Dear Democratic Party,
WTF? There are few candidates in your party that still excite me. Few candidates I felt were honest and willing to fight for the little guy. Paul Hackett is one of these rare people. On the surface Paul Hackett is the kind of man I would of distrusted and yet he completely won me over. As I stated in a previous blog entry “He is a marine and served in Iraq. He is a White, heterosexual man, married with three children. And I like him!
I supported him when the Democratic Party failed to support him in his bid for a congressional seat. He ran in the second most republican district (in terms of economic support) in the country and yet lost only by a few percentage points and with little national help until it finally dawned on you that “Shit, this man might have a chance.And now Paul Hackett was running for senate and what did you, The Democratic National Committee do? You called his donors and tried to persuade them not to support him financially.
You succeeded in not only forcing Paul Hackett out of a senate race but out of politics in general. Paul Hackett is the kind of leader my state and our country needs. You’ve pissed me off. You’ve pissed me off, and I am an active voter, and an active supporting member of our democracy your oligarchy.
Democratic Party get a spine, grow some gonads, and support democracy. Support grassroots candidates, progressives, pro-choice, liberal, civil liberty defending, gay advocate democrats.
¡Viva la Revolución!
¡Hasta la Victoria!
-Elenamary
PS Happy Valentines Day!
I don’t think this is about the Dem’s lack of cojones. This is about the Dems being Republican Jrs.
I think we have to face the fact the we progressives no longer have a real say in the Democratic Party.
Umm, Paul Hackett acted like he wanted to be the Tom Tancredo of the Democrats. I’m glad he’s gone.
And it isn’t like the party leaders forced him out. Lots of people tough it out in a primary against so-called establishment candidates and win. Apparently he is too thin skinned to handle not being the anointed candidate.
From the Dayton Daily News: A letter to Paul Hackett:
Dear Mr. Hackett,
Piffle.
Get over it.
Your withdrawal from the primary is hard to understand, or at least hard to take at face value.
It’s certainly true that important people in the Democratic Party wanted you to pull out of the Senate race and go for the House instead. That’s thoroughly understandable. They found themselves with two potent candidates for the Senate and none for the 2nd Congressional District.
You once wanted the latter job. And it’s a darn good job for somebody as green as you. To tell you the truth, you’re better suited for it right now than for the Senate.
It’s amazing that you’re so furious at people who dearly wanted to support you for Congress. They thought you  and only you  could give the Republicans a real fight in that stacked district. They were impressed when you almost pulled off a victory last summer against Jean Schmidt, on the strength of your identity as a middle-age former Marine who volunteered to go to Iraq.
You say you can’t run for the House because you have given your word to other Democratic candidates. If that’s true, they should publicly release you from that vow. You are still the guy, the best bet. If they don’t understand that, they are politically clueless.
Anyway, if you felt it was the Senate or nothing for you, it’s hard to see why you would let the national guys deter you. You are a national celebrity. You’re a darling of the liberal wing of the Internet. There’s nothing Sen. Chuck Schumer or anybody else should be able to do to keep you from raising money. If they can prevent you, then maybe you are not quite as strong a candidate as everybody thought.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the Democrats would have benefitted from a Brown-Hackett primary. If Sherrod Brown won, he’d be a national figure and better known and more respected in Ohio. If you won, you’d no longer be just the phenom of last summer but a tested, proven force.
If you felt the Senate was your only option, and if you felt you had a chance before the party elders stepped in, you should have stuck it out. On the other hand, if you believed, as many did, that you just weren’t going to win, Chuck Schumer or no Chuck Schumer, you should say so. Blaming others is weak
Sherrod Brown? Talk about WTF.