DELAWARE WATCH
May I suggest dumping First State and get on Al's butt to set up another blog at WDEL as he has threatened to do!
And your DE Law Office site's link is not linking...
A few great blogs to add are
Anna Venger (on the right)
and both
De La Where and
First Slate
"Anna Venger"
Is she one of the shills for the Repub Party at Delaware 2006? Or am I confusing her w/ someone else?
Since you accept Celia as a legitimate source, here she is:
"Protack thought about running for the U.S. Senate in 2002 but gave way to Raymond J. Clatworthy, who failed to stop Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. from winning a sixth term. Protack switched his interest to governor, although he offered to give it up a year ago if the party would make him the state chairman. The Republicans did not bite."(link)
He also wrote a letter with that request in it, which I have a copy of.
Do I have an apology coming? I didn't think so.
And the people who have the biggest problem with Protack are the College Republicans who hosted a debate of their own between the two candidates and came away severely disappointed by Protack. Here is a post from JTTR about that debate. Now I don't know them very well, but I do know that the CR's are very independent in spirit and could care less what the official party line is. I, also, could care less. In fact, none of the members of Delaware 2006 seem to care what the DE GOP hierarchy thinks. So when we say we want Protack to go away, we mean it. He has not proven himeslf to be a good candidate, has not proven to have ideas that inspire, and has shown that his interest lies mostly in serving himself. I have never seen a primary that helped the party or the winning candidate.
I know you fall in love with any candidate who is anti-establishment, outside the norm, or is "persecuted," in your opinion, in any way. But this guy ain't worth the trouble.
So you can call us what you want. You'll forgive us if we are not surprised.
And one more thing: Delaware 2006 is anti-immigrant because we re-printed a piece written by a Republican candidate, who happens to be the son of immigrants and is recognized internationally as an expert on the subject?
Whatever helps you jump to your conclusions...
Thank you Dana for the kind introduction. You are absolutely correct connecting my community participation in Red Clay to the days of Pike Creek RTC.
Our family has been living in what’s know as Red Clay since 1912 therefore I am very connected to Red Clay issue. I am far from a Red Clay poster child as I am a bit unpredictable. A seat on the school board is not for me. Parents have more power then any school board and when parents unite, look out! My may concern is with the Title 1 Students and their parents.
As for “shilling” for the Republican Party, that’s were I hang my hat ever since Carper signed the DSTP legislation filled with flaws holding students accountable before educators and forcing them to teach to the test. Sokola was one who labeled me as a misguided parent because I opposed many provisions with in DSTP. When I exposed the legislators for failing to follow provisions of Title 14, Chapter 2, Subchapter I, section 207 that “required” the legislators to perform a written educational impact analysis study identifying funding sources and the overall impact of the legislation including public input before voting on “any” education legislation;This was not being done at all and I questioned the legality of education legislation including DSTP and for my efforts the law was repealed June 25, 2002 slipped in before the close of legislative session. Minner signed the legislation to repeal it July 2006. As I told Sokola, the Controller General and others , the law is the law. There no is no provisions to hold legislators accountable for their actions passing unfunded and under-funded state educational mandates. This is just for starters.
I got tired of writing and calling my legislators and got involved with the party and now the Chairperson for the GOP 19th Rep. District, Delegate of the 19th and member of the State GOP Committee. Asked any Republican Senator or Representative and they will tell you I am a wild card holding even their feet to the fire. Sokola takes campaign contributions from Exxon-Mobil , I though Republicans were for big oil. Minner and Carney takes campaign contributions from Altria aka Phillip-Morris and yet the oppose smoking, no wonder Delaware has the lowest cigarette tax in the region. Carper he is out there boasting how he reformed education in Delaware. We are into 14 years of democrat Governors and I asked, are we better of today then we were 14 years ago ?
I can't account for Celia Cohen's claims, just for what I've been told.
As to this: "He also wrote a letter with that request in it, which I have a copy of"--post it and let's ask Protack if he wrote it. If you got a letter from him stating what you claim, then you have him, case closed.
"I know you fall in love with any candidate who is anti-establishment, outside the norm, or s "persecuted," in your opinion, in any way. But this guy ain't worth the trouble."
