I get a lot of fundraising letters from Democratic congressional candidates. A WHOLE LOT.
And I have one basic criteria that determines whether I consider making a campaign contribution -- are they Yellow Dog Democrats or Blue Dog Democrats.
Yellow Dogs get my vote and my money. Blue Dogs don't.
Which brings us to Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who is running for re-election against a goober of a Republican by the name of Dennis Rehberg.
I got a letter from Tester today telling me I need to send him a campaign contribution because otherwise, the millionaires and billionaires who run the GOP will buy Montana's Senate seat for Rehberg.
Now, I realize that Tester is a much better choice than another Stepford Republican, despite the fact that he incurred the Wrath of Kos by voting against the Dream Act.
And it was flattering to think that my $20 or $50 contribution might have the power to save Tester from the clutches of the evil Koch Brothers (is 'evil' and 'Koch' redundant?) But as I was reading the letter, I noticed something missing.
Tester did not mention the fact that he is a Democrat until close to the end of page 2. And when he did, he said this:
"And while I'm proud to be a Democrat, I don't always vote the party line. I vote the Montana line -- whatever is good for Montana is what I'm fighting for every single day in the U.S. Senate."
Memo to the Tester campaign: I live in Alabama. I don't give a rat's ass about the "Montana line." I care whether you are a loyal Democrat who doesn't sell out his fellow Democrats and his president to the Borg Collective -- aka the GOP.
The way I see it, if Sen. Tester was really proud to be a Democrat, he would have said so up front.
What I want to see is this -- "Dear Quaoar, do you want to kick some ignorant, lying, two-faced, regressive, millionaire-loving Republican ass as much I do?"
That's a message that'll make me crack open my checkbook.