Perfidy Of The DCCC... Take 400

We've talked before how the DCCC sabotaged Justin Coussoule's race against John Boehner so savagely that no one wanted to take on the onerous task of running against him this year. So Boehner can do any crazy shit he wants without having to worry about stepping over the line and being defeated. Like purposely killing three million construction jobs.

In the lead-up to the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans, led by John Boehner (R-OH) promised their highest priority was “jobs, jobs, jobs,” and despite offering no concrete plans to stimulate hiring, the nation anticipated some kind of sweeping legislation to get Americans back to work. It is now the lead-up to the 2012 General Election, and Speaker of the House John Boehner says the American people want to know; “where are the jobs?” It has been a year-and-a-half since Boehner and Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and besides not producing any jobs, Boehner has revealed himself to be the most incompetent House leader in recent memory. What Boehner has accomplished, is attacking women’s right to choose their own reproductive health, attempted to pass legislation purposely designed to kill millions of Americans’ jobs, as well as push the Keystone XL pipeline to enrich the oil industry and himself. If the American people want to know where the jobs are, they can look no farther than John Boehner’s desk.

In a rare bipartisan move, the Senate passed a highway and transportation bill that saves 1 million construction jobs and creates 2 million more, but led by Speaker John Boehner, the teabagger extremists in the House are failing to hold a vote on the transportation bill to keep unemployment numbers high and damage President Obama’s re-election chances. What Republicans in the House did propose was an economically shortsighted bill that kills a half-a-million jobs next year alone. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, “It defies imagination that the Republican leadership and chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would turn their backs on the needs of our country and pretend it is good government.” Even the ultra-conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce blasted the Republican version of the transportation bill as being “devastating to construction and related industries-- materials, equipment, design, engineering. As important, in the long run, disinvestment results in a less competitive economy and a drag on GDP due to underperforming infrastructure.” In an even rarer letter to Rep. John Mica (R-FL), author of the Republican measure, two Democratic and two Republican representatives wrote, “Reducing investment in America’s transportation system at this time will have a negative impact on the construction, engineering, manufacturing and materials companies which are already struggling with high unemployment. Transportation infrastructure is one of the most cost efficient and effective ways to reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy. Studies suggest that for every $1 billion spent on transportation projects more than 35,000 jobs are created.” The Senate’s transportation bill, worth $109 billion creates 3,815,000 construction jobs and yet, Republicans like Speaker John Boehner are asking; “where are the jobs?” They are sitting on your desk Speaker Boehner and you cannot see fit to hold a vote on helping the construction industry, the hardest hit by Bush-Republicans economic catastrophe, by creating over three-million construction jobs.

So not only can Boehner get away with this-- in part because he has no worries about being defeated in November-- he can also unleash the $14,687,627 in corporate bribes he's received so far this year on behalf of struggling Republican candidates all over the country. Even if they don't think they could beat him, the DCCC should do their best to keep him home and keep his cash in western Ohio.

Similar story with all the senior Republicans. Unlike the NRCC, the DCCC doesn't take on GOP chairmen. We're stuck with Mica as the Infrastructure and Transportation Chair because the NRCC pulled off the "impossible" feat of taking on and-- though outspent-- beating Jim Oberstar, who'd been in the House since 1974. They also went after the prohibitively powerful chairmen of the House Budget Committee and House Armed Services Committee and managed to pull off "the impossible" and beat each one (outspent by the Democrats in both races) and now we're stuck with Paul Ryan and Buck McKeon in those seats. Needless to say, the DCCC has no intention of taking on Mica, Ryan or McKeon-- even though all three are vulnerable and all three have progressive opponents ready to fight.


Same goes when it comes to Boehner's co-villain in Congress, Eric Cantor. Cantor has a great opponent in Wayne Powell but the DCCC is sitting on its hands, allowing Cantor to be the front man in the Republican Party's mayhem and destruction of the American economy. Cantor was plotting to wreck the U.S. economy even as Obama was being sworn in as president-- working with Congress and Republican governors to fire as many government workers as they could to drive down economic growth and thwart Obama's efforts to fix the catastrophe of Bush-Republican economic and fiscal policies.

To listen to some people tell it, you'd think the size of America's government was ballooning by the day.

Nope.

Especially at the state and local level, it's shrinking.

This chart from Rich Yamarone, chief economist at Bloomberg, shows how many state and local workers have been canned over the past 4 years:

But instead of helping Wayne Powell take on Cantor, instead of aiding Rob Zerban put the fear of God into Paul Ryan, instead of helping Lee Rogers expose Buck McKeon's unprecedented graft and corruption, instead of helping Nick Ruiz expose John Mica as the tool of the one percent's devious political ambitions, what is the DCCC doing? Fighting a war against progressives. The DCCC chair, "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, a devoted corporate whore of a magnitude no less toxic than Boehner and Cantor, would rather see a Republican win than a progressive. He's a much worse DCCC chair-- and it pains me to say so-- than even Rahm Emanuel, who at least wanted to win. Israel only wants to restock the Democratic caucus with the same Blue Dogs and New Dems who were massively rejected by Democratic voters in 2010. He learned nothing from the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse that saw millions of Democratic voters stay away from the polls rather than vote for conservative Democrats who are both systemically and personally corrupt and who stand firmly with the Republicans on issue after issue.

After the DCCC spent a fortune on electing Mark Critz in 2011 his very first substantive vote was against Patrick Murphy's amendment to the Defense Authorization Act which led to the repeal of DADT. This week he announced he's boycotting Obama's renomination and the Democratic national convention. The DCCC put him on their Front Line list, which is their top priority for money that will be spent on campaigns this year. This week they also announced that they're backing Northern California corporate whore Jared Huffman, even though his November challenger is likely to be a stellar progressive-- votes are still being counted in CA-2-- Norman Solomon. Their lame "Grassroots Challenge" puked up as a winner Patrick Murphy, a wealthy, lifelong Republican-- and Mitt Romney donor-- who's made a switch, joined the New Dems, and is the Democratic candidate against Allen West. It's estimated that the DCCC will spend over $2,000,000 on that race and what will we get? A New Dem boosting the conservative agenda and voting much the same way the crazy Allen West would have, at least on issues involving economic justice. That $2,000,000 could probably defeat both Ryan and McKeon, replacing them with stalwart, dedicated progressives, Rob Zerban and Lee Rogers. But that isn't what Steve Israel is interested in.

It's come to the point where contributing to the DCCC is taking an action to make America a worse place. It's a net harm for progressives. You would be better off, always, contributing directly to the candidates of your choice and just say NO to the DCCC until they get rid of Steve Israel and replace him with a real Democrat. Any candidate on this list is more worthy of attention and support than the garbage the DCCC is pushing.