The blogosphere came to the rescue in an incredibly short time to raise a huge amount of money (some $500k of the campaign’s $750k total) and on-the-ground support in droves for Democratic candidate Paul Hackett in the OH-2 special U.S. House election last Tuesday in Ohio. Those efforts either gave Hackett enough votes to win the race, or come damned close. The jury is still out on that, but either way, it showed that fighting to win works. Even in a supposedly 70-30 GOP district!
One of the key players in making all of that happen was Bob Brigham of the Swing State Project blog. He deserves a great amount of thanks and appreciation for his heroic efforts in front of, and behind, the scenes over the past week or more.
And now Bob has a few thoughts today for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) — and all the rest of the Democratic leadership — that are damned well very worth reading.
I helped raise at least $250 dollars for this guy alone just by spreading the word, and donated some too because he really was worth it.
The establishment dems just don’t get it. They’re still all wrapped up in the DLC world of "lingo garbage" which isn’t going to matter to americans, and isn’t going to get votes!
We can’t hope to do shit if we can’t stand up. That’s why the blogosphere is such a revolution in and of itself, for us younger folks who know that this bullshit Cheney et. all pulls right now is going to directly affect all our futures.
I mean we’re all the ones who have to live in this shithole after others pass on, and regardless of George getting impeached or not these assholes are still going to be around.
That’s why it is so vital. The blogosphere could take over quickly because Howard Dean seems to be the only one fully speaking out with Congress on behalf of them. And if the DCCC doesn’t get on board, the blogosphere is going to leave them behind.
We all want to fight, progressives all across america. We not only want to fight and win and take back the system, we want to stomp out the bullshit buerocrats once and for all. I see it as a revolution when you’re referring to this only, and its a revolution that ought to be televised.
Doug Eldritch
First of all, Hackett didn’t pussyfoot around what a lot of us have been thinking for a long time. Bush is a chickenhawk. The war in Iraq is engineered by chickenhawks. Meanwhile, this administration is not giving the troops what they need to fight and survive in Iraq: a scope on every rifle, night vision goggles for every trooper. Armor for every vehicle. And he has been highly critical of the way the war is being run. Hacket is a major in the Marine Reserves. He has been there.
What we need from the Democrats is a lot less of trying to be Republican lite, and a helluvalot more of hitting the economic issues (read What’s the Matter With Kansas). And we sure as hell do not need Democrats who help Republicans with bankruptcy bills and CAFTA and all the rest of the Republican agenda. What we need, is Democrats who act like Democrats, which is what Hackett did, and it worked. I hope that lesson is learned for the midterms.
OK blogosphere, we see our power, but we also see a loss. In football coach terms: a "moral victory is a loss"
We gotta win, y’all. And we can’t win if we allow them to steal the elections! It appears that they may have stolen this one, too. Fortunately, there have paper ballots. I hope somebody will re-count them, especially the ones that came in in the last 22 minutes when the counters "broke down."
In every state, we have to insist on paper ballots and random recounts of the paper ballots that will trigger a recount of the whole county/parish if not exactly the same as the machines’ vote count.
We won’t win unless we have free and fair elections.
This is a liberal country! We are majority FOR a woman’s right to choose; we are FOR an end to the war; we are FOR conserving the environment; we are FOR helping the poor; we are FOR gun control; we are FOR progressive taxes; we are FOR helping the 3rd world develop safely; we are FOR national health care; and on and on and on…
WHY NOT WORK TOGETHER AND WIN???
Oh and about the stolen elections– This is point number one the blogosphere needs to pound into the pavement, until all ballots are counted. That goes for **Ohio district 02** also, too many red flags.
What’s the latest update on this "illegitimate" result we have here, any interviews in Ohio?
Doug
I had saved this interview- 3/25/2005-that Raw Story’s Larisa Alexandrovna had with Scott Ritter (I can’t get the link to work, says it item requested can’t be found?) and this is what he had to say about Dean and the present Democratic party ;
Raw Story: What about Dean?
Ritter: Dean has to be part of the process of rebuilding and that will take time. Dean cannot run for President, because Dean cannot run as a Democrat–the party is not set up to sustain someone like him. He is one of the exceptions in a corrupt party. He is also not corrupted by his voting record. He is someone who represents something, he did not vote for the war in Iraq, for example.
Know what?
I say we get another Grand Jury together and literally convict John Roberts. That’s right, criminals have absolutely **no** right to appoint judges who will break the law and willfully obstruct justice.
Justice Roberts appears to be just that, and we should file class action suits **until they release the information** which could be detrimental to United States….If they do not hand over the documents, there’s no reason to listen or trust them at all.
Doug
re #5: GWN: You can read that Scott Ritter interview here
At this point, Dean is one of the view establishment Dems I trust. One of the things that impresses me the most about him is his insistence that we need to be developing and investing in the grassroots, and in particular, we need to be helping young folks run for office, because whether or not they win or lose, they are gaining experience that will make them great campaigners down the road. Good stuff. He’s also made comments and done things that lead me to believe that he is paying attention to the stolen election issue, which I see as the sine qua non.
As for most of the rest and especially Kerry -they all seem to be trying to cash in on Hackett’s accomplishment. I don’t see how most of them had anything to do with it. Quite the opposite.
Like Rush said, liberals have to pretend to be conservative to almost get elected. If Hackett ran as the liberal that he is, he would have lost 70-30.
I like Dean. He is an almost winner, and almost president, and almost an effective leader. He is a 100% loser. AAAUUUUUHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Then we got those like Paul who represent everything that’s wrong with the bible… :eyes:
A hand count of those counties has got to be done, it has to be fully audited and see where they stole it again.
Doug
WP – always able to find the exact quote or page! Amazing work!
Doug – since there have been so many problems documented in the 2000 onward elections, there is always going to be doubt until elections are transparent and fully auditable. And they should be.
Why all the brouhaha over recounts and why the manipulation of recounts that amounted to forcing numbers to fit the bottom line? (See Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio, 2004)
WinterPatriot , thanks for the updated site of the Ritter interview.
The fact that the DCCC, in it’s post-election analysis, didn’t mention the fact that Hacket was VERY anti-BushWar and that that was the most important issue of the campaign, is a clear sign of their irrelevance. Kos had a good post about this on his blog. Maybe, the DCCC is even part of the corruption. Fuck them. We don’t need them. That’s the other lesson of Hackett.
When you’re anti-BushWar, you get ALL of the Democrats, MOST of the Independents, and a good chunk of the Republicans. That’s how ’06 goes. Just be diligent. We the people will have some fucking accountability.