Burnt Orange Report

CA Democratic Stupidity

By Byron LaMasters

I know I'm not really one to talk. Here in Texas we have no statewide Democratic elected officials. Over there in California they've got only Democratic statewide elected officials. Democrats control both chambers of the legislature in California, and none in Texas. Fine. But based on the past week, I have no clue how the California Democratic Party managed to sweep the state in 2002. No clue.

The stupidity of the party of the past couple of weeks is absurd. Davis should have handpicked a replacement candidate (Feinstein, Bustamente, etc.) for himself, and got every major Democrat to endorse that candidate in the second part of the ballot. Throughout the campaign the two of them could have run on a ticket of "Recall: No, Bustamente/Feinstein/etc: Yes!". Against a divided field, a 35-40% reliably Democratic vote would have at least won the second round of the balloting.

Instead, Davis showed no leadership, just like our bitch, err Governor Perry. Too bad Texas doesn't have a recall mechanism, but I digress. So instead of doing what would be in his and in the Party's best interests, Davis decided to rely on the courts to stop the recall and allow him to be on the replacement ballot. Someone should have talked some sense into him. One, going to the courts looks desperate. And, two, it didn't do him any good. (And before one of my conservative readers makes the comment that Texas Democrats are going to the courts and thus the preceding comments apply to them, I would respond by saying 1. The Texas Democrats have nothing to lose in going to the courts. The Texas Republicans are doing it, too. And none of the Texas 11 have much to worry about in re-election. In fact, there is a potential to lose 6-8 congressmen if they don't fight tooth and nail, and 2. There is a distinct possibility that going to the courts will do the Texas Democrats some good).

So, where did all this leave the California Democrats? Well, Arnold decides to run and the party decides that Davis is toast. Instead of coming up with a coordinated plan of how to deal with it, though, the situations spirals into chaos. Bustamente runs. Then Garamendi runs. Who knows who will run tomorrow. Most of us Democrats would agree that the recall is wrong, but the California Democrats strategy of fighting it is idiotic. Texas Democrats may not have figured out how to win a statewide office, but at least we know how to fight like hell against Republican power grabs.