Is The DCCC Sacrificing Tarryl Clark's Chance To Oust Bachmann On The Altar Of Anti-Progressive Blue Dog Worship?

As we explained before, this year the DCCC isn't giving any substantive help to Democratic challengers against incumbent Republicans. Thanks to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's battle plan-- a craven and suicidal defensive crouch that sinks millions of dollars into indefensible worthless loser Blue Dogs like Bobby Bright-- at least a dozen viable progressives don't have the money they need to compete against corporately financed Republicans.

Even the challengers officially endorsed and part of this year's unfunded Red to Blue Program aren't getting anything of substance from the DCCC. Other than in the case of some open seats, and almost totally only those financially connected to DCCC decision-makers Jon Vogel and John Lapp, Red to Blue candidates have been ineligible for meaningful I.E. money. Manan Trivedi must have been so excited to imagine that the DCCC would help him oust Jim Gerlach; ashes. Nor has Steve Pougnet gotten anything but a pat on the head in his attempt to defeat the ultra-vulnerable Mary Bono Mack. Same story in Rob Miller's battle against Joe "You Lie" Wilson in South Carolina, Suzan DelBene's against Dave Reichert in Washington, John Callahan's against Charlie Dent in Pennsylvania, Ami Bera's against Dan Lungren in California and Tarryl Clark's against the execrable Michele Bachmann in Minnesota. [And this doesn't even address the most promising progressives-- both on and off the Red to Blue list-- who are being totally ignored by the DCCC, from Joyce Elliott (AR), who's on the list, to Bill Hedrick (CA), Billy Kennedy (NC), Justin Coussoule (OH), Fred Johnson (MI), Beth Krom (CA) and Ed Potosnak (NJ), who aren't.]

Let's look for a moment at Tarryl Clark's race against Bachmann. Tarryl is a popular state senator, running against an embarrassing lunatic who only managed reelection in 2008-- against a terrible Democratic opponent-- with a scant 46-44% margin. Bachmann has raised over $10 million from the corporate interests she serves and from the delusional teabagger fanatics who eagerly embrace their own economic demise. Tarryl has managed to bring in, almost entirely from the grassroots, almost $4 million. Her cash on hand at last count was far less than Bachmann's (not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars in overt promotion Bachmann has been getting from Fox "News" and Hate Talk Radio). This is a time when some help from the DCCC could even things out. So far, though, all we've heard from them... crickets.

Yesterday the very conservative St. Cloud Times, previously Bachmann supporters, tossed her overboard and came out swinging for Tarryl Clark in a blistering editorial entitled Bachmann Isn't Serving Our District's Best Interests.

[T]he district needs a U.S. House member who puts constituent service first. Sadly, after four years in office, Michele Bachmann has proved with unabashed consistency that serving 6th District constituents is essentially her last priority.

Come Nov. 2, voters should replace her with Tarryl Clark.

Regular Our View readers shouldn’t be surprised by this endorsement. This board in April of 2009 wrote off Bachmann’s desire to serve the voters who elect her.

We cited then three years worth of her rash, ridiculous, unsubstantiated, misleading and fear-mongering statements about national issues. We also noted-- and this is important-- her lack of any realistic solutions. In the 19 months since then, Bachmann has only refined an age-old political recipe: mix equal parts of fear and blame that raise your personal profile yet yield only sound bites, not solutions.

She does it so effectively (and relentlessly) that she’s become a grass-roots tea party heroine even while supporting a public policy agenda that helps entities that are anything but grass roots. Best example: In the wake of America’s financial collapse, do you really think Bachmann’s push to leave Wall Street alone was in the best interests of 6th District voters?

Also, look districtwide and we challenge you to find something-- anything-- that Bachmann has helped achieve or a cause she has helped advance. Much like her legislative ideas, we see nothing of substance.
In fact, these past four years renew our appreciation for House representation that provided this area with voices like Collin Peterson and Mark Kennedy. Sure, they have their partisan allegiances, but they realized when it was time to set those aside and do what was best for the district, not themselves.

Residents of the 6th District deserve a return to that philosophy. Clark is the person to provide it because in four years, Bachmann has proved she is incapable of such efforts.

Other than the case of hopeless Glenn Beck fans, this is where voters in Benton, Stearns, Wright and Sherburne Counties get their political information. It's a devastating blow to Bachmann's reelection efforts, but the polls still have her running ahead, especially in the white-flight suburbs north of Minneapolis, which could be suburbs around Montgomery or Birmingham. Her campaign has been all about her national celebrity as a teabagger and mouthy extremist while studiously avoiding questions and avoiding issues and avoiding anything beyond Fox News and Chamber of Commerce meetings. I doubt she's seen the local play Michele, but with the DCCC sitting distractedly on the sidelines, she knows she has little to worry about. By all means watch a bit of the musical Bachumanntary-- and then think about tossing in what you can to the Tarryl Clark election fund at our Blue America ActBlue page.