Who Needs The Rank and File Anyway?

by digby

If you missed Senator Holy Joe on CNN yesterday, you missed an amazing interview. John Amato has the vid here and it’s a doozy.

Basically, Joe says that Democrats who will turn out for the primary are unrepresentative riff-raff who shouldn’t be allowed to decide who the nominee for the Democratic party should be. (Unless, of course, it’s him.) He apparently thinks that the “important” voters might not come out in August so it’s entirely possible that the person who is chosen could be the wrong sort, chosen by people who really shouldn’t be doing the choosing, if you know what I mean.

If he loses, he says repeatedly that he considers himself to be running as an “Independent Democrat” whose status within the party will be unaffected by the fact that the Democratic party of Connecticut rejected him — which means he’s either already got the backing of the DC leadership or he’s fully planning to put them on the spot and force them to choose. (Whether or not he can claim to be an “Independent Democrat” on the ballot is beside the point — he has 100% name recognition)

He’s clearly not leaving the party if he loses this primary. Indeed, what he is doing may be the worst of all possible worlds, allowing him to claim he is a Democrat and continue to taint the whole party with the have-it-both-ways, “don’t make trouble” useful idiocy that’s killing us — and yet allow him to split with the party on any issue he thinks will benefit him personally and excuse it by saying he’s not really a Democrat. Harry Reid has been screwed by Joe Lieberman more than once. If he supports this jack-ass move, he’s a fool. Lieberman, the “independent Democrat,” will make his life a living hell if he gets away with this.

This is a terrible insult to the Democratic party in Connecticut and they should all be extremely pissed off that their senator holds them in such contempt. And grassroots Democrats everywhere should also be insulted that their national leadership — with the notable exception of Hillary Clinton — has not already taken a stand in support of whomever Democratic voters choose in their primaries.

I’m seriously beginning to wonder if that story in the New York Times from some time back is coming to pass — certain establishment Democrats really do prefer to lose in November. They are backing a guy to the hilt who goes on national television and insults Democratic voters to their faces. What an excellent strategy to depress the base in an election that depends upon turnout.

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