Senator Russ Feingold already demonstrated he's ahead of the curve by telling New Hampshire Democrats at their State Convention that "'I don't like it when a national party tells local people how they should run their campaigns. They should stay out of it,' ... to loud applause at the kick-off breakfast meeting."
What he was referring to was the DCCC "selection" of one of the First District candidates as the challenger for Rep. Jeb Bradley.
Our conservative paper of record, the Manchester Union Leader, has come out with a pungent editorial:
Taking no chances: Democrat bosses choose for NH dolts
"WE'RE NOT taking chances leaving it to Sept. 12 to find out who our nominee is."
So says a member of the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, explaining that the group has anointed state Rep. Jim Craig of Manchester as the party's candidate for Congress in the First District.
It so happens that Sept. 12 is the date Democrats, and Republicans, are supposed to hold primaries to see whom the voters in their respective parties might like to choose as their nominees. But that apparently won't be necessary, now that Ms. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (she is a Florida congressman) and her committee have determined a winner.
This is good to know for a couple of reasons. First, taxpayers should be delighted to save the expense of an actual election. (Keep that kind of thing for places that really need democracy, like Iraq.)
Second, the other Democrats who thought they were running -- people like Peter Sullivan, Gary Dodd, and Carol Shea-Porter -- can save their time and money and that of their friends and supporters. Granted, they might be disappointed to learn that they didn't make the cut, but isn't it better to find that out now rather than suffer the shame and humiliation of an actual vote?
When asked why the DCCC backed Craig, Wasserman Schultz mentioned his name recognition and fund-raising ability. Never mind what a candidate stands for as long as the candidate can win!
We wonder when the Republicans are going to learn from the Democrats and stop all this lower-case "d" democracy foolishness. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley may not even have an in-party foe in September on the GOP side. So why bother with a primary?
Granted, there is always that space they leave on the ballot for a write-in candidate. But isn't that just asking for trouble from those pesky voters? Far better for New Hampshire Republicans to take a page from the national Democratic playbook and let the party bosses take care of these things instead of "taking chances leaving it to Sept. 12."
In fact, isn't it about time to abolish the whole irritating primary process? Maybe that is what the Democrats have been trying to tell us by attempting to take the Presidential Primary out of New Hampshire voters' hands. You never know what voters here might do!
In addition, it's probably noteworthy that while our local TV station chose to cover the re-emergence of one of our candidates (after an auto accident) as representative of the whole convention, the delegates were obviously inspired by Feingold when they voted for both a resolution of censure of George W. Bush AND a resolution calling for his impeachment, contrary to the recommendations of the resolutions committee.
They obviously took the call to stand up for what's right to heart and pledged themselves to take back their party as well as their country.