SOME DEMOCRATS ARE AS BAD AS THE REPUBLICANS-- THEY'RE NOT WORTH SUPPORTING

Yesterday while I was flying back from a way too long vacation, MoveOn sent an e-mail to me and, presumably, to many DWT readers. It's about Democrats in Congress who collaborate with the far right-- Insiders like Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer without whom Bush would not have been able to wreck America to the extent he has. MoveOn is more... diplomatic than DWT but they too are calling for the defeat of Democrats who act like Republicans.

They're a problem. Democrats in Congress who vote with President Bush on the war. Who take checks from lobbyists. Who side with corporations instead of voters.

It's not enough just to fight Republicans-- progressives need to make sure the Democrats we elect are on our side too.

Right now, in Maryland's 4th congressional district election, we have a great opportunity to replace a right-wing Democrat with a new progressive champion-- and remind the rest of the Democrats in Congress that at the end of the day, the voters call the shots.

Rep. Al Wynn, the incumbent, loads up on corporate cash,1 and has voted with the President again and again-- including his vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Donna Edwards, the challenger, is a true fighting progressive who will go to Washington and take on the establishment.

MoveOn members who live in the district voted overwhelmingly to endorse Donna Edwards in the Democratic primary, and they've asked for our help.

Blue America has endorsed Donna as well and so far over 1,400 of us have contributed over $57,000 to her, mostly in small donations at our ActBlue site.

Donna isn't the only progressive Democrat facing a conservative collaborationist Insider backed by the Emanuels and Hoyers, poised to go to Congress and keep everything moving in the wrong direction. Wynn has far worse colleagues in fact, like Dan Lipinski (IL-03) who is being challenged by progressive Mark Pera. There are also open seats-- mostly due to the resignations of Republican crooks-- where the Democratic Party Establishment is desperately trying to get their own hack candidates into office. Blue America is helping to fight to elect progressives like John Laesch (IL-14),
Howard Shanker (AZ-01), Victoria Wulsin (OH-02), Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), Dennis Shulman (NJ-05), Gretchen Clearwater (IN-09), Sam Bennett (PA-15) in tough primaries against reactionaries and opportunists.

Sure, all the Republicans are absolutely terrible. Even if you find one who claims, for whatever reason to oppose the war-- like Ron Paul-- you scratch the surface and find instead all the other traits of reactionary extremists from racism, anti-semitism and homophobia to insane notions allowing the rich and powerful to dominate and beat down regular middle class Americans. There are few Democrats as bad as even the least horrible Republican. But, as any regular DWT reader knows, there are significant numbers of Democrats in Congress unworthy of any kind of support whatsoever, the ones who have rubber stamped the Bush agenda as faithfully as any GOP zombie.

As crucial primaries approach, especially in Maryland and Illinois, I want to remind you that Blue America is well on the way of having collected $1,000,000 for progressive candidates for Congress and that most of those donations have been made in $10 and $20 amounts. Our biggest day ever was when lots and lots of readers put $5 each in for our candidates. If you can spare something to help with real reform in a post-Bush America, between now and February, nothing is more important than helping proven progressives like Donna Edwards, John Laesch and Steve Cohen beat back conservative, pro-war, pro-corporate Democrats.


UPDATE: AND WHEN IT COMES TO BAD DEMOCRATS, NO ONE HOLDS A CANDLE TO THE LEADERS OF THE DLC

Today's NY Times is reported that reactionary corporatist founder of the right-wing Democratic Establishment cabal, the DLC, along with his current hack chairman, defeated Tennessee congressman Harold Ford, are celebrating that their two insider candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are beating John Edwards. From and Ford also made it clear that they are "pleased that none of the Democratic candidates supports a single-payer health care system." From:

... we’re excited about what’s going on in these early primaries and we look forward to having our hand in this race as it goes forward and helping our candidate, whether it be Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, march to a very strong victory this fall.

One of Ford's predecessors as DLC chair, Joe Lieberman, has already shown what this group is really made of-- by endorsing far right Republican John McCain. Progressive Connecticut Congressman Chris Murphy pointed out on local TV today that "it's hard to justify that Senator Lieberman is a member of the Democratic Party any longer". He should mention it to Harry Reid.