Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Greenwaldites and Chris Carney

I wonder if they're going about it wrong. They're making Carney into a Joe Lieberman: a "Democrat" loved by the wingnuts, which can hardly strike fear into his heart, seeing how Lieberman won so easily last time around. Carney will get the moderate Dem vote, the always-votes-Dem vote, the always-votes-incumbent vote, the labor vote, and with these ads, the moderate Republicans and some of the wingnut vote to boot, as wingnuts love passive-aggressive games, and supporting this guy is a perfect opportunity to play such a game. In other words, these ads could very well improve Carney's electoral prospects, because of his position on Telcom amnesty. Greenwald and friends are right that something has to be done, but I wonder if they have thought this through. Since the "Blue Dogs" are pressuring the House leadership on this, wouldn't a more appropriate response for the greenwaldites be to pressure the House leadership themselves? They could threaten to run, and finance, liberal primary challengers against vulnerable Dems in conservative and moderate districts, for example, unless the Dem leadership decided to knock this shit off. This would also pressure some of the "Blue Dogs", as they themselves (Chris Carney himself is an example) are often vulnerable. There have to be other ideas as well. What they are doing seems to be just plain counterproductive; if I was Chris Carney and trying to convince a conservative district I was "one of them," I'd be down on my knees thanking God for ads like these, and then asking Him to throw a few in from Move-on, as well.