Draft DeFazio: what is Smith's shtick?

Over at the Draft DeFazio blog, Carla's got a great summary of what - exactly - is so damn wrong with Senator Gordon Smith.

Part of what makes us so interested in seeing Peter advance to the Senate is not just the idea of replacing Gordon Smith, but the way he'd replace him--and by that I mean the substitution of the real for the illusory, engagement for disconnection and disaffection, civil service for personal enhancement, integrity for projection, and bridging versus dividing. ...

Smith's schtick is to appear the calming moderate. There is a tradition in Oregon politics of genteel disagreement and a shared sense of state pride that trumps the usual partisan difference. Like national politics since 2000, to a great extent lately the well has been poisoned even here. I'm sure appearing as a moderate plays well in most any state, but in Oregon I think it holds a different cache'.

But we can also smell someone who's faking it, and that's why you see both political poles turned off by Smith's awkward dive for the center. By trying to pose as the pleaser of an imaginary middle, there's no real majority of the electorate that he's actually serving. But Lord, how he tries. At the trying part, the looking-like-he's-moderate stage show, he's a master.

Read the rest. Discuss over there.

And while you're at it, make a small $5 donation to the Draft DeFazio fund.

Via the magic of ActBlue, the money will go directly to DeFazio's campaign account (which is definitely transferable to a Senate race) - and it'll be flagged as part of the "Draft DeFazio" movement, so he'll hear the message you're sending.

April 06, 2007 Posted in elsewhere.