Dude, They Kicked Her Out, Not The Other Way Around
Posted on November 2, 2008 at 11:27 pmSean Braisted asserts that State Senator Rosalind Kurita finally showed her true colors as a “Republican” when she contributed a sizable sum to the Tennessee Republican’s Legislative Campaign Committee.
Now, let’s get this straight. Rosalind Kurita is a pro-choice nanny-statist. Always has been, always will be. If she wanted to be a crypto-Republican, she would have ran straight-up as an Independent in her relection bid instead of running as a Democrat, the only way she could could lose.
What exactly would you have her do? Contribute money to the party that ousted her? Please. While we all like to talk about political parties as though they are about principles and ideas, in the end, parties are just a means to an end. That end, of course, being political power. Parties are not think tanks. They are not universities. They are entities created to achieve electoral victories
Republicans out of pure political opportunism are helping her as best they can. She is returning the favor. It’s just politics, pure and simple.
Kurita needs to get elected. Democrats won’t help. Republicans will. But Kurita is Kurita.
I haven’t seen her change a ideological or policy position to suit her new political friends. You can call her a “Republican” if that makes you feel better, but if you believe that she is any less a champion of the progressive ideals that many would call “Democratic”, you are fooling yourself.
She may have drew first blood by expressing her disgust with the good ole boy Dixiecrat Democratic leadership in the Senate by voting for Republican Speaker Ron Ramsey, but it didn’t have to end this way. The Democratic Party pushed her away just as much more than she pulled away from it.
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15 Responses to “Dude, They Kicked Her Out, Not The Other Way Around”
Kurita’s no more Republican than Jim Cooper, John Tanner, Lincoln Davis, or Bart Gordon is.
Look closely at the GOP financial paperwork when all this is over and I imagine you’ll find that they spent a similar amount on her in mail or TV attacking Barnes. There’s a reason she gave, and it isn’t because she supports the Republicans …
I wasn’t going to say anything to this effect, but A.C.’s editorialization here has prompted me to do so…
In my time on the Kurita campaign, I have gotten to know the woman who has been the target of some of the most vicious and hateful attacks launched from the South Nashville Democrat Party, headed by li’l Gray Sasser. They’ve dragged her name through the mud every chance they’ve gotten, with applause from out-of-touch bloggers like Sean Braisted, whose values line up with the back room baloney and full-on misogyny of Sasser & Crew, who continually support the Good Ole Boy approach to governance within the Tennessee political system.
I have gotten to know the principled and headstrong representative of one of the most unique senate districts in the state - all that energy packed into just over five feet of fervor. She works tirelessly for the people of Houston, Cheatham, and Montgomery Counties, and when she bucked the party trend to improve the representation within the State Senate for the people of Tennessee, the Dems tossed her to the curb.
You see, Wilder was more than just a laughingstock, nose-picking, cosmos-summoning octogenarian to Sasser et al. He was (like Naifeh) the embodiment of a slowly degenerating Democratic grip on this state, which has impeded progress and skewed representation in this state for over a century.
Kurita’s vote for Ron Ramsey slashed Democratic influence in half. The only people more surprised/stunned/shocked on that January day were the Democratic lobbyists in the gallery, who collectively crapped their pants at the thought of new leadership in the Senate.
(… I digress…)
Kurita is one of the more progressive members of the State Senate. And while we do not agree on many issues politically (we don’t talk politics in the office), I certainly admire her dedication to the people of her district and her determination to reach across the aisle to destroy the logjam that stopped much of her own legislation from going through.
She never once held a committee chairmanship under Wilder. She never once held a position of leadership under Wilder. Despite her dedication and determination and true leadership qualities, John Wilder never gave her the time of day. Instead, he further perpetuated the system of Good Ole Boy politics. Not anymore.
As A.C. noted, this is politics. Her contribution to the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee is no more a Republican notion than her platform of expanding pre-K and giving lottery scholarships to anyone with a high school diploma. In fact, the only time she votes with Republicans is when it comes to governmental operation and ethics reform.
Her contribution was likely an acknowledgement of the limited assistance the Republican Party has afforded her while Tim Barnes, Gray Sasser, and Phil Bredesen launch attacks on a daily basis at her direction, all while coaxing the media into thinking a write-in candidate doesn’t stand a chance. If that were so, do you think the Democrats would be investing so much money into their selection? If it were as easy as pushing the button for the one with the “D” by his name (as so many Democrats do), would they have anything to worry about?
In actuality, having spoken with many Democrats about voting for Kurita (which is a new experience for me - campaigning to Democrats), this is the first time many of them will have EVER pushed a button for someone other than the “D”.
I admire these voters for tearing away from a system which has asked them to vote first and think later. They realize that an injustice occurred - and they want to right it.
