Cleveland Plain Dealer runs a story on how Paul Hackett was pushed out of the Senate primary campaign by the Democratic Party elite (both state and national). Rumors of his involvement in atrocities in Iraq were spread... plus he has a difficult personality. Mother Jones says essentially the same thing. This is an ignoble end to a very brief but promising career for this Marine Major. Sharrod Brown will end up running against DeWine.
Hackett ought to sue Brown, Reid, and Schumer for defamation. Spreading false rumors of war crimes? Politics is an ugly business, but this is the lowest thing I have ever seen.
Whatever else may have been at work here, Hackett showed signs of KOS/Deaniac dementia that would not have served him well in a general election campaign.
The party establishment would normally love to run a phony "moderate" Democrat with recent military service. They have a pretty good record of fooling voters with phony moderates. But a trash-talking newcomer who so clearly reflects the true nature of the party is a liability in a closely competitive state like Ohio.
The dumping of Hackett will alienate a few simple folks who still think the Democratic party is an open forum and not a tightly run machine. But Brown will probably do a better job of fooling clueless soccer moms and Perotistas.
Hackett’s "Deaniac dementia" is nicely revealed in the first few paragraphs of the Mother Jones story cited on this post. The quotes speak for themselves. Marine major or no, he was a liability, not yet having learned the art of codespeak.
See especially the quote comparing social conservatives to Osama bin Laden.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Hackett could have won either the primary or the general. Nor would Ohio voters have taken to his insane rants. However, if Reid and his friends spread those rumors they stepped way over the line.
It is wrong to lie about anyone. But given the long catalogue of abuses and usurpations by the Democratic party leadership, this -- even if Hackett is innocent -- isn’t one I’ll lose sleep over. I’d rather stand up for someone who understands the difference between anti-abortion zealots and Osama bin Laden. The short of it is that if the party leaders indeed behaved in the awful manner described, then Mr. Hackett simply got fleas after lying down with dogs. Well, boo hoo.
The muttering among the internet-Deaniac Hackett partisans is hysterically funny. Naturally enough, the rumored photo was a Rove plot.