Any chance that more Dems will start acting like Hackett?

[Doctor_J]

For example, standing by their TURTHFUl statements that BushCo are evil, malevolent, power-hungry fascists? My senator last year uttered the FACT that the GOP are alot like Nazis, and then broke the land speed record running away from his comments when the bullies started rolling up their sleeves. Time to start speaking the truth, and then believing in it.

[SeattleRob]

1. Add Al Gore to the list

He's been speaking the truth about Bushco.

[Sammy Pepys]

2. Doubt it.

And frankly, I think it's better if stuff like that was scaled back. It only obscures policy proposals and ideas.

[Doctor_J]

3. Yeah, our proposals and policy talk have gotten us GREST results

the last 10 years. :eyes:

[Sammy Pepys]

6. Well, how do you want the party to be defined?

By how well it name-calls or by the quality of the platform it puts forth? If we don't need to worry about policy anymore, than we don't need to worry about electing quality Dems to office anymore either. Does sound like a great strategy?

I think Gore has started making a case for himself. Hopefully, he can keep it up.

[The Magistrate]

11. How We May Want It Defined, Sir, Is Not The Point

It is how the people will perceive the differences between the Parties that is the point. It is necessary to exaggerate these, and make it unmistakeable that we are ranged with the angels, and the opponent is a demon from the mouth of Hell. People tend to prefer identification with the angels, given such a choice....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Sammy Pepys]

13. I've been in politics quite a while....

And yes, there are times when mudslinging is required...but you cannot field a successful campaign on it unless you are a well entrenched incumbent in a safe state or district. And even then, you have to be careful.

[The Magistrate]

17. What Is Mud, Sir?

Mr. Hackett's statement is correct, and people like a fighter....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Sammy Pepys]

18. Just Sammy, thanks....

Well, clearly we're not going to make any headway here with each other, so let's agree to disagree.

[The Magistrate]

21. That Would Be Unkind, Sir, And Disappoint The Audience

"I will fight it out on this line if it takes all summer long."

[Sammy Pepys]

22. It's fine with me...

...but it's frankly bordering on a tone that I would much rather avoid with a fellow DUer.

[Doctor_J]

27. Mud-slinging?

Mud-slinging would have been "Mr. Bush needs to explain his ties to the Bin Laden family, and let the American people decide if he LIHOP". What Hacket did was not mud-slinging, but fact-stating.

[Sammy Pepys]

29. Sorry...

I was just using "mudslinging" as a general term, and very much incorrectly.

[sadiesworld]

23. Hackett is playing to the base, this is a Primary move.

DUers would be advised to examine the record of Sherrod Brown, a true Wellstone progressive.

There's more than one way to knock an anti-corporate candidate, i.e., Brown, out of the running.

[Doctor_J]

25. I want the party to be defined as one that speaks the truth

AND THEN REVELS IN THE FACT THAT THEY SPOKE IT. We have a great platform, one that is far more popular (with good reason) than the one the 4th Reich presents. What we don't have is universal belief in that platform, and the media access to defend it vigorously. Hackett's well-reasoned outburst and subsequent defense of his original statements are a GREAT first step.

[sendero]

4. That would be a good theory..

... if the average American gave two shits about policy proposals and ideas.

[The Magistrate]

5. Very Poor Strategy, Mr. Pepys

Public policy proposals and such are mere chaff on the wind. Elections are not decided by reason but emotion. It is passion and heat that draw the uncommitted to a standard, much more than agreement with some stray proposal. Mr. Hackett's line is the correct one, and should be widely emulated.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Sammy Pepys]

7. Well, that's not my view of it....

Everyone is so quick to write off quality platforms in favor of name-calling, but where has the name-calling gotten us? Bush isn't facing re-election again, and unless something major happens in 2006, I doubt impeachment is a goal we can reliably hang our hats on.

[The Magistrate]

9. Your Opinion May Differ From Mine, Sir

It is still a free country....

But on the hustings, from the mouths of mainstream candidates, name-calling has not been tried, and it seems to me the time has definitely come for it.

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Sammy Pepys]

12. I just think we can do better than that. n/t

...

[The Magistrate]

14. We Have Not Succeeded In Gaining Majorities, Sir

We can "do better than that" once that hurdle is over-come....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Sammy Pepys]

15. You can drop the "sir"

And honestly, why is it that you think the Dems have not gained majorities?

[The Magistrate]

19. Among The Reasons, Mr. Pepys

Is the enemy's single-minded concentration on describing opponents in terms that rouse unfavorable emotional responses in people who do not pay a great deal of attention to politics outside the closing stages of an election. Political campaigns are exercises in marketting, and in that trade, there is no substitute for repetion of a simple formula. What people recall, even despite themselves, they tend to agree with. No one seeking to sell a product professionally on a mass scale bothers with providing arguments of reasoned character why you should purchase it; they provide instead points of emotional gratification and associate fulfillment of these with the product on offer.

"Can't nobody here play this game?"

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[Old Smokey]

8. I hope so

Someone needs to argue with those GOP bastards before they ruin us all.

[Loonman]

10. Let's hope the tax-fattened hyenas might start

Aside from Dem leadership, most of the leeches are too scared to lose their seats.

[Doctor_J]

26. That's not why Durbin wilted last year...

His seat is secure for life. And standing steadfastly by his original statements would have been terrific for morale and for an example to the rest of the Dems.

[geiger]

16. OKAY, GUYS AND GALS, TIME OUT

There IS someone already, speaking out. You need to check out DEMOCRAT Sherrod Brown's website "GROW OHIO," and then link to his Congressional website at SherrodBrown.com. Paul Hackett is running against a predominate and already outspoken Democrat.

Sherrod Brown goes on the floor of the House, regularly, sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning, to speak out, about the lies of the Republican Administration and Congress.

Paul Hackett is a good man, but with no elective experience, I think, needs to run for Congress before running for Senate.

Sherrod Brown is one of the most outspoken, and most liberal spokesman of the Democratic Party, in a long time. He needs to be the next Senator from Ohio, to replace Republican Mike DeWine.

I support HACKETT for Congress, not Senate (yet).

[Doctor_J]

24. No argument here.

Sherrod Brown is one of the really good ones.

BUT, just becasue Hackett isn't in office (yet) doesn't mean a) he can't speak out and b) I can't applaud him for speaking out. I wasn't campaigning for him, or recommending him over any other Dem. I just said that I like the cut of his jib, and wish other Dems would dig in and speak the truth about *.

[paulk]

20. I think Hackett may need to win an election first

before other, elected, Dems follow his lead.

Is such caution justified? I don't know...

There's a good chance Hackett won't even win his primary.

-----------

and there have been quite a few Democrats speaking out in this last year, btw. Hackett doesn't need to be the role model
on this...

[Doctor_J]

28. In the first place,

one doesn't need to be lected to tell the truth. If (s)he did, then we wouldn't get to hear from Wes Clark (or Colin Powell, for that matter). In the second place, Hackett's comments were more pointed than any I have heard lately, AND he fired right back when the GOP bullies tried to intimidate him. THIS is what we need.