I've Had Just About Enough of This Nonsense

Like a toddler who isn't getting enough attention, Andre's is flipping over the furniture again-posting his frustrations with the DPG on Peach Pundit, a republican blog. This is like complaining about your husband to his ex-lover. Except I'm not sure that Andre' and Erick were ever officially dating, given that Erick's been busy condemning an entire denomination.

There certainly are things that need to improve with the DPG, candidate recruitment being at the top of the list, so complain about the party. Fine. I don't mind criticism, especially constructive criticism, but it does sort of send me to the edge when someone who once worked for the party consistently behaves in a distracting and destructive manner rather than constructively attempting to become a part of the solution(s). It also send me over the edge when folks go over to republican-land to vent their spleen-especially when that criticism is devoid of a single constructive suggestion.

Amazing, really, that Andre' doesn't want anyone to brag about the seats we picked up in the House. I happily spent hours-for free-helping Bubber Epps who finally defeated Allen Freeman after two previous close calls. I have friends in the blogosphere who freely gave their time and talent to get commercials cut for him, as well. And, he won in a tough district, by less than 100 votes. That may not matter to Andre', but to us in Middle Georgia who genuinely believe we will be better represented, it does matter. And, I happily turned over every rock I could find to help Pat Dooley get the resources she needed to win her race, as did many other democrats and democratic groups. I'm curious about what Andre', who is a member of the state committee, did to help recruit candidates or get the ones we had in the field elected? Maybe he should write about his own efforts and in those we might find some solutions. One point of interest-he praises Rep. Winfred Dukes for calling for an investigation into the party's dealings in a school board race, but fails to mention that Dukes is Vice Chair of Candidate Recruitment for the DPG, presumably responsible for, oh, I don't know? Candidate recruitment? But, there is not a word of criticism for Dukes, just Jane Kidd. Maybe Jane spirited Dukes away to some undisclosed location. Clearly, it is ALL her fault.

Now, Andre is attempting to use the results of the Martin and Powell campaigns as support for his ongoing campaign to attack Jane Kidd. Perhaps Andre's thinks we'll elect him. Or maybe Vernon Jones. There clearly is a long line of people who want to work for free at a job guaranteed to award a permanent spot on the dunking booth perch so Andre' and others can gleefully hurl their softballs.

But, let's take a breath and look realistically at what the results of the runoff do, and do not mean. Of the 35 U.S. Senate seats up for re-election this cycle, exactly four incumbents, all republicans, were defeated. Three of those seats are in states with democratic governors-North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Oregon, and all three of those states went for Obama in the presidential election. Only Alaska, where Mark Begich barely defeated convicted felon Ted Stevens, had a republican governor (you might've heard of her) and voted for McCain in the presidential election. Oh, and, by the way, in these four races, only the two women, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, got more than 50% of the vote in the general election. Shaheen had the advantage of high statewide name recognition because she was a former governor. Think Barnes v. Chambliss. And, then in one of the stupidest political moves in my memory, Liddy Dole called Kay Hagan "godless" and that race was all over-probably the presidential, too in N.C. So, except for the narrow defeat of Ted Stevens (did I mention that he was a convicted felon?), there was no state in the whole county that McCain carried in the presidential that ousted an incumbent republican senator. But, obviously, Georgia should be cutting edge.

So what do the Georgia results mean? We do need a more coordinated, pro-active approach to candidate recruitment. We do have enough democrats in Georgia to win statewide elections, if we can figure out how to get them to the polls. And, we do need to raise money-not easy to do as the opposition party, but it will be easier with a democratic president, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. And, by the way, would you rather the party have money in the bank after an election or rather that they spent all they had, and more to help candidates? And, fyi, the 40K for the space for the inaugural party will be reimbursed in full to the party by another organization.

The bottom line? Saxby was bad, really bad. But he was not a convicted felon. The time to win that senate race was in the general, and if the DSCC had spent in the general like they did in the runoff, there might've been a chance. Everyone with two neurons to make a synapse knew that Martin and Powell winning the runoff was a Hail Mary. We hoped for the miracle. We gave, we phoned, volunteers came in droves, but it just wasn't happening. And, that's not Jane Kidd's fault.

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On the Phone With Gov. Howard Dean

Right now, on his birthday and mine, DNC Chair, Gov. Howard Dean is doing a conference call for bloggers, and he's spending the majority of the time taking questions. I asked him about the DNC efforts with regard to Jim Martin's race in Georgia. He said that all of the Obama campaign offices are re-opening or remaining open, and that the DNC is investing significant money in the race, along with the DSCC. Gov. Dean praised Jim Martin, saying that he is a great person and a great candidate who anyone supportive of Barack Obama should be pleased to vote for. Dean correctly noted that this runoff election is all about turn out and stressed the importance of grassroots efforts, especially knocking on doors, to get those all important voters to the polls.

There were also questions from bloggers in West Virginia and Louisiana about how those of us in 'red' states could work to improve chances for Democrats. Again, Dean pointed to both the national trends, the gains made in those states this cycle and said that his eye was on Texas as a prime target for Democrats over the next two election cycles. (Just so we're clear, I'm making it my personal mission to make Georgia a prime DNC target, and we'll talk more about that later.)
In response to a direct question, Dean essentially said that he could not explain why President-elect Obama's overall performance was better than Gore and Kerry, yet in some areas of Appalachia and the "inland South" Obama did not preform as well as they did. Of course, the question essentially raised the issue of to what degree race was a factor in some areas of the country.

