Salazar hires Washington veterans

Senator-elect Ken Salzar (D-CO) has already started the hiring of his staff after he won retiring Sen. Campbell's seat.
The Denver Post reports that

Cody Wertz, Salazar's campaign spokesman, will serve as Salazar's Senate press secretary. Joan Padilla, an assistant attorney general for consumer protection in Colorado, will be Salazar's executive assistant. Karen Howard, deputy attorney general for business and licensing, will also head to Washington to serve as legislative counsel for the senator.

Mary Perko, now administrative director for Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., was named Salazar's administrative director. She had similar jobs with Colorado Sens. Tim Wirth and Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Denis McDonough, a legislative aide for Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., specializing in military and foreign policy, was named Salazar's legislative director.

If I have any readers from the state of Illinois, please tell Sen. Obama to not campaign or donate to Cynthia McKinney. We don't need McKinney in Washington. She is an anti-Semitic congresswoman just like that of Jim Moran (perhaps Moron for some of his anti-Semitic rhetoric. Funny how all the anti-Semitic rhetoric is coming from Democrats, eh? They say Hollywood is controlled by liberals but Rep. Ben "Cooter" Jones aside, who are the other Democrats elected that are in entertainment? The only ones I have seen are Republicans. Ben Affleck is the closest to an elected official as he considered running for the Senate if Sen. Kerry had won this year.

Kevin White in the Daily Iowan writes

If you want your party to have a little success in future elections, do not make the Howard Deans of the party your figureheads.

The Democratic Leadership Council is just the solution to the Democrats' problems. The organization, formed in 1985, has been led by the more centrist members of the Democratic Party, including Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, and former President Clinton. Its most recent "Democrat of the Week" was our own Gov. Vilsack. The mission of the organization is to modernize the Democratic Party to fit 21st-century America, not 1968 America. This includes market-based solutions to problems and a strong foreign policy.

The Leadership Council has a pretty good track record in presidential elections. Its candidates won the presidency in 1992, again in 1996, and won the popular vote in 2000. John Kerry initially embraced the council in 2002, but because of Dean's sweeping popularity in 2003, Kerry abandoned the council's platform for the outdated Democrat agenda of the era of the Great Society. One month after the election, we see how that worked out for Kerry.

I knew Sen. Kerry was in the DLC but I did not realize that he abandoned the DLC platform that wins. However, I still remain a New Democrat.