Democrat Civil War Watch: Shuler Moves to Oust Pelosi, Reid Neutralizes Schumer (Update: Pelosi wins)
It’s fair to say that both the Republicans and Democrats are engaged in some post-election, and to some extent internecine and ideological, jockeying. This tends to happen with changes of party power, especially on the losing side. On the Republican side, there was a brief skirmish over earmarks, with Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina waging a successful insurrection against incoming majority minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell. That battle isn’t quite over yet, but it’s just minor gun play compared to what’s going on on the Democratic side.
A couple of weeks before the midterms, I highlighted a local Texas incident as evidence that a national Democratic crack-up was likely. In that case, a centrist Democratic county chairman resigned his position with the party — a position to which he had been elected by Democratic primary voters just a few months prior — to endorse a Republican running for state House against a liberal Democrat incumbent (and that Republican went on to win easily). Call that the first shot in the looming Democratic civil war.
Now bigger guns are rolling out, and they’re aimed at the Democratic leadership. On Monday, Democratic pollsters Pat Caddell and Douglas Schoen came out with op-ed arguing that President Obama shouldn’t seek re-election in 2012.
This is a critical moment for the country. From the faltering economy to the burdensome deficit to our foreign policy struggles, America is suffering a widespread sense of crisis and anxiety about the future. Under these circumstances, Obama has the opportunity to seize the high ground and the imagination of the nation once again, and to galvanize the public for the hard decisions that must be made. The only way he can do so, though, is by putting national interests ahead of personal or political ones.
To that end, we believe Obama should announce immediately that he will not be a candidate for reelection in 2012.
Caddell was Jimmy Carter’s pollster, while Schoen worked for the Clinton White House. So they were major figures inside the last two Democratic administrations. This isn’t the first time they’ve taken aim together at Obama. Back in July, they wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed blasting Obama for being “divisive” and playing politics with serious issues like border security. It’s tempting to see the “one and done” idea as an attempt to get Obama to opt out to make room for a Hillary Clinton run in 2012, but Caddell is no fan of the Clintons. During the past few years he has been vocal in criticizing the Clinton-led Democratic Party, to the point that the Sorosbots at Media Matters have compiled a dossier on him. MM notes that Caddell has the gall to appear on conservative radio talk shows. The horror!
As for Schoen, yeah, he’s probably just trying to pave the way for Hillary. If Obama has to do an LBJ to make that happen, fine. Lest anyone be fooled, Hillary is no less of an Alinskyite than Obama. She just took a different route to arrive at the threshold of power. Nevertheless, a direct attack on a sitting president of your own party by figures like Caddell and Schoen is significant.
The knives in the Senate came out when it looked like Sen. Harry Reid, the Democrats’ leader, was going to be boiled in Tea. Sens. Chuck Shumer and Dick Durbin plotted a post-Reid Senate leadership. But he won, and has now offered Schumer a newly created “leadership” position meant to effectively neutralize Schumer as a threat to Reid’s status as Senate majority leader. It’s a “messaging” position, which among other things shows that the Democrats still haven’t absorbed all that Nov 2 shellac.
Guns are also rolling out to take on the Democratic leadership in the House. Specifically, Nancy Pelosi. And she’s facing battles on two fronts as she seeks to be elected minority leader.
The typical blue dog Texas Democrat has been played for a sucker by the leftist Democratic Party establishment. They were allowed to cast conservative votes when it made no particular difference. These were the people who had confused notions concerning the myth that FDR saved American capitalism during the Great Depression. Jesse Jones was their hero—and not the more strident anti-capitalists who surrounded the president. The remaining few Blue dogs have got to stop fooling around and join the Republican Party.
Heath Schuler may well join the GOP within the next few months. The Democrats are getting crazier. They might be utterly incapable of projecting a moderate image to the American people. Black Democrats like James Clyburn will push the party even further to the left. These embittered individuals feel a sense of entitlement and a perceived right to “payback” for past injustices. It’s likely to get very ugly. The Democrats will probably become even bluer.
” The Democrats are getting crazier. They might be utterly incapable of projecting a moderate image to the American people.”
