Bless his heart . . . at least someone on the left has acknowledged the flyer. As far as recognition of the truth of the matter, it was weak. However, with the context that no one else has said anything substantive about it in the liberal blogosphere or in the main stream press, it was pretty gutsy.
Bardwell almost gets there.
Never mind that we’ve fallen victim to that tactic for a half-century. Never mind that, apparently, it’s still a winning strategy. We cannot win that way, and if need be, we must accept defeat as an alternative. The goal of racial reconciliation, which Democrats rightly champion, is too important to accept the notion that the end justifies the means. In cases such as this, the means forbids the end. And Democrats, of all people, cannot allow that to happen through their own short-sighted efforts.
But he can’t quite get up the gumption to truly call his own party out for the absolutely inexcusable display and those who benefitted directly from it. He goes on to make excuses for Childers, and says it really wasn’t his fault. If I were Childers, I would have been shouting from the rooftops on election day that I had nothing to do with this and I would be personally calling out the individual in DCCC that made the decision and calling for (1) their apology and (2) their resignation. That’s just me.
Was the flyer a difference maker? In retrospect, I doubt it. I know that if Davis had executed this same tactic to Childers in reverse that Anderson Cooper, Chris Matthews, the LA Times, the NY Times, PMSNBC and all the rest would have parachuted reporters and live camera trucks to get it on tape. However, when it’s their boy, I guess it doesn’t matter.
For Governor Winter (D) and those that posit themselves as reconciliation experts to have ignored or excused this from a formal wing of their own party makes their silence all the more deafening.
Good on Bardwell for the effort. Maybe others will follow suit.
Magnolia Tribune
