Can we all agree to keep Ed Rendell away from cameras and microphones until next January?

[Warren DeMontague]

Seriously, what the everloving fuck was this guy thinking?

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160610_Rendell_sticks_his_other_foot_in_his_mouth__Warren_not_qualified_for_V_P_.html

Speaking on Rich Zeoli's show on 1210 WPHT on Wednesday, Rendell said Warren is "not in any way, shape, or form ready to be commander-in-chief."

***

"Elizabeth Warren's problem would be the same problem I'd have. I mean, let's assume someone said, consider Gov. Rendell for vice president. I have no experience militarily, no experience in foreign affairs, and would be a difficult choice because if anything happened in week one and I became president, I would be lost," Rendell said. "I think Elizabeth Warren, four years from now, would be a great choice to be on the ticket."

Okay, lets break down everything that is wrong here, starting with the obvious: One, he's bad mouthing a fellow Democrat, and a prominent one, for no good reason. Two, he's taking it upon himself to second-guess Hillary Clinton's selection process, and if by chance she DOES select Senator Warren, he's given the GOP a line of attack, free of charge. Three, the exact same criticisms he's levelling at Warren's "lack of foreign policy experience" were thrown at Obama in 2008, and everyone is in clear agreement that Obama is this year's rock star and MVP for the campaign trail.

Beyond that, going a bit deeper- okay, so what happens if or when Hillary picks someone else that may not meet Rendell's hastily defined arbitrary criteria, like, say, Julian Castro? Does Castro have any "experience militarily or in foreign affairs"? Not that I know of. So great, Ed, again, you've given the Republicans a Democrat-approved line to criticize potential veep selections.

Derp.

[madaboutharry]

1. He needs a stop sign between

his brain and his mouth.

[Ken Burch]

9. Thank you. n/t.

[Jack Bone]

2. he's usually a DLC talking point darling...

I gotta say...I agree w/ on this...

She need's someone w/ a military background or experience.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. I think that significantly limits the choices.

It's not like we want Jim Webb, do we?

[Zen Democrat]

31. She's supposed to have the foreign policy experience, she can pick whoever she wants for veep.

Obama had to get a Biden who was Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Hillary doesn't have to go experience heavy.

Ed Rendell should STFU.

[Jack Bone]

50. Military is different than the State Dept

Sometimes the exact opposite .

[Zen Democrat]

64. What potential candidate in all of 2015-16 had military experience?

Who out there now has military experience and is available for veep? Jim Webb? Wes Clark? With the WWII generation all but gone, direct military experience will matter less and less. Unlike WWII and Vietnam, we now have a class of warrior volunteers. We're entangling ourselves in a caste system:

The Ruling Class - Owns everything including their
Washington Toadies - Who put the burden on
Working Class Householders - Who are taught that their future depends on the
Volunteer Military - Who are mostly people who need a job so as not to become the
Unfortunate

And you don't think radical change is necessary?

[Maru Kitteh]

70. Thats just silly for a SoS. Really. nt

[tularetom]

3. Well, I can't disagree that Warren would be a great choice to be "on" the 2020 ticket

Preferably, at the top of it.

Otherwise, one of the benefits of not having cable is that I don't have to watch buffoons like Ed Rendell pontificating about things he knows nothing about.

[skylucy]

4. Why Ed Rendell was put on earth...

I've always felt that Ed Rendell was put on earth because God wants us Democrats to feel just a tiny bit of empathy for the Republicans who have to deal with ALL of their stupid politicians who say stupid things and then have to walk it back. The Republicans have dozens and dozens of goof balls...The Democrats have Ed Rendell. Every now and then Ed opens his mouth so I can cringe and then, on a very small scale, I kind of understand how my Republican friends feel almost every day.

[Segami]

5. Ben Grimm needs to hush up and

find himself a rock pile to go play with.

[JRLeft]

25. LMFAO!

[BeyondGeography]

6. His critique of Obama's Bain Capital ads was another highlight

What a fool.

[Ken Burch]

8. Ed needs to just get the hell away from the Democratic Party.

All he has ever done is to push for this party to be as conservative as possible. That fixation is all he has ever brought to the table.

We don't need the guy if he's going to be like that.

[BobbyDrake]

11. Ed Rendell lives in (and has won elections within) a major swing state. He's doing just fine already

I don't think he needs a bunch of neo-hippies telling him how to campaign.

[Ken Burch]

13. He never needed to push the party to the right to do that.

And...seriously? ONLY "neo-hippies" would ever question austerity and labor-bashing?

The way to win in swing states is to fire up the base by promising to defend the base and its interests...NOT to say, in effect, "I hate unions and social spending just as much as Paul Ryan does".

A Democratic governor that spends his terms doing nothing but slashing programs and shafting state employees isn't different than a Republican governor.

