Once again, in the U.S. of A. we live in, in this social and political climate, when it's Us vs. Them there's no such thing as a level playing field

I was just reading Howie's update on some of the Blue America candidates we've been reading about here on DWT. It's all sounding good, and we all want to do whatever we can to keep those good folks' momentum going, and even accelerate it.

One point keeps rattling around in my head. I don't know what it means. I'm just throwing it out.

When Howie spoke to Maryland insurgent Donna Edwards, who's giving Bush-rubber-stamp fake-Dem Congressman Al Wynn the fight of his political life, she was in distress over injuries inflicted on one of her campaign workers by an opposition hooligan who is said in fact to be a Wynn congressional aide.

I feel bad for the victim, and I have no wish to exploit her suffering. No, that's not right, I have every wish to exploit her suffering. Dammit, she was assaulted by a hired goon of her opponent.

If such a thing had happened to a volunteer for an establishment-stooge candidate--certainly a Republican, but probably even a stooge Dem--don't you know that by now that it would be covered as one of the great crises of the American republic?

There would be squadrons of reporters outside the victim's hospital room or home, wherever she is, and stalking both campaign HQs, and badgering local law-enforcement officials to find out about plans for prosecution of the evildoer.

The thing would play all over the local media and find its way onto the cable news extravaganzas, and outraged "values" pols would be piling on, demanding apologies and retractions and firings and goodness-only-knows-what. Under the pressure of the public outcry against those left-wing hooligans, the insurgent candidate's whole candidacy would be hanging by a thread.

Why exactly such a case would be handled so differently, I'm not exactly sure. All I can speculate is that AT EVERY STAGE OF THE PROCESS, the attitude would be altogether different. One thing I know is that the camp of the victim would be screaming bloody murder, and they would be screaming NONSTOP, and they would be touching all the bases--police, prosecutors, TV networks, etc.

Am I saying that I think the Edwards campaign staff should be doing something different? Not exactly. Of course, if this was a campaign tied into Karl Rove's political apparatus, they certainly wouldn't be on their own. From the highest levels, the local campaign people would be getting step-by-step instructions, with personnel provided to do it--and probably a lot of the groundwork-laying phone calls, the calls to law-enforcement and media people, would already have been made by people who are used to doing these things.

Of course, everybody who found themselves in the crosshairs of this barrage--police, prosecutors, press, opposition pols, print and TV reporters and editors--would have responded differently too, either out of sympathy or out of fear of the consequences of not responding.

It would just be different is all I'm saying.


ACTION UPDATE: KEN WANTS TO EXPLOIT? SO DO I! BUT WE BOTH FORGET TO MENTION HOW

Actually the 57 year old victim of Wynn's stooge was a man, not a woman. That notwithstanding, everything important Ken said about the incident is true and should be taken under serious consideration. Neither of us mentioned that the Blue America ACT BLUE Page happens to be open now (and, in fact, is open-- at the above link-- 24/7). If you like Ned Lamont, you will love Donna Edwards.