I see this as the emerging approach w/ me on the blogosphere and in e-mails. The "Dana is insane" approach is petering out now, apparently in light of my accurate predictions and resonance w/ the rank & file of both prominent parties in DE on (as one fairly prominent Republican described as) the dictatorship of the leadership. The evidence is now so overwhelming that I don’t have enough time to write about it all and I am astonished how pervasive the problem is and how naïve I was in not sensing how deeply entrenched the problem was.
Do I have sympathy w/ just any anti-establishment candidates as you suggest? You know very well the suggestion is preposterous. There are anti-establishment candidates whose ideas are actually worse than the establishment candidates. I wouldn’t vote for Protack. I’ve already written a post here stating as much. My interest in him is twofold: 1) The dynamics and implications of his bad treatment by Republicans and 2) Why he stays w/ the party when they treat him so badly. That’s it.
But, yes, I do support all anti-establishment candidates w/ good ideas. Of course, I do. The establishment is a huge problem in DE. It’s morally responsible to support candidates in DE that will break up the establishment and who have good ideas. We need more democracy in DE, not less. Duh. That you apparently think that being “anti-establishment” is ipso facto suspect shows how deeply entrenched in establishment thinking you have become.
But post your letter from Protack and let’s hear from him. If what you claim is true, I will certainly post a retraction here. No problem. Let the truth will out. What else is there really?
"Sokola takes campaign contributions from Exxon-Mobil , I though Republicans were for big oil. Minner and Carney takes campaign contributions from Altria aka Phillip-Morris and yet the oppose smoking, no wonder Delaware has the lowest cigarette tax in the region. Carper he is out there boasting how he reformed education in Delaware. We are into 14 years of democrat Governors and I asked, are we better of today then we were 14 years ago ?"
John, the distinction between the major parties is mostly razor thin. That they both drink from the same corporate well is no surprise.
In DE especially, where corps all but own the state, Delwareans have not been well served by either major party. The trick is moving the locus of power in the parties away from the leadership and into the people's hands, essentailly making the parties more democratic.
Anytime there is a concetration of power in a few hands, these problems arise. The first thing that happens is that the power holders try to monopolize it and maintain it. What has happened in DE is nothing more than a local manifestation of that basic truth--a truth that can be found in many places.
The establishment is a huge problem in DE. It’s morally responsible to support candidates in DE that will break up the establishment and who have good ideas. We need more democracy in DE, not less. Duh.
If this is true, why not work from the inside by taking over the Democratic party?
I don't think you are crazy, just too pure for your own good. Like many left leaning Democrats you seem to think that working within the system is tantamount to selling out, and any compromise to get things done is some kind of deadly Faustian bargain.
The fact is - unless you like Republicans running things - fixing the Democratic party from within is the most practical way to bring in a more progressive government. Ask Karen Peterson or Richard Korn if you don't want to take my word for it.
But maybe you like the outsider-ness of it all. If that is the case keep working and voting for the likes of Berg and Nadar and enjoy being the outsider while Republicans run the show.
This all goes for you too Nancy. Get off your high horse and run for something.
Nader...
But post your letter from Protack and let’s hear from him. If what you claim is true, I will certainly post a retraction here.
I'm not digging though my files to find that letter, but I know it's in there. Why don't you just ask him if Celia's reporting is accurate? A published report by a certified journalist ought to be enough to get a response.
Another question: Why do you think that everything I say about you is negative? I don't see anything wrong with your tendency and affinity for anti-establishment candidates. I just think Protack isn't worth your bandwidth.
You are quite reactionary. You seem to want me to hate you so you can hate me. Maybe hate is too strong. But I've been quite complimentary of you. I don't understand why, just because we see the world differently, that you have to assume the worst of me.
If you think I'm pro-establishment, then you're not paying attention, either.
Also, if you think the GOP party leadership (Strine, Lee, etc.) in Delaware has any power, you're lost. They're barely holding it together.
I have responded on my blog.
As a (former) delegate to the Republican State Convention, I will state that Protack doesn't get equal billing because he's arrogant. The man talks about how he ought to be the next (fill in the blank) because of his great ideas, but can barely articulate them. Then he blasts the very people he tries to win over. I mean, he did blame his wide margin of defeat in 2004's primary (where he got 15% of the vote) on poor turnout.
