The Milk Club: Remain calm …

Pub date December 10, 2007
WriterTim Redmond
SectionPolitics Blog

So the Harvey Milk Club meets tomorrow evening (Dec. 11) to consider an endorsement for state Senate. It’s Mark Leno vs. Carole Migden, and it’s been all too ugly.

You can read the club’s press release here ; club members got in such a nasty fight at the last meeting that some don’t even accept tomorrow’s meeting as legitimate.

But here’s the thing: At some point, we all have to put this behind us and move on.

I think the odds are pretty good that Migden will win the Milk Club. I’m not going to say it was all done with perfect adherence to the rules; the Migden forces pulled some fast ones. The Leno people pulled some stunts, too, and would have played fast and loose with the rules earlier on if it helped them. That’s how these clubs work.

And frankly, a Migden nod won’t surprise anyone (Carole’s a former Milk Club president) and it won’t be a horrible blow to Leno (who has the Alice B. Toklas Club). Leno is clearly trying to appeal to the progressives, and the Milk endorsement would help, but there are other ways he can do that. So his campaign, and the Republic as a whole, will survive this vote.

If Migden wins tomorrow, it seems to me that the Leno folks should register their protests if they please, but then let it go. And if Leno manages to pull it out, the Migden folks should do the same.

This isn’t worth the sort of bitter fights, name calling and personal demonization that could be the result of an extended, bruising battle.