First Shots Fired in the Democratic Civil War! YeeHaw!!

Divided Alabama Democrats defy DNC in chaotic meeting filled with yelling and accusations

Alabama Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley and Vice-Chair Randy Kelly bought out the big guns and fired the first shots in the battle for control of the soul, EYE mean control of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Alabama Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Worley and vice chairman Randy Kelly filed a complaint on Wednesday with the Montgomery County Circuit Court asking for a temporary restraining order to block a scheduled meeting this Saturday, and also asking for an injunction against the breakaway ADP group.

Judge Greg Griffin has set a hearing for Thursday morning on the matter.

He will rule on possibly the oddest lawsuit in some time — one that asks the court to prevent a group of people from meeting in order to elect new ADP leadership, despite Worley and Kelly neither recognizing the legitimacy of the breakaway group nor the power of the Democratic National Committee to authorize the meeting.

Actually, Judge Greg Griffin will rule whether the minority has the right to rule the majority because that's what this war is actually about.  The 'breakaway group" sees this as Custer's EYE mean their stand, EYE mean chance to take their party back from Joe Reed and his bunch.

That’s at the heart of what started this mess in the first place. After Worley was re-elected in September 2018, several State Democratic Executive Committee members filed a challenge claiming that various issues should make the elections invalid. Among the complaints was an allegation that the ADP’s bylaws were seriously out of line with the DNC’s and failed to provide proper voices to a number of minority groups, including LGBTQ people, Hispanics, Asians and youth.

The complaint also stated that because of those flawed bylaws, the party was being controlled by vice chairman for minority affairs Joe Reed.

Actually, this mess started with Senator Doug Jones's failed takeover of the Alabama Democratic Party when the #SoreLosers convinced DNC Chairman Tom Perez the SDEC Minority Caucus were a bunch of lying, election stealing racist. 

The feud began last August, when Jones made known he wanted Worley to step aside. But Worley ran for another term — beating back the entire slate Jones supported.
“He went after Nancy’s seat. He lost,” said Joe Reed, a civil rights veteran who heads the Alabama Democratic Conference, the state’s principal African American Democratic club, and Worley’s most powerful ally. “Doug’s slate lost. He came back. He got with Perez. They then came up with a scheme to challenge Nancy’s election.”

Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying at the absurdity of politics.

Barry Ragsdale, an attorney representing some of the defendants, said Worley and her supporters were "trying to delay the inevitable."
"It was probably inevitable we would end up here," he said. "To try to tell people they can’t go to a meeting or get together with like-minded folks to talk politics, that's not what Democrats do."

Uh...there is a difference between a get together with like-minded folks and trying to hijack the Alabama Democratic Party. 

Instead, however, there are those who want us to change our Bylaws to create a Diversity Caucus and manipulate the numbers to achieve unfair results because of a urinating contest between Senator Doug Jones and black Democratic leaders in Alabama over control of the ADP. You were drawn into this “shower,” by virtue of your position; this should not be. This demand on Alabama is not required of any other states. Except for the Vice President of Youth Affairs, Senator Doug Jones backed an all-white slate of officers for the SDEC when Blacks constitute 70% of the Democratic electorate in Alabama. They all lost. We should not be asked or expected to cooperate or accommodate racism to placate anyone. Your energy and influence should be focused on helping us increase the number of registered voters and voter turnout in the Democratic Party.

EYE report.
You decide.

ar

“Let the word go from this time and place: You can’t cuss the party during the day and beg from us at night.”

Cue in The Gambler

Alabama Dem leader Joe Reed on Doug Jones' failed power move: "George Wallace tried it, too"

So while Alabama Republicans are fielding candidates running on defending our way of life and our values (sic) Alabama Democrats, and EYE use that term loosely, are forming a circular firing squad.  YeeHaw!

“This was not necessary,” Reed says. “We lost a whole year fighting among ourselves when we should have spent the whole year working the highways and byways of Alabama to help Doug Jones. But he spent all his time fighting us.”