Protack Schmotrack.
The fact is - unless you like Republicans running things - fixing the Democratic party from within is the most practical way to bring in a more progressive government.
"I'm not digging though my files to find that letter, but I know it's in there. Why don't you just ask him if Celia's reporting is accurate? A published report by a certified journalist ought to be enough to get a response."
I have asked him and he denied it ever occurred. He even gave me the right to publish the e-mail if I wanted. He never made such an offer in to the Repub Party, he said.
I also heard from another Repub who said the same thing, but I couldn't get his permission to publish the e-mail or his identity.
As a Bill Lee advocate in 2004, I thought I'd share some of the Protack posts I made during the primary season that would remind you and others of his lunacy.
http://billleeforgovernor.blogsp...truth-
lies.html
http://
billleeforgovernor.blogsp...ccountants.html
http://billleeforgovernor.blogsp...-
spellchek.html
http://billleeforgovernor.blogsp...-
education.html
http://billleeforgovernor.blogsp...comes-
spin.html
"If this is true, why not work from the inside by taking over the Democratic party?"
I quit the party soon after the Dems in Congress voted for Bush's Iraq war. I knew there was no WMD in Iraq. The evidence was trippingly obvious. The Dems in Congress had to know as well. So they voted to commit war crimes in Iraq. I could no longer be part of the party.
But I do not think that my decision can or should be universalized. Such decisions are highly personal.
Celia Cohen is a professional journalist who had a long career with the News Journal. If she says it happened, it happened. Unlike may journos, she wouldn't print something as fact unless she knew it to be so and had sources. You can't quote her as being "a recognized astute observor of Delaware’s political scene" and then discount what she says because a self-serving politician denies it.
I take her word over Protack's any day, especially in this case, since I know it happened.
"Another question: Why do you think that everything I say about you is negative?"
I don't.
"I don't see anything wrong with your tendency and affinity for anti-establishment candidates. I just think Protack isn't worth your bandwidth."
See, this bugs me about you. I tell you something and it goes in 1 ear & out another. Then you raise the same points again, the very ones I answered.
I told you already why I find Protack's case interesting above. It has nothing to do w/ any affinity for his ideas as I explained. It has to do w/ his treatment by the Repub party and his continuation w/ them. I find that dynamic interesting. What is so diificult to understand about that?
"You are quite reactionary. You seem to want me to hate you so you can hate me."
Hogwash. I don't even know you.
"Maybe hate is too strong."
Oh, OK then.
"But I've been quite complimentary of you."
I know that & visa versa.
"I don't understand why, just because we see the world differently, that you have to assume the worst of me."
DT, here is my hunch about you. Like everyone I know you have two sides. You aren't often aware of it, but you have a dark side like the rest of humanity. Yours errupts when you resort to the same tactics, but w/ less sustained intensity, as people like Hube and his bros at Colossus. Only they are characterized by their dark side. Toleration and fair treatment are the exception for them.
And like most people your dark side emerges when you feel defensive in some way. It comes out here.
And, yes, I have my dark side too. It comes out when I think that the because the issues in politics and policy are mostly uncomplicated, they must be boring anbd beneath me in some fashion. I get arrogant and it's all because I find the moral demands of being involved in my community and world too demanding. Something in me rebels against them, so I get haughty.
That's mine. Other people have other ones. Usually, one isn't any better than another. But I do think that trying to be conscious of these tendencies is important. It helps us to realize that that sometimes we have more of an agenda than we sometimes think. Well, at the very least, that's true of me.
"Celia Cohen is a professional journalist who had a long career with the News Journal. If she says it happened, it happened."
OK. I'll ask her about it.
I'm going to have to agree with most of that.
Please draw a distinction between Immigrants and Illegal Immigrants. As the Great Granddaughter of Ukrainian Immigrants who became Austrian citizen and waited patiently for their turn to come to America, I must say that the difference is undeniable.
I quit the party soon after the Dems in Congress voted for Bush's Iraq war. I knew there was no WMD in Iraq. The evidence was trippingly obvious. The Dems in Congress had to know as well. So they voted to commit war crimes in Iraq. I could no longer be part of the party.
What a load of BS.
Well, have fun pissing in the wind from the moral high ground. Everyone is different.
