Table, meet head; head, meet table. Thud, thud, thud.

The second season of The West Wing started with a brilliant two-part episode called "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen", in which the aftermath of an assassination attempt on President Bartlet is intercut with flashbacks to the President's first campaign, showing how the characters all came together. One key scene takes place in the earliest days of Jed Bartlet's primary campaign, when he's a little-known northeastern governor with no name recognition outside his own state and he's trailing badly in the polls behind a big-name Senator. Toby Ziegler, the first of the eventual President Bartlet's senior staff to come onto the campaign, does some drinking and has the following exchange with his waitress:

WAITRESS: How many elections have you won?

TOBY: Altogether?

The waitress nods.

TOBY: Including city council, two Congressional elections, a senate race, a Gubernatorial campaign, and a national campaign?

There’s a long pause.

TOBY: None.

Then, at a campaign event (that involves Bartlet speaking to about twenty bored-looking voters), one of Governor Bartlet's longtime staffers takes exception to a piece of advice that Toby has given to the Governor, and this exchange takes place:

CAL: You told him to go ahead and piss off the dairy farmers, didn't you? If he's asked about the New England D.F.C, you told him to piss off the dairy farmers.

TOBY: I asked him about his vote, he told me, I said then if he's asked about it tonight he should and only because it's the easiest thing to remember, tell the truth.

CAL: Do you enjoy losing?

TOBY: Not that much, but then I haven't had much to compare it to so...

I'm reminded of this exchange after I read this Lance Mannion post, in which I learn that the Democratic Party would rather run a career politician for Senate in Ohio than a guy who's been to war, served his country in the Marines, and very nearly got elected to Congress a short while ago in a special election in a district that is normally heavily Republican.

An advisor to Democratic candidate Paul Hackett says the Iraq war veteran is being pressured to drop out of Ohio’s US Senate Race. Mike Brautigam says after Congressman Sherrod Brown announced last week he would run for Mike Dewine’s seat, Hackett started getting phone calls pressuring him to get out. Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Charles Schumer of New York to drop out of the race. Brautigam says Brown had told Hackett earlier he would not be a candidate and Hackett now feels betrayed by the Democratic party. Brautigam says the Democratic leaders say it’s Brown’s turn to run. (Emphasis added)

Good God. This is national politics, and Democrats need new blood. This isn't a game of tee-ball, where every kid gets to play in a certain order. What the hell are our Democratic "leaders" doing?

Do they enjoy losing?

Well, not that much, but they don't have much to compare it to so....