PA State Committee Meeting Thoughts

Notes from the February 5 meeting of the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee meeting in Hershey, Newly elected State Chairman, Jim Burn faces another tough election cycle.  Let’s see how he goes about sharpening the saw.  Supposedly, the party has the registration edge.  Why didn’t that translate into ballot casting in November, 2010?

PA State Committee challenged by:

A.      Small staff (1/3 typical State Committee Staff)  Cool.  More jobs to be created for Progressive Aggressives who don’t listen, don’t respect their elders and don’t have a clue about building consensus with well-positioned older and women voters.  Applause: you galvanized the youth vote with one candidate for one election.  Do you appreciate, yet, how the Democratic Base was cannibalized to game your own rules and elevate a less qualified candidate in a year that supposedly “any” democrat was going to win?  Do you relate, yet, how pissed off those old women still are?  Do you want to continue to fan the flame of their anger which they express in the voting booth with that “Get over it” Shout?

B.      Lack of (as the result of the freaking progressives dissing the) sitting Governor

Fundraising needs:  The kids of the Onorato campaign, the Sestak campaign, the various congressional campaigns, made no effort to cultivate the older participants in the process.  A lesson they’re unable to comprehend is about Democrats of Substance who want to know who they’re electing, want to meet “the Candidate,” checkbook in hand, and be treated with respect.  A bold young guy with all the talking points about the number of rocks they needed to look under for small change were NOT working the Establishment donors.  Couldn’t you see?  They had done such a hack job on the goodwill of those Democrats that the reputation for DISRESPECT was unavoidable. 

The State Party can point to the get-out-the-vote model of Nevada which managed to re-elect Reed to the Senate… (Not because he represents their voice, but because he is Senior enough to procure – via pork barrel measures such as earmarks – funds for Nevada.)  I’m pretty sure all the tactics employed in behalf of the Reed campaign were legitimate.  In Pennsylvania, on the other hand, Bobby Casey managed to undermine the Governor, the sitting Senator whose seniority, likewise, served the voters, and the Democratic Candidate for Governor with the aggressive promotion of the Progressive Agenda.

I get it.  This is a Casey Grudge Game.  He despises the Clintons, he despises Ed Rendell.  He exploits the trust of undiscerning Democrats.  Raising money?  The big check donors will first ask you if you can convince Bobby Casey to grow up and get with the full Party.

Senator:  dumprick wasn’t about electing Bobby Casey.  It was about taking down Santorum.  Given the Progressive tactic of threatening Primary Challenges to any Democrat that didn’t give their super delegate vote to “the One” or rubber-stamp the Obama Agenda, a primary challenge to Casey is certainly in order.  I hope it’s a WOMAN!

REDISTRICTING:  Mark Longietti

“Ten years ago, (1991) I knew nothing about the re-drawing the boundaries of the congressional and legislative districts.”  Turnovers.  Losing control. In fact, the Progressives have  been so “successful” in pushing out all the “establishment” democrats who would KNOW how to fight for the Democrat’s fair share of the redistricting balloon, that nobody in today’s party leadership was even around then.  So it’s another “On The Job” training program for the party  as the Republicans let them choose the poison they want to take for the seat they’re about to give up in Congress.  

Fadia says that they “failed to get their message out, about all they had done for the voters.

HELLO! ! ! !  So, y’ur saying you didn’t do enough talking?

Rich.  These “progressives” are just so full of themselves, they’re beyond hope.  They’re just going to have to lose yet another election – like they did in November 2010… Now, they don’t acknowledge that the Republicans didn’t beat them; the voters simply saw that they were absolutely not capable of being any better than the politicians they bashed for eight years.  Women, are you innerested in putting up your hard-earned 70 cents on the Dollar to let them indulge for a couple more years?  I’m not.  I see a bunch of ‘I’m-tired-of-hearing-it” guys who just refuse to hear it and a bevy of ambitious young women willing to cower in compliance just to get a shot.  These young women break the hearts of their mothers, grandmothers and teachers by their failure to grasp the importance of Sisterhood in the Political Power Struggle.  This trend, on the part of the Progressives driving the agenda, means I’ll be getting my popcorn and settling back to watch the show.  No way am I putting ANY effort into working with, for or on them.  They’re like those Jewells in Jewel Quest that are encrusted, hidden behind a caste or somehow not in play until they’ve been “opened.”  I’m not feeling sorry for the Democrats, and I’m certainly feeling no duty to advocate for the young women who so callously disregard the value of the work their “ForeMothers” did in their behalf and the opportunities they enjoy today as the result.  Pay It Forward is not a feature of these young women’s attitudes. 

