Washblog

I have seen and talked to Wilson plenty already, on the trail and in private conversations. I have never, ever, heard him bash Maria. In fact, he has stated in public, several times in my presence, that he will support Maria in the general election, and that his primary concern is to keep the seat in Democratic hands.

It is completely and utterly unrealistic to criticize Dwight for not putting Wilson on a par with Maria. He isn't, and he knows it better than anyone. He himself hasn't demanded it. If asked in public, he is very fotrthright that his chances are slim to none.

He has conducted himself very well on the trail, and has shown respect to everybody. He deserves some respect, whioh I have tried to show him even though he knows I will not vote for him.

So please, let's not make more of his candidacy than is there, and let's treat the man with some respect.

If perception is reality, then the world must be flat and the sun must revolve around it.

Nobody needs to make excuses for or speak for Pelz.

But if in fact he disrespected a candidate while sitting as Mr. Important, then I think he owes an explanation regardless of how he or any of us feel about anyone running.

If there is in fact a mini DLC or some select group that thinks it acts in the same vein as the national DLC in this state then I attended my one and only county convention three weeks ago and that's it for me and Demos.

I don't participate because of anyone's by-your-leave nor do I speak for or against by anyone's by-your-leave.

And neither should any of you - whether douche is the longest word you know how to spell or not.

What about it?

... a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. - Mr. Emerson

  Mark's record, as far as I know is one of running against some of the best Democrats holding National Office under the banner of other parties.

   Once and only once in my experience as a twenty plus year member of the Whitman COunty Democrats have we taken an offical stand for or against in the primary election. Those commissioner candidates from the landowners assoc. were NOT Democrats!

Dave Gibney Pullman

To suggest that Dwight must give Mark equal billing to Maria is, in my opinion, to miss the point of a grassroots effort in the first place.  The Party, and the Chair, has to make strategic decisions about these things.  9 times out of 10 (or 1 time out of 10, depending on your viewpoint), you'll agree with how they decide to pursue these races.  When the grassroots (which is, and should be, separate from the Party proper) chooses a different candidate, it's their job to use caucuses and primaries to overrule the Party.  That's the essence of grassroots.  Sometimes it will be at odds with any organized, static entity, and will have to fight back.  Good or (sometimes) bad, it's the nature of things.

Don't agree with Dwight's letter?  Lead a grassroots effort to read a different letter supporting Mark, or at least including him (I suspect this will be a frequent feature at caucuses).  That is grassroots!  I can't see how it would have anything to do with grassroots if Dwight wrote the same letter but included Mark; it'd just be a boring letter from the Chair with a questionable strategic decision.  (because, strong opinions aside, it's a questionable decision to lend Mark credibility - get proven wrong, then on we move, but for now, conventional strategy suggests it'd be a very bad idea to give him any support)

The long and short of this:  Dwight's job is to win elections.  Period.  He has to decide the best way to do that.  The grassroots activists job is to find who they support and do so with great energy - the Party will do everything it can to marry Dwight's/activist's view of who to support, because that's what it's for, but it comes down to feet on the street.  If Mark out-organizes Maria, then he will defacto become the candidate the Party supports.  He has to prove that Dwight was wrong.  Politics isn't always nice, as much as we'd like it to be.

I think it's totally reasonable to be pissed at Dwight about this - and to lead a grassroots effort to ensure Mark's name is included at caucuses (which really won't be difficult to accomplish).  But to call it a conspiracy of exclusion or hypocritical is, in my opinion, wrong.  It's just Dwight's job - he gets paid to make decisions about who the Party will support.  Whether the activists on the ground agree with him or not remains up to them, and THAT is where the grassroots rubber meets the road.  It ain't always easy, but it's always gonna be, well, hard.  

For those of the persnickity persuasion, this is all just my opinion.

And just to clarify a point above, when I say the grassroots should be separate from the Party proper, I mean exactly that.  Should they work together as often as possible?  You bet your ass.  Should the one listen to the other as often as possible?  You bet your ass.  But the grassroots should always be as independentand mobile as possible, so it can move around bylaws, around Robert's Rules, around strategic decisions that may or may not be bad, and not be bogged down by all the crap that remains necessary for running a formal Party.  Again please, just my opinion.

Switzerblog'll knock you out!

Political dispatches with a view of the Market Pike Place Politics

Mark Wilson is not even deserving of a mention as a primary challenger to [Maria Cantwell]. - Chad Shue

--- Speaking for teh Grassroots since 1977

grassroots are for keeping in the dark and feeding crap !

IF you and I were smart, then we'd be important, AND we'd wouldn't be grassroots!!

One day we grassroots are evil liberal activists getting in fights with cops outside the convention center ... oooppps ... that was the excuse for losing in '68 ...

we are the reason that a candidate who cantbenamed is gonna lose her seat on the throne,

and then I look at the numbers.

each legislative district has 80 or 90 thousand ?? residents, and local dem orgs are lucky to get 20 or 80 to show up because:

1. you and I are part of lazy evil liberal cabal who don't doorbell and phonecall enough to get thousands instead of scores of people to meetings?

2. some other blame-"the-left" tinfoil hattery?

3. 
   

(SHHHHHHHH - I've got a secret,

I've been having random meetings with an unspecified member of the looney left wing conspiricy in undisclosed locations in Seattle,

and everything bad about the Dem party is our fault for not working harder, for not listening better to our leaders, and for not waiting for direction from our betters!

)

rmm.

http://www.liemail.com/BambooGrassroots.html

I think it's all about S. 333, buddy.

If Mark Wilson makes an issue of Cantwell's position on Santorum bill that is clearly the first step to a Bush war on Iran, I think he will not only have something, I think he can really accomplish something, namely moving Cantwell into an anti-war position.

As a challenger he really only has a shot with one issue. If he can say "I never would have authorized this administration to go to war on Iraq and I will oppose ANY effort that could allow this administration to go to war on Iran" - that will be a crystal-clear distinction that will force people to see the error of Cantwell's accomodationist ways.