I spent some chilly weekends in New Hampshire on behalf of Jeanne Shaheen to no avail back in 2002, so I'm glad to see her storming to a big lead over John Sununu this time around. That said, unless she's had a massive political instincts transplant in the past six years (she ran as a supporter of the Bush tax cuts, the war in Iraq, etc.), liberals can probably be looking forward to being disappointed by Senator Shaheen on a fairly frequent basis.
« Polling Wisconsin | Main | Calling JB »
Shaheen Mania
12 Feb 2008 01:45 pm
Comments (17)
Wasn't she a crack dealer back in the day? Maybe just a crack hoe.
MY - you seem like a fairly liberal guy, and while I'm not familiar with your 2002 political beliefs, I'm surprised to hear that you were working on behalf someone who supported the Bush tax cuts, Iraq War, etc.
Perhaps she isn't the one who had the massive political instincts transplant.
This would be the same Jeanne Shaheen who had an opportunity to address the massive inequities in the way public schools are funded (via property taxes) in NH as governor and, well she blew it. I suspect Matt is well aware of this.
She should be better than SunNoNo, no doubt, but not by a whole heck of a lot.
It's a Lebanese smackdown.
Arab Americans in politics have tended to be Republicans (Mitch Daniels, Ray Lahood, Darrell Issa, Spence Abraham, the two Sununus). The Shaheens (although I should note that Jeanne herself is not of Lebanese descent, I believe) are the most prominent Arab Dems.
why support her then?
I suspect MY, whose hatred of all things New England has been a constant theme on this blog, stumped for Shaheen more out of a desire to build his CV than out of any conviction or desire to help the New Hampshire.
For the love of Aerosmith, commenters around here can be remarkably dense. MY campaigned for Shaheen for the very excellent reason that she was a Dem with a chance to win in a very reddish-purple state. He was at Harvard, there are no competitive Senate races in Massachusetts, he had a chance to do some work in a nearby state to help keep a Dem as Senate majority leader, he went and did it. Plain and simple. Jeez.
Some Republican was asked a few years back about Lincoln Chafee sticking his thumb in the GOP's eye and responded something to the effect of "a Republican from Rhode Island is like manna from heaven." They're damn hard to find, and they don't vote with you much once you find them, but you're happy to have them around because they make Republicans Speaker/Majority Leader, which is the single most important effect they can have. Shaheen would have been, and hopefully will be, the mirror image of that for the Dems.
If you don't understand that point, then please, put down the keyboard and do some real reading, because your comprehension of politics is not nearly as robust as you think it is. Otherwise, kindly explain to us how a state that elected Bob Smith just a few short years ago is prepared to elevate someone substantially more liberal than Shaheen to the Senate.
Otherwise, kindly explain to us how a state that elected Bob Smith just a few short years ago is prepared to elevate someone substantially more liberal than Shaheen to the Senate.
Have you ever set foot in NH? The demographics of the state have changed quite rapidly over the last 10 years - the southern half of NH is now almost indistinguishable from Massachusetts. On top of that, the US has moved so far to the right over the past 30 years that NH Republicans look downright moderate by comparison. Bob Smith actually endorsed Kerry in 2004 - Smith is not a typical wing-nut, he's just plain crazy. NH conservatives are united on one issue only - don't tax us - otherwise on social issues the state really isn't that far to the right of Vermont or Mass. Not that it was wrong for MY to support Shaheen in 2002, I'm just saying you're ignorance of all things NH is showing, so don't be so hasty to insult the other commenters.
The southern half of NH is almost indistinguishable from MA, vanya? I'm going to disagree with that.
Well, it is to me. I'm from the center of the state, and as far as I'm concerned anything south of Manchester might as well be Mass, and south of Concord is already suspect. Except for Keene, which might as well be Vermont.
Southern NH is only like the really crummy part of Mass.
I mean, it borders Lawrence and Lowell, not Cambridge and Brookline.
I agree completely with The Navigator's assessment. She was the Dem nominee in one of the closest Senate races that cycle.
I still can't forgive her for saying Wes Clark wasn't a "real Democrat" back in '03/'04. Her, of all people.
For the love of Aerosmith, commenters around here can be remarkably dense. MY campaigned for Shaheen for the very excellent reason that she was a Dem with a chance to win in a very reddish-purple state. He was at Harvard, there are no competitive Senate races in Massachusetts, he had a chance to do some work in a nearby state to help keep a Dem as Senate majority leader, he went and did it. Plain and simple. Jeez.
Yeah, plus back in the day Yglesias thought her war enthusiasm was just dandy. Now that he's trying to set himself up as some kind of Beltway foreign policy gasbag, he'd really, really like to put all that behind him. Now, having got the biggest foreign policy decision since the Tonkin Gulf resolution exactly wrong, he'd like to imagine that his foreign policy "insight" is a marketable commodity. And in the Beltway cloister, it probably is.
Pretty simple here- Shaheen is a Democrat in a state that usually elects Republicans to the Senate, so her personal politics aside she's marginally better than any Republican, and that's all that matters.
vanya,
Actually, I have set foot in N.H., and I'm very well aware of the trend of southern N.H. getting less conservative as it becomes something of a Boston exurb. The state's definitely moved a good bit leftward in the last 10 years as you say. But then, 2002 was six years ago. And even today, yes, NH is no longer a guaranteed GOP vote in presidential and Senate elections, but that doesn't mean it's become a liberal state. It's just less conservative than it used to be. And yes, I'm aware that Carol Shea-Porter's election platform was pretty damn liberal, but I think you'll agree that that election was probably an outlier, explained mostly by anger at Bush, and not by a sudden enthusiasm for unknown anti-war liberals in the state at large. I believe that my point stands: there is still no good reason to think that N.H., despite recent trends, has moved so far to the left of its previous polarity that it's prepared to elect someone substantially more liberal than Jeanne Shaheen to the U.S. Senate.
Do you disagree? And do you still think I'm ignorant of all things N.H.?
Navigator
Jake and TLM were clearly talking about 2008 not 2002, and I was just being snarky. So you essentially unloaded all your contempt at ignorant commenters based on one post by Trigger. Hence the derision I poured on you. And really, I do think in 2008 someone more liberal than Shaheen on a host of issues, and certainly someone more libertarian, could have quite conceivably beaten Sununu without the state moving to the left at all. You could make a case that Rudman was more reliably liberal than Shaheen. I actually disagree you that NH is not a liberal state, at least relative to where the rest of the country has headed. Compared to any Southern state, or Kansas or Missouri, NH could be certainly be qualified as "liberal." It's an archaic stereotype that NH'ers are bedrock conservatives - they're mostly Yankee Republicans not Movement conservatives. People still vote Republican out of tradition the way conservative Southerners kept voting Democrat for years out of tradition, but Bush and the Southern wacko fringe of the GOP has helped move the realignment along.
Comments closed February 26, 2008.
| 
Heads in the Sand
Jeanne Shaheen's husband is a racist who attacked Obama by calling him a drug dealer. Why would any proud progressive support his wife? Real progressives, like myself, are going to do everything possible to stop the nomination of the wife of a racist. Gonna post a diary on Daily Kos about this soon.
Posted by TLM | February 12, 2008 2:04 PM