The NRCC Is So Lame That If Pelosi Appointed An Even Vaguely Competent DCCC Chair Instead of Steve Israel, She Would Be Speaker In 2015

I had to laugh about the NRCC's target list for 2014 for several reasons. But the one I got the biggest kick out of was how they put DCCC chair Steve Israel on it. This after he went out of his way-- to the point of embarrassing himself and jeopardizing grassroots support for his committee-- by holding fast to a policy of giving all senior Republican Party leaders free passes to reelection. Even vulnerable Republican leaders who could have been engaged and beaten-- from relatively easy targets like Paul Ryan (WI), Joe Pitts (PA), Ileana Ros Lehtinen (FL), Fred Upton (MI) and Buck McKeon (CA) to tougher but doable ones like Eric Cantor (VA), Dave Camp (MI), Mike Rogers (MI) and Darrell Issa (CA). If I thought there was some way for the GOP to defeat Israel I'd be interested... but the only way the "ex"-Blue Dog is ever going down is if he loses a primary. Not only did Israel trade away Long Island Republicans for Democrats with Peter King (making them both harder to beat), NY-03 went for Obama again and Israel's GOP opponent only managed 42% against him.

You have to admire the Republicans for one thing. Unlike Israel, they don't hold back; they're going after every single incumbent they perceive as a weak link, even when they have no chance at all. All things being equal, the most obvious congressional targets are always freshmen who won with less than 55%. The crazy NRCC just announced 45 incumbents they're going after. Here's the list; the number is what percentage of the vote each one got in November. Most amusing are the GOP's bizarre hopes to beat Alan Grayson, Jim Himes, Carolyn McCarthy, Pete DeFazio, Bill Keating and, as much as I hate to admit it, Collin Peterson.

• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)- 49%
• Ron Barber (AZ-02)- 50%
• Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09)- 48%
• John Garamendi (CA-03)- 54%
• Ami Bera (CA-07)- 51%
• Jim Costa (CA-16)- 55%
• Lois Capps (CA-24)- 55%
• Julia Brownley (CA-26)- 52%
• Raul Ruiz (CA-36)- 52%
• Scott Peters (CA-52)- 51%
• Jim Himes (CT-04)- 60%
• Elizabeth Esty (CT-05)- 52%
• Alan Grayson (FL-09)- 63%
• Patrick Murphy (FL-18)- 50%
• Lois Frankel (FL-22)- 55%
• Joe Garcia (FL-26)- 54%
• John Barrow (GA-12)- 54%
• Brad Schneider (IL-10)- 50%
• Bill Foster (IL-11)- 58%
• Bill Enyart (IL-12)- 51%
• Cheri Bustos (IL-17)- 53%
• Bruce Braley (IA-01)- 57%
• Dave Loebsack (IA-02)- 55%
• John Tierney (MA-06)- 48%
• Bill Keating (MA-09)- 59%
• Tim Walz (MN-01)- 58%
• Collin Peterson (MN-07)- 60%
• Rick Nolan (MN-08)- 54%
• Steven Horsford (NV-04)- 50%
• Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01)- 50%
• Ann McLane Kuster (NH-02)- 50%
• Mike McIntyre (NC-07)- 50%
• Tim Bishop (NY-01)- 52%
• Steve Israel (NY-03)- 57%
• Carolyn McCarthy (NY-04)- 62%
• Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18)- 52%
• Bill Owens (NY-21)- 50%
• Dan Maffei (NY-24)- 48%
• Louise Slaughter (NY-25)- 57%
• Peter DeFazio (OR-04)- 59%
• Kurt Schrader (OR-05)- 54%
• Pete Gallego (TX-23)- 50%
• Jim Matheson (UT-04)- 49%
• Suzan DelBene (WA-01)- 54%
• Nick Rahall (WV-03)- 54%

Liesl Hickey (not a misspelling or typo) was named Executive Director of the NRCC by Gregg Walden (R-OR) after his stunning performance as head of their 2012 incumbent retention program. He's responsible for some awesome losses, including Allen West (R-FL), Chip Cravaack (R-MN), Joe Walsh (R-IL), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Frank Guinta (R-NH), Charlie Bass (R-NH), Robert Dold (R-IL), Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Quico Canseco, Nan Hayworth (R-NY), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Bobby Schilling (R-IL) and David Rivera (R-FL). The list of targets was put together by Liesl, who revels in the way GOP gerrymandering has allowed it to thwart the will of the American people and do an end-run around democracy. Israel must be completely relieved; someone even less competent than he is!

Don't expect Blue America to help defend most of the incumbents on the NRCC list. The majority are Blue Dogs and New Dems. But we have started a new ActBlue page for 2014 and one of the targeted incumbents is already on it. Can you guess which one?