Don't let the door hit you...
Big news of the day, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Turncoat), has decided to retire and spend more time making money. OK. That's not what he said but I give him a month or less after he leaves office before he takes a K Street address. Willing to wager he already has something lined up. And a SOB to the end, he waited until after the party sank a cool million into protecting his seat. DSCC got snookered.
I'm not shedding any tears over it. Yes, I get the concern about the risk to the Senate majority, but so what? I've long contended electing so-called centrist Dems who vote with Republicans does more harm than good to the Democratic brand. I'm not persuaded it's worth it just because Nelson voted Dem on the big final votes. He also voted with Republicans on crucial early votes, to water down those bills to near worthlessness. He may well still be to the left of the GOP, but only barely. He gave them a lot of "bi-partisan" cover. Might as well just cede the seat to a GOPer. Make the Republicans own their bogus policy prescriptions. [Graphic via expatyourself.com]
[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]
Labels: Corporatocracy, Democrats, Election 2012
posted by Libby Spencer at 8:04 PM
5 Comments:
Yeah, good riddance AFAIC. Can't think of Ben Nelson and not remember how he sold us all out during the healthcare debate.
The only good thing I can say about his move is that at least he did it in advance of the election.
Jane Harmon, on the other hand, cost the party money to win her campaign and then cost the state of California millions more for a special election as she resigned to accept a cushy think tank job shortly thereafter.
Some candidates we have, eh?
I blame the DSCC and DCCC for only supporting establishment candidates and ignoring any real populists/progressives that manage to get on a ticket without them. I'm not a "there's no difference between the parties" person, but still think the entrenched pols on our side are a problem. Hard to change the system without getting rid of them.
I could NOT agree with you more, Libby. All the hand-wringing over the loss of Ben Nelson, as though he were a part of a Democratic majority when it actually mattered. Now nothing much matters at all, since corporations are pulling all their strings.
Really JW. We need to kick all the corporate whores out before we can expect any real changes. Good news is, a lot of them are aging out as are the voters who keep electing them.
Post a Comment
<< Home