"...Supporting The Same Kind Of Candidates Long Favored By The Political Establishment And Financial Elite"

Kirkpatrick and Ashford-- the worst of the DCCC recruits

This quote from Bernie is taking on a life of its own online "We cannot defeat Trump and the Republican Party with the same playbook, or by supporting the same kind of candidates long favored by the political establishment and financial elite. That is how we got to where we are today." I'd bet that even DCCC staffers have seen it by now, even if they can't make heads nor tales of it. One thing the DCCC has no interest in-- negative interest in-- is helping elect a House-ful of game changers. There are very few independent thinkers in the House-- men and women with ideas and basic competence. That's why it's feasible to talk about electing a jovial nothing like Joe Crowley as leader and even Speaker. Game changers are dangerous; maintaining the status quo is what the Democratic Party establishment is all about. Or the status quo ante. Moving forward? No way, José.

But let's go back to Bernie's quote, the party about failing by "supporting the same kind of candidates long favored by the political establishment and financial elite." And, for the sake of argument, let me acknowledge that even the very worst of the DCCC's crap candidates-- sacks of garbage pretending to be leaders like Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Gretchen Driskell (MI), Jason Crow (CO), Paul Davis (KS), Gil Cisneros (CA), Dan McCready (NC), Brendan Kelly (IL), Elissa Slotkin (MI)-- can argue, albeit implausibly, that "same kind of candidates" does not apply to them. The DCCC goes even further. They just leave out the whole "same kind of" and go right to "the same."

Two of the worst candidates they're backing this cycle were recently members of Congressman are no longer members of Congress because the voters rejected them after seeing them in action. The voters rejected them because the voters were smart enough to sense they were absolutely terrible. Yes, I'm talking about Arizona New Dem and NRA ally Ann Kirkpatrick and Nebraska Blue Dog and "ex"-Republican Brad Ashford. Both have long and dreadful records predictive of exactly what they'll do if a blue wave sweeps them back into Congress in November. There are literally no candidates who are worse. They've already shown how bad they are and the voters have already judged them. But the DCCC re-recruited them and the DCCC is working with great vigor-- and great vigor is not something one normally associates with the DCCC-- to undermine the campaigns of inspiring primary opponents for each, Kara Eastman in Omaha and Mary Matiella in Tucson.

When Bernie said that "We cannot defeat Trump and the Republican Party with the same playbook, or by supporting the same kind of candidates long favored by the political establishment and financial elite," I'm going to bet he was talking about political detritus like people who have shown how bad they are in other positions-- like Jeff Van Drew, the worst member of the New Jersey state legislature; Paul Davis a failed minority leader in the Kansas state House; or a pack of robots from the national security state who the DCCC has recruited and is desperately trying to pass of as "leaders" instead of the drones they are; or Gil Cisneros, a compulsive serial liar who worked for the McCain campaign and has proven himself utterly incompetent on the campaign trail; or "socialite" and candidate of the "casino owners" (a respectable way of saying she's backed by the Mob), Susie Lee, in Nevada who already spent $674,805 of her own in a 2016 congressional bid and came in a distant third in the primary.

Pelosi and he DCCC do not want game changers, do not want thinkers, do not want leaders. They want more drones who suck up to rich special interests and build up campaign war chests. Candidates with original ideas? GOD FORBID! That explains why the DCCC primarily supports New Dems and fights against progressives. These are the New Dems running for Congress this cycle, by the way. Institutionally they are the very personification of what Bernie was talking about:

• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ)
• Greg Stanton (AZ)
• Dave Min (CA)
• Joshua Harder (CA)
• Katie Hill (CA)
• Hans Keirstead (CA)
• Harley Rouda (CA)
• Josh Butner (CA)
• Jason Crow (CO)
• Lauren Baer (FL)
• Nancy Soderberg (FL)
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (FL)
• Mel Hall (IN)
• Sean Casten (IL)
• Brendan Kelly (IL)
• Paul Davis (KS)
• Elissa Slotkin (MI)
• Angie Craig (MN)
• Dean Phillips (MN)
• Dan McCready (NC)
• Kathy Manning (NC)
• Brad Ashford (NE)
• Mikie Sherrill (NJ)
• Jeff Van Drew (NJ)
• Tom Malinowski (NJ)
• Max Rose (NY)
• Anthony Brindisi (NY)
• Susie Lee (NV)
• Chrissy Houlahan (PA)
• Archie Parnell (SC)
• Jana Lynne Sanchez (TX)
• Lizzie Fletcher (TX)
• Ben McAdams (UT)
• Elaine Luria (VA)
• Abigail Spanberger (VA)
• Dan Kohl (WI)

Lesser of two evils? Maybe. You'll have to decide that for yourself. During the primaries? In November? Never? Put me in the "Never" camp and let me quote a chunk of Gideon Resnick's essay from yesterday's Daily Beast about a New Dem stalwart Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

The frustrations Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2016 presidential campaign had with the tenure of former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) are well documented.

But in a new book written by the man who ran the insurgent Senator’s 2016 run, it is revealed that Hillary Clinton’s team shared many of those frustrations, especially as the 2016 primary was drawing to a close.

In his book, How Bernie Won: Inside the Revolution That's Taking Back Our Country-and Where We Go from Here, Jeff Weaver details a meeting the Sanders and Clinton teams held prior to the Democratic convention, in which aides to the former Secretary of State detailed how “exasperated” they were with Wasserman Schultz.

“I knew that there was no love between the Clinton campaign and the chairwoman. Nor was there any in the White House. Or among large numbers of the DNC’s top leaders. When Bernie was on his way to meet President Obama on June 9, Senator Reid had made a point of calling Bernie during the car ride to remind him to ask the president to dump Wasserman Schultz,” Weaver writes, referencing a meeting Sanders had at the White House in the summer of 2016.

“Every time I had raised the issue of Wasserman Schultz with the Clinton campaign, they had blamed her continued tenure on the White House,” Weaver continues. “Whenever I raised the issue with the president’s people, they blamed the Clinton campaign. From my calls with them, I knew that the Clinton people were exasperated with Wasserman Schultz. But I could never tell whether it was because she had put her fingers on the scale in such an incompetent way.

Regardless, it just always seemed the case that no one wanted to expend the political capital necessary to push her out, especially as her term would be ending soon anyway.”

Weaver’s recollections stand in contrast to the conventional wisdom of many Sanders’ supporters: that Wasserman Schultz’s presence at the DNC thrilled the Clinton campaign because she was, during the course of the primary, putting her thumb on the scales for Clinton. Weaver recounts that during a meeting between the two camps, Clinton ultimately elected not to force Wasserman Schultz’s exit but not out of a feeling of gratitude or patronage.

“At our meeting at the Hilton, Hillary Clinton balked at forcing her out,” Weaver writes. “My suspicion was that the Clinton campaign did not want to do anything that would impugn the legitimacy of her victory. Forcing out Debbie Wasserman Schultz would be an acknowledgment that the DNC chairwoman had stacked the deck in Clinton’s favor. That was not our point, however. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as chair of the Democratic Party during a vigorously contested primary, was supposed to be neutral. She clearly was not. This action item would resolve itself at the Democratic National Convention, when the chairwoman was pushed out after DNC emails were released proving how the organization had worked against our campaign.”

So much for your lesser of two evils. In fact... Wasserman Schultz has long been the greater of any number of evils. In closing, a few words from Alan Grayson today: "Both parties have been captured by the Dark Money Side... and gorge on corporate PAC money and bribes from Wall Street bankers. Check out the 'Finance Committees' of Team Red and Team Blue. You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."