Yes, and perhaps this foreshadows a split in the Democratic Party. Surely not all Democratic politicians want to crash and burn. Perhaps a new major party formed by Democratic realists will emerge as a foil to the Republican Party, and what’s left of the loony Democrats will be just another third party.
Just for your info. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BLUE DOG DEMOCRAT! Never has been and never will be! If the 111th Congress has not proven that the constant lies of the Democrats and their Marxist Media sycophants promoting myths about the fiction that is a Blue Dog Dem, nothing has. It is way past time for Conservatives to stop swallowing the Dem talking points and helping perpetuate the Dem myths such as this. And you wonder why our Government is so messed up? By using the Dems’ self described/defined terms such as this you become part of the problem.
lets hope that doesn’t happen civil war every body loses no one wins in that case
There is no Democratic Party anymore. It is now the Socialist party. Anybody who thinks there are any old-time conservative Democrats left, like John Kennedy, is dreaming. The liberal far left has taken over the party and most of the “blue dog” Democrats were wiped out in the recent election. What few remain will be done away with in 2012. The only people who are left are the Pelosi/Reid/Obama socialists. Even Bill Clinton probably could not surive in today’s Democratic Party (after all, his wife was defeated by them as well in 2008). So you have a choice, America. Either go with the socialists, or go with a hopefully “reformed” Republican Party. Why do I think a third party is in our not too distant future?
I have long argued that the Democrats will probably never again win a national election. They can field viable candidates in only the bluest of areas with an occasional purple one thrown in the mix. We cannot afford naive talk regarding third party options. These people normally do an enormous amount of destruction. When push comers to shove, they merely help Democrats win elections. The Democratic Party will still earn roughly 45% of the total vote across the nation. Third party candidates will inevitably help it win some key races—maybe even the presidency itself.
Are you sometimes irritated with the GOP? In that case, you should invest more time and money during the primaries. That’s when the candidates that might meet more with your approval can be selected. It’s also the appropriate venue to get rid of politicians like Lindsey Graham and Olympia Snowe.
Mitch McConnell is not the incoming Senate majority leader.
The Democrats have an image problem and they decide to to put an ugly face on it.
The Democrats have a “messaging” problem, so they uncork the following to “cure” it.
“better integrate our legislative- and message-crafting functions into a coordinated nucleus managing policy, press and politics.”
The Democrats have a trust problem, so decide to find Charlie Rangel innocent of “bringing disgrace on the House of Representatives”…apparently a hurdle so high, it is impossible to scale by prostitution rings in your basement or secretly meeting with sworn enemies…much less hiding a few tax dollars in Hipanola.
The Democrats have a “legislation in the dark of night” problem, so they openly discuss with John Podesta all the ways they can destroy even more confidence in government.
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/17/podesta-advises-obama-to-ignore-voters-bypass-congress-through-agency-action/
The Democrats have now abandoned the mask of being NBC-ish and have gone full bore MSNBC on us. They are a leftist, red meat, tear down the system, ignore the will of the people, extremist Party of nyet.
They are socialists coming out of the closet. And Blue Dogs are either with us or against us. It’s that simple. There is no unringing this bell.
Nancy Pelosi IS the face of the New Democratic Party. As is Jan Schakowsky. And Lawrence O’Donnell, Ted Rall and Keith Olbermann.
Shine a light on all of them I say. They don’t seem to be scurrying for the baseboards any longer.
“Lest anyone be fooled, Hillary is no less of an Alinskyite than Obama.”
I’d argue that Hillary! is more dangerous than Dear Liar. Because she’s competent. Our saving grace is that The Whine is an incompetent fascist, a competent one wouldn’t have us wake up until it’s too late.
Truer words were never spoken. I have often thanked God that this clown doesn’t really have the oratory skills of some of the masters of demogogerie from the first half of the twentieth century. If he did we would all be pulling on an oar in some metaphorical
slave ship somewhere.
What in the world has Hillary ever done to make you think she
is competent? Isn’t she the the candidate who lost what should
have been a cinch nomination to the novice Obama? Do you
remember Hillarycare? Have you been paying any attention to
her Keystone Cops style performance at the State Department?
