Nashville News Blog

If I were the governor and the congressional delegation, I wouldn't be making any promises. So, if they can't have one of their own boys in charge, they're threatening to take their toys and go home? There are many Democrats across the state who wonder if they're really on our side anyway. This pretty much confirms that this is all about who gets to be in charge, rather than advancing the beliefs of the party.

Say, didn't Bart Gordon used to wear a bow tie? When he worked at the party?

Why are some of these people supporting Forrester? All I've heard is that he promises everyone something if they'll vote for him. He's writing checks he can't cash. Forrester has also been a party insider for over two decades. What makes anyone think he'll change things? I think he's a con man.

So the same people who did nothing to stop the loss of both houses of the legislature are trying to frighten us into thinking that the Democratic Party will fail without their man in charge. Right.

Because the leaders they've endorsed have done such a great job, right? Remind me again how North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia are making great strides in electing moderate-to-liberal leaders...and these guys think running DINOs like Randy Camp is our ticket to victory. Good riddance.

Well, Chip certainly seems to have a legion of online supporters. All I can say is, the grown-ups in the party, i.e., the ones who pay for its operations, think Bone's the better choice. It would say that it would astound me if the executive committee decided to go against the wishes of the party's top elected officials. But then again, nothing the committee could do would surprise me. Fred Hobbs is on that committee, remember?

I agree with Duncan. The grown-ups have all the unwise caution that old heads usually do. They're deaf to the winds of change, too ossified to take any chances. And so, they've been left out of the new administration, out of the new era. I'd like to know who Charlie Bone and Chip Forrester voted for in the Tennessee primary. Is that known?

I must ask...
If Chip wins and the TNDP (or just generic party activists) identify 3-4 house seats to concentrate on in the next year in order to take back the House in 2010, and these 'money people' won't help, then what good are they to us?

I have been asking myself lately where these folks were last year. We have borne humiliation in the nation of TN going more red while the country went blue - in effect, proving the nation's conception that we in TN are backward.

No one had their eye on the ball -including these semi-anonymous 'insiders'. The Governor, the Congressionals, and others supporting Mr. Bone (fine person though he may be) left our party twisting in the wind last year. "Done with the party"??? They have nearly killed it already. While they thought they were keeping their own power bases, our party lost TN in a year we should have won more seats, not less. If we don't re-claim at least the House in 2010, our State and US legislative seats will be re-districted and we can count TN as a red state for the next generation or two. The Democratic Congressionals in middle TN will be without seats...and it will have been their choice. The alternative is actually assisting the rest of us in re-taking the House before re-districting.

The old ways did not work for us last year. This party's power does not work from the top down, but from the bottom up - these 'money people' have forgotten that. Money and manpower can be raised by the vast network of Democrats in this state who will communicate with each other and prioritize efforts to see our party succeed.

If the 'money people' walk away, where will they go? Perhaps to hang out with TN's ample supply of Republican wingnuts?

And yes - Bart Gordon DID used to wear a bow tie when he worked at the party!

Bredesen is going to pull his support?? Where was he during the Nov. election -- I didn't see him campaigning for any of our state candidates. I'm curious to know what "pulling support" would look like! And the "money people are pulling out"? What kind of blackmail is that? If Obama's win teaches us anything it should be that the party elite should listen to the will of the people. The Chair of the party should be elected by the people who can vote for him/her (oh, would that a "her" were running!), not the people who hold the purse strings. Or should I say "who hold the purse strings hostage"?

Janikowski, "grassroots" people don't want to ignore "money people." But if we had listened to the "money people," Hillary Clinton would have been our nominee and, quite possibly, John McCain would have been sworn in on the 20th. If the "money people" simply want to have it their way, then they have learned nothing from the Obama campaign. Dollars do not equal votes. If the money people got their asses in gear and ran for the TNDP Exec. Committee, then they'd have a vote. If Charles Robert Bone were on the TNDP EC, the rest of the committee might have a better idea of who he is and what he can accomplish.

Finally, are the "money people" so self-centered that they would withhold their contributions if their candidate doesn't get in? I would hope that they are more loyal to the party and party ideals than that.

OfThePeople,

As for Obama and the "money people," didn't he raise more money than any presidential candidate in history? It was not all low dollar. If you ask me, Obama had both the money operation and the grassroots operation. Obama also worked within the party structure to win the Iowa caucuses, which was the turning point in his campaign. A smart political operation runs both, which is the problem with Forrester. He has no cache with the "money people." If you're looking for a party chairman that can bring both sides together, I think you're looking for Charles Bone. He's 20 years younger than Forrester and he hasn't been a part of the TNDP power structure for decades, like Forrester.

As for the 2008 elections, I really think you need to educate yourself. I saw Bredesen, Gordon, and Davis out campaigning for Democratic candidates. I saw them raising millions of dollars for Democratic campaigns.

I'm not criticizing the Obama campaign because they should not have wasted any time on Tennessee, a state they couldn't win, but I don't think you can argue that they help Democratic legislative candidates in Tennessee.

And in case nobody's noticed, everything that is happening with Chip Forrester happened when Howard Dean ran for chair of the DNC in 2005.

The Democratic establishment, desperately trying to avoid blame for devastating election losses in 2002 and 2004, tried to take out Howard Dean by claiming that he didn't have the support of the big dollar donors and that they would pull their support from the party if he was elected to chairman. They even tried to imply that Dean was weird or crazy, just like they're doing to Forrester now with the strange obsession with his bowtie. Most importantly, these party hack losers did not understand the shifting political landscape in terms of technology and the role that grassroots organizing was re-asserting itself.

Meanwhile, Dean - just like Forrester now - had nearly unflinching support from the rank-and-file grassroots and the elected executive committee members.

Howard Dean won the election to become the Chairman of the DNC and in just two election cycles, the Republicans were wiped out thanks to the 50-State Strategy and grassroots organizing. Now, there are no Republican congressmen left in New England, red states like Virginia, Ohio, and Florida are blue, and Democrats are even winning elections in places like Mississippi, Texas, and Utah. Obama embraced Dean's strategy and won the Democratic primary against the establishment's candidtate and then went on to get more votes than any other President in history.

And those Washington insiders who predicted doom and gloom under Howard Dean? They're all eating crow... as they should. It should be noted, by the way, that the same people who oppose Chip Forrester for chairman of the TNDP also opposed Howard Dean for chairman of the DNC.

Do you trust these people's judgment?

The moneymen should stick with what they know - raising money - and leave the political strategy to people who know how to actually win elections.