Leave Jim Cooper Alone!
Posted on September 27, 2009 at 10:15 pmIt’s really amazing how much effort national progressives are putting into going after Jim Cooper. Posts by national bloggers giving Coop crap for a pushing healthcare reform bill that doesn’t provide for a public option is one thing. But actually going to the trouble of setting up an anti-Cooper website? Talking of trying to recruit a primary challenger?
It is excessive and it is misguided. More progressive minded folks than I have already weighed in on this subject. A political operative, the city’s feminist conscience in the blogosphere and a former Music City Democrat have all picked a side — against the national interlopers.
Is Coop the most progressive congressman Nashville could produce? Certainly not. But is that enough a reason to turn him out?
Elective office is and should be less secure than a regular job but what has Cooper really done to deserve a pink slip?
Rep. Cooper is a good Congressman. He speaks his mind and he serves his constituents. He deserves to keep his job unless some candidate can provide a compelling reason not to. The fact that Coop thinks outside the box and promotes healthcare reform solutions that do not include the exalted public option is really a compelling reason.
Do these progressives really think that Cooper is their enemy? This is not Lincoln Davis we are talking about after all, this is Jim Cooper. Do these interlopers really believe Cooper would vote against the public option if it came down to it?
These interlopers simple do not know Nashville if they think the city’s Democrats are going to turn out Coop on the basis of healthcare reform. Given the chance, it highly debatable that voters would vote out Jim Cooper in favor of a highly qualified progressive. But the major point is here is that they will never get that chance.
Accountability Now can talk their trash all they want. They can pretend like they are recruiting a legit candidate to challenge our congressman but no one to the right of Chris Lugo would ever seriously consider a primary challenge of Jim Cooper.
Until these national progressives can convince a Jason Holleman or Megan Barry to lose their political minds, this is all going to be wasted effort better used elsewhere.
This push isn’t even going to scare Cooper. If Accountability Now could field even a semi-legit candidate, maybe the effort could yield some fruit and scare Cooper into working harder in promoting the public option.
But let’s be honest, Jim Cooper don’t scare. He’s been around the block a few times and he has done his homework. He is politically protected and he is confident in his position on the issue. National progressives are wasting their time.
It would clear to them if they spent anytime at all with Democrats in this city. There will be a time to elect true progressive for the 5th District and that is the day Jim Cooper retires. Until then, national progressives should keep their powder dry and concentrate on battles they can win and places where they can make a difference.
If national progressives really want to help the cause, they should concentrate on the state legislature. Considering how red Tennessee has become it is an amazing feat that it’s congressional delegation is still majority Democrat.
If the Democrats cannot recapture the state legislature and Republicans hold the redistricting pen, every Democratic congressman but Cooper is gonna be vulnerable.
You want to help progressives in Tennessee? Help them take back the legislature and prevent the GOP from redistricting them back to the stone age. Then you can start building a new progressive and populist Democratic Party in Tennessee.
But messing with a true statesman who may be a smudge to the right of his district? That’s just inane.
*Hear the Accountability Now folks tomorrow morning on Liberadio(!)
Comments
41 Responses to “Leave Jim Cooper Alone!”
AMEN
Note to the far left. Your only chance to beat Congressman Cooper requires a tall, deep-voiced candidate with a red pickup truck. But not an import hybrid pickup.
There has been a lot of talk about this recently and I think it’s crap.
This is exactly the cannibalistic shit that causes The Democrats to lose control of the agenda and ultimately the majority. Ok, let’s think about this: If Cooper gets tossed out and some freshman congressman goes to Washington we lose Cooper’s expierence, his reputation, and most of all his SENORITY.
This is a lot of noise being made by a few people. If you want to primary him fine, but let mentell you; LAST thing the president needs right now is Democrats eating Democrats.
Could not agree more myself with the above. Leave Coop alone. You are wasting your time.
As my Cherokee ancestors would say Cooper, “… speaks with forked tongue”. He talks conservative here and voters for and with Nancy in DC. And the reason he is not going to be beat is too many think he can’t.
The effort at least calls attention to his record on healthcare. He may be invincible, but why allow him and the other conservative Dems to keep their seats without a fight? He’ll be forced to spend money, and a well financed challenger can at least make him clarify his position in the health care “debate.”
I admire Coop’s diligence, and his willingness to dig into a bill to fully understand it. But if he won’t use his seniority to help push through a bill that 2/3 of Americans support, why do we need him again? I’ve come to believe that the public option is the only way to help working American families. Progressives understand the importance, and its a shame that they have to waste time and money calling out Democrats on this issue. Its embarrassing.
Interlopers? Please. What is it about this area that sees anything not homegrown as somehow unworthy of consideration? The rest of the country is going to have to intercede if Teh South continues to elect and support “conservative” representatives.
