Well I've had a few days to chew over this quote from Ron Wyden's Chief of Staff and Kari Chisholm's defense.
"Just as Sen. Smith has supported the Republican nominee in both of his last two races, Sen. Wyden will support the Democratic nominee for 2008, but he won't campaign against Gordon, and he will continue to work with Sen. Smith on the state's behalf for the next two years," Kardon said.Paul Motta, chairman of the Deschutes County Democrats, said he understands why Wyden doesn't want to go after Smith, but Motta wishes he would.
"DeFazio could win much easier if Wyden would support him," Motta said.
Chisholm, who is a consultant for Wyden's Senate-side office, makes a few arguments that don't really make much sense. First I want to touch on style, though. Chisholm first tries to undermine the credibility of the argument by pointing out that the paper quoting Wyden's staffer is conservative. He doesn't dispute the quote's accuracy, just sort of subtly implies that it isn't credible because it's conservative. That's silly, as unless the quote is wrong, it makes perfect sense to give quotes sucking up to a conservative to a conservative paper. Kari also says that he throws "political punches as hard as the next guy", as he's writing a post justifying Wyden's anti-partisan gesture. Ok, then.
In terms of arguments, Kari points out that Wyden helped Oregon get the state house, gave $1M to the DSCC, and helped the Governor's campaign. This is all very nice. I'm glad Wyden led, and really did lead, on net neutrality. We're not talking about how great a guy he is. Kari also cites Jon Isaacs in making the argument that Wyden will be helping Smith's opponent, only quietly and in a way that is real. He won't just throw partisan firebombs, as that would undermine the credibility of Wyden and the 2008 nominee. There's also something about how Smith and Wyden have to get along and so Wyden can't make him mad. I don't really understand that point as every state has two Senators and this is a fairly common and business-like structure in politics.
Kari offers a very standard set defenses, but the basic fact is that politics is mostly about public arguments. Someone like Gordon Smith is relying on his credibility with voters, and it's going to take a lot of surrogates, trusted surrogates, to puncture that credibility. And while he might quietly help behind the scenes, Ron Wyden is one of those surrogates. He won't step up. People in politics like to pretend like they are brave by using the 'helping behind the scenes' excuse, but what that usually means is that the objective they won't speak out on is not a very high priority. Senator Ron Wyden may or may not want to capture Gordon Smith's Senate seat, but it's certainly not a priority. I hope there was some awesome deal cut where Smith traded a vote on Iraq for Wyden's non-involvement in the race. Otherwise, I find this choice tragic.
|
|
|
Permalink :: 24 Comments :: Post a Comment
|
In order to post a comment, you must be logged in. If you have a member account, please log in to comment.
If not, you can make an account right here. It's quick and free.