Let's recap.

England and a faction of the State Democratic Executive Committee that supports new leadership and new party bylaws scheduled a meeting for Nov. 2 to hold the elections. The Democratic National Committee, which ordered new elections and bylaws, recognizes that as the official date.
Worley and her supporters on the SDEC scheduled a Nov. 16 meeting.
Worley has said the dispute is probably headed for court.

In the latest DNC enabled escalation of the ADP infighting Rep. Chris England and former Rep. Patricia Todd have entered the fray to lead the new Alabama Democratic Party. 

B-But Tabitha Isner 

B-But Will Boyd.......

B-But Myron Penn..... 

B-But Vivian Figures.....

This divisive DNC enabled #DoOver is threatening Doug Jones's re-election.

The feud began last August when Jones made known he wanted Worley to step aside. But Worley ran for another term — beating back the entire slate Jones supported.
“He went after Nancy’s seat. He lost,” said Joe Reed, a civil rights veteran who heads the Alabama Democratic Conference, the state’s principal African American Democratic club, and Worley’s most powerful ally. “Doug’s slate lost. He came back. He got with Perez. They then came up with a scheme to challenge Nancy’s election.”

But maybe that's the plan... 

Jones faces a strongly contested re-election effort in November of 2019. For Democrats to have any realistic hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans they need to hold on to Jones’s seat.

EYE report. 

You decide. 

#DNC enabled #PlantationPolitricks in #SweetHomeAlabama

Cue in WAR!  What is it good for?

And the fight for control for the soul (pun intended) of the Alabama Democratic Party wages on.  At a critical time when Alabama Dems should be united in their effort to keep the Alabama Senate seat blue so Democrats can regain control of the Senate, General Tom Perez is leading the charge to alienate the traditional, loyal, democratic base in favor of Senator Doug Jones, who bucks his party and votes with  Republicans and who doesn't seem to care he's the Senates most vulnerable, incumbent.  

Which might be the plan.

If the DNC would stop trying to stymie change and rather embrace black women and Muslims and queer people of color as changemakers, we wouldn’t be living under Trumpism or even under Clintonian neoliberalism. Rather, we’d be living in a world in which more people (and more kinds of people) would be more free.

Here's the letter where DNC Chairman Tom Perez takes the side of the minority over the majority. 

Read it and Weep.

Who will win the #BattleAtGoatHill for control of the #DemocraticPartyPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama?

Cue in Back to life back to reality.  



#SweetHomeAlabama made national news for all the right (no pun intended) reasons yesterday with the election of Steven Reed as the first African American  Mayor of Montgomery, AL.  Yes, Black and White, young and old, rich and poor Alabamians were rejoicing together with HOPE for Change we thought we could believe in humming We Shall Overcome then BOOM!  The DNC enabled by the white male-dominated media dropped a bomb on the celebration.


Let's recap:

This whole Civil War started when the SDEC Minority Caucus foiled Senator Doug Jones's attempt to take the Alabama Democratic Party back to before.

The DNC is on the side of the Minority b-but it's not racial.

Stay tuned.

"This night is not the end this night is just the beginning" ~Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed shows us how to win elections in #SweetHomeAlabama

The votes have been counted and ALL the people have spoken in Montgomery, Alabama.  

Alabama's capital, a city once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected its first African American mayor Tuesday.

EYE would like to thank those in the white male-dominated Alabama media for their remarkable restraint and not enabling the racism by advertising Steven Reed is the son of the most hated Black Man in Alabama until after the election.

Reed was already the first black probate judge elected in Montgomery County and was one of the first to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in the state. His father, Joe Reed, is the longtime leader of the black caucus of the Alabama Democratic Party. Woods, who owns WCOV-TV, is the son of the late broadcasting executive Charles Woods, a perennial Alabama candidate for more than 30 years.

And then there is this: 

Reed also expands on the legacy of his father, Joe Reed, a local politician who has served as chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference for decades. According to the Post, the elder Reed was elected to the Montgomery City Council In 1975—along with three other black elected officials, they were the first black politicians to hold office in Montgomery since Reconstruction.

