Do Steve Israel And Debbie Wasserman Schultz Actually Work Against Democratic Candidates? Oh, Do They Ever!

Today Maggie Haberman did a puff piece on the failed DCCC chairman Steve Israel. "My position as DCCC chair," he boasted, "has given me the opportunity to elevate House races and the midterms to some of the most influential and highest-profile donors in the country. Unlike in a presidential campaign, we’re spending millions of dollars in House races right here in New York." Israel has targeted 8 races in New York, 2 to protect endangered incumbents, Maffei in a deep blue D+5 district (Syracuse) and Tim Bishop in the Suffolk County swing district (R+2). Israel crony Kathleen Rice, another corrupt Wall Street shill like Israel, is running to replace Carolyn McCarthy who is retiring from a D+3 Nassau County district just south of Israel's own. There's no definition of "Red-to-Blue" that includes Rice but she's on the list because she fits Israel's prejudices for turning the House Democratic caucus away from working families and towards Wall Street and Big Business. Oh, and to make Israel's scorecard and success to failure ratio look less dismal in November.

When Israel brags how he elevates House races to some of the most influential and highest-profile donors in the country, he means "certain House races." Others he deprecates, as does Wasserman Schultz. It's how the two of them role. People are shocked when I write that Israel, who is, after all, charged with electing Democrats to the House tells those "highest-profile donors in the country" he's always bragging about having in the palm of his hand to not fund Democratic candidates who don't fit into his loser strategy of backing Blue Dogs and New Dems.

Several of Blue America's top donors used to be among the Israel/Rahm/Wasserman Schultz collection of "highest-profile donors in the country" who realized that they had been, year after year, mislead into backing awful candidates from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- corrupt Wall Street corporatists, anti-Choice and anti-gay reactionaries who they had nothing in common with.

Doug Kahn is not just a progressive activist, he ran for Congress himself against an entrenched Republican and helped introduce the deep red district to progressive political values so that it was eventually won back from the GOP. It wasn't Doug who went to Congress though. More recently, he's worked steadily behind the scenes helping elect and re-elect Democrats like Alan Grayson, Matt Cartwright and Carol Shea-Porter. Before finding Blue America he was contributing large sums to Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party pushed by the DCCC. He doesn't write checks to those kinds of candidates any longer-- nor to operations like the DCCC and the DNC.

If they want my support again, they'll have to start supporting progressive candidates who want to run against people like Paul Ryan and the Republican leadership in the House, some of whom are in winnable districts. Winnable for real Democrats, of course, not the 'Republican Lite' hacks they keep recruiting to fill the Democratic line on the ballot.

You see this in state and local party organizations, too. The top positions get occupied, and never voluntarily vacated, by people who just want to be in charge of an organization. Hacks, in other words. Helping working people isn't on their to-do lists. Why should they care about getting new, progressive members into our House delegation? It would just threaten their own little spheres of influence.

Last cycle I spoke with mega-donors who told me flat out that both Israel and Wasserman Schultz had called them and told them not to contribute to Rob Zerban and Lee Rogers (Israel) and Alan Grayson (Wasserman Schultz, although it's reasonable to assume that she just didn't want the gentleman to give the money to Grayson through Blue America and perhaps it wasn't really Grayson she was targeting… perhaps). Let me tell you about one of the instances.

A major Democratic donor who has given and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democratic candidates had been asking me for an onerous, distasteful and burdensome favor. I declined. The donor went to a mutual friend of ours who suggested persuading me by helping Blue America candidates. Recall that last cycle, when Paul Ryan was totally vulnerable and beatable-- in a district Obama has won 185,855 (51%) to 176,152 (48%) in the last election, Israel took Rob Zerban off the table in a very big way. He was running around frantically telling donors to stop giving money to Zerban (the Democrat) who had raised $2,265,721 from grassroots donors (and needed a little help to be competitive against Ryan-- who wound up spending $6,651,221 on the race). The contributor volunteered to hold a fundraising event at the family mansion for Zerban if I agreed to do the favor. I agreed… with a big smile on my face. And the next thing I knew, I got a call from the donor telling me "Steve" said Zerban wasn't a serious candidate and not to waste the money and effort. Fundraiser cancelled. Do you ever wonder why DWT from time to time offers a slightly negative editorial perspective on Steve Israel (and his ilk)? And no, you will never read a story like this by Maggie Haberman or anyone else who writes for the Beltway trade press.