The common factor with Village
favorite Caroline Kennedy:
In a surprise choice, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) appointed Denver schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to fill the Senate seat vacated by Ken Salazar, who is slated to become interior secretary in Barack Obama's administration.
Bennet, 44, who has never run for elected office...
Just saying.
Two points do not make a trend. But there's a tendency to watch here; combine it with Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emmanuel's tendency to parachute formerly Republican millionaires into seats that real Democrats could claim...
UDPATE Actually, there's another common factor. involvement in the education industry:
But when Caroline Kennedy was employed by the city Department of Education from 2002 to 2004, as the chief executive of the Office of Strategic Partnerships, she was not required to file, even though two people who worked for her had to disclose information about their finances.
I wonder if the same lack of disclosure applied to Bennet?
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Rahm supposedly wanted for the Illinois seat ...
... Valerie Jarrett, who has never run for public office.
Harry Reid supposedly told Gov. Blago that he wanted Tammy Duckworth or Lisa Madigan. Tammy has also never been elected to public office.
Tammy Duckworth's entire political life is a creation of Dick Durbin, who met her while she was recovering from serious wounds she suffered as a helicopter pilot in Iraq. I have nothing against Duckworth except for her willingness to shove aside, in 2004, the progressive candidate who was responsible for Henry Hyde's decision to retire. Durbin, Emanuel, Obama, Daley, and Schakowsky all jumped on board, helping Duckworth to raise millions of dollars to barely win the 2004 IL-6 primary against Christine Cegelis.
Duckworth lost the general election against a no-name Republican, but when you've been chosen by The Chosen in Illinois, you never have to worry about your next job. Blagojevich appointed her to head the entire state department dealing with veterans' affairs, even though she had almost no administrative experience.
Lisa Madigan has won elections, but she is also a legacy. Her father is the very powerful speaker of the Illinois House.
The Biden replacement is one of his staffers, who, I believe, has never been elected to public office.
Don't you love the way the crumbs crumble in our lovely political system?
Bennet is Colorado's own Caroline Kennedy
I'm working on a post for my blog on the Bennet appointment. Many of us Colorado Dems fought nepotism and cronyism when the Republicans tried to foist it on us in the early 2000s. It's not OK now that it's Dem cronyism. For more insight into Colorado Dem confusion on this pick see ColoradoPols. None of this makes sense, unless Ritter is planning a run for Governor himself in 2010, and he didn't want to appoint someone with his own base of support & fundraising. Bennet has never stuck with a job more than 6 years, so I'm not terribly impressed with his so-called "experience." Like most successful educrats, he's figured out NOT to stick around more than 3-4 years, so he's off the hook when his "reforms" can finally be evaluated.
I'd also like to suggest that Bennet is like Condoleeza Rice, in that they're both clearly master courtiers. Bennet had the advantage that most straight, white men in the Village
have, which is a powerful and connected Daddy, and Rice never had that. But in both of them, their main talent is sniffing out and cultivating people who can promote them.
Surely, that's Obama's main talent ...
... as well.
Otherwise, how could he have rocketed from a lowly state senator to leader of the free world in four short years?
time to think about third party candidates
creating a third party is unrealistic and a waste of time. But there may be individual cases where a third party candidate is a credible alternative. I am thinking of the election decades ago where Bernie Sanders was elected mayor of Burlington. We need to drill down to the local level and see if there are 3rd party candidates who offer a real choice.
I think we have no choice.
Electing a party that's only 2% less evil than the other is simply not conducive to the kind of democracy our forefathers intended.
The few true progressives in Congress might be persuaded to join a progressive party. It might give them more power than they have now, having the ability to negotiate with the major parties for their votes on issues and which party to caucus with.
how would it give them more power?
John Conyers and Barney Frank are committee chairs, how would being in a third party give them more power?
We should look to the local level and see if there are opportunities available.
they can't use their power now unless Pelosi/Reid/etc allow, so
what good is their power? and they haven't stopped any of the GOP stuff that's gone thru even with their current power.