Psst, DNC.  This is what happens when all the fingers on the hand work together.

Reed secured 67 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election, beating his opponent, local tv station owner David Woods by 16,000 votes, reports CNN.

So now comes the hard part.  Will the first African American Mayor of the Cradle of the Confederacy be allowed to actually govern or will he be another black/brown face that doesn't want to be a black voice?

The Washington Post reports Pressley said she's not interested in bringing "a chair to an old table."

“This is the time to shake that table. ... We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice,” Pressley reportedly said during the event. “We don’t need any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”

Pressley's comments followed a tumultuous week of Democratic infighting, as establishment Democrats continue to clash with a new wave of elected progressives in the party.

 Time will tell the truth. 

Democrats have become consumed by nasty fights over racial politics, even as the 2020 White House contenders ramp up their outreach to the black and Latino voters who will play a critical role in determining the party’s presidential nominee.

Congratulations Mayor Reed.  EYE hope you can and will keep your winning coalition together and refrain from listening to those who advise you to throw your base under the bus. 

Updated: Get Your Fright On~ Halloween on the Alabama #DemocraticPartyPlantation

Myrtles Plantation And the Ghost of One Slaves Bloody Revenge

It's getting downright spooky on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama.

Alabama progressives should be leery of the Jones-Ragsdale tag team, veteran political activist Jill Simpson said on her Facebook page yesterday. Simpson noted that three individuals who helped unmask Fuller -- herself, attorney-blogger Donald Watkins, and yours truly -- came under attack from right-wing forces aligned with Jones and Ragsdale:

Let's recap:
A faction of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDLC), led by U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) met in Montgomery, AL  where the Jones faction approved new bylaws in a major step toward replacing current party leaders Nancy Worley and Joe Reed.

Seventy-eight of the approximately 250 SDEC committee members attended.
They adopted the new rules on a voice vote with no audible dissent. They voted to meet again on Nov. 2 to hold the new election for chair and vice chair.
Four representatives of the Democratic National Committee were at today’s meeting, including Harold Ickes, a member of the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee. Ickes said his role was to monitor. He has been involved in the year-long dispute between the DNC and the state party.

The Alabama Republican Party is eager to unseat Jones to help the GOP hold on to control of the U.S. Senate and if Black Democrats don't vote for him that's exactly what will happen. 

Black voters made up 29 percent of the electorate in Alabama's special Senate election, according to exit polling. That percentage is slightly more than the percentage of Black voters in the state who turned out for Barack Obama in 2012. And a full 96 percent of Black voters in Alabama Tuesday supported Jones, including 98 percent of African-American women. "Black women led us to victory. Black women are the backbone of the Democratic party," Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez tweeted Wednesday morning, "and we can't take that for granted. Period."

And yet that's exactly what they are doing.   

But here is the Political Play of the Decade: For Democrats to have any realistic hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans they need to hold on to Jones seat. So control of the U.S. Senate is in the control of Alabama's Black block vote and we are damned if we vote for Doug Jones and damned if we don't.

Ain't that a dip?

Psst! Nancy Worley EYE know the tremendous pressure you are under and EYE appreciate your fighting spirit b-but...

Although you have been successful in the past at keeping the angry white males and the women who love them at bay I sense a force that is bigger, meaner, powerful, and more determined than ever before controlling this latest effort to take the ADP back to the Party of George Wallace.

Be afraid.....

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray.

Life on the #DemocraticPartyPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama Episode 3

Alabama Public Enemy #1 and #2

Cue in PUBLIC ENEMIES THEME SONG TEN MILLION SLAVES

According to some (not to be confused with all) in the white-male dominated Alabama media, the two individuals pictured above are responsible for snatching brown children away from their parents and putting them in cages, all forms of racism, poverty, and sexism in #SweetHomeAlabama.  They are incompetent and the reason Democrats can't win elections.  They are the reason Alabama is #1 in college football and last in quality of life.  

