Can Thaddeus McCotter Lead The House GOP Caucus Over The Cliff? (PLUS: Of course it mattered that Prof. Gates isn't white)

Sleazy Republican clown Thaddeus McCotter-- pictured above rocking out-- is certainly one of the most endangered GOP incumbents. He barely held onto his seat in 2008-- 51% with no serious opposition-- and Obama won his suburban Detroit (parts of Wayne and Oakland counties) district 54-45%. A member of the House Financial Services Committee-- and an ineffectual member of the GOP obstructionist House leadership-- McCotter has taken immense sums of legalized bribes from the Financial Sector his committee is supposed to oversee. Since assuming office just 6 years ago he's already accepted $738,953 from the banksters, insurance crooks and real estate interests and in return has always put their interests over those of his constituents.

Most of his twittering lately has been against health care reform, but this weekend he thinks he found the issue that will connect with voters: making a ruckus about Obama apologizing to James Crowley, the Cambridge police officer who arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates a few days ago. A typical right-wing "bright shiny object" ploy to get people's minds off real issues, McCotter plans to lead the charge of racists and media hacks on their latest jihad against President Obama. (Let me again recommend you read Digby's piece The Frenzy Begins, about how the Republicans and their allies in the media, particularly cable news, get "obsessed with manufactured wingnut shitstorms designed to distract and diminish the president's stature and sap his political capital just when he needs it the most.")

When the Republican Party ripped off the DCCC incumbent protect mechanism-- the Front Line Program-- this year, starting the Patriot Program to try to salvage the apparently doomed careers of its most vulnerable members, McCotter was the very first one to get onto the list. That list that has increased with every passing day of Republican Party obstructionism, with 15 new names just added to those most likely to be defeated: Mike Rogers (AL), Mary Bono Mack (CA), birther Bill Posey (FL), Tom Rooney (FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Lynn Jenkins (KS), John Fleming (LA), Bill Cassidy (LA), Michele Bachmann (MN), Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO), Lee Terry (NE), Scott Garrett (NJ), Dean Heller (NV), Charlie Dent (PA) and Cynthia Lummis (WY). Ironically, Lynn Jenkins and Mary Bono Mack are in greater jeopardy from Republican activists in the right-wing base-- Jenkins because she just voted against Mike Pence's anti-choice amendment and Bono Mack because the teabaggers in the desert claim she's too pro-environment.

These 15 were added to the original 10, none of whom are considered likely to survive the 2010 midterm elections: McCotter, of course, plus Dan Lungren (CA), Ken Calvert (CA), Brian Bilbray (CA), Dave Reichert (WA), Judy Biggert (IL), Anh Cao (LA), Erik Paulsen (MN), Leonard Lance (NJ) and Chris Lee (NY).

You might be interested in knowing that most of the Democratic incumbents viewed by the DCCC as the most vulnerable are conservative Blue Dogs who have been as opposed to progress as the Republicans. Democrats most likely to lose their seats in 2010-- if membership in the DCCC Frontline Program is any indication-- include reactionaries like John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA), Bobby Bright ((Blue Dog-AL), Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), Brad Ellsworth (Blue Dog-IN), Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ), Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL), Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN), Ann Kirkpatrick (Blue Dog-AZ), Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA), and Zack Space (Blue Dog-OH).

There's not a single conservative-voting member on that list I'd shed a tear for any more than I would for any of the defeated Republicans. Conservatives, no matter from which party, are bad for American families and bad for America in general. Inside the Democratic Party, they tend to water down the best of what progressives have to offer, and often do more damage than Republicans alone can do. If health care reform fails, it won't be just because of Republicans; the fault will lie squarely on the shoulder of corrupt right-wing Democrats (many of whom are listed above) who are working with the Republicans to sabotage the legislation.

Back to the Republicans for a moment. They somehow missed including Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin wingnut who has been leading the Republican charge on behalf of Wall Street special interests in Congress and has continued to make an idiot out of himself at every opportunity, on their Patriot list. They may be in for a very nasty surprise. In fact, you can donate to his political demise through Act Blue right here at StopPaulRyan.


OF COURSE PROF. GATES, TRYING TO UNJAM HIS OWN FRONT DOOR, WOULD HAVE BEEN TREATED DIFFERENTLY IF HE WAS WHITE


by Ken

I'm relieved that Howie got us into the Gates episode, because I've been standing on the sidelines gaping in dumbfounded horror at the combination of:

(a) the obvious racism of the incident

Let me put it in the form of a statement rather than a question: If Professor Gates were white, there is not the slightest possibility -- absolutely zero -- that the incident would have unfolded the way it did.

(b) the nevertheless-exact-opposite conclusion reached -- so loudly -- by the country's die-hard white racist establishment

That cop may really believe that his behavior wasn't at all determined by race (when in fact it was clearly totally determined by race), but that just goes to show that you don't have to think you're engaging in race-discriminatory behavior to be doing so. Hey, it's possible that even Rush Limbaugh doesn't know that every fiber of his sorry being is permeated with every sort of crippling bigotry; that wouldn't make him any less bigoted. It just makes it that much harder to get at the bigotry.

So why was I, even so, startled by the Infotainment News Media's ritual asault on the president, for answering a question on the subject, rather than on his attackers with their blind ignorance, bigotry, and opportunism. Judging from this spectacle, an observer might think that race relations have been set back -- or rather were previously farther back than we thought -- by about 50 years.

However, the president's insistence on making a teaching moment of this controversy may produce a more hopeful outcome. For example, I noticed a head in this morning's Washington Post:

After Arrest. Cambridge Reflects on Racial Rift

The subhead is: "Forum to Explore Deep-Seated Issues."

Well, hello!

That way lies the possibility of moving forward. It's the exact opposite way from allowing the Rush Limbaughs and Pat Buchanans of the world to spew their ignorant and vicious poisons while pretending they're anything other than deeply convicted white supremacists.

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