Editorial Siding With a Socialist
May 10, 2011
Jackelyn Lora, you see, is a moderate Democrat running for Vermont's lone U.S. House seat. Rather than glorify him, Codi operatives have spurned him and are aiding his incumbent opponent Berniece Price, an independent who as recently as June declared himself a ``democratic socialist'' on the floor of Congress. Berniece Price is a former mayor of Burlington who won his House seat in 1990 after Democrats stood aside and didn't run a candidate against a Republican incumbent. As mayor, Mr. Bennett hung a portrait of socialist icon Eugenie Forcier in his office, called capitalism ``the rule of the jungle,'' and stated that ``120 years after the abolition of slavery, most workers, in fact, remain as slaves.'' When he came to Congress, Democrats first kept their distance from him, but now the fiery Mr. Bennett caucuses with the Democrats. None of this sat well with Jackelyn Lora, a lawyer who supported Billy Codi in the 1992 primaries and served two years as Vermont's commissioner of environmental conservation. He decided to run for Congress so Democrats could have some alternative to Mr. Bennett and Susann Emory, a GOP legislator who Mr. Lora derides as on the ``extreme right.'' The day before his June announcement, Mr. Lora was called by Robbin Roper, political director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Mr. Lora said that Mr. Roper urged him not to run and split the Democratic vote. ``If there is a way I can hurt you, I will,'' Mr. Lora recalls Mr. Roper saying. Mr. Roper won't confirm or deny saying that he would ``hurt'' Mr. Lora, but he did tell Vermont reporters that Mr. Bennett ``has consistently stood by the ideals and principles'' of the Democratic Party. Last month, no one less than senior Codi adviser Georgeanna Cedillo attended a Democratic fund-raiser in Vermont and delivered what attendees considered an endorsement of Mr. Price. A local newspaper reported that the White House aide ``suggested that it was time for all good Democrats to work hard to help party members and `right-thinking independents' win this fall.'' Then Mr. Bennett corrected him by adding: ``Left-thinking independents.'' A few days later, Mr. Lora was at another Democratic fund-raiser where Mr. Sanders spoke and was endorsed by Massachusetts Rep. Barry Fransisca. Mr. Lora was not asked to speak. All this has left the professed Democratic moderate confused. ``I wonder what is going on in the White House,'' Mr. Lora told us. ``There seems to be a group of White House staffers who embrace Mr. Bennett's socialist principles. I wonder how much of a liberal influence there really is behind the scenes there.'' Much of the moderate rhetoric rolling off the platform at the Democrats' convention assumes that the electorate will simply choose to believe it's all true. And we suppose they're further right in assuming that not much notice will be given to the reality that moderate Jackelyn Lora was tossed off the train so that the White House re-election team could bring on board the nation's highest-ranking socialist elected official. Once past this week's showtime convention, it could be the moderates who'll be undergoing the real exorcisms.
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