How A Dirty Fucking Hippie Liberal Beat the Entrenched Repug Incumbent in a Deep-Red District

If it could happen in Virgil Goode's better-dead-than-dem district in Virginia, it could happen in Kentucky's First, Second, Fourth and Fifth Districts.

The 5th District spreads from Charlottesville (the Tribeca of the South) down to the border of North Carolina. It's been Virgil Goode country since 1997—Goode being the congressman whose re-election campaign was predicated on insulting immigrants, Muslims, the mentally ill, homosexuals, teenagers, Northerners, and, eventually, pretty much everyone, in as many different ways as possible. In August, polls showed Perriello running 30 points behind Goode, who, right up until the night before the election, refused to learn how to pronounce his opponent's name.

SNIP

With three minutes to go before the announcement of his new gig, it sounds like job security isn't much of a concern to him. Hanging on to a congressional seat is not his first priority. Not at the expense of doing the right thing. Perriello muses that this new generation of leaders seems to feel that if they don't get re-elected, it would be OK. "I love what I did in Afghanistan and Darfur. If I have to go back to that, it wouldn't be the worst thing." That's why he so admires Virginia Sen. Jim Webb. "I think he's a great politician because he's a bad politician in the conventional sense. He says what he believes without any care for polls or messaging. It's about right and wrong."

Heads up, Kentucky Democrats. It's 446 days until the filing deadline for the next elections. In 2010 we'll be electing the entire state House of Representatives, half the state Senate, all six Congressional seats and Jim Bunning's Senate seat.

Start looking and listening carefully now for Real Democrats who speak out proudly about their Democratic values. Proud Real Democrats who view elected office as a public service, a temporary sacrifice, a significant but small part of a much larger life, rather than the end-all, be-all of existence.

Pay attention to those who work quietly and without credit to help others - those soup kitchen volunteers, those community organizers, those Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

The ones who speak softly but with passion, who find solutions despite obstacles, who quote Thomas Paine without effort.

And once you've talked them into running for office, for pity's sake keep them far away from the KDP.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.