CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY GETS THE BALLS TO BITCH SLAP RAHM EMANUEL INSIDERS-- ENDORSES JERRY McNERNEY TO RUN AGAINST POMBO

I was at a gathering of progressives recently and 3 national progressive leaders were addressing the room. They were on a raised dais and they were all witty and brilliant and obviously dedicated. One of them seemed to speak a teensy weensy bit disparagingly about "pre-2000 Democrats." The 3 progressive leaders were pre-2000 Republicans, now staunch Democrats. I have to admit I felt a twinge of resentment-- just a twinge, I swear-- but then I remembered: I wasn't born a Democrat either!

Just the way Stan's dad Randy declared that the whole Marsh family would henceforth be Mormon, my grandpa, the family patriarch, one day declared we were no longer Socialists but Democrats. I was even younger than Stan, so I didn't understand-- but I grew up a Democrat. There were no Republicans where I grew up-- unless they were in the closet. But I always remembered feeling proud that when my party ran candidates, the yard signs always proudly, boldly said DEMOCRAT; the Republican candidates never used to mention their party affiliation on their signs.

When I got to college-- a state University-- I met people from all over the state and there were some Republicans, though not many. In fact I was president of the Young Democrats on the campus (until I changed it-- much to the chagrin of DC-- into an SDS chapter) and I recall we had lots of members and the Young Republicans had like 10, 9 nerdy guys with pimples and a girl. (I just checked the yearbook.) I didn't hate them. They were kind of beneath contempt; the 9 nerdy guys were all very pro-War in VietNam but-- like Cheney-- they were on all student deferments.

After college I went to live abroad until Nixon was removed from Washington and there were no Republicans I ran into in Afghanistan or Nepal or Sri Lanka, nor in the meditation center I worked in for 4 years in Amsterdam. I didn't really get to interact with any until I sold my little indie record company to CBS in the early 80s. There was one there; he was a complete dick and the worst person I ever met and a coke freak and I learned a lot from him, like what to never do to an artist or an employee. (The first minute I ever met him he said to me, "I never had a problem with Richard Nixon. Did you?")

I'll tell you how committed I am to the Democratic Party. Aside from never once in my life having voted for one for anything-- and I never missed any election since I was 18, even when I had to ride down from the Hindu Kush to Kabul to find the American Embassy and vote there once-- I even held back the puke I felt rising in my craw to pull the lever in 2000 for the Democratic ticket (which was hard to do for me, considering Gore's two horrible choices: his censorship postergirl wife Tipper and his corrupt, moralistic hypocrite of a VP nominee, Joe Lieberman). I've grown up since then. I will never ever vote for a Lieberman again. No. Matter. What. Luckily for Holy Joe I don't live in Connecticut-- and lucky for the even-worse-the-Lieberman Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's putative senatorial nominee in Pennsylvania, Bob CaseyI don't live in PA either-- but in California, although I am helping to raise grassroots contributions for their progressive Democratic opponents, Ned Lamont and Chuck Pennacchio.



I just got back from a weekend in San Francisco where I picked up the Bay Guardian. There was a frontpage story on Pete McCloskey and his somewhat quixotic Republican primary campaign against what many people consider to be the post-DeLay U.S. House of Representative's absolute worst congressman, Richard Pombo. [Look, I don't want to get anyone angry at me who thinks that Bob Ney (OH), Jerry Lewis (CA), Duncan Hunter (CA), John Doolittle (CA), Katherine Harris (FL), Rahm Emanuel (IL), Pete Sessions (TX), Charles Taylor (NC), Curt Weldon (PA) or any number of evil doers in the House is as bad or even worse than Pombo; when it gets to measuring how horrible these people are, a point or two one way or the other barely registers. These are the worst of the worst, the absolute bottom of the barrel cesspool.]

