Defenders of democracy?

From the NY Times:

Politicians are always prattling on about the glories of democracy. They boast about how they got rid of those nasty smoke-filled back rooms, where sebaceous party hacks used to select the candidates, and replaced them with primaries and with openness.

Truth is, politicians hate primaries. Those who are in command do, anyway. They go out of their way to knock off anyone who opposes their preferred candidates, apparently in the belief that matters of such weight cannot be left to lesser mortals, sometimes known as voters.

In this regard, New York Republicans and Democrats are equal offenders. The state Republicans under Gov. George E. Pataki worked hard to shut out any challenge to their designated favorites in the state’s presidential primaries... Party bosses would have gotten their way, too, had the courts not intervened and said, uh-uh.

With Ms. Gillibrand, the Democratic desire to eliminate democratic competition is especially striking because not a single voter has had a chance to pass judgment on whether she belongs in the United States Senate.

It’s not just that she was appointed. The man who named her, Gov. David A. Paterson, was not elected to his own office. It’s a double whammy, intensified for some New Yorkers by Ms. Gillibrand’s — how to put it — demonstrated flexibility on certain core issues.

And Carolyn Maloney herself is not exactly a defender of democracy in this regard, either.

Photo from the Daily News