Democrats Leaving Sinking Ship: The Teaparty Effect?

"Democrats select campaign music for 2010: Take the money and run," twitters Dan Riehl as "Top Democrats like Bill Ritter, Chris Dodd and Byron Dorgan pull the plug on their campaigns in a 24-hour period," offering an "unnerving glimpse at the election year ahead," according to POLITICO. (Photo: AP photo composite by POLITICO, photoshopped to enhance tragicomedy-mask* effect).

"The spin on this … is that this gives Democrats a better shot than with a supremely weak incumbent," writes Jim Geraghty at The Corner regarding yesterday's and today's announcements by top Democrats that they would not be running for office again. But Geraghty's not buying:

I'd say the same electoral environment that makes Chris Dodd and Bill Ritter toast is not going to be easy for any other Democrat. The Republican candidate will inevitably have the easier time persuading voters he's a break from the past that the electorate has determined is unacceptable.

On the other hand the WaPo reports that Dodd's lady-in-waiting, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, is the "most popular politician" in the state, with Republican contenders Rob Simmons and Linda McMahn the beggars at the gate. As Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling points out:

Better to retire now than be retired in November.

I know Republicans will say, yeah, but all the retirements are confirmation that things are really bad for Democrats. Well, duh! That's not exactly breaking news. What will help Democrats is if more incumbents like Dodd and Ritter, whose departures will aid their party's chances of keeping their seats, would read the writing on the wall and decide to get out.

"We elected you on a promise of hope and change. We regret it. In 2010, we are taking our country back. Blue collar democrats, independents, and conservatives. We love our country. We are proud of our founders. And we will fight for our traditions. We don't want your revolution." Compelling, must-see video on YouTube, 112,972 views and counting: "America Rising: An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians" by the mysterious Buckrush.

Given our enthusiasm for disintermediating the old-boy-network via the Internet, we're with Geraghty on this one, partly wishful thinking because we want Scott Brown to win the Kennedy seat and become the 41st Republican to stop Obamacare, and partly what we hear with our ear to the ground here in Massachusetts and from across the nation in the blogosphere and on talk radio, Fox News and Twitter. Glenn Reynolds's Army of Davids is on the march. And pollster Scott Rasmussen on Fox just this minute — target of leery leftists of late as the messenger of bad news — agrees:

The results of the January 19 special election could give us a real indication of where the mood of the electorate really is.

Like pundits reading the political entrails to forecast the nation's future, Tiny was reading the landscape outside the dining room window this morning when suddenly she froze, staring at things we don't see. Following her gaze, we realized it was her true love himself, Earl Grey, an éminence gris looming atop the neighbor's roof.

If we manage a Brown upset, or at least a close finish here in the Massachusetts special election January 19, we're betting the Tea Party Effect may spill over into the Nutmeg State and beyond. As we told International Business Daily reporter David Hogberg in a telephone interview yesterday [He'd left us a message in the comments of our previous post asking us to get in touch!], "Congress wants to ram this down our throats, [and a strong Brown showing] could hold that up." More from Hogberg's article, "GOP Has A Shot In Mass. Senate Race; Win Could Block Health Care Overhaul":

"Brown would have been better off not having this poll come out," Berkovitz said. "Now it has put the race on the radar. If it was a stealth race, then his odds are better."

Also hurting Brown is that national GOP groups have not committed much money.

That prompted blogger Michelle Malkin on Sunday to urge her readers to donate to Brown's campaign. Indeed, much of Brown's momentum can be traced, in part, to the Internet. Conservative and libertarian bloggers such as Glenn Reynolds, Dan Riehl and Jules Crittenden have spread the word about Brown.

"It's pretty bad," headlines our own Jules Crittenden:

So while the National GOP has apparently failed to notice that GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown has the potential not only to kick off the 2010 midterms with a banner win or at least a national headline-grabbing strong showing in bluest Massachusetts, but could even turn this health-care thing around … the Boston Globe of all lefty lickspittle venues apparently has it in for Martha Coakley bad enough that it’s doing everything it can to undermine her.

Lefty lickspittle venues. Crittenden is definitely one of us, a red-stater behind enemy lines.

Update: Instalanche! Thank you, Glenn Reynolds, the Father of All Internet disIntermediations!