[BobbyDrake]

16. Ed Rendell won election as PA Gov. with more votes than there are people in Vermont total.

And some of those voters were cross-over Republicans who supported the work he did as Philadelphia's mayor. When you talk about a candidate that can appeal to a wide range of voters in a swing state, Ed Rendell is a significant example of such a candidate.

I'm curious, do folks like you who blame an executive for everything truly just not understand or care about the influence of a legislative body? You think the President runs America like a king, and that governors run their states like mini-fiefdoms, apparently. "If you want a President to sign progressive laws, elect a progressive Congress to write and pass them first." This applies at the state level as well.

[Ken Burch]

22. Where did you get the idea that I don't think we need to elect progressive legislators?

Or progressive congresspeople or senators? Or that ANY Sanders supporters ever rejected the need to do that?

It's next to impossible, though to elect progressive legislators, if the people we nominate for governorships and the presidency are anti-progressive centrists. People like that will always do all they can to stop progressives getting elected to legislative bodies.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. ...

[BobbyDrake]

24. Your comment makes no sense, as who is elected to one position has no effect on who can run for

other positions elsewhere. It must be nice being able to blame the very existence of non-progressives for repeated and almost clockwork progressive failure.

This permanent victimhood is not serving you well, as all it does is give you an excuse never to self-analyze or change your own behavior. Just keep doing what you've been doing, and losing by doing, and never change, because it's all always someone else's fault, right?

SMH

[Warren DeMontague]

27. Perhaps pompous "authorities" in our party should look to states where our party STANDS for things

and wins solidly and consistently, even in years like 2010 and 2014 when we do craptastically nationwide.

Speaking of "clockwork failure", Bob.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2014/oregon-elections

[Zen Democrat]

37. You are insulting. I'll have a tough time staying here with these attitudes.

I don't know DU anymore. It's definitely become a hostile environment, which no one needs to be in. Keep it up and you'll clear the place out and it will be just your little group of Rockefeller Democrats.

And BTW, Pennsylvania gets no applause for foisting Ed Rendell on the country. He has no spine. And no brain.

[BobbyDrake]

38. *Shrug* I'm not your parents. Your precious emotions do not concern me.

Life is a hostile environment. Too bad you don't seem prepared for it.

[Warren DeMontague]

48. This, from the guy who had to run away and put me on ignore when I pointed out

he signed up smack dab in the middle of the 12 days of Brockmas?

[cali]

60. I'm prepared for it, dear.

and your shit defense of Rendell's proclivity (you can look up words that may well be beyond your ken) to open his mouth before engaging his brain, does the democratic party no favors in this election year.

It's really not terribly difficult to figure out, dear.

[BobbyDrake]

61. Wow, such sad. I'd alert on your poor attempt at an insult, but

the jury system isn't day care and shouldn't be forced to have to deal with you either.

[panader0]

67. Why am I not surprised that you are a HRC supporter?

And joined May 17th?

[Warren DeMontague]

19. oooo, "neo-hippies"

cranky East Coasters gonna piss and moan, huh.

[Zen Democrat]

32. That was in the long ago past. What's he doing now?

Drawing checks from media to run his agenda-driven mouth. He's a hack.

Who are you hippie-haters? Back in the day people who said such things were called conservative Republicans.

[BobbyDrake]

35. 2003-2011 is not the "long ago past." I'm embarrassed for you that this was your argument. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

44. You embarassed yourself.

Coming in here trying to make it about Bernie Sanders and axe grinding against "neo-hippies". Where are you digging this crap up from?

[Loudestlib]

66. That's rich

a neocon calling someone a neo-hippie.

[BobbyDrake]

10. Is this a master-class in projection or something?

-Badmouthing a fellow Democrat? Why didn't that standard apply to all the attacks on Hillary from Bernie supporters?
-Second-guess Hillary Clinton's selection process? Seriously? From the people who expect Sanders to get to pick Cabinet members and other decisions historically reserved for the winning candidate? That's a very good joke you've made there.
-The exact same criticisms he's leveling at Warren, he's also leveling at himself. It's not as if he's holding Warren to a different standard than he himself would be held to.

Such "concern" on your part is touching, if completely laughable.

[Ken Burch]

14. Obviously, Rendell wants a running mate to HRC's right.

He can't want anyone with Democratic values and say the kind of things he said about Warren.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. I don't particularly want Julian Castro, because I think he's probably more to the right than I'd

prefer, but the same stuff could be said about him

It's a stupid thing for Rendell to do.

[BobbyDrake]

20. He said the same things that he said about Warren apply to himself, so I really don't get where this

tantrum comes from, or what it's supposed to accomplish. Other than showing how blatantly hypocritical Bernie supporters can be when it comes to which Democrats are open to criticism and which aren't.

