GOP Declares Class War... But There Are Democrats In Congress Who Side With The Republicans

CNBC, because of their demo, seems to have a very different take on the world than, say, MSNBC-- or at least MSNBC not counting that Republican morning show and Pat Buchanan. But a posting from CNBC this week could well have come from people working on the Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz show: GOP Faces Risk Of Political Backlash On Budget Cuts. It's a poll-based warning about the hard reality GOP leaders are too scared to look at-- scared because of nihilistic and voracious teabagger extremists-- but that puts them in an untenable position. Most Americans are concerned about jobs and are feeling increasingly uncomfortable about Boehner & Co pushing whacky social issues and budget cuts that will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and trade policies that will send more jobs overseas.

The survey shows Republicans in Washington caught between powerful opposing forces: demands from the Tea Party right for spending cuts to reduce the budget deficits, and fears by crucial swing voter groups that cuts would harm them amid anxiety over the weak economy.

Those pressing hardest for spending cuts represent "an incredibly powerful but small ideological part of our electorate," said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducts the NBC/WSJ survey with Democratic counterpart Peter Hart.

To the peril of Republican politicians, their priorities collide squarely with the concerns of younger voters, senior citizens, independents and suburban women whom the GOP needs to win elections. Mr. McInturff called that "a huge flashing yellow sign for Republicans" in their pending showdown with the White House and Congressional Democrats, but wasn't sure his party would heed it.

"It may be hard to understand why someone would jump off a cliff," explained Mr. McInturff, who advised the 2008 campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, "unless you understand they were being chased by a tiger. That tiger is the Tea Party."

That encouraging news for Democrats is not reflected in assessments of President Obama's job performance, which has receded after the boost he received from his handlings of the Tucson shootings in January. Mr. Obama's job approval rating in the survey was 48 percent, down from 53 percent in the previous NBC/WSJ poll.

Yesterday "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, the worst possible choice the Democrats could have made to lead the DCCC (even Wasserman-Schultz would have been a thousand ten times better), announced that the DCCC will be channeling massive amounts of contributions into 15 endangered incumbents, most of whom are endangered because they vote with the Republicans on tough bills and have disappointed the party's base. So, when the DCCC solicits money to "protect" women's choice or to "protect" the environment, they are practicing a politician chicanery that will only lead to further disillusionment, since immense amounts of money goes towards reelecting Democrats who vote with the GOP on these issues. The worst of the bunch are cronies of Steve Israel's, Blue Dog reactionaries Mike McIntyre (NC), Jim Matheson (UT), Ben Chandler (KY), as well as proto-Blue Dogs Mark Critz (PA), Bill Owens (NY) and Larry Kissell (NC).

Let's look at how these priorities for DCCC resources-- money that could and should be going to elect progressives who fight for the values Democrats believe in-- have been voting since the 112th Congress convened. First, their overall ProgressivePunch scores on crucial votes, showing each of them voting far more frequently with Boehner on the issues that matter than with their own party:

Mike McIntyre- 33.33
Jim Matheson- 33.33
Ben Chandler- 34.15
Mark Critz- 34.15
Bill Owens- 31.71
Larry Kissell- 31.71

Eight Republicans, some of whom-- like Michael Fitzpatrick and Charlie Bass-- are being targeted by the DCCC, voted against Boehner's insane agenda more often than Kissell and Owens! But let's go right back to the very first vote in the House this year, a vote to pick the Speaker. Generally, all Republicans vote for the Republican leader (in this case Boehner) and all Democrats vote for the Democratic leader (Pelosi)-- and indeed all the Republicans rallied around Boehner and elected what is turning out to be the is already looking like the worst Speaker in history. But close to two dozen Democrats bolted. Blue Dogs Jim Matheson and Mike McIntyre and Kissell (who lied to Democrats and ran as a progressive) voted for uber-reactionary Heath Shuler. And then McIntyre was one of the 3 Democrats to join Boehner in voting to repeal healthcare reform.

Vote after vote, saw this list of Steve Israel's priorities crossing the aisle and voting with Boehner on all the tough votes, whether it's Matheson and Chandler backing Boehner's intention of ending public financing for presidential elections or Chandler, Critz, Kissell, Matheson, and McIntyre voting with Boehner (and Israel) to extend the PATRIOT Act or Mike McIntyre walking in lockstep with his pal Mike Pence to defund Planned Parenthood.

Israel claimed yesterday that "voters sent a clear message" in November. It's a shame he only heard what teabaggers and Republicans were saying and not what Democrats were saying. Let's take Larry Kissell as an example. Before he stabbed progressive voters in the back in 2009 and morphed into a conservative, Kissell ran in 2006 and 2008 (as a fire-brand populist and across-the-board progressive). In 2006 he came within a few votes of defeating multimillionaire Bush rubber stamp Robin Hayes (60,926 to 60,597) and won a big victory in crucial Mecklenburg County (10,931- 5,157). In 2008 as part of the Democratic tidal wave-- Obama beat McCain in NC-8 with 53% of the vote-- Kissell dislodged Hayes in a highly contested rematch, 157,185- 126,634. Enthusiastic, fired-up Democrats and left-leaning independents came out to vote in great numbers and gave Kissell impressive victories in 8 out of the districts 10 counties.

Last November saw a very different race. North Carolina Democrats felt let down by Kissell's abysmal voting record and disappointing performance as a congressman. He barely scraped by against a lunatic fringe hate talk radio host, Harold Johnson, 87,394 (53%) to 72,626 (44%), setting off alarm bells at the DCCC. Almost half his 2008 voters stayed home. Below is a list of the 15 Members on Israel's list, along with their victory percentages in 2008 and in 2010

• Representative Tim Bishop (NY-01)- 58%/50%
• Representative Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA)- 56%/51%
• Representative Russ Carnahan (MO-03)- 66%/49%
• Representative Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY)- 65%/50%
• Representative Gerry Connolly (proto-Blue Dog-VA)- 55%/49%
• Representative Mark Critz (proto-Blue Dog-PA)- 53*/51%
• Representative Gabby Giffords (Blue Dog-AZ)- 55%/49%
• Representative Larry Kissell (proto-Blue Dog-NC)- 55%/53%
• Representative Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)- 63%/51%
• Representative Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC) 69%/54%
• Representative Jerry McNerney (CA)- 55%/48%
• Representative Bill Owens (proto-Blue Dog-NY)- 49%*/48%
• Representative Gary Peters (MI)- 52%/50%
• Representative Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- 54%/51%
• Representative Tim Walz (MN-01)- 63%/50%

*-indicates special elections to fill open seats

Funding the DCCC, especially under a Blue Dog and corporate whore like Israel just furthers the bipartisan conservative agenda. The DCCC is not the friend of anyone hoping for progressive governance in this country... quite the contrary. They are very much part of the conservative consensus that keeps us fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and Yemen and Pakistan, while making sure the wealthy become forever wealthier at the expense of the rest of us. A little better than Republicans? Yeah, but very little.