Wussacrats, those invertebrates who apparently suffer from a permanent minority mind set, like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are the so called leaders of the Democratic majority in Congress who consistently cave to Dubya and seem unable to outsmart or deliberately refuse to foil the obstructionist Republican minority in Congress and stand up for Democratic values.

And in some states like Virginia, such people dominate the Democratic Party with their hypocrisy and continuation of conservative, Democrats-In-Name-Only (DINO) status quo.

From a Washington Post report about the state convention yesterday: "The intensity of Obama's support generated its own problems for Virginia Democrats, because so many of them were vying to go to the national convention in Denver.
" 'It's all in who you know,' said Jhana Porter from Stafford County, who said she has traveled more than 10,000 miles volunteering for Obama's campaign across the country. 'I have been very active in trying to get him elected but had no response in trying to get on the slate.'

"Many Obama supporters rebelled against the slate, instead voting for other candidates. Party officials were counting the ballots last night."

I got the inside story from a number of colleagues and friends in Virginia who were delegates to the state convention.

Unfortunately, Obama's campaign and its so called leaders in Virginia were clueless and their political naivete, ignorance, myopia and support of the flawed fait accompli Kaine selected slate angered many of Obama's actual hardworking grassroots activists.

It seems that Tim Kaine and his DINO's quietly "announced" the "official" slate just last Monday before yesterday's convention and the deadline for any other competing slates was two days later at noon on Wednesday.  Talk about status quo machinations; most Obama activist delegates didn't even know about any slates until after the deadline, which was precisely the goal of the DINO state leadership.

Many of those so called Obama supporters on the "official" slate hadn't done a lick of work for him and weren't even known as Obama backers among knowledgeable Dems in the state and hadn't publicly supported him.

Gov. Tim Kaine's support for the candidate consisted mostly of out of state appearances while his DINO minions didn't do much for Obama in Virginia.  That heavy lifting, hardworking job was and is being done by grassroots activists on the ground many of whom, as delegates, representing a diverse rainbow of races and genders, were frozen out at the convention.

Here is what I wrote about Tim Kaine recently when his name popped up as a possible VP candidate: "Some of the other possibilities mentioned in the AP article are poison: Tim Kaine, Evan Bayh, and Sam Nunn are such conservative Democrats they might as well be Republicans.  They as well as Tom Daschle are corporatist hacks."

Tim Kaine is a lackluster governor of Virginia with a mediocre record; sometimes indistinguishable from anti-common good Republicans in the state's legislature and in bed with corporations like Dominion Power ruining the environment.

He is not a true Democrat or a leader and as titular head of the Democratic Party, he and his flunkies have done very little to nothing to effectively promote the Democratic message in Virginia because they aren't real Democrats and their message is Republican lite.

If this is the way the Obama campaign and the DNC plans to advance the Democratic Party and "change" as evidenced at the Virginia state convention, there will be no progress and no change. Hopefully, other state Democratic Parties are more progressive.

Obama activists who worked their hearts out, only to be thwarted and neutralized by conservative Democratic officials at the state convention where Kaine staffers installed their own status quo slate, may be so frustrated, disappointed, and  disheartened that they give up on further participation in Democratic populist politics.  That would be unfortunate  because these activists are the hope of the present and future Democratic Party.