Dennis Perrin:
> Ed Schultz, the lib Limbaugh (in style if not in
> numbers), wailed on his show today that Hackett
> was "swiftboated" by Dems who charged him with war
> crimes in Iraq. Is this true?
-I don't know if it's true or not, but I have my doubts.
And I sure haven't seen much evidence and I've been pretty inundated with pro-Hackett and pro-Brown emails from the various camps as they've fought for blogger loyalty.
As John says, Brown is one of the most progressive members of Congress, a Bernie Sanders ally on a lot of issues -- I have that from folks who have worked in Sanders' office -- and someone who was a key person in helping Hackett's run for the Congressional seat last year.
The problem for Hackett is that a bunch of other folks -- Brown, the Blogs, DFA etc. -- all raised the funds needed for Hackett's campaign last year. Now, Hackett decides to run for Senate and he has to raise his own money and it's not happening. So he blames everyone else for the fact that he can't raise money to run a more rightwing campaign than Brown, who he has repeatedly attacked as too liberal.
As Kos has noted, other folks with few resources, from Wellstone to Obama, have preservered against the "Democratic establishment" and won their races. Hackett is really being a sour grapes kind of guy. I was somewhat undecided on the whole Hackett phenomena early on, but after his petulant exit from the race, I'm glad he's gone.
Nathan Newman