In the ongoing turgid drama on this site about the possible appointment of Caroline Kennedy as junior senator from New York, I got a fascinating response from The Man himself about the possibility of primarying Kennedy if she turns out to be a lousy senator:
Seriously
when was the last time a Senator was primaried out?
And I think we can all assume that they haven't been so safe because they don't suck.
Color me stunned that the author of Crashing the Gate Taking on the System (I need to not diary when sleep-deprived...) would be expressing that viewpoint.
The entire idea behind the call for "more and better Democrats" is that no one is truly safe. If a Democrat in office doesn't get the job done, find one who will. It doesn't matter if you're an entrenched incumbent; if you aren't responsive to the will of the electorate, you will pay the price.
To me, this is no longer just about Caroline Kennedy. This is about what can and cannot be accomplished to improve this country. What kos said to me in that post is that a senator who has done a bad job and been in office for just two years, two years that will likely be terrible ones for trying to build up an election war chest, will be impossible to primary.
If that's true, then what's the point of all this "more and better Democrats" talk? If bad Democrats who have wriggled into office cannot be replaced by good Democrats, then what's the point of the fight? The DC establishment holds all the cards, and once you're in the club the plebes and the rabble can't touch you, short of handing the keys over to the Republicans and trying again in four/six years.
Does that sound like DailyKos to you? Does that sound like kos to you?
It's that kind of thinking that Hilary Clinton was counting on this year, and that kind of thinking that was proven wrong when Obama beat her.
I don't know whether Caroline Kennedy will be a good senator or not. I do know that conceding her a senate seat in perpetuity if she gets named to it by Gov. Paterson isn't fighting against the concept of American political dynasties, it's surrendering to that concept.
And if it's what kos truly believes then his best-selling book is just a bunch of dead trees, and he should pull the plug on this site. Because there's nothing behind all his grand talk of crashing the gate and retaking the party at all, at all.
I don't believe that though. And I don't think he does either.
