Is Anyone In Politics A Bigger Maroon Than The DCCC's Fumbling Steve Israel?

Pete Aguilar, another Steve Israel recruit

Last cycle, Israel managed to do the seemingly impossible., losing a majority Latino D+5 district, CA-31 (the Inland Empire) in a spectacular debacle. President Obama won the new district 118,043 (57%) to 83,822 (41%) but on that same day-- thanks to Israel's bungling incompetence-- those 118,043 Obama voters had no Democrat to vote for on that same ballot-- just two unsavory right-wing Republican corporate whores, Gary Miller and Bob Dutton. Beltway Steve didn't have any understanding of the new California jungle primary and he backed the wrong-- to put it mildly-- horse. His candidate, Pete Aguilar, was a crooked former bank lobbyist who had been appointed to the Redlands City Council and eventually appointed "mayor" to front for the sleazy business interests in Jerry Lewis' home town. No one ever accused Aguilar of being a Democrat, a progressive, a hard worker or a Spanish-speaker. By the day of the primary, he was so unliked by the voters, who he had no idea about how to relate to, that he came in third. He even came in third in the town he's supposedly "the mayor" of! The final vote among the top 3 vote-getters in the 2012 jungle primary:

• Gary Miller ®- 16,708 (26.8%)
• Bob Dutton ®- 15,557 (25.0%)
• Pete Aguilar ("D")- 14,181 (22.6%)

Israel, to save face, immediately put out two lies in his closed little Beltway world. First was that Aguilar lost because his father, Herman Aguilar, had died on election day. Though the stenographers and ad salesmen who masquerade as political reporters in DC still insist on perpetuating that ridiculous excuse, Herman Aguilar is very much alive and well-- and always has been. Israel's other absurd lie counts on his colleagues not having the brains to add 26.8% and 25.0%-- Miller's and Dutton's votes-- and understanding that the two Republicans had over 50%-- 51.8% to be precise. Israel told his House colleagues that his boy Aguilar lost because there were so many Democrats against just two Republicans, knowing that they wouldn't bother to figure out that with 51.8% voting GOP, it didn't matter how many or how few Democrats ran.

And, imbecile that he is, Israel is playing out the identical scenario today! Gary Miller having announced his retirement-- presumably to return home to Arkansas where he can live out his dream of living the life of a Confederate general-- there are two Republicans in the race, Paul Chabot (the Jerry Lewis handpicked candidate) and San Berdoo City Councilman John Valdivia. Valdivia just escaped being recalled for his role in forcing San Bernardino into bankruptcy and the Tea Party is too lame and disorganized to put up a candidate, so, presumably Lewis' puppet Chabot will win one of the two slots.

Israel is counting on the unrelatable Aguilar to win the other slot and persuaded his House colleagues to endorse him-- using the two lies plus the assertion that Aguilar is the only Democrat who could raise any money. That was another deliberate distortion and manipulation by the always shady Israel. Even with massive DCCC help and contributions from House Members Israel lied to, Aguilar only managed to raise $147,086 in the most recent quarter. The grassroots progressive in the race, Eloise Reyes, brought in $302,084, not just more than Israel's patsy, but more than all the other candidates combined. Israel and the Rahm-trained whiz-kid they imported as manager, Boris, couldn't even connect the dots to win the California Democratic Party pre-endorsement, always a given for the Establishment pick. In fact, Aguilar is the only Establishment pick who didn't win the pre-endorsement in the entire state of California! When does Israel wake up to the fact that the inebriated asshole in the picture above isn't someone anyone likes? Running a creep from the Republican-wing of the Democratic Party who runs around telling the media he backs Chained CPI and other schemes to reduce Social Security, in a working class district is an idea only someone like Steve Israel thinks is brilliant.

Israel hasn't even delivered on his promise to find Aguilar a good Spanish language tutor so he could debate on pervasive local Spanish-language radio like the other candidates! If Israel loses CA-31 again-- the Democrats' easiest pickup of the 2014 cycle-- what happens? Another DCCC chairman with no strategic vision beyond sucking up to Big Business for cash? The DCCC needs a smart-- and non-corrupt-- leader to clean out the committee, shake it up and start developing 2 and 3-cycle goals and plans, not just sitting around waiting to see if demographic changes ever catch up to Republican gerrymandering. Steve Israel is, undoubtably, Nancy Pelosi's greatest failure. Ironically, she'll never be Speaker again while he's running the DCCC.