Tom Carper: The Placeholder Senator

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by an anon Delawareliberal reader. It assumes a general familiarity with Carper’s his votes during the Bush years which identify him is a huge asshole and peice of shit.

So knowing he sucks – the question becomes, what do we do with that knowledge?

So how can Tom Carper who, like me, volunteered on Eugene McCarthy’s campaign back in his college days be such an ideological disappointment? How can he be so disloyal to his party? His support for Joe Liebermann and Mike Castle simply bewilder me. His voting record in the Senate makes me question his sanity. This is something that I’ve spent way too much time thinking about. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

First, any politician must get elected or join the unemployment line. Delaware may be blue but it’s still conservative. The wild-eyed liberals of our party don’t get past the primaries. The old adage that you primary to the left and then track as fast as you can back to the center for the general election doesn’t hold true in Delaware, at least not so far. Carper’s trusted advisor, Ed Freel, knows his Delaware politics and how the statistics breakdown and he’s not about to let the Senator climb out on any left-leaning limbs. Carper, like most elected Democrats in Delaware, is always going to err on the side of conservatism. I suspect that, over the thirty years he has been in office, doing what was politically expedient has actually become part of his value system. His Eugene McCarthy days are a very faint memory.

Then, the people who form the incumbent club are much more loyal to each other than to their party. Senator Carper has his own machine, his own money and corporate connections, and a lot of constituents who have been served or received favors in the past three decades. He is not dependent upon support from the Delaware Democratic Party and he is especially not dependent upon support from the wild-eyed liberals in the party. In fact, if we made a big show of supporting him it would probably make him very nervous. This doesn’t make Carper unique; it is the prevailing attitude among incumbents. Since Delaware is notorious for reelecting incumbents, that isn’t going to change any time soon.

And, the Delaware Democratic Party isn’t going to withhold its support from Carper. He may not vote the party ideology, but he’s sitting on the left side of the aisle and he’s one of the reasons the Democratic caucus is holding the majority in the Senate right now. After the past six years we are, rightly, much too scared of the consequences and abuses that would occur should we lose that majority. This particular president cannot be let lose without a leash.

As I’ve said, I’ve spent way too much of my life worrying about Tom Carper. He won in 2006 and he’s safe until 2012. I’ll continue to write, call and visit his offices when there’s an issue I’d like him to support. I’m no longer going to go into a blue funk when he disappoints me. The best I can hope for is a place holder on the left of the aisle. Anything beyond that will be a pleasant surprise.