One more time with feeling: Cooper WILL SUPPORT the public option.
Part of the problem is that Cooper is stubbornly attached to his Healthy Americans Act. He hasn’t recognized that his “favorite bill” is not going to make it into law. Move on, already.
If national progressives really want to help the cause, they should concentrate on the state legislature.
I would like to offer up my state senator, Douglas Henry, as a candidate for the Accountability Now treatment. Have at it, folks.
“Elective office is and should be less secure than a regular job but what has Cooper really done to deserve a pink slip?”
Are you kidding? Most of those bums are in there 20,30,50 years even. At the margin a few are tossed or get out or imprisoned. The powers of incumbency are enormous. All politicians are members of the “Incumbent Party”.
Please. Let the voters of the district decide if they want Cooper or a progressive alternative. His job is to represent the district - and the district can decide if they want Cooper or someone that, I don’t know, agrees with them. Primary challenges are the *only* way to hold democrats accountable to the the Democratic voters who put them in power. Cooper is not entitled to his seat because he has a D next to his name. A primary challenge has made Specter suddenly vote with Democrats 97% of the time.
If Cooper doesn’t want a primary challenge, he can vote his district: plain and simple. If he already is voting a way that the Democrats in the district approve; he’ll survive a primary without trouble.
“Is Coop the most progressive congressman Nashville could produce?”
Yes indeed he is. Because there are too many conservatives like me who vote against him every year. The more progressive Coop gets, the more people there are who will vote against him.
I believe Jim Cooper is TOO progressive, the progressives should realize this and deal with what is possible. Or not.
Trey
[...] “Is Coop the most progressive congressman Nashville could produce?” Yes… [...]
You mean like these interlopers?
Business PACs: $961,081
Hospitals/Nursing Homes: $298,103
Health professionals: $238,532
Insurance: $185,759
Health Services/HMOs: $137,481
Misc. Health: $125,398
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products: $104,650
By geography?
New York: $316,555
Washington DC: $249,514
Chicago: $159,383
San Francisco: $63,650
Boston: $53,600
I personally know of 2 credible candidates who are in fact considering it.
This is now linked from the front page of Daily Kos. It will be interesting to see if and how this debate proceeds in the rest of the blogosphere. I know many, many people who have very strong opinions about this.
Good one, ACK.
Hey Fort Campbell Dem - you, too are an interloper. You don’t live in 05. Oh, the irony…
Cooper is a totally sell-out to the highest bidder. If enough individuals would write him checks that were more progressive, he’d fall into line. In the meantime, he will continue to pander to interests that are not favorable to the average Tennessean.
“Interlopers”? Go chat with locals at the grocery store, see how many know their congressman’s name, even. Then take a good hard luck at Coop’s donors. Almost a million bucks from the major cities that are nowhere near TN, including NY and DC - even the entire state of TN doesn’t make it to the top 5!
When Obama activists phonebanked all over the country to GOTV on Election Day, we added the names of Dems running state-wide and the vast majority of voters had no clue who they even were, but said they’d vote for who we recommended. Many said they skip candidates they don’t know. Loyal voters for anyone with a “D” behind their name are not so loyal anymore. After this flagrant example of who each dominant party really works for, is that a surprise to anyone? Have you not seen the number of Independent registrations go up, and up, and up?
And Trey, Repub above, is a perfect example of why we don’t need to bother compromising. Because it takes two to compromise.
Irony.. you hit the nail on the head with this one
” Go chat with locals at the grocery store, see how many know their congressman’s name,”
This response speaks for itself.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/28/787263/-TN-05:-Leave-Jim-Cooper-ALLLOOONE!
I love it. Democrats who want elected democrats to support the platform endorsed one year ago in Denver are “interlopers”.
The insurance executives and Wall Street fat cats who have paid good money for access to Jim Cooper are real Americans supporting a great “statesman”.
Heck I would like to see democrat do what they said.
They said they would close Gitmo in 30 Days, then 120 Days, then 6 months, now it is going to be over a year.
They said they would pull troops out of Iraq, they have increased spending in Iraq by 30%
They said they would strive for victory in Afganistan, they are now opposing the advice of the commander they appointed and Confirmed
They said they would cut spending they have increased spending by over 150%….
They said they wanted to decrease teh debt, they have borrowed more money that was borrowed in 2001,02,03,04,05,06,07 COMBINED.
[...] Heck I would like to see democrat do what they said. They said they would… [...]
Go for it, leftistas. It worked so well with Lieberman, after all.
“There will be a time to elect true progressive for the 5th District and that is the day Jim Cooper retires.”
Yeah, that’s it–jobs for life! Can we cancel congressional elections, then? Might as well save some money, you know…
Yep.. if Coop does not win, it will be a republican that will win.
