Why Political Types In DC Don't Seem To Ever Know Anything About America

The Inland Empire is represented in Congress by wanna-be Confederate General Gary Miller, a multimillionaire real estate swindler

There are 4 serious candidates in the Inland Empire house race (CA-31), reactionary Arkansas Republican incumbent Gary Miller, progressive activist Eloise Reyes, former Congressman Joe Baca (Blue Dog), and the Steve Israel/DCCC recruit and last cycle's big loser, Pete Aguilar. As we mentioned recently, the DCCC put out some crazy story that Aguilar lost-- in a deep blue district-- not because he's an abysmal candidate but because he was too grief-stricken over the death of his father on election day. But that was a lie perpetrated for Beltway fools by the Cook Report. Herman Aguilar is very much alive and well and always has been. The Cook Report reportage comes from the DCCC and the NRCC so of course it's worthless and the report of Herman Aguilar's demise is still on their website as the excuse for Aguilar losing. But Cook isn't the only Beltway outfit misreporting this crucial race in a far off district none of them have ever visited or understand in the slightest.

This weekend the FEC candidate filings for the 4th quarter were released. They're not very hard to read. But the pros at both Politico and The Hill managed to get it wrong-- and wrong enough to completely distort the on the ground reality of the race… in favor of the DCCC narrative. What a coincidence! First the unvarnished facts:

• Eloise Gomez Reyes raised $302,084
• Gary Miller raised $148,943
• Pete Aguilar raised $147,086
• Joe Baca raised $20,484

Call me crazy but I would think the story there is that Eloise Reyes, a first time, grassroots candidate up against The Machine, out raised all 3 of her opponents combined. But this is how the story is being told to naïfs Inside the Beltway. First The Hill:

Former Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.): $20,000 raised, $21,000 cash on hand

Baca is seeking a return to Congress in Rep. Gary Miller’s (R-Calif.) district after losing a 2012 race post-redistricting to Rep. Gloria Negrete McLeod (D-Calif.)-- but it’s looking increasingly like he has no chance of even advancing past the top-two primary in the Democratic-leaning seat.

He has been shunned by national party strategists-- the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is backing Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar (D), while EMILY’s List is supporting attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes (D). Gomez Reyes had the most impressive quarter of the Democrats, with $300,000 raised, and she and Aguilar both have around half-million dollars for the race. Miller has $840,000 in the bank after a strong $364,000 quarter.

Miller didn't have a strong quarter despite what the NRCC may have fed The Hill. A glance at the FEC page shows clearly he raised $148,943-- not $364,000-- and that he spent $78,977. I'm sure The Hill will correct their misinformation. Sure, I am. Politico was even more cockeyed but how can you blame them when all they did was report the DCCC spin as though it was news. This is their analysis of the numbers I just laid out for you above:

Cash-starved: Top 10 fundraising losers

When Baca announced that he would be trying to unseat vulnerable GOP Rep. Gary Miller it surprised, well, just about everyone. After all, Baca, a former Democratic congressman who represented a nearby Southern California district, had once been a Miller ally.

At this point, it’s not clear whether Baca’s waging a serious campaign. He raised a paltry $20,000 during the fourth quarter, far less than what most of his opponents brought in. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has rallied around one of Baca’s Democratic primary foes, Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, who raised about seven times more cash than Baca did last quarter.

Several California incumbents have told me that Steve Israel came to them, directly and/or through intermediaries, asking them to back Aguilar as the only way to stop Baca. He misled them into thinking it was a 2-man race. When one more savvy incumbent asked about Reyes, he was assured that only Aguilar was a serious candidate and that she couldn't raise any money and would drop out. Looks like Politico fell for the same bullshit. Maybe they should start doing their homework... like real newspaper reporters do.

CruzCare-- Another GOP Weapon To Keep Working Families From Getting Health Insurance

Yesterday I went to see my doctor, Dr. Vicky. She is the bomb! And she wrote me a prescription for 4 weeks of Doryx (200 mg). The pharmacy said the cost is $786.00/week. With Medicare insurance the price is $25/week. That's why seniors-- at least the ones who are awake-- react so badly to reactionaries like Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz who want to "ease out" Medicare and undermine Obamacare.

