The day after the election, the the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) disavowed the winner of their US Senate primary, Mark Clayton.

There are lots of explanations. None cast the TNDP in a positive light.

The TNDP said, “The only time that Clayton has voted in a Democratic primary was when he was voting for himself,” implying Clayton isn’t really a Democrat or at least not Democrat enough for long enough.

Tennessee’s Secretary of State website shows Clayton ran for Senate as a Democrat in both 2008 and 2012. One assumes he has been voting for himself – and as a Democrat – for years.

ABC reports an organization Clayton belongs to, Public Advocate of the United States, said Clayton, “… actively opposed every Republican nominee for President during his adult life.”

In a Tennessean video Clayton says he’s a Democrat, has supported Democrat candidates and has only voted for Democrats as an adult.

Any damaging youthful indiscretions with the GOP remain unreported so far. Perhaps they’ll be released as an October surprise. Nice to know there’s a probationary period to be a Tennessee Democrat. I wonder how long it takes?

Rather than take responsibility, in a stunning move, the TNDP blames Democrat voters! ”Many Democrats in Tennessee knew nothing about any of the candidates in the race, so they voted for the person at the top of the ticket.” It seems they believe their voters aren’t smart enough to vote well so their choices must be undone by the party.

Amazingly, the TNDP also blames their own candidates! Nooga.Com reports, “Before the election, we had heard some of this stuff about him, we just didn’t think he had that much of a shot,” [TNDP spokesman Sean] Braisted said. “This is a problem with Tennessee’s ballot … Most of the candidates were just crackpots.”

The real reason the TNDP threw their guy under a bus is because he dared to break with sacred Democrat dogma. Whatever else Clayton believes, this story broke with coverage by Mother Jones smearing Clayton as an anti-gay bigot for believing marriage is defined as between a man and a woman. While other positions of Clayton are noted around the Internet, the main objection is, as the TNDP presser’s only explanation for its action notes, “Mark Clayton is associated with a known hate group …”

Which brings us to the TNDP’s self immolation coup-de-grace.

The day before the election, the Nashville Business Journal ran a piece titled Chick-fil-A and the gamble of companies weighing in on controversy in connection with the impromptu and informal Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. The writer warns CEOs, “When a company’s top decision maker speaks publicly about something, the lines blur between a personal view and the company’s stance.”

This is even more applicable to politicians. The insight is completely lost on the TNDP.

The Chick-fil-A dust-up exploded not when the owners stated they held a traditional view of marriage. It exploded when Rahm Emanuel and Thomas Menino, mayors of Chicago and Boston – and Democrats – weighed in on the controversy to disrespect those holding such views.

The insult to their values and faith prompted hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans to publicly side with the Cathys, the owners of Chick-fil-A.

Well … the entire country except for the TNDP leadership. Just two days after that public declaration the TNDP used the exact issue as the justification for publicly disavowing their candidate who shared it along with almost 50,000 Tennessee Democrats who voted for him.

If the TNDP wants to advocate for gay marriage, fine. I disagree, but it has the right to have its say and believe what it will. But I would expect it would know how out of touch with the mainstream its views are. If it doesn’t, I would expect something like the Chick-fil-A event to get its attention.

But when your mascot is a jackass …