TAP snubbed?

Yea, they left off some real Democratic Blogs and used some (4.00 / 1)

non partison blogs instead.  Jimmy Dean and the DFA is friends with the progressive blog movement.  He should be called upon to bring this to Brother Howards attention and get it corrected! The DNC does after all control the DN Convention!

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by: politics64 @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 18:57:28 PM UTC

PolitickerNJ, for example... (0.00 / 0)

New Jersey doesn't make sense. The basically picked a newspaper blog over a true grassroots (and progressive) blog like Blue Jersey.  

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by: robert.harding @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:06:12 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That is outragious! (0.00 / 0)

Howard Dean is a real friend of the progressive blogoshere, heck! it was pretty much created around his 04 campaign! He should provide some justice here.

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by: politics64 @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 22:09:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Did TAP even apply for credentials? n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: dennisl @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:02:07 PM UTC

Yes (0.00 / 0)

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by: robert.harding @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:06:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Ahh, alright. (4.00 / 1)

I was starting to find it weird that I've heard basically nothing about the issue either here or on Blue Jersey so far, but DailyKos and OpenLeft had been talking about it for a few days now.

This issue needs to be made much more public than it has been. I don't understand the DNC's reasoning here and, from what it looks like so far, they don't even have one.

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by: dennisl @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:12:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Agreed... (4.00 / 2)

It does need to be more public. I would like an explanation for why Room 8 is more deserving than TAP or Daily Gotham.

DKos and Open Left can easily post on this given their positions. They are not state blogs, so they don't have to worry about any retaliation if they complain about this. From what I gather, we are working on this trying to make it right. We will see how that goes.  

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by: robert.harding @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:17:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Comment on comments (4.00 / 1)

   Man, the Kos comments section makes everyone on TAP look positively civil.

  Don't judge other people by your own limitations.

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by: RussElba @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:04:38 PM UTC

There's more here: (0.00 / 0)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

from earlier.

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by: simonstl @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 19:20:05 PM UTC

I'm sure Shelly isn't exactly our biggest fan (0.00 / 0)

and he does basically control the state delegation

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by: Roatti @ Wed May 21, 2008 at 21:46:32 PM UTC

Maybe not Everyone is Positively Civil (0.00 / 0)

At just past 1pm on March 17, 2008 control of New York's Democratic national convention seating passed from what was Eliot Spitzer a week prior to David Paterson the state's first black chief executive and the nation's 2nd legally blind governor. If you think for one second this is either a shared responsibility among Democrats in New York or one in which someone else has magic influence you've got to be kidding. I suppose Shelly is responsible for world hunger, the polar ice cap melting, and now Kennedy's tumor. If you wonder why a progressive like Dean would pass over TAP why don't you look no further than gratuitous comments like this that regularly fly out your key board. If you want to be taken serious then be serious.    

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by: TruBlu @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 02:04:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

slow down, TruBlu (4.00 / 2)

I kind of doubt that Sheldon Silver's control caused this directly.

At the same time, I don't think the Governor actually controls that much of the delegation specifically, and I'm not sure where that opening to your comment came from.  

The superdelegates from New York are elected officials and DNC committee people, who were chosen four years ago.  The pledged delegates are pledged delegates - a lot of party operatives to be sure, but not a unit waiting to move out on the Governor's command.

If there's a piece I'm missing there, I'd like to hear it - sorting out how delegations get chosen even in just one state is more complicated than it seems like it should be.

You could also mean that the DNCC called up David Paterson and asked him which state bloggers he wanted on the floor.  I mean, you know, maybe - but that also seems unlikely.  Could be a good story...

The harder question, though, is what exactly the DNCC was thinking here.  It's pretty clear to me that the NYS Democratic Committee might not be fond of TAP - like most everyone else with a reform agenda, that doesn't make us especially likeable to the supporters of the status quo.

