Our System Is Broken Because Of How It Is Funded-- Meet Florida Blue Dog Lori Edwards

Doug Tudor & lobbyist candidate, Blue Dog-endorsed Lori Edwards

So far this election season, the Blue Dog caucus, which has provided the bulk of the "no" votes that have destroyed Democratic unity in Congress and allowed the Republican minority to slow down and water down virtually ALL of President Obama's domestic agenda, has endorsed exactly one challenger: Lori Edwards, a cautious and very conservative Polk County, Florida elections supervisor. Last night an angry Polk County Democratic activist sent me a copy of an invitation to Edwards' first DC fund-raiser. It's being hosted by lobbyists, the Eris Group, at their New Jersey Avenue townhouse and Lori is being presented by two of K Street's worst Democratic shills in Congress, Blue Dog Allen Boyd and the DCCC's controversial and duplicitous candidate recruitment leader, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The grassroots progressive candidate in the race for the FL-12 seat is Navy veteran and 2008 Democratic candidate Doug Tudor. With no support whatsoever from the DCCC, he managed to do as well against one of Florida's most powerful Republican politicians, Adam "Howdy Doody" Putnam, as the losing DCCC-backed candidates did in their races. When he approached Wasserman Schultz, then head of the DCCC Red to Blue program, for help, upon meeting her at Yearly Kos in Denver, she responded to his explanation that he hadn't developed strong corporate fundraising ties because he spent his life in military service and is a working class guy, she responded angrily and said "Don't pull that populist stuff with me." Next Thursday she is helping the Blue Dogs introduce their candidate against Tudor to a bunch of check-writing lobbyists who represent Morgan Stanley and Countrywide.

The other host is Allen Boyd, an unscrupulous reactionary from Tallahassee, the only Democrat in the House to vote for H.R. 440-- which, because of his vote Bush got to call "The Bipartisan Retirement Security Act," an attempt to eviscerate and destroy Social Security. Not even one other filthy, mangy Blue Dog would follow Boy'd lead on this. He knows very well that in Lori Edwards he'll have a real soul mate in Congress though. Boyd also voted for Bush's bank bailout in 2008 and against Obama's Stimulus Plan in 2009. Predictably, he also voted against the healthcare reform bill last month. He's eager to get another like-minded fake Democrat into the caucus. In fact, if she were in Congress last month, voting alongside Boyd, the healthcare reform act would have never passed.

It always amazes me how the hypocrites at the DCCC send out urgent letters soliciting donations from grassroots Democrats to save the president's policies from the deprecations of reactionary Republicans one day and then throw fundraisers-- with lobbyists-- for the very Democrats who enable the minority Republicans to get away with wrecking the president's policies! If you can't make it to the Lori Edwards lobbyist bash a week from tonight, please consider donating whatever you can afford to the Doug Tudor campaign today.