The new edition of
Mother Jones has a lengthy, behind-the-scenes article on Major Paul Hackett's withdrawal from the Senate race. There are some pretty ugly swiftboat allegations written therein, which I will not repeat, as they seem to be of a quite dubious nature and wholly inconsistent with both what I know of Paul Hackett in particular and the role of JAG officers in combat zones in general. These swiftboaters didn't even have the balls to publicly make accusations in their own name, so they aren't worth even considering.
The article does contain a post-withdrawal interview with Hackett, portions of which I've excerpted below the flip...
Apparently, the DSSC began to back away from Hackett in October, after Brown formally announced, even though Hackett had been encouraged to run by Sen. Schumer. Hackett recounts:
Schumer, after having wooed him in August, called again in October. "Schumer didn't tell me anything definitive," Hackett told me at the time. "But I'm not a dumb ass, and I know what he wanted me to do." Hackett, a maverick who relishes the fight, decided to buck the Beltway insiders, and stay in the race.
The writer seems to think that in addition to Sherrod's insider status, "bloggers" were also part of the perceived threat that a Hackett candidacy presented:
Hackett's scorching rhetoric earned him notoriety and cash on the campaign trail. He declared that people who opposed gay marriage were "un-American." He said the Republican party had been hijacked by religious extremists who he said "aren't a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden." Bloggers loved him, donors ponied up, while Democratic Party insiders grumbled that he wasn't "senatorial."
Confirmation of attempts to turn off contributions is also reported:
veteran political activist David Mixner, who described himself as "a fanatically strong supporter" of Hackett and who helped sponsor a New York fundraiser, confirmed that he "received calls from a couple people in Congress urging Paul Hackett to withdraw or not to contribute money to his campaign. The reasons ranged from he can't win, to he's too controversial, Brown has more money, is more centrist, and more appealing. It was that inner beltway circle crap," said Mixner. "They are people who have no idea what's going on in the country but believe they know everything."
Mixner added, "I don't think it's inappropriate to call me. What's inappropriate is that the people calling me were the same people who asked him to run, and now they wanted to push him out. That's what made this unique."
Never one to mince words, Hackett was infuriated:
"I felt like I got fucked by the Democratic Party because they enticed me in and then they pulled the rug out from beneath me. It sounds eerily familiar to sending in the military to Iraq, which was a misuse of the military, and then not giving them what they need to fight."
Hackett does have constructive advice for the future of the party and others who may want to run:
Hackett, who says he would still like to help "retool" the Democratic Party, ends his meteoric political career with some advice for other maverick candidates. "They simply can't rely on any of the party infrastructure to help them, and they must assume that people at high levels will work against them. These guys," he says of the party insiders, "view the Senate as a club. They're not gonna welcome you if one day they turn the key on the clubhouse door and you are sitting there with your feet on the table flippin' them the middle finger. I understand that from their perspective. It works for them, but not for the rest of us out here."
From all that I've seen, Sherrod Brown looks like he'd be a good Senator. My ire isn't directed at him, but rather, at the political bosses who want to control things. If I wanted to be kept in the dark and fed bullshit, I'd be a mushroom or a Republican. Fake, mamby-pamby primaries didn't give us the strongest fighter as a candidate for the 2004 presidential election - and it looks like the same idiots are subverting the primary process and crowning winners again.
I'll support single candidates, but no more contributions to umbrella organizations.