I wrote a post a few weeks ago about my mulling of a Congressional campaign to work on after I graduate in May. At the time the front runner for my grunt work was Paul Hackett. That feeling has now become null and void as Hackett has dropped out of the race and supposedly politics forever.
It seems Hackett was pressured to drop out by party insiders, specifically Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Senator Charles Schumer of New York, in order to make room for Congressman Sherrod Brown. While it is understandable that the party infrastructure wants to support the candidates whom they believe will have the best shot at winning, I can understand why Hackett feels he got a bit screwed over by them. According the the Times article, Reid and Schumer are the same Senators who urged him to join the race in the first place. It's been said that they wanted Hackett to run again in Ohio's Second district against Jean Schmidt, who narrowly beat him in a special election last year. However, Hackett claims he had already given his word to fellow Democrats who are running in that district that he would not run, and he does not want to renege on his word, which is an utterly respectable position, though perhaps disappointing from a purely political POV as Hackett would surely be the strongest candidate that could be fielded in that district. There's been a lot of mixed feelings about this on the internet with some like Markos, the Kos of Daily Kos thinks this is understandable and probably for the best. Many of his commenters disagree. As for me, I agree with Kos in the sense that strategically this might be better (though I don't really know, and Hackett out of politics is bad for Dems), but personally it is really disappointing because Hackett was a politician who actually riled me up and inspired me.
Now, this is also disappointing news for me because not only was Hackett running for a Senate seat that will be important in wrestling control of Congress from the Republicans, but he is also a veteran of the Iraq War, which is one of the pre-requisites for me in terms of working on someone's campaign this summer and fall. I'm not hardline on that point, but I really do think it would be the most enlightening experience I could seek out. There are still plenty of vets running as Dems in plenty of parts of the country, and I am sure I will find one I will feel comfortable working for, but most of them are for House seats, and while the House is certainly important, the Senate is the best shot we have at taking back one of the chambers of Congress. Though apparently things are looking better in the House then they had previously.
Hackett explains his decision here. He sent the same message to is email list.
More thoughts from Kos. Chris Bowers gives his thoughts on it here. Atrios simply calls it ugly.
If you're down in the dumps about this development, maybe this will help, a recording of a live Of Montreal concert that consists mainly of covers.
- Glitter
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