The truth is, our elected officials don’t go to Nashville to work only with members of their own party. Tennesseans aren’t only Republicans or only Democrats. Tennessee is unique in that our two-party system runs about equal throughout the state (sort of like the Democrats and the Whigs just before the Republicans came along). It’s reflected in the split within our legislature - Democrats and Republicans are about even at the state level.
Hopefully, the people of the 22nd District will go to the polls on Tuesday and put one more nail in the coffin for the Good Ole Boy system in Tennessee. And if Kurita comes out victorious, maybe Sean Braisted will sit down and shut up for a while.
- Matthew
I have been around this state for a long time. I’m a Democrat but I’m not blind. John Wilder looked out for himself the last 20 years of his reign by giving Republicans committee chairmanships and campaign contributions so that he could stay in power. His answer as he helped to destroy the Democratic Party’s leadership of the Senate? “I just do what’s good for the Senate and good for Tennessee.” Bull, he did what was good for John Wilder. Rosalind Kurita’s vote would never have happened if it weren’t for John Wilder’s selfishness. I don’t blame her for finally ending his greedy grip on power - that move was long overdue. I blame John Wilder for selling out his own party (and those who remember what happened in 1987 know what I’m talking about) to keep his personal prominence in Tennessee government.
Parties are not think tanks. They are not universities. They are entities created to achieve electoral victories
I agree, I never said she was a Conservative Republican, just that she has embraced the Republican party.
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Matthew, excellent post! It’s not so much about politics as the principal when it comes to my support of Sen. Kurita as a conservative Republican. Democrats like Barnes and Sasser have a vendetta against her, pure and simple. Why else go after her the way they have if she has absolutely no chance as a write-in?
Sean, I wouldn’t describe Sen. Kurita’s contributions to mean she has “embraced” the GOP. It’s true Republicans support her over Barnes, but her philosophy hasn’t changed, just her party affiliation. If she is elected, I have a feeling on particular issues, she will still vote along with the Democrats because her personal views coincide more with them than the GOP.
I think the question may be if it is legal for her to wash funds through the GOP that are then used for her benefit, when she couldn’t spend those funds directly on herself.
The arugments from Republicans on this thread prove one thing: Rosalind Kurita is only interested in herself. She didn’t get a committee chairmanship under Wilder. Oh, poor thing. So that justified her going against her word and voting for Ramsey? She will pal around with anyone if it advances her own personal goals. Kurita is no prinicipled hero. She’s a teeming political animal.
If you don’t get elected, you are not at the table. She’s a heroine to many and one feisty lady, especially to Democratic women who won’t go along with the “good ole boys” anymore. It’s time for change and it will occur locally and nationally TOMORROW!
I agree, I never said she was a Conservative Republican, just that she has embraced the Republican party.
And when Bredesen does it, no one utters a negative syllable.
I don’t usually go along with Republicans but we do need to move on from being Dixiecrats. Tennessee used to be a progressive state but now we act just like Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina. Someone was asleep at the wheel.
“I think the question may be if it is legal for her to wash funds through the GOP that are then used for her benefit, when she couldn’t spend those funds directly on herself.”
“wash funds through” is a disengenuous and non-political phrase that attempts to make something seem contrary to the political process when it is in fact perfectly legal. We can argue semantics all day long - no one was wronged and no laws were broken in that transaction.
“The arugments from Republicans on this thread prove one thing: Rosalind Kurita is only interested in herself. She didn’t get a committee chairmanship under Wilder. Oh, poor thing. So that justified her going against her word and voting for Ramsey? She will pal around with anyone if it advances her own personal goals. Kurita is no prinicipled hero. She’s a teeming political animal.”
Don’t misunderstand my argument: the fact that Wilder never appointed her to anything is not a claim I made to support her vote for Ron Ramsey. It’s merely an observation which supports the assertion that Wilder had no interest in eliminating the Good Ole Boy system of politics in the Senate. And I’d like a little clarification as to how she went “against her word” by voting for Ramsey. If you’re suggesting her party affiliation forced her to vote for a senile throwback to the 19th Century just because he had a “D” next his name, then your understanding of the political process is limited, at best. We don’t reach a consensus by voting party line all the time. Democrats and Republicans must work together to really benefit the citizens of Tennessee.
- Matthew
Perfectly legal? Kurita gets busted for ILLEGALLY funding her primary campaign through her PAC. So her campaign repays her PAC. The PAC then gives the money to the Republican Party. The Republican Party then spends the money on her election. That may be legal, but it still smells.
Kurita will do anything to hold onto power and then will come up with the most lame justifications of her unethical behavior.
And are the Wilder boys any different? Politics is just a mean game where winner takes all. Quit trying to make it something better. It is what it’s always been.