As a political activist and observer of the passing scene, I could not have scripted a better story than that which is unfolding before our eyes within the NH Democratic party regarding their choice of Ray Buckley as the face of the party. As I noted previously,
I’m glad the NH Democratic Party has chosen Buckley as their standardbearer. It may help NHerites better understand what they bargain for when they elect Dems to vital positions in the state government. He may cause the thinking voter to think twice before casting a ballot for a member of "Buckley’s Party".
I further opined that not all Democrats would be pleased with this choice. Why would they take a chance on someone that might bring turmoil and embarassment due to some as yet unforeseen revelation that might pop up down the road? It turns out that a couple of key Democrats thought beyond the moment in a display (temporary, I’m sure) of intellectual honesty that few of their fellow comrades saw fit to bring to the debate in the job of replacing outgoing (and extremely effective) party chair Kathy Sullivan. Sunday’s New Hampshire Union Leader reports:
[NH Congressman Paul] Hodes addressed the controversy early in the meeting, during a time set aside for Congressional briefings, and before the vote on the amendment to allow write-in votes..Hodes first said he "probably was uncharacteristically unartful or undiplomatic" in his initial response to the Buckley videos. He said he was in part concerned about "the process" being undertaken to elect Buckley. "I simply felt that a process of changing the rules midstream was not the way to do things at this point, that it is a bad precedent," he said.But Hodes said he also was concerned the party "could be exposed to distractions over these next two years."
"For me it was an issue and is an issue of what’s in the best long-term interest of the party," he said.
At that point, according to the story, Mr. Hodes was cut off from saying anything further on the matter, being ruled out of order. Ha! One of the few people in the entire meeting trying to talk some sense, and he’s gagged. I’m just lovin’ every minute of it!
He later explained, according to the piece,
"My concern is that as we Democrats move forward in a period of time when we’ve just had a historic election and are moving into elections in 2008, that we as a party not be distracted by the politics of personal destruction, and my concern was that Republicans or others would use this distracting stuff to divert us from what we need to do as Democrats."
One can only hope! The UL story tells us that another lonely voice of reason in a wilderness of groupthink insanity was one of the other two candidates (unlike Buckley, actually on the ballot) for party chair, Betty Hall:
When it came time to deliver her candidate speech, Betty Hall also made an impassioned plea for committee members to consider the good of the party. "What we do today is going to have ramifications during the entire primary season and during the national elections," she said. "At this time, our country needs us badly.""Here is the pill we have to swallow," Hall said. "Republicans have attacked us. But we gave them the ammunition."
"We do not know the whole truth of these matters at this time. We do know the consequences of failure: Two years of attacks, two years of ridicule from opponents, distraction from our candidates and our message, irreparable harm to our first-in-the-nation primary."
Hall also called the campaign for state chairman "a travesty" and said, "We have not served our party well by playing insider politics."
I saw Betty Hall at a Dem event here in Laconia. If I were a Democrat, I would have taken my chances with her. But I’m not. I’m glad they chose Buckley…