Centerfield

Even the King threw a bone to the peasants, once in a while.

Just joking, I agree it is impressive. Now, lets do for centrism what Kos did for liberalism.

Posted by: Mathew at June 7, 2006 10:46 AM

Problem is that all the politicos coming by are begging Kos NOT to endorse them! Is his record still 0-19?

Posted by: PatHMV at June 7, 2006 11:43 AM

In his defense (thud), the Kos crowd had a huge victory in Montana with the Tester victory in the Democratic primary, who all but fully subscribed to the "Crashing the Gate" philosophy. Tester is currently leading in the polls versus the Republican incumbent.

Posted by: Mathew at June 7, 2006 12:09 PM

Problem is that all the politicos coming by are begging Kos NOT to endorse them! Is his record still 0-19?

No, I think it's 0-20 now; didn't he favor that awful woman in the California special election who just took a nose-dive? Posted by: Simon at June 7, 2006 01:27 PM

KOS is claiming yesterday as a sweeping victory--over the DLC.

For elections that actually result in attaining office-holding as the outcome, KOS is still batting 0.000. I'll give the fisking of Kos' rah-rah a pass for now, but he sure does work hard on casting losses as signs of impending future victories. But it kinda reminds me of the joke about the guy who showed up for his vasectomy wearing a tuxedo, who said "If I'm going to be impotent, I'm gonna look impotent!"

In other election results, Alabama is noteworthy. "Mullah" Roy Moore got shot down almost exactly two to one in his governor's primary-slot bid. Bye bye, Roy! For LT Guv, George Wallace (no no, his son) gets a runoff against Luther Strange, but Strange (48%) needs to pick up a lot fewer new votes than Wallace (33%). In the Alabama Supreme Court elections, the Mullah Moore crowd got slapped down hard in their challenges to incumbents.

In California, Rob Reiner's eat-the-rich tax-hiking pre-school initiative went down 60/40. One does wonder why Reiner and his Hollywood buddies don't fund it up themselves. Angelides won the Dem governor's primary, and will be running an anti-Bush campaign. Maybe someone should remind him he's actually facing Schwarzenneger. Ron Dellums leads going into the count to succeed Jerry Brown as Mayor of Oakland, but due to problems with voting machines in Alameda county the results are not yet in. (What, not voting machine problems in a solidly Democratic district again?) Turnout was light statewide.

A good one to watch in the fall will be Culver vs. Nussle for the Iowa governor's office. That race pits a Dem "progressive" directly against a popular Republican congressman who has consistently won in his Dem district. Turnout in
Iowa was light statewide.

Posted by: Tully at June 7, 2006 02:15 PM

Tully,
They're like the Republicans who want to unseat Olympia Snowe and Lincoln Chafee and replace them with Sam Brownbacks and Rick Santorums, aren't they?

I mean, hot damn; sure, "Democrats had a real choice between a DLC-backed milquetoast Democrat and a true progressive in two races -- the California governor's race and the Senate Democratic primary in Montana. In both cases, voters chose the real Democrat, giving their party the ability to offer a clear distinction to the incumbent Republican in November." And, in both cases, voters chose the candidate who will have their ass handed to them in the Fall rather than the more moderate candidate who could actually win the election. Talk about a Pyrrhic victory. Would you rather have doctrinal purity in the party, or would you rather actually win stuff?

I keep wondering how much longer the Democrats are going to continue this losing streak - this fall will probably mark their seventh strait defeat in Congressional elections - before they realize that it isn't the electorate, it's them. America is not going to change to accomodate them, they need to change - and not in the way that Kos thinks - to accomodate America.

Posted by: Simon at June 7, 2006 02:38 PM

I keep wondering how much longer the Democrats are going to continue this losing streak - this fall will probably mark their seventh strait defeat in Congressional elections - before they realize that it isn't the electorate, it's them. America is not going to change to accomodate them, they need to change - and not in the way that Kos thinks - to accomodate America

How long did it take the GOP? :-) I think this is a lesson that it's not possible for partisans to learn.

The losers reject the mainstream and head into the desert to purify the movement. After a while one of the practical ones says

This sucks. There's no water and no people out here...it's hot, I'm tired, I need a beer, and I'd like to get laid sometime this century. I'm going back to town.

All the other hottest tiredest thirstiest horniest people follow this guy back into town. Some time and a few small victories for the practical ones later when the rest of the people straggle back into town, the true believer leaders run to the front and yell parade. The practical ones need more votes....and so on, and so on, and so on.

Posted by: bk at June 7, 2006 03:16 PM

Yep.

We like to think of the parties as monolithic and coordinated blocs. They are not. They're collections of smaller local parties, all with their own agendas at their own levels. The DFL of Minnesota is not the Democratic Party of Butler County, Kansas. They have very different goals and concerns, and most of those are LOCAL.

So when we speak of Democrats and Republicans, we need to remember that we're talking about coalitions with their own internal divisions on many many levels, and not about monoliths.

Posted by: Tully at June 7, 2006 03:29 PM

I've got to say that I'm sorry that Steve Westly didn't win for the Democrats. I've been following that contest, and I do believe that he would be a democrat this republican could vote for.

But then, it's a moot point for me. In November I'll be in Maine!

Posted by: Heather at June 7, 2006 09:13 PM