Steve Israel Had The Worst Week In Washington. 2014 Will Also Be His Worst Year So Far

This post isn't meant to gloat over DCCC Chairman Steve Israel's epic failures last week, nor even to bash a Beltway media incapable of covering it. Chris Cillizza at least tried a few days ago in the Washington Post: Who Had The Worst Week In Washington? DCCC Chairman Steve Israel.

Cillizza tried. If he was up at McGill and I was teaching a journalism class this semester I'd give him a passing grade… for trying. I'm generous with the grades; I might even give him a B-minus. He tried to tell Post readers the story of Ed Jany, or at least an easily digestible, Beltway-centric version of the story. What did Chis Cillizza leave out? Mostly stuff that would have outraged the DCCC even more than the headline-- and at the expense of a compelling article. So… maybe a C or a C-plus. Here's what he left out of the Post version:

• Why was Israel elated to have successfully recruited Jany? No mention that Jany wasn't even a Democrat, but a conservative independent unable to run on the Democratic line. And no mention that Israel was a Blue Dog who always favors conservatives unburdened with Democratic Party values.

• Israel rallied "almost every major figure in Florida and national Democratic politics behind Jany's candidacy." Really? African-Americans and progressives were outraged, especially the ones in Florida.

• "The party pushed aside a well-known African American minister who was planning to enter the race." How pivotal were Israel's and Debbie Wasserman Schultz's roles in this sleazy anti-democratic tactic? Not worth mentioning that the well-known African-American candidate is Pastor Manuel Sykes, President of the local NAACP and that the local African-American community, along with Pinellas County progressives, had decided to boycott Israel's pathetic candidate, jeopardizing Charlie Crist's gubernatorial race?

• I guess 5 days is "less than two weeks"

• No mention of Jany's absurd Madison University diploma mill?

• And all that was in the early part of the week. By the end of the week, Israel had enmeshed the DCCC in an ugly donor-swapping scandal that could sink half a dozen of his wretched conservative candidates.

Cillizza ended with a flourish that should have been attached to a better body: "Steve Israel, for mistaking a padded résumé for a thick one, you had the worst week in Washington. Congrats, or something."