Newark Mayor Cory Booker shoveling snow for constituents in 2010 (Natalia Jimenez/Star Ledger/Corbis)
In the same vein as Salon, The New Republic published a hatched job on Newark Mayor and Senatorial Candidate Cory Booker today which, from my perspective, completely misses the mark and is utterly unconvincing.
What both pieces have in common is that neither offer tangible evidence that displays how Cory Booker would vote as a member of the U.S. Senate. Both offer vague conjecture that Booker is a secret Wall-Street-apologizing vulture who will throw you under the bus just as easily as the Republicans will.
They both purport that Cory Booker is ‘worse than you think’ but don’t explain why other than to speculate that he is beholden to special interests.
Describing his alleged worldview in a very hyperbolic fashion does not convince me that he will not vote for the president’s agenda a majority of the time, and if he votes for the president’s agenda a majority of the time, I don’t care what his opinion of the ‘moneyed elites’ is. And, by the way, it’s very hard to take you seriously when you use phrases like “benevolent elite” and “moneyed classes” like some caricature of a staunch liberal.
If you’ve paid any attention to Booker over the past several years you would know that he goes out of his way to both respond to and take action to help even his poorest constituents. Even when some of them aren’t necessarily polite to him, he will personally deliver a hot meal to their home during a snow storm or connect them to someone on his staff that can help.
Some are alleging that he only does this because he’s a “camera hog” who is only interested in promoting himself, and to that I would say you’re missing the point. Politicians exist to promote themselves and their constituents. And if you like the policies he’s selling, who cares if he’s a camera hog?
Last but not least — if you feel that you’ve been tricked into believing that Cory Booker would be the second coming of Rand Paul or Ted Cruz who would feverishly fight against drones or government surveillance of foreign suspects, you have no one to blame but yourself.
That Booker does not fit your preconceived notion of what future Democratic candidates should look like does not mean he’s a sign that the end of days is upon us. And if your real problem is that he will vote in favor of President Obama’s agenda an overwhelming portion of the time, you should just say that. Don’t tell me he’s beholden to the “moneyed classes” and “benevolent elite” if your underlying motivation is to attack the policies of the president.
As always, the Far Left’s timing is inexplicably bad. The New Republic published their hit piece today after Booker has become the Democratic candidate by winning yesterday’s primary. And if all of this is what you really think, why didn’t you say it when he first announced his candidacy? Why him and why now? Is your desire to see Democrats lose control of the Senate really that great?
My gut tells me this may be a preview of what we’re in store for in 2015 as presidential contenders begin to emerge. The Far Left will trip over themselves to see who can write the most damning headline of whichever Democratic candidate is currently leading the polls, because it’s almost guaranteed whoever it is will not be perfect.
Part of me hopes Clinton will run just to save us all a lot of trouble.
Bob said it better than I could today when he categorized this as “sanctimonious self-satisfaction.”