Okay, I know that Tennessee is not an oasis of progressivism. It's a state not even native son Al Gore could carry, and in the Dem primaries, it went strongly for Hillary Clinton. It's also the home of freshman Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis), who is facing a primary challenge from people back home who resent that a white, Jewish man is representing a district that's 90 percent African American.
The Nashville City Paper reports that superdelegate Lincoln Davis, a Congressman whose district went strongly for Clinton in the primary, has been "slow to endorse Obama." This is not remarkable in its own right, and I'm sure there are other elected officials who are not eager to get out in front of their constituents and endorse a candidate they rejected.
While Davis couldn't be reached for comment, unfortunately "Fred Hobbs, a state Democratic Party Executive Committee member representing part of Davis’ district," could. And this is what he said:
"Maybe [it’s] the same reason I don’t want to — I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things he stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him," Hobbs said when asked why he thought Davis wasn’t endorsing Obama. "He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be."
WTF?? I don't expect the bubbas and yahoos in my state to all fall into line, but for a Democratic executive to use such a scurrilous attack line against his party's presumptive presidential nominee seems to me to call for some kind of retribution from above. I have no idea whether the DNC has any official sway over the state parties - I suspect not - but Howard Dean or someone needs to call on the state party to rein this guy in.
By the way, Hobbs' e-mail address, which is published on the state party's web site, is hobbsf@realtracs.com, in case you would like to encourage him to stop trying to destroy our presidential candidate.
UPDATE: Obligatory "Wow - this is my first recommended diary!" update. :) Plus, if you write to Mr. Hobbs, please be courteous. I find myself in agreement with this diary that Kossacks outside Tennessee might help more by complaining to the DNC, but I don't necessarily think that polite, correctly spelled and reasonable e-mails directly to Mr. Hobbs are harmful.
UPDATE 2: I just spoke again with the TN Dem party, and the very nice woman who answered the phone confirmed what some commenters asserted - Fred Hobbs has issued a retraction. She is going to e-mail it to me, and I will update this diary with it when I receive it. GREAT JOB, KOSSACKS! Way to kick some ass.