Lost in the Fields

What is the Shelby County Democratic Party thinking? Richard Fields has gone off the reservation and now wants to drag the Party with him. I first heard about Fields doing pro bono work for Terry Roland and the republicans a couple weeks ago. To me it was a no brainer, he has to be thrown off the Executive Committee. I don’t care what his motivation for attempting to give a democratically elected Senate seat to the republicans is. The problem is, he didn’t come to the Party to try to work out his concerns about the vote. If the Party didn’t take action that satisfied him, then Fields should have resigned and then gone to work with the republicans. But some how, there is talk now in the Party’s Executive Committee of a compromise. WTF?! Fields has been able to turn this from a simple issue of Party rules into a debate based on rhetoric of clean elections. Richard Fields took an oath and he broke that oath by working against a Democratic candidate and now certified elected official. Some are going to say, clean elections help the Party in the long run. That is true. The problem is he didn’t go about this the right way. If you break the law, cops don’t ask you about your motivation, they just arrest you. Well, the Shelby County Democratic Party must fulfill is duty and throws Fields out.
Now let’s look at what Fields is asking the Party to do. He says there is evidence of voting improprieties. Why didn’t he give copies of this evidence to the Party so that it could try to do the right thing. Certainly, some may doubt much would have happened even if there was evidence, but at least he tried. So right now, Fields is asking the Democratic Party to believe him. But the only facts I know are that he has been making conference calls with John Ryder and Ed Bryant. That’s right Ed Bryant! Fields has also been doing pro bono work with Roland in order to over turn the election and have the republicans in Senate select who they want to fill that District 29 seat in January. How is that helping clean elections? We don’t even get to vote for our Senators. So the only evidence the Executive Committee has for sure is proof that Fields broke his oath.
If the Executive Committee doesn’t throw Fields out what will that mean? Well, it means no one is going to give this Shelby County Democratic Party a dime. Why would I give money to the Party if it just gives the seats up to republicans? Senators and Representatives aren’t going to have anything to do with the Party. The Party may dump them if there some accusations. On top of this, do you think any money from the State and National Democratic Party will ever be given to the Shelby County Democratic Party? SCDP will be completely humiliated and the laughing stock of Democratic Politics. Finally, this will be Matt Kuhn’s defining moment as chairman. In front of Bob Tuke and the media, he may oversee the marginalization and discrediting of the Party he is chairman of. Only Democrats can be so spooked yet so incompetent that they keep sticking their head in the noose for republicans to hanging them. (The Party should have taken this issue by the horns two months ago. Republicans were involved in Tennessee Waltz too, but the republicans nipped that in the bud quick.) Compromising to accusations only encourage more accusations.