Any Guy who can rationalize rape by arguing that the woman “asked for it” can relate.  These people are demanding the next level of their political education.  It has nothing to do with Party.  It has to do with relationships.  There they are up front talking about how they’re about “relationships,” yet they say stupid things like: “I’m sick of hearing it.”  Yeah; RELATIONSHIP-oriented.  Here comes Valentines’ Day, Here comes Valentines’ Day, right down “Relationship” Way.  Do any of you guys realize the hole yu’r digging into?  Do you understand that the “People” tell the pollsters that they like the Obama’s but they don’t plan to VOTE for him?  It’s like the really nice people at the office who think you’re GREAT and you have the best personality and you show up on time and do everything right, but they’re firing you.  Nothing personal:  They just aren’t getting rich your way.  Good luck to you.

February 5, 2011 Hershey Lodge, PA Meeting Rooms

I’m auditing the “Credentials Committee Meeting” and am surprised that the four men present for this meeting are giving their impressions from a very subjective viewpoint.  So this is how these guys come up with their strategies.  I’ve really got to call bullshit on them.  They don’t offer substantial reasoning to support their conjecture.  Point is, I doubt they have minds open enough to really read the electorate.  They don’t know, not interested in finding out.  My experience with these progressives is basically about how little they actually know.  Sure, they work hard – beating the ear of anybody who gives them a moment.  But they’re like their poster boy: big ears that don’t work.  They are absolutely and utterly indifferent to your input.  They know where they’re going and assert that they know best what is best for you.  They judge the voters “crazy,” racist, unqualified to choose.  They operate from an impenetrable “above it” disengaged attitude that they work hard and deserve to win.  In what vacuum do you expect to collect a paycheck for that level of a rigged playing field?

We hold elections to find out…  Who Cares (?) enough to come out, cast a vote, exercise the sacred right/perform a civic duty? 

Here’s Kathryn Boockvar, a kid, basically, who arrived in rural northeast Pennsylvania, fresh out of college, to be the only attorney serving the legal needs of the poor.  OK, Ms. Boockvar, you operated in a learn-by-doing atmosphere, free of influence from either mentoring elders or competing savvies.  You have a practice with your husband and, for some reason you have convinced the other provincials that you are qualified to be a judge!  This is the instant replay of the manner by which your generation of women fail the litmus test to reflect understanding of the struggle for women’s’ rights.  Yes, I got your letter inviting me to your reception…three days after I got home from that meeting.  You convinced enough people that you could beat Barbara Ernsberger straight up in a primary election because you are organized.  But, Kathryn, besides the same bunch of blowhards and bullies that brought in new leadership to the State Committee, WHO DO YOU KNOW?  WHO KNOWS YOU?  The Bar Association?  Their recommendations are for amusement only, like Blackwell’s best dressed lists.  Conversely, plenty of people know Barbara Behrend Ernsberger.  Barbara, likewise is in practice with her husband.  She has chaired the City of Pittsburgh Democratic Committee, an organization that elects its candidates.  This volunteer work, along with her pro-bono representation of the communities opposed to a WalMart causing landslides and road closures in her county, has schooled Barbara in dealing with people who are out to get her.  In your cozy little rural, quasi challenging world, Kathryn, I cannot imagine that you have encountered the level of humanity that Barbara has, due mostly to the number of years over which she has produced a body of work.  Her 2009 lap around the track established her as a qualified candidate for this cycle.  The Caucus remarks by the men about the Bar Association not recommending her totally frosted me.  They NEVER mention the Republicans either out of respect or with responsible knowledge of their campaign tactics.  They want you to accept that the failings of Barbara Ernsberger cost the Democrats those seats.  For my money, the County Chairs got “push back” from the Primary Voters and their male, endorsed candidates got shut out.  So there was zero effort to get out the vote for the two women who won the democratic primary and the County Chairs showed, not only their lack of class, but their irresponsible inability to admit they are out of order and, as the result, out of favor with the voters – THE MAJORITY OF WHOM ARE WOMEN!!!  You want to bank on the youth vote?  Be our guests.  (Good luck getting them out of bed on Election Day,)  For Bookvar to play on the Bar Association  gossip is profoundly disturbing to me, tells me that another untested, unproven commodity of the “Progressive” label is shoving aside a substantial Democrat to waste a ballot position.  If you Progressives are out to destroy the Democratic Party by preventing us from winning elections, the endorsement of Bookvar was a step in that direction. When you hit the campaign trail to meet the voters, they’ll be asking you what happened to Barbara?  Just like they asked, “What happened to Hillary?”  Bewildered initially, by party roolz they thought were on the level, the women who were poised to elect a woman president in our lifetime, know something bad went down and want nothing to do with the perpetrators.  In 2009, women went to the polls and expressed their displeasure with the men of the Democratic Party by going down the list and voting one-by-one, for all the Republican WOMEN. In 2011, it’s not about taxes, social issues or competence anymore.  It’s about class.  The Republicans were tossed from office in 2006 for their boorish intolerance of female leadership.  It was expected that the Democratic Party would respect the numbers, if not the gender.  Traditionally, women vote Democrat.  One would expect that the politicians , whose bread and butter is that female voter, would conduct their business with cognizance of the women working beside them, volunteering for them and convincing their neighbors to believe in them enough to get out and vote for them.  In 2008, under the toxic influence of rash young males doing a “Tonya Harding” on the Women of the United States of America, the Democrats sent a vile and malicious message:  “We’ll put a black guy in there before we let a woman be elected President.  We make up all these bullshit rules to run you around and waste your time under the naïve supposition that we play by our published rules.  Psyche!!!” 

