Post Politics: Unseating Cooper is a fool's errand

Back in the winter when it was thought that Rep. Jim Cooper might be in line for a cabinet position in the Obama administration, local politicos couldn't have lined up quicker to be mentioned as possible heirs to the throne of the Fightin' 5th. Megan Barry, Gray Sasser, Bob Tuke, David Briley, Jason Holleman, etc. — the list was endless. The bench was, and is, deep in the 5th District.

To hear nationally known, liberal blogger Markos "Kos" Moulitsas tell it, some of these names, especially those with progressive pedigrees, ought to think about taking the plunge even with Cooper sitting tight as the incumbent.

Moulitsas commissioned a poll that he says shows Cooper with high unfavorables and vulnerable to a primary challenge on his left. The poll submits that voters in the district are wildly supportive of the "public option" while unsupportive of Cooper's approach to health care reform which the poll takers imply could exclude that option.

Moulitsas' conclusion is simple. "Cooper has two options. He can stop obstructing and get aboard the public option, or he should start gearing up for a tough primary in 2010," he says in a post introducing the poll.

Cooper, predictably, took issue with the poll's methodology and results.

"The whole premise of the poll is that I oppose a public option, and that is simply not true. I have repeatedly said that I'm FOR a public option, and that there are multiple ways to do it," Cooper said in response to the release of the poll.

Now what Moulitsas is trying to do here is not a secret. He is part of a movement across of the country of progressive Democrats who seek to "take back" their party from moderates. In their minds, the roadblocks to true achieving true progress in America include not just Republicans but also "corporate" Democrats who are not reliably behind every pet progressive cause.

On paper, Cooper seems like a decent target. He makes news needling the Obama administration. He talks tough on deficit spending and telegraphs a willingness to compromise. While certainly not a conservative, progressives see him as a man with maverick tendencies that often do not line up with their litmus tests.

Further, Cooper represents an urban area of Nashville which has never had a Republican representing it in the modern era.

In the minds of national progressives, Nashville should not be home to a centrist Democrat open to compromise with the Right but a fire-breathing lefty ready to take up for the progressive cause at every opportunity.

The only problem here is that these national progressives don't know Nashville and they don't know Cooper.

Yes, Davidson County is blue oasis in a sea of Tennessee red. But Nashville is not as, blogger Southern Beale aptly put it, "all Vandy students and East Nashville hipsters." Democrats have held the 5th District seat since 1875. However, those Democrats have been men like Bill Boner and Bob Clement. Democrats sure, but progressives? Not quite.

The district has a Cook Partisan Index of D+3. While much better than what Rep. Bart Gordon and Rep. Lincoln Davis have to contend with at R+13 in the 6th and 4th districts, respectively. It is not near the cushion that Rep. Steve Cohen has in the 9th at D+23. (The index is derived by averaging a district's results from the last two presidential elections and comparing them to national results).

It also important to note that the 5th District is not just Nashville. It comprises elements of Wilson County to the east and Cheatham County to the west. These areas are not exactly rife with progressives.

And just as the 5th District may not be as liberal as Moulitsas would like neither is Cooper as conservative as some on the left would have you believe. He may go against the administration from time to time but in 2006 while many were vacillating between supporting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, Coop endorsed Obama early and forcefully.

Could progressives do a little better in the 5th for their "cause" than Cooper? Probably. But at what cost? Do liberals really want to oust a pragmatic moderate with an exemplary record serving the district for a litmus test liberal who makes no waves and challenges no one? Doesn't sound like the Nashville I know.

On paper, these national progressives may see an opportunity, but if they were on the ground they would see the quest to unseat Cooper as the fool's errand that it is. Cooper may not have positioned himself as national liberals want, but he has covered his bases and knows the politics of his district.

Kos needs to take a second look at Cooper and admit that trying to scare Jim Cooper is a waste of his time.