Update II: Blog buddy One Fine Jay from the good old days floors us with "Tales of a faceless Kingmaker":

If the mystery woman of the political blogosphere can bring down a 20-year career politician and have her working to get elected instead of coasting into “Ted Kennedy’s Seat,” so can we all affect our local political landscape and prevent what seems to be inevitable.

Let's roll!

Update III: Rockin' on Michelle Malkin's "Buzzworthy."

*"Modern tragicomedy is sometimes used synonymously with absurdist drama, which suggests that laughter is the only response left to people faced with an empty and meaningless existence."

Comments

[D, Ch.]

Republicans have to pound home the obvious fact that a vote for any Democratic candidate, no matter how socially and economically conservative, is also a vote for Pelosi and Reid because all Democrats elected to Congress vote for Democrats to run the Senate and House of Representatives. The Democratic party as a whole is controlled by liberals, so you cannot block those liberals by voting for Democrats, no matter how conservative those Democrats happen to be.

[nick]

Ritter was tired of being paid peanuts

trying to help the economy Bush ruined

[anonymous]

Connecticutt: Peter Schiff

[Tcobb]

I normally have no issues with what you say or do--but really, posting a picture of the Botox Queen Pelosi here is not nice...children may be viewing your site. Have you no shame? :_)

[Marty]

It makes no sense that the GOP bigs aren't aware of this race--US Senate, replace Ted Kennedy---c'mon!!!

So their not putting money or staff into it has to tell us something about them. Hmmm, what could that be?

[mrsizer]

Nick, where are you?
a) Colorado is fairing relatively well (anecdotally: I can see many cranes from my office window, right now)
b) Why does everyone overlook the fact that CONGRESS - not the president - is in charge of budgets and such? The last two years of the "economy Bush ruined" was presided over by Pelosi & Co.
c) Ritter deserves to go. He's created a mess of red ink, which somehow has avoided touching the civil service.

[Pasadena Phil]

Don't get too excited about the GOP challengers to Blumenthal. Linda McMahon is BFF with, among others, Rahm Emanuel per this post at Powerline.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/01/025326.php

[Drider]

Put the country on the fast track to fiscal ruin and then bow out in droves.
The New Socialists are going to destroy the country via laws/bills and then dive for cover leaving the Republicans standing there with their junk in their hands amongst the ruins while the peasantry pisses and moans for relief, that isn't coming because the treasury was looted, the booty split and the criminals long gone from the scene.

[goomp]

Perhaps the deserting dems fear physical violence will descend on DC.

[willis]

"Ritter was tired of being paid peanuts
trying to help the economy Bush ruined"

Interesting, I thought he was governor of Colorado, not President. Anyway, did he managed to get the Community Re-Investment Act Repealed, or shut down the spigot of toxic mortgages spewing out of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac into Wall Street?

[Drider]

Perhaps the deserting dems fear physical violence will descend on DC.

Well, goomp, they are fleeing DC, dragging their bags of gold behind them but when it hits the fan all I can say is that "we're taking names brother".

[PR]

Looks like Ritter, Dorgan, & Dodd just joined the Teabagee Party.

[Clay Barham]

Most people who argue politics get angry because they really do not have a handle on their subject, though a strong feeling. It is easier to gain confidence than you think. Just look at the roots to understand the whole tree. Answers or, better, questions, flow easily when the roots are clear. There are only two sides to a political argument. One side says community interests are more important than are individual interests, and the reverse is the other side, as cited on claysamerica.com. Look at this site and take the ten simple steps to have a clear and confidant vision from which all issues are easily grasped and discussed. Claysamerica.com

[Gayle Miller]

The blatant bribery being practiced in the Senate was pretty nauseating to most Americans of any common sense (which isn't all that common any longer) or sensibilities. Chris Dodd was one of the beneficiaries. And as to "fixing Bush's ruin of the economy" that was a DEMOCRATIC Congress spending all that money for the last years of George W.'s administration so don't be so quick to start spraying around bullets from the blame pistol kids!

The problem with the current crop of idiots on The Hill is that they don't care or remember that THEY work for US, not the other way around.

And has anyone really taken a look at the "marriage penalty" in the current health care debacle they're trying to cobble together in the dead of night and behind closed doors? So much for transparency.

Sissy can be forgiven for posting Botox Nancy's picture (and wow, she sure is UGLY - guess it's true that the insides eventually show on the outside); she balances it by multiple pictures of the beauteous Tiny!