Watch Conservative Michael Bennet Crap All Over Patty Murray's Outstanding Record at The DSCC

Only one of these 8 Conservative Consensus imbeciles-- Mark Warner, Saxby Chambliss, Tom Coburn, Kent Conrad, Mike Johanns, Mike Crapo, Dick Durbin and Michael Bennet-- was made head of the DSCC

The DCCC did an exceptionally bad job this year-- wasting their resources on Blue Dogs and other conservative losers while ignoring progressives with real shots to win seats. The result: another two years of John Boehner as Speaker, Eric Cantor as Majority Leader... and a completely dysfunctional House of Representatives. And for his incompetence and venality Steve Israel wasn't fired... he was given two more years to make sure the Democrats lose in 2014 as well. Most people laughed at Israel when he claimed he did as well as Patty Murray, who headed up the DSCC his cycle. Most people, but not Nancy Pelosi. She's lost her grip on reality.

Short version: the DCCC did just as well as the DSCC, which is widely acclaimed as absolutely heroic. "The DSCC had a net gain of 2 seats, 2%, and we had a net gain of 2%." My jaw dropped. The particular DCCC staffer who told me this is no idiot. But he said that. There was no punch-line. It was proof. Forget for a moment that the DSCC managed to reelect Claire McCaskill, the worst incumbent up for reelection anywhere, and forget that they managed to win a Senate seat for reactionary and vehemently anti-Choice Blue Dog, Joe Donnelly (who was literally even only running because he knew he couldn't be reelected in his House district), based on an anti-Choice comment made by an Indiana moron. The DSCC won seats in every state Obama won (except one, Nevada, where the Democrat running was a hopelessly corrupt New Dem from the House, Shelley Berkley) and they won Senate races in four blood red states where Romney won by big margins, Montana (13.5%), North Dakota (19.8%), Missouri (9.6%) and Indiana (10.5%). And the DSCC laughed in the face of Beltway convention wisdom and pulverized Republicans in "tight races" in Florida, Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Mexico and Pennsylvania. The DSCC are being lauded as heroes because they were. They made every right move and God smiled on them. Steve Israel made every wrong move and God hates him.

What did the DCCC accomplish? In the greater scheme of things, almost nothing. They had a few scattered victories, but some of the most significant Democratic wins happened either with no DCCC involvement or with the DCCC smoldering in anger over the loss of allies. Progressives successfully primaried notoriously corrupt Steve Israel allies Tim Holden (PA) and Silvestre Reyes (TX) and went on--with no DCCC help-- to win the generals elections. The DCCC didn't give any help to 19 new freshmen: Alan Grayson (FL), Jared Huffman (CA), Eric Swalwell (CA), Tony Cardenas (CA), Gloria McLeod (CA-- who beat another Israel ally, Blue Dog Joe Baca), Mark Takano (CA), Alan Lowenthal (CA), Lois Frankel (FL), Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ), Grace Meng (NY), Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Joyce Beatty (OH), Matt Cartwright (PA), Beto O'Rourke (TX), Joaquin Castro (TX), Marc Veasey (TX), Filemon Vela (TX), and Mark Pocan (WI). And Steve Israel's spectacularly lousy targeting was solely responsible for at least a dozen pickups the GOP held onto, including high-profile committee chairs like Paul Ryan, Buck McKeon, and Darrell Issa. Instead, what the DCCC accomplished was electing a Blue Dog and a pack of New Dems who will, over the years, make progressives ashamed to call themselves Democrats-- and continue to allow Boehner and Cantor to call their crackpot extremist proposals "bipartisan."

So DSCC good/DCCC bad? Well, DCCC definitely bad, very bad. But the DSCC is no longer headed by Patty Murray. Instead, the organization has been saddled with a hapless centrist cut right from the same loser mold as Steve Israel, Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Bennet, whose ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is 76.83, making him the 38th most progressive Democrat among the 55 in the Senate, although 9 are new and have no scores at all yet. Bennet's score puts him into the ranks of the fearful, tepidly moderate conservatives like Mark Warner (VA), Kay Hagan (NC), Claire McCaskill (MO), Tom Carper (DE) and Mark Pryor (AR), a pretty putrid bunch, who often water down progressive proposals in committee, making them all but useless to working families fighting for their lives against corporate predators. A deranged Austerity-freak, Bennet voted against the "Fiscal Cliff" compromise because it didn't go far enough in doling out pain to working families for Bennet's tastes.

Staffers say the reason it took Bennet so long to decide whether to take the job-- a record three weeks that drove Washington media crazy-- was because he was negotiating a leadership platform that would promote moderate Democrats.

The two-year job means he'll be fundraising for those up for election in November 2014-- including his Colorado colleague, Sen. Mark Udall.

Besides Colorado, there are Senate races in a number of Republican and swing states, including New Mexico, Alaska, Virginia and North Carolina.

Like Steve Israel, Bennet is a corporate shill on the right of the Democratic Party mainstream, always loathe to be part of anything to benefit ordinary working families. Like Israel's Conservative Consensus caucus, The Center Aisle, Bennet's work on the Conservative Consensus Gang of 8/Gang of 6/Gang of Idiots, has next to nothing to do with the Democratic values and principles espoused by leaders like Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. He's very much a part of what grassroots Democrats find repulsive about how their own party has moved further and further right, following the Republicans' shift towards fascism.

At least Steve Israel won't have to worry about underperforming the DSCC again. Bennet is likely to be every bit as incompetent and unsuccessful at the DSCC as Israel will continue to be at the DCCC. What a shame!