Two Top 12 Congressional Lists

There's a report circulating in Washington from a Democratic think tank, the Center for American Progress, that enumerates the dozen House votes in which Republican Members of Congress most clearly voted against the 99% and took up the cudgel of class war for their one-percent benefactors. Republicans did this almost 300 times in the last year but they sorted and sifted and came up with the dozen most egregious examples:

• Repealed health coverage for 32 MILLION Americans and countless new benefits and protections for all Americans (January 19, 2011).

• Blocked new essential health benefits that must be covered by insurance companies (including things like contraception), putting Americans back at the mercy of the insurance companies (February 19, 2011).

• Ended Medicare and gutted Medicaid in order to pay for more tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations (April 15, 2011).

• Blocked a new database for consumer product safety information, making it more difficult for consumers to find out information about dangerous or unsafe products (February 19, 2011).

• Blocked the Treasury Department from helping more homeowners avoid foreclosure under the Home Affordable Modification Program by terminating the program and providing no replacement (March 29,2011).

• FOUR votes to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting our clean air and clean water, essentially bailing out big polluters at the expense of the rest of us (April 7, July 13, and October 5 and 13, 2011).

• Guaranteed 700,000 jobs would be killed and slashed programs for the 99 Percent, including Medicare and Social Security via the Tea Party-inspired Cut, Cap, and Balance plan (July 19, 2011).

• Encouraged more economy-collapsing financial fraud by attempting to gut the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (July 21, 2011).

• Put corporations above the law by allowing them to ignore 76 year-old protections for workers and labor unions (September 15, 2011).

• Launched mean-spirited attacks and cuts in benefits directed at millions of unemployed Americans (December 11, 2011).

I agree that each of these votes was a disgrace for any Member of Congress to take the position hammered home by Eric Cantor and John Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership team. These voters were, basically, just plain anti-American... if we define "American" as having anything at all to do with the ordinary working families who make up the nation. But it's very touchy for the DCCC to hammer the Republicans on these votes for one simple reason: plenty of Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats the DCCC is in bed with voted with the Republicans. Let's start at the top, the House's vote to repeal healthcare reform soon after the new Congress was sworn in. It passed 245-189, every single Republican voting for repeal-- along with 3 Democrats: Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC) and Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR). Boren and Ross have announced their retirements. The DCCC will try to hold onto McIntyre for another term of voting with the GOP.

On March 29, there were 18 Democrats off the reservation-- voting with Boehner and Cantor to terminate the program that would keep more homeowners from being foreclosed on: Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA), Shelley Berkley (now running for Senate from Nevada one of the hardest hit states by the great mortgage swindle), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Dennis Cardoza (Blue Dog-CA), Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Mike Michaud (Blue Dog-ME, eagerly trying to run for the now open Senate seat there), etc.

Then there's that whole slew of bill to wreck the effectiveness of the EPA, starting with Fred Upton's bill to basically kill the EPA's ability to ameliorate industrial air pollution. It passed 255-172, 19 Democratic corporate whores joining all the Republicans this time-- notorious bribe takers like Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA), John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Leonard Boswell (Blue Dog-IA), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), Terri Sewell (Corrupt-AL), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)... and all the usual suspects.

Then on July 13, we got John Mica's water pollution bill. This time there were even 13 Republicans who got cold feet when it came to taking such a giant step backwards into the bad old days. It still passed, of course, 239-184, with 16 Blue Dogs more than making up for the Republican defections-- all the worst scum in the Democratic House caucus from Altmire, Barrow, Boren, Baca, and Boswell right down the food chain to crooks like Holden, Matheson, McIntyre and Peterson.

On July 21, Cantor rammed through Sean Duffy's bill to wreck the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by making sure it wouldn't be able to protect anyone from predatory banksters. It passed 241-173, this time only 10 of the worst, corporate whores from the Democratic side of the aisle joining the GOP and their Wall Street allies: John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Bill Owens (NY), Nick Rahall (WV), Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR), and Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR).

Embarrassing for Steve Israel that so many of his prized pets are the ones who are giving aid and comfort to the enemy-- at least the enemy of the 99%, if not the enemy of Steve Israel. I might add that Blue America is trying to help progressive Democrat Matt Cartwright replace one of the worst of this lot, Blue Dog Tim Holden, and he has a better than even chance of making it work. He needs some help, but it looks like a decent investment-- in America.

Anyway, we have a Top Dozen list of our own, the top dozen worst Democrats for 2012. According to ProgressivePunch these are the 12 Democrats, from bad to worse, who voted most frequently with the GOP on crucial roll calls since Jan. 2011:

• Mark Critz (PA)

• Tim Holden (PA)

• Ben Chandler (KY)

• Henry Cuellar (TX)

• Joe Donnelly (IN)

• John Barrow (GA)

• Jim Costa (CA)

• Collin Peterson (MN)

• Jason Altmire (PA)

• Jim Matheson (UT)

• Mike Ross (AR)

• Dan Boren (OK)

Reminder-- donate to the DCCC and the bulk of your money will go towards propping up the careers of these faithless Democrats and others just like them. I don't know why Steve Israel doesn't just get Boehner and Cantor to chip in for them.