Anyway, you may have noticed I stuck a "Democrat" on that list: Rahm Emanuel. If you're a DWT regular, you know I'm no more a fan of his than I am of his GOP mirror image, Tom DeLay. Emanuel is part of this story-- more so than Pete Sessions or Katherine Harris or Bob Ney. You see, Emanuel's DCCC has taken the extraordinary step of anointing a weak, former Republican, Steve Filson, who has nothing much to say beyond "Pombo is bad," in the midst of a spirited Democratic primary that features an exemplary grassroots, progressive candidate, massively favored by Democrats throughout the San Joaquin Valley (CA-11), Jerry McNerney.

Emanuel and his henchmen-- like Steny Hoyer and the agendaless, desperate-to-be-the-first-woman-Speaker-please-let-me-Rahm-I'll-do-anything Nancy Pelosi-- have been trying to make Filson's candidacy seem inevitable. But, unlike in many districts where their tactics have worked, Democrats in the 11th CD are too independent and feisty for them and have only pushed back harder against the anti-grassroots, anti-progressive, Inside-the-Beltway Democratic power elite. Filson's pathetic candidacy, despite all the big name Beltway-ites behind him, just has not taken off. McNerney just keeps getting stronger and stronger.

And today something really healthy for the 11th CD and for the California Democratic Party happened. The State Democratic Party Convention told Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi, Ellen Tauscher and all the other power-for-power's sake Democrats to go screw themselves, voting overwhelmingly to endorse Jerry McNerney. Party rules-- not the ones Emanuel ignores by declaring war on grassroots candidates everywhere in the country, but California Democratic Party rules-- require 60% of the delegates' approval to endorse a candidate in a contested primary. 75% of the delegates voted to endorse McNerney, making it unclear whether or not Emanuel and Tauscher will tell their puppet candidate to pack it up now.

"I am very honored to receive the endorsement of the California Democratic Party. This  is the culmination of campaigning tirelessly over the last two years and working to  establish strong relationships with party leaders throughout the district," said McNerney.  The California Democratic Party endorsement follows significant endorsements for  McNerney from the 2-million member California Labor Federation and SEIU's California State Council, representing another 600,000. These are people seriously committed to defeating Pombo and who don't want some out-of-touch DC power brokers telling them what to do. This didn't come from Rahm Emanuel; listen to it. This kind of hard-hitting attack is how Pombo is going to be retired, not by following Emanuel's namby-pamby playbook that confuses voters and makes people unsure about the differences. Yes, Tom DeLay and protégées like Richard Pombo are grotesquely corrupt but what about Emanuel and his protégées? Yes, Pombo votes against consumers at every opportunity, but what about Emanuel? (He's not nearly as bad as Pombo, of course, but bad enough to make some voters stop and think and then say, not without reason, "they're all the same. Politicians in DC don't care about people like me.")

I'm going to say something sacrilegious now (which is why I wrote that big intro establishing some kind of Party bona fides for myself). I would just as soon support Pete McCloskey, where he to beat Pombo in the Republican primary, as unlikely as that is, as I would support a boss-backed shill like Steve Filson were he to win the Democratic primary, also unlikely. With today's brave and forthright action by the California Democratic Party, it is more likely than ever that a true blue Democrat, a grassroots and progressive one-- with crystal clear differences between himself and Pombo for voters to consider-- will be able to take Pombo on mano a mano and with support of all real Democrats.

May I recommend that we all show some support for Jerry's McNerney's campaign today-- and for the brave stand of the California grassroots in the face of Emanuel and the Beltway Insiders-- by donating $10 or $20 or whatever you feel like, directly to Jerry's fund-raising efforts through ACT BLUE.


