Both Party Establishments Are Kind Of... Well, Truth Be Told, Stalinist

Yesterday I was ignoring the DCCC for a change, and kind of railing on the DSCC and its inept head-- destined to be the worst DSCC chair in history-- Robert Menendez (D-NJ). The above tweet refers to the DSCC's inept cavalry riding to the rescue of guaranteed loser Senate candidates Cal Cunningham in North Carolina and Lee Fisher in Ohio. Maybe Menendez just hates women or maybe he feels burned that his first race-- keeping Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat blue-- turned into such a high profile disaster, much of it directly traceable back to his incredible incompetence, and that the candidate was a woman. Perhaps that's why Menendez has been working overtime to try to sabotage the campaigns of two proven vote-getters, Secretaries of State, Elaine Marshall and Jennifer Brunner.

Either would have a far better chance to win against right-wing Republicans Richard Burr and Rob Postman in November than Menendez's turgid, tepid and uninspired faves-- each a sad male version of Martha Coakley and a sure general election loser. Apparently, though, Menendez can't see past the plumbing. Turns out, fortunately, that the Republican Inside-the-Beltway equivalents of the DSCC and the DCCC are as stumblingly incompetent and disaster-prone as their Democratic counterparts. Yesterday's CQPolitics focused on how gun-shy the NRCC has become since the rise of the teabaggers.

In the past, both parties have had mixed success in their efforts to covertly, or not so covertly, clear crowded primaries for their best prospects in some of the most competitive House races.

But with the anti-establishment sentiment among voters inflamed this cycle, both local and national GOP leaders are being forced to tiptoe-- if at all-- to show some candidates the exit for fear of triggering a backlash from local activists.

About six weeks ago, Missouri state GOP officials attempted to organize a meeting with state Sen. Bill Stouffer and former state Rep. Vicky Hartzler, the leading GOP candidates in the Aug. 3 primary to take on longtime Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton.

According to two sources familiar with the meeting, it was arranged in an effort to talk Hartzler out of running in order to clear the field for Stouffer. But Hartzler discovered the purpose of the meeting and canceled her attendance.

“Vicki Hartzler canceled the meeting, period,” Stouffer campaign spokesman Christian Morgan said. “She was going to be asked to step aside in the campaign because her support just isn’t there in the district. This isn’t theory. It is fact. Her revisionist history and behavior of toying with the facts is just another reason why she cannot be trusted to represent the people of rural Missouri in the U.S. Congress.”

But according to Hartzler political director Samantha Hill, the story is actually the other way around-- party officials attempted to bring the two candidates to ask Stouffer to step aside in the race. Hill said that when party leaders backed away from their promise to ask Stouffer to step aside just days before the meeting, Hartzler canceled.

“We kind of deliberated, and said it wasn’t worth our time, it wasn’t worth the party’s time and it wasn’t worth Stouffer’s time,” Hill said.

With several notable exceptions, the National Republican Congressional Committee is staying out of the primary game completely. Officially, the committee says it has no policy on primaries-- which technically means they reserve the right to take sides even if they are unlikely to do so.

Key words: "With several notable exceptions." It reminds me of what a higher up at the DCCC told me when I was complaining that they're up to their bad old tricks again of favoring reactionary Blue Dogs over progressives (as in the Florida open seat being abandoned by Adam Putnam pitting progressive grassroots candidate Doug Tudor against Blue Dog-backed/lobbyist owned conservative shill Lori Edwards). The DCCC fellow told me they don't interfere in 90% of the races so we couldn't we just STFU. I mentioned that the only races that matter are the 10% where they do interfere-- as well as all the lies they recite for why they interfere. It's always been clear that the Democratic and Republican establishments Inside-the-Beltway have far more in common with each other than with actual Americans of either political party.

[T]here are less-than-subtle hints about who the national GOP supports in many of these multicandidate primaries. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, for example, has endorsed car dealer Scott Rigell, the leading contender in the crowded Republican primary to decide who will face Democratic Rep. Glenn Nye.

In Tennessee’s 8th district race for John Tanner ’s seat, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas) and other GOP leaders have held fundraisers for farmer Stephen Fincher. Even though Fincher is not the only competitive candidate in the race, GOP leaders have continued to help Fincher because he entered the race and put together a strong campaign before the 11-term Democrat announced his retirement.

But by overtly backing a candidate in a contested primary, national and local parties can put themselves in a difficult position if their preferred nominee does not win. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fell into that trap in the 2006 cycle, when their preferred candidate-- state Rep. Jim Craig-- lost the primary in New Hampshire’s 1st district to Carol Shea-Porter.

After Craig’s loss, the DCCC did not target the race and, much to the surprise of Democrats, watched Shea-Porter, the little-known liberal activist, defeat Rep. Jeb Bradley in the general election. Relations between Shea-Porter and the committee remained frosty until fairly late in her first term in Congress.

This cycle in the Granite State, Republicans are faced with crowded primaries in both competitive House districts. National Republicans originally recruited Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta to run early on this cycle, but his fledgling campaign has opened the door for many other local Republicans to get in the race.

While the NRCC has stood by their early recruit in Tennessee, Fincher, they are letting the primary play out for Guinta in New Hampshire. Bradley lost his attempt to take his seat back in 2008 after a late and bloody primary damaged his candidacy and his bank account, but the risk of taking sides in an activist-driven state like New Hampshire is too risky for the national or local Republican Party.

“Being the candidate of the Washington establishment is not quite the kiss of death, it’s certainly not something that any candidate wants to run on this year,” said former New Hampshire GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen.

Yesterday, Menendez and the gang that can't shoot straight jumped into the Ohio fray in favor of Lee Fisher and DFA joined Blue America's efforts to help Jennifer Brunner. I'd much rather have DFA on our side than the DSCC. In fact if you check out the Blue America May Senate Primaries page you'll notice that Blue America is backing all non-Establishment candidates against the corporate shills the DSCC favors. And, as of this writing, Jennifer Brunner is out ahead of the 4 other excellent candidates. Have you voted yet? You can here. (And 21st Century Democrats just came down against the DSCC incredibly corrupt corporate shill in Arkansas. The DSCC, ironically, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing right-wing habitual aisle-crosser Blanche Lincoln. Blue America and 21st Century Democrats-- along with virtually every progressive group in America, are supporting Bill Halter.