Note: yesterday I posted a diary that addressed the Senate race in Texas where many in the Netroots worked to draft Rick Noriega, only to find out that Bob "swiftboat" Perry was his biggest contributor. Also important to this discussion are the comments that Noriega made to the Texas Broadcasters Association:
"We've seen talk radio become an organizing tool for the die-hard right, while liberals are credited with turning the blogosphere into a political weapon. Each of those media has a targeted demographic group and works them into an ideological lather," Noriega said.
"This, I believe, is damaging to the political culture in this country."
While this is a Texas issue, it provides a heuristic for the entire progressive sphere. There are issues here on mistakes to avoid and there is a discussion to be had on how to use net support to influence a progressive agenda.
That being said here is what I posted to the Burnt Orange Report earlier today
I am too far out of the loop to know if there is anything for the Texas Democratic netroots to learn from the Noriega/Perry issue. My hunch is that there is. This hunch is based mostly on the silence of most of those involved in the effort to draft Noriega.
Despite the vehemence of my arguments on this one issue, I am not convinced that the effort to draft Noriega was a mistake in a broad sense. It seems that at the very least there were some aspects of this effort that could have been improved on.
The natural inclination is to turn away and move past mistakes as quickly as possible. It is cliché to say that we learn from our mistakes, but it is a cliché that bears repeating because it is not so easily done. One of the things that keeps people from taking a good hard look at what might be labeled as a mistake is the fear of incrimination. As one who has pushed the perspective that it is not acceptable for progressives to endorse candidates who take money from Bob Perry, I would also like to defend the draft Noriega action to the extent that it might provide an argument to assuage such incrimination.
It has been suggested that the draft Noriega effort amounted to a backroom deal. I’m not sure if this is true or not. I suspect that is more an issue of an action taken in a vacuum. If there is a failure here, my sense is that it is more of a failure to elicit interest than it is a failure to engage that interest.
The other mistake that has been cited is not to have properly vet the candidate. This seems to be a valid point. If Noriega had been more thoroughly vetted I assume that this issue would have been confronted and controlled either by finding a different candidate or , at the very least, by putting the information out earlier and from the campaign, where it could have been more easily diffused in a better light.
It looks to me that Noriega owes his position in this race to two different sources, the netroots and Bob Perry, his largest single contributor. Strange bed fellows indeed. In that Perry has given much more money to Cornyn than Noriega, I would assume that going forward the netroots are going to be a net positive force (excuse the pun) and that Perry is going to be a net negative force. Even if he were to continue to give some money to Noriega he is going to give far more to Cornyn. I would hope that we could use this influence to make a difference.
While Noriega has apologized for the extremely disparaging remarks he made about us to the Texas Broadcasters Association, he needs to put his money where his mouth is. Perhaps it would be appropriate for Noriega to make a pledge not to take money from Republican operatives, to donate the Perry money to True Courage Action or some other campaign finance reform effort, and to layout a strong platform on campaign finance reform that speaks to the Republican evils of Delay/Rove/Abramoff tactics that needs to be addressed.
This would advance a truly progressive agenda that resonates even with most conservatives. The money contributed would probably be at least matched by the additional money that would be raised because of the act, the additional support that he would get from his engaged base and the publicity that would come from it. I’m sure that what every group(s) that received this money would help promote the issue that would become a central component of Noriega’s platform; a platform, if it exists, that is currently weak on substance.