"What a load of BS."
Every party has its true believers.
"Well, have fun pissing in the wind from the moral high ground."
Not a problem. Hope you don't mind supporting the party that put Clinton in office who enforced the UN sanctions that at a MINIMUM killed 500,000 Iraqis, most of whom were children. As Albright said of it at the the time, "It was worth it."
Even Bush hasn't murdered that many people yet.
Your link goes nowhere.
"Your link goes nowhere."
Kinda like your third party.
"Hope you don't mind supporting the party that blah blah blah"
Way to avoid the whole point. The only way to get a more progressive government is to make the Democratic party better.
I've said all along that the party needs work - your response is to throw elections to the Republicans. Smart. Very smart.
DT, here is my hunch about you. Like everyone I know you have two sides. You aren't often aware of it, but you have a dark side like the rest of humanity. Yours errupts when you resort to the same tactics, but w/ less sustained intensity, as people like Hube and his bros at Colossus. Only they are characterized by their dark side. Toleration and fair treatment are the exception for them.
I'm going to have to agree with most of that.
Let me clarify. I won't argue what you said about me, but I disagree with your assessment of Rhodey. Like I said above, I don't see the "dark side" in their posts. In fact, they are usually fairly lighthearted. I'm sure they get out of line occasionally, as we all do. But I do not see the evil that you do in Colossus.
"Protack files for Governor - 7 errors in spacing and 1 misspelled word ("particpants")
Protack comments on proposed budget increase - 1 repeated word ("doesn't doesn't"), 2 errors in spacing, and 1 misspelled word ("frm")
Taxes and Growth - 1 misspelled word ("totalling") and three punctuation errors
Education Fairness - 4 misspelled words ("becasue", "bureacracy", "clasrooms", "techers"), 3 errors in spacing, and one sentence fragment. These errors, again, are in Education Fairness."
Pointing out someone's spelling errors--yes, indeed, that justifies the leadership of the Republican Party treating one of their own who wants to run for office like shit. How silly of me not to have recognized it before.
Jeez, you people really can defend your party's leadership in good conscience w/ this tripe? What do you think that you are going to gain?
"Way to avoid the whole point. The only way to get a more progressive government is to make the Democratic party better."
For me, 500,000 dead people--all innocents--is not avoidance. It's a reality NOT to be avoided.
Quite the lively commentary and of a quality that is refreshingly heartfelt...makes me proud to be a part of the DE blogger scene.....
Jason is defensive about the DEM party failings but he should keep counsel with Dana on their faults. I also "knew" WMD was baloney and feel that Clinton sold out on NAFTA, China-WTO and BJs-on-the-job....
But I am a DEM because until we have a runoff system where more that two parties can compete without chaos, there is no other way to keep the GOPer fed oligarchy "down".
I was an independent until Clinton ran and won (with the help of a third party to be sure). I don't regret voting for Clinton either.
"get off your high horse and run for something"
I would run for something Jason but I like my Newark rep., and I am working for the folks who are running against the incumbents in my GA districts.
I will encourage vote for local GOP or ask DEMs to primary alternatives if it will defeat a do nothing DEM incumbent......
My contribution this election cycle will be the decleansweep website and that is a bi-partisan effort to rid the GA of the DIP. HIGH TIME for the change in power away from our entrenched electeds who favor special interest and DO NOT VOTE for their constituent's best interests.
"get off your high horse and run for something"
And Jason, when you turn 18, you should run for something, too, or else you'd have to be considered some kind of hypocrite. Right?
I'm not defending anyone - I am simply saying Protack is a moron. You are looking at a single symptom of his idiocy and attacking those who can see the whole "disease".
Two things.
1. Celia Cohen "a certified journalist'? Sure and her old employer the News Journal is a right wing rag.
Celia has always been infuriating for two reasons. First, she conceals her Democratic leanings beneath a thick veneer of scrupulous, meticulous reporting that only sounds objective. Second, she uses this same talented journalistic skill in total servitude to the BS myth that the old boy network is actually some high tradition worthy of worship.
Those who remember her 1980's 'reporting' in the N-J know how transparently hostile it was towards the GOP. They will also remember enough to know how little DE politics has changed for the better, despite Celia's roving props for the 'Delaware Way' (a damn crooked snake trail if you ask me).
