If The Democratic Party Establishment Had A Soul, There Would Be A Battle For It Raging Now

This post started yesterday and below is a continuation— although it stands on its own as well. It’s a familiar top to DWT readers— the toxic disease called “corporate Democrats.”

Democrats want to run a lifelong conservative Republican, Patrick Murphy, currently posing as a New Dem inside the Florida House delegation, as the “alternative” to Marco Rubio in 2016. Murphy is one of the worst (i.e., most Republican) freshmen among House Dems, right up there with worthless Blue Dogs Pete Gallego (TX) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and fellow New Dems— also worthless— Sean Patrick Maloney (NY) and Joe Garcia (FL). According to ProgressivePunch, all 5 have voted with the Republicans against progressive initiatives more frequently than they’ve stuck with the Democrats. Murphy, a prodigious fundraiser— $3,790,810 so far this cycle (in a barely contested race against a hapless and underfunded GOP nonentity)— is, predictably, a darling of the Finance Sector. Although his crooked Republican father helped buy him the seat last time, Murphy has managed to charm the bankster class so thoroughly that they’ve given him $830,100 so far this cycle, more than the vast majority of Republicans and more than any other Democratic freshman… by far. A member of the House Financial Services Committee and on the subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit and the subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade, is was purposely put in place to serve the interests of the banksters— and he does.

The DC Democratic Establishment loves Republicans, like Murphy, willing to don a blue t-shirt, even if they support anti-working family positions and undermine the progressive agenda. Remember how happy the DCCC was to recruit sick Republican sex fiend Tim Mahoney— by driving grassroots progressive Democrat Dave Lutrin out of the primary? That ended with Maloney, joining the Blue Dogs, voting with the GOP, entangling himself immediately in a sordid sex scandal and… the district in the hands of a Republican. Thanks DCCC… where do we send our checks again?

This year Florida Democrats are being asked to pick between two Republicans running for governor, one as an open Republican and one making believe he’s now been reborn as a Democrat— although not enough of a Democrat to come clean and admit he’s gay.

Last cycle, the DSCC tacitly backed Independent Angus King against Democrat Cynthia Dill and this cycle they forced Democrat Chad Taylor out of the Kansas Senate race to grease a path for fence-straddling independent Greg Orman. Next we’ll hear them demanding South Dakota progressive Democrat Rick Weiland bow out so that conservative Republican Larry Pressler can face off against a conservative Republican, Mike Rounds, who admits he’s a conservative Republican. It’s time to get rid of these DC careerists who are shredding the Democratic Party brand and making it as ugly and useless as the Republicanb Party brand. If the Democratic Party turns into the Republican Party and wins elections does that mean the Democratic Party won something? No, of course not; it means careerist slime hold onto power, that’s all.

A few days ago, the Boston Globe reported on the struggle between the grassroots and the corporate whores who control the Democratic Party. They described the birth of Third Way as a meeting in Boston a decade ago by “a group of Washington business lobbyists, political operatives, and a smattering of senators gathered at one of the city’s downtown law [Brown Rudnick] firms to hear a plan.”

Third Way, backed by Wall Street titans, corporate money, and congressional allies, is publicly warning against divisive “soak-the-rich” politics voiced by populist Democrats. Its target: Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator whose rise to power two years ago helped galvanize Democratic grass roots against Wall Street and pushed the issue of income inequality to the forefront.

This is more than a grudge match. At stake for the Democratic Party is the support of middle-class, swing voters who decide elections.

Third Way ignited a clash in December when its leaders essentially declared war on Warren in a guest column in the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, warning Democrats not to follow Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio “over the populist cliff.”

Many on the left were shocked, and angered. Warren’s allies saw Third Way as a proxy— being used by her enemies on Wall Street to scare off the rest of the party.

“Wall Street is extremely good at pushing anybody that is critical of them as being populist, or know-nothings,” said Ted Kaufman, who temporarily served as an appointed US senator to replace Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., then succeeded Warren in leading a special congressional panel that oversaw the bank bailout.

For their part, Third Way representatives bristle at the idea they are doing the bidding of Wall Street power brokers.

With the income gap growing between most of the nation’s taxpayers and the wealthiest 1 percent, the battle is over how aggressively the party’s candidates— including, potentially, Hillary Clinton— will contrast themselves with Republicans on tax and economic issues in 2016.

The philosophy set out by Third Way will be part of that conversation.

The organization publicly discloses little about its funding. But a Globe examination of public documents and the backgrounds of its leadership offers a window into how some wealthy Wall Street and business interests— who contribute generously to Democratic candidates— have sought to tip the Democratic Party’s intellectual debate against populism.

Third Way raises just over a third of its $9.3 million annual budget from undisclosed corporations. The remainder, the bulk of its funding, is donated by individuals, almost all of whom are members of Third Way’s board of trustees.

The group is dominated by executives from the financial industry, people who are typically the targets of the populist rhetoric of Warren, and sometimes even President Obama.

Two-thirds of its 31 trustees have held senior leadership positions in investment funds or big banks or served in some other capacity on Wall Street.

Board members include its chairman, John Vogelstein, who once led the private equity firm Warburg Pincus; vice chairman David Heller, the former global head of equity trading for Goldman Sachs; and Derek Kirkland, a managing director at Morgan Stanley.

Both Vogelstein and Heller were major financial backers of Obama, and all three contributed heavily to Senate Democrats.

…The battle over money and influence has now moved to the 2016 presidential election, and the competition between parties for the financial favors of Wall Street executives will be fierce.

Though Third Way’s salvo against Warren in The Wall Street Journal became a seminal moment in its fight against Democratic populism, the group is now very sensitive about the topic and will not even discuss why they chose to wage it.

Cowan and Bennett took pains not to utter Warren’s name in several interviews.

Nor would Warren, who is backing several moderate senators in tough reelection campaigns, talk about Third Way.

Robert Reich, Clinton’s former labor secretary, who has become a leading Wall Street critic, argued that there are several issues Democrats are unwilling to tackle because of Wall Street’s grip on the party— including tax breaks for hedge fund managers, transaction taxes for high-speed traders, limits on the size of banks, and income tax rates for high earners.

“At some point it becomes a Faustian bargain,” he said. “The financial dependence on Wall Street effectively ties the hands of the Democratic Party.”

No Faustian bargains here. If you want to be sure you’re only contributing to progressives and not to Wall Street whores, don’t give money to Republicans and don’t give money to the DSCC or DCCC or DNC. Give money directly to the candidates you know have a progressive vision and the courage to carry it out— like these Senate candidates and these House candidates.