(Correction) Blue America PAC, the group I'm involved with, never did support Jon Tester when he ran for Congress although he wasn't a true progressive, but at the time I didn't want him to lose. He seemed to have some common sense and decency, but in the end he turned out to be a Pat Buchanan wannabe when it came to helping kids with the DREAM Act. I wrote about him last week as I tried to persuade him to do the right thing: Sen.Tester, the DREAM Act is not Amnesty. He was clearly trying to score points with the nativists and that's so sad because he's hurting real children and kids.
There are Democrats I expect to be assholes. I never thought Jon Tester would be among them.
Anybody who votes to punish innocent kids is an asshole. Plain and simple. And while I expect it from Democrats like Ben Nelson and C-Street denizen Mark Pryor, I honestly thought Jon Tester was different. I was wrong. I am now embarrassed that I worked so hard to help get him elected in 2006. I feel personally betrayed.
Not only will I do absolutely nothing to help his reelection bid, but I will take every opportunity I get to remind people that he is so morally bankrupt that he'll try to score political points off the backs of innocent kids who want to go to college or serve their country in the military.
To me, he is the Blanche Lincoln of 2012 -- the Democrat I will most be happy to see go down in defeat. And he will. Nothing guarantees a Republican victory more than trying to pretend to be one of them.
“I think he’s alienated his base in the progressive Democrat circles and he’s going to definitely have a lot of explaining to do,” said Montana Democratic National Committeewoman Jean Lemire Dahlman, who dubbed his vote against DREAM “a grave mistake.” “I was surprised. It didn’t seem to jive with what I expect of him.”
Dahlman, who doubted Tester would face any serious primary challenge from the left, conceded the vote “can’t hurt him with conservatives.”
“What I want to do is talk to Tester or one of his representatives. I guess he, like all of us, is capable of miscalculating and making a mistake,” she said.
Sometimes politicians have to vote with their heads and hearts and not with what polls say in their home states and obviously Tester did this to not lose any votes. When will Democrats understand that it doesn't matter how they vote. The GOPoPaths will try to destroy you no-matter-what so do what's morally correct when it comes down to a human rights issue.
The PCCC sent out an email to its Montana supporters asking for their thoughts on Tester's betrayal.
Here are some of the responses I received from Adam Green:
Ann Karp, from Missoula, Montana grocery store manager and PCCC member
"This saddens me to no end. I have a young friend, whom I was tutoring in English at my local church, whose parents came illegally to the US when he was only a baby. His home is the United States; he does not remember Mexico. His younger siblings are citizens, but he is not. He is enthusiastic, hopeful, hard-working, kind, and ambitious. He would like to be a hospital administrator one day, but doesn't know how to proceed. He strongly desires to attend college in the US but is grasping at straws to find a way. He is not able to work legally, but back in Mexico, he knows no one and would be alone, separated from his family here. I pray that a way opens for him and for all the hard-working, ambitious young people like him who have the potential to make such a difference in the world."
Petrus C, Martens, from Bozeman, University professor, has lived in Montana for 10 years, PCCC member
"I am nauseated by this basically racist stand. I am an immigrant myself. One of my children is adopted from Russia."
Will Kipling, from Great Falls, 20 year old computer worker, PCCC member
"Senator Tester's vote against the DREAM Act is the ugliest kind of politics. He will go down in history as having been on the wrong side of this. I've lived in Montana my whole life, and to the best of my knowledge my family has been around here since before it was even a state. I do know many immigrants, some legal and some illegal. The one thing they all have in common is that they love this country as much as any who was born here does."
Jeff Smith, from Missoula, Development Director for a nonprofit organization, lived in Montana for 34 years, PCCC member
"The guy is a former teacher! How does he sleep at night? We need educated people and this would have given immigrant children a way to get an education. It's shameful he voted against it."
Roger Sherman, from Whitefish, 13-year Montana resident with Masters Degree in education, PCCC member
"I have been a contributor and supporter of Mr. Tester and I can't imagine he would vote this way. These people are here and have proven themselves. They are college grads and military...they want a better a life and have the HUNGER to achieve it. I have lived in Montana for 13 years. I have a Masters Degree in education with 35 years of experience. I have four friends who have immigrated here and have college graduate degrees. They have contributed to our state immensely."
Take the Jon Tester survey here. I'm still always shocked when I here any Democratic politician make racist and factually wrong statements about minorities and women. I know, I know, I shouldn't be, but I still expect certain things if someone doesn't want to be part of the GOP. I don't care if they are Blue Dog assholes in the House or ConservaDems in the Senate.
Correction: Blue America did support Jon Tester in his bid to win his Senate seat. My bad. I wrote earlier that we didn't.
