Last night the latest darling of the far left, Ciro Rodriguez lost the Democrat primary (which in TX-28 means the election) to Henry Cuellar.The Kos&Kids© and many other leftwingnuts shilled for contributions nationally to defeat Democrat Cueller and install Rodriguez (who had already lost to Cueller when their districts were merged and parts split off in the Delay redistricting) because of Cueller’s many sins against the extremists on the left.
Some of his sins:>
1. He supports school vouchers. As a Hispanic representing a largely Hispanic district (which includes Laredo) I can’t see where this is a bad thing.Poor minority/immigrant students are the least likely to afford private schools and are trapped in the terrible public school system. Of courseit goes against far left orthodoxy to cross the mighty NEA
2. Voted with 15 other Democrats to help pass CAFTA. Again, this is directly against the union-boosting far left, but good for his constituents:
“My support for DR- CAFTA is about one thing: jobs forthe people here in Texas,” said Cuellar. “DR-CAFTA will open doors for workers from all walks of life; from farmers to construction workers,small business owners, and engineers, creating economic opportunities and making the American Dream a reality for the residents here in our community. Opening the doors of trade will also give us the opportunity to closely monitor labor conditions abroad and ensure they are being held to the highest standards.”
After its first year of implementation, DR-CAFTA will add approximately $620 million to the Texas economy. After ten years, the agreement will help add $4.3 billion to the state’s economy, create a net gain of over 16,000 jobs, and raise Texas workers’ earnings by $718million.
These things Kos would not like to see happen, presumably.
3. Broke with Democrats to support the Republican Immigration plan to build a wall along the US/Mexico border; (Source:109th Congress Roll Call vote 31, February 10, 2005) Again, this seems well within the interest and desires of his constituency. Polls have shown that legal immigrants don’t want illegals flooding over the borders either. Legal immigrants, and their descendants, who make up the majority of Cueller’s district, pay the taxes that go for the social services and education of illegals.
They may be for liberalizing immigration laws and worker passes etc. but they are hardly for unrestricted borders. Besides which, the wall would help secure the borders against terrorists seeking to infiltrate and drug runners as well. This is a bad thing?
4. And most egregious, commented on in almost every post Kos or Atrios made about Cueller, he was famously embraced by President Bush
Within hours of a call to arms being posted on two liberal-leaning political blogs, the Daily Kos and Eschaton, former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez’s campaign received 263 cyber contributions totaling nearly $12,000, according to ActBlue, a Web-based clearinghouse for Democratic candidates nationwide.
“This may be billed as a Democratic primary, but in this solidly Democratic Latino-majority district, Republicans needed a Republican in sheep’s clothing like Cuellar to have a chance of winning,” the DailyKos blog post read.
In his post-mortemand the comments, Kos&Kidz© attributes the failure to unseat Cueller on many things: lack of ground GOTV organization, possible voting machine fraud, or Karl Rove brainwaves (the conservative ClubFor Growth had supported Cueller, another black mark against him forKos).
It doesn’t occur to the leftwingnuts that their ideas and issuesmay not appeal to the voters. The lefty device of trying to force New York Liberal style “progressivism” down the throats of South Texas Latinos will help the Republicans lock up the Hispanic vote for generations, so I applaud the “wingnutroots” for their efforts, and hope they continue, as well as snorking up campaign funds for lost causes like this (Rodriguez never broke 36% of the vote in early polling) that might go to winnable races for the Dems.
Redstate’s Leon Wolfreminds us that including Kos’s duds for 2004, he’s now 0-19 in backing far-left candidates in an effort to make the Democrat party look more like San Francisco and Manhatten.
Leon:
Thus far the lefty netroots has aggressively pushed numerous out of touch losers, but has yet to generate a winner. Leftynutroots support continues to be the kiss of death and that support is,unfortunately, eroding the credibility of the netroots in general. It should be noted that the right side of the blogosphere has not been as aggressive in building and backing candidates (though Jim Demint, Tom Coburn, John Thune, and others have seen help), but the right has managed to show itself more in touch with reality
Let’s hope Kos&Kids© keep up their efforts, squander campaign contributions, further destroy the Democrat brand-name, drive the party further to the left, de-legitimize themselves as power-brokers, and help dispirit the troops with false claims of victory dashed when reality sets in. Let’s hope they continue to explain their losses as”not having enough resources” or “nefarious plots and conspiracies” instead of having valid political goals and resonant ideas.
Eventually,their frustration and despair is going to splinter the Democrat party.My guess is the 2nd week in Nov 2006 when the party bosses demand the head of Howard Dean and the wingnutroots rebels (he is after all their hand-picked guy, and his demise will be a huge slap in the face to Kos&Co.©). Dean running as a 3rd party challenger should hand the Republicans another 49 state landslide, and will allow them to nominate a more conservative candidate instead of a “moderate” like McCain or Guiliani.
File under “Yay! We lost again!!!11?
The bottom line: we helped a campaign that was the walking dead and gave it new life, pumped in resources, and made it competitive. We did much to even the playing field even if ultimately we came up tantalizingly short.
And yeah, I know “tantalizingly short”, alongside “moral victories”, is about as desirable as the Bubonic Plague. We want more. But this isa long-term movement, building from nothing. And we are sending notice to Democrats that they can’t be Bush’s bitch and expect a pass.
So we didn’t kill off Cuellar, but we gave him an ass whooping where none was expected and made him sweat. That’s the reason why Lieberman is sweating in Connecticut and lining up his dog and pony endorsement shows to flex his muscle. He can’t take for granted that a no-name businessman with no political experience and zero connections in his state’s political establishment will be a non-factor, not with what we’ve done for people like Dean and now Ciro.
I’m sure Lieberman is shaking in his boots- with these guys against him he can’t lose. Kos’s idea of an “ass-whooping” is to almost win (sort of like the ass whooping the Sea Hawks put on the Steelers last month) and “pump resources” into a losing battle you never had a chance to win. Where I come from we call that “wasting resources better spent on realistic causes”.
Shine on you crazy diamonds! Onward to the permanent Republican majority.