Joe Scarborough on the Lamont Election
Written by Mark Harris on August 8th, 2006From DailyKos:
The conventional wisdom for tonight’s Connecticut primary seems to be that a Joe Leiberman loss will yank the Democratic Party so far left as to make other Democratic candidates unelectable this fall. The logic is laughable and similar to what I heard from Republican leaders in 1994.
That was the election year when the most conservative wing of the GOP took over the party and swept into power in the US Congress. None would have predicted that outcome just two years earlier.
George Bush’s loss to Bill Clinton in 1992 had put Republican operatives and strategists in a panic. They feared that Bush had been beaten like a drum because radical conservatives like Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Shaffley and Pat Robertson had hijacked the GOP Convention. So while Bill Clinton spent the next two years moving left, the Republican National Committee desperately sought moderate candidates that would talk, walk and vote like, say, Joe Lieberman. The goal was to blur all differences between Republicans and Democrats.
Because of that logic, I spent most of 1994 fighting Republican bureaucrats on the local, state and federal level who did everything in their power to elect my very moderate opponent in the GOP primary. A week before the primary, the Republican Congressional Committee campaign director let me know that I might as well give up. 1994 would be the year of the Moderate.
Yeah, right.
Within a few months of that conversation, scores of right-wing, knuckle-dragging, spear-carrying conservative barbarians like myself ran through our moderate Democratic opponents like Barry Bonds through a bottle of roids. It was ugly. Darting to the base was the ticket to victory for the Party of Reagan.
Fast forward twelve years and now we find many making the same misguided arguments, except this time they are giving their stupid advice to Democrats generally and Connecticut voters specifically.
Ned Lamont may be a pencil-necked geek, as Imus claims, but he is the type of candidate that will bring out the Democratic base in an off-year election. That is especially true this year because George W. Bush is even more unpopular than Clinton was when the GOP swept into power.
My advice to Democratic voters this year is “Go left, young man!”
There may be hell to pay in 2008, but for now the only thing that should matter to you is seizing control of Congress. Do that for the first time in a decade and then you can start worrying about swing voters in the suburbs.
Scarryyy…..
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I agree with Joe here. It sucks, but I think he is right.
Our side screwed up by not living up to its conservative principles on issues like federal spending, immigration, and moral values (for all the posturing, why didn’t we get a constitutional amendment to protect marriage?) There is a lot of anger in the base this year.
The one thing our side has sacrified everything to back is the war on Iraq. That war, whatever you think of it, is not currently popular with the American people. Continuing to back it may be brave and principled or stupid and foolhardy, depending on your opinion, but I do not think it is going to win us votes. Accusing the Dems of planning to cut and run is getting old and won’t work. Sticking fingers in our ears and claiming everything is going according to plan just doesn’t seem credible.
Frankly, I think Kos has achieved a masterstroke by tapping into the need of the leftists for “Fighting Dems” that oppose the President. Democratic war veterans especially are dangerous (may not have worked for Kerry, but Kerry was, to put it mildy, a unique case with his leftist activism during Vietnam).
My only comfort is that Kos is a partisan, nothing more. What are they going to do — try the Great Society over again? Even if they get power, they don’t offer much. The Right needs to rebuild itself, stay true to its principles, and articulate a new vision so we won’t flub the next opportunity.
Hopefully I’m wrong. But Joe’s post today crystalized what I’ve been feeling for a while now.
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Joe would be a great candidate for a senate seat in FL. Fiscally conservative and not afraid to buck party leadership.
He is relatively young too so that means he can wait 6 years.
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That would be great.