody will discover that they’re not Republicans. I mean it’s worked so well with Kerry and Congressional success, hasn’t it?
Pelz makes it clear that he’s talking about the primaries. He goes through the litany of GOP sins as if having a contested primary, or having a Cantwell defeat in the primary is a victory for the GOP. He totally neglects to tell us how that’s so. GOP-level dishonest spin of the worst kind. He should be ashamed of himself.
Mary, Dwight is very liberal … and he comes from a blue-collar, multi-ethnic part of Seattle, which he represented for years on the King County Council.
He’s a total realist. He SEES that we are in a titanic crisis. We have to get real RIGHT NOW.
Since we aren’t going to have a revolution — and we can’t create a third party, or any of those fanciful but wonderful notions — we have to GET REAL … we’ve gotta get MAJORITIES of Democrats, and then — and only then — can we crack down on them.
It’s a step-by-step process.
I’m still thinking of the significance of Pelz referring to Maria’s possible defeat in “seven” months (i.e. Sept primaries) as opposed to in November. I don’t think he would’ve sent out this missive if Maria weren’t feeling the wrath expressed a few days ago by so many WA progressives when she voted for cloture. I’m sensing that someone is smelling the blood in the water, and Pelz has been rallied to Maria’s defense to prevent an upset by Wilson in the primaries. So, once again, the instant a little momentum gets going behind the progressive choice in a primary, we get fearmongered back towards the centrist candidate. Shades of Dean vs. Kerry in the spring of ’04. We’re being told, oh, you’d better stick with the “electable” centrist, or the McGavick bogeyman will getcha. IMO.
Wilson has no chance of beating Cantwell, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. No one is worried about a Wilson upset.
This is very frustrating.
On the one hand I like Mark’s platform as outlined on his web site. On the other, Maria has been very good in some areas — most notably energy, as far as I can tell — and not so good in others. We all know which ones, and they’re very important ones.
I want to see how well Wilson does in the next couple of months at getting his name out there, connecting with the people of the state and making himself an electable alternative, especially in Eastern Washington which has a lot of Republican-leaning voters. If he can do that, great. We’ll see what happens in the primary. If he can’t make himself electable, if he doesn’t want the job bad enough to get out and start asking for it big time, any support we give him will be quixotic at best, no matter how much we like the guy.
And IMHO Pelz needs to put at least as much effort into defeating McCormick as he is in supporting Cantwell. That’s just the way politics works anymore. Start nailing the guy to anything that will make him radioactive. It would be lovely if they could tie him to Delaybramoff somehow, but it might be enough to start looking for ties to the Builders Association of Washington. (For those outside the state, the BIAW is hip deep in politics of the nasty dirty kind and promotes candidates who support things like rolling back wildlife protection — basically anything that gets in the way of their members building wherever and whatever they choose. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in political science to figure out they were heavy contributors to Dino Rossi and his attempt to overturn the election, for instance.)
The tipping point for me was the bankruptcy bill. She voted for Big Business interests ahead of those of her constituents.
She voted for the Patriot Act, to confirm Condi “I believe it was Bin-Landin determined to attack Untined States” Rice for State, and for the Bush energy bill -minus the Alaska Drilling-yes, she deserves points for that. Voting for cloture and against Alito, what’s that about? Inside baseball crap, so she can stand up and say, that she’s for ‘civility in the Senate’ in eastern Washington ? How many votes will that save her? Or is it something she felt she had to do to get money from someone that plays both sides?
Washington Democrats deserve better. Is it Mark Wilson? I don’t know yet. His webpage certainly makes me sit up and take notice, but his lack of time in the minor leagues of government will make it far more difficult for him to gain traction. That didn’t hurt Patty Murray, however.
It’s too early for the State Chair to call for unity when it hasn’t been earned. His task for now is opposition to McCormick, and let the party work out who will lead that charge in November in the meantime.
Except Maria didn’t vote for the bankruptcy bill. Looks like you’re due for a fact checkup.
Checked. I stand corrected, thank you. I am slightly less unhappy with the Junior Senator.
Susan, Let me explain. I’m not questiong his democratic bona fides or his liberal bona fides. I too am a realist. I’ve made it as clear as I possibly can that I see no point in defeating a sitting Democratic senator in a primary unless it is dead certain that the winner in the primary will win the November election — which is VERY hard to do. I’m not in favor of the third party mentality and, while I want to reform the Democratic party, revolution within the Democratic party will be a slow process.
