Matt Stoller chides Dems for fleeing from JK

[ginnyinWI]

http://www.mydd.com/

And he's right--they should show some spine and not run for the hills in the face of the GOP smear machine.

[whometense]

1. thanks, ginny - excellent post!

Will wonders never cease?

To those people who are running scared about John Kerry's misstatement, I have a simple message. Get some integrity. John Kerry served in the military and put his life on the line for this country. He is one of the only sitting Democratic Senators to genuinely oppose this war by taking on his colleague, Senator Lieberman. He has done a huge amount for candidates this cycle, and will do more in the future. And yesterday, he misspoke - any one of us could have made that mistake. The fact that it's a controversy is actually not John Kerry's fault, it's yours. You bear the responsibility of buying into the fallacy that gaffes like this matter. You bear the responsibility of equating a slip of the tongue to a war that has killed hundreds of thousands.

And let's be very clear about the politics. This gaffe doesn't matter. No one is going to change their mind about the war because of John Kerry's mistake. What does matter is your reaction. The press has set up the rules so that if you're on offense you're winning and if you're on defense you're losing. It honestly doesn't matter if you, say, attack 9/11 widows or say that someone is faking Parkinson's disease. It's just offense/defense. Reporters have decided that printing reactions is their job, and that's life until their circulation drops to the point where they can no longer pay themselves to live in a dreamland composed of their own heroism at reprinting press releases. And let's be honest and not pretend like this is Kerry's fault; a gaffe like this was inevitable, and if Kerry hadn't said it the Republicans would have manufactured something else. It's what they do, people. Come on.

So all of you who have decided that it's good politics to throw Kerry under the bus are both disloyal and strategically short-sighted. I hope you reconsider your approach, or at least use this as a learning experience. Let's highlight two candidates and how they reacted, both in red areas.

[TayTay]

2. Wow, look what Sherrod Brown said

"Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat leading in late polls in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Mike DeWine, said Republicans are merely trying to change the subject. "The people who should apologize are George Bush and Mike DeWine for sending our troops into battle without body armor and without examining the cooked intelligence," he said. "

From the MyDD site.

[ginnyinWI]

4. It separates the "boys from the men"

Sorry I didn't make that gender-neutral, but this, in my opinion is what has been ailing the party for a long time--they are so quick to run like scared bunnies when the big, bad GOP looks at them crosswise.

[blm]

5. We should start a thread LISTING the statements of the standup Dems.

.

[wisteria]

6. Good for him. Some in our party get it.

You know, this is looking like an inside battle between the DLC wing and the more progressives. If this is the case, I would of liked it to take place after the election.

[ProSense]

3. This is awesome! Thanks! n/t

[Firespirit]

7. WHAT is going on?

The media piles on John Kerry, and the prominent liberal bloggers DEFEND him?

Hey, not that I'm complaining... these blogs do have a voice. The more support that's out there, the better.

[ginnyinWI]

8. if anyone finds a liberal blog that is not on JK's side in this,

please post here. So far it looks like they've got his back. :) The whiners on DU don't count, because they are anonymous and unaccountable.