How Chuck Schumer And Jon Tester Screwed Up The Democrats' Best Shot To Succeed In The Senate

Because of the seats that are up in 2016, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the Democrats would take back the Senate regardless of the top of the ticket. Trump just makes GOP defense more difficult. Unfortunately, because of the seats that are up in 2018, it is almost a foregone conclusion that the Republicans will take back the Senate. In 2018, battlegrounds will be Democratic-held seats in red and purple states-- Indiana, North Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Florida, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania-- plus New Jersey, where Bob Menendez's corruption case will be coming to a head. So... the job for the DSCC this year wasn't just to win back a measly 3 or 4 seats to take back a bare majority, but to bank a bunch seats in preparation for a horrible 2018. Largely because of Chuck Schumer's philosophy that Democratic primary voters are too stupid to pick their own nominees, the DSCC has failed miserably already. I'll explain in a minute. First a little background on the head of the DSCC, Schumer sock-puppet Jon Tester.

I went to the same high school as Chuck Schumer, James Madison, in the early 1960s. He was just the same way he is now and not many people liked him. But I never met anyone who really hated him as much as Jon Tester did in 2006. At the time, Tester was a populist organic farmer and state legislator and he was one of the first Senate candidates who Blue America had ever endorsed. Schumer himself was the head of the DSCC and he recruited some Wall Street hack, John Morrison, the state Auditor, and the very wealthy former president of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, He outspent Tester's grassroots campaign two to one-- and was being pushed by Schumer without regard to party rules about not interfering in primaries. At least once a week, Tester would call me and curse Schumer to high heaven. Fueled by hatred for Schumer, Tester slaughtered Schumer's puppet candidate in a massive 61-35% landslide and then went on to beat Republican incumbent Conrad Burns. It didn't take a week before Tester completely sold out to Schumer and became one of his minions. It's how things tend to work in Washington. I was stunned and sickened. Today Tester is a Schumer lap-dog and his rubber-stamp head of the DSCC.

New polling shows two of the most wretched of the candidates Schumer-- with help from Tester-- backed in the primary, poor old Ted Strickland and former fracking lobbyist Katie McGinty-- are failing miserably in races where PJ Sittenfeld and Joe Sestak would probably be trouncing Rob Portman and Pat Toomey now. In fact, Portman is crushing Strickland so decisively-- something that we predicted all of last year-- that the Senate Majority PAC, also controlled by Schumer, just "postponed" wasting $191,000 on Strickland TV spots.

Yesterday, Schumer's expenditure of several million dollars and a campaign of lies and innuendo against Alan Grayson paid off-- for Marco Rubio. Rubio, a weak and damaged incumbent, would have never been able to stand up to Grayson for two seconds. But in his rush to get talentless Wall Street pet Patrick Murphy the nomination, Schumer has all but guaranteed Rubio his unearned and undeserved reelection. First thing this morning, Rubio challenged the hapless Murphy to 6 debates. Murphy doesn't know how to debate and is probably hoping Schumer will think up some excuse for him. The race in Florida will be one where there is not even a lesser of two evils!

Even the most optimistic of the journalists who always buys into the most pathetic DSCC spin, Chuck Todd, predicts a miserable November performance: wins in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, which would give the Democrats bare control with the help of Vice President Kaine. That would be an easily thwartable majority, especially with Claire McCaskill, Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin, Tester and Joe Donnelly-- all petrified of 2018 defeat-- voting regularly across the aisle, probably with Evan Bayh. And then along comes 2018 and that's the end of any chance Hillary will have to accomplish anything at all that isn't on the GOP agenda.

Todd gives the Democrats a shot to win in 3 states if Hillary has big enough coattails: New Hampshire, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. I think New Hampshire is the most likely. He claims if every Greek god takes part in a concerted effort on behalf of the Democrats, the conservatives Schumer picked for Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Ohio could win too, but none of those are likely all I'm betting Mt. Olympus has other things on its plate right now. "So you if you're the Democrats," Todd adds, "you can realistically get to four pickups and control of the Senate, if Clinton wins the presidential race. But Nevada is key here, because a GOP win means Democrats will have to win another seat to win control." Chuck Schumer is about to be elected Democratic Senate leader, probably unanimously, by a Senate Democratic caucus that doesn't deserve anything better than what's coming its way.