How About a Little "Hunting Trip" for Schumer and Reid?

Maybe nominally-Democratic Senators Charles Schumer (D-Arrogant Prick) and Harry Reid (D-Apologist Weakling) ought to go hunting with Dick Cheney. It looks like the two of them could use the kind of warning shot that VP Dickhead Crashcart seems to be expert in delivering.

In my innocence and political naïvité, I thought that the primary system was how we democratically choose our candidates for the general election. Turns out I was wrong. Way wrong.

After first encouraging Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett -- whose political star rose rapidly after his surprisingly strong showing in last year's special congressional election battle against big mouthed anti-military fashion-nightmare Jean Schmidt (R-Screaming Bitch) -- to run for the Senate in Ohio, Schumer and Reid, bigwig Demos, organizational morons and professional nitwits, went behind his back to tell his supporters to stop donating to his campaign, and then pressured him to drop out of the race. Seems that they have aligned themselves -- and consequently the <sarcasm>full might and majesty</sarcasm> of the Democratic Party -- with Hackett's opponent, Sherrod Brown (D-Party Hack), so they can't have someone as popular (and populist) as Paul Hackett hanging around and cluttering up the confusion.

"Electibility" is ostensibly the reason for this shady underhanded backstabbing manipulation. Hackett is somehow "less electible" than Brown? Says who? Hackett was a new face and a new voice in politics and he created tremendous buzz nationwide last year, getting campaign donations from people in every state and going from total obscurity to 90 MPH in seconds. Hell, I even sent him money for his campaign, marking the very first time (but, as it turns out, not the last) in 40 years of political activity that I have donated cash to an out-of-state candidate. While it's true that Brown at this point has raised a lot of cash (ten times Hackett's, at last count), chances are that it's all from the Democratic bigwig financial base, not from the grassroots who by rights ought to be driving the party.

Sherrod Brown is, I'm sure, a nice guy and a good Democrat, but he is not going to get the national buzz -- and national support -- that Paul Hackett could get. I think the real reason for this sorry debacle is that Hackett is his own man and is not afraid to speak his mind; he owes nothing to the DLCC or the party hierarchy and consequently he would be essentially uncontrollable once he got to the Senate.

Moreover, what message does this send to all of the other veterans who are running for congress? Listen to Mike Lyon, executive director for the Band of Brothers, a group dedicated to electing veterans to national office: "Alienating Hackett is not just a bad idea for the party, but it also sends a chill through the rest of the 56 or so veterans that we've worked to run for Congress. Now is a time for Democrats to be courting, not blocking, veterans who want to run." Indeed.

While I've said for a long time that the Dems ought to start acting more like the Repugs, this is not what I had in mind.

I predict that this politically stupid and judgmentally inept incident will ultimately cause such turmoil among the Dems in Ohio that they will end up losing that Senate race. And that's yet another election that the Dems can't afford to lose but will anyway.

And it was all so unnecessary. It's like the Dems don't want to win. The DLCC/DSCC will never get one more fucking penny from me until they start acting like they really want to win elections, and stop this totally unacceptable anti-democratic candidate-screwing veteran-backstabbing bullshit. From this day forward all of my campaign donation money is going to individual candidates, ones that I think I can trust to do the right thing.

Cancel that hunting trip. Schumer and Reid don't need Cheney -- they're doing a great job on their own.

I wonder if you need a license to shoot yourself in the face.