By Tom Perez • Boston Herald
Who said the Democratic Party is out of ideas? After failing to raise any significant money with the wall-to-wall hysterical coverage networks like CNN have afforded Dems, they are moving their efforts over to Court TV.
And so the Democratic National Committee on Friday sued President Trump’s campaign, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, the Russian Federation, Wikileaks and others. The gist of the action is that Team Trump had worked with dark cronies like Russian oligarchs, WikiLeaks, Cambridge Analytica, et al. to steal the election.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez called it an “act of unprecedented treachery.”
That this move by Perez and the DNC is an act of unprecedented poor sportsmanship is unquestionable. It’s no different than when a child angrily hits the “reset” button on a video game when he’s getting unmercifully beaten by his opponent.
You’d think adults would be embarrassed by this kind of maneuver, but since the election we’ve come to expect such huffy tantrums with even the party’s standard bearer herself unable to take responsibility for the historic election loss.
Among other factors, Clinton or Democrats have blamed the electoral college, misogyny, low-information (think deplorable) voters, Vladimir Putin, sexism, Bernie Sanders, WikiLeaks, racism, journalists for covering Trump, James Comey, Citizens United, husbands and fathers who told the women in their lives not to vote for Hillary Clinton, voter suppression, Clinton campaign staffers, Jill Stein and Facebook.
With the inability to reconcile their own loss or offer Americans clear reasoning as to why the Democratic Party is looking out for its best interests, Dems have resorted to suing their way back to national relevance.
There is a chance that this craven shakedown attempt might be successful, especially since no branch of government, no cultural institution and even no “Saturday Night Live” opening has managed to avoid Trump-born hysteria. Judicial activism in favor of Democrats seems almost likely.
Indeed the Democratic Party employed a similar strategy during the Watergate scandal in 1972, eventually settling with the Nixon campaign for $750,000.
Though 2018’s version might be financially fruitful for the DNC in the short term, and may stave off the ouster of Chairman Tom Perez, whose fundraising impotence is undeniable, what does it do for the party’s brand?
The message being sent to working Americans is that the Democrats are not looking to the future with a clear vision and message, but instead are traveling back to 2016 in hopes of wiping it away. It’s a reboot of “Terminator” with Dems in Schwarzenegger’s role and Sarah Connor being the election.
Meanwhile the Republican National Committee announced Friday that it has set another non-presidential year fundraising record by raising $13.9 million in the month of March.
Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the RNC, made her case without a lawyer in the room: “Another month of record-breaking fundraising confirms what many in the mainstream media are ignoring: Americans are doing better under Republican leadership,” she said. “Our country has more jobs, a growing economy and higher wages, thanks to President Trump and Republicans in Congress.”
In the movie, the Terminator lost in the end, and ultimately this will be a loss for the Democratic National Committee, which has transformed itself in front of our very eyes into one giant personal injury attorney.
What makes the collossal show of hubris even more of a pathetic pageant is that the lawsuit contends a level of Trump/Russia collusion exists that has been entirely unsubstantiated by the real investigations conducted by the Justice Department.
But while we’re on the topic of suing, those same investigations did more to reveal coordination between the DNC, Clinton campaign, the FBI and the Russians.
If litigation is the newest front in the political war, it would seem only fair that both sides take up arms.