Perhaps the timing of this diary is irregular considering we want to see as many Democrats as possible elected next week, but my own selection is connected to the current state of the electoral battleground in a sense. There are a number of strong contenders particularly in the House, and perhaps Tim Mahoney is currently the most obvious choice, at least for his brief remaining tenure in the House. Those with the stench of corruption encircling them, such as William Jefferson or even John Murtha, would also be worthy selections. Jim Marshall seems to be against the Dems on virtually ever major issue so I’m sure he’d get some votes. But after the final clincher this spring, I offer the dubious honor to Dan Boren of Oklahoma….
Boren has always essentially been Lieberman on steroids in terms of bad-mouthing the Democratic Party, making several cringeworthy quotes about his party’s “out-of-touch leadership” going way back to his first election in 2004. And of course he votes against us on essentially every major issue. But I was most disgusted with him last spring after the primaries ended when Boren publicly declared he would not cast his superdelegate for Barack Obama, twisting the knife in the chest of an already divided party and making a destructive spectacle out of a vote that would have been uncontroversial.
One could almost understand if Jim Marshall had done this because Marshall is in a hotly contested district. But Boren would not have lost his Congressional seat by keeping his mouth shut and casting his superdelegate for his party’s nominee….or even casting the superdelegate for Hillary in silence. Instead, Boren stuck it to Obama and gave comfort to every Oklahoman with doubts about Obama.
I realize Boren won’t be going away and that a conservative Democrat is the only kind that can hold this seat, but I would love to see Brad Carson take this seat back. At least he didn’t go out of his way to trash his party, and when pressed by Tim Russert back in 2004 on who he planned to vote for, said without hesitancy that he planned to vote for his party’s nominee.