Steve Israel Is Serving Up Some Very Unappetizing Mystery Meat

Wikipedia defines "mystery meat" as "a disparaging term for meat products, typically ground or otherwise processed, such as chicken nuggets, Spam, Salisbury steaks, sausages, or hot dogs, that have an unidentifiable source. Most often the term is used in reference to food served in institutional cafeterias, such as prison food or an American public school lunch." They suggest also looking up Pink Slime. I'd suggest also looking up Steve Israel, the congressman from Princesses: Long Island, who, unfortunately for the Democrats, was reappointed chairman of the DCCC by Nancy Pelosi after she had already decided she didn't want to be Speaker again. With Israel in charge of electing Democrats, Pelosi will never have a problem with that wish coming true.

The DCCC has long urged its candidates to obscure policy differences with Republicans by, among other things, not taking public stands on important issues, especially not on campaign websites. You can always tell a DCCC candidate's website because there will never been anything of substance on it. Israel has taken this even further, recruiting candidates with no records. So instead of looking for outstanding state legislators, for example, who have made valuable contributions by their work on the state level, Israel prefers shadowy "businessmen" on whom nothing can be pinned. Best of all, of course, is when he's able to recruit a Republican to run as a Democrat. It gives him goosebumps.

Israel's latest ugly duckling candidate is Suzanne Patrick who appears to be a former Republican and is now running against mainstream conservative Scott Rigell in Virginia's second congressional district, a district Obama won both against McCain and Romney. Although last year's DCCC candidate, Paul Hirschbiel, managed to win, albeit narrowly, in 3 counties, Hampton, Norfolk and Northampton, Rigell crushed him in massive Virginia Beach as well as in Newport News, and sealed his reelection.

In 2008 Glenn Nye ousted GOP incumbent Thelma Drake, 52-48%, winning all 5 counties. Unfortunately he turned out to be a Blue Dog who voted with the GOP on crucial issues and Democrats were not incentivized to turn out in 2010-- so they didn't and Nye lost to Rigell. So now Steve Israel thinks another conservative Democrat, who will disappoint much of the base, is the way to go.

Patrick isn't saying much about where she stands on anything so far. Her website brags about how she worked for Ronald Reagan and the George W. Bush, who appointed her a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for industrial policy. The only thing she's told the press about herself so far is that she's not a progressive and that she opposes military cuts. The only political contribution that I could track down that she's ever made was $500 in 2011 to Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. She's not going to beat Rigell but I'm certain that in Israel's fevered mind if she did, she'd be exactly like another "ex"-Republican he managed to help get elected-- Patrick Murphy-- who has voted with Boehner and Cantor on crucial role calls more than almost any other Democratic freshman.

Compare Suzanne Patrick's contentless website with the website of Blue America's newest candidate, Paul Clements, who has the kind of "issues page" that makes Steve Israel sad. Paul's page goes into where the candidate stands on 9 issues voters in Michigan care about: the environment, education, health care, manufacturing, technology, foreign policy, preserving our democracy and banks. Banks was his last topic. What he had to say is nothing like anything you will ever hear from any Steve Israel mystery meat candidates. But isn't it what voters need to hear in order to make an informed choice? Paul:

"In the economic crisis of 2008 American taxpayers bailed out several failing banks because they were too big to fail. If they had failed, the recession could have turned into a second Great Depression. But in saving the economy we taught the banks that they need not suffer the consequences of bad decisions. The federal government, however, did not learn its lesson. Today once again we have several banks too big to fail, partly because of the banks’ influence on Congress and the administration. At the same time, many community banks are struggling to stay afloat. In our democracy, banks and other large corporations sometimes tilt the economic playing field by helping to write its rules, but for our economy and democracy we need vibrant small businesses. We should have no bank too big to fail, and we should adjust banking regulations and lending rules to support community banks."

That's why we need more candidates like Paul Clements and fewer like Suzanne Patrick. You can help Paul and the other grassroots candidates Blue America is supporting here. Or you can sit back and watch Steve Israel and his mystery meat candidates lay the House Democrats low again like he did last year while Obama and the Senate Democrats racked up much, much more difficult victories.