VA JJ: B. Clinton Urges Dems Against Partisanship
RICHMOND - Virginia Democrats have got the blues. But as Richmond mayor Dwight Jones said last night as he opened his party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner, "it feels pretty good."
Four months after the Commonwealth voted for Barack Obama for president, the first time in decades the state backed a Democrat, partisans here are still celebrating their historic win. Speaker after speaker rose before the faithful gathered at Richmond's downtown Convention Center to bask in - and, at times, warily remind each other of - the fact that they're in charge now.
Keynote speaker Bill Clinton explained the country's evolution. The story that unfolded during the November election was that red states like Virgina, North Carolina and Indiana made up a new United States where you can't tell where the red stops and the blue begins.
Clinton mused on the factionalism of the 1960s and the conservative rise that defined his political career. The past, he said, was defined cultural battles. But today he said, "we Democrats have been given an incredible opportunity. To see this day come, when we have got much more of a live and let live attitude, when we can get along."
But Clinton's speech also carried some of the steely-eyed partisanship he's known for -- and that Obama has started to turn to as Republicans in Washington have pushed back against his first big initiative, and economic stimulus package, in a decidedly pre-postpartisan way.
"We have been given something we haven't had in years, but the only thing that matters to people is, what are we going to do now?" Clinton said, adding, "Nobody should waste their time with the tried and true applause lines against Republicans. They have done themselves in. They have to go back to the drawing board, just as we once did."
Thirty minutes later, the party decided to do a little gloating anyway. Rep. Jim Moran introduced a video montage of the race to Obama's Virginia victory. There were all the old faces of '08, "real Virginia" and all. The closing title card - "Yes, we did!"
Fresh from the stimulus debate trenches, Sen. Mark Warner didn't walk the same line as Clinton. As the man who led the state towards its new political hue when he won the governorship in 2002, Warner's hoping to see the third straight Dem GOV elected later this year. He sounded frustrated that, after defeating a former GOP Governor to take over the long-held seat of GOP Sen. John Warner, his colleagues in the Senate aren't following his momentum the same way the voters of back home did. He said Dems have the three GOP votes they need to pass the stimulus, but, he added, "the vast majority of Republican senators didn't get the message that the people voted for change."
The smiles and high-fives during the speeches last night suggested the same can't be said of VA Dems.
(EVAN McMORRIS-SANTORO)
Did you sit at the same table as the AP reporters? Because your report sounds a lot like theirs:
Bill Clinton: Don't ruin victory with partisanship
Now why Bill Clinton would argue against partisanship at a partisan function? Why would the Virginia Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson dinner--a partisan event--be nonpartisan?
Why would you claim Clinton urged against partisanship and then provide no direct quote from Clinton containing the word "partisanship"?
Here's the quote attributed to Clinton:
Nothing about partisanship there or in what little you do have to say about Clinton's speech. Can't imagine where you heard it.