Is The Very Conservative Steve Israel Recruiting Candidates Too Conservative To Win Back Disaffected Democratic Voters?

Nancy Pelosi appointed a conservative "ex"-Blue Dog-- a concept I believe in as much as I believe in an "ex"-gay-- to head the DCCC and win back the majority. Steve Israel has already boasted he's basically the same as Rahm Emanuel but without the potty mouth. Yesterday's NY Times ran a flattering profile of Israel and his troubles as DCCC Chair. It starts with how his conservative buddies in the Blue Dog Caucus-- who not only drag the whole party down with their Republican philosophy but who get the bulk of whatever money the DCCC manages to wring out of the disillusioned Democratic base-- have again refused to contribute to the DCCC. The same way that freeloader states like Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee take far more from the federal treasury than they pay in, the Blue Dogs-- and many are from those very states-- mooch off the DCCC and never pay their fair share. Maybe it's something in the water down there-- or in the history.

It may seem surprising that the job of taking back the House-- Democrats need 25 seats to do so-- has fallen not to a bloodthirsty partisan, but to the easygoing Mr. Israel: an unassuming centrist from Long Island who once voted with President George W. Bush nearly half of the time and has barely made a mark after a decade in Congress.

Yet in a day spent shuttling back and forth between the House and Democratic headquarters with a reporter in tow, Mr. Israel, 53, shows signs that beneath his neighborly exterior-- he once formed a “Center Aisle Caucus” to promote civility in a polarized Congress-- lies a cold-eyed player of the inside game.

On the phone with a Democratic official who was wavering about a run in a crucial swing district in upstate New York, he has no time for niceties.

“If you’re standing on one foot, waiting and wishing, you’re just not going to be in the House of Representatives,” Mr. Israel says, putting the screws to his prospect like a salesman at an auto mall.

“I know what that feeling’s like,” he goes on. “You wake up, and there’s a new Democratic member of Congress that could’ve been you, except you didn’t move fast enough.”

Israel may have "once voted with President George W. Bush nearly half of the time" but lately he's tending towards voting an awful lot with John Boehner and Eric Cantor instead of with progressives. According to ProgressivePunch, since January Israel has reverted to his worst instincts, scoring an abysmal 47.83 crucial votes score, voting more often with the GOP than with the Democrats-- although only on the big issues. In fact, he has the exact same score as his buddy Heath Shuler-- just a teensy weensy better than Republican Ron Paul's 47.06. Several Blue Dogs have more progressive voting records than Israel.

Israel seems to have had a hand in recruiting West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel-- who is being termed out of a job-- to run for a seat universally viewed as one of the most vulnerable GOP-held districts in the country, Allen West's Broward County/Palm County 22nd CD. In November's low-turnout election-- with energized teabaggers and disappointed and disillusioned Democrats creating a tsunami that hit Florida worse than any other state-- swept away innocuous but competent moderate Ron West and replaced him with one of the most extremist and batshitcrazy congressmen ever elected. This is a district that Gore, Kerry and Obama has each taken with 52% and a district that had previously elected Klein with 55% (2008 against West) and 51% (2006, against long-term incumbent Clay Shaw).

As we mentioned last week, a non-politician, environmentalist Patrick Murphy, has already jumped into the race. Although Frankel's Assembly voting record got more and more conservative as her 14 year stint wore on, she has every right to run and she may even be the best candidate-- I don't know. But what I do know is that Israel and the DCCC (and Debbie Wasserman Schultz) should stay out of the race and let the Democrats of FL-22 decide.