To the young women like Kathrine Boockvar who are entering the arena under the impression that they might serve the MAJORITY of the population, the workforce, the Democratic Party: Have At It.  Like your Affirmative Action President, learning on the job, you are about to squander the remaining faith women have in the two party system on a candidacy before your time.  Shove aside yet another accomplished woman and proven vote-getter on the free ride given by a bunch of disrespectful guys just looking for you to buy into their disloyal, discriminating sexist power trip.  As you embark on your tour of the Commonwealth’s 67 Counties, prepare to get an earful from the voters about the democrats.  Whether or not you are equipped to realistically evaluate the input you’ll get, I am not convinced that you possess the political insight to respond with the level of loyalty to women that the voters are looking for.  Ernsberger has proven she does. Before the influx of the “bold” progressives, accomplished political activists of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee had respect for each other.  They left these meetings with as good a chance of winning elections as the Republicans had.  DEMOCRATS, not Progressives, can respectably represent the Party.  Progressives are done, as Joe Sestak proved, as Jack Panella proved, as Dan Onorato proved.  It’s not because you didn’t tell the voters enough about all you did for them, Fadia.  It’s because the voters saw what you did to them.  You defied their wishes, tossed their votes in the trash and forced a stepsister’s foot into Cinderella’s glass slipper.   From the top of the ballot to the bottom, Democratic Men, and the Progressive Women they rode in on, were given the finger by the voters.  Sideways.

The real question for me is this:  Where do Women stand?  I heard a couple of put-down stories that just reinforced my outrage with the way men “assume” the choice, the option, the “decide.”  Hey, William O. Douglas!  You checked in yesterday and reminded me of the relationship we have – Choice.  You showed me that my “Choice” is very much a responsibility.  Your intervention in my actions was to both save me from myself and to communicate to me that passive doesn’t exonerate me from the consequences,  If I choose not to choose, that’s still a choice;  Madness.  So, I get this filter installed, which is crazy excited to be spoken to with such gentle oneness with my own mind … I understand that you are on the other side.  In the thirty odd years since we had that exchange, I haven’t thought much about it. 