MONDAY EVENING UPDATE: THE OTHER ENDORSEES

Aside from Jerry, other non-incumbent congressional candidates endorsed at the Democratic Party Convention Sunday include Charlie Brown who has positioned himself to credibly battle John Doolittle in one of the most seriously gerrymandered Republican districts in the state (CA-04). Similarly, if less dramatically, the Convention endorsed Russ Warner, who already has pathetic GOP closet queen David Dreier (and his lover/over-paid chief of "staff") shivering in their boots over in CA-26. Louie Contreras got the official nod to take on Jerry Lewis who is, if anything, probably even more corrupt than either Pombo or Doolittle, just better and sneaking around and hiding it (CA-41). Over in CD-45 David Roth is the pick to take on GOP rubber-stamp and lightweight Sonny Bono's ex-wife (not Cher).

Bill Falzett got the go-ahead to take on Herger in CA-02, as did Bill Durston in CA-03 to take on the odious right-wing imbecile Dan Lungren. Neither T.J. Cox (CA-19), Steven Haze (CA-21), Jill Martinez (CA-24), Roberto Rodriguez (CA-25), Jim Brandt (CA-46), nor Jeeni Criscenzo (CA-49) had primary competition in their races to oust, respectively Radanovich, Nunes, reluctant Elton Galleghy Buck McKeon, bigoted right-wing psycho Dana Rohrbacher, and Darrell Issa.

Sharon Beery was endorsed over Ronald Carter to contest the open Republican seat in CA-22. Florice Hoffman got the nod over Christina Avalos to try to unseat Edward Royce (CA-40). Steve Young will face off against John Campbell in CA-48 again. Of course one of the Democrats big heroes, Francine Busby, got the nod to take on the Republican lobbyist scum they nominated to take Cunningham's seat. And there was no endorsement in the crowded field of candidates eager to challenge one of the GOP's arch-crooks, Duncan Hunter.

Oddly, there is no Democrat challenging Ken Calvert in CA-44, although he has been implicated in some of Randy "Duke" Cunningham's more nefarious plots, including a very suspicious trip to Saudi Arabia with some extremely crooked bribers.

TWO WITH ONE STONE-- DEFEAT RICHARD POMBO AND RAHM EMANUEL ON JUNE 6, TWO SIDES OF ONE FILTHY COIN

Today's Hill carries a story about the DCCC's Red to Blue project. DCCC head Rahm Emanuel, probably destined to be the Tom DeLay of a Democratically-controlled House, revealed the names of 22 Democrats, many of whom still have to face primaries from grassroots Democrats, who he is supporting. This completely contravenes Democratic Party rules about not interfering in primary contests. This is also a harbinger of what kind of sleaze Democrats can expect from the current Inside-the-Beltway leadership.

“This is an exclusive program that rewards the candidates and campaigns that are most skilled, not only at raising money on their own, but at getting their message across to the voters they hope to represent,” Emanuel wrote. Like most of what comes out of Emanuel's mouth, this is a total lie. These are just his pet candidates-- for one reason or another (and some, to be sure, are great-- like Francine Busby, Mary Jo Kilroy, and Lois Murphy)-- and they do not meet the criterion he always lays out about raising money and being the most skilled.

In northern California's hottest race (CA-11), the challenger favored by grassroots Democrats-- and probably the only Democrat who could beat the arguably worst unindicted Republican in Congress, Dick Pombo-- is not Emanuel's pathetic shill candidate (Steve Filson) but progressive Jerry McNerney. McNerney is too independent-minded and too unbossed for Emanuel's tastes but Democrats in the San Joaquin Valley value independence more than centralized party dictatorship and Emanuel's candidate has virtually no support inside the district whatsoever.

Emanuel, a corporately-oriented Democrat, once Bill Clinton's heavy-handed point-man on NAFTA, threatens challengers who try to campaign against Bush's occupation of Iraq. He represents the very worst of the Democratic Party, the kind of oozing pus sore that make independents shrink from political participation thinking that all politicians are corrupt, regardless of party. Emanuel is the #1 brand-killer for the Democratic Party and Nancy Pelosi is too weak (and ambitious) to stop him.

