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Democrats engage in 'circular firing squad'

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 18, 2010

In a week when Congress finally passed financial regulatory reform and the oil finally stopped gushing in the gulf, Democrats spent much of their time on an enterprise they can ill afford: arguing among themselves.

The Democrats' political mission is clear. They want to prevent Republicans from taking control of the House. But for five days they engaged in what one administration official called "a circular firing squad" over an accurate -- if incomplete -- assessment of the political climate voiced by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

At a time when their goal is to persuade voters to see the fall elections as a choice, rather than a referendum on President Obama's leadership, this was an opportunity lost. "We're certainly not driving a contrast in this election when we're fighting among ourselves," a senior administration official lamented at the end of the week.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Gibbs said enough House seats are in play "that could cause Republicans to gain control." What was so controversial about that? Republicans need to pick up an additional 39 seats to take control. Two of the best House handicappers in the country -- Stu Rothenberg and Charlie Cook -- show more than 60 Democratic districts at risk.

Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, offered much the same assessment several weeks ago. No one in the House raised a hand in protest. Other Democratic strategists have been even more pessimistic in their forecasts. But such is the power of the official White House spokesman's words that Gibbs's comments created uproar in the ranks.

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A leader of the Tea Party Express (TPX) says the Tea Party Federation was wrong to banish one of TPX’s highest-profile activists, Mark Williams, for what have been described as racially insensitive actions.

Williams and the Tea Party Express were expelled from the federation after Williams came under attack for a satirical response to the NAACP’s resolution last week condemning racist elements of the Tea Party movement. The satirical piece mocked NAACP leader Ben Jealous in a “letter” to President Abraham Lincoln, and was used by critics to say Williams is a racist.

Joe Wierzbicki, a founding member of TPX, told The Daily Caller in an e-mail that the federation was “wrong.”

“Circular firing squads of groups within the Tea Party movement attacking one another accomplish nothing, and on this issue the Tea Party Federation was wrong, and enabled and empowered the NAACP’s racist attacks on the Tea Party movement,” Wierzbicki said.

He said it’s no big deal that TPX, which has been a very visible organization in the grassroots movement, was expelled too. “We’re really not concerned by it,” he said. “The Tea Party Express with over 400,000 members is far larger than the Tea Party Federation’s entire membership.”

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