Posted by
Roxanna M. on Sunday, September 05, 2010 10:58:50 AM
"If the GOP wins, let the back-stabbing and infighting begin". So said a headline at Salon.com. The gist of the article is that Republicans are playing nice with each other now, but will come apart after they win. Maybe so, maybe no.
What is without doubt right now, though, is that democrats are already back-stabbing and infighting.
Three-term, liberal left darling Russ Feingold (D-WI) is facing a difficult campaign against "a plastics manufacturer no one heard of five months ago". Feingold voted with Obama on the stimulus, the budget, and Obamacare. He didn't vote with Obama on the bill against the financial sector because he didn't think it was "punitive" enough. Even though Obama won Wisconsin with 56% of the vote, he now stands at 48% approval, and Feingold doesn't want to be anywhere near him because "the Dems' unabashed progressive now finds Obama politically toxic". (Quotes are from an article at RealClearPolitics.com.)
Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) has an ad citing Obama as a symbol of "the Washington Crowd". Rep. Travis Childers (D-MI) has ads boasting of voting against Obama's budget. Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO), when asked if he wanted Obama's help campaigning, said, "We'll have to see". One democrat representative even "joked" that Nancy Pelosi might die soon.
According to Jeff Zeleny and Carl Hulse of the New York Times, "Democratic leaders will review new polls and other data that show whether vulnerable incumbents have a path to victory. If not, the party is poised to redirect money to concentrate on trying to protect up to two dozen lawmakers who appear to be in the strongest position to fend off their challengers".
In other words, democrats who look like they're three feet under and sinking fast, can't expect a life preserver from their party.
Sounds an awful lot like back-stabbing and infighting to me.