| Mikal Watts on the other hand was quite impressive. Keep in mind Watts is the rich lawyer buying his way in and he is anti-choice. This is not a guy that I can imagine supporting. Noriega has a fairly progressive voting record and was drafted by the Netroots. This is the guy that I keep expecting to support.
I first spoke with Watts. Right off I ask him how he expected to win Democratic votes with an anti-choice and anti-stem cell position. He made it clear that he was a supporter of stem cell research at all levels. I figured that I would not have much time to question him so I did not push him on the distinction between embryonic and adult stem cell research. I probably should have and will follow up on that. On abortion, he did not equivocated or spin his position. While stating that he was not opposed to abortion in the cases of rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother he did not try to spin this as supporting abortion. He said that he would stand by his position. He did not try to convince me that he was right. I was impressed but not the kind of impressed that would have made me think that I could over look his stance on choice. It was probably fairly clear to him that I was probably not one to see past this issue but he continued to talk very affably about the need to share information within the party structure and what they were doing with their database.
The candidates were given a few minutes to speak. Noriega had a lot of family in the audience and basically spoke about them. Watts gave a great stump speech in which he addressed real issues from a rather progressive stance. He spoke about the war and the need to bring the troops home. He spoke about the money being spent on the war that should be going to provide universal health care and real insured retirement for all Americans. He was articulate and spoke with a fire in the belly passion. Not only did he sound like a good candidate, he sounded like a good progressive candidate.
Next I got a chance to speak to Noriega. Like with Watts, I went right to the issue. I asked him what, if anything , he planned to do about the problem with the Bob Perry money. "What problem?" he said with a feigned look of surprise on his face, as if I were asking him about a five dollar donation from the little old lady down the street. I have little patience for this kind of passive aggressive indirectness. He wanted to pretend that there was no reason for anyone to question him about this money. Fine, I said, I have been trying to find a way to support you but if you think that taking money from Bob Perry does not deserve an answer then that probably isn't possible. At that point he got steely eyed and stepped uncomfortably into my space and told me that he had been working his ass off serving his country and that it wasn't Bob Perry, but people like me who were damaging the Democratic Party. Excuse me, but did he really say that? Bob Perry who contributed over a million dollars to broadcast lies about John Kerry is giving money to Rick Noriega so he is a good guy. But I'm the voter who has the audacity to question him about this practice, so I am the demon of the Democratic Party. Noriega seems to think that he has some sort of entitlement because he went to Afghanistan. He appears to think that he somehow pulled, not only himself, but the whole country up by his bootstraps.
Melissa on the other hand spent much more time speaking to me. She listened and explained how they came about getting money from Perry. She explained that she had wondered if she should take money from him at first but didn't feel like she had much choice because she needed it so badly for her campaign. Funny how she had questioned taking Perry's money before there was even a question raised from outside and now Rick thinks that we are tearing down the party by asking that question. Obviously there was enough of an issue with this money to give his wife pause when taking it for her nonpartisan city council race.
Melissa said that she had read some of my posts on BOR and understood the concern. She also confided that they were in the process of trying to decide what to do about the Perry money. Rick doesn't know what I'm talking about when I raised the issue and gets indigent over the question, yet they are trying to figure out what to do about this nonexistent problem. Really, if a Noriega is going to run for this seat, I would much rather it were her.
I realize that Noriega may have already been defensive because of my posting on blogs about this issue. First impressions aren't always accurate. But my first impression of this guy was about as bad as it could have been.
I have to say, at this point, I am wondering how it came about that this is the bandwagon that the netroots jumped on. Was it the enthusiasm of a couple of people that convinced others? And how widespread is this enthusiasm? There are really very few people in this discussion on either side.
I cannot imagine actively supporting someone who is not strongly pro-choice, but Watts seemed much more likable, he sounded a great deal more progressive and he has real money. Noriega on the other hand was dismissive, arrogant and did not seem to understand how to campaign.
When it comes to taking Bob Perry's money Noriega expects us to be pragmatic. I can only guess that Noriega does not want us to be quite so pragmatic about supporting a candidate who can beat Cornyn. Here we should stand on principle and support the progressive candidate. More and more my principled stand says that we need a candidate who is not deeply compromised and inconsistent.
It is really sad that in Texas this is the best candidate that progressives have to line up behind. Cornyn could be very vulnerable despite huge contributions from Bob Perry. My guess is that Perry's much smaller donations to Noriega have paid off handsomely for him because there is no viable progressive candidate to challenge Cornyn; instead we are offering up Rick Noriega. As much as it pains me to say this, our best shot is with a rich, anti-choice lawyer who is buying his way in. This is a very bleak picture of our failed leadership. |
