Tom Carper In His Own Words: Why He Should No Longer Be Senator

Filed in Delaware, Featured by on August 10, 2018

When Tom Carper ran against Bill Roth in 2000, he made age the issue while claiming that age was not the issue. Of course, age wasn’t the issue, said Carper. Energy was.  Don’t believe me?

Read this piece on that race from 2000. Won’t take you long to find the money quote.

Here’s how Tom ‘Let Me Drop Down And Give You 10. Pushups That Is’ Carper described why he should be Senator:

“Whether a person is 59 or 69 or 79 is not so important, the important thing is the energy they have and the ability to function effectively for the next six years,” Carper has said. “I’ve got a lot of energy. I go real hard day and night.”

And he did. But now, he’s Shufflin’ Tom.  His appearances are carefully stage-managed by his staff. Selective and limited. Often holding a giant prop check. Rarely engaging in a substantive policy conversation. He is now running against a multi-tasker like Kerri Harris, who has faced and understands challenges that Tom the former Golden Boy never had to face.  If this race is about energy, Tom Carper has run out of gas somewhere and is fumbling with his cellphone.

Let’s be honest. If Tom Carper is to be held to the standard that Carper himself has laid out which, if you’ve forgotten is the important thing is the energy they have and the ability to function effectively for the next six years”, then Tom Carper has successfully argued that Tom Carper should not be our Senator going forward. Kerri Harris should.

Thank, you, Tom, for making such a strong case for your successor. Time to take your multiple pensions and shuffle off into the sunset.

 

 

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  1. RE Vanella says:

    Greenwald and a few others continue to highlight Carper’s domestic abuse. That he originally lied about it, etc…

    He is calling for the Harris campaign to raise the issue. What do you guys think? I mean he gave his wife a black eye and won’t release the divorce docs describing the abuse.

    Problem is these fuckers are pseudo celebrities so I actually don’t think it changes very much.

  2. MikeM2784 says:

    I still think we should stick to policy only at this point; Carper sucks on policy compared to Harris from a progressive standpoint, but he will still be better than any Republican if he wins the primary, so why give them ammunition that isn’t policy related? Also, I’ve seen him at two events and he seemed fine; popped right out of his van, walked in, stood and talked, answered questions, talked to people one on one, etc. I just feel like we’re barking up the wrong tree here with health. Let’s see how the debate goes.

    The abuse thing is obviously more disturbing, but if it hasn’t stuck in so many years, why would this election be any different?

  3. RE Vanella says:

    Yeah, I’m not on the senile/weakness thing. I have seen him a few times lately and while he isn’t spry he didn’t look like death was imminent.

    I agree that if the domestic abuse thing hasn’t stuck since ’98 it may not be a good approach. But honestly has it ever been made a real issue? I can tell you that the run-of-the-mill voter does not know this. I’ve met at least 4 people in the last 2 weeks who didn’t know. We do because were sick and obsessed with this garbage. But I contend that more people are unaware of this… more that you think.

  4. jason330 says:

    If someone doesn’t know it is fine for you, me or Greenwold to tell them. Not Kerri.

    It is the bifurcated economy. 24-7-365

  5. Alby says:

    From what I’ve heard third-hand, this has been polled, and people don’t like it — it actually increases support for Carper.

    With all due respect to Glenn Greenwald, the person who must raise this for it to stick is Kirsten Gillibrand. Why did she go after Franken but not Carper? Because Franken, unlike Gillibrand, is a real progressive. Carper is Gillibrand’s sort of politician, so his “slap” matters less than Franken’s groping.

    Just by the by, Greenwald’s people reached out to me on this. My wife, who wrote the story back in ’96 when Janet Rzewnicki used it against Carper, has or had the only copy of that deposition that wasn’t in Carper’s or the lawyers’ hands. There’s nothing particularly salacious in it; the more important point, for me, is that Carper lied about it for a decade, and acknowledged it only when cornered by Celia Cohen. But his lying served a purpose: When the news came out, it hurt Rzewnicki more than Carper because she lied about how she obtained it.

    I’m still trying to find the deposition in the file cabinets, which are mostly full of legal filings related to Tom Gordon but were purged a few years back when I cleaned out the basement. I told the Greenwald people that the holy grail is the ER shot of her black eye, which Republicans have told me they had at one point, but nobody seems to know its whereabouts now.