Have the Congressional Dems Become Poison to Their Own Party?

There was an interesting announcement this week from the Democratic Party. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has been given the unenvious task of delivering the official Democratic response to the President Bush's State of the Union speech on Jan. 31. Why the new guy?

Kaine may be a household name in Virginia and the beltway, but the guy has never held national office and has only been the governor for a few weeks. For those brave few who keep the TV on during the Dem response, the overwhelming reaction from most of the country will likely be "who's this guy?".

The prevailing wisdom is that Kaine was chosen because he's a Dem who won in a Red State. The fact that his opponent ran a bonehead campaign apparently doesn't figure into that equation. He may be a nice guy and all that, but I'm not sure how wise it is to make him the national face of the party when he has no national credentials.

Could it be that the Dems looked around and realized that their Congressional members have made complete asses of themselves in recent weeks and have little or no credibility? And because of that they had to go to a relative unknown to get their message out? Makes sense to me.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.