Tully Mad At Democrats For Challenging Young's Petitions

Well, the boys in Langley sent out their local mouthpiece masquerading as a legitimate political columnist for the local Gannett paper to attack the Indiana Democratic Party for doing what opposing parties are supposed to do: defeat a candidate of the opposing party by any means legal. Matthew Tully can't stomach the fact that Democrats are filing a challenge to Todd Young's Senate candidacy because he may have lacked the required number of valid signatures needed to make the May primary ballot.

Tully couldn't have been more happy when the Democrats went to court to try to block Charlie White from taking office as secretary of state after the voters elected him by a landslide in 2010, even if it meant overturning the will of the voters. He danced on White's political grave after prosecutors twisted and warped interpretation of long-standing laws to criminalize White's decision to temporarily register to vote at his ex-wife's home while he was in between marriages and homes, forcing White from office. Vop Osili, a Nigerian-American, was Indiana's answer to Illinois' Kenyan-American, Barack Obama, and that damn Charlie White messed it all up. White had to go by hook or crook as his punishment. But let a member of the anointed class like Young find himself in a perilous situation and he's the first to rush their defense and use his column to unleash his wrath on whomever is standing in their way:

. . . This scuffle over whether Young collected the 500 petition signatures needed from each of Indiana’s nine congressional districts, or whether he fell three signatures short in one of them, has once again exposed just how little the Indiana Democratic Party has to offer.

Seriously, this is your grand strategy to win a U.S. Senate seat? To go around desperately looking for ways to avoid a faceoff with a candidate who scares you? To look for little missteps at a time when voters have made clear they are desperate for big leadership?

Yes, folks, that is your Indiana Democratic Party.

They might win a battle here and there with this strategy. But when it comes to the big picture, all the intellectually bankrupt party is doing is reminding of us how much it has lacked in big ideas, or any ideas, for years . . . 

But, my goodness, if anything could do more to show just how vacant and scared the Indiana Democratic Party is, and how it lacks any true identity or vision, it’s a soap opera like this. One in which it has inserted itself into a Republican primary because its knees are so shaky nine months before Election Day.

Of course, Democratic Chairman John Zody has insisted the challenge is based on a deep concern about candidate eligibility rules. Baloney . . .

A final point: I’ve said all this as someone who leans left on a majority of issues, who has never voted for a Republican presidential candidate, who has repeatedly criticized Republican Gov. Mike Pence, and who generally thinks Democratic policies offer a better path forward for the country.

Plenty of Democrats in Indiana are doing good work, and many Democratic candidates are worth supporting. Problem is, their state party sure makes it hard to root for them.

At least a column in defense of Todd Young finally got Tully to admit what we've all suspected---he's never voted for a Republican presidential candidate.