Who Are The New Dems?

Suppose you're basically pretty conservative, especially on economic and fiscal matters, but early in life picked the blue team instead of the red team. And you're looking for a career in politics. What to do? Well you could switch parties and become a Republican, but as Parker Griffith (D>R-AL) discovered, that sometimes works out badly; he lost the GOP primary in 2010 and will lose it again in 2012. The next best thing is to become a Blue Dog. They're pretty much Republicans with blue T-shirts. Problem there, of course, is all the anti-Choice, anti-gay and... well, the Blue Dog caucus is really extreme and barely even part of the Democratic Party at all. That leaves... a group that's kind of like the Blue Dogs but without the white sheets and hoods: the New Democratic Coalition.

The New Dems was founded in 1997 as the House affiliate of the corporatist shills at Joe Lieberman's DLC. It is financed by Big Business and corrupt K Street lobbyists with an anti-worker/anti-consumer agenda. It specializes in "free trade" policies. Most of the leadership has been made up of conservative Democrats with a nose for big money, like Rahm Emanuel, Chamber of Commerce ex-Rep. Melissa Bean, and corporatists Joe Crowley, Ron Kind, Ellen Tauscher, Harold Ford and Allyson Schwartz.

Some conservative Democrats, like Steve Israel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, seeking to hide their true colors have officially dropped out of the New Dem Coalition in the hope of winning wider leadership positions in the whole party. A number of Blue Dogs-- Adam Schiff (CA), Loretta Sanchez (CA), John Barrow (GA), David Scott (GA), Mike McIntyre (NC), Kurt Schrader (OR) and Jason Altmire (PA)-- are members of both right-wing groups.

Joe Crowley, the slimy boss of the Queens Democratic Party machine, and widely considered one of the most corrupt Members of Congress (an Ethics Committee investigation is still pending which should, but won't, lead to his expulsion), is the current head of the New Dems. His website includes the whole list of current New Dem members.

Watch Ron Kind, Wisconsin corporate whore, lie about the murderous Colombian anti-labor regime: