Kos is already declaring Boozeman as the next Arkansas Senator, so who needs an actual election?
Unfortunately, the smart political move lost. So say hello to Sen. John Boozman, the next senator from the great state of Arkansas. It's the political reality. No need to sugarcoat it.
Not often you see us agreeing with Kos, but he is right, polling to date shows Boozeman far ahead of Lincoln>
R2000/Daily Kos (D)- Boozeman 58 percent, Lincoln 38 percent
Rasmussen Reports- Boozeman 66 percent, Lincoln 28 percent
Mason-Dixon- Boozeman 52 percent, Lincoln 35 percent
In the meantime, the White House, through an anonymous "senior white house official" is pushing back against progressive liberals and big labor.
"Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members' money down the toilet on a pointless exercise," the official said. "If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November."
According to Huffington Post, yet another Democrat, refusing to be named publicly, echoed the sentiment and added another little dig at big labor:
Another senior Democrat (who also would not be quoted by name) echoed the point in an exchange with the Huffington Post. "Labor is humiliated," the source said. "$10 million flushed down the toilet at a time when Democrats across the country are fighting for their lives, they look like absolute idiots."
The major labor federation AFL-CIO responds to these anonymous quotes:
"If that's their take on this, then they severely misread how the electorate feels and how we're running our political program. When we say we're only going to support elected officials who support our issues," said AFL-CIO spokesman Eddie Vale. "When they say we should have targeted our money among some key house races among Blue Dog Democrats — that ain't happening."
"Labor isn't an arm of the Democratic Party," Vale said. "It exists to support working families. And that's what we said tonight, and that's what we're gong to keep saying."
Michael Whitney over at FireDogLake says that labors response to the White House is a "warning, or a threat, that labor could and would sit out the rest of the 2010 election, leaving behind its extensive field operation and independent expenditures."
Doubtful. Labor may not spend on certain elections but I would bet my last dollar that they can and will spend and spend big for candidates of their choice, despite tension between the White House and big labor.
The White House knows it too, which is why they have no problem shoving the Lincoln win right into big labor and progressive's faces.
The spin is varied, the reasoning, justifications and explanations are coming out a mile a minute, but the one resounding theme from progressives can be seen in Salon's headline "Democrats to organized labor: drop dead."
Definitely not a good sign for Democrats heading into the November elections.
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