[Warren DeMontague]

21. "bernie supporters"?

What does this thread have to do with Bernie Sanders?

You signed up 3 weeks ago, got it all figured out, huh.

[BobbyDrake]

26. I make it a point to Ignore smug DUers who think that because they knew about this site longer than

me that they're somehow better than me.

Goodbye.

[Warren DeMontague]

28. Great.

I'm crushed, really.

Edited to add: I'm not better than you because I knew about this site sooner.


You can take that however you want.

[Snotcicles]

33. Maybe you are. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Whatever, Bob.

This has nothing to do with Sanders and Clinton, speaking of Projection. Maybe you need to stop jerking that knee, pal.

[Always Randy]

12. Thank you Warren --GOP had an 11th commandment--Dems should too

the tactics from here to the GE should be prodem all the way----what a sorry bunch we will be if Trump wins

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Yeah, the Reagan dictum occurred to me, too.

It was good advice he gave that party.

[TheKentuckian]

36. No it wasn't, it is significantly why they are full on delusional and off the rails

because everything goes. There is no internal check or functioning group conscience.

No reflection means no impetus or inclination to improve so you end up with a race to the bottom, a bunch of amoral and immoral assholes chasing each other around the toilet bowl.

This is the same shit for brains, broken moral compass shit that created fucked up phenomenon like "the blue wall", the current TeaPubLIEKLAN party.

A dangerous and toxic way to do business.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. I suppose, although I think there is a difference between collective directional soul-searching

and publicly tearing down fellow party members.

I don't think Ed's comments here were particularly useful, that was my main point.

[TheKentuckian]

46. No, they weren't and more critically his comments are full of shit.

Get a preowned Turd Way hack and suddenly his criteria go poof, dollars to dimes.

Dude is a fucking conservative hack with D next to his name that needs to sit his tired and counterproductive ass down somewhere and shut the fuck up.

[Zen Democrat]

39. Are you kidding? The 11th Commandment was mindless, knee-jerk adherence to authoritarianism.

Democrats don't have Commandments of any kind.

[Warren DeMontague]

43. I suspect he was trying to avoid the circular firing squad phenomenon.

Trust me, I'm no fan of knee jerk authoritarianism.

But I also don't see how what Ed Rendell did here was helpful.

[Zen Democrat]

65. Can't find a positive in Ed Rendell at all. He's the new Joe Lieberman.

[HooptieWagon]

29. If he goes Daly on protesters...

...then Clinton is doomed.

[Ken Burch]

30. Going Daley in Philly...

...would that mean the tear gas mixture included cheesesteak fumes?

[MattP]

34. Hillary has the experience she could use the liberal cred

Pick Warren

[JoePhilly]

40. No argument ... Ed needs to STFU.

[geek tragedy]

41. Fast Eddie is not helping things.

Evergreen post title.

[CorkySt.Clair]

45. Yes, piss on Ed.

[Warren DeMontague]

47. NOT EVEN IF HE WERE ON FIRE

No, seriously, I don't micturate on politicians, sir

[CorkySt.Clair]

49. Yes, quite. Why waste perfectly good urine.

[TSIAS]

51. He has a "D" next to his name

Ergo, how could you posit that anything he says is wrong or hurtful?

[Vote2016]

52. Rendell = Hillary = Rendell = Hillary

[Warren DeMontague]

55. Well if Hillary is really gonna pick Castro for the veep slot

he's not helping, because the same logic he throws at Warren would work there, too.

[emulatorloo]

53. Hell yeah!

[bigwillq]

54. Yes (nt)

[Surya Gayatri]

56. A muzzle. Ed needs one pronto.

[Warren DeMontague]

57. See?

Unity!

[Surya Gayatri]

58. Yes we can! LOL!

[JoePhilly]

59. Ed likes to hear himself talk.

There was a time where what he said made sense ... not so much anymore.

Now he talks without thinking. He needs to read from a script, or shut up.

[NurseJackie]

62. Does he have is own VP aspirations? Is he poisoning the well ...

... in the hopes of eliminating "competition"?

Realistically, I can't imagine that he'd even be on the "long-list" of contenders ... but this behavior suggests to me that this is what he believes.

[NorthCarolina]

63. He's the one establishment politician who hasn't mastered the standard ability of couching his

disgust for progressives while simultaneously adopting progressive speak for the masses.

[Lord Magus]

68. Only until January? Why not forever? -nt-

[Maru Kitteh]

69. Oh hell yes, I had to hit the rewind button - seriously . . .

[TheFarseer]

71. He is God awful

Has he ever seen an American worker that he didn't want to lose their job?

[AzDar]

72. And yet he's a trusted Party VIP. Maybe there's some sort of problem there?