So, I’m sitting at a meeting tonight and we’re talking about stuff and someone is like, “It’s really a shame we don’t still have Rosalind Kurita to help us with this. She was great on children’s and family issues.”
“Yeah, but if you have her help you, you can’t ever tell any of the Democrats you did or they’ll work against you.”
“What they did to her was evil.”
And yet, when we tried to tell the Democrats that their treatment of Kurita hurt them, they all rolled their eyes.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Watching this circular firing squad that has been the power shift at TNDP and the finger pointing for the disaster of an election last fall, I have not seen anyone in Democratic leadership admit the extent to which these backroom deals and general misbehavior cost Democrats at the ballot box.
Chip Forrester blames Bredesen and the elected Democrats. The elected Democrats blame Obama. Both of these played a part, but Democrats have to admit that our state legislators have not been choirboys and girls.
For several years now there has been a constant flood of bribery, drunken driving and public drunkeness, proping up an elderly man to hold power in the Senate, and the entire Kurita fiasco. Who could blame voters for getting the impression that all Tennessee Democrats are louts, thugs, and crooks, especially when several of our candidates had their own personal issues to deal with.
Now some of our leaders seem more intent on protecting tax breaks for major campaign contributors than doing what is right. The rigmarole over the House speaker also looks like just another Democrat plot to hang onto power.
If Democrats are going to walk back from the abyss, we need to be honest and ask our elected officials to clean up their act.
What they did to her *was* evil. And it was another in a long string of Barney Fife moments for the party as of late.
Here’s what needs to happen: Call Tim Barnes on the carpet. Demand that he fill the void that was opened. And if and when he fails to deliver, make damned sure everyone understands what you had before versus what you have now.
It wasn’t just children & women’s issues – although Rosalind gave a terrific, impassioned speech against SJ 127 on the Senate floor in 2007, which was particularly relevant given her background as a nurse. She also had great ideas on a host of other subjects, including electing constitutional officers and financial reform.
Their spiking her sent a chilling message – not only on corruption. Did anyone truly fail to notice she was the highest ranking Democratic woman in the state? When women are only 15% of the legislature and we’ve only elected one woman to Congress in 75 years (no women governors, senators, and only one female TNDP chair – EVER.)
This after she got passed over for Senate leadership for a dozen years and was treated like persona non grata during the ’06 U.S. Senate race (Harry Reid came to town in late summer ’06 to fundraise for the “Dem Senate candidates.” TNDP leadership didn’t invite her, though she’d been an announced candidate for months.)
It sucks. And I for one am really tired of seeing other Democrats rationalize this appalling behavior.
TNDP leadership didn’t invite her, though she’d been an announced candidate for months
Chuck Schumer was recorded at a campaign event (in Atlanta, if memory serves) in January of 2006, flatly stating that they were not going to allow primary challenges to Harold Ford. Ford’s nomination was more important to the DSCC than democratic process, apparently, and no one outside of the blogosphere seemed to notice.