Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Politics / Woods Beset by Monkey Butt and Other Internet Critics, Forrester Reaches Out to the Blogs
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Mar 31, 2009 at 5:53 AM
"I don't spend all day with my door closed reading the blogs," Forrester tells Pith before more or less conceding that these blog commenters are a real pain in the ass.
The blogs are not widely read (not that anyone's counting). But some obsessive political insiders are glued to the almost constant online debate over whether Forrester should go or stay or whether anyone should care. Unfortunately for Forrester, those insiders include members of the party's governing executive committee. Some of them have told Pith they probably wouldn't know much of anything about the party's travails if not for the blogs and their comment sections. The mainstream media aren't covering this much. But the blogs are amplifying every little thing.
The anonymous commenters are so bent on taking down Forrester that some observers have started to suspect that they're actually Republican trolls. Lately, they've spread certain gossipy tidbits so successfully that Forrester has been forced to deny them. According to this chatter, he's been striding around the party headquarters like a crazy man loudly vowing to find candidates to run in party primaries against certain of Tennessee's Democratic congressmen. In the process, he's supposedly managed to piss off the party's volunteer workers, and he's spending most of his time brooding in his office with the door closed.
Forrester felt compelled to phone one congressional office to knock down these rumors. (He won't say which office, but we think it was Jim Cooper's.)
"There is no effort on my part or anybody's part to find primary candidates against any member of Congress," Forester tells Pith. "Jim Cooper is my dear friend and he is serving this congressional district ably. At first it was just Jim Cooper, then somebody said I was looking for candidates to run against all of them. The last thing the chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party is doing is any effort to find a primary candidate for any of these people. I made a call to one person and said I just wanted to make sure they understand that's patently untrue. It's absurd. It's totally false."
As long as we had Forrester on the phone, we asked him a couple of questions.
Q: Do you think Democrats will stop hating on you now that your treasurer Bill Freeman has quit?
Forrester: I thought the governor's quote was very powerful when he indicated there were problems with Bill Freeman. Well, Bill Freeman is gone. 2010 is incredibly important to Democrats. If the governor feels Bill Freeman was an impediment to helping the party, with that impediment gone, perhaps we can begin to move together instead of apart.
Q: If this continues, will you resign for the good of the party like Freeman said he was doing?
Forrester: As long as we're making progress here on the front of building the tools for the 2010 election cycle, helping the House and Senate Democratic caucus with their task for recruiting candidates and training those candidates, as long as we're making a difference there, then we'll continue forward.
Q: So you're not quitting?
Forrester: No.
Comments (19)
Showing 1-19 of 19
For a man that doesn't spend all day locked behind closed doors, obsessing over blog comments, Chip knows every single word written about him on the blogs.
Funny that he would validate these comments by calling congressional offices to deny them, especially since he doesn't care much what they say about him on the blogs and definitely doesn't spend his time locked in his office obsessing about them.
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I almost feel sorry for Chip. Almost. But I will not relent. Someone must hold him accountable.
While I'm here, let me add three things:
1. Contrary to Chip's thinking, he is not essential to Democratic success in the 2010 elections. In fact, he is an impediment to it. What has he done to "build the tools" - whatever that means - for 2010? The party is a wreck. He has raised no money. Over two months into his terms, and he has no treasurer. He has no professional staff. He refuses to take a stand on any substantive issue. The party is a laughing stock to members of the media because of Chip's pathological waffling.
The best thing for Democrats in 2010 would be the resignation of Chip Forrester as TNDP chair. If that doesn't happen, our candidates will be forced to work around TNDP, not with it.
2. I have no intention of ending my criticism because Bill Freeman resigned. Bill Freeman was a bruise on TNDP. Chip Forrester is the disease that caused this bruise. Chip is incapable of running this party.
3. The executive committee was warned that Chip is untrustworthy and incompetent. They elected him anyway. In order to move TNDP forward, there should be a concerted effort to defeat the executive committee members that voted for Chip in the 2010 elections. These include Harold and Sylvia Woods, Brenda Ables, Fred Hobbs, Bill Bassett, Seannalynn Brandmier, Jerry Maynard, Maryanne Clark. They created this disaster, and they must be held accountable for it.
