Vote Them All Out In November?

Paul Ryan-- wrong on everything/protected by Steve Israel's DCCC

Have you ever heard of Vote Them Out 2014? The organization has picked half a dozen crucial House roll calls and suggests voters use them to see if their incumbent is really who they want to represent them in Congress. They emphasize that they're a non-partisan outfit and back defeating both Democrats and Republicans with bad voting records. "Regardless of political party, we must vote the incumbent out of office to send a message to D.C., that the people are in charge of the government. Only 6% think Congress is doing a good or excellent job.  Republicans and Democrats have continued to fail us. Representative government is over.  We have a government that is more focused on power and money than on the welfare of its Citizens… Let's fire Congress and act like the Employers that we are."

The 6 roll calls they picked indicate a kind of populist-cum-libertarian perspective. They want voters to see who backed increasing the minimum wage, who voted to increase student loan rates, who voted for the "Monsanto Protection Act," and who backed Bush's TARP bailout of the banksters, on the one hand, and on the other they offer the Amash-Conyers amendment to rein in the NSA and the 2011 NDAA vote on indefinite detention without trial.

Blue America uses a far more complicated system for targeting but the raw results are almost identical. The "right" answers are to have voted YES on Amash-Conyers, YES on increasing the minimum wage, NO on indefinite detention without trial, NO on the Monsanto bill, NO on increasing student loan rates and NO on the 2008 TARP bailout. Let's look at the 8 House incumbents Blue America targeted so far this year:

• Rodney Davis (R-IL)
• David Joyce (R-OH)
• John Kline (R-MN)
• James Lankford (R-OK)
• Buck McKeon (R-CA)
• Gary Miller (R-CA)
• Paul Ryan (R-WI)
• Fred Upton (R-MI)

McKeon and Miller, fully understanding that they would likely be beaten in November have announced they are retiring and Lankford is abandoning his seat to make a run for Tom Coburn's open U.S. Senate seat. All 8 of the candidates failed the test… miserably. Take the 4 senior Republican House committee chairmen on the list that Steve Israel has forced the DCCC to give free reelection passes to. All four, John Kline, Buck McKeon, Paul Ryan and Fred Upton, are major GOP policy makers-- not hapless backbenchers like virtually all DCCC targets-- and all 4 are in winnable seats that Obama took at least once. And each has a credible progressive opponent Israel refuses to back.

John Kline voted against Amash-Conyers and against raising the minimum wage and voted for detention without trial, for protecting Monsanto, for raising student loans and for the bankster bailout.

Buck McKeon voted against Amash-Conyers and against raising the minimum wage and voted for detention without trial, for protecting Monsanto, for raising student loans and for the bankster bailout.

Paul Ryan voted against Amash-Conyers and against raising the minimum wage and voted for detention without trial, for protecting Monsanto, for raising student loans and for the bankster bailout.

Fred Upton voted against Amash-Conyers and against raising the minimum wage and voted for detention without trial, for protecting Monsanto, for raising student loans and for the bankster bailout.

Are you noticing the pattern? Vote Them Out 2014 doesn't take into account who they would be replacing their targets with. Blue America does. And in these eight cases, the candidates we're backing have taken divergent stands on all the issues that the incumbents were wrong on. Replacing Rodney Davis with George Gollin, replacing David Joyce with Michael Wager, replacing John Kline with Mike Obermueller, replacing James Lankford with Tom Guild, replacing Buck McKeon with Lee Rogers, replacing Gary Miller with Eloise Reyes, replacing Paul Ryan with Rob Zerban and replacing Fred Upton with Paul Clements would have meant 8 bad voters would have been replaced by 8 voters with a completely different perspective and, in all cases, a completely different result. These 8 candidates are independent-minded enough to buck not just reactionary Republicans like their opponents by corrupted Democratic leaders like Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Crowley and Steny Hoyer who voted with the Republicans on several of these crucial roll calls.

As we learned last cycle from watching shady conservatives like Patrick Murphy replacing Allen West, it isn't just enough to get rid of a bad Republican. They need to be replaced by a good alternative. The DCCC seeks out overtly corrupt and conservative garbage candidates to run against Republicans. There is no real reason to waste money and energy on replacing Bill Johnson with anti-Choice, antigay, anti-environment zombie Jennifer Garrison. Nearly all Steve Israel's Jumpstart candidates are worthless in creating a better Congress. He made sure of it. If you do want a better Congress-- on issues-- never contribute to the DCCC under any circumstances. Contribute directly to candidates who stand for the same values and principles you stand for and have the same priorities you have. Sure, if you hate the LGBT community and want to strike out at them and target them for abuse and if you want to prevent women from making their own reproductive choices and if you want to see the planet destroyed, then Steve Israel should be directing your election energy. Otherwise, please check out the candidates Blue America is backing this cycle.

These are two bumper stickers the DCCC is using to separate progressives from their money this year. Each is also very misleading.

The first one belies the fact that several Democrats vote with the Republicans on environmental issues and that, in fact, two of the House's worst pro-pollution members, John Barrow (New Dem/Blue Dog-GA) and Ron Barber (New Dem/Blue Dog-AZ) have not been voting to save the planet but to destroy it. And each are among the few Democratic incumbents expected to get over $2 million dollars in financial assistance to help their shaky reelection efforts. The second bumper sticker might lead you to believe that the candidates the DCCC is backing will fight for women's Choice. But Israel has managed to dig hop a repulsive array of anti-Choice candidates even beyond Jennifer Garrison who Ohio NARAL reminded their voters that "Representative Garrison does not share our values." Jerry Cannon in Michigan is another conservative shill who is vehemently anti-Choice who Steve Israel is trying to pass off as someone on our side in the conservative war against women. But, as usual, Israel is lying his ass off. Almost every Steve Israel recruit is fatally flawed. Be very careful before backing any of them-- even to get rid of a truly vile Republican.