Nancy Pelosi To Hold Fundraiser For Pennsylvania Republican

The DCCC wants you to contribute money to this wealthy lifelong Republican

PA-06 is a swing district in southeast Pennsylvania, primarily Chester County, with significant pieces of Berks, Montgomery and Lebanon counties. The Republican state legislature skewered it towards the GOP in 2010 by taking out blue-blue Coatesville and putting in some red-leaning parts of the Upper Main Line. It went from being a D+2 district to an R+2 district. Romney scraped by in 2012, 174,415 (51%) to 166,0030 (48%) while Obama beat McCain more convincingly in the district in 2008 187,056 (53%) to 161,943 (46%). Last year, incumbent Republican Rep. Jim Gerlach won all 4 counties and an overall 57-43% victory over Manan Trivedi. Gerlach spent $2,108,953 on the race and Trivedi spent $1,331,021. The DCCC didn't give Trivedi a dime of assistance. But a few weeks ago, Gerlach announced he would be retiring.

The DCCC immediately recruited Mike Parrish, a Republican who switched his party registration from Republican to Democrat, Steve Israel's favorite kind of "Democrat." And Parrish is very conservative candidate with a typical Steve Israel mystery meat website that doesn't list any stands on issues. A Malvern businessman, Parrish has contributed thousands of dollars to the Pennsylvania Republican Party, to Governor Corbett, to John McCain and to Mitt Romney. He's never contributed any money to any Democrats. Why should he have? He's always been a Republican.

This Thursday, February 6th, Nancy Pelosi will be at the Racquet Club of Philadelphia raising money from loyal Democrats for Parrish.

There is perhaps no one, not even President Obama, who is more beloved by Democrats and despised by Republicans than Nancy Pelosi. Yet all recognize that one of her most impressive traits is her ability to raise vasts amounts of money.

“Mike doesn’t have a crystal ball and can’t see into the future.  But if such a hypothetical decision came before him-- he would vote his district and vote the way his constituents told him to vote-- just like he would on everything that came before him as a member of Congress,” Parrish’s campaign manager Jocelyn Steinberg said. “Right now Mike is focused on talking to voters throughout the district and listening to their ideas, concerns, suggestions on how to create jobs and boosts PA’s economy.”

NRCC spokesperson Ian Prior isn't happy about Parrish jumping the fence and running as a "Democrat" and made that clear in a statement: “Apparently Michael Parrish’s political soul is for sale. Just a year after claiming to be a conservative and donating thousands to Republican candidates like Mitt Romney, John McCain and Tom Corbett, Parrish is now gladly selling out to Nancy Pelosi and her liberal, job killing agenda.”

Joshua Grossman, the genius behind ProgressivePunch, looked closely at Mike Parrish's convenient switch to the Democratic Party. He told me that Parrish is a "Panamanian flag of convenience on an ocean-going tanker." This is the kind of garbage candidate Steve Israel has recruited all over the country. Most of the DCCC candidates-- with just a very few exceptions-- are dreadful conservatives who have one thing in common: not an inkling of what it means to be independent-minded. DCCC-endorsed candidates are predominantly political zombies who are expected to do exactly what intensely corporate whores Steve Israel, Steny Hoyer and Joe Crowley tell them to do. It's heartbreaking to see Pelosi going along for the ride and raising money from Democrats who admire, trust and respect her. I hate to say it, but it's time for her to either fire Israel or follow her two top lieutenants, George Miller and Henry Waxman, into retirement.