One more thing: I thought if you held someone hostage long enough, the Stockholm Syndrome sets in. But Chip still doesn't seek to like us. What gives?
here's some irony for you. Chip told executive committee members when he was running and other people after he won that he wanted to serve two terms as chairman and then he would "retire" because being TNDP chair could be the pinnacle of his political career. Right up there with making Harold Washington a star and palling around with David Axelrod. Huh, Chip? he has barely survived two month.s
Chipper promises an awful lot but never seems to follow through.
He promised to respond to Republican attacks immediately. (Well, actually, he promised to call Republicans racists every chance he got.) I don't think anyone is going to give Chipper a rapid responder badge any time soon.
He promised his weekly YouTube snuff films. You know, those video updates about everything TNDP that he promised. I haven't seen one in weeks.
By accepting the job, I assume that he also promised not to royally fuck up the party.
Chipper's not living up to many of his promises, so Pith I wouldn't put these calls on the schedule just yet.
This is boring. Bill Hobbs really should have better things to do than internet trolling. Or maybe he doesn't......
Scott: If it's boring, then change the channel. But I can assure you: I ain't Bill Hobbs. I'm a disaffected, dissatisfied Democrat who's genuinely troubled by the accelerated demise of my party at the hands of Chip Forrester.
Kim Sasser Hayden did, unlike Forrester, spend the whole month of February reading blogs with her office door closed.
One of the many reasons why she's out.
It's Tuesday, so at least Chip has his communication "specialist" with him. The response to this debacle won't be left to Jennifer Buck Wallace and that little Devin kid as it is every other day of the week.
Chip, this is worse than your handling of the Freeman ouster. You have validated everything that I reported, and you have given incentive to your more harsh critics to become even harsher.
Your incompetence is breathtaking.
The reason we are so relentless is because we are genuinely determined not to allow the most incompetent, dishonest, divisive chairman in the history of the Tennessee Democratic Party, perhaps of any state Democratic Party, to completely destroy it. Although it may already be too late. Such a complete meltdown in just two months is unbelieveable.
First the critics were threatened.
Then the critics were just "political operatives" from people who supported Bone.
Then the critics were really all just one person.
Now, the critics are Bill Hobbs.
No, Chip, the critics are people who know you and know all about you. People who know what a backstabbling, dishonest weasel you are. People who were there when Ned Ray McWherter gave you the boot. People who were there when Al Gore fired your sorry lying ass. People who were there for your dishonest, dirty campaign against Bob Clement (you know, when you were humiliated). People who were there when you thumbed your nose at Bart Gordon, Lincoln Davis, Jim Cooper and John Tanner. People who saw to it that you had no role whatsoever in the Clinton Adminsitration, and are making damn sure you have no role in the Obama Adminsitration either. People who know about your personal life and all the slimy secrets under the rocks there.
I was thinking over the weekend that it might be best to just ignore Chip and work around him for 2010. But I have come back to the thinking of Harrison and Dr. Jellyfinger. Forrester must go.
Heatseeker you are weak little man! How do you shave in the mirror and know that you don't have the balls to let the world know who you are??
Grow a set little fella!
Looks like Chip's smelly undergrad volunteers finally rolled out of bed, took a bong hit, and logged on to their iMacs. Congrats, boys and girls. You're only about four hours late.
Seriously, Chipinista, this is pathetic. Your party is aflame, and all you can do is hurl insults at me. And I'm not the commenter doing the most damage to you.
Who did Dr. J say you are? Jennifer Buck Wallace and some kid named Devin? Address the issues.
Aunt B, if you are reading, do you now see the true impediment to rational discussion of the disaster that is TNDP?
Here is the latest report from TNDP:
1. Chip is frantic about the leaks and has put his staff and volunteers on lockdown. (Memo to Chip: the lockdown didn't work.)
2. Chip has personally approved a plan devised by Jennifer Buck Wallace to oppose every member of the TNDP executive committee up for re-election in 2010 - including the executive committee members that voted for him. Let's be clear, Buck Wallace concocted this plan, presented it to Chip, and he personally approved putting it into action.
Does anyone still want to argue that Chip is trustworthy?
Bad day, Chip? Take a deep breath. Remember you tai chi lessons. Smoke a cigar. Have a glass of wine.
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