democratic party

Dems Looking For Love On Craigslist

January 12, 2010 By mario piperni

What do you do if you’re a progressive coalition of citizens unhappy with your Democratic congressman? Answer: find a replacement on Craigslist, of course.

Salt Lake City…

A group calling itself The Citizens’ Candidate, whose goal is to unseat Rep. Jim Matheson, is taking applications from potential challengers by way of a craigslist.com ad seeking a “courageous congressperson.”

The activist group says it’s a coalition of citizens committed to working for justice on climate change, health care, gender, labor, immigration, peace and environmental issues.

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The Citizens’ Candidate doesn’t like Matheson’s positions on health care, immigration or climate, and regards him as a tool of the corporate mechanism. But he’s not the only one.

“It’s not unique to Jim Matheson,” said DeChristopher, the environmental activist who disrupted a December 2008 oil and gas lease auction. “It’s the way our political system works. … If you’re not a large corporate donor, your voice doesn’t matter.”

Instead of waiting for the political elite to name a candidate, he added, “we’re trying a new process for choosing a candidate that starts with the citizens recruiting someone.”

This seems to be the liberal version of teabaggers endorsing more conservative candidates. The danger of course is that by promoting a candidate not sanctioned by the party, there is a risk of splitting the vote. As one political scientist puts it…

If the goal is to draw attention to gripes about Matheson, the activists have succeeded.

Or are these activists just spoilers? Would they siphon votes from Matheson and hand the seat to a more conservative candidate?

“They’d never win in the general election,” Monson said. “And then [The Citizens' Candidate] would be worse off than they are. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. It becomes, at some point, a self-inflicted wound.”

Words of caution for both liberals and conservatives.

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Filed Under: democratic party Tagged With: democratic party, political issues, politics, Republican Party, Salt Lake City

Listen Up

October 29, 2009 By mario piperni

Words http://mariopiperni.com/

E.J. Dionne has words of advice for the two political parties.

Memo to Democrats: You will be defined by President Obama whether you like it or not, so you might as well embrace him for the benefits he can bring you.

Memo to Republicans: Talk a right-wing game in your ideological magazines and at your tea parties if that makes you happy. But to win elections, your candidates had better look like middle-of-the-road problem-solvers.

Those are the two outstanding lessons from the campaigns for Tuesday’s governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia. Both parties would be smart to apply them in 2010.

Dionne expounds in his article.

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Filed Under: democratic party, Republican Party Tagged With: democratic party, E. J. Dionne, political issues, politics, Republican Party, words

The Influence of Lobbyists – Seldom A Good Thing

October 23, 2009 By mario piperni

jackass http://mariopiperni.com/

Republican politicians have earned their reputation as heartless asses. That said, here’s a reminder that Democratic politicians are at times no better. The background to the story below can be found here.

HuffPo reports…

An amendment that would prevent the government from working with contractors who denied victims of assault the right to bring their case to court is in danger of being watered down or stripped entirely from a larger defense appropriations bill.

Multiple sources have told the Huffington Post that Sen. Dan Inouye, a longtime Democrat from Hawaii, is considering removing or altering the provision, which was offered by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and passed by the Senate several weeks ago.

Inouye’s office, sources say, has been lobbied by defense contractors adamant that the language of the Franken amendment would leave them overly exposed to lawsuits and at constant risk of having contracts dry up. The Senate is considering taking out a provision known as the Title VII claim, which (if removed) would allow victims of assault or rape to bring suit against the individual perpetrator but not the contractor who employed him or her.

“The defense contractors have been storming his office,” said a source with knowledge of the situation. “Inouye either will get the amendment taken out altogether, or water it down significantly. If they water it down, they will take out the Title VII claims. This means that in discrimination cases, they will still force you into a secret forced arbitration on KBR’s (or other contractors’) own terms — with your chances of prevailing practically zero. The House seems to be very supportive of the original Franken amendment and all in line, but their hands are tied since it originated in the Senate. And since Inouye runs the show on this bill, he can easily take it out to get Republicans and the defense contractors off his back, which looks increasingly likely.”

Inouye is the second longest serving Senator in Congress which is further reason to why Congress needs to impose term limits on its members. Returning the same fools to office for 30 or 40 years makes it too easy for corruption to take hold.

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Filed Under: democratic party Tagged With: Dan Inouye, democratic party, political issues, politics, rape

Liberals Get Tough With Their Own

October 19, 2009 By mario piperni

Harry Reid’s weak leadership in pushing for a public option has gotten him into trouble with progressives in his party. They’re pushing harder…
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Reid’s problem, a proponent for a public option, lies with his insistence that the Senate produce a bipartisan bill thereby giving him the magical 60 votes. Progressives are wishing that Reid spent more effort bringing conservative dems on board and less time worrying about a bipartisan bill which will never happen.

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Filed Under: democratic party Tagged With: Harry Reid, healt care reform, political issues, politics, progressives

Playing By The Numbers

October 2, 2009 By mario piperni

President Obama is still polling at a respectable 54% favorable rate but Democrats in general are not doing as well.
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Pelosi and Reid with 34% and 31% approval ratings speaks much about their apparent ineffectiveness and the frustration liberals have with their Congressional leaders. But you really need to put these numbers into perspective to fully understand them. You need to compare them with how Republicans are polling.
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18, 12, 17 and 22! These are Dick Cheney type numbers. While the Dem’s numbers are less than pretty, the GOP’s are downright ugly. Dems have shown themselves to be spineless, unwilling to push for the public option as the electorate wants them to do. Reps, on the other hand, have been disgusting in their behavior and tactics in their attempt to block every bit of legislation proposed by Dems. Not only have they truly become the Party Of No but they have been unable to come up with fresh ideas of their own.