Another brand killer for Democrats, Adam Schiff of Glendale, CA, who has been practically begging for a primary challenge with his pro-war, pro-Bush voting record in a progressive L.A. district, has been picked by Emanuel, his ideological compadre, to "mentor" the candidates. The Emanuel-blessed candidates are Darcy Burner (WA), Phyllis Busansky (FL), Francine Busby (CA), Joe Courtney (CT), John Cranley (OH), Jill Derby (NV), Tammy Duckworth (IL), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Diane Farrell (CT), Steve Filson (CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Tessa Hafen (NV), Baron Hill (IN), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH), Ron Klein (FL), Ken Lucas (KY), Patsy Madrid (NM), Harry Mitchell (AZ), Chris Murphy (CT), Lois Murphy (PA), Heath Shuler (NC), and Peter Welch (VT).

Grassroots Democrats and progressives should avoid the DCCC and DSCC like the plague it is and only contribute to individual candidates. In fact, today would be a particularly good day to make a contribution to Jerry McNerney's campaign and let the Inside-the-Beltway power whores know that they do not own the Democratic Party; the people do!

CAN EVEN OUR MOST PROGRESSIVE LEADERS BE TRUSTED ONCE THEY GET INSIDE THE BELTWAY?? PELOSI vs McNERNEY, SCHNEIDER & CEGELIS

Barbara Boxer is my hero! What a great senator! Courageous and with great instincts. Sure, I know that The Washingtonian's "Best & Worst of Congress" issue show that congressional staffers voted her to rank just under Rick Santorum when it comes to the "No Brain" department (barely beating out well-known dim bulb George Allen), but I'm proud as hell to have a senator who can be counted on to stand up to Bush more than any other senator in the whole U.S. And that's worth a couple IQ points in my book.

But I was on the phone with someone who's running for Congress the other day-- someone who really is an actual genius-- and she told me something about my wonderful Senator Boxer that saddened me greatly. Jan Schneider, the progressive grassroots candidate for Cruela Harris' abandoned seat (FL-13) is running against a DCCC hack and... well, speaking of dim bulbs... this one would give... well, Katherine Harris tied Randy "Duke" Cunningham as stupidest representative in the House, so maybe there's even something almost fitting there. Unless, of course, people in the district want to up the ante a little on the quality of representation they get. Anyway, I'm getting off the point here. What Schneider told me is that DCCC boss Rahm Emanuel has convinced a gaggle of name brand Dems, including the outstandingly-- and for that district probably more than a little too outstandingly-- liberal Boxer, to do fundraisers and in other ways support Schneider's DCCC opponent. Schneider and Boxer are much more ideologically simpatico than Boxer and Jennings (the DCCC thing) so I was somewhat perplexed as to why Boxer was supporting the party line Inside-the-Beltway bosses and elitists instead of the grassroots progressive. I've been pondering it ever since. I only want to believe the best of Boxer. She's so great. I mean Kerry I understand. Regardless of the fact that Schneider worked so hard-- and so effectively-- for him in 2004 it doesn't surprise me that he sold her out-- the same way he did to Cegelis-- when Emanuel asked him too. (Now he claims he didn't know there was a primary and tries to make it sound like he was mislead by Emanuel. I think he's a once idealistic guy who's now just another sleazy-- albeit progressiver than most-- pol and I don't believe him.)