Any enlightened reader can see see how much journalistic worth there is in gush pieces for the Bidens and dreamy coverage of Democrat events, versus war-zone coverage of GOP events.
2. I recall a conversation with Mike Protack about the issue of his making offers to the Republican glitterati to extract a promise against a primary. It was immediately after the convention and the allegation was only an unpublished rumor. He flatly denied it before it even went public and said he was being further manipulated.
I only know the man from politics. I don't defend him and I certainly don't support his candidacy. I only repeat what he said very adamantly at the time and in enough confidence that I believed then and still believe he was telling the truth.
This is also must be said: when one reads the entire article by Cohen, it doesn't make nearly the claims that was suggested by DT above. I hope to post on it and other related matters in a day or two.
"Jason is defensive about the DEM party failings but he should keep counsel with Dana on their faults."
I know Nancy. I can't buy a friend these days. I'm loved when I have at it at the other team but rarely visa versa.
Is consistency supposed to be a fault? When did it ever cease to be a virtue? I'm so out of touch.
"I only know the man from politics. I don't defend him and I certainly don't support his candidacy. I only repeat what he said very adamantly at the time and in enough confidence that I believed then and still believe he was telling the truth."
That accords w/ a report I recieved almost exactly and it wasn't from Protack.
The sense I got was the entire rumor was engineered simply to discredit him. And notice how it has grown over all this time. Everyone says now he tried to bargin for chairman. "Chairman"--that is the term used ad infinitum. But look at Celia's post and she says it's Vice Chairman and, itr happens, the position was open at the time.
No one has to like Protacj or his positions. But the unrelenting villification of a man who wants to run for office, to present his ideas for debate and consideration--well, it just shows how much contempt the leadership of the Repub Party in DE has for the democratic process.
Let me ask this question: how many elected offices has Ting held? How many offices has he run for before? I don't know, but I don't think he is a household name. I don't recall one.
DT,
I have a an agreement with my wife that prevents me from running for anything for the next five years. Married life is a wonderful and ongoing series of negotiations and compromises.
In the meantime - I'll be working in whatever way I can for Democrats, and trying to make the Democratic party more progressive.
"In the meantime - I'll be working in whatever way I can for Democrats, and trying to make the Democratic party more progressive."
And Jason please understand that I respect that; it's just not for me. It might be my limitation.
But I hope that the party activists in both the mainstream parties are successful in reforming their parties and making them more responsive to the people.
I have a an agreement with my wife that prevents me from running for anything for the next five years.
Now if only Protack would make the same deal with his wife...
"But I hope that the party activists in both the mainstream parties are successful in reforming their parties and making them more responsive to the people."
Right on the money Dana ! Surely Jason won't want a one party system.
Also, though G W Bush is screwing up on a national level, the democrats have screwed Delaware and our direct quality of life. A vote for a Delaware Republican is not a vote for Bush, it's a vote to turn Delaware back into a liveable state not laughable ! Do remember, the plans for 9-11 for set way before Bush took office as Clinton way palying with Monica. I ask, why should Delaware taxpayers pay for better Healthcare for Minner then they have for themselves.
"In the meantime - I'll be working in whatever way I can for Democrats, and trying to make the Democratic party more progressive."
For me I'll be working in the Republican Party to make them more responsible and help the discourage Democrats transitioning into the Republican Party. Sokola will be the first to go in turning this state around. I hope his Exxon pals will remember him. I am sure the Saudi Finace Minister they guy in the photo with Dave will have a place for him.
Remember on election Day when your pumping gas at $3.65 who's screwing who ! Remeber, when your special needs student comes home crying because he couldn't pass the DSTP Dave Sokola Trick Parents test in which Dave insist is the test the determines who'a a basic person and who is distinguished. There are distingusihed kids amoung the Special Ed Students, in their our right !
What's the difference between an R and a D ?Elephants never for get and jackasses will always be dumb asses.
$100,000.00 to promote eating chickens Why not just take a $100,000.00 worth of chickens and feed the poor! What ever happen to a chicken in every pot ! Looks like somebody is smoking the pot on this on !
Maybe the Delaware Conservative Bloggers Alliance doesn't like Protack because he advocates things like universal health care - which don't follow their Conservative opinions?
