Jared Huffman-- "Kind Of A Liberal" Isn't The Same Thing As A Movement Progressive

Longtime peace and environmental activist Norman Solomon may be is certainly the gold standard of progressive candidates for office. He doesn't have to pass any litmus tests; he defines the tests themselves. But professional liberals keep telling me Assemblyman Jared Huffman has a better chance to win because he's tight with the Establishment or he's part of the Establishment and he's kind of liberal too, except for a few "minor" details here and there. You know what they say about the devil and details.

While I was in the Yucatán getting eaten alive by dengue fever-carrying mosquitoes-- yes, I have it-- the Sacramento Bee did a report on how politicians, being politicians, are bending the rules to take sleazy money from lobbyists, something that's quasi-legal in California. You can't do it for state jobs, like assemblyman, but you can for federal office, like congressman. Since Huffman has been practically gorging himself sick on legalistic corporate payoffs from AT&T, utilities like PG&E and other shady characters, it was no surprise to see him turn up in the Bee's report. He's pulled in many thousands of dollars from lobbyists in Sacramento who've been perverting the system for years. But he's kind of liberal, almost... sort of. This is the difference between the real deal-- Norman Solomon-- and a careerist hack playing the role as a liberal in a liberal part of the state.

For example, Huffman took $5,000 from tainted lobbyist Darius Anderson-- the very same Darius Anderson who in 2010 agreed to pay $500,000 to the State of New York to settle a corruption probe being investigated by then-Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

This week Huffman and the rest of his Sacramento cronies are returning to the state legislature, and those same lobbyists funding his congressional campaign will have interests in bills that he will be considering. Will he recuse himself? He never has before. To prevent these kinds of corrupt “pay-to-play” situations, California prohibits candidates from accepting lobbyist money. The trick, though, is that Huffman is soliciting state lobbyist contributions as part of his congressional campaign, so a case can be made that it's legal, even if horribly unethical. He won't go to jail, but he shouldn't go to Congress either. We have enough crooked politicians there already-- on both sides of the aisle.

Norman has been endorsed by Blue America. He doesn't take corporate PAC money or money from corporate lobbyists, period. No wiggle room. It's a principle. He's asked Huffman to return the checks:

I call on Jared Huffman to do the right thing. Huffman may know what is legal, but he should raise his standards above that minimum. We deserve better. He can start by returning all lobbyist contributions today and refusing any lobbyist money in the future. I look forward to hearing from him that he has done just that.