Who Wants To Extend And Deepen The Bush Economic Miracle?

Even if you don't blame McCain, per se, for the Wall Street meltdown this weekend, there is no getting around the fact that the Republican Party mania against the federal regulatory agenda protecting consumers and workers has been part of the McCain gestalt from the time he was first elected to Congress-- and as recently as May 29, 2007 McCain boasted to the Wall Street Journal that "you are interviewing the greatest free trader you will ever interview, and the greatest deregulator you will ever interview." But Obama was dead on when he said it's Republican Party philosophy we should blame for the economic and financial problems we're facing, not the man who admits he doesn't know squat about the economy and who surrounds himself with the worst set of predators running GOP economic policy since the late 1920s.

I certainly don't fault Senator McCain for these problems, but I do fault the economic philosophy he subscribes to. It's a philosophy we've had for the last eight years-- one that says we should give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. It's a philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise, and one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises.

Across the country savvy Democratic challengers to Republican rubber stamps of the Bush Economic Miracle have been explaining to voters the connection between GOP "philosophy" --and policy, and the economic woes and financial meltdown that are engulfing us all. In Nebraska, Scott Klebb is running against an anti-regulatory hack from Bush's cabinet, Mike Johanns. He was quick to explain why his campaign had put together a stomach churning video: "On a day where lax accountability and reckless oversight in Washington are in the forefront of the nation's mind, this 30 second video summarizing four years of broken government encapsulates the need for change in Washington."

Maine Congressman Tom Allen is running for a Senate seat held by one of Bush's most dependable allies on economic issues, Susan Collins, often opposing not just the Maine Democrats in the House, but even the Maine Republican, Olympia Snowe, in the Senate. According to the Portland Press Herald "Senator Olympia Snowe was right when she called these Bush tax breaks for the superwealthy 'cynical' and the 'wrong message for middle class America.'" The whole Maine delegation opposed them-- except Collins, who, as usual, stuck with Bush and the Republican dedication to wreck the federal regulatory system, the results we now see getting a stranglehold on the American economy, an economy in shambles, regardless of how many McCain shills call the American people whiners and exaggerators and no matter how many times McCain insists that the economy is sound and that we're better off under Bush's stewardship of the economy.

As the Dow dropped over 500 points, no doubt on what McCain insists are "strong fundamentals," I heard from several congressional candidates, particularly from candidates running against Republicans directly complicit in the Wall Street meltdown, like New Jersey's far right ideologue Scott Garrett, a member of the House Financial Services Committee. His Democratic opponent, Dennis Shulman, the can-do, blind rabbi lionized in yesterday's NY Times has some very pointed questions for Garrett who, it rightly asserts, helped bring about the subprime mortgage crisis by championing the specific legislative agenda of Countrywide Financial, the arch villain in this catastrophe.

"Countrywide Financial is widely recognized as having been the company at the forefront of these shady practices, practices that are bringing down generations-old investment banks and threatening to further derail the economy. Why did Scott Garrett vote consistently in favor of Countrywide Financial's desired positions, why did he put their former lobbyist on the taxpayers' payroll as his chief of staff, and will Garrett take responsibility for the disaster that occurred under his watch?" Shulman for Congress calls upon Scott Garrett to answer three questions:

• What were the terms of the mortgage you refinanced with Countrywide Financial in May 2003, during the time in which your current Chief of Staff lobbied for Countrywide and when Countrywide was giving congressmen with oversight responsibilities sweetheart deals?

• Why did you vote against anti-predatory lending bills and defend those pro-Countrywide Financial votes this spring by observing, "Just a year ago we were talking about how great it was (that) the highest percentage of Americans ever were in their homes?"

• Will you acknowledge that Dennis Shulman is right to vow to not take any money from industries his committees regulate, given how your votes in favor of Countrywide Financial have led to a national disaster?

Another extreme right ideologue on the Financial Services Committee is Republican Patrick McHenry. Yesterday we did a profile on McHenry's opponent, Democrat Daniel Johnson. Our research turned up an Op-ed McHenry penned for the Charlotte Observer on October 27, 2005. (Keep in mind that McHenry's biggest campaign "donors" are from three industries with one anti-regulatory agenda: Real Estate, Insurance and Commercial Banks.) McHenry's Op-ed was in response to a series of stories that didn't reflect well on his buddies at Countrywide and other predatory subprime mortgage lenders. In his effusive praise for the subprime mortgage industry, McHenry argues against what he and most Republicans call "burdensome regulations," but what normal Americans call society's way of protecting consumers from powerful unscrupulous operators.

