White House: Andrew Romanoff Overtures Don’t Mean We Aren’t Transparent
I attempted to post the following comment, in light of the recent attempts by Democratic leaders to persuade certain candidates not to run by offering them a job, to a rant by Amy Siskind, President and co-founder of The New Agenda, about how the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had attempted to discourage the candidacy of Hawaii State Senator Colleen Hanabusa for Congress in favor of Ed Case, supposedly to avoid losing in November. My comment was held up in moderation, and it appears it will not be approved. The Women’s Campaign Forum blog has few commenters, and I may have tried the patience of the moderators with my comments urging women to abandon the political establishment. The organization may be nonpartisan, and its posters regularly denounce the leadership of both major parties for the lack of support for women candidates, as well as outright interference on behalf of preferred males, but it has not ventured to suggest women try an independent route.
Robert Gibbs was on the hot seat today, trying to explain Democratic actions to prevent hotly contested primaries.
”Well, I think the leaders of parties have long had an interest in ensuring that supporters didn’t run against each other in contested primaries,” Gibbs replied.
He later added, speaking of the president: “We went through a pretty contested primary. They’re not altogether fun things. Does the leader of the party have an interest in ensuring that primaries that tend to be costly aren’t had so that you’re ready for a general election? Of course.”
Asked if there had been other such efforts to clear contested primaries, Gibbs replied, “not that I’m aware of.”
I imagine that means Mr. Gibbs was unaware of the efforts of the DCCC to clear the field for Mr. Case! Not that I believe that for a minute. The spin machine is alive and well, politics as usual. Perhaps Gibbs did not think this Hawaii race was important enough to mention, or perhaps he did not mention it because nobody offered Ms. Hanabusa a job to persuade her to drop out. Gibbs also did not see fit to mention how Robert Casey became the Senator from Pennsylvania, after the Democratic leadership muscled out pro-choice Barbara Hafer, subject of a NOW PAC Political Alert
The alert stated, “When Democrats do not support women, we will not support them.” Apparently that was an empty threat. Is it any wonder the leadership of that party feels it can take women for granted?
Perhaps that was too harsh for the blog of a relatively moderate feminist organization, or perhaps it felt such a comment on a relatively old post (from April 9) was inappropriate. I do not understand why it puts up with this kind of treatment of women running for office, but it appears complaining about it will continue to be the extent of its protests.
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