DNC Chair Tim Kaine was in Carmichael (suburban Sacramento County, CA) this afternoon speaking on behalf of Dr. Ami Bera for Congress campaign (CA-03). The campaign HQ was packed, standing room only, and even spilled outside. Parking was horrible. Those are pretty good signs for a political event on a hot midweek August afternoon. Dr. Bera is a candidate who listens well, an amazing contrast to the incumbent (Dan Lundgren). Dr. Bera's campaign is grass-roots-oriented, whereas Lundgren's is about sucking up to corporations. It was good for Dr. Bera's volunteers (I'm one of them) to see the DNC Chair come all the way out here to go to bat for our guy. But...
The event speeches were interesting...well, OK, they were kind of boring. But I was really intrigued by what I learned chatting with my fellow volunteers. I personally went there in the hopes of letting Tim Kaine know I'm tired of working for a national Democratic Party without a spine. In my view, 51 votes is a Senate majority. I believe a Senate filibuster should require the filibustering Senator to be physically inside the Senate, reading from the phonebook or something. I think "secret holds" are un-democratic. I want to know why the Democrats let Teddy Kennedy's seat slip away to a Republican. I'm not clear on the wisdom behind letting Blanche Lincoln win the Arkansas primary with the result being she only stands up for Wal-Mart like she always does and the Arkansas Senate seat will go into the R column in November. Wassup with not taking on Michele Bachmann? Why was the public option sold out, and so early in the game? Where the hell is an energy bill or a climate change bill? Why is stimulus mostly about bailing out Wall Street bankers? And why, ferheavensakes, do those guys get bonuses? If Obama campaigned on a middle-class tax relief platform, why should gazillionaires have their Bush tax breaks continued? Etc. etc. blah blah on and on. I didn't get a chance to ask him any of those questions b/c he slipped away before I could speak with him. Not a problem, though. In talking with the other volunteers, I learned they had the same kinds of questions.
It's one thing to compromise with conservative Democrats. It's another to compromise with selfish people like Joe Lieberman or any one of several allegedly moderate Republicans. Why "compromise" with any of those people when the "compromise" hurts you or puts you in an awkward bargaining position? It was comforting to see other volunteers bringing those points directly to Tim Kaine. Us local volunteers for Democratic candidates may be 3000 miles on the wrong side of the beltway, but we're not dumb. Yes, we want our guy (Dr. Bera) to win a Congressional seat, but we also want him to have a decent chance of getting things done when he gets there. I wonder if the DNC will pay attention to our concerns.