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Selective hysteria

By Owen Paine on Saturday October 14, 2006 12:10 PM

Over at Counterpunch, a nice expose of Col Rahmbo's war mule flog job. Note the fund starving of an "out now" locked in a close race:
[In] CA's 11th CD Dem primary... Emanuel poured in money, much of it apparently coming from his own district in Illinois, to bankroll Steve Filson, essentially a political unknown, who opposed immediate withdrawal from Iraq. But in this primary battle the grass roots prevailed and the strongly antiwar candidate, Jerry McNirney, who supports the Murtha bill for immediate withdrawal, defeated Emanuel's minion, Filson.

It is noteworthy that McNirney, strongly antiwar, won, whereas Cegelis, weakly antiwar, lost.

Now in the general election McNirney is pulling ahead of his pro-war Republican opponent by 48 to 46% in the most recent poll even though his opponent has outspent him by $1.6 million to $303,000! MicNirney has raised a total of only $452,000 to his opponent's $2.5 million.

Some cash from Rahm would ensure McNirney's victory it would appear, but it is not forthcoming. It seems that Rahm Emanuel is stanching the influx of money in this very competitive race"

So... winning those seats is important, sure, but there are higher imperatives as well.

Comments (3)

bobw:

Of course, you could say this is about political calculation -- the fear that an anti-war position will lose in the election. But that doesnt make sense. There are clearly parts of the country (like parts of California) where an anti-war position is more than respectable. If the Dems only wanted to win back the House, they would be pragmatic and go with the best local candidate.

BTW, being part of a "war party" doesnt necessarily mean you want neverending war, in the Bush style. It means you believe in military power as part of USglobal dominance, and you like the contributions that come from that sector of the economy.

Sure, Emperor Rhamses hates the Murtha Airwar Plan almost as much as he hates real antiwar propositions. But mostly he needs his crack Band of Brothers team of democrat veterans to win in their districts so he can take credit for "taking back the House." If indigenous democrats win, he'll have a harder time stealing the credit.

Either way, of course, we'll still be bombing the shit out of civilian Iraqis. But hey! This is American Politics, right? Fuck innocent human life!

js paine:

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all the humane humanity
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