Lets face it, first and foremost Senator Byrd is just too old and while hating to admit it, his age often shows.  Only a dishonest Democrat doesn't admit to cringing whenever he starts to talk for fear of just how far afield and off the point he'll go (besides, I was done with obscure Roman history references after college).  Byrd does vote correctly but he is very, very vulnerable.

We need to find a Democrat to run in his place so we can keep the seat (a candidate absent a history of KKK membership would be great!).  The Republicans don't even have a candidate to run against him yet.  But in a very recent poll (reported Friday) a potential Republican Candidate (Congressional Representative Shelley Moore Capito) is running neck and neck with him and she isn't even a declared candidate for the seat.

I know, I know... many of the blind on here will throw a fit that I would suggest he retire but if he doesn't I'll be thinking of this post on election night 2006 when West Virginia (which has been trending Republican for some time) elects the Republican candidate who runs against him.

West Virginia Democrats:  Please find a great Democrat to run in Byrd's place.  Senator Byrd:  Its been an interesting and sometimes great run, but it's time to step down.  If Byrd runs, he'll lose.

Here's the poll, you'll see what I mean:

http://dailymail.com/news/News/2005060329/

I know that is a bit of a generalization.  But a certain trend has clearly developed.  The left wing of our party is who pushed Dean for Chairman and they just absolutely love him.  Talk about kool-aid drinkers.  If Dean proved one thing in the primaries it is that almost unlimited money, the majority of key endorsements, grass roots organization and a hugely advantageous position in media coverage (and love, the media loved him until he started losing over and over)still couldn't get him very many votes.

So what do we do?  We take this guy who squandered the best position in the primaries despite being accompanied by the most money, the most endorsements, the best grass roots organization and the out loud love of the media and we put him in charge!  He screwed up all of that advantage in the primaries so why not see what he can do running our party!

Now that many thinking people in our party are starting to question Dean as chairman (even those of us who initially supported him) the liberals in our party are just going nuts insisting how sensible it is for Dean to only preach to the choir and use language that would never attract a swing voter or even Reagan Democrat back into the fold (is there any swing voter segment that we seek that Dean hasn't insulted by association yet?).

But my favorite is when the strongest liberals in here come on to defend Dean and claim that Dean isn't even a liberal, that in fact he's quite moderate.  Why Dean balanced budgets and was in favor of gun control and the death penalty, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah...

Well if Dean is such a moderate than why do moderates seem to hate him and liberals just love him and drool over him.  If Dean is such a moderate and the liberals still want him even if he is a moderate than why do the same liberals hate moderate Joe Lieberman and other moderate democrats so much?

I'm just wondering...

I early on started complaining on here about Dean not being able to control his silly fat mouth.  We need to win converts NOT offend the very people we hope to attract to vote with us.  Many people on here took great offense to this and seemed to love Dean's constant pandering only to hard core Dems (people who already have and will continue to vote Democratic).  Dean's red meat for the core will NOT attract new voters, in fact it might harden swing voters against us.

As I said many people on here were furious with me for saying Dean needs to control his mouth.  Yet, now every elected Dem leader who has commented on Dean did their best to be polite while also saying -- in polite terms -- that Dean needs to learn to shut up.  They are right.  I was and am right.  Dean should be working to sell our ideas and attract new voters, not just preach to the choir.  I want Dean in 2006 to be able to say, "We attracted moderate Republicans and swing voters to our party and won some elections." instead of staying on the track he is on and having to say, "Boy did the Republicans trounce us again, but BOY did I get off some good zingers that really excited the people on MyDD."

The litany of Dem leaders trying to tell Dean to control his mouth continues.  Here's more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-dean10jun10,0,6724139,print.story?coll=la-home- nation

I arrived here at my Sarasota home for the weekend and turning on the local news at noon what do I hear:  Katharine Harris has announced -- as expected -- that she is running against Senator Nelson.

As if that wasn't sickening enough the TV newsreader read about a Poll that showed her and Nelson in a dead heat (it showed her 48 Nelson 41, rest undecided)!!  DO NOT give Nelson a hard time for awhile as he moves to the center to prepare for the campaign.  We do not want Katharine Harris in the Senate do we????

Boy, this story presents a very confusing and confounding dilemma:

Teen Gets Life Sentence For Helping Girlfriend End Pregnancy
19-Year-Old Stepped On Stomach While Girl Punched Self

POSTED: 6:44 am CDT June 7, 2005

LUFKIN, Texas -- A 19-year-old East Texas man faces a life prison sentence for causing his teenage girlfriend to miscarry twins, even though she wanted to end the pregnancy.

Gerardo Flores was accused of causing the miscarriage by stepping on his girlfriend's stomach. He was prosecuted under the state's new fetal protection law.

