Burnt Orange Report
News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas
|
|
Burnt Orange ReportNews, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas |
|
 |
 |
January 17, 2005Frost's race to lose?By Nathan NanceGuest post from Nate Nance If you'll remember the Jan poll of the DNC members, the second choice of the respondents was Martin Frost. I'm sure that some of that sentiment involves an Anybody But Dean mentality, as well as taking into account the time Frost put in as head of the DCCC. And I'm sure his position in that poll has everything to do with some posts about his recent run for re-election in a gerrymandered district against Pete Sessions. The initial post and ensuing comments over at MyDD give a pretty good example of what I've been seeing in other blogs. The jist is that Frost shouldn't be DNC chair because during his campaign he repeatedly asserted that he supported President Bush and even made fun of some liberal Democrats. Some people are also arguing that the things we Democrats say we want to do won't get done by Frost and his staff. The emphasis on netroots will be the opposite of emphasis since this isn't a tech-savvy crowd. And the money that he raised as head of the DCCC was mostly corporate money; that's money that he can't get since McCain-Feingold is now in effect. Our greatest new source of revenue is the netroots, so see grievance two. I'm going to do something a little bit unprecedented, I'm going to admit I don't know that much of the specifics of Frost's last campaign. I kept up-to-date on the sign scandal and some of their speeches, but I never saw any of their TV ads or campaign press releases. So I'm not going to begin to make any kind of value judgement on this. I don't know what Frost said, but I know he said it in a very Red State home to the Republican President who was running for re-election and he was in a Republican-heavy district. Sometimes you just gotta not commit political suicide. I can also see why that would be a very bad thing for the DNC chairman to have done. So I 'm just here to get the ball rolling on the discussion. I'm actually soliciting other people's comments instead of giving my own. I know several of the other writers here feel strongly about Frost and support him, so this is their moment to step up and set us straight or rethink their support. Whichever. The point is to discuss it openly and rationally. This is a guest post from Nathan Nance. He can be reached at nate_nance@yahoo.com. Posted by Nathan Nance at January 17, 2005 09:58 PM | TrackBackComments
dKos is way off base to say that voting for NCLB, Iraq war, and Dept of Homeland Security is proof that he has no place as DNC. Was NCLB not bipartisan? I don't even think demonizing Ted Kennedy should be regarded as a knock against him either. Kennedy might make some good points now and then, but I really find Ted to be something of an embarrassment. He's a caricature. I remember those ads. But the Channel 11 and DMN pieces that focused on how both candidates seemed to be running as Republicans is just a bit more than media bias, no? And the one ad in which he sided with Hutchinson, Bush, et al. came in late in the campaign, in mid or late October. And Frost was at that point losing ground to Sessions. Plus, he did cast those votes. He should not have run from them if he truly believed them.Thus ends my defense of Frost. That said, now, how good was he really? He benefitted from having a previous district that had a significant minority population that voted Democratic. I confess that I lost track of what Frost stood for. While I think there's value in saying that you're not going to run on the party affiliation, you have to identify what you stand for, apart from having supported Republicans on occasion. I thought Frost did a poor job of distinguishing himself from Sessions in substantial ways. I can't help but contrast him with Max Sandlin, another conservative Democrat who also noted his support of Bush on terrorism and a couple of other issues. But he sharply distinguished himself from his Republican opponent on things like the budget deficit and protecting jobs. True, he didn't go to the DNC, but he stayed home, he said, to help protect jobs in Tyler, doing some mediation. When I volunteered for Frost, I tried to get a feel for the place of netroots in the campaign, and I came away with nothing. So, I don't have any real confidence in the guy's ability to truly compete with Republicans. His campaign quite frankly didn't strike me as all that agressive. (The thing about Sessions streaking in college was a real embarrassing piece of desperation. What the hell was he thinking? Voters would actually vote against a guy who streaked? Did he not pay any attention to the governor's race in California where a guy who had orgies in the 70s won?) Add that campaign to his favorably drawn district previously, and I don't know that you have someone who really knows what it takes to win in adverse conditions. I just don't think there's anything new or exciting in the guy's ideas about how to win or what kind of message and policies to promote. Posted by: Tx bubba at January 18, 2005 01:16 AMPost a comment
|
|
|
