Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Comments by Daily Kos Blog Readers on Melissa Bean
Here are additional comments culled from the Daily Kos blog on April 11th:
-Do you know that Bean won the most Republican district in Illinois?
-Yes. And clearly she's going to lose the seat for exactly that reason.
- All 201 Democrats voted AGAINST the budget reconciliation bill at the start of February. You know what the final tally was on that one? 216-214, against us. That's as close as it gets - the bill only passed after the GOP twisted Frank LoBiondo's arm.
And in case the word "all" is confusing to you, that includes Melissa Bean. Care to revise your remarks now?
-I pay attention to who votes how in the Chicago area. I have never noticed a close vote where Bean has cast the tough vote and stayed with the Dems.
-(The spitting off unions-- UNITE HERE, SEIU, the Teamsters and the Machinists) are campaigning for someone they expect to get ten percent of the vote or less and intend to elect a Republican, just out of spite.
-There's no reason to pretend that Scheurer will have any other effect than to tilt the race to McSweeney.
-I live in Melissa Bean's district, and yesterday someone came to our door asking us to sign Scheurer's petition to get on the ballot. I didn't, for exactly the same reasons you specified. I don't agree with everything she does, but in this Republican-leaning district, I'm happy to have a Democrat so that we can take the majority in November.
-Pain is the only language that pols understand and you would reward Bean for stabbing union workers right in the face all for.....party unity?
-It isn’t a question of motivation. We don't have a strong Democratic organization in IL-08 yet. There are plenty of Dem. voters here; we're just not well organized. It's enormously expensive to run a campaign and we have to have the foundation underneath us. Recently, IL-10, Mark Kirk's(R) district, finally developed a really terrific website, events, underlying organization. Of course, they have some well-known long-time Dems in the district, like Susan Garrett. We need to do the same thing here in IL-08.
Also, Durbin was one of the early supporters of Bean in her last campaign. Unless people really read up on how Bean is voting they may assume that she is actually more liberal in her voting record due to Durbin's support.
Bean's biggest problems, in my opinion:
-I live in Bean's district and while she isn't perfect, no "perfect" democrat will EVER get elected in this district. As much as I may agree with Scheurer on some of the issues, Bean has done what's best for the citizens she represents and that is the goalof a representative democracy, not necessarily always voting in line with your party.
- I'm going to speak as a trade unionist here (though, obviously, not on behalf of all trade unionists): You (blogosphere) can be dismayed by this move, but please lay off the wails of disappointment. Bloggers have never understood the labor movement. Rather, bloggers have never understood the labor movement beyond our potential usefulness in electoral politics.
Personally, I see politics as a means to an end, not as an end. Most of us do. The Democrats are useful until they're not. We won't be satisfied with electing a party that's drifting from the positions that are important to us to a majority. We'll fight also to keep them close to the positions that are important to us.
Blogosphere, et al: We are not your ATM.
-What's the matter, the "choice is my only issue" crowd can't find its own money? "Check between the plush seats in the volvo, yuppy!"
-Too bad there's no good progressive candidate running. Maybe the party can run one against McSweeney in '08.
-Sadly, a progressive would NOT win here. Not now and maybe never. This is a very conservative district.
It was damn hard work just having people "punch democrat" for Bean when she first ran. I had door after door slammed in my face (I MADE MYSELF precinct captain because none of the Democrats thought it was worth it in my neighborhood.) It is changing a little but not a lot. At least there is a progressive pool now.
- These folks are republicans, They only voted for Bean because Crane forgot about them and screwed up royally. He was a laughing stock. Bean was just conservative enough for them to hold their nose as they voted. They want a real republican now, why would they vote for republican lite?
-If you want money for Bean, go get it from NARAL or whatever other group she represents.
- Well, here's a district we won't win back for another thirty years.
As a former resident of IL-8 (was drawn out in the last remap), I know first-hand how Bean's win in 2004 took a perfect storm of circumstances. It wasn't just ideology that won it for her...it helped big time that she was running against a dinosaur of a conservative.
Put a younger conservative in that seat and he'll hold it for thirty years. Even if population shifts make the district a little more blue, they'll just redraw the districts every ten years to protect the incumbents like they did last time.
- Bean may not vote the way I want her to vote (I am a Socialist at heart), but at least she has E-mail. A-hole Crane didn't even have that.
- I live in this district and you can whine all you want about party unity, but no one is going to force me to vote for someone who never, ever votes my interests.
It is easy for you to say to us who live in IL-8 that must suck it up for the good of the nation when it was we who turned a red district into a blue one by getting rid of Phil Crane and electing Melissa Bean. Then Bean turned around and started supporting Tom DeLay and James Sensenbrenner -- and now you want me to vote for her. Hypocrites!
I will not vote for Bean, I will never vote for Bean. If a Republican is elected then it is the fault of the Democratic Party for supporting a candidate this far to the right.
- According to Progressive Punch, which tracks all votes, Melissa Bean has a progressive score of 75.60 in a red district. Approximately 45 points higher than the most liberal republican in the congress.
-Do you know that Bean won the most Republican district in Illinois?
-Yes. And clearly she's going to lose the seat for exactly that reason.
