Ron Williams:

There was some sense that this latest flap between Jack Markell and John Carney would erupt a couple weeks ago. It has to do with the asinine procedure Democrats put together under state chairman John Daniello called local endorsements.

…

The whole process is a farce and means little other than who gets the latest updated version of the Department of Election voters list without paying the $5,000. Oh, and who gets party money toward his primary campaign against the other Democrat — which is what Markell rightfully is protesting.

If these boobs in the Democratic Party insist on having a “statewide” endorsed candidate in a primary who gets all the money, I would strongly suggest that is not very democratic.

…

Republicans in this state do the same thing, which is just as wrong — even though their endorsement of candidates is at a statewide convention and not in someone’s living room.

Get back to the convention form of nominating statewide candidates for both parties, and require that party-raised money be reserved for general election races.

I do feel like a Hillary Clinton supporter who is complaing about the unfairness of state caucuses or the proportional allocation of delegations.  But at least in the national primary, the nominating convention was not held BEFORE the primaries, and the DNC did not buy ads touting Barack Obama’s new leadership.

Still, there is a sense that rules are rules, no matter how unfair and horribly corrupt those rules are.   A commenter mentioned that both Markell and Carney knew the rules of the game, and that is why they pursued the endorsement by going to each Representative Committee meeting asking for their support.   They knew by getting the endorsement, there would be a reward.

So yes, it is perfectly legal and expected for the party to provide money to the winner of their endorsement.

But that does not make it right.  And it makes the Delaware Democratic Party look like a corrupt cabal of good ole boys who possess no regard for good government, good policy, or good ethics.

This is just one more thing we must reform in the Democratic Party and the state of Delaware.

This is just a quick link with a note that I’m sure we’ll be talking about Rong Wiliams column this for a bit.

One of my fellows can revise and update this post, but let me just say that Williams has been so wrong for so long that I don’t have a teacup’s worth of faith in his “internal poll” reading abilities.

One of the favorite refrains I have noticed online and offline is that it is only bloggers that are upset at the Delaware Democratic Party’s boneheaded move in paying for an ad for Carney.   They say this is a made up issue and we are complaining about nothing.

Oh really.

“If we gain the majority in the House, we will be that much more effective in making change in the lives of Delawareans,” said state Sen. David P. Sokola, D-Newark. “Our priority should be to elect Democrats.”

New Castle County Councilwoman Stephanie McClellan said Carney could restore a “good record of helping Democrats get elected” if he returned the advertising money. State Rep. Melanie George Marshall, D-Bear, said people donate to the party to support ideals, not to take a side in primary elections.

….

Carney has lost the endorsement of Sen. Karen E. Peterson, D-Stanton, though. Peterson wrote Carney a letter this week to explain why she was switching her support to Markell.

“I had done some soul searching and came to a difficult decision …,” she said. “He had assured me that he would distance himself from the Minner administration in public ways and my support was contingent on that. I don’t see that happening.”

….

Dave Carter of Townsend said the party’s ad made him decide to volunteer more hours to Markell’s campaign.

“I have stayed out of partisan politics for 20 or 30 years, but with Obama and Markell I see new ideas, new energy and it got me excited,” he said. “Now the party is slamming the umbrella down and shutting me out. At first I was really mad, but now I am energized.”

Adgate is not a made up issue.  It is not a issue just understood or kept alive by the blogosphere.  It is issue because it angers half the party, from pro-Markell and non-Markell bloggers alike.  From your average and previously unengaged citizen to your Democratic State Senator.

The Del Dems’ actions in Adgate are wrong, not because we say it is, but because it is.  It unnecessarily divides the party, when we did not have to be divided.

If the distance between where you live now, and where you could live if money were no object represented your level of contentment in life – how content are you?

I’ll start this off in the comment section.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmLHOGT0v4c[/youtube]

…but the Carney people do read this site constantly.  How do I know?  Because Carney vote total just in the poll to the left just jumped 50 votes in 20 minutes.   LOL.   If you are going to “Freep” a poll, do it a little more subtly.

Update:  Hahahaha….now the Carney total is up to 91 votes, and still climbing.  Idiots.

Update 2: In the time it takes me to update this post, the Carney vote total keeps climbing, up into the 100s now.   That is a jump of 100 votes in a matter of minutes.   I sincerely doubt Carney has 100 supporters that are computer literate, so this must be the work of some enterprising supporter or staffer.  Congrats.   You have just proved two things: 1) you are insecure in how Carney would far in any vote, and 2) thus you believe you have to cheat to win.

Update 3: And now the Markell vote total is jumping by similar huge margins in a matter of seconds, I suppose to make the poll look more realistic and not the result of some internet shenanigans.   I should note that there is a total (as I write this) of 164 total votes.  There has not been 164 unique visitors to this site in the last few minutes, so that is how I know games are afoot.   Give it up my savy Carney voter.   You are discovered, and it does not look well on your candidate.

Now this is interesting.