Rick -- Please, PLEASE!! Logic and common sense are not allowed here. You might tear a hole in the universe.
"Rick -- Please, PLEASE!! Logic and common sense are not allowed here. You might tear a hole in the universe."
Yes, we shouldn't expect logic or conservatism on this matter from those who support Romeny's universal health care plan, should we DT?
Hey, have you made up your mind yet? Did Protack offer to drop out in 2004 to be chairman (your claim)or VICE chairman of the party in 2004 per Celia C (whom you cite)? Or is there already some new "official" version of the tale you are peddling today?
"Maybe the Delaware Conservative Bloggers Alliance doesn't like Protack because he advocates things like universal health care - which don't follow their Conservative opinions?"
That would be swell, Rick, if their principal complaint was about issues and his positions. But it isn't. It's that the man has temerity to run for office at all! How dare him take that word democracy seriously!
And it just so happens that in this regard--oh, miracle of coincidences!--the Con Bloggers Alliance join in the party's leadership position that Protack should run not for office w/o their holy imprimatur.
Dana, it boggles the mind as to why you tare defending Protack. In any case, I do not think that Protack should run as a Republican, mostly because he is not a great candidate, and does not represent the ideals of the party in his positions. The goal of a political party is to elect candidates it agrees with. It just so happens that in 2006, they are more open about who they let in then they have been in the past.
"Dana, it boggles the mind as to why you tare defending Protack...."
You DE Con Alliance fellas ought to do 2 things. The first one you oght to do out of commona courtesy:
1. Actually read and/or remember what I say. If not the first, then at least the second so I don't have to keep repeating myself. That gets wearisome. The 2nd point is yet another repitition:
2. This point for me is not defending the platform of Protack or anyone. You know my political perspective. Do you really think I would vote for Protack? I probably won't vote for anyone in that race--maybe just write in "none of the above."
I'm after a bigger issue here. The issue for me is that PROTACK is a citizen and member of **your** party; and a party that espouses a love for democracy, even if they are lying about it, ought to at least fake it. But the DE Repub leadership treat Protack like shit. They don't make much of an effort to even fake a love for democracy w/i the party. How could they fake it? Here are some ideas:
a) You don't trash a guy who wants to run for office on the grounds that he doesn't deserve to run. Bzzzzzzzz. Wrong answer for a democracy. In a democracy PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT to run. They don't need to deserve what they have right to naturally.
b) Political parties that are truly committed to democracy strive to provide their party membership with as many candidates as possible, including candidates for primary races. The reason is trippingly obvious. Options increase democracy whereas races without primaries tend to produce candidates anointed by the party’s leadership which reflect their purposes. Without options you end up w/ a party oligarchy, not a democracy. There's a big difference between the two.
Besides, it's great PR when a party runs many candidates. It makes the party look quite active, as if a great deal of serious activity is going on within the party, that the party really believes in democracy. That makes people notice. That makes people say, "Maybe, I can get some of my ideas out in that party and have them discussed." Or, for some, they'll just want to be around and part of it all when the ideas are discussed. People want to join and people want to vote for such parties.
This stuff is really a no-brainer. You already know what I said above is true. Maybe it will only take people like you--party members & activists to start--to act as if what the say believe is truly worthwhile. What does anyone have to lose? And if there is something to lose is it really more important than acting democratically?
1. Actually read and/or remember what I say. If not the first, then at least the second so I don't have to keep repeating myself. That gets wearisome.
Hey, have you made up your mind yet? Did Protack offer to drop out in 2004 to be chairman (your claim)or VICE chairman of the party in 2004 per Celia C (whom you cite)?
WHAT CELIA SAID: "Protack thought about running for the U.S. Senate in 2002 but gave way to Raymond J. Clatworthy, who failed to stop Democrat Joseph R. Biden Jr. from winning a sixth term. Protack switched his interest to governor, although he offered to give it up a year ago if the party would make him THE STATE CHAIRMAN. The Republicans did not bite."
You sound quite foolish by not following your own advice.
a) You don't trash a guy who wants to run for office on the grounds that he doesn't deserve to run. Bzzzzzzzz. Wrong answer for a democracy. In a democracy PEOPLE HAVE THE RIGHT to run. They don't need to deserve what they have right to naturally.
