Taking Heat for Townsend's Loss (Rats Eating Their Own After Kennedy Loss)

The Washington Post ^ | Sunday, December 1, 2002 | Lori Montgomery

[kristinn]

The votes were not yet tallied on election night when Gov. Parris N. Glendening pronounced his lieutenant governor's bid to succeed him "one of the worst-run campaigns in the country," a remark Democrats across Maryland agreed was in particularly bad taste.

But in the three weeks since Kathleen Kennedy Townsend lost the governor's race, few dispute that he was right. And the man they most often blame for the humiliating loss to Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., for losing control of state government and costing hundreds of Democratic state workers their jobs is the man who ran her campaign: Alan Fleischmann.

"Alan Fleischmann couldn't lead a troop of Boy Scouts out of a telephone booth with a seeing-eye dog. Please print that. That's the reason she lost," said Jim Farmer, a lawyer and conservationist who raised money for Townsend in Southern Maryland.

[kristinn]

Rats in disarray, tears, backstabbing, name calling, greed--this dishy piece has it all. Pour a cup of your favorite beverage, click the link and relish your schadenfreude.

[Cicero]

Let's just say they're all to blame. Otherwise it's pretty hard to see how a Kennedy could possibly lose in a heavily Democratic, machine-dominated state like Maryland. Glendenning was a crook, the campaign staff was incompetent, and KKT is a shrill-voiced shrew.

[mcenedo]

funny, when she was running for office it was ALWAYS kathleen KENNEDY townsend

- in this entire article the magic name is only uttered once

[wattsup]

Clink, That is the sound of a cup of my favorite beverage clinking agaist yours in celebration. Cheers

[jimtorr]

The difference, I think, was what we said from the beginning. KKT is a typical arrogant Kennedy who expects everything handed to her on a plate. She and her staff believed that, and just had no clue that the times, they are a changing.

They also had no clue that Spendennings unpopularity and scandals would stick to them, nor KKT's scandals, nor the scandals throughout the democratic legislature. To just name one, when earlier this year state legislature folks lobbied the state supreme court justices on a case they had an interest in.

[kristinn]

Sure, they're all to blame but, as John F. Kennedy said (IIRC), "success has a hundred fathers but failure is an orphan."

[kristinn]

Yep. She suddenly became plain ol' Kathleen Townsend after election night.

[kristinn]

Cheers back. I'm very happy for the long suffering people of the Free State.

[Charles Henrickson]

Fleischmann's Margin
Like butter. It melted away.

[kristinn]

Ehrlich seems to have figured that out, too.

Funny, there's no mention of the Clintons campaigning for KKT in the article.

[kristinn]

LOL! Good one.

[Enterprise]

"Fleischmann said he called Ehrlich's campaign manager and handed the phone to Townsend, who conceded defeat. Then he followed her down to the ballroom, where he broke into tears."

There there little fellow, don't cry. You dun good. You helped a RAT lose.

[Jhoffa_]

Their politics are geared toward an isolated, hateful and ignorant society, that's why they lost.

You have like 68% of Americans in the stock market, so they attack it. You have over paid government bureaucrats who everyone hates, so they defend them. You have a defiant Saddam who made a deal then welched on it, who they side with and you have an economy that's going down the crapper and the only thing they have to offer there are tax hikes.

In the midst of this there is a very public death of a Democrat Senator whom everyone feels sorry for, so they put a soapbox on his grave. You have election debacle's one right after another that people simply detest, so they drag them all through the court system.

Is it any wonder they lost?

[Boiler Plate]

Everyone, including most democrats, here were pretty sick and tired of her. The best part of the whole campaign was that she could not make back to her campaign party on election night because she was caught in traffic. Not just any traffic mind you but traffic that who have been relieved had Paris kept his promise to build a stretch of hi-way called the inter-county connector. KKT backed him all the way when he reneged.

SWEEEEEETTTT!!

[Man of the Right]

The anti-death penalty, anti-gun campaign didn't work during the sniper rampage. Either did being a Kennedy.

[CARepubGal]

Ouch! Maybe that would change her mind on RKBA.

[goldstategop]

In a state that should be a Democrat's by birthright? I guess this is one campaign that never boned up on that Bob Dylan song. ;-) Good riddance.

[EternalVigilance]

CHEERS, my friend.

[88keys]

Clink!

Is there an echo in here?!

(no gloat, just "cheers, all" and here's to many more...!) ;)