The Hill gets into the act on Cegelis and Duckworth.

[madfloridian]

Some is true, some is spin. As usual. There is more explanation of her hesitation to jump in and endorse. There is a statement that not a single Democratic leader called her to tell her she ran a good race...only Howard Dean.

There is going to be all kinds of spin and twist on this issue. What it really boils down to is that things are changing, and Clinton's famous "fall out of love" and "fall in line" may no longer work all the time. He said that in Iowa, I remember that day. He was saying it even as he was calling behind the scenes against Dean.

So I think this race indicates that it is time for the party leaders to listen to us a little. The war vote was the beginning....they did not listen. They did not pay attention to the research we sent them. They went along. They voted for it. I think it was the turning point.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Campaign/032806.html

Cegelis refuses to endorse Duckworth after primary
By Jonathan E. Kaplan

"Christine Cegelis will not endorse Tammy Duckworth, the winner in Illinois’s 6th Congressional District Democratic primary, because she has reservations about Duckworth’s positions on universal healthcare and free trade, a source close to Cegelis’s campaign said. "Duckworth had favored universal health insurance but changed her tune, advocating a more incremental approach, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The source asserted that Cegelis believes Duckworth has backed away from her opposition to the Central America Free Trade Agreement that the House and Senate passed last year. Despite that perception, Duckworth won the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsement."

In the Republican-leaning, suburban Chicago district where the Democratic Party has had no real organization in recent years, Cegelis had built support from a coalition of activists and one-issue voters. She also earned the endorsement of Democracy For America, a prominent grassroots movement run by Howard Dean’s brother after Dean’s failed presidential campaign. Dean is now the chairman of DNC.

.....“There’s no respect now for grassroots support,” the source close to Cegelis’s campaign said, adding that Dean was the only national Democratic leader to call her after the race ended."

And a statement from Jim Dean:

"Jim Dean, chairman of Democracy for America, told The Hill, “We’ve seen plenty of reaction in the past when Washington Democrats involved themselves in a race. I’m seeing a different reaction here. It’s not reversed itself into a Kumbaya moment.”

“I don’t sense a recrimination mode. The tenor of rhetoric from the DCCC is one of ‘well, that’s politics,’” he added."

This is not about Duckworth or Cegelis....it never was, you know. It is about paying attention to the people in the party...listening.

[Mass]

1. Anonymous sources. I will believe it when I see it.

[madfloridian]

3. Did you notice the snide term..."one issue voters"?

That hit me right away.

As I said, some of it spin, some is not.

[madfloridian]

2. Someone tell me why the long blank space at the end of my post.

I have had that happen a lot, and can't get it to go away.