Goodbye and good luck

I'm outta here.

I don't mind people who disagree with me.  In fact, I came here because I enjoy the give and take of a good debate.  Lord knows, I suffered the slings of arrows of several frontpagers, commenters, and other bloggers because of my support of Hillary Clinton.  And yet, despite some deeply personal and regretable attacks from both sides, I stayed.

I've been at this site for three years now.  I've gone through three rounds of site administrators during that time.  I think it's safe to say I'm the longest running member of BSB still blogging. Until today.  Because during my entire time at BSB, I've had one simple request for the administrators here: we don't have to agree with each other, but we should always have each other's back.  During the last three years, I've had countless bloggers ask for me to leave BSB to go and front page at their website.  Just about every Ohio Democratic blogger I know has sent me that e-mail at one time or another.  I turned them all down because I promised to be loyal to BSB.

It's bloody apparent now that Nick is in the tank for Fisher.  I just wish he would admit it openly so our readership knows our front pagers' bias-- that's why I openly admitted that my preference was for Brunner over Fisher.  But it's not Nick's support for Fisher that really has me steamed enough to leave this site, though.

Just last week, I wrote a post about how Fisher's campaign's spokewoman Lauren Goode responded to our request that the Senate candidates heed ODP Chairman Chris Redfern's pledge of neutrality in the primary and not force ODP to issue an endorsement.  I was quickly attacked for "wrongfully" alleging that Goode's "no comment" was, in essence, actually a "no" to the pledge.  While David and I were wondering why Fisher suddenly pulled out of his earlier commitment to take questions from you, the readers of BSB, (like Brunner had) apparently Nick was sitting on an interview with Fisher that he, nor Lauren Goode, ever disclosed to me existed.  An interview that painfully shows at the end how right I was about Fisher's utter lack of concern for progressive voters who want to be heard over ODP machine politics.

Why Nick sat on the interview doesn't matter.  What does matter is that Nick didn't once lift a finger to defend me and point out that he had video proof that I was right.  What does matter is that Nick softballed the question and that he didn't bother to correct Lt. Governor Lee Fisher by pointing out that the reason people want ODP out of the endorsement business is because 1) ODP Chairman Chris Redfern publicly told the blogging community that he wanted ODP to be neutral, but his hands would be tied if any of the candidates demanded an ODP endorsement; 2) the endorsement process has given us bad candidates like Marc Dann and Barbara Sykes.  It resulted in a true American hero, John Glenn, being forced out in the rain because ODP's endorsement of his primary opponent resulted in him being shut out of county party functions.  And most importantly, the primary election belongs to us: the Democratic primary voters.  It'd be nice to have someone mention that in an interview with Mr. Fisher.  Particularly someone from the blog that first raised the ODP endorsement as a legitimate issue in the Senate primary campaign.

It's not, as Lee Fisher apparently thinks, it's not an issue for the "party to decide."  It's an issue for we, the Democratic base to decide.  And no, it's not because I don't think that Jennifer Brunner cannot get the ODP endorsement.  I think she could, but only in a fair fight.

What Nick failed to counter Lt. Gov. Fisher on is that the ODP process is neither fair nor open.  The process begins with a Screening Committee, which, by definition, screens the candidates to even be considered by the Executive Committee, the only entity that the Ohio Democratic Party's Bylaws give the power to give an endorsement.  If the screening committee does what it's done in the past, it will only recommend one candidate to be endorsed by the Executive Committee.  Therefore, the main reason someone like Jennifer Brunner may not be able to get the endorsement is because the process is so stacked that the Executive Committee may never have the opportunity to even consider endorsing her.  And since there is no regulation in how the Screening Committee is picked, perhaps Mr. Fisher should consider that such a close-door, undemocratic process is why progressives of all stripes condemn the practice.  It has everything to do with the process, not the result.

It would have been interesting to see some give-or-take from Nick on that.  I would expect some defense of what this site has been promoting from one of its administrators.  Instead, I got stabbed in the back and dismissed as a faceless part of "some progressive bloggers."

So, Nick and David, do whatever the hell you want with BSB.  You'll be doing it without me.