But We Can All Agree Adam Nagourney Is A Moron

Julia on the one Democrat with any history of influence that Adam Nagourney actually cites for his “the Democrats should win by losing” thumbsucker:

Tony Coelho

Tony the guy who was responsible for Democratic strategy in the 1994 Congressional elections Coelho.

Tony the guy who was tossed out of the Gore campaign because he was under criminal investigation wanted to spend more time with Andy Card’s kids Coelho.

Tony was free to take on the Gore campaign because he was forced to resign the House in disgrace wanted to spend more time with Andy Card’s kids Coelho

Tony didn’t reappear in politics until they needed a “Democratic insider” to trash Kerry Coelho

and as that would indicate, pretty much everyone who was willing to talk to Nagourney on the record in terms that even vaguely suggested support for some portion of the putative reasoning behind this vaporous groundswell of strategic loss planning is someone who either jumped or was pushed out of Democratic politics.

There was one other name: Steven “Brother of Mickey” Kaus, providing evidence that asinine contrarianism is genetic, but little evidence about what “Democrats” think in any meaningful sense. The surprise is that he couldn’t get Susan “The Mastermind Behind The Dukakis Landslide” Estrich on the record.

The strange thing is that this kind of argument resurfaces all the time. It’s the same illogic behind the fake-Democratic contrarian’s all-time favorite, “what the hell, let’s sacrifice Roe: that will screw the GOP!” The problem, of course, is that there’s no end to it. For that matter, let’s let the Republicans privatize Social Security! Repeal the Clean Air Act! Put Roy Moore on the Supreme Court! We’ll really have a shot to win the 2016 election then! One problem with people who care about their own alleged cleverness is that they forget that the point of politics is to achieve good outcomes.