Professional election losers
Today Ed Schultz spent most of his show criticizing MoveOn.org for its recent email calling for new leadership in the Democratic Party. Here’s an excerpt:
"For years, the Party has been lead by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base. But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers."
For the record, Schultz himself was critical of how the Kerry campaign was run, as I documented in my Sept. 13 blog post:
"Ed Schultz, the widely syndicated liberal talk show host, has been a staunch supporter of John Kerry. That’s why I was shocked today to hear him say that the Kerry campaign’s radio and media strategy is so poor, it’s as if they don’t want to win."
And from my Nov. 4 blog post:
"I think the Kerry campaign could have done more to respond to the following issues:
Flip-flop
Global test
Cheney’s daughter
Kerry’s Vietnam record
Vietnam war crimes"
Bill Hillsman, the innovative mastermind of the 1990 Wellstone and 1998 Ventura ads, had this to say:
"Let's put the blame where it belongs. There's plenty to choose among: weathervane party Chairman Terry McAuliffe. The legions of soulless and grossly incompetent Democratic pollsters. The free-spending, formulaic and uninspired communications of wealthy media consultant (and perennial loser) Bob Shrum & Co."
posted by Tom Cleland @ 12/10/2004 07:31:00 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
The soulessness of the Democrats, it seesm, goes back decades, at least to the 1960s. Even if they've always been a party of the elite, like in the Dixiecrat South, one could say that they wern't as directionless as they have been since the 1980s. They've never really been able to respond to the onslaught that was the Reagan Revolution, preferring instead to chase the Republicans rightward and imitate them as the party that can more effectively or more humanely put Republican programs in place.
So much of the blundering in the Democratic Party has been around for awhile. Mondale, Dukakis in the 80s, as good examples; their retreat from the "L" word paved the way. Why people are fretting so much now has more to do with the dire straits the Democrats find themselves in as a minority party in serious decline. All this "bloodletting" is something to follow, I think, because it will show if the Dems will continue chasing the Republicans to the right. I believe that the leadership and many others will go even further to the right, which brings up fantastic opening for the independent political left in wresting away the more progressive forces among the Dems to the idea of organizing outside of it.
Yes, I believe that if we all had complete information, honest voters and candidates, and everyone voting in their economic self interests, the center would implode and the Left would win with a 90% majority!
It's a mistake to run for the middle when your opponent pulls so far to the right. The real middle is further left than what Kerry & Terry aimed and what the Democratic Party leaders think they need to go after.
I really believe that Howard Dean is the best example of that real middle.
Yeah, Howard Dean for DNC Chair!!! And Russ Feingold for President!!! And they should demote Hillary, so she doesn't screw things up in 2008. (Assuming there are elections in 2008.)
Thanks, Sheryl. I'm curious, who elects the DNC Chair, and how are the electors elected? What's the current make-up of the electing body?
Hi Tom,
Each state elects members to DNC in accordance with their state's aprty rules. Hold on....I'll look it up real quick:
Here are the current DNC Committee Members for Minnesota:
Mike Erlandson 2809 E. Lake of Isles Pkwy. Minneapolis, MN 55408
Tarryl Clark 255 E. Plato Blvd. St. Paul, MN 55107
Ken Foxworth 614 4th St #503 Minneapolis, MN 55404
Greg Knutson 54895 CSAH 28 Grove City, MN 56243
Sarah Lewerenz AFSCME Council 96 Duluth, MN 55802
Jackie Stevenson 3541 Robinwood Ter. Minneapolis, MN 55305
Here's what it says in the Minnesota Party Rules about running for the DNC in that state (there might be more later in the file):
VIII. Election of Party Officers and Presidential Electors21. SCREENING: Candidates for party office (Democratic National Committee ("DNC") Members and Directors) and for Presidential Elector must make application to the Nominations Committee and must make arrangements for a screening. No one may be nominated for or elected to party office or as a Presidential Elector unless the candidate has applied to or screened before the Nominations Committee. A list of all who have screened or applied to be screened shall be available from the convention secretary. This list shall indicate by asterisk those nominated by the Nominations Committee. This rule does not apply when subcaucusing is used.
22. ORDER OF ELECTIONS: The order of elections shall be: DNC Members, Directors and Presidential Electors.
23. NOMINATIONS: For each office, a report of the Nominations Committee shall place in nomination the committee’s recommendation. After the report, the chair shall call for further nominations from the floor by name only. After the candidates have been named, the chair shall determine by lot the order of candidate speeches. Each nominee for DNC Member shall be allowed up to 10 minutes time in a contested election and up to 5 minutes time in an uncontested election, to be used as the nominee wishes. Each nominee for Director or Presidential Elector shall be allowed up to 5 minutes time in a contested election and up to 2 minutes time in an uncontested election, to be used as the nominee wishes. No time will be allotted to candidates declining nomination.
24. FLOOR PASSES: DNC Member candidates will be allotted 5 floor passes for the time of their election, from convening of the convention through the final ballot for their position. In addition, party officer and Presidential Elector candidates who are not delegates or seated alternates will be given a personal floor pass for the convention from the convening of the convention through the final ballot.
25. ELECTION OF DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS: DNC members shall be elected separately from other officers. DNC nominees will be listed on the ballot in two columns, one for men and the other for women. A delegate may vote for a total of four nominees, no more than two of the same gender. A delegate must cast each vote for a different candidate, with the understanding that the delegate need not cast all four votes. Candidates of each gender receiving a majority of the votes will be declared elected. Balloting will continue until four DNC members are elected.
26. ELECTION OF DIRECTORS: Directors shall be elected sepa-rately from other officers. Proportional voting for directors shall be used if requested by 1/12th of the delegate vote. a. IF PROPORTIONAL VOTING IS NOT USED in the election of directors, the following system will be used. State director nominees will be listed on the ballot in two columns, one for men and the other for women. A delegate may vote for a total of 12 nominees, no more than 6 of the same gender. A delegate must cast each vote for a different candidate, with the understanding that the delegate need not cast all 12 votes. The 6 candidates of each gender with the greatest number of votes, i.e.: plurality, will be declared elected, provided that no candidate may be elected with less than 1/3 of the total vote. Balloting will continue until 12 directors are elected.
b. IF PROPORTIONAL VOTING IS USED in the election of Directors, either the Written Ballot Subcaucus system or the Walking Subcaucus system shall be used, as determined by a majority vote of the convention.
27. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS: Presidential Electors shall be elected by a majority vote of the convention.
28. DROP OFF RULE: Candidates for DNC Member or Presidential Elector receiving less than 10% of the vote will be dropped after the first ballot. On subsequent ballots, the drop off percent will be raised by 5% each ballot. In addition, after the fourth ballot, the lowest remaining candidate will be dropped regardless of the percent. However, in no case will this drop off rule be used to reduce the number of candidates remaining on the next ballot to less than twice the number of positions remaining to be filled.
Parents are waiting on me--gotta go.
Thanks, Sheryl, I’ll try to write them before the vote February 12. I don’t know the other candidates, but so far I prefer Dean. I don’t like some of the things he said about Nader on the campaign trail, about Republican influence when Democrats had same, but in their debate the two agreed on most of the issues.
Yeah. I guess I should do the same. Thanks for the date. I wasn't sure when that was coming up. I guess I have been kind of flakey since the election. I need to get refocused. :(
I don't suppose you are going to the inaugural protest, are ya? I apologize if I already asked, but I am going senile.
Nope, I'm not focused enough for that one!
Focused enough?
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