…from the greenroom comes the story of chief Red Specter.
The Ransom of Red Chief is a short story written by O. Henry in the early 1900’s about a child kidnapped for ransom in a small town by two criminals. But the criminals did not know what they were getting into, as the exuberantly mischievous child (nicknamed “Red Chief”) drove the criminals so crazy that they keep lowering the ransom price. But Red Chief’s parents would have nothing of it; they demanded money from the kidnappers to take their child back.
I loved reading the story as a child, and learned many lessons from it (for example, don’t wish too hard for something, you might get it). Apparently not many Democrats read the Ransom of Red Chief, or they would not have hooted and hollered so loudly when Arlen Specter announced that he was joining the Democratic caucus.
The whole thing is a exercise in schafenfreude. Particularly when the media has gone Specter Gaga and anointed it as a sign of doom for the republican party. When democrats fail to succeed with that 60th vote in the D column they will become the failures and we will reap the rewards. The netroots see it but what can they do other than support someone else in the primary?
Time to add Legal Insurrection to the blogroll I think.
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