PAUL HACKETT'S CAREER DESTROYED BY RUTHLESS DEMOCRATIC PARTY BOSSES

I had no ACT BLUE page up for either Paul Hackett or Sherrod Brown. I think either man would have made an excellent U.S. Senator, better than most. Brown is tried and true. Hackett is brash and unpredictably refreshing. I sent Hackett a contribution when he ran against Schmidt last summer and I would have done the same for whomever the Democratic primary voters chose to represent them against Mike DeWine. But we'll never know who the voters would have chosen because the Inside the Beltway party bosses, as is their wont, have driven Hackett out of the race AS THEY ARE DOING TO GRASSROOTS CANDIDATES AND PROGRESSIVES ALL OVER AMERICA.

Back in July, one of my first stories on Hackett was called "Straight Talkin' Guy." He had made a great impression on me. Let me quote myself:

What about the Far Right's most divisive hot-button issue, the one they have been using most successfully to frighten working people into voting for them (and thereby for their policies that are so damaging to the vast majority of people who don't make millions of dollars a year)-- the "gay issue." With a viciously homophobic opponent who eagerly voted against gays' rights in the Ohio legislature, Hackett took this issue on in his typically forthright way. "Gay marriage -- who the hell cares?"
Hackett is married and has 3 kids and unlike half the GOP officials in Washington, isn't worried about hiding a secret life. He says he doesn't feel the need to defend his marriage through the national Defense of Marriage Act, or any other anti-gay marriage legislation. "If you're gay you're gay -- more power to you," he said. "What you want is to be treated fairly by the law and any American who doesn't think that should be the case is, frankly, un-American." More Democrats talking good common sense like this and we wouldn't be on the verge of a fascism in this country.

This would have probably been an incredible U.S. Senator, someone very different from the Inside the Beltway swine-- regardless of party-- who speak a language of their own and only to each other. But, as I'm sure you know by now, Hackett told the Democrats to screw themselves after they went behind his back to funders and pressured them to stop the money flow to his campaign. He pulled out of the race Reid and Schumer lured him into after Reid, Schumer and the hideous monstrosity of the Democratic Party (our very own version of Tom DeLay), Rahm Emanuel stabbed him in the back and pressured him out. This is what a straight talkin' guy can expect when he gets into the water with these barracudas and man-eaters. The Democratic Party really is predominantly just one thing now: a vehicle for the careers of its elected officials and their employees. I had hoped when actual grassroots Democrats got Howard Dean the DNC Chair he would be able to make a difference. But no one can make any difference with this nest of filthy poisonous vipers. They literally have one thing, and one thing only, going for them: the Republican Party is far worse.


8 AM UPDATE: A CLASSY GOODBYE

I like Hackett's clear, straight talkin' explanation of why he's bowing out of politics. We lost a good man. Sherrod Brown will be a good Senator from Ohio though. Howard Dean also has a classy and sincere letter about this on the DNC blog, which can be commented on by readers.


WEEKEND HACKETT UPDATE

MOTHER JONES has an inside look at how the Beltway Insiders forced Hackett out of the Ohio Democratic primary here.