I'll state the obvious and say there's been a lot of fussing back and forth about Ellen Tauscher here as of late. Most of the arguing revolves around kos posting certain pictures, two of which almost qualify as obscene material. But I won't talk about that. I've lived in Arkansas long enough to know that when you beat a dead horse for too long, an angry oppussum runs out of its butt. I'm not kidding either. But burried underneath the whole thing is a serious conversation that needs to be had; one that I havn't quite had with myself as of yet. At what point should we primary the members of our own party? When does it become more than an itch and something of an obligation to charge into a civil war with our fellow Democrats?
Let's look at a couple of examples for some ideas first.
Lieberman is the most notable example. I'm going to confess my sins here. Just remember, God has forgiven me for this and I hope you all will too. I used to be a Lieberman supporter, for about ten seconds. That was back when he was running for prez in 2003 and I knew diddly squat. I thought he could beat Bush, that was my only reason for backing him at first. Then I got to see him rail on people like Howard Dean and Wes Clark, and listen to him bash liberals in a way that would make certain Fox News anchors proud, all of which drove me off in disgust. Still, I didn't have any huge quams with the guy until he started blasting critics of the war, which included me. That was the final straw. As far as I was concerned, people were fighting and dying for no good reason and the man didn't (or rather doesn't) have the gumption to do a damn thing about it. He had to go. Sadly, he didn't.
Then there was our old friend Bill Jefferson. A crook, plain and simple. Running him from office was a moral obligation. Sadly, it didn't work out that way, but I think that had more to do with the wake Katrina carved out in New Orlean politics than anything, and I'm hoping to see him indicted and impeached (by his own party).
Then there was Cynthia McKinney, one of the biggest nuts in Washington, at least on our side of the fence. She kinda doomed herself with all her crazyness, and she didn't just embaress her friends and allies in the party but also her contituents. The division and controversy she stirred (which aren't bad things mind you, I like a little controversy and a little cutting down the middle every now and then, but not to the extremes she took it) made her completely ineffective, so her constituents gave her the boot.
Now ask yourself a question. Who (other than Lieberman or Jefferson) would you most like to see primaried? I asked that question to myself and two names jumped into my head:Joe Biden and Ben Nelson. (I doubt either will happen, but I can dream can't I?)
I can't stand Biden, not just because he's full of himself, but because he regularly puts the interest of the credit card companies ahead of consumers, like he did in that draconian bankruptcy bill. My probelm with Nelson is that he's an avowed social conservative, buttering up Dobson and the "Bigots-for-Bush" crowd and kicking gay people like myself in the teeth. (I should also point out that both of these guys have still stated they don't regret their vote for the war.)
Okay, now that I have that out of the way, I have to ask myself who do I not want to see primaried, even though they may have similar flaws. My own senators come to mind, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. I find myself cursing them one day and praising them the next, but I still don't care to see them drummed out of office because I think they're doing a fairly good job (Blanche more than Pryor) and I think that their hearts are in the right place. Another one that jumped in my head was Ken Salazaar. I'm not nearly as warm to him as I was when he first ran for Senate back in '04, but I respect the man and I think there's room for him in the party and, more importantly, the senate, as long as he doesn't go as far out as Lieberman has. I may get blasted for that, but oh well, I'm not concerned.
So what common threads are there to be found in all this? The war, corruption, and effictiveness? Kind of. The effictiveness part, I think, is more a question for the constituents to answer than anything. Corruption is a definate sign of a politician who's got to go. But the war plays into a bigger idea. It plays into the same idea that gets Biden and Nelson into hot water with me. That idea is that you don't advocate policy that hurts people, especially the least among us. When a Democrat puts the interests of big business before workers and consumers; when a Democrat panders to fear and prejudice, demonizing good people for votes from bigots; when a Democrat is willing to stand by while mothers cry for their babies that they've lost in a war of choice; that Democrat is a Republican.
There's room in this party for people who are prolife or a little hawkish. We can be like the Republicans in more ways than one after all, and I for one refuse to see my party become a bunch of canabalistic snakes like they have. Remember what they did to Arlen Specter? How about McCain back in 2000? Or what they threaten Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham with on conservative radio? Don't get me wrong, I have problems with all four of those guys I just mentioned, but my stomach churns when I hear what people like Sean Hannity say about them and see what people like Pat Toomey do to them. I don't want my party to be like that. We don't need ideological purity, though we need party discipline, which is something else entirely. You don't badmouth everyone in the party and expect them to nominate you for the presidency you know. We don't necessarily have to like each other either. I, for one, couldn't stand to be around Chuck Schumer. Wouldn't stop me from voting for him, nor would it give me reason to encourage a primary against him. But when one of our own is ineffective, corrupt, and turns his or her back on our fellow human beings, that Republicrat deserves to be tossed. To be sure, there's a bit of wiggle room in all of that, and I'm sure some of it is in the eye of the beholder. But those three basic ideas serve as a good basis for the determination of when we should turn on one of our own and, as Teddy Roosevelt once put it so colorfully and poetically, "march to Armeggedon to do battle for the Lord."