California Conservative

To say that Democratic activists are upset with Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid shoving Paul Hackett out of the Ohio Democratic Primary would be understatement. Let’s compare what the NY Times said with what the Lefty Blogosphere is saying:

Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio’s closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders. Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

So much for standing by your word, huh? Sens. Reid and Shumer urge Hackett to challenge DeWine, then shove him out of the race because they find another candidate that they think is ‘more electable’. If that’s the type of loyalty that governs their life, then aren’t Sens. Reid and Schumer pretty sleazy people? I wouldn’t trust them if my life depended on it.

Now let’s see the Fever Swamp reaction:

My Fax to Reid and Schumer Re: Paul Hackett Dropping Out of Ohio Race by Radio Left:

To Senator Charles Schumer,
To Senator Harry Reid
Having just read where Paul Hackett dropped out of the senate race in Ohio due to pressure placed upon him by the both of you that is one of the many reasons why I resigned my position as committee member for the Democratic Party and left the party itself. From where I see it, we let the people decide and not the party power brokers. If this race were to make it to the primary, the people decide and not the party power brokers. This is after all a government for, of and by the people. Isn’t it?

Quite frankly, I cheered when Paul Hackett said: “their party had been hijacked by religious extremists who he said “aren’t a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden.” I was thrilled when he refused to apologize when he said: “I said it. I meant it. I stand behind it.” I am of the opinion that his remark shows leadership and something we are all craving right now. It is taking an argument right to the opposition and where one does not back down. We are tired of hearing of any opposition leader apologize to the Republican Party and its leader George W. Bush.
While he has made his decision to leave politics all together and quite frankly who can blame him when he has people stopping him. I will leave you both with a passage from the Declaration of Independence which cites: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Perhaps through his out spoken nature, that is what Paul Hackett was fighting for and that was to remind people that they have the power and must wrest it back from party power brokers.
Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen
I will be circulating this letter around to various political lists on the Internet and will place it on my blog at RadioLeft.com

That’s funny. First Ms. MacElveen says “Quite frankly, I cheered when Paul Hackett said: “their party had been hijacked by religious extremists who he said “aren’t a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden.” I was thrilled when he refused to apologize when he said: “I said it. I meant it. I stand behind it.” Then she cites the section in the Declaration of Independence that talks about our Creator and about our “unalienable Rights”. If religious people aren’t “a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden”, then why think about a Divine Creator?

Not to be left out, here’s something from the Daily Kos titled “Hackett’s Career Destroyed By Ruthless Democratic Party Bosses”:

I had no ACT BLUE page up for either Paul Hackett or Sherrod Brown. I think either man would have made an excellent U.S. Senator, better than most. Brown is tried and true. Hackett is brash and unpredictably refreshing. I sent Hackett a contribution when he ran against Schmidt last summer and I would have done the same for whomever the Democratic primary voters chose to represent them against Mike DeWine. But we’ll never know who the voters would have chosen because the Inside the Beltway party bosses, as is their wont, have driven Hackett out of the race AS THEY ARE DOING TO GRASSROOTS CANDIDATES AND PROGRESSIVES ALL OVER AMERICA.

Talk about being on the warpath. WOW!!! But as bad as those are, this post is the angriest:

Over the past few months, the same folks who have spent the last 10 years dismantling this once great political party brick by brick have wallowed in their self-declared Machiavellian genius, taking the greatest opportunity to thoroughly defeat the GOP in my lifetime and methodically squandering it, prancing around like king makers with no kingdom, banging their tired worn out shoes on the politburo’s table like Khrushchev over a crumbling empire seen only by the blind, laughing at the mirage of success visible only to the delusional. All while simultaneously managing to anger not just the old timers, but just about every ounce of new blood the ODP had no right to expect would come their way, but did anyhow, inexplicably, because politics is supposed to be about hope.
I’ve never voted Republican, and never will. But I will not raise a single finger to help this ODP ticket, along with so many others; newcomers who’ve seen their energy ignored and ridiculed, veterans who’ve warned against the inevitable every step of the way, and the old timers who just can’t take anymore. I will hope, yet again, that yet another disastrous ODP performance will somehow yield the house cleaning we keep waiting for. This state has suffered tremendously because my party is a complete joke, yielding uninterrupted GOP rule for so long that Ohio literally rots beneath our feet. There is nothing about the 2006 Democratic ticket that will change any of that, a ticket whose existence is owed not to a choice by voters, but to the divisive short circuiting of the democratic process.

Now that’s pure anger and I can’t blame him for it, though I think some of his points are over-the-top. If what he’s saying is true, then it might be that DeWine isn’t in as much trouble as he might’ve been. Had the newcomers that this author referenced stayed energized, then it might’ve been big trouble for DeWine and possibly with Blackwell, too.

Only time will tell but I’m thinking that turnout will be lackluster for Democrats.

Cross-post at LetFreedomRing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, Elections, Liberals, Special Interests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.