Deval Patrick, Florida Democrats, Talk Radio

ANGRY VICTORS

Why Isn't Winning Enough?






Even in victory, why are they so angry?

Two stories in the news today underscore the fun talk show hosts will have covering the Democrat Party's strange "sore winner" quirk.

First, from the Boston Globe, Governor- Elect Deval Patrick (D- Mass) is lambasting the local news media for "missing" his "hopeful dynamic" supposedly projected during the campaign.

Never mind that Patrick, a former Clinton Administration official, coasted into office despite an airheaded campaign that was woefully short on specifics. Beyond his vague "together we can" slogan, it was hard to tell what a Governor Patrick might actually do in office.


Despite that, the Boston Globe lavished praise on on the Democrat, essentially providing a free pass for his empty rhetoric. Is he pleased? No, according to the paper:

Patrick chides newspaper editors for `missing' campaign dynamic

By Glen Johnson, AP Political Writer | November 30, 2006

BOSTON --Gov.-elect Deval Patrick told a group of newspaper publishers and editors Thursday that many of them "missed" the hopeful dynamic that propelled him to victory, and he asked them to rally the public to the new government's aid.

"Put your cynicism down. Don't trivialize optimism and hope. It built this country. It built my life," Patrick told about 75 people attending the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association.

"Don't glorify the naysayers when the yeasayers have been at the center of progress since the beginning of recorded time," he added.

The remarks followed a pattern Patrick established during his 19-month campaign, which took him from political neophyte to the first Democrat elected governor in 20 years. He takes office on Jan. 4.

As he did on Labor Day when he told a group of union members they had to respect business owners, he challenged his association audience with unexpectedly pointed criticism.

The remarks were greeted by silence and most of the follow-up questions -- asked after prodding by Patrick himself -- focused on his support for a media shield law, as well as his defense of closed-door meetings with legislative leaders after pledging to run an open administration.

Sorry pal, you won the election. Quit while you're ahead!

Meanwhile, his former opponent, GOP Lt Gov Kerry Healey, has said almost nothing since her painful loss, despite being railroaded during the debates and in the Globe.

There's more to this story, however: it's clear that Patrick would like to shut down his newspaper and talk radio critics in advance of taking office. In the latter case, he's already finding some success, as Boston talk radio is now in the process of being neutered.


Our second example comes from Florida, where despite the party's takeover of Congress last month, Democrats are still fighting over a single seat they've clearly lost. From the Wall Street Journal:

Democrats whomped Republicans in last month's midterms, but oddly enough they're still calling in the legal cavalry to contest one of the few races they narrowly lost.

That would be Florida's 13th Congressional District, which runs along the Gulf Coast from just south of Tampa to just north of Fort Myers. The certified winner is Republican Vern Buchanan, who beat Democrat Christine Jennings by fewer than 400 votes out of more than 237,000 cast. Two recounts, which were demanded by Democrats and required by law, have reconfirmed Mr. Buchanan's victory and slightly increased the margin.

Unbowed, the Dems are now suggesting that defective voting machines cost them the race. They point to Sarasota County's 18,000 "undervotes," or incidences where voters cast ballots in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings contest. Ms. Jennings--along with such liberal partisans as People for the American Way and the American Civil Liberties Union--has filed a lawsuit contesting the results based on "statistical and eyewitness evidence of significant machine malfunctions" in Sarasota's iVotronic touch-screen system.

They want a court to declare Ms. Jennings the winner by--get this--using statistical models to extrapolate that she would have received most of the undervotes. Short of that, they'll settle for nullifying the November results and holding a new election. But among the many things that are strange here is that if anyone ought to be complaining about undervotes, it's the GOP.

Sarasota is the largest and most Republican county in the district, yet the Democrat, Ms. Jennings, carried it handily. In fact, it's the only county in the district that she did carry, which makes it more likely that it was Republicans who declined to vote in the Congressional race, not Democrats.

Sure looks like a party in need of anger management therapy.

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Photos: Boston Herald, Donkey Censorship graphic: Pete at IHillary

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