Monday, September 15, 2008
Politics / Woods Don't Cry For Me Rosalind Kurita
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 9:08 AM
The Tennessee blogosphere is up in arms over the Democratic Party’s coup d'é tat against Rosalind Kurita. It’s bare-knuckled, backroom politics at its worst, according to liberals and conservatives alike. Many are denouncing the party as anti-woman. Here’s state GOP chair Robin Smith in one of her regular fits of fake outrage:
“Removing Tennessee’s highest elected Democratic woman from a race that she won, kicking to the curb the supporters of Hillary Clinton, and rabidly attacking Sarah Palin are stunning tactics from a party that depends so heavily on the demographic of women voters and claims to be the party of ‘women’s ‘rights’.”I’m not sure how Sarah Palin was wounded here, but whatever. All the criticism misses the point. What the party did wasn’t anti-democratic. Rather, this is how democracy is supposed to work. Kurita got exactly what she deserved, and she doesn’t get off the hook because she’s a woman. It’s not that the senator voted against John Wilder for speaker. Wilder was part of the Democrats’ problem. With his alliance with Republicans, he held power for power’s sake. He never tried to advance Democratic Party policies. He opposed most of them, in fact. So Kurita could have voted to oust Wilder to elevate a real Democrat to the speakership. Senate Democrats should have banded together and done that many years ago. But Kurita voted against Wilder and gave Senate control to the Republicans. To a Democrat, that has to be unforgivable. The only way for Democrats to push their policies through the legislature is to impose party discipline. In the Senate especially, that’s been a foreign concept. That’s why every year the House passes Democratic initiatives only to see them fail in the Senate. Kurita’s ouster sends the message that Democrats finally might be serious about getting something done in state government. Update: Kurita is an official write-in candidate. That's great. She should have run as an independent or a Republican in the first place. Now, all you people who feel disenfranchised can strike a blow for democracy. Knock yourselves out. Go to the polls and write in the name of Tennessee's Leiberwoman. Update II: David Davis agrees with me. That settles it. h/t Kleinheider.
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