I admit it. I'm pissed. And I don't mind saying so, no matter how much crap I have to take for it. Because I am pretty damn frustrated with kneejerk frenzy around here to lavish praise on any 'Fighting Dem' who throws his or her hat into the ring.
And it's not because I don't love these guys. I do. I'm giving them money. I'm volunteering time. And I think they create a really important new flank in the progressive fight. I am a Fighting Dem myself (no, I'm not running for anything this year), a Vietnam-era veteran, and I am 100% behind a strong national defense posture within the Democratic party.
But what do you do if you're not a Fighting Dem? What do you do if you're just a hard-working public school teacher who's sweating blood to unseat a Republican sleaze bag in a race that Hotline says:
"Without [this seat], it's hard to imagine where (Democrat) pickups 14 and 15, etc., come from."
House Race Hotline on NC-08, March 2006
That school teacher is
Larry Kissell. And Larry Kissell has a serious shot . . . very serious . . . at taking out Wingnut Robin Hayes in NC-8. Kissell's a smart guy with a commitment to this country that you can feel when you talk to him. He's a solid progressive. He's running a strong grassroots campaign.
But he's not a Fighting Dem.
Oh, we had a Fighting Dem in that race for little while. And Kossacks everywhere were gushing all over the guy, Tim Dunn, because, well, because he was a Fighting Fucking Dem. Nevermind that never even got his campaign off the friggin' ground. He was a Fighting Dem. And when he dropped out of the race because he couldn't get his shit together, the left wing blogosphere blinked, shed half a tear, and moved on to whatever other Fighting Dem they could find to gush about.
November 7, 2006 is not about Fighting Dems. It is about taking back one house of Congress. And if Hotline is right, we're screwed unless we win here in North Carolina.
I'm sorry I'm pissed, but I don't know what else to do. It's not like others haven't brought this up before. Hell, the most recent diary by Millstone even reported that Dunn threw his support to Kissell when he left the race.
Just to be clear, I have no relationship with Kissell or his campaign. I'm in David Price's (D, NC-4) district, and I feel like I have the luxury of focusing on the other opportunities here in North Carolina. Larry Kissell's run against Robin Hayes is one of them. (The other is Heath Shuler, who is going to take down Charles "Delay" Taylor in NC-11. I'll be writing about that race later.)
So here's the bottom line for me: We're going to need more than Fighting Dems to get our country back. We're going to need at least on school teacher, too. So it's time to put our money where our mouths are. Some of you can reach deep and give big. Please do that if you can. Some of you can only spare five bucks. Do that too. But no matter what, do it now. The end of March filings are screaming down on campaigns all across the country. Our candidates need to roll into the second quarter with as much momentum as possible.
If you want to read more about Kissell, go here and here. ANd if you just want to give money, go here.
Thanks for anything you can do to help us get North Carolina back to blue.