Back-stabbing Democratic Leaders

[finecraft]

There was an article in my newspaper this morning where our Democratic Governor, Kathleen Blanco, was giving her opinion on Tuesday's election. This is from that article:

Blanco did little locally to assist Kerry's candidacy and wouldn't say if she voted for him, calling it a "private matter".

She said Kerry's position on abortion, in particular, made him out of the mainstream for most Louisiana voters, even the Democrats.

She said Kerry's positions were too far on the left and it made it difficult for her to "bring him into the places that would have otherwise been a "natural constituency", since Kerry was Catholic (as are a majority of Louisiana's citizens)

Blanco says the Republican's ability to present themselves as the moral, religious party helps them in Louisiana, and Democrats are too reluctant to express their own personal religious faiths.

She has endorsed NO DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, saying it was fairer to stay neutral. She credited the Republican senatorial candidate, David Vitter, with a "brilliant television campaign that won over Democrats" and made Vitter attractive to the voters of Louisiana.

So let's see...she is a Democrat but won't endorse any other Democrats or actively campaign for them, obviously doesn't like our candidates, or positions, and thinks the Republicans are doing a good job of portraying themselves as the party of religions and moral values, while Democrats do a poor job of talking about their personal religious beliefs. Here's my question, "WHY THE HELL IS SHE A DEMOCRAT?" With leaders like this, we don't need enemies! She went to the Democratic Convention to represent the Democrats in our state, takes our party's dollars for her campaign, attends all the national Democratic events where she is touted as one of the "New Democratic Leaders".....but when it's time to walk the walk, she runs as far and fast as she possibly can to get away from the Democratic Party. This is the kind of crap that infuriates me! We're down here in the trenches, working our butt's off day and night to get our candidate elected, while our leaders hide and back-stab each other.

This is one problem our party has at the Leadership level that has got to get corrected......it either has to be "one for all and all for one" in the Democratic party, or we tell the DINOS to hit the road and don't look back.

[Selatius]

1. We're a "big tent" party

You can't expect any better when you're tent is so big you include hardcore progressive liberals as well as conservative liberals and centrists who just have a foot inside the tent and the other outside. You could almost argue the Democratic Party itself is just a cobbling together of several smaller parties.

[Eloriel]

20. I'd call it a Pyrrhic Tent or something, personally n/t

[AnnInLa]

2. Did you really expect anything different from Kathleen?

It's called political expediency. She has to work closely with all those repugs to get any of her plans implemented. When Mary Landrieu comes up for reelection, she too, will suddenly turn much more conservative. In a way, I can't blame them, as this is such a red state, but in another way, I hate their hypocritical pandering.

[finecraft]

9. No, I guess you're right

But I hate the fact that we all worked so hard on the ground for Kerry's campaign and after she said nothing about him during the whole election, after he loses she comes out and says, "Well, he wouldn't have won here anyway". No, maybe he wouldn't have, but maybe, just maybe if she would have come out and at least endorsed the Democratic platform on issues like health care, the economy and social security, we would have stood a better chance and people would have at least thought about voting for Kerry. And if she couldn't even do that, why am I wasting my money be supporting the Louisiana Democratic Party? By the way- a group of us Kerry people in New Iberia are going to start meeting monthly to try to reacquaint people to the Democratic Party and our platforms and positions. We're starting to lay the groundwork for 2008 already. Want me to add your name to our email list and keep you up on what we are doing?

[AnnInLa]

25. Yes, please....thanks

[Azure]

3. How is it back-stabbing...

...To represent one's constituents? Isn't that what our elected representatives are supposed to do? If Blanco's constituents have a more moderate position on abortion, is Blanco supposed to ignore them and push her own agenda, or ours? Somehow I doubt that the people of Lousiana elected Blanco so she could do that.

Being a Democrat isn't about getting every single thing we want. It's supposed to be about winning the battles we can win, and gradually making progress toward a better world. We can't just demand our own version of utopia immediately. When did we develop this attitude that we ought to be entitled to everything we ask for as soon as we ask for it? If the Democrats have become a party of hardline utopians who are unwilling to compromise or even represent their own constituencies, it's no wonder we keep losing. If that is the case, then the repukes are right -- we're out of touch with mainstream America.

