Republicans And Blue Dogs Plotting To Turn Congress Over To Corporate Dominance While DCCC... Aids And Abets

If you donated to the DCCC, you enabled this ad by Blue Dog Bobby Bright

The DCCC is going to extraordinary lengths to prop up the political careers of Blue Dogs who, as a default position, habitually cross the aisle and vote with the GOP on key issues. Many of the worst of the Blue Dogs, like Bobby Bright brags in his ad above, vote with the GOP on these issues far more than they vote with Democrats. Boehner knows that on vote after vote he can always count on Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD), Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA), Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC), Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS), Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA) and at least half a dozen others... as well as a handful of arch-conservative Blue Dog fellow travelers who have not joined the caucus, like John Adler (NJ), John Boccieri (OH), Tom Perriello (VA) and Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ).

The DCCC has tens of millions of dollars ready to deploy and, in a boneheaded strategy devised largely by corrupt Democratic Party hack Debbie Wasserman Schultz, much of it will be used to attempt to save the seats of anti-Choice, antigay, anti-healthcare conservatives who vote with the Republicans. This week, for example, the DCCC spent $576,975.00 on TV ads opposing Martha Roby, the right-winger who the GOP is running against Bobby Bright (the Democratic right-winger). By attacking Roby for Bright it allowed Bright to run a "positive ad" for himself, one that extolled the virtues of John Boehner and bragged how he and Boehner vote hand-in-hand 80% of the time. Think I'm exaggerating? Watch!.

Meanwhile Bright run up a startling ProgressivePunch score of 19.83 (out of 100), essentially tied with Texas conservative Republican Ralph Hall and actually worse than Ron Paul (R-TX) and Rodney Alexander (R-LA)! Bright has voted against equality for the LGBT community, voted against women's choice, voted against health care reform, voted against Wall Street reform and voted against virtually every single item on President Obama's agenda. The $576,975.00 Wasserman Schultz is wasting on Bright would absolutely win the race in-- for example-- New Jersey's 7th district, where a smart, progressive chemistry teacher, Ed Potosnak, is running against a dull career politician who is utterly in the pocket of Wall Street, Leonard Lance. A Rutgers-Eagleton poll for September 23-26 found that across Republican-held districts in New Jersey, only 42% of likely voters would vote for a Republican while 44% would support the Democrat. An earlier poll by GarinHartYang shows the race between Lance and Potosnak within the margin of error. Yet Wasserman Schultz refuses to recognize Potosnak as a candidate and the DCCC hasn't given his campaign a single dime. The GarinHartYang poll showed that only 31% of voters favor reelecting Lance. President Obama carried the district in 2008. The Rutgers-Eagleton poll also found that independent voters are now more likely to vote for a Democrat than they were in August, with independents also indicating they would be more likely to prefer a challenger than an incumbent.

“In the 7th district," said Potosnak, "we have more registered independent voters than Democrats or Republicans. The Rutgers-Eagleton poll confirms what we have long known-- discerning independents prefer a Democrat who will bring real world experience to Washington over a Republican career politician. Mr. Lance is ducking debates because he knows that the more independent voters learn about his positions on the issues and his record in Congress, the less likely they are to vote for him.”

But Wasserman Schultz is adamant. All DCCC resources must be spent on incumbents and most of that is going to prop up Blue Dogs. That could well backfire in the Democrats' face. As Steve Benen reported yesterday, Boehner is already in talks with Blue Dogs in the hopes of luring a few to jump the fence permanently-- the way Parker Griffith did-- if the GOP comes close to a majority but doesn't quite get there.

House Republicans are already examining which Democrats might want to switch parties after Nov. 2 and are mapping out a strategy for how to persuade them to make the leap.

Republican aides and lobbyists said there are a handful of Democratic Members whom GOP leaders plan to target, with Member-to-Member conversations beginning immediately after the midterm elections. Incentives for switching sides could include a leadership-level position or seat on a powerful committee such as Appropriations or Ways and Means.

"You are looking for someone who has been there three, four or five terms who has a shot at going up the ladder," said John Feehery, a GOP strategist who served as communications director to former Speaker Dennis Hastert. "One who is enticed by a committee chairmanship or one who their districts are so terribly bad that voting for Pelosi would be the end of them."

Democratic Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Walt Minnick (Idaho) and Heath Shuler (N.C.) are all on the Republicans' target list. Reps. Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Gene Taylor (Miss.) are also considered potential gets.

There are dozens of progressive Democrats fighting against vulnerable Republicans across the country and almost none of them are getting any help from the DCCC which is sticking with Wasserman Schultz's suicidal strategy. Imagine if she would allow some of that DCCC money to go to help races by Billy Kennedy who is battling it out with Virginia Foxx in North Carolina, the two Democrats in close races in California's Inland Empire, Bill Hedrick and Beth Krom, or the Army veteran Wasserman Schultz went out of her way to denigrate in a TV appearance Monday, Justin Coussoule, the one candidate who could put an end to the repulsive political career and frightening ambitions of John Boehner. It almost seems like Wasserman Schultz has a very different agenda than electing a Democratic Congress. All the progressives mentioned-- and more-- can be helped directly at the Blue America ActBlue page.

An addendum to this story is the irony that the Democrats least likely to pay their DCCC dues are, in fact, the same mangy Blue Dogs who most benefit from the DCCC expenditures! And what makes matters worse is that Blue Dogs are given credit for donating to the DCCC when they fund Blue Dog candidates early in the cycle and force them into being endorsed with claims like "Oh, but they raised much more money-- i.e., 100% Blue Dog and Blue Dog-inspired corporate money-- than the progressive." This is a common Blue Dog trick that has helped saddle the Democratic Party with conservatives like the ones who can't inspire the Democratic base and are on (costly) life support and will probably lose in November. Wasserman Schultz, the female Rahm Emanuel, is slated to take over the DCCC in January, despite her spectacularly disastrous strategy and execution, guaranteeing another dreadful cycle in 2012. One member told me he left the last caucus meeting sick to his stomach as the worst of the leaders of the demise of the party celebrated their climbing up the ranks of leadership.