Also yesterday, when I got back from Dr. Vicky's office, I spoke with Matt Moore, one of the Democrats intent on taking on Don Young for Alaska's single, giant at-large House seat. I asked him, as I ask every candidate running for Congress I speak with, to tell me how Obamacare could be better. And, like most of the candidates I discuss this with, Moore told me he favors the Medicare-for-all (AKA- single-payer) approach. I don't speak with a lot of Republican candidates but virtually all the Democrats prefer single-payer to Obamacare. The idea behind it was a compromise with the GOP, corrupt conservative Democrats like Max Bacucus and Big Insurance, though that hasn't stopped the GOP or Big Insurance from trying to sabotage it and dragging us back to the bad old days.

Now that hundreds of thousands of people have signed up for insurance through Obamacare-- many seeing their families covered for the first time ever-- it's going to be harder for Republicans to keep demonizing it. Mitch McConnell, for example, is in a state where Obamacare is very successful already. McConnell is in a tough reelection battle. Advocating taking away people's healthcare… probably not a great idea. His primary opponent, Matt Bevin-- who really has nothing to lose-- is likely to aggressively support CruzCare (the far right's anti-healthcare grab bag of failed anti-family proposals). That's going to leave McConnell is a quandary-- a very, very big one.

Embracing CruzCare should be about as successful for Republican electeds outside of the Old Confederacy as embracing Cruz's government shutdown was. Obamacare may not be popular, but fixing it is-- and that's what Democrats in Congress-- or at least progressive Democrats in Congress-- have always said they want to do. In his deranged speech against Medicare (written for him by the AMA), Ronald Reagan outlined many of the fraudulent right-wing objections to healthcare. Ted Cruz or Mike Lee-- or any number of far right Republicans in the House-- could easily give that exact same speech today. Americans, on the other hand, love Medicare-- just as Reagan admitted he feared they would. Advocating taking it away would be tantamount to political suicide-- which is why people like Paul Ryan who want to do just that, are always circumspect-- i.e., sneaky-- in their approach.

Even conservative Democrats in red states-- think Mark Pryor (AR), Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Begich (AK) and Kay Hagan (NC) particularly-- will be attacking Republicans for embracing CruzCare while advocating fixing Obamacare, a position in synch with that of most Americans (as the recent election in Virginia helped prove).

Democratic candidates can make this dynamic work for them at election time-- especially the ones running against anti-healthcare Republicans. Take far right Republican Gary Miller in CA-31. Because Steve Israel stumbled badly last year by backing an unpopular empty suit, Miller is one of the last Republicans representing a Democratic district (D+5) in the whole country. Refusing to admit he made a mistake in 2012, Israel is backing his loser candidate, Pete Aguilar, again. Fortunately, Democrats in San Bernardino have a viable alternative this year in Eloise Reyes. And despite Israel's attempts to sabotage her campaign, she's pulling ahead of the hapless, bumbling Aguilar and leaving him in the dust as she prepares to take on Miller. Miller, the multimillionaire Arkansas extremist who came to California and voted over 40 times to repeal Obamacare and who would love to repeal Social Security and Medicare as well. Miller is a CruzCare backer. Eloise will make mincemeat out of him. Earlier today, she told us her approach and how drastically it differs from Miller's:

Our country has never attempted an overhaul of its healthcare system like the one we are implementing through the Affordable Care Act. There will undoubtedly be bumps in the road as the system is refined and corrected, but the ultimate result will be expanded access to quality, affordable coverage, and we are already making progress toward that important goal.

In just the last few months, we have seen a number of state-run exchanges hit the ground running. Here in California, our marketplace is en route to reach its enrollment target for 2014. What that tells us is that there is a real need for affordable healthcare and that the delays seen at the federal level are only a temporary setback in expanding access to coverage to all Americans.

Still, there are ways that the Affordable Care Act must be strengthened.