- All 201 Democrats voted AGAINST the budget reconciliation bill at the start of February. You know what the final tally was on that one? 216-214, against us. That's as close as it gets - the bill only passed after the GOP twisted Frank LoBiondo's arm.
And in case the word "all" is confusing to you, that includes Melissa Bean. Care to revise your remarks now?
-I pay attention to who votes how in the Chicago area. I have never noticed a close vote where Bean has cast the tough vote and stayed with the Dems.
-(The spitting off unions-- UNITE HERE, SEIU, the Teamsters and the Machinists) are campaigning for someone they expect to get ten percent of the vote or less and intend to elect a Republican, just out of spite.
-There's no reason to pretend that Scheurer will have any other effect than to tilt the race to McSweeney.
-I live in Melissa Bean's district, and yesterday someone came to our door asking us to sign Scheurer's petition to get on the ballot. I didn't, for exactly the same reasons you specified. I don't agree with everything she does, but in this Republican-leaning district, I'm happy to have a Democrat so that we can take the majority in November.
-Pain is the only language that pols understand and you would reward Bean for stabbing union workers right in the face all for.....party unity?
-It isn’t a question of motivation. We don't have a strong Democratic organization in IL-08 yet. There are plenty of Dem. voters here; we're just not well organized. It's enormously expensive to run a campaign and we have to have the foundation underneath us. Recently, IL-10, Mark Kirk's(R) district, finally developed a really terrific website, events, underlying organization. Of course, they have some well-known long-time Dems in the district, like Susan Garrett. We need to do the same thing here in IL-08.
Also, Durbin was one of the early supporters of Bean in her last campaign. Unless people really read up on how Bean is voting they may assume that she is actually more liberal in her voting record due to Durbin's support.
Bean's biggest problems, in my opinion:
1)She doesn't seem to want constituent input;Her only "issue" has been identity theft. If she really felt strongly about identity theft, she would have voted against the bankruptcy bill on the basis that it didn't protect victims of identity theft. People would have understood that and probably would have said, "Wow, she's really serious about this identity theft issue." Instead, she doesn't seem to stand for much of anything.
2)She never explains/defends her votes.
-I live in Bean's district and while she isn't perfect, no "perfect" democrat will EVER get elected in this district. As much as I may agree with Scheurer on some of the issues, Bean has done what's best for the citizens she represents and that is the goalof a representative democracy, not necessarily always voting in line with your party.
- I'm going to speak as a trade unionist here (though, obviously, not on behalf of all trade unionists): You (blogosphere) can be dismayed by this move, but please lay off the wails of disappointment. Bloggers have never understood the labor movement. Rather, bloggers have never understood the labor movement beyond our potential usefulness in electoral politics.
Personally, I see politics as a means to an end, not as an end. Most of us do. The Democrats are useful until they're not. We won't be satisfied with electing a party that's drifting from the positions that are important to us to a majority. We'll fight also to keep them close to the positions that are important to us.
Blogosphere, et al: We are not your ATM.
-What's the matter, the "choice is my only issue" crowd can't find its own money? "Check between the plush seats in the volvo, yuppy!"
-Too bad there's no good progressive candidate running. Maybe the party can run one against McSweeney in '08.
-Sadly, a progressive would NOT win here. Not now and maybe never. This is a very conservative district.
It was damn hard work just having people "punch democrat" for Bean when she first ran. I had door after door slammed in my face (I MADE MYSELF precinct captain because none of the Democrats thought it was worth it in my neighborhood.) It is changing a little but not a lot. At least there is a progressive pool now.
- These folks are republicans, They only voted for Bean because Crane forgot about them and screwed up royally. He was a laughing stock. Bean was just conservative enough for them to hold their nose as they voted. They want a real republican now, why would they vote for republican lite?
-If you want money for Bean, go get it from NARAL or whatever other group she represents.
- Well, here's a district we won't win back for another thirty years.
As a former resident of IL-8 (was drawn out in the last remap), I know first-hand how Bean's win in 2004 took a perfect storm of circumstances. It wasn't just ideology that won it for her...it helped big time that she was running against a dinosaur of a conservative.
Put a younger conservative in that seat and he'll hold it for thirty years. Even if population shifts make the district a little more blue, they'll just redraw the districts every ten years to protect the incumbents like they did last time.
- Bean may not vote the way I want her to vote (I am a Socialist at heart), but at least she has E-mail. A-hole Crane didn't even have that.
- I live in this district and you can whine all you want about party unity, but no one is going to force me to vote for someone who never, ever votes my interests.
It is easy for you to say to us who live in IL-8 that must suck it up for the good of the nation when it was we who turned a red district into a blue one by getting rid of Phil Crane and electing Melissa Bean. Then Bean turned around and started supporting Tom DeLay and James Sensenbrenner -- and now you want me to vote for her. Hypocrites!
I will not vote for Bean, I will never vote for Bean. If a Republican is elected then it is the fault of the Democratic Party for supporting a candidate this far to the right.
- According to Progressive Punch, which tracks all votes, Melissa Bean has a progressive score of 75.60 in a red district. Approximately 45 points higher than the most liberal republican in the congress.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 10:04 PM