So the war for control of the #DemocraticPartyPlantation continues appropriately in the Cradle of the Confederacy when the White Wing convenes a gathering to approve DNC mandated bylaws that will throw the Black Wing to the back of the bus and remove and replace the Party Overseerer I mean Leadership by any means necessary.

B-But it's not racial.....

Stay tuned for another episode of Life on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama

Episode 2 Life on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama

Lawyers, start your billing.

Cue in  Deliverance

EYE can't figure out if the person(s) advising Senator Doug Jones is/are political masterminds,  Republican operatives, or both.

“93% of black women that voted in the state of Alabama voted for Doug Jones... That’s the power of the sister vote.” - Birmingham City Councilor Sheila Tyson pic.twitter.com/lTgP7saCxx

— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) December 13, 2017

EYE have to give them(?) credit for being political mastermind(s)  they found a candidate black and white democrats could vote for, formed a winning coalition, and turned a red seat from the reddest of the red states blue.

Money and mobilization matter, campaigns matters, issues are important, and voters are listening. Doug Jones was assisted with a massive coordinated mobilization apparatus deployed on the ground in Alabama. A compilation of national grass-roots organization that partnered with local chapter groups like the NAACP. The turnout of African-American voters in Alabama cannot be overstated. 29 percent Black voter turnout, and Black women in particular, is credited with delivering the victory for Doug Jones.

The ground operation was well organized and well funded. The conventional norms still enlisted the help of the Party’s elite headliners including Barack Obama and Joe Biden who recorded robo-calls. Campaign events featuring Senator Cory Booker, Representative John Lewis, and athlete Charles Barkley were particularly important for drawing attention to what was at stake in this election.

Shortly after the election EYE started getting the feeling maybe we were punk'd because Doug Jones went from the lawyer who convicted the murderer of the Four Little Girls killed in The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL and the crusader for women's rights  to a so-called "moderate" who was going to represent ALL the people of Alabama.  Nod Nod Wink Wink

DOUG JONES: I think that this election shows that people across this country want to see people work together. When the people of Alabama elect a senator who runs on a platform of trying to find common ground and reaching across aisles, I think that's a message that both political parties should take heed.
SIEGEL: NPR's Debbie Elliott joins us from Montgomery. And Debbie, this is Jones' first elected position. What can you tell us about him?
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Well, it's the first time he's run for public office, but he's no stranger to politics. He's been active in Democratic Party circles for some time. He's a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Bill Clinton. He's best known for reopening the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham where four black girls were killed. Here's Jones after he won a murder conviction in that case in 2001.

Fast forward to the escalating Civil War being waged within #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama.  The minority is determined to rule the majority by whatever means necessary.

No good deed goes unpunished on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama.  

Black voters told me over and over that Tuesday’s turnout is not a fluke — and doesn’t have to be an aberration. The same coalition of voters that turned out in Alabama on Tuesday, they said, can turn out and swing elections across the country. Democrats in other states can nominate candidates who have been working in the communities for decades, like Jones, or candidates that are not afraid to advertise on billboards in black neighborhoods. The winning candidate elsewhere could also be someone who isn’t willing to moderate his or her progressive views, they said.

EYE regret Doug Jones listened to those who advised him to throw the people who bought him to the party bus off and under the bus.  Really EYE do. 

History to the contrary, too many white Democrats refuse to learn that Blacks can win elections. Less than a week after Black voters were hailed for having “saved America” through a record turnout in Alabama to defeat Roy Moore’s bid for the U.S. Senate in December, pundits were advising the Democratic Party that it should reward its Black supporters by shoving them to the back of the political bus yet again. Bill Scher’s Dec. 20 article in POLITICO was typical of this bad advice. He suggested that in 2018, Democrats should run candidates like Doug Jones, who won a narrow victory over Roy Moore but polled lower than Moore among white voters.

Stay tuned.