CONGRESSIONALLY SPEAKING, WHO'S BEEN NAUGHTY? WHO'S BEEN NICE?

Photo of a truly wretched version of a fake Dem, from our pals at PhotoTune

As Congress prepared for their August recess, the leadership pushed to get a lot of bills passed. I guess that is supposed to keep voters' minds off the fact that the way, way overpaid legislators are going on the same vacations that the Iraqi parliamentarians have been so ruthlessly criticized for going on. Of course, listening to the mass media you would think that our senators and congressmen are headed home to their districts to get an earful of advice and opinion for their constituents. That may have been what happened in the early 1800s. But not lately. Can you imagine our brittle, elitist legislators-- of either party-- actually giving a damn about what we the people think about the "complicated" issues they deal with? Not likely.

I can't even get my congresscritter, a dependable liberal, to return a phone call.

Their system is imperfect but Progressive Punch rates every member of Congress and lists them from the most progressive-- Keith Ellison (D-MN), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL)-- to the most reactionary-- Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Michele Bachman (R-MN), David Davis (R-TN), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), and Jim Jordan (R-OH). Since even the least reactionary Republican still scores a thoroughly rubber stamp voting record than even the very worst and most reactionary, Republican-like Democrats, I like to remind DWT readers just who the Democrats are who most frequently vote with Republicans on substantive issues. The roll call votes this week were instructive and I'll get to them in a moment. But on the overall, career scorecard the dirty dozen Democrats who regularly betray Democratic values and ideals are-- from bad to worst:

Tim Holden (PA)
John Barrow (GA)
Jim Matheson (UT)
Jim Marshall (GA)
John Tanner (TN)
Mike McIntyre (NC)
Allen Boyd (FL)
Ike Skelton (MO)
Dan Boren (OK)
Collin Peterson (MN)
Bud Cramer (AL)
Gene Taylor (MS)

The freshmen haven't had enough votes to descend to the depths some of them are clearly headed. So breaking out the half dozen worst newly elected freshmen, these are the ones who have been the biggest disappointments, the ones who replaced Republicans and then vote as though they are Republicans. Again, the order is from really, really, really bad to absolutely excruciatingly horrible:

Nick Lampson (TX, yes better than Tom DeLay but... not really worth the money)
Baron Hill (IN)
Brad Ellsworth (IN)
Joe Donnelly (IN)
Jason Altmire (PA)
and worst of all, Rahm Emanuel's future fence jumper Heath Shuler (NC)

And if you think it's unfair to include Baron Hill and Nick Lampson in the list of freshmen because the career scores include the years they were in Congress before they were elected again last year, take them off the list and stick in the equally execrable Chris Carney (PA) and Zach Space (OH).

Yesterday Steve Benen at the Carpetbagger Report took a look at how Boehner had managed to hold his miserable minority caucus together in the light of Democratic-sponsored bills this week that are widely-- very widely-- supported by the American people. I mean, who wants to vote against children's health care, against rest for weary fighting men in Iraq or for legalistic discrimination against workers? Apparently almost the entire GOP caucus. But like I've said before, there isn't a single Republican in any federal office worthy of a vote. Alas, there are more than a few Democrats whose unworthiness has also been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

This past week we looked at two of the three circumstances tackled by Steve when he looked at the Republicans. To recap, when it came to mandating rest times for U.S. troops in Iraq, 4 Democrats joined the Republicans to show that they don't only not support the troops but that they hate them and want them to die:

Chris Carney (PA)
Jim Marshall (GA)
Brian Baird (WA)
Charlie Melancon (LA)

And speaking of legislating death for Americans, fully ten reactionary Democrats joined the Republicans last week to try-- unsuccessfully-- to defeat a bill that would add 6 million needy children to a popular health insurance plan:

Dan Boren (OK)
Jim Cooper (TN)
Joe Donnelly (IN)
Brad Ellsworth (IN)
Bob Etheridge (NC)
Baron Hill (IN)
Jim Marshall (GA)
Mike McIntyre (NC)
Heath Shuler (NC)
Gene Taylor (MS)

We never got to the successful passage last week of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which extends the period in which workers can file pay-discrimination claims. Half a dozen of the most reactionary Republican-like Democrats showed their true colors to oppose this one:

Dan Boren (OK)
Allen Boyd (FL)
Nancy Boyda (KS)
Bud Cramer (AL)
Tim Mahoney (FL)
Nick Lampson (TX)

You notice any patterns? Any names that keep showing up again and again? Like Dan Boren or Jim Marshall, for example, who don't care if it's screwing soldiers or screwing children, they want everyone to know they're as bad as any Republican. There's another pattern. Do you ever get e-mails from the DCCC? They ask for money to help end the war in Iraq and to push the Democratic agenda. What they never tell you is that most of the Democrats who are working hardest to end the war and who are thoroughly behind progressive values don't need their money. Much of that money actually goes to foisting quasi-Republicans on us, so-called Democrats who vote with Republicans on all the crucially important matters. Oh, on the crucially important matters to us, not the crucially important matters to the Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer Insiders. To them there's only one really important vote-- the vote that determines which party leads the Congress at the beginning of the session. If some reactionary agrees to vote for the Democratic Speaker, that's all that matters because the Emanuels and Hoyers get their power and their perks and their access to the gigantic legal bribes that come with leadership positions.

When Blue America found that one of the candidates we raised money for last year had lied to us about how he would vote-- not once or twice or a dozen times, but consistently we asked for a discussion. Request denied. We then asked for our contributions back. Request ignored. Now we never endorse any candidate until they are told about our experience with reactionary and dishonest Democrat Chris Carney. We ask prospective Blue American endorsees to read the apology we made to the donors who contributed to his campaign under false pretenses. We're not finished with Congressman Carney either. The DCCC is collecting money to bolster his re-election bid. If you donate to the DCCC a part of that donation will go to Chris Carney's campaign so that he can continue voting with the Republicans against ending the occupation of Iraq and against the most basic Democratic values. Instead, please consider donating to Blue America candidates and to the Blue America PAC. If we get involved in PA-10 again, it won't be to get Chris Carney re-elected.