Tom Perriello is in a knock down drag out fight with one of the Abramoff-connected operators in the House, Virgil Goode (R-VA). Tom's clear and powerful statement yesterday is how Democrats should speak with their voters about the economic crisis:

The failed economic policies of the Bush-Goode years rear their ugly head yet again. This is another financial crisis that Virginia's middle class families cannot afford. We have rising unemployment rates, an exploding national debt, a housing crisis, and yet, all we see from the gang in Washington is more of the same failed policies, which Congressman Goode has rubber-stamped during his time in Congress. The Good Book says we shall be known by our fruits. Well, Southside has lost over 10,000 jobs on Congressman Goode's watch. It's not surprising that when you take $1.5 million in campaign contributions from the special interests, you protect giant corporations again and again while middle class families pay the price. We need new leaders who will work a double shift for economic revival, which I've pledged will be my number one priority in Congress.

Can A Democrat Displace Reactionary Republican Villain Patrick McHenry In A Deep Red North Carolina District?

One year ago to the day (well... to yesterday), in an update of a post about how the Republican Party had changed into something unrecognizable on the American political landscape, we promised to keep you updated on a fresh new face in North Carolina politics. Meet Daniel Johnson, the Democratic war hero who is running for Congress against the most reactionary and dishonest member of the North Carolina delegation, Patrick McHenry. During that time DWT has run over a dozen posts on Patrick McHenry, on everything from his abysmal anti-family voting record to his extremism to his disrespect for American soldiers to his alleged involvement in a gay prostitution ring and triple murder.

But we haven't done much on Daniel, who, we were happy to see, was added to the DCCC's Red to Blue list last week. Daniel is a decorated military veteran from Hickory, N.C. who learned right from wrong as the son of a minister and a public school teacher. He lost both legs below the knee while risking his life to save a fellow serviceman, and received the Navy's highest peacetime medal for heroism. After recovering at Walter Reed, Daniel worked for U.S. Senator Max Cleland on military and veterans issues. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill's highly regarded law school, Daniel has been working for North Carolina as an effective prosecutor. We asked him to introduce himself to DWT readers on a topic he thought might be relevant today. I hope you can guess the subject. Daniel Johnson:

One of the reasons that I am running for Congress is because the economic trends of the past ten to fifteen years-- from unfair trade deals to the rising cost of food and fuel to the increasing unavailability of healthcare-- has stacked up against the working families of Western North Carolina. The implosion of big banks like this will make it even more difficult for the people of our district to get the funding to expand their small businesses or buy their first homes. The financial meltdown that played out today shows the great damage done politicians like Congressman Patrick McHenry who abdicated their responsibility to crackdown on abuses in the housing market. While the subprime crisis was caused by the actions of irresponsible lenders and irresponsible borrowers, failure to act to stabilize the housing market affects all homeowners and drags down the entire economy.

Time and time again, McHenry, who has accepted campaign contributions from subprime mortgage lenders like Countrywide, has taken the side of big Wall Street banks over the families of Western North Carolina. McHenry, who sits on the Financial Services committee, not only didn’t lift a finger to take action before problems in the mortgage industry rose to crisis level, for years he advocated for subprime lenders. In an October 27, 2005 op-ed in the Charlotte Observer, McHenry praised the subprime industry and argued against “burdensome regulations” on such lenders. Most recently, McHenry voted against a comprehensive, bipartisan response to the current mortgage crisis that would have empowered more families to stay in their homes and prevent further disclosures (American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act [HR 3221]).
   
For most Western North Carolina families, their most important asset is their home, and we need a leader in Washington who represents homeowners, not subprime lenders. In Congress, I will advocate for increased consumer protections and for responsible and reasonable oversight of the mortgage industry. I will fight for additional deductions for property taxes for middle class Americans, and for an increase to the VA home loan limit so that returning veterans can realize the dream of home ownership. Western North Carolina’s families can’t afford another two years of Congressman McHenry.

And neither can the rest of America. There is literally no worse member of Congress than Patrick McHenry, a disgrace to his office. If you are so moved to lend a hand to a genuine American hero, who needs to get out a message of hope and change against a deluge of corporate bribes that are flooding into McHenry's campaign accounts, here's Daniel's contribution page. McHenry has already spent nearly a million dollars on the race and as of June 30 had nearly half a million on had. So far Daniel has raised $341,942, almost entirely from small donors, while McHenry's biggest "contributors" are from the Real Estate Industry, the insurance industry and commercial banks, all the industries that have done so much to wreck the economy for ordinary folks by buying off political hacks like McHenry with bribes disguised as donations. He has served them well-- voting against every single regulation meant to protect workers and consumers from the unbalanced and unbridled excess of corporate power.

