em>by Matthew Hay Brown
Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen has a message for the Democrats still battling for the presidential nomination: Tone it down.
The Maryland congressman, charged with expanding the party's House majority this fall, said today that he had let the campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know of his "concern that the increasingly negative tone in the primary could hurt our prospects in November - not just for the eventual nominee but also for our congressional candidates."
Continued rancor "will make it more difficult to heal the wound," said Van Hollen, who has remained neutral in the primary campaign. "It means we spend more time beating up on each other and less time drawing the distinction between the Democratic position on issues and John McCain as a continuation of the Bush era. ... I do think we're playing with fire."
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, also neutral, described the tenor of the race between Clinton and Obama as "probably not much different than the tone of a normal campaign for president of the United States.
"What is not normal at all," the Maryland Democrat said, is that the competitors are representatives of two major Democratic constituencies - African-Americans and women.
"Therefore, groups are offended, as opposed to just individual candidates," he said. "I would hope the candidates would keep it positive. I think their differences are minimal."
Van Hollen said a consensus had grown around Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's call for undeclared superdelegates to make there preferences known by July 1.
"I strongly support Howard Dean's call," he said. "I think it would be a big mistake to take a divided party into the convention in Denver and have these divisions play out on national television."
(Van Hollen photo via MCT)
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Comments
What an incompetent display of Democratic leadership, from Rep. Van Hollen to Rep. Hoyer. There is a tag team, the Clintons, out there, and they are bushwhacking Senator Obama, and one is bit concerned and the other, doesn't see anything wrong!! With leadership like that, it's now wonder, some Democrats are talking Ralph Nader, if " The Tag Team " wins and I don't blame them!!!
Come on, Boys, you can do better than that, can't you!!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, Chicago | April 23, 2008 8:57 PM
""It means we spend more time beating up on each other and less time drawing the distinction between the Democratic position on issues and John McCain as a continuation of the Bush era.."
Gee, he (and maybe they) have finally figured this out?
Will wonders never cease.
Posted by: MrRational | April 23, 2008 9:11 PM
Does anyone truly believe that will stop her - and him (Bill that is) - from destroying the one truly inspiring leader of a lifetime? She will stop at nothing - and still lose.
Posted by: gail | April 23, 2008 9:58 PM
The problem is that at this point there's not much difference in positions between Clinton and Obama.
So the ONLY way Clinton can defeat Obama is by complaining that the media isn't scrutinizing his pastor enough - the same guy they didn't scrutinize before inviting them to their White House to build a wall against impeachment.
If Rev. Wright didn't hate white people so much - and not without reason - Obama would have wrapped this up.
Posted by: Bud McFarlin | April 23, 2008 11:16 PM
The dems are in trouble. It's between a black guy and a white woman and whoever wins... will lose the other ones support.
It's all about gender and race in the dem party now.
Hillary wins, blacks and lefty loons stay home and don't vote...Barack wins and 'typical' whites vote for McCain.
No wonder McCain is smiling all the time....
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | April 23, 2008 11:18 PM
Don--you're wrong.
The tone of this is KILLING the party's chances to take back Congress and win the White House back. And blaming Hilary for what the NEWS MEDIA (such as it is) is wrong-minded and well, a sign of a lack of intelligence.
Take a break from the blogs and go for a walk or something.
Posted by: Tom | April 24, 2008 12:44 AM
This guy has a giant fore-head
Posted by: Todd | April 24, 2008 6:17 AM
In Pennsylvania, the woman has proved herself the ethical equivalent of Richard Nixon, indeed virtually indistinguishable.
The vicious personal quality of her attacks reminds me very much of some of Nixon's early campaigns, suggesting a decent Congresswoman was "soft on communism."
The rancid quality of her manufactured memories of early life in Pennsylvania had precisely the quality of Milhouse talking about Pat's cloth coat.
She is precisely what America does not need. After Pennsylvania, I don't see how she represents the least improvement over the ethical swamp of George Bush.
It does appear that America's political institutions just will not accommodate a thoughtful and decent person to become president.
The irony is, while she is so busy showing how ruthless and ugly she can be, is that she represents a gigantic target for McCain. Her background is packed with scandals, lies, and embarrassments.
I truly believe that Obama could have reduced her to tears had he chosen to do so.
McCain is not going to show the same restraint.
And then there's her sleazy life-long partner, always just over her shoulder.
Who wants Bill back, hanging around the White House and in the headlines again?
The barf-inducing potential of that is beyond calculation. Like a never-ending cheesy soap-opera.
How does America make any progress with a political system like this? It cannot.
The harshest, most strident, most ethically-flexible seem bound to succeed.
The country has had at most a couple of large spirits, really decent men as president since WWII.
To my mind, that is a shameful record for such a vast and rich land.
But the media and institutions and prejudices are all tuned to producing imperial leaders, the same kind of people who brought us Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other lesser nasty colonial wars.
Posted by: John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada | April 24, 2008 9:53 AM
What the Democratic party is doing to itself is beyond words. It's all slipping away. 'The horror,, the horror....'
Posted by: C.Morris | April 24, 2008 9:57 AM
I'd love to see Clinton and Obama stop fighting each other and start seriously campaigning against McCain. They should stop talking about who can win in November and start backing up their words. Hillary will need strong evidence for the uncommitted superdelegates that she actually would be the better candidate against McCain if she wants them to go against the will of the voters. They should both start demonstrating to all of us how they're going to beat McCain.
Posted by: Tom O | April 24, 2008 12:50 PM
"...the one truly inspiring leader of a lifetime?"
Oh puhleeze. I guarantee you that this twerp and his underhanded whisper campaign "transforming" the last successful two-term Democratic President and First Lady into liars and racists does more lasting damage to the Democratic Party than anything Hillary has done to debate-skittish Obambi. Fortunately, he's self-destructing on his own.
*****A
Posted by: Adrienne in CA | April 29, 2008 3:32 AM