Inside the Beltway Fail: Handpicked Candidates Melting Down

I got a funny e-mail yesterday-- unintentionally funny-- from a friend who works at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The subject line had a glaring typo: "DSCC Fail: Handpicked candidates melting down  coast-to-coast." I couldn't imagine what snark it could be and hurried to open it. I mean, where they about to announce they had made a grievous error in recruiting Cal Cunningham and then pushing his candidacy against the far more popular Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall? Menendez? That would be a first. Or maybe they were ready to announce what a terrible mistake they had made in jumping into the Pennsylvania primary on behalf of "ex"-Republican Arlen Specter? Not likely. Really not likely!

That's when I realized it was a typo and he meant to push out a story about the other anti-grassroots Inside-the-Beltway shitheads' backing of wrong candidates-- John Cornyn's NRSC. They're the ones picking the candidates their grassroots hate. OK, all true... but it really is about how badly both Beltway party establishments absolutely blow chunks and are, by their very nature, always at odds with real Americans, regardless of ideology.

The TPM post is all about how the NRSC's recruitments of establishment hacks are being rejected by GOP activists in the states-- just the way North Carolina Democrats are telling the DSCC to go back where they come from and take Cal with 'em. By now everyone knows about how Charlie Crist's only chance to win a Senate seat would be to run as a Democrat because unless someone has a picture of Marco Rubio tickling a bunch of teenage boys, he's the Republican nominee. And the chances of Rubio's tickling pictures coming before the public before entire scrapbooks of Crist tickle and snorkel sessions, is pretty unlikely. And Crist isn't the only NRSC endorsee being rejected by teabaggers and Republican voters. Carly Fiorina is a total dud and she'll be lucky if she comes in second in the primary. Dan Coats (IN), Jane Norton (CO), Trey Grayson (KY), Rob Simmons (CT) Sue Lowden (NV), and Kelly Ayotte (NH) are also NRSC picks who are having trouble back in their own states-- not to mention incumbents John McCain (AZ) and Bob Bennett (UT).

And, unlike the Democrats where no one ever stands up to the Stalinist party leaders, the Republicans have an effect anti-Establishment rallying point: South Carolina extremist Jim DeMint (SC). His Senate Conservatives Fund has taken the lead to blatantly challenge Cornyn's candidates in California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania.

"The rules have changed and the political ground has shifted under the feet of the establishment and they are still trying to get their footing," Mike Connolly of the conservative Club for Growth told me in an interview today. The group was backing outsider candidates before it was cool, encouraging contested primaries by running Pat Toomey (R-PA) against Sen. Arlen Specter in 2004.
In many cases, DeMint's candidates seem to be prevailing. For example, Rubio has won more than two dozen Florida straw polls over Crist, who is being targeted in part for supporting President Obama's stimulus plan last year.

The current TPM Poll Average of this race shows Rubio with 56.9% and Crist with 28.5%.
Last weekend Colorado Republican Jane Norton-- dubbed the mainstream candidate by conservatives-- lost a straw poll to Ken Buck... Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN), a top recruit to run for the seat Sen. Evan Bayh is vacating, came in last in a very small straw poll conducted by a tea party group backing the candidate who prevailed, State Sen. Marlin Stutzman.

The party which best responds to its grassroots is probably the party that will chalk up the most victories in November. And it's something the Republicans are at least talking about. Menendez and his crew of idiots are prepared to preside over a half dozen Martha Coakleys before they ever realize something needs to be addressed. I haven't found conservative Democrats Pat Caddell (yeah, the Fox guy) and Doug Schoen particularly worth paying much attention to over the years, but Thursday they worked on an article together for the Washington Post about how dismal its looking for Democratic prospects in November. Why? Because Democratic insiders think they know what's best and they're ignoring Democratic voters.

Their blind persistence in the face of reality threatens to turn this political march of folly into an electoral rout in November... [T]he battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.

Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats' current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.

Predictably Caddell and Schoen are then off and running about how the public wants whatever Fox tells them to want because, of course, that's exactly what Caddell and Schoen want. But the grain of truth in their self-serving anti-Democratic Party rumbling is that no one does want the crap health care bill-- other than Big Pharma-- Obama and the Senate are pushing through. It has good aspects, but the bill as a whole is too flawed for the Democrat's pathetically dismal message machine to turn it into a winning platform for anyone-- and that includes Democrats outside the Beltway!

Alan Grayson's Public Option bill is gaining tremendous momentum. It might not get any more bipartisan support than Obama's and the Senate's horrendous bill, but at least Democrats and independents will love it. When we first mentioned it, there were 10 co-sponsors. Last I counted there were over 60-- and growing: Bob Filner, Jan Schakowsky, Barney Frank, Dennis Kucinich, Donna Edwards, Jared Polis, Chellie Pingree, Sheila Jackson Lee, Carol Shea-Porter, Diane Watson, John Lewis, Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, Keith Ellison, Loretta Sanchez, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Charles Rangel, Patrick Kennedy, Raul Grijalva, John Olver, Corrine Brown, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcia Fudge, Danny Davis, Grace Napolitano, Alcee Hastings, John Hall, Shelley Berkley, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Phil Hare, Betty Sutton, Jim McDermott, Maurice Hinchey, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Gregory Meeks, Edolphus Towns, Al Green, David Wu, Rush Holt, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Tammy Baldwin, Mike Doyle, Diana DeGette, Steve Cohen, Bennie Thompson, Andre Carson, Yvette Clarke, Steve Israel, James Moran, Emanuel Cleaver, Judy Chu, Donald Payne, and John Garamendi.

If you missed Grayson's floor speech when he introduced the bill Tuesday, here it is again. Unlike most of his colleagues, he speaks for ordinary American working families.