The Affordable Care Act’s expansion of access to the Medicare and CHIP programs will mean making healthcare a reality for many people who would otherwise go uninsured. In a region like the Inland Empire, which leads the nation in poverty, this feature of the Affordable Care Act is a critical one when it comes to enrolling low-income families. However, it is a feature of the program that is not well-known. That’s why targeted outreach to low-income communities will be critical to ensuring that the Affordable Care Act reaches some of the individuals who need it the most.

That isn't something Gary Miller and other California Republicans are helping with. In fact, they are still sabotaging health insurance for working families. If you'd like to help Eloise replace Miller in Congress, you can do that here.

Beltway Pundits Think CA-25 Is Still "Safe Republican" But If They Ever Came Out To America They'd Realize How Out Of Date They Are

Buck'n'Schmuck- California anti-Latino Republicans

CA-25 is divided into three valleys: Simi Valley in the west, the Santa Clarita Valley in the center, and the Antelope Valley in the east. Last year, Buck McKeon lost the Antelope Valley third of his district (Lancaster, Palmdale, Pearblossom). Latino voter participation has exploded in CA-25, but especially in the Antelope Valley. It doesn't bode well for McKeon's reelection chances in 2014 that 31.5% of the voters in his district are Latinos and that 56.8% are newly eligible Latinos, Asians and immigrants. Also consider, if you will, that McKeon doesn't have the entire Antelope Valley for himself. He shares it with GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy, who is probably safe for another 2 or 3 election cycles before demographics do to him what they may well do to McKeon this cycle. McCarthy is seen-- and rightly so-- as one of the Republicans responsible for scuttling the bipartisan immigration reform talks. His obstruction is likely to be taken out on his more vulnerable colleagues-- like Buck McKeon and Gary Miller.

McKeon is already skating on thin ice with his constituents. Recent polling of CA-25 for MoveOn by PPP showed McKeon struggling with a 43% disapproval rating (38% approval). If the election were held today, Democrat Lee Rogers would beat him 46-44% and when voters are made aware that McKeon voted for and supported the government shutdown, this happens:

Monday's L.A. Daily News sounded more dire warning bells for McKeon. On the top of the page is a big full color photo of a dour Buck McKeon.

The House’s failure to pass immigration reform could create political trouble for a growing number of Republican representatives from districts with sharply rising Latino and Asian populations.

The problem is especially apparent in California where Latino and Asian populations in Republican districts are triple the national average. Both groups gave President Obama more than 70 percent of their votes in 2012.

In four California districts, the 2012 election results were so close that the incumbents’ margin of victory is smaller than the projected number of new eligible Latino and Asian voters turning 18 by 2014, according to an analysis by Tom Wong, a political science professor UC San Diego.

As the number of voting age Latinos and Asians grows, there is mounting political pressure on Republicans to support an immigration measure that would create a path to citizenship for some of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants.

“Latinos in California and across the nation are a huge demographic,” said Congressman Jeff Denham, R-Modesto, whose district is more than 40 percent Latino.

Denham recently announced his support for a bill introduced by House Democrats that includes a path to citizenship. This comes despite Denham’s previous opposition to California’s version of the DREAM Act and his support for Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law.

The changing demographics of Denham’s district help explain why he is one of only three House Republicans to have endorsed the Democratic bill.

Denham won the 2012 election by roughly 11,000 votes. According to Wong’s analysis there are 26,000 Latinos and Asians in his district who will turn 18 by 2014. Similar numbers confront Republicans Howard “Buck” McKeon from Palmdale, Gary Miller from Rancho Cucamonga and David Valadao from Bakersfield.

“As members look at the issue, they need to understand the changing demographics in the future,” Denham said.

The Senate passed an immigration bill in June and Democrats have introduced a similar bill in the House. It is not clear that Republicans will schedule a vote and Democrats are using the GOP’s hesitation to bring the bill to the floor to depict them as unsympathetic to immigrants.

Two large labor unions allied with the Democrats released a series of TV ads, which will run in Spanish in Bakersfield and other cities across the country, suggesting that Republicans treat undocumented immigrants as “animals” while another quotes a GOP congressman saying he would do anything to stop the undocumented immigrants “short of shooting them.”

…Like Denham, Valadao has announced his support for the Democratic immigration bill.

But very few Republicans are following Denham and Valadao’s lead despite the rise in Latino voters.