            "To say that life is present at conception is to give recognition to the potential, rather than the actual. The unfertilized egg has life, and if fertilized, it takes on human proportions. But the law deals in reality, not obscurity -- the known, rather than the unknown. When sperm meets egg, life may eventually form, but quite often it does not. The law does not deal in speculation. The phenomenon of [410 U.S. 218] life takes time to develop, and, until it is actually present, it cannot be destroyed. Its interruption prior to formation would hardly be homicide, and as we have seen, society does not regard it as such. The rites of Baptism are not performed and death certificates are not required when a miscarriage occurs. No prosecutor has ever returned a murder indictment charging the taking of the life of a fetus.⁷ This would not be the case if the fetus constituted human life."

When you passed away, I had a sensation that my mother was dying.  I felt foolish to recognize that I could ever believe that my Mother was dying.  I know her.  It is quite easier to accept that Death could match with you more readily than her.  As I see Bob Casey’s Progressives elbowing themselves into control of the Democratic Brand, I just want to step aside and let them destroy themselves.  They have even attempted to impose a bastardized Obama brand over the D, a marketing concept not unlike pet rocks.  Taking over the “brand,’ (trademark infringement) doesn’t mean they are taking over the Democratic Party.  Traditional Democrats with zero connection to the bold progressives who are, essentially a flash in the pan, simply drop out and fail to show up for elections, for nominations, for contributions, volunteering and even finding common ground with them.  In fact, the incentive is now there to flat out reject them, tell them to get off their lawns and don’t come around them anymore.  They won’t necessarily change their registration, but until some genuine Democrats get the respect the voters expect for them, the “bold” progressives are just digging in deeper, learning nothing and their rising star status will quickly turn into shooting stars and be yesterday’s news.   I know I am alerted to the lack of basic reciprocity from these asses.  I’ll go hear the “progressive hour” and get the fuel for my next big choice.  Go, Sarah!

,,,It turns out the Progressive Hour offered zero incentive to stay,  Just as well; The Executive Committee was supposed to meet at 10’30.  Limited to a mere half hour wedged between the interest group caucuses and the regional caucuses, the meeting was delayed by the double-dipping County Chairs whose own meeting in the scheduled salon “went long.” The imposed delay of the Ex Com’s meeting stranded them in the foyer.  Queued for a truncated half hour meeting to consider and approve the 2011 Budget, arriving committee members became too big a crowd – to the point of actually sounding like one – so much so that, GASP! The County Chairs had to raise their voices to hear each other’s extended discussion.  By 10:40 a.m. the reprimand from Fadia that our chatter was disturbing the over-staying Chairs was totally frosting.  Let them move their “posturing” to the foyer, stick to the schedule and give up the room!  They had already slashed our meeting by a third!  State Committee is supposed to be a mutually cordial, respectful gathering, but the County Chairs really take a “sprawl” approach by their presence at these things.   Christ!  Their elected colleagues extended them the courtesy of a vote at the meetings, reciprocal consideration is in order, any legitimate political professional would think.  It’s a real pain in the ass how they try to control everything when they can’t even control their own meetings!

Congrats to David Wecht.  I look forward to hearing your dad’s rousing speaking style on the campaign trail.  The voters sure let Mary Beth Buchanan know where they stood on that waste of money.  It didn’t bother them that the Coroner’s expertise that got us an inside look at Celebrity and High Profile cases came at a bit of a cost to the taxpayers in staff time and office resources for which they had already paid.  Cut the crap.  Again, we don’t support everything he says and does, but we respect the body of work.  Hey, celebrity honkers: even the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gives a lifetime achievement award to distinguished performers.  Observe some tradition.  Your day is coming.  Learn from the poor performance your President is turning in.  It’s imprudent to push yourself on the big stage before you’re ready for Prime Time.  Even Saturday Night Live had some “lemon” comedians.  Winning elections is no guarantee you can do the job.  With the Progressive concepts as your guideposts, it’s doubtful you can succeed.  Do yourselves a favor: pay your dues, wait your turn, work on the campaigns of politicians who know what they’re doing and learn from their mistakes.  After dissing the Clintons for a campaign cycle, it must really be an ego squasher for the Occupant of the Oval Office to have to turn to the Big Dawg for rescue.  Sestak too,  who almost brought down the whole house of cards with his rash, mouth-running accusations of how the Established Party people tried to force him out of the race.  Thank God Bill Clinton has the grace and love for his Country to step up and do what he does best: let the brats blame him for their self-created crisis.  In the process, everybody was reminded how peaceful it made us feel to know a grownup was at the helm.