Dem Disarray

DNC Chair Howard Dean is not pleased about what happened to Paul Hackett:

Dean told a student audience in Miami that "some skullduggery in Washington" improperly led to Hackett's decision to end his bid. And he said Democrats will have a tough time winning if similar things happen to others…

He said that Hackett was a "great candidate," and that a primary in Ohio wouldn't have hurt the party.

That seems to be the consensus among the grassroots, too. I’m sure the party establishment doesn’t like hearing what Dean has to say, but tough shit—they ought to listen, because he’s right.

The thing that irritates me the most about this whole situation the more I think about it is that there was a smart way to play politics in this situation. I left my thoughts about it in a comment at Mannion’s place, and I’ll repeat it here:

“What the Democrats should have done if they were smart (big if, I know), is make up for breaking their promise to Hackett by offering him something in return—something that was valuable enough to convince him that they were invested in him, and would continue to be so if he would settle for the House seat instead. What they should have done is given him the SOTU rebuttal.

This is the new face of the Democratic Party. Young, fighting, progressive, tough and smart.

Brown would have his Senate shot, Hackett would have felt well-supported and likely would have consented to run for the House, and we would have had a rebuttal that was worth watching.”

That’s smart politics. Happy candidates, well-served local constituency, satisfied national grassroots, and a reason for swing voters, independents, and moderate Republicans to consider voting Dem. Not to mention, they would have all but assured Hackett’s election—an instant pick-up in the House.

Hackett might have been raw and a little unpolished, but he’s got passion. And he’s a vet; he would have gotten ink that the excruciatingly dull Kaine did not. There was a real opportunity there to solve a whole lot of problems with one good decision, and the Dems flubbed it.