As long as we keep losing, we won't get ANYTHING we want. Are we so ideologically stubborn that getting NONE of our agenda seems better than getting MOST of our agenda? If it is, this party is in serious trouble -- and so are the American people. Without a strong and reasonable Democratic party fighting for them, the repukes are free to have a field day. We don't fight for the American people by ignoring their voices. We fight for them by working to make a better nation the old-fashioned way -- through representing the needs and wants of the people rather than the special interests. That's what a lot of people thought the Democratic party was about, but when they found out otherwise, we lost the South and the Midwest. Will we keep on with the ideological stubbornness until we lose everyone?

If so, it will be a big loss for America.

[finecraft]

4. So what did she accomplish for the Democratic Party?

Did she ever try to help Kerry and frame his position on abortion to better explain it to the people in Louisiana, in a way that would let them know exactly what it was? Did she ever say anything about it at all? No, she was silent

Did she mention Kerry's health care plan to the people of Louisiana so that they would understand that his plan would benefit the under insured or uninsured in Louisiana (because 50% of the state does not have health insurance?) No, she was silent

Did she attempt to explain Kerry's plan for social security to the seniors in Louisiana? No, she was silent

Did she ever mention any of Kerry's policies and initiatives and let the people of Louisiana know how they would benefit from them? No, she was silent

And why do the people in America and Louisiana not understand why the Democrats would be a better party for them to support than the republicans? Because of leaders like Kathleen Blanco. Leaders that don't lead....they get elected with money that we donate to the Democratic party, then don't support other democratic candidates when they are up for election. Not only do they not support or campaign for the candidates, they don't push their party's platform during elections. And to top it off, after her party's candidate loses the election, she proceeds to tell everyone how crappy the candidate was. With friends like that, I don't think I would need enemies.

You know, she had the perfect opportunity to let people here know how Kerry's health care plan was so much better than George Bush's. She had a health care summit in our state, and many of the suggestions that were made on how to make our system better fit in very well with Kerry's plan. She is having a summit on poverty next week. Many of Kerry's ideas on how to fight poverty in our country would be of benefit to Louisiana in attempting to address our high poverty level.
But did she open her mouth? No, she didn't. She stood by and let the Republicans tell everyone about how cutting their taxes was going to be their saving grace. She let them talk about how Social Security private accounts were just wonderful, and she KNOWS that the spiffy new Medicare drug discount card will not benefit the seniors in our state one iota...but did she say anything? Did she talk about how the Democrat"s ideas would help Louisiana not hurt it? No....she said nothing, except Kerry was a crappy candidate.

Being a Democrat is going to have to be about talking about who we are and what we believe. It is going to have to be about supporting each other, and promoting the Democratic principles and beliefs. Being a Democrat will be having to show people in simple terms and practical application how Democratic ideas and plans are better. Until our "Leaders" are willing to walk the walk and talk the talk, we will never go anywhere.

[sangh0]

5. At a minimum, she achieved

the laudable goal of keeping another state out of the hands of the vote-stealers.

[Hippo_Tron]

15. Ironically, our sec. of state is the only statewide elected Repuke...

Well until vitter takes office that is.

[finecraft]

17. And you don't know how sick that makes me

Vitter is so nasty that at one time he was despised by his own party and they all avoided him like the plague. Now this man is my senator.:puke:

[Hippo_Tron]

23. Yea, the dems fucked that race up big time...

All they needed to do was force a runoff and we would've kept the seat, and more importantly kept Vitter out of the senate. As far as I'm concerned, after the Clinton impeachment, cheating on your wife is now fair for political attacks, thus we could've pulled that string on vitter, as well as others.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Agreed, I was pretty much Anybody But Jindal

It wasn't that I wanted Blanco in office, I wanted Bush's crony, Jindal to loose. As a bare minimum in return, I just wanted her to support the dem nominee and hopefully make Louisiana a competative state.

[Malva Zebrina]

6. May as well switch to Republican

and stop the pretense. She apparently is doing Democrats no good whatsoever. Is that called integrity? If she cannot support the Democrats because that is not what her consituents want, why the hell does she not just switch to the Republican party? She is a Republican and has strapped herself up. I have no respect for people like this. They are merely out for publishing their name and for the power of it all. Reminds me of Katherine Harris. Makes em feel real good to have their pictures taken and be invited to parties and to socialize with others who have power.

