Democratic Party? Fuck you bastards. You went too far. (Paul Hackett)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/politics/14ohio.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1139892186-g1RaM6sADXy/WCEyfdzKOw

Popular Ohio Democrat Drops Out of Race, and Perhaps Politics
Published: February 14, 2006

Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong Congressional run last year in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained national prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in the Congressional race that led party leaders to recruit him for the Senate race.

But for the last two weeks, he said, state and national Democratic Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate campaign and again run for Congress.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.
<snip>

This has broken a straw with me.

They are so eager to appease polls and centrists that they give up any semblance of party loyalty and integrity.

I am sick.

(Thanks to Tiggeroshii who first posted this in LBN)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2107019 for the thread