Hillary shares the same world view that Obama has – she is a
hardcore leftist to the bone. She would be every bit the disaster
as President that Obama is with a little more sleaze thrown
in to boot.
The problem with the Hillary strategy is similar to the attacks you see right now coming at Pelosi from Shuler and the Blue Dogs and the CBC. You really can’t square the circle and get both sides to agree on the path to a win in 2012. They both want more power, but they’re coming at it from opposite directions.
Shuler and the surviving Blue Dogs may want Hillary to replace Obama, but the CBC has too much influence within the African-American community, and Hillary couldn’t win in November ’12 in African-American voters opt to stay home (which would also hurt candidates in down-ballot state and regional races). Meanwhile, there’s a good chance the people who voted for Heath won’t be voting for Obama anyway in 2012, so his anti-Pelosi/pro-Hillary faction has very little clout within the rest of the Democrats’ caucus, even though their plans have a much better chance of winning back at least some of the moderate swing voters who went with the Democrats in 2006 and 2008.
“Blue Dog” was a political advertising concept rolled out by Rahm Emanuel for obvious reasons, and never a reality. We know how many walked the plank in the end because of their blind obedience to their party leaders.
I had to laugh at an AP article I saw earlier that referred to Shuler as an “ex-college quarterback”. As an old Redskins fan I guess I can’t blame his PR staff for ignoring his underwhelming NFL career.
…. Missus Billy-Bubbah Blythe, no less of an Alinskyite than Obama, took a different route to arrive at the threshold of power …
Sure. She attached herself to the shirt tails of her fellow recidivist, treasonous, pathologically-lying, looting, thieving, mass-murdering, co-serial-rapist Alinskyist “spouse” and used his systematic abuse of every office he ever stole access to, to cover her own pseudo-independent acts of basta*dy. Including the theft of and the creation of a data-base from the several thousand FBI files by way of which she maintains her even-so somewhat shaky hold on the trappings of the unearned and undeserved power after which she lusts and to which she clings.
I’m glad Pelosi won. She has been one of the most effective Speakers of the House ever. The only thing I fault her with is taking impeachment off the table during the Bush Administration. I’d like to see his entire former administration all together in some cramped cell in The Hague.
Hillary Clinton will not contest Obama for the Democratic Nomination
in 2012, for the simple reason that she has no chance to win the
general election. Here is why:
— Barack Obama will be on the ballot in 2012, one
way or another, whether he is running as the Democrat
nominee or as an independent. In case you haven’t been
paying attention Obama is a power hungry megalomaniac
who has been dreaming of the Presidency since before
he hit puberty. We’ll have to drag him kicking and
screaming out of the White House. Obama certainly
won’t allow Hillary to be the one to remove him.
— By 2012 Obama will have raised hundreds of millions
in campaign funds, more than enough to finance an
independent run for re-election, if he should happen to
lose the Democratic nomination. He’ll have the power of
incumbency with all the free daily publicity that provides.
Plus almost all black voters will support Obama.
Hillary knows this – she couldn’t possibly hope
to win in the general without overwhelming support
from the black community.
— Obama couldn’t win a three-way race either, but
he would run just to spite Hillary (rightfully so).
Hillary would throw away whatever support she has
in the Democratic Party just to run in a general
election she can’t win. For all the reasons noted
above, she won’t even try.
I’m afraid Republicans are just going to have to beat Obama
in 2012. Forget the fantasies of Hillary being the Democrat
nominee.
Those that have any illusions about Hillary have been misled. She is dangerous, along with Bill. They have done, and continue to do, much damage to the country. China now can prescision bomb the U.S. thanks to Bill. Bill did anything for $$$ campaign donations. Hillary is an Alinsky sociopath, and many women seem to think that “having a woman in power” is the answer. It would be a nightmare; going from Obama to Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s man got away with stealing documents out of the archives. The influence of the Clintons to stifle ABC in its documentary “The path to 9/11″ would just be a small sampling of the totalitarianism.