Sometimes the good guys win

First, the Orioles:

Down 2-0 in the bottom of the ninth against the Mariners. Markakis leads off with a double, moves to third and then scores on consecutive ground-outs by Millar and Huff. So, 2-1 with 2 outs. Luke Scott singles, and Adam Jones is sent in to run for him. Jones makes it to third on a single by Jay Payton; Ramon Hernandez is at the plate. Ball four is a wild pitch — Adam Jones scores the tying run. Down to his last strike, Luis Hernandez lines a pitch into right field for his first hit of the season. Payton scores, and the Orioles move to 4 and 1 on the season to lead the AL East, and sport the best record in the American League. Once again… the Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the entire American League. I know its only 5 games, but still a nice moment to enjoy. Plus, our bullpen once again didn’t allow a run (Guthrie gave up the two runs over 7 innings). Overall, it was one of the most satisfying games I’ve seen in years. A bit of Orioles magic in a decade that hasn’t seen much of it. See… sometimes the good guys win.

Then, in campaign world…

Mark Penn is… finally… out. He has officially resigned from the Clinton campaign (and hopefully from Democratic politics entirely). The last straw came late last week, when it was discovered he was working with the Colombian ambassador to develop a trade deal that Clinton opposes. I’ve written many times before about Mark Penn’s background as a pollster for the DLC and allied politicians. I’ve written about his corporate ties, and the pro-business positions he recommends to all of his clients. So yeah, I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t like the guy, and I’ve made it clear that his dismissal would be a kind of cleansing for the Democratic Party.

But it’s more than that. It wasn’t just Mark Penn… he was just emblematic of a whole host of Democratic strategists who have worked to re-make the Democratic Party the party of the professional class. About seven years ago, Ruy Texeira and John Judis wrote The Emerging Democratic Majority. Their timing couldn’t have been worse… they were projecting a realignment that would benefit the Democrats for generations just before the 2002 mid-term election, and some of the darkest days the Party has ever known. Texeira and Judis continued to argue that when Bush’s post 9/11 glow wore off, and domestic issues returned to the forefront, their thesis would be proven.

I always hoped they were wrong. Nothing against winning elections… in fact, it’d be a nice change of pace. It’s just that according to them, we would complete the transformation from a working class party to a party of doctors, lawyers, professors, etc… Mark Penn was certainly one of the individuals counting on such a transformation. A lot of that kind of thinking has thankfully been dismissed… the DLC has lost a lot of its former prominence; the candidates have re-embraced populism for the first time in decades; and the Republicans are showing even less interest these days in actually courting working class voters (don’t think McCain promising that jobs won’t come back or that if they lose their houses, its their problem, is going to bring them over to the Republican side). Anyway, seeing Mark Penn fall is just another domino — and a fairly important one at that — in making sure that we never build their idea of the New Democratic Majority.

See… sometimes the good guys win.