I know. What do you care what happens in Georgia? Well, you should if only because you ought to know just who Barack Obama is trying to sabotage politically in order to pay off a campaign debt.
Regina Thomas is the woman running against DINO John Barrow in the Georgia 12th. Barrow is a nightmare. A Blue Dog hack who votes with the GOP over 90% of the time, he is a modern conservative Republican in everything but name (thus, "DINO" - Democrat In Name Only). He's also opportunistic, an ambitious hack who was clever enough to parlay a switched vote into political capital with BO while taking no real risk that the switch would bounce back and bite him.
What happened was simple politics. Barrow endorsed Hillary Clinton when she was the favorite (that's what Barrow does, he always sides with the power) but when Obama won the Georgia primary Barrow, a superdelegate, switched over to Obama. Now, he wasn't taking much of a chance. The way the numbers were by then, Hillary would have needed a miracle and some mighty fancy footwork at the convention to prevail but that didn't prevent Barrow from making the most of his opportunistic endorsement. His (very minor) gamble paid off and Obama traded Barrow's endorsement of him for BO's endorsement of Barrow in the race for the 12th seat that was beginning to tip heavily to Thomas.
That endorsement - in a primary against another Democrat, a black woman and a liberal who condemned FISA early on - of a conservative DLC BD who got $15K from the telcoms days after he announced his support of the FISA abomination started a small storm of protest that has grown into a national imbroglio. Behind and beside it stands the woman everybody has forgotten - Savannah's Regina Thomas.
REGINA THOMAS has served citizens of Chatham County for the last 12 years, first in the Georgia House of Representatives and then in the state Senate.
Known for her trademark assortment of impressively bright hats, she’s also known as an effective legislator who mixes idealism with a practical ability to get deals done.
Now she’s going after a higher seat, one already occupied by a fellow Democrat: Congressman John Barrow of the 12th Congressional District.
Well-funded and battle-tested, Barrow would seem invincible. But the combination of his conservative voting record and the heavily African American nature of his district means Thomas has better than a fighting chance against him this Tuesday.
The party’s presidential nominee, Barack Obama, recently made news by openly entering the primary on Barrow’s side — a move which shocked some observers, not only because Obama is African American, as is Thomas, but because Obama’s rhetoric seems so at odds with Barrow’s record.
This is an interesting if short interview with her, and I'll just excerpt a relevant section.
Why in the world did you decide to take on John Barrow?
Regina Thomas: Several things. First, it didn’t matter who was in the seat, this is the year that I set aside to run. Fate would have it that John’s record is horrible.
His representation is lacking and he hasn’t been accessible to the district, I don’t know what he’s doing, where he’s going, or who he’s talking with, but it’s certainly not with the people, and he’s certainly not coming back with information and letting us know what’s going on in Washington. He has done a couple of conference calls that I’ve been involved in, but it was only to defend these bad votes that he’s been making.
After I got into it, I started receiving all these phone calls, people saying, “Thank you for running, he’s horrible, he’s this, he’s that.” Prior to that, I was so busy doing what I was doing in Atlanta, and then I went to research his record and I said, “My goodness, this really is the right time.”
Were you surprised when Barack Obama jumped into this thing on Barrow’s side?
Regina Thomas: Absolutely not! In politics it’s quid pro quo. You scratch my back, I scratch yours. And that’s exactly what it is.
So what’s the quid pro quo here?
Regina Thomas: Barrow is a superdelegate. Obama and Hillary both were going after superdelegate votes. As you recall Barrow didn’t give Obama his support until after Obama won the primary here in Georgia. I tell you what, he showed a lot of backbone when he did that!
When Barrow gave Obama his superdelegate vote then he was like, OK, I’m going to need you to endorse me. But if you listen to Obama’s ad on the radio, he doesn’t know Barrow’s voting record. He’s saying that he stands up against lobbyists and Bush and the Republicans. But he hasn’t!
No, he sure hasn't, but the idea that BO doesn't know that is pure wishful thinking. He knows, he just doesn't give a shit. I'm in Savannah at the moment and last week Obama's endorsement of Barrow tipped the balance the other way, toward the establish DINO. But just this week, an outside group dedicated to fighting the Blue Dogs - Blue America - started running anti-Barrow/pro-Thomas ads and the response has been stronger than expected. Then, Obama's endorsement looked like the last word. This week, Blue America's entrance into the field is shifting the balance again, hopefully back where it belongs. To an actual Democrat.
If you want to help Blue America fight off the DINO invasion, you can donate through their website. If you can, I urge you to do so. If we don't stop the DLC/BD Alliance - and helping them lose is the only way to do that - we will never again have an opposition party in the US. They will both remain what they are today - conservative servants of Corporate America.
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