To those who blasted Obama for endorsing Barrow in the primary (GA-12), check this out:

[beachmom]

http://www.votesmart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=7989

A Kossak living in her district says she caucuses with the Republicans in the State Senate:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2008/7/15/205020/052/12#c12

Thomas caucuses with the Republicans (2+ / 0-)


She is a GOP stooge in the state senate. Thats why they gave her a committee chairmanship. Its also why she has no support either from local dems or local AA groups. She played the netroots for fools. She is further to the right than Barrow.

She is anti-Gay rights and Pro-school prayer.

Wow, some in the netroots need to apologize to Obama for this. The district is only D+2, and in no way a shoo in. We needed to keep that seat. In this case, challenging the encumbent was not a good move, and the netroots who DID blast Obama should cop for their error. Luckily, Barrow is easily winning his Democratic primary; African Americans are voting for him.

[NattPang]

1. Wasn't there a long thread here about this?

I remember hiding it
because I got tired
of reading the foul headline
that came with it.

[beachmom]

4. Yes, there was, and here it is:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=6472789

This goes to show outsiders should actually listen to locals before running off their mouth. Talk about low information voters.

[MadMaddie]

2. What pisses me off about this whole thing is

these groups assume that he is not going to support the best Democratic candidate.....He has proven them wrong. Good riddance of another Democratic stooge.

[beachmom]

3. Oh, I am naming names. Howie Klein at FDL! Sucker!!

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/19/obama-supports-blue-dog-barrow-over-progressive-in-georgia-primary-why/

Thomas had a 100% rating with the GA Chamber of Commerce.

[beachmom]

5. Matt Stoller: Sucker #2:

http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6448

Barrow is one of the most reactionary members of Congress, and he's facing a progressive primary challenger in Regina Thomas.

[grantcart]

6. its pretty easy to tell that there is always another side to the story on these things

and when both sides are told Obama always looks like he took the smarter side.

[beachmom]

7. Yep. And I'm not saying Barrow is some great Democrat. He's a blue dog.

But we can't always get a full out progressive when the district is only a D +2 rating. Matt Stoller has a new post up which to my eyes, looks quite silly:

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6962#86501

I commented.

[madura]

12. absolutely. how many times this has happned i can't count, but still

the vultures wait to pounce. it must bug the shit out of them that O is about a thousandfold smarter than those hunched birdies.

[Cha]

8. Rec'd and a

:kick: Thanks for finding that, beachmom.

[CreekDog]

9. So did Stoller lie to us or was he just ignorant?

are his opinions typically this reliable? :eyes:

[Canuckistanian]

10. Glenn Greenwald roasted Barrow for his support of FISA

And I've gotta say, he makes a pretty good case against Barrow and NOT just for his stand on FISA.

As noted yesterday, Blue Dog Rep. John Barrow of Georgia has been one of the most enthusiastic enablers of the radical and lawless policies of the Bush administration. When running for re-election, he ran ads accusing his own party of wanting to "cut and run in Iraq," and was one of the 21 Blue Dogs to send a letter to Nancy Pelosi demanding that they be allowed to vote for the Rockefeller/Cheney Senate bill to give warrantless eavesdropping powers to the President and amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms.

As a result of all of that, Barrow faces a serious primary challenge in July from State Senator Regina Thomas, who decided to run against Barrow due to -- as she told Howie Klein when she announced -- "Barrow's failure to support his constituents against the encroachments of powerful Big Business interests." As Klein noted yesterday, Thomas' positions on both foreign and domestic policy are firmly in line with Barack Obama's views and with the Democratic base in that district, while Barrow has continuously supported the most extremist Bush policies, as he himself proudly boasts.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/19/obama/

And if the news that Thomas is "further to the right than Barrow", then the good people of GA-12 have a Hobson's Choice.

[MGKrebs]

11. What committee is she chairperson of?

That would be news to me.

Also, the link you provided:

'30' conservative rating.
'80' Georgia Assn. of Educators rating.
'60' Georgia conservation voters rating (in 05-06. Was 100 in 03-04).
'D' with the NRA.
'75' with the Ga. Rural Urban Summit (very progressive)

She's losing badly, but she is not an enemy.

[quakerboy]

13. What does the votesmart page say?

I will start by saying that I know nothing of this, and I don't believe I have ever heard of either of the 2 of them prior to this. But I was curious, so I opened the links given and read, and I have some questions about your OP.

After reading through her page and his on Votesmart, what I saw was that the ratings were quite varied and inconsistent. But, at least as someone who has never even heard either of their names before, hers did not seem terribly out of line. What were you hoping was the takeaway message?

Also, at least according to that web page, in contradiction to the Kos poster, she is a member of several committees but Chair of none. There is one committee, "State Institutions and Property" of which she is Vice-Chair. A republican is chair, there are 8 members, and 7 of them are Democrats. A Dem pretty well has to be vice chair, since there is only one Pub, and he is the Chair.

I have to wonder why does one Kos commenter a complete picture make? Perhaps I missed something, but I didn't see anything at Votesmart that said anything about her position RE Gay rights or school prayer. I did notice that she got a couple 100% ratings from environmental groups, voted against seizing cars from people without licenses(immigrants), and got 89%,100% and 75% ratings from the liberal organization listed.

All in all, I have to ask, where are these claims coming from? If we are going to chew our Cud(ruminate on a past event, as I understand this to be?) and make grand pronouncements of hindsight, we damn well deserve an actual case clearly built on facts, not what appears to me to be unbiased anecdotes.

[Straight Shooter]

14. "A Kossak living in her district SAYS she caucuses with the Republicans ..."

Well, that's good enough, then. If a "Kossak" says so, it must be so.

Good grief.