Why do our candidates pick bad staffers, while Repukes pick good ones?

[MoonRiver]

This is the usual excuse for why we "lose". I'm just wondering why, if this is correct, do Dems have such bad luck or bad taste when picking staffers for their campaigns.

[Shoeempress]

1. I think we are still fighting a gentleman's battle against street fighters.

[MoonRiver]

2. So maybe we need to pick street fighter staffers?

I would agree with that. The question remains why haven't Dem candidates gotten the memo?

[Shoeempress]

3. Damned if I know.

[Shoeempress]

4. Damned if I know.

[aquart]

5. Fascist stormtroopers are NOT "good" staffers.

They are simply psychos who have found employment in a difficult economy.

[MoonRiver]

6. But they win elections and put Repukes in power.

Our staffers lose elections. No matter how much we complain that they are scumbags we're left to deal with the hideous results of their actions. How do we combat this?

[ReadTomPaine]

7. Follow the money.

Republican staffers get book deals and wealth if they do well. Dem staffers get coffee. The Dem establishment needs to start to pony up for the talent, and open up the cliqish, aging party infrastructure.

When a rightwinger goes on a limb for the party, they know they are covered and always have a paycheck and a place waiting for them. Dems get vilified and lose their jobs for doing the same.

We will win the government back when we want it more than they do, and not a moment before. This is a big part of that.

[Leilani]

8. Because Bob Shrum is the Dem "kingmaker"

He has run all the recent campaigns, except for Clinton's.

Shrummy loses everytime, but hey, that's ok, because he's the go-to guy.

And he has been VERY well paid.

[LittleClarkie]

9. All the really good ratfuckers were taken

We got all the "nice" ones.

[MoonRiver]

11. Lol! That does say it all!

:rofl:

[JNelson6563]

10. Not all

While there are certainly some who just totally suck, I have also personally met others who really rocked.

The guy who headed the advance team for the Kerry campaign last year, he has worked for Kerry for 15 years, he was wonderful! I couldn't have been more impressed with him. I'd like to see him on TV over some of those who usually "represent" us.

Julie

[Totally Committed]

12. Read this article:

Bottom line: You get what you pay for. Republicans raise the most money, so they can hire the most expensive whores. It will disturb, appal, and disgust you.

Excerpt:

All-Republican lobbying firms have boosted their rates the most. Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock and the Federalist Group report that at the end of the Clinton administration, $20,000 a month was considered high. Now, they say, retainers of $25,000 to $40,000 a month are customary for new corporate clients, depending on how much work they do.

Such fee inflation is widespread, even by newcomers. Venn Strategies LLC, a bipartisan lobbying firm that opened in 2001, has doubled its retainer for new clients. "When we first started, most of them came in at $7,500 a month or $10,000 a month," said Stephanie E. Silverman, a principal in the firm. "Now retainers are more in the $15,000- and $25,000-a-month range."

Corporate clients accept the extra cost as the price of success in Washington. At the turn of the year, the American Ambulance Association decided to step up its lobbying and switched to Patton Boggs LLP, the Capitol Hill powerhouse, from a smaller lobbying shop across town. In the process it boosted its lobbying budget by about a third, to more than $300,000 a year.

"It is essential we have a very strong presence," said Robert L. Garner, president of the association. "It's pricey, but it's the cost of doing business in the federal environment."

Entire article:

The Road to Riches Is Called K Street
Lobbying Firms Hire More, Pay More, Charge More to Influence Government

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/21/AR2005062101632.html

TC

[MoonRiver]

13. That was a truly horrifying article.

I don't know how one combats such corruption without being part of it. Then there's the question of money.

[Totally Committed]

14. I agree...

I couldn't eat my breakfast after reading that.

Disgusting. No wonder the state of politics in this country is what it is today.

TC