Wall Street-Owned New Dems Ready To Make War Against Elizabeth Warren And The Progressive Movement

Multimillionaire Scott Peters (D-CA) wants to undermine Elizabeth Warren

Scott Peters is a very wealthy conservative Democrat who bought himself a San Diego congressional seat in 2012. In one of the closest races in the country, Peters beat incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray 124,746-122,086, after outspending him $4,352,737 to $2,772,270. And not just outspending him; Peters ran one of the most self-financed congressional campaigns in history, having spent $2,757,452 of his own money. Since getting elected, Peters amassed a very conservative voting record that finds him voting with the GOP on crucial issues as frequently as he votes with progressives. He's not popular with Democratic voters in his own district and it was no surprise when the GOP mounted a strong campaign against him last year. Luckily for Peters, the Republican candidate, Scott DeMaio, spent the campaign on the front pages of the newspapers defending himself in a conveniently timed series of gay sex harassment cases. He would have won and even with all the tawdry scandal, he nearly did win!

Peters eked out reelection 98,332 (51.6%)- 92,408 (48.4%). Peters spent $4,504,003 to DeMaio's $3,349,677. This time, though, Peters "only" spent $476,659 of his own money on the race. The DCCC came to his rescue. They spent $2,574,753 and their super-PAC, the House Majority PAC, spent another $831,751 on the race-- so, over $3,000,000 on a conservative whose voting record this year is already worse than his first term record. His ProgressivePunch 2015-16 crucial vote score is an abysmal 46.15, the worst of any California Democrat. If you contributed to the DCCC last year, you enabled that. And a bad voting record isn't where it stops for Scott Peters.

Yesterday, The Hill was reporting that his corporately-financed, Wall Street-friendly faction, the New Dems is plotting a "strike against the Warren wing" on the Democratic Party. Of course, opposing the legitimate interests of working families is all the New Dems ever do, so that shouldn't come as too big a shock to people who follow carefully.

"I have great respect for Sen. Warren-- she's a tremendous leader,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), one of the members working on the policy proposal. “My own preference is to create a message without bashing businesses or workers, [the latter of which] happens on the other side."

Peters said that if Democrats are going to win back the House and Senate, "it's going to be through the work of the New Democrat Coalition."

"To the extent that Republicans beat up on workers and Democrats beat up on employers-- I'm not sure that offers voters much of a vision," Peters said.

Peters and other New Dems are working with Third Way and other Wall Street and Big Business-backed groups to undermine progressives in the policy arena and to push the Wall Street agenda that Republicans already back. Reminder: when you contribute to the DCCC, you are financing garbage like Scott Peters with money that could be going to help elect and reelect progressive Democrats. Just stop. If the DCCC and DNC feel a drop-off in contributions from grassroots Democrats, they're likely to be more responsive to actual Democrats outside of K Street and Wall Street. Peters and two other especially bad Democratic congressmembers-- Suzan DelBene and Kyrsten Sinema-- were just named Honorary Co-Chairs of the extremely corrupt Third Way.

UPDATE: NJ Christiecrats' Bump In The Road-- NJ Pinelands Pipeline: 4 Ex-Govs Oppose Barr Appointment

On February 27, we reported on the underhanded procedure Christiecrats Steve Sweeney and Jeff Van Drew used to get the nomination of Robert Barr approved by the New Jersey State Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

In an interview posted on the Asbury Park Press web site later that day, Sweeney arrogantly defended his move and reiterated his support for running a natural gas pipeline through the environmentally unique Pinelands Preserve in order to keep an outmoded electric generating station in operation.

On March 1, the Newark Star-Ledger, the state’s largest daily paper, published a blistering editorial condemning Sweeney’s manipulation of the Judiciary Committee to ensure approval of the Barr nomination, calling it “a Machiavellian power grab.”

And on yesterday, the same four ex-governors who urged the Pinelands Commission to reject the pipeline proposal in December 2013 wrote a letter to Ray Lesniak-- an opponent of the pipeline project, and the senator that Sweeney replaced with Van Drew on February 24. This time they were asking the full Senate to reject the Barr nomination. Here’s the text of that letter:

Dear Senator Lesniak,

We are writing to urge the Senate to withhold confirmation of the pending nomination for the Pinelands Commission, Robert Barr to replace Robert Jackson, when it comes before the full Senate in the coming weeks. We believe that at this time and in the present circumstances, this nomination would undermine the independence of the Pinelands Commission. For thirty-five years, the Pinelands Commission has been the bedrock of the Pinelands conservation effort. Its extraordinary success in that mission is due in great part to the fact that it has functioned as an independent executive agency without undue interference in its implementation of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan. Recent events threaten to erode that independence. The Senate can preserve the integrity of the Pinelands program, and help protect the work of other independent executive agencies, by withholding confirmation of this nomination at this time. As former governors for whom the Pinelands represents one of New Jersey’s great-- but ever-vulnerable-- treasures, we ask for your help at this important juncture in the life of the Pinelands.

Sincerely,

Brenda T. Byrne
Thomas H. Kean
Christine Todd Whitman
James J. Florio