Can Dems use Tea Party against GOP on 17th amendment?

[babylonsister]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/09/can_vulnerable_dems_teabag_gop.html


Can Dems use Tea Party against GOP on 17th amendment?
Videos at link~


Here's something to keep an eye on: The Tea Party push to repeal the 17th amendment is becoming an issue in some of the hardest fought House races.

Vulnerable Dem incumbents are now beginning to air ads hammering GOP opponents who have come out in support of repealing the direct popular election of U.S. Senators, something that has been pushed by some of the more extreme Tea Party members.

Here, for instance, is a new ad that Rep. Suzanne Kosmas of Florida, an extremely vulnerable Dem, is airing against her opponent, law enforcement officer Sandy Adams, bashing her for supporting repeal:

And here's a spot from another vulnerable Dem from Florida, Allen Boyd, bashing opponent Steve Southerland over repeal:

The larger question here is this: Can Dems rescue their most vulnerable incumbents, and limit their losses, by capitalizing on the rise of the Tea Party, which has produced GOP candidates who are so far to the right that they'd ordinarily be disqualified?

Or is the environment so bad for Dems right now that not even advocating for repeal of the 17th amendment is enough to get voters to see such challengers as unacceptably extreme alternatives?

Look for lots more like this.

By Greg Sargent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. The amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which Senators were elected by state legislatures. It also alters the procedure for filling vacancies in the Senate, to be consistent with the method of election. It was adopted on April 8, 1913.