To Be a Fly on the Wall…
Jack Markell sat down with Ruth Ann Minner for a 90 minute meeting yesterday. It would seem that Minner continued with her disgusting bitterness, because she was not the one who invited Jack over for the meeting, as would be the gracious and proper thing to do. Jack had to request an audience, apparently. Markell would not provide details on what was discussed except to say that he is “confident that we both look forward to working for a unified and strong Democratic ticket.”
To be honest, I am just loving that Ruth Ann is going out in a blaze of undignified glory. It only helps Markell.
This ought to clear up any doubt that Markell represents change.
There was no doubt.
How can you tell if Minner is sitting down?
Oh God…I am going to regret this.
How?
The other half of the building is off it’s foundation?
Seriously, Minner is doing what is best for her party right now, and that is to turn her nose at Markell.
If they were smart, Bush and McCain should do the same thing.
That was snark, not the first half of a riddle.
Shields: What?
Was Jack able to measure the office for new carpet and drapes?
I agree with you all. He needs to look gracious and reach out to her, but not be too agressive. He is better off with her being lukewarm. I wonder if this is part of the Democrat plan. It seems like a game of good cop Markell and bad cop Minner to fool us into thinking he is change.
LOL. David. That is hillarious. If anyone is fooling anyone, it is you, trying to pretend two 72 year old men with the same ideas that have failed repeatedly over the last eight years is change.
Which is the fool’s errand?
I don’t think this is an intentional good cop-bad cop deal. Minner has repeatedly proven to be politically tone-deaf.
However, I think she’s absolutely RIGHT in what she said to the NJ last week.
Markell DOES need to reach out to the Carney Democrats, both during the campaign and in the day-to-day governance of the state. He only won by 1,700 votes – that’s not a mandate by any stretch of the imagination, except to George W. Bush.
However, in talking, compromising and cutting deals with Adams, et al, he could dramatically alienate and disappoint the enthusiastic, reform-minded folks who were his most ardent supporters. If elected, Obama runs that risk as well.
Markell needs the old-line Democrats to win. He can’t do it with just eastern Sussex and Kent counties and Chateau Country.
If a substantial amount of Carney’s supporters – Adams, Venables, unions, firefighters – just sit on their hands in November, Markell will face a much tougher fight. That’s not even looking at what would happen if they crossed party lines and voted for Lee.
Like it or not, he still needs Minner and Carney, just as Obama needs Clinton.
“Markell needs the old-line Democrats to win. He can’t do it with just eastern Sussex and Kent counties and Chateau Country.”
Don’t be silly. Turnout was 28%. Lots of Democrats who didn’t show up last week will in November, and most will vote for the Democrat no matter who it is.
Compromising with DeLuca, Blevins, et al — and be real, Adams has as much actual power as Terry Spence, that is, almost none — is more likely to send change voters to the GOP than standing up to them is likely to send union votes to Lee.
True, dat. People are going to be out at the polls in force to vote for both Obama and McCain.
But Carney’s people in southern Delaware are pretty darn committed, and for many of the conservative Democrats, voting for a Republican isn’t too big of a stretch.
Take a look at the 41st District, which Carney carried and where John Atkins made his comeback as a Democrat. The Carney-Markell split there almost exactly mirrors the Atkins-Lifflander vote.
Adams has almost no power? Tell that to the legislators whose bills he’s bottled up. Or do you have inside insight that leads you to think he’s a puppet for others?
How Much of that 28% were republicans that Changed registration because Protack was the only game in town for them at the time and are going to vote for Lee anyway
“How Much of that 28% were republicans that Changed registration because Protack was the only game in town for them at the time and are going to vote for Lee anyway”
IIRC, about 6,000 registration switches were counted. And the ones I know were actively interested in voting for Markell; they don’t care about either Lee or Protack.
If Lee couldn’t beat a wounded, uninspiring candidate in Minner last time, he has no chance this time. Carney’s support came mainly from union types, who are hardly going to flock to a guy who’s attacking the DSEA in his ads.
On the Adams question, read the NJ profile of him from a few months back. It made it quite clear that Thurm was a genial back-bencher who would have been pretty content to stay that way, except colleagues wanted him to run for this. It became pretty clear during Bluewater that the guy actually pulling the levers in the Senate is DeLuca.
Which makes Adams the figurehead. He’s Spence to DeLuca’s Wayne Smith — the actual strategist for the caucus who prefers to work from a nominally lower spot in leadership.
If national politics is more your framework, think of Tom DeLay in the U.S. House. He was never Speaker, but there was no question about who was running his caucus.