Party Embarrasses True South Dakota Democrats

A few days ago, a Madville Times reader asked me, "[A]re you sure you aren’t a populist republican at heart???" I replied that I actually was a Republican for a long time, until I realized the Republicans themselves weren't acting like the Republicans their propaganda said they should be.

So I am a Dem, but in some ways, they aren't making me terribly proud, either. The estimable Mr. Epp at SD Watch points out that it's the Dems this year, at the national and local level, who are engaging in cynical fear-mongering and "the politics of personal destruction." At the national level, he's referring to the Hillary Clinton campaign, with its belittling of Barack Obama's talent to inspire and call for change, as well as the cynical "3 a.m." ad that tries to scare voters into voting for one Senator with no more experience as an exectuive officer or an elected official than her opponent. At the local level, Mr. Epp cites the "frat boy crap" coming from the Tim Johnson camp and from our own beloved state Democratic Party.

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Epp and offer what little apology I may be authorized to offer on behalf of my party. I've already commented on the pointlessness of the kerfuffle over Kirby. Sure, he's a rich guy, and if he runs, I'll point that out in the context of his political positions if those positions truly point toward plutocratic leanings on his part and if they don't stack up against Senator Johnson's record. But the stuff we're hearing now is purely personal, an effort to negatively brand a citizen before he gets into the race.

Just as embarrassing are the tactics and comments coming from Lowell Feld, the out-of-state consultant our party pays to blog for it, and our party executive director* himself, Rick Hauffe. Feld whines when that Sioux Falls paper corrects a headline for accuracy. That Sioux Falls paper initially headlined Senator Thune's and Representative Herseth Sandlin's relatively low "power rankings" (77th for Thune, 287th for Herseth Sandlin) ignoring the fact that Senator Johnson's ranking was even lower (90th). Granted, he was out much of the year recovering from his illness, but the raw political fact is that for a year Senator Johnson had less pull than 89 other Senators, and that's as headline-worthy as Thune's and Herseth Sandlin's rankings. (Check out Feld's laughable argument that the glass is one-tenth full, not nine-tenths empty.)

Offering even more support to the thesis that our state party is being run with a frat-boy mentality is the state party's defense of the apparent stalking of Kirby at his home. Last week, Feld posted a comment about Kirby getting his dogs groomed and opined, "can you imagine a rich guy who employs a dog groomer actually connecting with South Dakota voters?" (By the way, if you want to play personal politics, this line suggests a hint of disdain from Feld not just for Kirby but for South Dakotans, who apparently he can't imagine wanting to make their dogs look nice. Hmmm....)

Asked about that crack, Feld said this (hat tip to Mr. Powers at Dakota War College for highlighting these lines):

The site, BadlandsBlue.com, is run by Virginia-based blogger Lowell Feld, who helped Democrat Jim Webb win a Senate seat in 2006. In an e-mail, Feld said he has sources in South Dakota.

“I’m not going to reveal those,” he said, “but let’s just say that there are people in Sioux Falls who might have noticed the dog grooming service truck in Kirby’s driveway” [Jonathan Ellis, "Kirby Web Sites Fuel More Senate Speculation," that Sioux Falls paper, 2008.03.05]

I can hear the frat-boy chuckling all the way from Feld's home in Virginia.

Unfortuantely, the chuckling is coming from our own people as well. PP highlights our state party executive director's take in that Sioux Falls paper:

Rick Hauffe, the party’s executive director, said BadlandsBlue has “fun” posts from Feld, who also works for other state Democratic parties. [Ellis]*

So stalking Kirby is an instance of young, inexperienced political operatives crossing the line, but Feld's posts based on that line-crossing are "fun"?

I think it's time for the adults -- the South Dakota adults -- to take charge again. Mr. Hauffe is scheduled to attend our District 8 Dems meeting Friday evening at 6 p.m. He'll be talking, among other things, about fundraising. Fellow Dems, maybe you should stop by and ask Mr. Hauffe just how much of your money will be spent on further shenanigans and out-of-state consultants and how much will be spent locally on honest politics.

"Honest politics" -- no, that doesn't have to be an oxymoron. Maybe Clinton, Johnson's people, Feld, and Hauffe don't buy that, but they should. We need politics we can be proud of, not politics as usual.

*Update 2008.03.06 17:45: Rick Hauffe himself tunes in to let me know I screwed up! I first mislabeled him in the first reference as our party chair. Oops -- that's Jack Billion. I have corrected the reference to list Mr. Hauffe as executive director. I also screwed up by attributing to Hauffe a comment from Republican strategist Tom Mason. The SDWC article cut and pasted out some in-between material; I didn't closely check the original Argus article, and I missed the proper attribution. My apologies to Mr. Hauffe (and I'll extend them in person in ten minutes at the District 8 Dems meeting!).

Here is the Argus quote on which I offended:

He said young, inexperienced political operatives have been known to cross the line, however. The line would have been crossed if somebody were staking out an opponent’s house.

The "He" in that sentence is Tom Mason, not Rick Hauffe as I originally portrayed it.