A few little tidbits from last week

Congratulations to the Dixie Chicks whose new album Taking The Long Way debuted at #1 despite, or maybe because of, the various and sundry articles in the mainstream media (MSM) questioning whether or not they could succeed after having insulted the Commanduh-in-Chief and thumbing their noses at country fans. The CD sold more than 560,000 copies in the first week. I even shelled out for a new copy and I haven't bought a new CD in years. Still, country radio still isn't playing the song, but with it's popularity, that's unlikely to to be the case for much longer. Hooray for free speech!

Last week on The Ed Schultz Show, David Sirota, author of "Hostile Takeover : How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--and How We Take It Back" and Al Franken Show regular, named Ohio Senate candidate Sherrod Brown one of the four best Democrats in or running for Congress.

The comment followed a discussion of how at least a quarter of the Dems in Congress have aided and abetted the Republican demolition of our government over the past five going on six years. We all know who we mean when we talk about Democratic sellouts, the most obvious being Bush bootlicker Joe Liebermann, but not surprisingly Sirota named Senators Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, and Representative Rahm Emmanuel to his list of the four worst Democratic congressman. When asked to name four good ones, Sirota singled out Brown for his opposition to the Democratic party's position on trade. The other three named were Vermont Independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, (who is running for the Vermont Senate seat this November,) Wisconsin Democratic Rep. David Obie and Paul Wellstone, the former Minnesota senator.

What the hell is wrong with the Dems in Ohio?

There are two items of news today that makes me question just what is going on in the Ohio Democratic Party. The first is the front page story of this weeks The Other Paper entitled Clueless. Last week, the Republicans in the statehouse, who should by all rights be on the ropes themselves, made House Democrats look like idiots by getting them to not only vote against a GOP bill that would have reformed the redistricting process by creating a bi-partisan apportionment board but also, through a clever procedural manuever, got the Dems to vote against a bill they had sponsored years ago that would have done the same thing.

I'm not going to go through all the details, because (1) Dan Williamson's article explains it better than I could and (2) because reading it once was enough to make me sick and I don't want to do it again. Read the article here: "Clueless"

I will, however, make a few comments. When the Reform Ohio Now (RON) ballot initiatives were defeated in 2005, a number of people said they fell because election reform, especially the creation of a bi-partisan redestricting board, is an unsexy and complicated issue that the voters couldn't wrap their minds around. I felt then and I still feel now that nothing could be further from the truth.

The lack of support for the RON amendments by the Democratic leadership was readily apparent to anyone and everyone and the events surrounding this vote show it. Williamson's article sums it up. . .

"Or maybe they like their chances of taking over the apportionment board. Their man Ted Strickland is leading in the governor's race, and Democrats Jennifer Brunner and Barbara Sykes have decent shots at secretary of state and auditor.

If just two of those three could win this year and hold onto their seats in 2010, the Democrats would get to redraw the legislative boundaries after the next census.

Suddenly, it seemed to hit them: Why would we make the process bipartisan when it's about to be partisan in our favor?"

Last November, the Ohio Democratic Party smelled blood in the water and saw their chance to take over coming on quick. So Williamson's right, why would the Dems want to change a system they are about to take over? Because that's what the people want.

Hello! Remember us? The taxpayers, Joe and Jodi Q. Public? Ring any bells?

Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the sad fact that We are not represented by any member of our state government. I don't give a baboon's red butt who gets credit for removing partisan interest from the creation of our voting districts as long as someone does and the Dems should have known that and acted like statesmen and women and not politicians.

Which brings me to my next item. Ted Strickland finally received the endorsements of Mayor Michael Coleman Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin and Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia Fudge.

Great! Whoopee!

While the Republicans have spent the last month getting everyone on the same page and gearing up to present a unified face to the voters of Ohio, (albeit a face that is breathtakingly corrupt and utterly unconcerned with the plights of the average Ohioan), the Democrats have been squabbling over who gets what when we win. Has anyone ever heard of counting your chickens before they hatch?

Would anybody be surprised to learn that the above incident was the first salvo in the 2006 election cycle? I know I wouldn't. C'mon people lets get our head out of our you know wahts and start concentrating on the task at hand. Fighting the GOP and Diebold is enough of a challenge without adding our own mistakes into the mix. It's this kind of stuff that allows Republicans to make stupid statements claiming that we don't have any ideas and make them stick in the minds of voters who are unlikely to look deep enough to see whats going on. Let's get it, and us together, shall we?