Good Intentions Paving The Road To Hell

I was alerted to this in The Inquirer yesterday; it seems that there are a group of Philadelphia Democratic voters who, instead of casting their ballots for individuals of their own party, may decide to support Philadelphia Repug David Oh for an at-large seat on Philadelphia’s City Council in the November election.

I freely admit that there are probably many other people who know more about Philadelphia politics than I do, but here is what I’ve been able to figure out; there are seven seats in play for the election, and the Democrats traditionally hold onto five (that is the number voters are allowed), with the other two held at the moment by Republicans Frank Rizzo, Jr. (a good guy, I must admit) and Jack Kelly.

Some Democratic voters, as noted in MrLuigi’s post at Young Philly Politics, are tempted to vote for Oh and elect him to try and give Kelly the boot. This would mean voting for four Dems and one Repug; even though the Dems will still hold the majority, this is sending a bad message as far as I’m concerned.

To me, a Repug is a Repug is a Repug; when push comes to shove, they will take their marching orders from Washington (Dems are guilty of this mentality too a bit, but trying to get them to line up in this way is highly problematic – that’s a bad thing nationally as far as I’m concerned, but a good thing locally).

I think W. Wilson Goode, Jr. is right; if Oh has positions that are somewhat progressive (respect on diversity including the Log Cabin Republicans), that’s good. However, if he were really serious about trying to advance these issues on behalf of a party that would actually listen to him, he would have run as a Dem (as Goode wondered in the comments).

As it is, he’s a Repug. Let him fend for himself. If he can’t, then (metaphorically speaking) let him dangle from a yardarm as food for the buzzards.

Update: The following doesn’t pertain to the November Philadelphia election, but it sure as hell pertains to the Republican party; if you thought I was uncharitable before, then in the words of that shallow but revered Repug president, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Do me a favor; read this post, print it, stick it on a wall where you live so you’ll see it every stinking day until November 2008, and never forget who killed the Employee Free Choice Act!