PDHblog
This is a place for members of Progressive Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee or membership as a whole.

Jerry Burris in his column posted in the Advertiser on Sunday, September 24, 2006, with the title “Case’s bid for change falls short,” wrote

But Case concluded it was important to test his belief that the party and the state had changed and that a more centrist approach would best serve Hawai’i.

Case made no bones about this. His campaign would be a referendum on politics as usual and a test of the changing face of the Hawai’i electorate. His catchword was “transition,” but he meant more than transition in the U.S. Senate — he also was talking about transition in the soul of the Democratic Party.

If this was Case’s strategy, he picked a really bad year to do it, with the public rebelling across the country against President Bush and the Republicans. It might have worked in 2000, when people did not yet realize what a dud Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” would turn out to be.

His strategy also backfired, because he not only failed to unseat Sen. Akaka, but also he is likely to be replaced by a congressperson less “centrist” than himself.

The “soul of the Democratic party” seems to be moving away from Case, rather than towards him.

Bob Schacht