He has a right to run. He does not, however, have a right to any support. He has run before, failed to generate any measurable level of support, and lost miserably. He has proven himself to be a bad candidate, and has insulted active Republicans and their processes. Putting your name on the ballot does not make you deserving of anything.
Protack has shown an inability to gain support, a lack of ideas that are agreeable to most, and a propensity for self-interest over anything else. Why would anyone support him? Plus, this is the third time he's entered a statewide race.
Primaries may be good for the panacea of democracy that sits abstractly in your mind, but Republicans who have to go through a primary eventually lose the general election. As a Republican, I want to see Republicans win at the ballot box. Protack has shown he can't do that.
"Primaries may be good for the panacea of democracy that sits abstractly in your mind, but Republicans who have to go through a primary eventually lose the general election. As a Republican, I want to see Republicans win at the ballot box. Protack has shown he can't do that."
What a hoot. Repubs in DE are losing stewide offices because of Protack, is that it? Because of primary races--that's the problem?
I now understand the benefit Protack serves your party and why you should be grateful to him. Without him you wouldn't have a scapegoat. You would have to actually look at yourselves--esp. your leadership--as the source of your problems.
1. Actually read and/or remember what I say. If not the first, then at least the second so I don't have to keep repeating myself. That gets wearisome.
That is your quote.
I never said Protack is why we are losing. I said priamries hurt the winning candidate's chances of winning in the general. What I said was Protack has proven he can not garner measurable support. So the party faithful choose to ignore him. That's their choice, and rightly so.
Delathought wrote : "He has run before, failed to generate any measurable level of support, and lost miserably."
Unfortunately this sounds more like the general election track record of the Republican Party over the last decade or more.
Why exactly does Delathought hold Protack to this 'failure' standard within the Republican Party while never doing the same for those who have seized the party's operations? Delathought has no credibility until she holds the GOP's top operators accountable for their spectacularly miserable failures in the ONLY contest that matters - the general election.
For Delathought to defend the Republican Party's treatment of Protack is to gulp down the judgment of far greater failures than Protack has ever proved himself. While they have painted and strung up Protack as a 'failure', election results have done the same for them and all of usin the GOP...year after year after year after year....
My beloved GOP will continue to collapse towards oblivion because we let types like Slick Terry Strine subvert our process for choosing candidates. These country club operators want only to clear the path for rich, connected insiders. In doing this for so long unchallenged they have destroyed our party's grass roots and electoral viability.
The strong-arm tactics by these self-interested operatives on the Executive board will continue to backfire in failure. These dilletantes will continue to ride in careless comfort out out to their chateaus in PA leaving us worse off with every election. When they finally rotate in their next lackluster water boy we are again left with only ashes and an even more burned out party than they atsrted with.
These people running our Delaware GOP and running it into the ground should leave their pathetically transparent machincations at the country club and let the party's grass roots run the process. I have seen enough to know that these GOP power mongers who force their will on the rest of us couldn't elect their way out of a wet paper bag. That is just plain reality.
Dana is 100% right. This is not about Protack. It is about my party's being controlled and manipulated by total failures who are never held accountable. It is about OUR being told that OUR party is in fact THEIRS and we should just be good tools rather than annoyances to their doomed schemes (like Protack).
Yet because of people like Delathought they remain in action today - taking us to another year of bloody election losses.
They are nothing but sell-outs and Delathought truly shows herself to be nothing better than a convenient shill for them.
Yea! Hooray! Three times in three days!
I can't stand the DE GOP leadership. They are god-awful. I am not defending them. The only thing I can say for Terry Strine is that he took the job when no one else did.
It's not just the DE GOP leadership that ignores Protack. It's the Delaware Republicans, period. They have seen him enter the race against Clatworthy, fail to generate support, and drop out. They saw him run a full race against Bill Lee, fail to garner any support and lose. And now he's at it again. I can't blame people for not wanting to support him.
We'll see in November whether Protack can garner any support against the weakest candidate he has faced to date. Until then it's all just my opinion and yours.
But I agree wholeheartedly with everything you have to say about the Delaware GOP leadership.
This is the last I'm going to say on this matter. If you want to know how I feel, scroll up.
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