Erica Basoria acknowledged asking Flores to help end her pregnancy. But the 17-year-old can't be prosecuted because of her legal right to abortion.

The defense contended that Basoria punched herself while Flores was stepping on her, making it impossible to tell who killed the twins.

The jury reached a verdict after deliberating four hours. Because prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty in the case, Flores received the automatic life sentence.

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved

Does the boyfriend deserve life in prison for this?  The girlfriend wanted the abortion, in fact she was protected from prosecution because of her right to an abortion.  She solicited his help.  I don't think we need to be encouraging people to be conducting their own abortions like this but doesn't this seem very unfair to the boyfriend?  Life in prison????

We need to obviously bring swing voters and moderate Republicans to our party and ideas.  Despite all that's been written I don't believe that proper or adjusted "framing" of issues or "finding new ways" to say what we believe or even "softening" or modifying our positions is the answer.  Remember, when the Republicans faced a daunting abyss after the 1964 elections (and then again after the impact of Watergate) they didn't change any of their views or even soften them (if anything they hardened their positions along with their resolve).  What they did was keep selling.  They sold and sold and sold until people started voting for them (a really good salesman such as Ronald Reagan probably didn't hurt!).

We need to talk to the swing voters and moderate Republicans and sell, sell, sell.  We need to sell to them calmly and intelligently and reasonably and very, very passionately.  That is why when people on here or in our party (sorry... like Dean sometimes does) speak harshly of the other side I bristle because I think it hurts US and reinforces Republican stereotypes of US as shrill, screaming maniacs.

Swing voters and moderate Republicans CANNOT be attracted to our side or even listen to us if we start out by telling them how ignorant they are to have voted Republican or how EVIL the people they've been voting for are (by association calling them evil).  Even talking about voter fraud and "stolen elections" and "Saudi-Bush Family" connections/conspiracies just makes us look looney to the very people we need to bring to our side (and if I here one more Democrat make fun of "those ignorant red-staters" I think I'll throw-up).

We need health care solutions NOT because Bush and the Republicans are evil, we need health care solutions because we need to help each other and do the right thing.

We need to decide what to do about Iraq (its time to stop arguing about "WMD's" and whether or not we should have invaded, we already did)because our children are dying there and we are spending BILLIONS of dollars that we either don't have or could be going elsewhere to help Americans.

We need reasonable, cautious fixes for Social Security.  Millions of elderly depend on Social Security and we can't afford -- and THEY can't afford -- for us to experiment with unproven and risky ideas.

Our position on Gay Marriage and even Abortion are really the same.  Its not that we want pregnancies terminated (in fact we think the emphasis should be put on reducing unwanted pregnancies)or want people of the same sex to marry.  Its that we are Americans and we believe in freedom.  A woman should be free to choose what to do with her own body.  And people should be free to do whatever they want as long as it doesn't hurt or infringe upon someone else's freedom.  How in the world does two men or two women marrying negatively affect anyone else?

I could go on with issues but I believe its the approach we are taking that is wrong.  We are right on the issues but have been using the wrong sales approach and often the wrong salespeople.  You can't get a Cadillac buyer to consider a Lincoln by calling them stupid and evil, you calmly convince them to consider the Cadillac.

I wrote a diary yesterday about Howard Dean and his  big mouth.  As I said, I basically like him but am liking him less and less.  His outrageous remarks further isolate us from the swing voters and moderate Republicans that we need to be the majority party again.

More and more you are hearing rumblings within the party wondering why Dean can't attract instead of attack.  Now John Edwards seems to be turning on him.  Can't Dean learn to control his mouth?

Here's the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050605/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_dean

I mostly like Howard Dean.  I've adamantly defended him here and elsewhere.  But he has to learn when to shut his silly mouth.  Sometimes he says the dumbest things.  Here's what he said yesterday at a convention in D.C.:

"You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever and get home and still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well Republicans, I guess can do that. Because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives."

Here's the link to it:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2005/06/02/extra_bonus_quote_of_the_day.html

The teenagers on here who pose as adults (boatwright, parker, etc...  You know, the angry children who offer only anger and rant, but never any logic or facts, the ones who call anyone and everyone who doesn't agree with them "trolls"... and always do so with bad spelling and poor grammar) will try to defend this latest Dean mistake.  But they'll be wrong.  You don't win by alienating, you win by selling and convincing and changing minds.  Dean constantly just offering red meat to the core, constantly singing only to the choir keeps us where we are today:  a minority party of only limited regional influence.

Remember, defend "THE SCREAM" all you want but we could spend more time on beneficial things if he had used his head and controlled his mouth and just never did "THE SCREAM" to begin with.  Now watch the news cycle the next 48 hours or so.  It'll be Dean apologizing AGAIN for saying something stupid.