F**ck the DC Democrats

While I was experiencing a peak oil preview today, power outage, Steve Soto had an excellent, must read post over at The Left Coaster, Democrats Should Look Outside Of Washington For 2008. While you should go read the entire post I'll give you a snip or two.

I want to go on record now and say that for the Democrats to win in 2008, they will need one if not both parts of the ticket to be from outside the Washington Democrats club. In 2008, Democrats will need to run as the party of reform, as a party that can clean up the mess left behind by eight years of Bush/Cheney. And frankly, the best way to do this is to also run against the Washington Democrats who have enabled Bush and Cheney to screw this country up. No matter how many good strategies the Russ Feingold’s or the Democratic punditocracy have for dealing with Iraq, the truth is that our candidates in 2008 need to simply be able to say “I didn’t vote for that mistake, nor would I have made that mistake.”

"I didn’t vote for that mistake", that's really important. Just because someone wasn't there to vote for the war in Iraq doesn't mean they have a spine but if they were there and did vote for it I would think they were spineless. I don't claim to be all that bright but even I knew there was something fishy about the justification of the war. I would bet that many of the Democrats who voted for it did too. How do you spell spineless?

So who shall it be you ask? Bloglord Soto has some suggestions.

Who are some possibilities here? Well, although I will be studying these folks more over the coming months, how about pairing a couple of Democratic governors from GOP states, who have good ratings with their electorates? How about Virginia’s outgoing governor Mark Warner and North Carolina’s Mike Easley, as well as Montana’s Brian Schweitzer?

Warner’s approval ratings last month in Virginia, a state that went for Bush and could be a 2008 swing state, was a staggering 66% approve, 26% disapprove. Hell, his approval rating amongst Republicans was 62% approve, 31% disapprove.

Easley’s ratings in North Carolina in September were also staggering, 64% approve, and 30% disapprove. 58% of the Republicans in his state support him.

Schweitzer had an approval rating in September of 66% approve, 27% disapproval, with an approval spread amongst Republicans of 20 points, 54%-34%.

All three of these states could become Democratic swing states in a 2008 race with these folks at the top of the ticket, thereby undercutting the GOP’s entire electoral strategy in the South and Mountain West. And by 2008, Democrats need to be able to offer a clean break from the Bush Administration, with folks who can separate themselves not only from Republican mistakes, but also from Democratic complicity.

I might not agree with these guys on everything but they sure as hell beat the jellyfish in DC.