Inside The Beltway Stalinism Crumbling?

[Wander down to the bottom of this post to find out how you can win a k.d. lang platinum album award without having to read about what a destructive jerk Rahm Emanuel is.]


This morning CQPolitics made the case that the out-of-touch, Inside-the-Beltway, Stalinist party organs are shattering. If it turns out to bee true, it would be a blow in favor of participatory, grassroots democracy. Insiders blame everything from a lack of an easily identifiable (and galvanizing fiend), like Bush, to the recession, but the conventional wisdom is that "[t]he inability of Washington Democrats to shape the political playing field has grown more acute with the onset of the primary campaign season," meaning, in effect, that the Beltway types are starting to recognize what everyone in America has seen all year.

Veteran Sens. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania could find themselves out of a job at this time next week, the victims of restless Democratic primary voters and activists who no longer take their cues from the national party establishment in Washington.

Unlike the previous two election cycles, when Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill cleared the field for their incumbents and muscled preferred primary candidates to the nomination in targeted seats, 2010 has witnessed a dramatic slide in party influence beyond the Beltway. Not only are the Arkansas and Pennsylvania incumbents vulnerable in primaries, but the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s hand-picked candidate in North Carolina also is in trouble.

...In Pennsylvania, Specter is fighting Rep. Joe Sestak one year after leaving the Republican Party to avoid an uphill primary battle against former Rep. Pat Toomey. Specter was immediately embraced and backed by President Obama, and the DSCC is now working overtime to salvage his campaign. Specter is running even with Sestak after leading by wide margins just a few months ago.

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said he expects Specter to win the May 18 primary, adding that the incumbent is working hard and always expected a tough race. Casey won a contested Democratic primary in 2006, but his nomination was never in doubt after Schumer worked to clear out any serious competition.

Yes, Schumer at the DSCC and Emanuel at the DCCC were the heart and soul of insider, anti-grassroots Democratic Party Stalinism-- although Schumer messed up and failed miserably in Montana, where his corporate shill was beaten back by Jon Tester, who went on to beat the Republican corporate shill in November; and Rahm messed up when his signature shill, a bona fide corrupt Republican who Rahm persuaded to change party affiliation-- i.e., jersey color-- days before the primary, Tim Mahoney, got hoist on a petard of delicious irony, ceding the seat back to a red jersey wearing Republican.

Ignoring the shock this past weekend of stalwart grassroots progressive Claudia Wright standing up to reactionary Blue Dog incumbent Jim Matheson and Emanuelist Steny Hoyer in Salt Lake City... and prevailing, the Village is certain that "[t]he first shot across the bow came May 11 in West Virginia, where 14-term Rep. Alan Mollohan fell in the 1st district Democratic primary to state Sen. Mike Oliverio, who hit the incumbent for supporting health care overhaul on his way to a 12-point victory." Always the comfortable default position for Villagey wisdom-- the loser was "too liberal," even when he's a conservative, like Mollahan is, and when the whole campaign was about how incredibly corrupt he is. No room for primaries against Blue Dogs and other conservatives by progressives in that narrative! This morning Greg Sargent at the Washington Post at least came close, closer than anyone else in the DC press corps, to getting the narrative right about the anti-incumbent-- rather than an anti-progressive-- mood. And yesterday's Macon Telegraph was clearly sensing what barnacles like David Broder and Charlie Cook will try to explain in retrospect. Furthering what Sargent alluded to, there is room in the anti-incumbent fervour for insurrgent progressives to oust reactionaries like John Barrow.

Rep. John Barrow's vote against health care in Congress has cost the Georgia Democrat key support within his own party, from officials quietly withholding endorsements to one party leader calling for his defeat.

While other Democrats up for re-election are being targeted by Republicans for passing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in March, Barrow faces backlash for his "no" vote from fellow Democrats in southern Georgia... Democrats fuming over the three-term congressman's vote will have a chance to vent their anger in the July 20 primary, when Barrow faces a rematch with Democratic challenger Regina Thomas, a former state senator.

"We are very angry about the way John Barrow has sold us down the river," said John Brewer, Democratic Party chairman for rural Montgomery County. "I will go to the polls on primary day and I will vote, but it won't be for John Barrow."

...[S]ome Democrats say Barrow went too far in alienating his own party and Obama on health care, particularly for many black leaders to justify supporting him. Black voters make up 41 percent of Barrow's constituents, and account for a solid majority in Democratic primary races. It's unknown whether Obama will weigh in with an endorsement.

State Rep. Mickey Stephens, a black Democrat from Savannah, made the rounds of local churches stumping for Barrow in past campaigns. However, Stephens refrained from taking sides in Barrow's 2008 primary race with Thomas.

This year, Stephens is openly supporting Thomas in the Democratic primary. Barrow's health vote, he says, wasn't just the last straw - it "was a piece of timber."

"Most African-Americans are under-insured or don't have insurance at all. They need it the most," Stephens said. "John didn't just turn his back. He turned his back and ducked on this vote."

Two other black lawmakers who endorsed Barrow in the 2008 primary have backed off this year. State Rep. Bob Bryant of Garden City says he's now supporting Thomas. State Rep. Quincy Murphy of Augusta said, while he's unhappy with Barrow's health vote, he hasn't decided whether to endorse either candidate.

It's much easier for Villagers to deal with the defeat of conservative Republican Bob Bennett at the hands of a Glenn Beck/Dick Armey-backed teabagger (who wound up coming in second to an even more deranged teabagger) than it is to talk about Claudia Wright's low budget success against Matheon and Hoyer, something the Village is just absolutely not willing to talk about. Wright, a great great granddaughter of Brigham Young, prevented Matheson from winning the Democratic Party endorsement and could actually beat him in the June 22 Utah primary. (Please give her a hand at the Blue America anti-Blue Dog page.) Yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune reported a further worry for Matheson, one that could doom his re-election hopes-- Operation Chaos, Utah style:

Some Utah Republicans who harbor hopes of taking a congressional seat that a Democrat has held for a decade are raising the possibility of crossing over to vote for the candidate they perceive as the weakest in the Democrats' open primary.

State Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, became a topic on KSL Radio's Doug Wright Show on Tuesday after he posted a Facebook suggestion that Republicans vote for Claudia Wright over five-term Congressman Jim Matheson in the June 22 Democratic primary. While Utah Republicans reserve the primary vote to registered party members, Democrats have an open primary that enables independent voters-- with no declared party affiliation-- to vote.

Wright has a great deal of momentum against a Republican-voting Democrat whose only real asset among Democratic primary voters is father's name, and she could very well beat Matheson with or without Winner's version of Operation Chaos. "[S]he believes she has enough interests in common with moderate Republicans and "tea party" activists-- starting with opposition to bank bailouts-- to win the district" and says Republicans are more afraid of Matheon's massive corporate warchest than anything else.

When Wright's BadDogs page hits $2,000 I'm going to pull the name of a contributor out of a hat and send them a Blue America thank you in the form of an RIAA-certified platinum award disc for k.d. lang's Ingenue.