So you keyboard that your political nose was bloodied in 2003-2004, and you also keyboard that I am quick to engage in name-calling.

That being said, the DFL endorsment process is an absolutely terrible system, and the main reason the Republicans have had so much success in Minnesota over the last 20 years.

We do need to reach out to JNP supporters and we do need to grow the party. The real question is politics a cult of personality or a group activity. Jack is a dynamic man and a great candidate… how do we find a role for him that he wants to have. He ran a respectful and hard fought campaign, showed real ability to organize… I can’t say enough good things about him and his supporters. It is up to the party to work hard at bringing that energy to bear.

(Bad Joke) Perhaps he can move to St. Paul and run for Betty McCollum’s seat, since she seems to have forgotten what party loyalty means. I’m pretty certain her friends in the GOP could find a place for her. Not.

I am truly sorry if you felt I was calling you names. In reading over my references to “bullies” and “goons” and “political mercenaries,” I can certainly understand why you would have reacted that way. My intention was to address bullying behavior, not at all to call you a bully.

But your anecdote/data meme doesn’t make any sense. We don’t need Chuck Schumer to fund a DSCC statistical analysis of bullying in order to know that it exists. Anecdotes will do actually. Unless you believe that my examples don’t actually illustrate bullying or unless you believe that I am lying, then those two stories prove that bullying occurred…at least in those two cases at my table.

I also think you completely underestimate the political power of people’s stories. Al Franken, at his best, connected with people through his stories and through theirs. He told stories about broke college students selling plasma to pay tuition. He told about Franni’s father dying and about her family pulling themselves up with help from social security survivor benefits. He illustrated the failure of No Child Left Behind by telling stories about Tomasin’s frustrations in teaching in urban schools.

Dean’s bean-counters have revolutionized the grassroots power of internet fundraising and organizing; I sincerely tip my hat to them. But no candidate wins by quoting statistics. And delegates don’t come to caucuses unless friends invite them or unless a candidate sets their passion on fire, or unless a personal crisis lets them understand that they must seek solutions.

Those bullied delegates were alienated at the convention. Again, I will say that it is not about which candidate got the endorsement. It is about having a process that invites people to become involved. It is about making our party stronger and bigger and more effective.

It dismays me that you seem not to understand what I am saying, since I truly believe that our party cannot win by merely trying to duplicate the top-down, narrow-tent, insider politics of the Republicans. Frankly, they simply do it better.

Look, Lojasmao, those delegates FELT bullied, whether or not I produce studies that prove it or even if you agree with their definition of “bullied.” They felt bullied. They were young people in their 20’s and they may not ever come back to a DFL function again.

Do you want them with us or not?

Charley and el pres. are quick to complain about alleged bullying, but are also quick to engage in name calling.

Mote something, something, log something something.

Charley, the plural of anecdote is not data. The supporters of JNP may have felt bullied, but it does not follow that bullying actually occurred.

And El. P. I was a Dean supporter in 2003/4 My political nose has indeed been bloodied.

It is called politics, for goodness sake. As I said, not for the weak willed nor the thin skinned.

When logasmao displays an attitude such as let’s cross swords, to me it sounds as though lagasmao doesn’t think that his ox will ever get gored, or his political nose will ever get bloodied.

You say, “Welcome to the caucus system. Not for the weak willed or easily rattled.”

Fine, I can accept that you do not want to put any rules of civility on convention attenders. Quite Hobbesian of you. The brutal king must rule to prevent “bellum omnium contra omnes” and all that.

But what sense does that bullying make if it results in picking a candidates who lose (and I am sure that we could both come up with plenty of examples here)? What sense in alienating both political veterans and newcomers whose main interest is civil engagement rather than blood sport? Why allow bullies to destroy the very caucus/convention institutions in the process of winning?

Do you really want our candidate pool to be chosen by thugs and political mercenaries? If that is the case, I can almost certainly guarantee that there will be only horrible candidates for either of us to chose from.

I didn’t see any of the “bullying”, and if I did I would have said something.

JNP is a fine man, and I think he’ll be around for a long time. His best days are to come.