IS CHRIS CARNEY JUMPING THE FENCE?

During the 2006 election cycle 722 Blue America donors helped us raise $8,210 for Chris Carney. On top of that we got members of the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Rickie Lee Jones to record a campaign song for him and our friend Mike put together a video clip for him. Take a look:



It makes me sick to watch it now. Just because we give a candidate some money and help promote them doesn't mean we can dictate how they vote. Certainly Kirsten Gillibrand, Jerry McNerney, Patrick Murphy and Joe Sestak haven't always voted the way we expected they would-- although sometimes they do. We didn't re-endorse them this year but we hope they win their races and feel more secure standing up more solidly for Democratic values in the future. Carney is in a category unto himself. He lied to us about where he stood on specific issues and in general and he has been one of the most consistently pro-Bush votes of any Democrat, a genuine reactionary. When he wanted our help to defeat Don Sherwood he told us-- and other progressive groups-- that he would support a pending Hate Crimes Bill. But when that bill came up for a vote, Rep. Carney joined 13 other homophobic extremists (like Dan Boren and Heath Shuler) in crossing the aisle to vote against making it a crime single out gay men and women for violence. Fortunately two dozen Republicans were crossing in the other direction and the bill passed with flying colors. Carney failed his last test with us and we asked him to return our donations at that point. He refused.

Since then we have been running TV, radio and newspaper ads in Carney's district in order to let his constituents know about the extremely large "contributions" he was given by the telecom corporations to vote for retroactive immunity for anyone who committed any crimes while spying on American citizens. Carney-- who hates investigations of wrongdoing-- doesn't want any trials and doesn't want to know what anyone may have done illegally. He just wants his campaign contributions from Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc.

It probably dawned on Carney that he would need to make up for whatever donations he got from progressive Democrats somewhere else. And he knew exactly where to look: Republicans. This is a letter Blue America members who donated to Carney in 2006 got today:

Dear Friend,

As a life-long Republican I supported Chris Carney for Congress two years ago because I believed we needed someone we could respect as our Congressman. Today, still as a Republican, I support Chris Carney for Congress because he has earned our respect.

Last week, we kicked off "Republicans for Carney," a group of people who are traditional Republicans but know that Chris Carney is the person who shares their values. All of us are committed to helping Chris win re-election this year.

Chris Carney has earned our respect for representing the moderate voices of both Democrats and Republicans in our diverse district. He has earned our respect for representing the moral and ethical values of the people of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania. As a Republican and the daughter of a Republican Congressman who served the people of his Central Pennsylvania district for 16 years, I am proud to support Chris Carney for Congress.

Please, click here to view the testimonials from Republicans for Carney.

Also, tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM I will be appearing on WILK (103.1 FM in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) with Nancy and Kevin to talk about my support as a Republican for Carney. I urge all of you to take part in the campaign—either donate your time and volunteer or consider writing your own testimonial. From your voice to your vote, we need your participation to make Chris’ re-election a resounding success!

All the best,

Susan Belin
Republican for Carney
Waverly, PA

Ms. Belin, whose father was a GOP congressman, is certainly correct about one thing: Carney, who once worked for war criminal Doug Feith and helped cook the books on prewar intelligence, "shares their values." He is anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-war, pro-warrantless spying on American citizens, in favor of abolishing the estate tax for multimillionaires and an advocate of the GOP plan to undermine and wreck Social Security. No wonder Republicans like him. Their own candidate, Chris Hackett is even worse than Carney. The big difference is that Carney, a friend to any special interest looking to buy a cheap vote, has raised over a million dollars, while Hackett is struggling to come up with $5,000. It isn't likely Hackett has any realistic chance of beating Carney but Democrats would be better off if he did since at least he wouldn't be pulling the Democratic congressional caucus rightward all the time the way Carney does.