Then I take a look at Room 8, and I have to wonder how that's really a "state" blog.  It seems utterly NYC to me, though maybe that's just my perspective as a cranky upstater.  There's some mild criticism from Gatemouth on Sheldon Silver ("the most benign tumor"), and Rock Hackshaw seems not talk about state politics much at all.  Of course, the DNCC probably has its own defintions.

Overall, I have to say that it looks like maybe TAP (and other sites with similar streaks of independence from the party) was "taken serious" - just not in a way that led to the convention.

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by: simonstl @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 02:26:29 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

NYS Democratic Committee might not be fond of TAP? (0.00 / 0)

You say it's pretty clear but I didn't think that at all. My impression was that there was a coming together between TAP and the state party as Phil said to Nancy -- that Eliot became a part of it and add to that  the State Chair attending meetups and I'd say the mission, must be similar. Parallel. Or maybe there's a mission behind the mission only a few know about.

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by: TruBlu @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:54:14 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Can you do me a favor (0.00 / 0)

and now bite my head off everytime I write something?

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by: Roatti @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 03:14:53 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Streaks of independence is excellent (0.00 / 0)

And debate is wonderful. It just seems to continually cross over to blame on one individual for everything bad that happens. Like the 2006 elections were this guy Shellys fault because he didn't get the Queens County Party in line. Now it's TAP not getting selected by a national committee headed by Dean. I doubt he caused it directly or indirectly or knows anything about it.

I said the governor as head of the state party controls seating, as in who's placed where and when. It is as Simon says and pretty much based on elections but if you look at the list there are a fair amount assigned or granted through party meetings - meetings under Paterson's control.

I'm not a bitter, spitter or slapper. But I do enjoy a good old fashioned arm wrestle on occasion.  

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by: TruBlu @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 11:44:51 AM UTC

it's not arm wrestling (4.00 / 1)

It's tempting to use Sheldon Silver as the personification of all that is wrong in the Assembly's Democratic majority's continuous push to ensure its own power.  

Whether it's "gentleman's agreements" with the Senate on races or redistricting that sell out other Democrats, cowardly decisions to discuss important issues only in conference, or top-down control over the distribution of pork, it's pretty clear where the Speaker stands - and it doesn't look great.

You'd rather tell a story that casts Silver as the progressive general fighting a difficult battle against, well, against a state that just isn't progressive enough for your tastes, battling a Republican machine that you'd rather ignore his contributions to building.

Is Silver responsible for the decisions of the political establishment around him?  Sometimes.  Is he directly responsible for this?  Probably not.

That doesn't mean that it's Paterson making these decisions (as you seemed to suggest above), or that these decisions were made without consideration for Silver's opinion.  That just means that it's not likely an important enough question to get either Silver or Paterson on the phone.  I suspect that TAP has annoyed enough Silver loyalists, like yourself, that the party may not be thrilled.

My own blog, Living in Dryden, has made a fair number of important local Democrats angry because I dare to criticize our Democratic Assemblywoman in public.  It's also made a lot of local Democrats - folks who seem important to me - very happy, because there's finally someone saying the kinds of things they've been thinking for years.

I suspect that a lot of New York Democrats would love the TAP perspective if they found it.  I suspect that a much smaller proportion of New York Democratic party elders would love it.

Our fault?  Theirs?  Well, you can guess that I'd say theirs, but I suspect you have your own opinion.

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by: simonstl @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:25:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

So go with temptation (0.00 / 0)

Personify him regularly but be aware that a random reader or new person might see it as a theme. I was saying to be taken more seriously on a national level the continual theme should pass more of a laugh test. His magical powers have grown pretty far and wide if one were to believe every claim. Like if I hadn't chimed in here maybe a passerby would have thought Shelly did it again. I wasn't going to bother (it was so silly) but then I thought well I should chime up. For a long time I would read and just chuckled but the claims just grew. I'm not sure "elders" are as annoyed as you think, didn't Dick Gottfried recently post here? I'd think the two are pretty good buddies both coming from Manhattan. Well, this is all just my humble opinion - I am just a mere guest here.

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by: TruBlu @ Thu May 22, 2008 at 13:22:02 PM UTC

[ Parent ]