Candidates for MVP (Most Valuable to the Progressive Cause) Now Being Accepted*
*But, act fast! Like today!
I’m compiling my annual (2nd year in a row!) list. Now, here are my 2010 standards: Public officials and/or candidates and/or others with a Delaware connection who did the most to advance the progressive cause in 2010. They don’t need to be progressives if they advanced the progressive cause.
You will recall that last year’s list engendered quite a bit of controversy over both who I included (*cough, Tony DeLuca,cough*) and who I excluded. But I believe I stayed true to my standards for both inclusion and exclusion. And, as I pointed out over and over again, this is MY list. Your own lists are both welcome and strongly encouraged. Here is the 2009 MVP list with all the accompanying vitriol. Looking back, I quite like the Rorschach Test responses that I got. I also think that my list, both omissions and inclusions, holds up DAMN well one year later. Read the ongoing debate about one state legislator, in particular.
I’ve already got a working list of 17 nominees for this year, but I want more, and I seek your input on who belongs and who doesn’t. I want names and reasons for inclusions and exclusions.
I plan to write and later this week. Help me decide who gets honored and who doesn’t.
The clock’s ticking. You’ve got 24 hours…
Tags: Delaware Progressives; 2010 Best of the Year; Steve Tanzer
Christine O’Donnell was the presumptive nominee, but she is disqualified on a technical foul by Coons: Even as he was running away with the polls, Coons deleted the word “progressive” from his self-description on his website, and then two weeks before the election flipped on tax cuts for the rich.
Sorry Christine, you lose again.
Good point anon. As long as the R’s keep running fringe lunatics it will be so much easier for the D’s to track toward the right-of-center where it is much more comfortable for pols to hang-out.
As always, Senator Karen Peterson should be at the top of the list. Fearless and principled, her constituents showed her 73% love in November. As we know from, ahem, Delaware Grapevine, she has already stood up for a change in leadership for the 146th Senate. She’ll get busted for it but she should get some serious “attagirls” from the readers gathered here.
I still like Denn in this category. Delaware needs to hire teachers earlier in the year and his work on dealing with usurious insurance companies is still paying dividends for Delaware’s working families.
I think that you would be remiss not to include John Carney. He was one of the few candidates in the nation to defend Health Care Reform, Eco nonsense, and amnesty for illegals. He will likely abandon you in Washington and go with the special interests, but he has to be a bright spot now.
Peterson, Denn and Carney are NOW progressive? You gotta be kidding us. Name ONE progressive cause any of them have EVER stood for. If this is all your can come up for progressives, your either such democratic hacks that you would take a right of center, moderate and reclassify them as progressive. OMG….barf on Delaware. John Carney NEVER stood for health care reform. In fact, he refused to invite supporters of single payer to his stacked deck of “commissioners”, mostly made of his insurance lacky cronies. Denn showed up in his office everyday as insurance commissioner but didnt he know the employee names nor said goodmorning.. Peterson was so against single payer she did everything possible to taint the Del. Legislature with her corporate philosphy. Even when 45 State wide Coalition Groups signed on as supporters, and she faced a challenger who knew single payer inside out…she jumped on the band wagon at the last moment to save her own election…please, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not those of us who were in the trenches at the TIME.
Hello dummy. Republican closet cases are not allowed to nominate.
I guess COD can still win this thing, if you concede that her anti-coattails kept Bonini out of statewide office.
Hey Jason…no republican here….but a real progressive not some liberal buy the democrat line no matter who gets hurt.
Bankrupting working-class churches because of some scuzzballs’ actions 40 years ago is “progressive.”
Yeah, Belinsky, not to mention the 40 years of coverups that followed. Bleep those bleeping victims.
And, anon, the ‘democrat’ line’? Please, if you’re gonna pretend to be a liberal ’round here, you can’t make rookie mistakes.
Yeah, Sleepy El, and let’s not forget the diocese going into PREVENT defense and filing for bankruptcy for THEIR well established culpability in this whole sad FIASCO.
I sometimes wonder if a CABAL of PEDOPHILES controlled the HIGHEST offices of the church I love, yet no longer support, nor attend due to their scandalous, evil cover-up of these many monsters.
I can understand the strong feelings, Som, and I share them, but there’s something medieval going on. “Your people were bad to my people 50 years ago, so we’ll torch your town.”
