Harold Ford and the DLC Democrats, Blue Dog Democrats, Liebercrats, Bush Democrats (or whatever you want to call these people) are not just sitting back and doing nothing. They are looking to mess with our crap. Here are some examples.
In TN-09, we elected a very solid progressive in Steve Cohen to replace Harold Ford, Jr. Cohen had to defeat Ford’s cousin in the primary and Ford’s brother in the general. Now Ford’s campaign manager, Nikki Turner, is running against him in the primary.
In CO-04, Angie Paccione is taking a second run at Marilyn Musgrave. But, first she has to get by a former Republican that was recruited by Ken Salazar…Betsy Markey.
A similar thing is happening in OH-02, where Victoria Wulsin is taking a second run at Mean Jean Schmidt. She has to beat out a primary challenge from former Republican, Steve Black.
This is being repeated in WA-08, where Darcy Burner is taking a second run against Dave Weichert, but now has to beat out former Republican, Rodney Tom.
There are other races where Blue Dog-type candidates are challenging more progressive candidates…notably in Dennis Hastert’s district, where Bill Foster is being pushed over John Laesch.
We can sit back and take this…we can play defense…or we can hit back hard. There are a number of Democrats that have earned a primary challenge for their votes on Iraq, the Military Commissions Act, FISA, the bankruptcy bill, and Alito and Roberts.
While Beltway pundits will brand such efforts divisive or ‘purity tests’, the reality is that they are going after our candidates much more aggressively than we are going after theirs.
puleeze- give me a break. Hit back, fight, stand up to, -p these are words and phrases that seperate te ballsless dems from the true “ptrogressives” and that term is a crock of shit!
Lets simply follow the pelosi/reid approach and get down on our knees and start eating the crumbs that are being thrown our way.
NOT ME-
no idea what that means.
Etheridge is my District Congressman. He has plenty of money, and so far I see no Democrat willing to take him on.
There are Repubs, but with little cash, or name rec.
This is also a military District, with plenty of Generals to back him up.
Things are starting to lean leftier here, but not enough to push him over. Plus he talks a big game in front of all the progressives, then delivers votes like the Military Commission.
He is on AGRIC. and Homeland Security…sheesh.
Nice man, but a coward.
I had the opportunity to “sit down” with a Blue Dog Democrat Dennis Moore. I don’t know what a democrat is anymore, I thought I was conversing with a Republican.
difference, but I will say that Sebellieus has done very well as governor.
It is time Democrats stop being afraid of being a Democrat, if you are then go join Independent Joe.
I agree with you in general that we are in a fight with the centrists, and we need to choose and fight the primaries we can to keep the folks we like and push against those we don’t.
I have a question about Bill Foster though, I like him. He worked on the Patrick Murphy campaign and seems like a really nice guy. I didn’t know he was rich despite interacting with him a fair amount. He seems humble and down to earth as well as very smart. He donated for the Clinton rally so that one of the campaign workers could get a picture with Clinton, and picked up the tab for dinner a few times.
More importantly he is probably one of the people after the Murphy family and campaign manager with the strongest claim to helping win the election. He was in charge of revamping the walk sheets before the election. The walk sheets we used were dramatically better than the ones generated by the Party algorithm.
We never talked policy, you don’t really get much of a chance to talk politics on a campaign ironically enough.
Gets your candidates right! Angie Paccione isn’t progressive she voted 1) For parental notification 2) for school vouchers!! 3) She sponsored the bill to deny medical services to undocumented aliens at hospitals. How is she progressive??
Betsy Markey has been a democrat for 30 years, she resurrected the party in Northern Colorado and would never have voted against any of those “progressive” issues. She is the one we should support.
By the way Eric Eidness is the Republican that switched parties and is running in the 4th CD. Ken Salazar did NOT endorse him.