STALINISM TAKES OVER AT THE DCCC AND NRCC-- EXPLODES INTO A PUNK ROCK EXTRAVAGANZA ON STATEN ISLAND

Staten Island candidate Fran Powers

You may recall that a few days ago we rued the DCCC's decision to follow the NRCC as it descends into brutish Stalinism. Only time will tell if Chris Van Hollen's old style Soviet style decision to purge grassroots candidates like Howard Shanker while tricking Democratic contributors to the DCCC to donate to anti-choice candidates like Steve Dreihaus (OH-01) or incumbents who oppose ending the war in Iraq (John Barrow), oppose S-CHIP (Jim Marshall), support retroactive immunity (Chris Carney), rubber stamp Bush's vindictive class warfare agenda (Dan Boren), countenence bigotry and homophobia (Mike McIntyre) and conspire to poison the environment (Mike Ross) pays off. Of course, paying off for us is different from paying off for power-monger insiders who, after all, just want better offices and... well, more access to bigger bribes.

But Van Hollen, Emanuel and their conspirators might learn a lesson from their dopplegangers at the NRCC whose decision to remove the choosing of Republican candidates from the people and taking it over for themselves is working out rather poorly. Staten Island has become ground zero for the tragedy of John Boehner's and Tom Cole's catastrophic tenure as leaders of the Republican House caucus.

After forcing two-family values Republican Vito Fossella to retire from Congress, Boehner and Cole were turned down by half a dozen plausible Republicans they asked to replace him. Finally the GOP settled on a guy named Francis Powers who agreed to accept the party's nomination. It was bad enough that Powers had nothing to recommend him at all but it's only gotten worse.

An already topsy-turvy political year grew even more so yesterday when Francis M. Powers, the son of GOP designee Francis H. Powers, said he would seek the Libertarian Party line to run for Congress.

"This is not about my dad," said the younger Powers, 47, a master carpenter from Clifton who plays and sings with the Staten Island band Box of Crayons and runs an indie record label called Penny for the Guy Records. "I'm running against the Republican candidate."

Known as Fran, Powers is the eldest of five children from his father's first marriage, which ended in divorce 30 years ago.

Fran Powers insisted his candidacy is not a "vendetta" against his father.

"I'm not going to say that my dad treated me bad when I was a kid," Fran Powers said. "I know his policies. I'm running against someone I know."

When asked about the timing of his entry into the race, Powers said, "Me being his son gives me a different platform than normal," a platform that Powers said he wouldn't have against another candidate.

"We can't have the Republicans take this seat again," he added. "A vote for my father is a vote for the straight Republican ticket."

"I've tried very hard for many years to help my son," the elder Powers said in a statement released by his campaign.

"Unfortunately, he's rejected everyone's help to live a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of whether he wants to run for Congress, I still stand ready to help him move his life in a positive direction."

The elder Powers did not comment beyond the statement, but a Republican source said that Powers was referring to his son's "carefree" lifestyle in the music business.

It's likely that the father-son electoral brouhaha will lead to the election of a Democrat. But perhaps the Republicans can hire Powers' band to play at the Republican National Convention, even if it doesn't sound very Republican: