It Wouldn't Be Hard For The NRCC To Defeat A Pack Of ConservaDems-- But They Can't Get Past Their Own Idiocy

GOP idiots wasting their money

John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Ron Barber (New Dem-AZ) and Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ) are 4 of the House Democrats who vote most frequently and most consistently with Republicans on key matters of policy. Defeating all four would be a boon for progressives because they would no longer be acting as a toxin within the party caucus and inside committees. Defeating them in primaries would be the best-- but defeating each of them is the goal.

The NRCC is working towards realizing that already-- with a year and a half to go before election day. Each of these four will be the focus of a billboard campaign-- including mobile billboards-- like the one up top directed at Barrow. I imagine the NRCC already knows they've finally got Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT) and Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem-NC) in the bag, so left them out of the campaign.

The problem with GOP strategy is that they're trying to portray these arch conservatives as liberals. But they're not liberals; they're arch conservatives. We already showed them how to do it in 2010, when they were lamely advertising against Alabama Blue Dog Bobby Bright as though he were Nancy Pelosi. Their stupid ads were wasted. And Blue America stepped in and showed them how to do it. We advertised in Democratic parts of the district, targeting Democratic voters with messages about how conservative Bright was. Republicans were claiming Bright was Nancy Pelosi in disguise-- while he was running TV ads disparaging Pelosi and bragging that he voted 80% of the time with Boehner.

So, we ran a massive, targeted radio and TV campaign in just 4 counties, the 4 counties where Barack Obama did best in 2008, the 4 counties most badly effected by Bright's anti-family votes, the 4 counties that make it impossible for a Democrat to win district-wide without landslide victories: Lowndes, Bullock, Barbour and Butler. When the African-American precincts in and around Montgomery were gerrymandered into the 3rd CD, the 2nd was left as a hopeless Republican bastion. It's a freak of nature that even a throwback Democrat as far to the right as Bright could have ever won the seat. He won it 144,368-142,578... but with massive support from the African-American voters in Lowndes, Bullock, Barbour and Butler counties, voters whose interests he has consistently ignored since being elected. Obama only won 36% of the vote in Alabama's 2nd CD but he won landslides in Lowndes County (5,447 to 1,807) and Bullock County (4,001 to 1,389) and ties in Butler and Barbour counties. This is the radio ad some local actors have made for us:



And that was the end of the most Republican Democrat in the House of Representatives. His margins were cut down really badly in the 4 counties and he was defeated by some garden variety teabagger. These are the Democrats who voted against the Affordable Care Act in November, 2009:

• John Adler (Blue Dog-NJ)- defeated
• Jason Altmire (Blue Dog/New Dem-PA)- defeated in primary
• Brian Baird (WA)- retired
• John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA)
• John Boccieri (Blue Dog-OH)- defeated
• Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)- retired
• Rick Boucher (VA)- defeated
• Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL)- defeated
• Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)- defeated
• Ben Chandler (Blue Dog-KY)- defeated
• Tavis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)- defeated
• Artur Davis (New Dem-AL)- defeated/ now a Republican
• Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN)- defeated
• Chet Edwards (TX)
• Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN)- retired
• Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL)- switched parties, defeated anyway
• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Blue Dog-SD)- defeated
• Tim Holden (Blue Dog-PA)- defeated in primary
• Larry Kissell (Blue Dog-NC)- defeated
• Suzanne Kosmas (Blue Dog-FL)- defeated, sunk into alcoholism
• Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)- defeated
• Dennis Kucinich (OH)- defeated in primary; works for Fox News
• Betsy Markey (Blue Dog-CO)- defeated
• Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA)- defeated
• Eric Massa (NY)- retired
• Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
• Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog/New Dem- NC)
• Michael McMahon (Blue Dog-NY)- defeated
• Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)- defeated
• Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)- defeated
• Scott Murphy (Blue Dog-NY)- defeated
• Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA)- defeated
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)- retired
• Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)- retired
• Ike Skelton (MO)- defeated
• John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN), retired
• Harry Teague (Blue Dog-NM), defeated
• Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)- defeated

All of these (mostly former) Members of Congress were either forced to resign or were defeated because they had lost the support of the Democratic base in their districts. The DCCC seems incapable of learning from this and continues to this day to encourage vulnerable freshmen to vote against the Democratic agenda. One particularly bad one bragged to me that her ProgressivePunch score was so low because she was following-- "100," she said-- exactly what Steve Israel was recommending. She would be easy pickings for the NRCC if they weren't as lame and incompetent as the DCCC. Freshmen letting Steve Israel decide what they need to do to win reelection include (from bad to worse): Elizabeth Esty (New Dem-CT), Suzan DelBene (New Dem-WA), Denny Heck (New Dem-WA), Steven Horsford (NV), Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM), Gloria Negrete McLeod (CA), Julia Brownley (CA), Ami Bera (New Dem-CA), Joe Garcia (New Dem-FL), Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL), Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX), Ann Kuster (NH), Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY), Scott Peters (New Dem-CA), Raul Ruiz (CA), Kyrsten Sinema (New Dem-AZ), Bill Enyart (IL), Bill Foster (New Dem-IL), Cheri Bustos (IL), Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX), Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL), Ron Barber (New Dem-AZ) and, worst of the worst-- as well as the stupidest since this exact behavior is what caused her to lose her seat in 2010-- Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ).

So a little advice to the Republicans: instead of making up stories about John Barrow that stretch the imaginations of anyone other than a brain-dead Fox News fan (i.e.- a base Republican voter, who is likely to vote Republican anyway), go after him at his own base and get them to not vote by exposing the truth about him instead of lying about him. Forget about the right-wing crackpots in Columbia County and think about the voters in Richmond, Burke, Treutlen, Screven and Jenkins counties instead, Barrow strongholds where he needs strong turnout from yellowdog Democrats who won't turn out if they understand Barrow is as hideously against their interests as a Republican. You can do the same thing to Ann Kirkpatrick. Defeat her by telling the truth about her record in blue Apache and Coconino counties and she's out of a job again. Why is that so hard for Republican bozos to understand? Running billboards like the one up top-- even though Barrow voted against the Affordable Care Act-- will only inspire Democrats to turn out in bigger numbers. This isn't rocket science; if you guys were in any of my classes you'd be complaining to the dean that I gave you an F.