I really appreciated the fact that Gov. Dean did this call today, drawing in the bloggers in a substantive way. Thanks, and Happy Birthday, Gov. Dean!

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Details on Denver

On Sunday, I'll get on a plane and head to the DNCC in Denver. I'll be blogging for Georgia's State Blogger Corp member, Tondee's Tavern . Just one blog per state was chosen for this honor, and Tondee's will literally have a front row seat to all the action in Denver. With press credentials, a floor pass and a seat with the Georgia Delegation, Tondee's will have an excellent opportunity to cover the activities of the Georgia Delegation in Denver. In all, the DNCC credentialed more than 120 blogs, an unprecedented number and another indication that Obama has and will run a "bottom up" campaign.

Lauren Benedict will also get on an airplane Sunday, and she will be blogging at the DNCC for Georgia Women Vote! So, check here for her posts.

You'll notice the Zannel application in the sidebar. We'll be able to use that to post photographs, video and short text updates from Denver, so that will be a good place to look for breaking news-like the name of the VP nominee!

We're excited and can't wait to give you a front row seat to history, so tune in!

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Should Progressive Bloggers Give Dems a Pass?

This should be a lively debate.

Should progressive bloggers refuse to speak ill of other Democrats? Yesterday, I spoke about blogging at the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women's Spring Meeting. (It was, by the way a very well put together, well planned event thanks to people like Tina Simms, Kathy Bird and others. Great work, ladies.) Catherine Smith from Blog for Democracy was also there and chimed in with some helpful information. Toward the end of my remarks, Gail Buckner who served in the Georgia House and then was the Democratic nominee for Secretary of State stood and, in summary, expressed her concern about some things that were written about her on blogs during the last cycle, observed that she does not see conservative bloggers bashing Republicans (must not have been reading Peach Pundit lately) and opined-I am paraphrasing-that perhaps we should not speak ill of our own, and if we do, we should be sure that what we say is true.

Well, I certainly agree with the last part of her statement-that we shouldn't write something unless we believe it's true, but what about the rest? I have taken, and will continue to take Democrats to task on issues important to me personally. I was critical of Jim Marshall for his vote on Children's Health Insurance, and I questioned John Barrow about his statements about children of illegal immigrants. I took a couple of Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly to task for co-sponsoring the "Personhood" legislation and fussed with Kevin Levitas about his position on reducing the number of jurors required to impose the death penalty. I have challenged campaign tactics and the lack there of. I could go on. But, on balance, I spend far more time challenging Republicans than Democrats.

My thought has always been that if we are unwilling to challenge our own, then how do we have any credibility when we challenge Republicans? But, my question to you is, should progressive bloggers back off other Democrats and instead adopt Regan's Rule? If there's a line, where is it?

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Where Are the Women's Voices?

Why is it that male voices dominate the political blogs? That's the question Catherine Morgan of Informed Voter is asking, and now, after cataloging more than 200 political blogs by women, she has launched The Political Voices of Women a site "dedicated to giving women political bloggers a voice." Today, she's linked Girl With Pen who asks why only three of the twenty "bloggingheads" debating politics at the New York Times online are women and why, at http://bloggingheads.tv/, exactly zero of the blogger on the homepage are women.

There are a few female political bloggers in Georgia-me, the women over at Blog for Democracy, Spacey Gracey, who else?

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It's Called Debt

There's been a lot of yacking on the blogs today about a fundraiser Rep. Porter is having tomorrow. For the record, I didn't get an invitation either, and I haven't talked with him at all about the event. Also, I agree that bloggers should've been included in the press invite to the event. On the other hand, I'm glad to see him raising money. Money is one of the things-not the only thing-that stands between Democrats and victory in Georgia. If you look at states where the Democratic House and Senate caucuses have chipped away at the margins and regained the majority, the leadership of those caucuses made it their business to raise money-typically LOTS of money-whether or not their own races were contested. Our elected officials have to do that as well. As long as the caucus carries debt, we are operating with one hand tied behind our back when we try to get Democrats elected. So, while we box his ears for not inviting us to the party, let's not discourage him from raising the cash. We need it.

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Hometown Guy Does Good

Based on the recommendation of a friend, I picked up a copy of "The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics" by Matt Bai, and have been reading it this afternoon. I noticed in the acknowledgements that Matt has some awfully nice things to day about one of Macon's own, Jay Carson. Bai, calls Jay, who has worked for both Tom Daschle and Bill Clinton, "one of the great young talents in the Democratic Party." Some of you from Macon will remember Jay and his parents who now live in North Carolina. Jay's dad, Jim, was an attorney here for years and active in Democratic politics.

On a separate note, the book is a very interesting look at the evolution of the modern progressive movement and it's impact on the Democratic Party. Just published in 2007, it's filled with campaign trail stories and covers the 2006 Democratic takeover of Congress, so it is an interesting read that makes a compelling point. Here's a quote to get you started:

I was surprised to discover, as I tried to understand the progressive revolt, that most of it's leaders were trying to understand it, too. What they were still searching for in those early days of the movement was an argument, some compelling case for the future of American government. They aspired to win, but to what end?....

A kind of lingering unease shadows the land, and the movement that dominates the next generation of American politics will be the one not that exploits this emotion, nor that tries to soothe it away but that articulates some new and persuasive argument for how we meet the future.

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