The post-hoc extension of a statute of limitations that expired decades ago was radical, and will lead to cockeyed results. I’m happy to see the church and its leaders shamed and the church penalized financially, but as with the death of Wilmington Trust, the hierarchy largely escaped, while the rank-and-file will face the consequences. The penthouse thrives; the rowhouse pays.
Get your asses off your pews and DO something about your molester priests! You share in the blame, bub. Personally, I’d love to see every house of worship be burnt to cinders but for now I’ll settle for St.E’s. Get your pope on a rope.
I’m not a member of the Romish church.
The victims who lived in the rowhouse paid, for decades and decades. Karen Peterson spoke up for them. As with so much that she does, she does what she believes is right regardless of how many enemies it might make her. And she is effective. I simply have tremendous regard for her. She is a true public servant in the best sense of the word.
I get what you’re saying, Belinsky. But the ‘heirarchy’ has paid in the sense that their hold over millions of people has been significantly damaged due to this. If the only thing keeping dioceses afloat was covering up rampant pedophilia within the flock, were they truly worth saving in the first place? Karen Peterson was simply the messenger and the advocate on behalf of innocent victims. Had the Church retained its moral authority in the truest sense of the phrase, THEY would have been the messengers and change agents. They weren’t, and they have nobody to blame but themselves.
Fair comment. Be sure to set aside some time to digest Charlie Pierce on this topic:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2010/07/11/what_i_believe/
There would be no need for St E’s to talk about closing it’s doors if the diocese would accept responsibility for recycling pedophile priests from one parish to the next. But, the diocese is hiding behind the bankruptcy court. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the diocese can’t step up and pay the damages. It’s really up to the Bishop to decide if this parish is worth saving. And, quite frankly, it’s his duty to do so since it’s the diocese who makes the assignments. Some people seem to think this is some kind of vendetta against this church and it’s not. It’s about recognizing that the pedophiles…whether it’s your priest or your dad or your uncle should be punished for their crimes against the very people they were here to protect. In the public sector when a crime is committed against a child, the authorities investigate it as a crime. In the church, the authorities were never consulted. They held themselves above the law. Well, no more.
Bear in mind, Senator Peterson took the voice of these damaged people to the Legislature and the Legislature passed the bill with an overwhelming majority. Now, it’s in the hands of the lawyers and the victims. It’s up to them to decide what’s too much to ask…and it’s up to a jury of peers to determine when enough is enough. The jury is under no obligation to award punitive damages.
Sen Peterson is far and above the most courageous legislator in Dover. She answers to the call of the people who elected her. She is a breath of fresh air in an environment that’s filled with stench.
As to ‘anon’ regarding the single payer issue…..Liz, I’m glad you learned how to unlock your ‘caps’ key.
I vote again for Kowalko. What he does in standing against Delmarva goes back to the years before his election, when he worked with ACORN fighting for low-income rate payers against the quasi-monopoly. The GOP used that against him in mailers in November’s election, but Kowalko not only wasn’t intimidated, he defended ACORN’s work at every opportunity. Even if he weren’t in the General Assembly, his advocacy for the people in this arena would warrant inclusion in any Top 10. IMHO, of course.
How about Darryl Scott? He got the cell phone bill and the DSU scholarship bills, both major pieces of legislation, passed this year. Not many people gave him a chance with either.
Ted Kaufman, for his role in strengthening and passing financial reform.
Jack Markell and Collin O’Mara, for proposing and passing statewide curbside recycling and several renewable energy bills.
And I agree you have to give props to stalwarts Karen Peterson and John Kowalko.
I agree with TommyWonk. The kid O’Mara that Gov Markell brought in from California to run DNREC should be on the list. Even in this economy, we seem to have made more progress in the past year than the previous twenty. After all these years, they finally passed statewide recycling. We now have really progressive energy laws and a lot of renewables going up everywhere. And most importantly, they’re finally cleaning up indian river, edgemoor, and claymont steel and bringing in new green companies like fisker. Good stuff.
I’ll put my real one in later, but want to acknowledge the impact, more than any other person, that Christine O’Donnell had on advancing Delaware’s progressive cause. We got Coons and Flowers, and we got real debate.
Again, your criteria:
Public officials and/or candidates and/or others with a Delaware connection who did the most to advance the progressive cause in 2010. They don’t need to be progressives.
If its not too late, I nominate Jim Westhoff. He stepped up to run in a tough district and worked very hard. He never caved to the conservative preferences of that district and wasn’t afraid to call out the powers that be, regardless of party affiliation.
Hear hear on Jim Westhoff.