Before leaving on his overseas trip, Sen. Barack Obama reviewed information on several prospects and narrowed the field. His focus now includes five colleagues in the U.S. Senate — Joseph Biden, Evan Bayh, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton and Jack Reed — and two governors, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, according to Democratic operatives, though he could still make a different pick.

Is it really possible that Papa Joe will be the next Vice President of the United States?   It seems he has made the cut as a finalist for the selection.     I am still convinced that the final three will be Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sebelius, and Hillary Clinton, with Obama most likely going with Tim Kaine for the following reasons: 1) Kaine is a new face that reinforces his message of change and a new politics; 2) given the success of Obama’s overseas trip the last ten days, and with both Bush and McCain now changing their Iraq and Afghanistan positions to match Obama’s, having a national security or foreign policy VP seems less important now; 3) it won’t be Hillary; and 4) because it won’t be Hillary, it can’t be Sebelius, since that may piss off Hillary’s ardent women supporters who will illogically be upset (this is something I never understand: if you supported Hillary because you wanted a woman President, how can you be upset that there would be a woman Vice President, no matter if it is Hillary or not?).

But I digress.

Given the success of Obama’s trip, I don’t see him picking Joe Biden.   But, for selfish reasons, I would love to see it happen.  For it would shake up Delaware politics for sure, what with all the speculation on who Governor Minner (or Governor Carney or Governor Markell) would pick to replace him.

McCain knows how to catch Bin Laden.

Initially saying that he would not “telegraph” the specifics, McCain declared, “Look, I know the area, I’ve been there, I know wars, I know how to win wars, and I know how to improve our capabilities so that we will capture Osama bin Laden — or put it this way, bring him to justice… We will do it, I know how to do it.”

Proclaiming that he will capture the elusive terrorist leader — and knows how to do it — is a fairly bold assertion and leads to the question: what information is McCain holding back from the Bush administration?

Wow! McCain knows how to capture Bin Laden and he’s not telling? Not even the President? Now that’s patriotism!

And now back to my favorite McCain past time: Counting the daily flip-flops.

In today’s CNN interview, McCain suggested that a Nuremberg Trial-style hearing for bin Laden would be appropriate upon his capture.

Early in the campaign, it should be noted, McCain went hard after Barack Obama for saying that Bin Laden should not be a “martyr.” Obama also suggested Nuremburg as a model — to which McCain replied that Obama didn’t understand the reference.

67 flip-flops and counting! Want another one? How about this little gem I’m labeling #68?

Psst… don’t tell anyone, but McCain doesn’t know his own mind, let alone his own positions. I’m starting to agree with Jason: McCain will not be the Republican nominee.

I wish this was satire, but ABC News reports that McCain has had it with Obama’s “pandering” on Iraq with his “popular” stances on troop withdraw telling voters “what they want to hear.”

McCain argues to that pandering to 35% of voters with his unpopular ideas about staying in Iraq for 100 years demonstrates that he “doesn’t want to retreat” in Iraq and therefor he has better “judgment” than Senator Obama.

I shit you not.

In other news…nice day for a BBQ.

Miller might be a nice person with a family that loves her, but her story on Ad-gate is just a horrible piece of journalism which equates Jack Markell’s legitimate grievance related to the misappropriation of our donations to the state Democratic party with John Carney’s transparently bullshit damage control.

Obviously, the problems at the News Journal extend beyond Miller – but she really dropped the ball on this story which shines a spot-light on the corrupt innerworks of the out of touch cabal that runs the Delaware Democratic Party. Istead she prints a verbatim statement from John Daniello justifying the misappropriation of our money under the pretext that John Carney is a swell guy.

A Story Within A Story

In Miller’s abortion of a news story she also burried some significant news. Karen Peterson has dumped John Carney. Peterson’s statement is significant and should have run as a side bar OR since it is itself news – should have been a stand alone story.

The section reads:

Carney has lost the endorsement of Sen. Karen E. Peterson, D-Stanton, though Peterson wrote Carney a letter this week to explain why she was switching her support to Markell.

“I had done some soul searching and came to a difficult decision…,” she said. “he had assured me that he would distance himself from the Minner administration in public ways and my support was contingent on that. I don’t see that happening.”

Peterson said Carney is also taking too much credit for the Blue Water Wind Deal

I guess that didn’t merit it’s own story because Carney could not roll out some bullshit damage control in time.

.

“We’ve had a lot of challengers that are sensing that we have a lot of momentum on our side,” he said.

Those are the words of Tom Ross, the Delaware GOP chairman, in response to his party’s failure to challenge any Democrat in the Senate.  He says this despite the presence of any challengers or momentum on his party’s side.

You know, it must really suck to be a spinmeister when you’ve got nothing to spin.   And it must really really suck when your own House Majority Leader contradicts you.

“You can’t make any gains in the Senate if you don’t make a run at the seats, that’s certain, and so it’s disappointing to hear,” Cathcart said of the lack of Republican opposition.