“Over 2,000 Latino citizens across the country are turning 18 each day,” said Clarissa Martinez from the National Council La Raza.

Wong has identified nearly three dozen vulnerable Republicans in the House who have indicated opposition to any legislation that allows undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.

“Those Republicans who have large numbers of Latino voters are having significantly different opinions than the Republicans who hold the very white seats and don’t have to worry about the Latino vote,” said Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book and the former political coordinator of the California Republican Party.

But he noted that California Republicans are only competitive in a diminishing number of regions, and warned this could become a national trend.

“When most people talk about the national Republican Party, they say it might end up like the California Republican Party,” Hoffenblum said. Some California Republicans, including those from heavily Latino districts, have not shown any willingness to support any measure that includes a path to citizenship. Miller, whose district is roughly 50 percent Latino, and McKeon, whose district is close to 40 percent Latino, have both said that the immigration system needs to fixed. But they focus more on border security and enforcement issues, which are less popular among Latino voters. Neither has endorsed measures to offer citizenship to undocumented immigrants.

Miller won the 2012 election by roughly 17,000 votes, but the number of Asians and Latinos who will turn 18 by 2014 in his district is more than 31,000.

Similarly, McKeon won his election in 2012 by less than a 23,000 vote margin over Democrat Lee Rogers. According to Wong’s analysis by the next election, nearly 25,000 new Latinos and Asians in the district will have turned 18.

“The district grows by one percent Latino every year and that’s been the largest growing segment of the population,” said Rogers who plans to run against McKeon again in 2014.

“It’s not that Republicans can’t represent a Latino district, it’s just that in certain cases they have made really outlandish comments about immigrants, Latinos in particular,” Rogers said, pointing to a recent town hall meeting in which McKeon was talking about border enforcement and said, “There are people who can’t tell the difference between a Hispanic person and an Arabic person.”

There are literally dozens of recent polls that show the overwhelming majority of Americans favor comprehensive immigration reform with a fair path to citizenship. The only significant groups that oppose it are racists and congressional Republicans. At his press conference today, Boehner said he will not allow any House-passed immigration legislation to be blended with the Senate's sweeping reform bill, further quashing the chances of comprehensive immigration reform legislation being signed into law anytime soon. "We have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill." If you'd like to see Lee Rogers and Eloise Reyes replace McKeon and Miller, both progressives are on the Blue America ActBlue page.

The Politics Behind Raising The Minimum Wage

As you probably noticed, progressives have been up in arms because Steve Israel and the DCCC have recruited Jennifer Garrison, "the Sarah Palin of Ohio," to run for Congress… as a Democrat. Most of the complaints have come from women's groups over Garrison's fanatic anti-Choice history and from LGBT groups because of her similarly fanatic history as an anti-gay crusader. Having been in the state legislature she has a long and sordid record on these, as well as environmental and ethical issues. None of that-- including an open letter to the DCCC-- prevented Steve Israel from recruiting her and putting her on his top priority Jumpstart list. On the long list of problems with Garrison, one that should have raised eyebrows at the DCCC is the fact that she voted against raising the minimum wage in Ohio. What Democrat does that?

Recently we saw Israel excusing his execrable recruitment agenda by lamely claiming he's just following Rahm's playbook; you know, the playbook that elected dozens of conservatives in 2006, just to see them all subsequently defeated when grassroots Democrats recognized what they were and then refused to support them for reelection. The DCCC was sure to get Roll Call stenographers Shira Center and Emily Cahn to parrot the DCCC line (without comment or critique): "Emanuel was also famous for picking unconventional-- and often controversial-- candidates. He recruited pro-gun, anti-abortion-rights Democrats in hopes of putting more conservative districts in play. He also publicly picked sides in primaries, and his selections often angered Democrats." So that's how the Democratic Party ends up with garbage like Garrison on the ticket.

Increasing the minimum wage isn't just more popular among voters than the Republican Party; it's more popular than the Democratic Party, thanks, in great part, to the mindset Democratic leaders like Israel have that Democrats need to flush their values and principles down the toilet to win elections. For more and more voters, elections are looking like a real Hobson's Choice and the lesser-of-two-evils dichotomy will no longer suffice. Democrats who stand with Wall Street against working families are just Republicans in disguise.

