Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders.
Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.
Nice move, Democratic Party. NOT. It's an uphill battle, to be sure, but to play the game like the Republican Party simply turns my stomach, and makes me not want to participate.
"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.
"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."
That is the number one reason that I cannot support the Democratic Party and its platform in lockstep. The party is equally corrupt, and I see a need for not just an infusion of Democrats into the Senate, but for an infusion of new ideas and perspectives outside the boxed in world of the two-party system.
Mr. Hackett said he was unwilling to run for the Congressional seat because he had given his word to three Democratic candidates that he would not enter that race.
"The party keeps saying for me not to worry about those promises because in politics they are broken all the time," said Mr. Hackett, who plans to return to his practice as a lawyer in the Cincinnati area. "I don't work that way. My word is my bond."
Just like the Republican Party's mantra ... fugggedaboudddded.
"Hackett is seen by many as a straight talker, and he became an icon to the liberal bloggers because he says exactly what they have wished they would hear from a politician," Ms. Duffy said. "On the other hand, the Senate is still an exclusive club, and the party expects a certain level of decorum that Hackett has not always shown."
Sigh. It's hard not to be disappointed by this news. I'm not a party person, and I have been trying desparately to support the Democratic Party, hoping that the infusion of the internets and blogs will contribute to grass-roots, new blood participants. Instead, the party thinks it's perfectly ok to go back on your word to others and call up your donors and tell them not to support you.
Classless. And tasteless. And that's the party seeking my endorsement?
6 comments:
I cannot believe that they so easily forgot about the run he gave Schmidt when he wasn't even supposed to get 25% of the vote. It's notable that Hackett was largely ignored by the DNC until they saw how much press his comments were getting and support on the Internet. Then they ran to his aid to encumber him with help, to borrow a phrase from Dr. Johnson's letter to Lord Chesterfield.
I believe Hackett will be back in politics but I'd be pissed off if his tantrum extends past the next OH-02 election and lets Schmidt get re-elected.
I'm with you on that one. Hackett was the ONE bright light in the Democratic party, and now they snuffed it out.
This is one reason I don't trust Kos. He pushes his so-called "Fighting Dems" but when the Democratic "leadership" pushes them out, Kos says, OK, that's cool. So I won't be surprised if he starts banging the drum for Joe Lieberman.
Yeah, I was surprised at the reaction on the Kos site. I was more in line with the MyDD group in feelings.
Kos and his pack (especially Armando) piss me off to no end. You're not even allowed to breathe a word about a voting conspiracy from '00, '02 or '04. We don;t have any hard evidence, you see, which is THE FUCKING POINT! The Florida and Ohio GOP got away with this because there is no hard evidence like a paper trail.
For a relatively new medium of communication, we've already separated the wheat from the chaff and have formed our cliques, haven't we?
Yeah, you are correct in that assessment, jurrasic. The attempt to control everyone's comments and diaries on Kos put me off rather early, and I've not posted a diary in months. I find a creepy sort of "do it my way or not at all" attitude abounds over there. MyDD is not all that much better, but at least there's no dictatorial atmosphere.
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