Who's Going To Sell You Out-- And Who Won't?

Yesterday, one of the "moderate" Democratic websites was pushing their readers to contribute money to conservative candidates by pretending those candidates are "progressives," a term which that particular website has been complicit in helping to make almost meaningless. They want grassroots progressives to help fund establishment Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- garbage candidates like Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL), Evan Bayh (Lobbyist-IN), and Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ). (At least even they realized trying to sell Chuck Schumer's catastrophic Iowa girlfriend, Patty Judge would be just too implausible even for gullible readers.

So everyone sell out as grossly as Daily Kos? No way! In fact, I was just noticing an e-mail Friday morning from Elizabeth Warren on behalf of Senate Democrats. "If Donald Trump becomes President of the United States," she warned, "a Democratic Senate could be the only thing stopping him. I’m working my heart out so a President Trump never happens, but it’s the truth. So this week, we set a goal to raise $200,000 for some of our top Senate candidates to finish strong and take back the Democratic majority. (It was a humongous goal and I wasn’t sure if we could do it, but what the heck, we like a tough challenge.)" But it did work. Her fundraising page raised the candidates $216,558 in just 12 hours. Amazing! The 8 Democratic Senate candidates she was raising money for were:

• Russ Feingold (WI)
• Katie McGinty (PA)
• Maggie Hassan (NH)
• Ted Strickland (OH)
• Jason Kander (MO)
• Deborah Ross (NC)
• Tammy Duckworth (IL)
• Catherine Cortez Mastro (NV)

Warren doesn't label them "progressives" or make any promises about how they're likely to vote in any general way. She just said that "Control of the Senate matters for the 20 million Americans who finally got health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. It matters for protecting Dodd-Frank financial reforms and holding the big banks on Wall Street accountable when they break the law (Wells Fargo, are you listening?). It matters for confirming justices who will tip the balance of the Supreme Court for a generation."

The only candidate on her list endorsed by Blue America is Russ Feingold-- we know he's a genuine progressive and you can contribute to his campaign here-- but we're willing to take Warren at her word that candidates we're someone suspicious of, particularly Strickland, McGinty and Hassan, have committed to her on "protecting Dodd-Frank financial reforms and holding the big banks on Wall Street accountable when they break the law." Why do I trust her on that? Three reasons:

1- Elizabeth Warren has never given me a reason to doubt her
2- these Wall Street issues are immensely important to her
3- who's not on the list

She left off several Wall Street shills who are proven conservatives and very much enamored of Chuck Schumer: Patrick Murphy (the banksters' favorite candidate of all), crooked lobbyist Evan Bayh (IN), pro-bankster New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ), and the implausible Ms Justice in Iowa. That's a big deal. It must have raised Schumer's blood pressure into the stratosphere since he personally recruited these 4 über-corrupt, anti-progressive candidates.

In fact, just minutes after Warren's letter went out, one went out from McConnell's Senate PAC mentioning that Warren left off Murphy, though neglecting to see it's because Murphy, a multimillionaire and, until recently, a lifelong Republican from a Republican family with very ugly ties business to Trump, has just spent over 3 years in Congress voting with the Republicans against progressive solutions to the problems that serious legislators like Warren are trying to fix. McConnell's take was that the DSCC is giving up on Patrick Murphy because he's hopelessly corrupt and may wind up in enough trouble for it to negatively impact the election. Miss McConnell:

In late August, it was reported that Patrick Murphy had spent $53K on legal bills in a mere 40 days. Some of that was likely to deal with an FEC review of a potential straw donor scheme involving the family of one of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful billionaires. But other fees were paid to a firm that specializes in Members of Congress under a more serious variety of investigation. Following those news reports, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee started cancelling millions in television ad buys to support Murphy-- first on September 6 then again on September 12. Then there’s the issue of Hillary Clinton NEVER mentioning Murphy when she campaigns in Florida. The Miami Herald wrote about that here... And finally there is this-- this morning Elizabeth Warren sent out a fundraising email on behalf of Senate Democrat candidates. She mentioned Ted Strickland, Katie McGinty, Catherine Cortez Masto, Deborah Ross, Russ Feingold, Tammy Duckworth & Jason Kander. She did not mention Murphy. Check it out:

So we ask again-- do Democrats know something about Patrick Murphy and his legal problems that is causing them to act like he no longer exists? Might be worth asking.

Probably a good question for some whack-job like Michael Savage or for Breitbart but... just understanding that Patrick Murphy-- as well as Evan Bayh, Ann Kirkpatrick and Patty Judge-- are just too Republican and too in bed with Wall Street for Elizabeth Warren may be a little abstract and confusing for as partisan a hack as Mitch McConnell, especially since they work just fine for Daily Kos' political department.