Again I have to ask: how? Pawlenty could have continued to run for the nomination without White House and RNC support. It’s not like Cheney could unilaterally decide to keep him off the ballot or anything. All he could do was tell Pawlenty that Bush would not campaign for him and that the RNC wouldn’t fully support his candidacy.
And why shouldn’t the Republican-held White House take an interest in who the Republican candidate is for Senate in tight races? Obviously, the Bush administration would prefer to work with a Republican-held Senate than one controlled by the Democrats. Obviously, a bruising primary campaign could weaken the eventual Republican challenger against Wellstone. Why shouldn’t Bush try to maximize the chances of Republican success nationwide?
This is just ordinary politics at work. There’s nothing wrong with it. Consider Mike Honda. Honda was talked into running for California’s 15th Congressional District seat by Bill Clinton. I’m sure other Democrats interested in the seat were none to pleased with that use of Clinton’s influence. But so what? Clinton’s use of his influence over a California primary for a House seat was perfectly above board, as is Cheney’s use of his influence in the Minnesota primary.
“Somehow I don’t think we would have heard much outrage from conservatives if Al Gore had been snubbed under similar circumstances.”
This is just crap. You make a hypothetical situation, then tell us you’re omnicient and know how the Republicans would act in said hypothetical situation, and then castigate them for acting that way.
What a bunch of baloney.
Ummm…somehow I don’t think we would have heard much outrage from liberals if Enron’s CEO was Clinton’s brother.
See how easy it is to imply motives that don’t exist?
What happened to the right of a state to choose its own nominations? Threatening to withdraw all White House and national party support for a duely nominated candidate is heavy-handed, interfering, and anti-democratic. It was a slap in the face to GOP voters in Minnesota who had a basic right stolen from them by an autocratic White House. This was not GEORGE BUSH’S senate race it was MINNESOTA’S senate race. It is none of the administrations business who the state wants to elect. The electorate of Minnesota does not exist to serve the whims of King George II.
There is a difference between talking somebody INTO a race and ordering somebody OUT of a race.
I read your link, December, but I don’t see an analogy here. Nobody called Ms. Lowey from the White House, or anywhere else for that matter, and ordered her out of the race. Her own state party was simply waiting for a potentially more popular candidate. There was no attempt for a POTUS (or VPOTUS) to impose his will on a state primary, as there was vis a vis Cheney/ Pawlenty.
Nothing at all. Minnesota still held its primary. Pawlenty could have still participated had he so chosen.**
Really? So, basically, the White House and RNC have to give equal support to every candidate who seeks the Republican nomination? Even the wingnuts?
Why shouldn’t the White House offer its support to those candidates who look favorably on administration policies?**
No, and Bush/Cheney weren’t declaring Minnesota’s candidate by fiat, either. They were exerting influence. There is nothing wrong with that.**
Not much. Assuring a candidate that he has your full support pretty much by definition means you are withdrawing support from competing candidates. Would there be any difference to you if Cheney had instead told Coleman that the White House and RNC were supporting him 100% over Pawlenty? Pawlenty’s team would surely find out about that, and they would surely reach the same conclusion that they have in the instant case. (Indeed, this method would be impolite to Pawlenty – it’s much better to be direct about these things).
And December brings up another good example. Nita Lowey had paid her dues in New York for years (much to my chagrin, she’s my rep). The DNC talked her out of running so Hillary woudn’t have to deal with a contested primary. Was the DNC acting in a “heavy-handed, interfering, and anti-democratic” manner? Was the DNC’s move a “slap in the face to Democratic voters in New York who had a basic right stolen from them”?
Oh please. Lowey was all but the declared nominee before Hillary decided to run. She was strongly encouraged to step aside because it was thought that Hillary would be the stronger candidate and that a tough primary fight would weaken her in the general election. Similarly, Pawlenty was asked to step aside because Coleman was thought to the the better candidate and a tough primary fight would weaken him in the general election. The same threats would have been made, or implicitly understood, in both cases: if you run, the White House will not support you and you will not enjoy the full backing of the national party.
I mean, really, do you honestly think that then-President Clinton was neutral on the question of who got the New York Democratic nomination for the Senate race in 2000? Do you honestly believe his political team didn’t work to get Lowey to step aside? :rolleyes:
The memorial service was heartfelt and moving. Don’t buy into the GOP spin of anything else. Heck, don’t buy into the AJS spin on it… the dubious Americans for Job Security had been targeting Wellstone, putting a million dollars, illegally, into the Coleman campaign at the last moment. The whining about the memorial sounds like more dirty tricks. How do Republicans sleep at night?
Here in Minnesota, we used to have Republicans worth supporting. Arne Carlson, Dave Durenburger. Now, we’re stuck with Norm Coleman and we have Dick Cheney to thank for that. His presence at the memorial would have shamed the event.
Remember Paul Wellstone’s legacy of passion and commitment. Vote. Zero tolerance for Republicans.
I am usually inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt. I think it was appropriate and gracious for the Vice President to offer to come to the service and it was appropriate and gracious of the family to respectfully decline his offer.
After seeing parts of the memorial service, I came away with three thoughts:
Wellstone’s sons were both well-spoken, articulate and charismatic speakers. And I’m a Republican. I thought their father and mother would have been very proud of their sons.
Forget Mondale. Let the oldest son run in Wellstone’s place. He’s good looking to boot, which isn’t completely irrelevant in politics today.
Perhaps the Wellstones, anticipating the high-spirited and not altogether non-political service, refused Cheney’s offer in part to spare him the embarrassment of being there.
According to this source, the Wellstones did indeed anticipate a “not altogether non-political service.” It says that the use of the service as a political rally was planned and engineered by operatives at the Democratic National Committee.
Curious about Lowey, then. I left a New York State job in which we (for agency survival) were forced to monitor state politics quite thoroughly in the spring of 1998. I never heard of this woman prior to this thread. Yet she was “all but the designated nominee” of the Democratic Party for U.S. Senator from New York in (I presume early) 2000?
I know downstate politics can churn up someone from obscurity (from an upstate point of view) relatively fast, but this is ridiculous – from not even mentioned in Empire State Review in the eight years before I left, to the consensus choice for U.S. Senate candidate, in about two years?
Okay, property, arguably. Taxes and what have you. Liberty, doubtful, although I sometimes have my doubts about the current administration. But life? I’m pretty sure that, as much as I dislike politicians, none of them are actually trying to kill me. Paranoid delusions are fun as a hobby, but they’re really not a smart lifestyle choice.
Precisely. If I knew either of their actual identities, I might well attend his memorial service, were I nearby. I certainly wouldn’t expect to be excluded or jeered at because we have different political beliefs. And, I assume, vice versa.
Spooky coincidence. Just about to point out that the quote about liberty being in danger when the legislature, etc. is from my own number one hero, Mark Twain, who is, of course, Sam Clemens
