Jackson Baker at the Flyer has dug to find that the person that I alluded to in my post of last night has turned out to be none other than two-time former chair David Cocke. He certainly fits the two requirements listed: an experienced old hand and someone who is thisclose to the Ford family.
I served under David Cocke, and he would be a good chair, everything that Harold the Younger seeks in a chair for the largest county (especially DEMOCRATIC county) in Tennessee. I like him, I have no thoughts at all that he would be anything less than a solid leader.
However, as I stated below, I believe that's really the last thing we need right now. I'm not necessarily arguing for utter chaos and anarchy, though it might help to dissipate any leftover hard feelings from the last few years. This needs to be a bottom-up, grassroots effort to rebuild the party, and status quo (which, really and truly, would be all you would get from any of the names listed in the article except for Joe Young or Cherry Davis) is and should be cast aside.
Why, do you ask? 1) we are coming into an OFF-YEAR election. Who is at the top of the ticket but our boy Phil Bredesen, who is one of my favorites, as you well know. He's got more money than Croesus for his re-election bid, and probably will face only a sacrificial lamb on the Republican side. And why not? He's certainly governed like a Republican!
That brings us to the Senate race. The legal problems of his Uncle John certainly can't help our congressman become the southern Barack Obama (except that he was Obama before Obama) and there is the question of how his I'm-just-a-Blue-Dog-under-the-skin act will play in rural and suburban areas. While folks out in the rest of Tennessee (you know, the ones that want to give Shelby County to either Arkansas or Mississippi) may think that he is a nice young man who is nothing like the rest of his family, I have my doubts that they will vote for him.
No, it's not really even because of race, either. The late, lamented Harry S Truman once noted that, "if you only give people a choice between a quasi-Republican and a REAL Republican, they'll take the real one every time". Even though he wants to come across as a middle of the roader, his vote for the Bankruptcy Bill, practically a blank check for the credit-card companies, is nothing a real DEMOCRAT would or SHOULD vote for, even though the whole damned delegation voted for it.
He should beat Rosalind Kurita, unless she challenges him to a skeet-shooting contest. However, warmed-over Republican slop is NOT going to beat Ed Bryant or Bob Corker or whoever else the GOP comes up with.
This is why the party should not put all their eggs in one basket on the chairmanship. This isn't just Ford's party, or Chism's Party, or MY Party, it's EVERYONE'S PARTY, and we need to build it to last. The status quo is just not acceptable this time.
2 comments:
I actually think Ros could beat Junior--not that she will even come close. Only one of the three counties Kurita reps went blue in 2004 (my old hometown-- I'm so proud). She plays well in red areas and will appeal to rural Dems. She could make suburbia swoon--for all the wrong reasons, natch. But she's got a long way to go.
Corker's to easily painted as a RINO and won't make it past the primary.
Hey bud if you're going to steal my lines . . . . :)
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