[sangh0]

8. Yes, that will show them, won't it

I'm sure they'll be very hurt and angry when they gain control over ANOTHER state.

[finecraft]

11. Sad to say they already have control of our state

She spent her first three months in office doing photo opportunities with Bush. He came here three times to visit with her, then sent her to Iraq with members of his staff so she could report on how GREAT! things were going over there, then she went to Washington to meet with him and a bunch of Republican governors. Her biggest legislative success to date has been passing a package of business tax reforms that lower the taxes on businesses. FunkyButt, AnnInLA, and the other Louisiana DU people can tell you she is a true purple DINO - Red on the inside and blue on the outside. Maybe, just maybe, if we had a REAL Democrat we could open people's eyes in our state to show them that the Republican party is NOT good for Louisiana. Half of our population has no health care, we are number one in the nation in poverty, our per capita income is 15,000 dollars per year lower than those in blue states, our high school drop-out rate is around 50%-----tell me that we should have gone for bush. Not only that, we voted in a Republican senator and 3/4 of our Representatives are Republican. Maybe, just maybe, if we elected Democrats that were TRUE democrats, we would have a chance, because if we stick with DINOS we're finished.

[The Flaming Red Head]

18. The Democratic party in Louisiana is Republican

The Republican party is Nazi and everyone in that state suffers on a daily basis because of it. Especially the children, born and unborn.

[finecraft]

21. Sad, but true n/t

[funkybutt]

7. I understand your frustration

I was screaming for months asking where the hell all of our Louisiana leaders were in this campaign. She could have easily made up for the 1.06% that kept Vitter out of a run off.

I'm personally dissappointed in quite a few of our Louisiana Democrats. Aparently this path of least resistence is the most popular one. Would support for democratic leaders really be that disasterous for a democrat?

[Awsi Dooger]

22. You nailed it

I was confident Vitter would never reach 50% until I read in Louisiana online papers that Blanco and other Democrat leaders were absent from the campaign.

[montana500]

10. smart lady

"She has endorsed NO DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES, saying it was fairer to stay neutral"


this is exactly how we need our Dem senators to run in the south.

I have all but abanoned the idea of the south in presidential elections, and I think we should instead focus on buuilding a northern rural infrastructure, from the Virginias to Ohio, to Indiana, to Colorado, Montana and the Dakotas.

[Hippo_Tron]

14. What good are they if they are like Zell Miller...

This woman is not a moderate, not a centrist, but a full-fledged political opportunist DINO. The only reason we voted for her is so that she coudl help real democrats, but she doesn't even do that!

[FubarFly]

19. Yuck

We're applying band-aids to head wounds.

Do you see the Republicans abandoning the North? And it's not enough to merely hold on to a state. We have to stop the erosion and reverse the trend. We can't communicate our message if we are afraid to open our mouths. When did courage of one's convictions cease to be a Democratic value?

[montana500]

24. whats more important right now?

"Do you see the Republicans abandoning the North? And it's not enough to merely hold on to a state. We have to stop the erosion and reverse the trend. We can't communicate our message if we are afraid to open our mouths. When did courage of one's convictions cease to be a Democratic value?"


whats more important? holding a Senate seat down or the other alternative?

Take the Chicago Bulls for example. They had this grand idea after winning 6 titles that the best move would be to tear everything down, and start completely from scratch - that this would allow for a qucker return to power.

They are now the worst team in the NBA and have been for years. Instead of resigning some of the top players from their championship teams, they got rid of them all. Theycould have kept winning, kept competing, but they blew it up.

In order for us to make a comeback, we have to keep close. Did you see the Repubs telling their senators and congressmen to comitt political suicide i nthe 90's? Hell no. Was MCain ousted for being to moderate? hell no.

Then why would we kick this person out or ask them to get elected out when we need that seat?

[mtnsnake]

12. Speaking of all our leaders, where was all their support during the race?

Most of our so-called Democratic leaders were a little on the quiet side I thought.

[Hippo_Tron]

13. Kathleen Blanco is a useless DINO, I almost regret voting for her...

But we did vote for her in hopes that it would help make Louisiana a blue state in 2004. Doesn't quite work out when she basically endorses Bush.