Dems on the hill do not care what problem it is; they will solve it. I very much doubt that these folks will qualify for McKinsey jobs. Without any ideology and fierce urgency of now -- best they will come is empty suits, a McKinsey Consultant sans brains or heart. A vacuous party.
Watched "State of the Union" on CNN with Candy Crowley. The first guest was Chris Van Hollen, the Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). It was very painful.
Candy started with: "Chairman Van Hollen - I would like play for you a montage of some of your candidates and ads they are running in their district. Take a listen."
Mike McIntyre -- [ I don't work for Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid or for that matter anyone else..]
Jason Altmire -- [ I like Jason Altmire because he is not afraid to stand up to the President. And Nancy Pelosi..]
Chet Edwards -- [ When President Obama and Nancy Pelosi pressured Chet Edwards, Chet stood up to them and voted no to their trillion dollar health care bill] [No on HR 3962, No on HR 3590, No on HR 1872, etc. etc.]
Joe Donnelly -- [Opposed Pelosi Energy Tax on Hoosier families [only Hoosier?]
Ben Arnold? -- [Most Independent Democrat in Congress, I will bring people together for the good of the country] This Ad features Ben with Tan man Boehner (not kidding). [Voted 80% with the Republican Leader]
Candy proceeded: "The last ad shows a Democrat, in his district, next to John Boehner and saying that he voted 80% of the time with Boehner! Is this the sort of way you are going to keep the majority?"
Van Hollen responded: "Here is thing candy. We are very proud of the fact that we have a ideologically very diverse caucus."
Candy tries to get a word in "But they are talking against the Speaker".
Van Hollen talks over her sentence hoping people will not be able to make out the sentence: "No they are talking about their independence on certain issues (80% or perhaps 100%?) On some issues they stood with the Speaker and the President (20%?) and on certain others they opposed the President and the Speaker (80%?). That is their job!"
Van Hollen carries on smugly: "This is opposite of the other side (lighter or darker?) where there is this test of ideological purity. Which has increasingly stronger with the Tea Party". He than cites how the moderate Republicans have lost to the Tea Party candidates.
He repeats: We have a big tent and we are Problem Solvers -- without labels or idealogy getting in the way.
This last circus was neither convincing to Candy nor to me. To me it is was political hogwash, like tossing dirt on your dog's poop. It was impossible for Van Hollen to hide the opportunistic approach of Dems.
The crux of the matter is that these exact people have been destroying the people's agenda. If to get elected you have to bring down party leadership and take credit for sabotaging Democratic legislation,you should run as an independent.
This whole decrying of ideology by President on down is best exemplified in their recent liberal bashing. Chris Van Hollen also said Democratic Party is not a party of ideology -- we all are problem solvers. I have not heard such an idiotic claim from any Party anywhere in the world.
Dems on the hill do not care what problem it is; they will solve it. I very much doubt that these folks will qualify for McKinsey jobs. Without any ideology and fierce urgency of now -- best they will come is empty suits, a McKinsey Consultant sans brains or heart. A vacuous party.
I recently pushed myself to push the GOTV effort in the Democratic Party. But this episode is very disturbing. Are the volunteers supposed to say that we really have no ideology - our candidates are so diverse that we just keep doing the right thing without having an agenda etc to bind us. What happens to Ben Arnold's volunteers or is he getting his funding from RNC. Perhaps Ben is in good shape smooching moolah both from DNC and RNC.
It is for this reason I hate to give any money to these unprincipled bozo leadership of the Party organs. They did not even had the courage to push back publicly on the GZ Mosque bigotry (President's one speech being an exception). If DCCC is given the money and they channel it to Ben Arnold or another Blue Dog or Bitch -- it is a fraud pulled on the donors.
I will continue to support the Candidates with a truthful commitment to the Democratic agenda. I can not even pray for such soulless pathetic opportunists to win in the election on a Democratic ticket. If they had any principles they ought to run as Independents and not destroy a party from within.