And then today I got this e-mail from a friend of mine up in Pomboville. More heartbreak; well, not as much because I've already seen what a weak and pathetic wretch the incredibly, wonderfully progressive Nancy Pelosi has turned herself into. But still... Pomboville is a lot closer to Pelosiville than FL-13 is to California. And the gist of the e-mail is that Nancy Pelosi is hosting a fundraiser for Steve Filson, the handpicked DCCC nothing-much candidate, who's trying to worm his way into a race that by all rights should go to Jerry McNerney, the progressive and grassroots candidate-- in fact, the progressive and grassroots candidate who was endorsed by the California Labor Federation earlier this week. (That's the umbrella labor group that includes both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win unions.) When they endorsed him-- despite Rahm Emanuel's bullying and blustering, Sandra Carter, Secretary-Treasurer of the San Joaquin/Calaveras Central Labor Council said workingmen and women are looking forward to McNerney's candidacy because "he is the candidate who has the ideals and ideas to best represent this district." Art Pulaski, the Executive Secretary and Treasurer of the Federation said McNerney was endorsed instead of the candidate the DCCC is trying to force on the district because "he shares our mutual commitment to the working men and women of California. As a renewable energy expert, Jerry’s vision is to get America working again by bringing new energy technology jobs to California. Unlike Richard Pombo and his Washington cronies, Jerry wants to build an economy that works for everyday Americans, not just for lobbyists and their CEO friends... With this endorsement, between now and Election Day our member unions will be on the ground and on the phones to help Jerry end Pombo Politics and restore honesty, integrity, and accountability to Washington." That "we" won't include the increasingly out-of-touch Pelosi, now more an Inside-the-Beltway creature than a Bay Area progressive activist.

I have driven some good Democrats crazy by comparing Rahm Emanuel to Tom DeLay (mirror imagine and all that). Does that make Pelosi a potential more svelte version of Denny Hastert?!?!?!! Oy!

Here's a letter Pelosi sent progressive funders: "A few weeks ago, I emailed a number of my supporters asking for support for Tammy Duckworth in Illinois' 6th District. Due in large part to Bay Area support, we raised over $375,000 for her campaign. Tammy is now poised for victory next Tuesday and will be well positioned to win this Republican held open seat in November.

"The very next priority is right here in the Bay Area. Richard Pombo, the ethically challenged Republican Congressman from the 11th District, has been criticized for supporting changes in the law that would benefit his family's business interests and for his donations from admitted felon Jack
Abramoff.

"Our best opportunity to defeat Pombo is Democrat Steve Filson. Filson joined the Navy in 1970 and became an Aircraft Carrier Jet pilot. He retired with over 20 years of faithful service in 1994.  Filson has since worked for United Airlines, is a member of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), and
has served in various union positions.

My good friends (Mr. and Mrs. X [I don't want to embarrass any unsuspecting Democrats who were probably sold a line of crap]) are hosting an event for Steve next week at their home: (fancy rich peoples' address in San Francisco). Please consider joining me as a co-host of this event with a
contribution of $500, $1,000, or $2,100. You can simply print the attached donation form
and fax it directly back to my office at 202-741-7359. This event is vital to help Steve obtain the financial resources necessary to defeat Richard Pombo.

I admit that I would have loved to see Nancy Pelosi supporting true blue Democrats and grassroots faves like Christine Cegelis and Jerry McNerney, instead of Rahm Emanuel's puppets, but even better would be for her to follow Democratic Party rules and let the local Democrats decide who the best candidates are in these contested primaries. Pelosi should be ashamed. Please help fight off the stench of Inside-the-Beltway skullduggery by contributing directly to Jerry McNerney, Jan Schneider and Christine Cegelis via ACT BLUE. They may not have fabulously rich friends living in fancy San Francisco condos who can fork over $2,000 a piece when Pelosi and Emanuel want to give a pliable candidate a boost. But if enough people contribute $10 and $20 each, we can beat the Inside-the-Beltway Democratic bosses and then go on the beat the Inside-the-Beltway Republican bosses. Sometimes I think they have more in common with each other than they do with us!


9PM UPDATE: PELOSI RIDES TO THE RESCUE-- BUSH'S

Oh, I forgot to mention that Pelosi decided to weigh in on Russ Feingold's increasingly popular motion to censure Bush for his rampant and serial illegal behavior. Unfortunately the spokesperson for Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer, has weighed in on Bush's side. According to Tom Curry at MSNBC "House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has chosen the “discreetly kill” option, arguing that the current impeachment/censure talk is just a pointless distraction from the party’s message." Does this mean she might tell us what the party's message is? I thought Rahm isn't allowing that.