However, as has been made clear on this site over the last number of days, many many people don’t agree with me and take a “throw the bums out” attititude. The realistic part of me knows that winning elections requires us to keep those people in the tent.
I don’t believe a letter written in this tone is likely to change those person’s minds and is more likely to cause people sitting on the fence to be even more pissed off at the Democratic party.
If the Democratic party wants to be the big tent party that it needs to be, and keep people within its folds, and WIN ELECTIONS, it needs to act smarter and it needs to communicate smarter. This man may be a realist about Bush but I’m not convinced he’s a realist about the way to achieve that goal.
What is the point of having a Democratic Senator when said Senator sells-out on the single-most important vote to Democrats in a generation? Such an action requires a payday someday, and payment is due now.
Note that Pelz says the Right Wingers hope she’s defeated in “seven” months– meaning, September, in the primaries. It’s a swipe at her Dem challenger, Mark Wilson. Well, Pelz’s scare tactic isn’t going to keep me from stumping for Wilson, who is an eminently better choice for progressives. Sorry, Dwight P., I don’t scare easily. And there’s just no forgiving, in my book, the 17 turncoats who voted for Alito’s cloture.
so you wanna support a libertarian who told the Seattle Times:
Every attack on private health insurance markets should be resisted. A genuine free market in health care will encourage competition and help reduce costs. Comprehensive Tort Reform would take the bite out of insurance premiums and promote personal responsibility. Insane lawsuits awarding multimillions, punch taxpayers right in the fries.
Wilson pulled that right out of the Cato Institute’s materials.
Wilson is no progressive and no Democrat.
Here’s a question for those who say Cantwell should not be challenged in the primary: Would you ever encourage people not to vote? You know, stay home on election day? Well, I believe the same principle applies here. If someone wants to challenge Cantwell in the primary, he or she should not be discouraged from doing so. This flies directly in the face of democratic principles. Some people were making the same argument about Brown / Hackett, though the circumstances are different. A nice, clean, issues-centered primary is good thing, in my opinion.
This being said, I hope neither side does de facto work for the GOP by slinging mud.
While I’d certainly vote for Cantwell in the general, I’m all in favor of getting rid of the party’s dry rot; you can’t reframe a house until you have a stable foundation.
Alito was the tipping point for me and many others.
The only way to take back OUR Democratic Party is to enforce discipline on those who purport to represent us. The Alito vote was defining; there was no ambiguity there. Some stood up; others, like Cantwell, FAILED.
There needs to be a price to be paid for that failure. A primary challenge — and, hopefully, primary defeat — is the price.
I’ve had it up to here with all the rationalizations for voting for bad Democrats. It hasn’t changed shit lately. I’m not “waiting” to start clearing out the dead wood. The time is NOW.
The dead wood needed clearing out a long time ago. Hopefully, there’s enough support for the challengers for Cantwell, Casey, Lieberman and their ilk to make the Dems a bit more like a progressive party. Otherwise, there will be more of us around saying “some of my best friends are Democrats. I just don’t want them in my neighborhood.”
And isn’t it funny that Cantwell has a more progressive record than Minority Leader Harry Reid?
We better replace the entire caucus and hand the country over to the GOP for good.
Yeah, that’s what I really meant.
Thanks for helping crystallize my thoughts.
Who is running against Cantwell in the primaries? I flip flopped three times on this reading down the page. I don’t know enough about Maria except for her now infamous cloture vote.
We may want to keep this in mind. If we pick up senate and house seats the whole thing begins to shift left. Politicians want to survive because they are politicians. It happened with fucking Lieberman and Clinton. So if they feel a storm rising from the left they will not sail against that wind. The whole lot of them will go with the flow. In short we may be beating ourselves up over nothing.
OK nobody is running against her yet.
Is she pro-choice?
Is she for a progressive tax structure?
Does she ever speak of environmental issues?
Did she vote for the war? Patriot act?
is running against her in the primaries.
Mark Wilson.
Perusing his site, looks like he’s someone I could support.
It is just as likely that the Republicans are delighted that the Dems are using scare tactics such as this. If they can’t have real Republicans in congress, the next best thing is spineless appeasing Dems. (Which Cantwell was — at least in this instance.)
Thanks for the update Howie.
Can’t say phrases like “Grow up” exactly motivate me. But, I am coming to understand that politics is a world unto its own. Too bad the consequences affect us all or we could let “politicos” go off and play by themselves.
I hope some of the others who have chimed in here will check out the UPDATE, also.