In fairness to Case, does he really deserve his rep on this board and elsewhere as a DINO? Yes he voted for the Iraq War (like almost every Democratic Presidential candidate in 2004 other than Kucinich, FWIW), but he took a major FF stance in the Hawaii House defending gay marriage despite being overwhelmingly unpopular at the time.
What else in his congressional career earns him this label?
His position on gay marriage is one thing I'll give him credit for, but in general he's just an opportunistic moderate hero. The quote of his I have to always bring up is when he was asked whether he was running for office in 2010; he said he was considering running for Governor, Senator, or either of the House seats, he just hadn't decided which. I realize politicians are ambitious, but he could have dialed it down a little.
Yeah, I'll agree he reeks of ambition even compared to most politicians. But that's hardly an ideological issue of DINOism.
If PX's analysis is correct though, that explains some of it. Even if Case held (holds?) firmly to believing the Iraq War was necessary, going out of his way to endorse Lieberman running as an independent and then decrying librlz "destroying the party" etc. is not only unnecessary and unappealing, but pretty darn stupid in Hawaii.
