Two Democrats Show Where Their Priorities Are

Some representative from the Edwards campaign was on Hardball this evening trying to defend the former Senator's criticism of Hillary Clinton's cozy relationship with Washington lobbyists and $1,000 luncheons--the Carolina Senator's latest reason for attacking the frontrunner. I use the word "trying to defend" instead of "successfully defending" because even the liberal-friendly Chris Matthews was able to poke some pretty serious holes in the campaign's distinction between the millions of dollars Edwards has received from trial lawyers and Clinton's soft money.


To be honest, I don't consider myself anti-John Edwards, but I'm not pleased he and his wife have chosen to divert much of the energy of their grassroots press organization towards attacks on Hillary Clinton's fundraising, and most recently her health care plan. It is truly unfortunate if Clinton's proposal is just a more highly-publicized copy of what Edwards has been saying for months, but instead of playing the "imitation is the highest for of praise" card, John and Elizabeth have tried to paint Clinton's actions as somehow wrong.


On the other side of it all, waging that pleasant kind of "from the ground up" political activism network around supporting the Habeaus Corpus Restoration Act are Senators Chris Dodd and Patrick Leahy. Sure, Dodd is a current member of the Senate, while Edwards stepped down a few years back, but the fact he is engaging in some productive measures during the work week and campaigning as hard as he can on the weekend says a lot about his character. The strategy of balancing the two tasks could hurt Dodd's chances of coming out on top this primary season, but it is comforting to know where his true priorities lie--in serving the people. While Dodd and Leahy aren't competing for the same job, their ability to stand on common ground on an important issue make you wonder why Hillary's unveiling of a very comprehensive health care proposal is worth Edward's criticism.

Am I right in thinking Edward's focus isn't on campaigning on the weekends only, but taking every opportunity to get an edge over the competition.