Well, here we go....

We are less than 48 hours from the Ward & Precinct Caucuses for the biennial Shelby County Democratic Party re-organization and bloodbath, after which the two main groups tear each other to pieces (and then deny it) and then barely work with each other for the next two years. Sounds like fun, eh? I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Shortly after David Cocke, who has been around the Party structure since 1978 in one post or another, including two prior terms as chair, announced that he wanted to run for his third go-around, this apparently incensed former SCDP Chair, current State Executive Committee member and recent State Senator Sidney Chism.

Chism told Jackson Baker of the Memphis Flyer that "They’ve got a lot of nerve trying to shove David Cocke on us, when there are three other candidates, all African Americans, ready and willing to serve, said Chism last week. “David Cocke will never be chairman. I guarantee it! If it comes down to it, I’ll put myself in the running rather than let him be elected."

I'm sure that pleases Cherry Davis to no end, given that this already-announced candidate's base of support comes to a great extent from friends and supporters of Chism.

While David Cocke himself prudently let Chism's comments hang in the air with no response, that didn't stop David Upton from charging, according to the Baker column, that Chism was playing the race card and that Chism ran a poor ship during his 1994-95 term as SCDP Chair.

Upton, who opened up a website in support of Cocke at www.memphisdemocrats.com, sent out emails to large numbers of the party faithful asking them to attend a pre-caucus breakfast supporting Cocke, and proclaimed that no less a trifecta that Congressman Harold Ford Jr., county Mayor AC Wharton, and County Assessor Rita Clark were also supporters of the two-time chair.

For many of us in the county who have worked with the Party, this scenario is all too familiar, and we are tired of it. While I like and respect David Cocke and have no problems with a third term, I want to reiterate my support for Joe Young, candidate and former field director with the Tennessee Democratic Party. He claims no fealty to either side, just to the Party and the things that it stands for (or should, at least).

I am hopeful yet cynical. I have always gotten along with folks on either side (and yes, there ARE sides) and it KILLS me when this stuff starts. As the party is at a crossroads in the shadow of Operation Tennessee Waltz, what happens now could affect whether Harold Ford Jr. becomes the first African-American to be elected to the Senate since reconstruction, and whether Phil Bredesen gets another term in which to destroy TennCare and cause the needless end of life for thousands of Tennesseans.

I'll see you there!