Voting Booth Surprise

One surprise I had when I entered the polling booth today: seven candidates for Hinds County Democratic Party Executive Committee were running unopposed for the seven positions on that board. You may recall that these were the folks who tried to oust Frank Melton from the primary as a "nonresident" of Jackson. It's a pity there wasn't an open election for those positions.

Specter Defection Refects Seismic Shift in US Politics

AP, CNN and the Washington Post are all reporting the head-spinning news that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party.

Conservatives, of course, will note that the pro-choice Specter has voted for years with the Democrats on social issues. I would agree.

But what strikes me as most important about this news is what it portends for the 2010 elections and the future of American politics. Quite obviously, Senator Specter does not want to run for re-election in the swing state of Pennsylvania as a Republican -- even though in an off-year election, the President's party usually loses Congressional seats.

In 1968, the election of Richard Nixon started a forty-year era of Republican dominance in American politics. Could it be that the 2008 election of Barack Obama has done the same for the Democrats?

"The Change We Need" IS Coming At Last!

With complete control over the Legislative and Executive branches of the Federal Government, the Democratic Party might be expected to shed their commitment to "a new kind of politics" and go back to old-fashioned log-rolling and back-scratching. But apparently the Democrats have gotten Barack Obama's religion of reform. The Associated Press reports:

Senate Democrats said Tuesday they would refuse to seat the man Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has picked to succeed President-elect Barack Obama, saying that the taint of scandal would follow the new senator to Washington.

“Anyone appointed by Gov. Blagojevich cannot be an effective representative of the people of Illinois and, as we have said, will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his deputy, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in a statement.

Senate leaders . . . were wary of being seen as denying a black man a seat in a chamber where there are no blacks, according to two officials knowledgeable about the talks who requested anonymity in order to speak freely. That sensitivity is why the statement includes a section explicitly saying that any “shadow” of impropriety or the Democrats’ refusal to seat Burris was a reflection on Blagojevich, not Burris.

This is very good news indeed. Not party affiliation, not partisan advantage, not racial or ethnic identity, will prevent the Democrats from holding firm to their principles. We can advance the interests of all of the underprivileged, including the victims of prejudice, without bowing down to cronyism. Bravo, Democrats!