Let me leave you with one last thought while you decide whether or not to donate-- even $5 or $10-- to Daniel's campaign: Since being elected to Congress in 2004, McHenry has accepted $26,000 in "contributions" from Big Oil. Since then he has voted for every single thing Big Oil has wanted and against every single reform and every single alternative energy bill Big Oil has opposed.

NORTH CAROLINA ELECTORAL OVERVIEW (FEDERAL RACES)

The filing deadline for the North Carolina congressional races passed on Friday. The picture is now clear who exactly is running for what. As you may recall, this weekend Blue America endorsed Jim Neal, the progressive, grassroots candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat held by Bush rubber stamp Elizabeth Dole. (You can read the transcript of his two hour blog session with us here and if you'd like, you can contribute to his campaign here.) Before Jim gets to go head to head with Dole, he has to overcome the Republican-lite candidate of the Insider Establishment, Kay Hagan, a shallow and transparent Dole wannabe, as well as a truck driver named Duskin Lassiter, a podiatrist named Howard Stanley and a lawyer named Marcus Williams. Only Hagan-- a veritable money machine with deep connections to every lobbyist in Raleigh-- and Neal have raised any money, $536,000 and $215,000, respectively. She can depend on Big Business and special interests. He needs to count on regular folks who want to see real change. (As an aside, a perennial candidate named Peter DiLauro is challenging Dole in the Republican primary; she is expected to prevail and has already raised nearly $5 million. You see, if Hagan is lobbyist-connected in Raleigh, Dole is that times 50. She did an historically abysmal job as Chair of the RSCC-- and they couldn't get her out of there fast enough and replace her with John Ensign-- but she's used all the contacts she made there to fill her own coffers.) If you'd like to vote for Jim Neal today you can do it at the eQualityGiving website which will award $1,000 to whichever Democrat gets the most votes. When I voted a while ago, Jim was gigantically in the lead with 60% of the votes.

There are five congressional seats the Congressional Quarterly rate as worth watching. The big one is, of course, is in the 8th CD, a rematch between our old pal Larry Kissell and another pathetic Bush rubber stamp, Robin Hayes, who managed to hold on to his seat by just over 400 votes in 2006. Larry was virtually unknown and had no support from the DCCC. This time Emanuel is no longer running the D-Trip and Van Hollen is championing Larry big time. The Republican Establishment and lobbyists have pumped way over a million dollars into Hayes' desperate bid to hold the seat while grassroots Democrats have donated $400,000 in mostly small donations to Larry. He's done a great job of drawing sharp lines of distinction between himself and Hayes, especially on the unending war in Iraq, on helping military personnel and veterans, and on popular domestic issues like S-CHIP.

In the 11th CD reactionary Democrat Heath Shuler has the worst voting record of any freshman Democrat and voted so similarly to the right-wing Republican who he replaced, Charlie Taylor, that local Republicans are happy to keep him. When Rahm Emanuel needed a patsy to carry anti-immigrant legislation, he knew he could depend on Shuler to team up with Tom Tancredo on a bill. Unfortunately no Democrat has challenged Shuler in the primary. The Republicans running against him are like the 3 stooges and it looks like the Democratic caucus will be burdened with another 2 years of this worthless member.

On the other end of the spectrum, progressive incumbent Brad Miller (NC-13) is being challenged by a former state senator, Hugh Webster, a right winger but not one nearly as extremist as Vernon Robinson, the loon who managed to get only 36% in 2006 against Brad.

There are two Republican incumbents to watch. In NC-03 Walter Jones is one of the few Republicans in the House opposing endless war in Iraq. The GOP Establishment has targeted him for political extermination and they've recruited a slobbering wingnut, Joe McLaughlin, to go after him. Jones has $191,000 in his warchest and the wingnut has only managed to tuck away $30,000. It is expected, however, that independent expenditure groups like Club for Growth will dump money in the district to slime up Jones. The two Democrats in the race, Craig Weber and Marshall Adame, both former Marines, haven't managed to raise enough money to put up competitive campaigns so far.

And that brings us to the 10th, home of the only closeted gay Republican who has come under suspicion of murder (and in relation to a gay GOP prostitution ring he's involved with). McHenry, who has been a constant source of embarrassment for his district, is one of the only Republicans to score a zero on Progressive Punch's When the Chips Are Down ranking of congress-- indicating, basically, that he is far to the right of Mussolini and Hitler in his approach to governance. McHenry is being challenged by a mainstream conservative, a retired Air Force officer named Lance Simon who hasn't raised any money. The real hope for retiring McHenry-- other than an indictment in the Orlando murder case (which is unlikely to ever happen)-- is decorated Navy veteran Daniel Johnson.

"Wake Up Everybody" was the song Jim Neal was listening to when he made his mind up to run for the Senate against Dole. It's a great idea, not just for North Carolinians, either: