In the Land of the Blind…
…Markos is still king:
The bottom line: we helped a campaign that was the walking dead and gave it new life, pumped in resources, and made it competitive. We did much to even the playing field even if ultimately we came up tantalizingly short.
And yeah, I know “tantalizingly short”, alongside “moral victories”, is about as desirable as the Bubonic Plague. We want more. But this is a long-term movement, building from nothing. And we are sending notice to Democrats that they can’t be Bush’s bi*ch and expect a pass.
Ahem….
LOOOOOSSSSSEEEERRR! LOSER! LOSER! BWAAAAHHAAAAAAAAHAAA…
…okay, what was I saying? Oh, yeah – loser! That was it…
Markos continues:
So we didn’t kill off Cuellar, but we gave him an a** whooping where none was expected and made him sweat. That’s the reason why Lieberman is sweating in Connecticut and lining up his dog and pony endorsement shows to flex his muscle. He can’t take for granted that a no-name businessman with no political experience and zero connections in his state’s political establishment will be a non-factor, not with what we’ve done for people like Dean and now Ciro.
Oh, yeah, and remind me again what you did for Dean and Ciro? Oh, yeah – turned them into LOSERS!
Yeah, Lieberman is sweating, all right…sweating at the thought that Markos might endorse him. Better start moving to the right again, Joe (I know, I’m only joking – Markos endorsing Lieberman would be like me endorsing Kerry)…
UPDATE 4:49 p.m.: Leon H. on the same piece:
In which Markos continues his theme that the Republicans only win because they have built a better, more effective machine. While discussing a race (in Texas) in which we don’t even have a candidate for the general election.
[...] Update: Mark Coffey sees the same thing (not surprising, he is one sharp person). [...]
Well, Markos didn’t turn Dean into a loser. Dean started out as the representative of 2% of the electorate and surged to, what? 8% in the primaries? (Multiply by .5) Anyhow, he’s right in some respects. Without the Kossacks the unreconstructed Commies would have gone Green and I’m pretty confident they will do so this and fall after next. The Dems just are not a political party the way the Reps are. The Republicans are an alliance of disparate views that have made compromises on their ideology to win elections. I mean, I know I have. The Dems are a griping committee and nothing more. No electorally significant plurality of them is willing to subvert their ideals for victories. Rahm Emmanuel learned this lesson hard not long ago. It must have been like a thunderbolt for him to hear from the grassroots that elections are just not that important. HILARIOUS!
This November will really be crucial for Kos. If the Democrats don’t win Congress outright, or at least get tantalizingly close, I’ve got to suspect a lot of the air will blow out of his balloon. People can take only so many moral victories, especially since Kos never seems able to decide whether he’s a hard-bitten political strategist or an idealist pied piper from day to day.
And if the Democrats do win, then get ready for the DLC/Kos fight of the century. Kos will be screaming it was his brand of vigor that put the Democrats over the top, while the moderates will say Kos was just riding a natural rising tide. They’ll both have credible arguments, and they both might wind up tearing the party to shreds. And if that’s the case, who will the public turn to in 2008? I’d put my money on someone not seen as beholden to anybody, and that helps McCain and Giuliani.
Leave it to Kos to try to take credit for taking Rodriguez from a 57-vote loss in 2004 to a 5000-vote thumping in 2006.
Dennis, I’ve always said that success can be harder to deal with than failure, but I sure hope we don’t get the chance to find out how Kos takes it.