Hey Achillea,
It actually did work with Lieberman. He lost the primary. That CT’s law allowed him to then run as an independent is irrelevant.
Holding Dems accountable is a shocking idea to some in the establishment. But it’s going to become the norm in the future.
ML.. I think 2010, will make 94 look like a minor loss for the Democrats.
I am sorry… But the Democrats are doing what the republicans in 2006 did… Forget why they were sent to DC… which was to Cut spending, and Deficts.
I thought this was a democracy shouldn’t we encourage elections.
In the midst of this economic and social crisis, we should be especially slow to eject anyone who speaks bluntly about money and the commonwealth. I’d love to see Jim Cooper teamed with Ross Perot and an 87-year-old Charlestonian named Fritz Hollings (remember Gramm Rudman Hollings?) to work-over healthcare policy.
Loserman is currently on his way out the door too. Closet repugnican just like Big Money Coop.
Yeah…that whole challenging Lieberman was a disaster for the Democrats.
They only changed the Democrats position on the war, swept them into control of Congress in 2006, won them the White House and large majorities (large than the Reps during their height)…
What were we thinking.
Polls clearly show the constituents in his district support the public option, he gets large campaign donations from insurers.
Do the math.
“I am sorry… But the Democrats are doing what the republicans in 2006 did… Forget why they were sent to DC… which was to Cut spending, and Deficts.”
Ha! What election were you following?
Democrats were elected to reform health care, end the war, fix the economy and enact environmental changes.
NAZgul
Yes, they were,
Democrats have expanded the war.
They are developing a healthcare reform bill that the people do not want.
Their Environmental Changes is turning off the water and turning the Central Vally of CA (an area that produces 12% of our food) into a dust bowl.
They have Increased the Defict from 182 Trillion dollars to 2,200 Trillion dollars.
Jim Cooper played a key role in killing health care reform the last time we had a chance, in 1994.
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=02&year=2008&base_name=remembering_jim_cooper
Now we see him again opposing a Democratic president trying to get health care enacted. Odd, that.
There are certain corners of the establishment that seem to really, really hate the whole idea of primaries. These people hold primaries to be illegitimate. The thinking amongst these individuals is that once a person wins political office then he is entitled to renomination by his party by default, and that any effort to field an opponent in a primary election is disruptive and misguided.
Well, wrong. It’s a free country. A dollar is a dollar. A dollar raised in Jim Cooper’s district for Cooper counts just as much and is just as legitimate as a dollar raised outside Cooper’s district for his opponent–and as much as the many, many dollars that Cooper has raised from “interlopers” outside of his district. Those people in and out of Cooper’s district who are tired of him opposing health care have every right to recruit and fund a challenger to Cooper. No one has any justification to say they can’t–not Cooper, not the insurance companies that bankroll Cooper, and not this blogger. The only people who get to say are the Democrats in Cooper’s district who will cast votes on whether or not to retain him. It’s called an election. The more, the better. Let freedom ring.
I believe Jim Cooper is honestly representing his district….Pelosi and Reid Do NOT run Tennessee! And the minions visiting Tennessee for defeat of a Tennessean need to have A RETURN TRIP TICKET!!!!
Most of the Independent voters such as myself
believe Jim Cooper to be the best Congressman
the 5th has had in many yrs. We don’t need the
advice of the Daily Kos or Rachel Maddox to
help us decide who to vote for. If the far
left of this district have these great supposed
contenders then put them on the ballot!
I agree SothernIndie…and we should give Rep. Cooper a committee assignment that only covers his district…
Oh, wait…that’s right, he has influence over people outside his district, but those people should all just shut up and take it.
BTW: Since when is democracy a bad thing?
Nazgul35, since the idea of democracy was invented. That’s why we have a republic instead.
Democracy is mob rule; if 51% decide they want to rob the other 49% of all their belongings, they can. Sadly, it looks as though we’re approaching that point.
Jim Cooper your days is over the only way you will ever get my vote again is if your ever run against a republican and it looks like it be better just stay at home
You miss the point… the fact that he is a “Blue” Lap dog Dem-wit is reason enough to kick out the bum. Just by breathing, he helps the case for Nancy Pelosi and her angry band of Peloshiveks… and Harry Reid and his Dingy bunch… all the while Cooper has failed to get Nashville its much needed Federal Courthouse (not to mention other critical transportation infrastructure components). Kick him out with both feet. This pampered son of a past racist governor needs to get his due next year, and Americans are angry at the Demwits. He’ll be ousted!
I want to announce I’m running against Congressman Jim Cooper, and I’ll be filing officially in January. As such, I can use all the help I can get.
Eric Pearson
Email: EPearson@DemocraticReformParty.com
Home phone: (615) 883- 8670