What About Party Discipline?

John Barrow, from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party

Yesterday we saw that most of the 17 Democratic House Members from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who voted for Darrell Issa's strictly partisan resolution to hold Eric Holder in criminal contempt were defeated in 2012. Among the few remaining 3-- Bill Owens (New Dem-NY), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT) and Mike McIntyre (New Dem/Blue Dog-NC)-- picked retirement this year over certain defeat at the polls. That leaves John Barrow (Blue Dog/New Dem-GA), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV). The DCCC isn't punishing them for their vote against Holder; Blue Dog Steve Israel is rewarding each with millions of dollars in campaign ads.

• Barrow- $1,160,000 in ad reservations
• Peterson- $1,500,000 in ad reservations
• Rahall- $1,225,000 in ad reservations

And it isn't just the criminal contempt vote against Holder. All three have horrifying voting records. According to ProgressivePunch they are three of the 10 most Republican-voting Democrats in the House, each voting more frequently with the Republicans than with the Democrats on crucial roll calls. Barrow's the worst, voting in the 2013-14 session just 26.87% of the time for progressive legislation, followed by Peterson (33.92%) and Rahall (40.97%). Why not give them even more millions?

The Republicans are much more likely to discipline their members who evidence the kind of disloyalty these Blue Dogs and New Dems regularly display. Yesterday, writing at BuzzFeed, Chris Geidner, gave examples of how extreme right-wing GOP coalition organizations--National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council, and CitizenLink-- are campaigning against Republicans they view as not right-wing enough. The funniest example is Carl DeMaio of San Diego, who's lame New Dem opponent, Scott Peters, has been endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce because of DeMaio's affiliation with Tea Party extremists. But these GOP groups find DeMaio is guilty of being too liberal gay. In fact another of the 3 Republicans they're fighting is Richard Tisei, another gay man. The third is some weird lady the Koch brothers dug up in Oregon, Monica Wehby.

“We cannot in good conscience urge our members and fellow citizens to support candidates like DeMaio, Tisei or Wehby,” the presidents of the three groups write. “They are wrong on critical, foundational issues of importance to the American people. Worse, as occupants of high office they will secure a platform in the media to advance their flawed ideology and serve as terrible role models for young people who will inevitably be encouraged to emulate them.”

DeMaio and Tisei are the only out LGBT federal candidates from the Republican Party to be appearing on the ballot this fall.

“The Republican Party platform is a ‘statement of who we are and what we believe.’ Thus, the platform supports the truth of marriage as the union of husband and wife, and recognizes the sanctity and dignity of human life,” NOM President Brian S. Brown said in a statement.

Brown called it “extremely disappointing” to see candidates supported “who reject the party’s principled positions on these and other core issues.”

Of the effort to urge people to oppose DeMaio, Tisei, and Wehby, he said, “We cannot sit by when people calling themselves Republicans seek high office while espousing positions that are antithetical to the overwhelming majority of Republicans.”

The letter was sent to House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Greg Walden, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, and others in Republican congressional leadership.

In it, the three conservative groups also warned that it is a “grave error” for the party to be supporting “candidates who do not hold core Republican beliefs and, in fact, are working to actively alienate the Republican base.”

The only left-leaning group that has ever done this-- at least in recent memory-- is Blue America, which ran the TV and radio ads that defeated Bobby Bright in 2010. Most Democratic-oriented groups buy into the DCCC/DSCC kool-aid that they need to support the lesser of two evils. This isn't supporting progressives against conservative in primaries-- which we do routinely-- but helping defeat bad Democrats in a general election. If we weren't so busy trying to help elect Shenna Bellows (D-ME), Rick Weiland (D-SD), Paul Clements (D-MI), Kelly Westlund (D-WI), Mike Obermueller (D-MN) and our other candidates, we'd be running ads against John Barrow in Georgia. He really needs to be disciplined and I hope Democratic voters stay away from the polls in his district in November. He certainly hasn't done anything to earn their voters… just their contempt.