In THursday's NY Times, Kim Severson and Winnie Hu made it abundantly clear that policies coming out of DC's bipartisan conservative agenda are murderous for the working families still struggling to get out from under the Great Recession caused by predatory Wall Street policies implemented by their paid shills in Washington. While billionaires-- and some Members of Congress-- further enrich themselves by squeezing millions of dollars out of agricultural subsidies, food is being taken out of the mouth of children and disabled veterans.

[F]or millions of poor Americans who rely on food stamps, reductions that began this month present awful choices. One gallon of milk for the kids instead of two. No fresh broccoli for dinner or snacks to take to school. Weeks of grits and margarine for breakfast.

And for many, it will mean turning to a food pantry or a soup kitchen by the middle of the month.

…The cuts are also hurting stores in poor neighborhoods. The average food stamps household receives $272 a month, which then passes into the local economy.

At a Food Lion in Charleston where as many as 75 percent of the shoppers use food stamps, managers were bracing for lower receipts as the month wore on.

At a Met Foodmarket in the Bronx, where 80 percent of the 7,000 weekly customers use food stamps, overall food sales have already dropped by as much as 10 percent.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be that fast,” said Abraham Gomez, the manager. Losing that much revenue could mean cutting back hours for employees, he said.

…During lunch at the Neighborhood House soup kitchen in Charleston this week, discussions about how to cope with cuts to food stamps were not hard to find.

People said they felt desperate. Many stuffed extra bread or cake into their pockets for later in the day, and traded advice on which agencies might be handing out free groceries later in the month.

“People at this level of need are already going hungry,” said Sister Noreen Buttimer, a nun who works at the soup kitchen, a Catholic charity. “It’s frightening how we think about the poor.”

I hope you're keeping the message from Maddow's segment-- in the video up top-- in the back of your mind when you're pondering the politics of this. Many of the Democratic leaders in Congress most eager to push through a raise in the minimum wage, have been too busy worrying about Obama opposing it than dealing with Steve Israel for recruiting candidates who oppose it. But suddenly the White House is moving in the right direction and claiming they will support a minimum wage increase. In case you missed it, a White House spokesperson claimed that "The president has long supported raising the minimum wage so hard-working Americans can have a decent wage for a day’s work to support their families and make ends meet." OK, Obama! He's supporting the Harkin-Miller bill that raises the federal minimum wage from $7.25.hour to $10.10 in three 95bcent steps over two years and, most important, then indexes it to inflation. They sweeten this for business opponents with tax incentives.

“The combination of an increase to $10.10 and some breaks for small business on expensing unite virtually the whole Democratic caucus, and we are prepared to move forward shortly,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat… Democratic senators from more conservative states favored an increase to $9 an hour, but including the expensing provision was enough of a sweetener to bring them behind the $10.10 proposal.

…Democratic strategists say they are backing a higher minimum wage to help lift millions of low-wage workers at a time of increasing income inequality. Some also acknowledge that pushing a higher minimum wage is a way to put Republicans on the spot — caught between a business lobby and many conservatives who oppose an increased minimum wage and a public that strongly supports a higher minimum.

…On March 15, the House voted 233 to 184 against a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2015. The proposal came as an amendment to a job-training bill, and all 227 Republican members voted against the increase.

It would have been seven if Steve Israel had recruited and managed to elect Jennifer Garrison last year, but only Six of the most right-wing/Republican-supporting New Dems and Blue Dogs voted against raising the minimum wage:

• John Barrow (GA)
• Jim Matheson (UT)
• Mike McIntyre (NC)
• Bill Owens (NY)
• Collin Peterson (MN)
• Kurt Schrader (OR)

Not even one Republican, not even the make-believe "moderates," backed raising the minimum wage. Gary Miller in southern California doesn't even make believe he's a moderate; he's a hard core radical right Republican in a Democratic district-- thanks for that, Steve Israel-- and he voted against raising the minimum wage. This year, his progressive opponent, Eloise Reyes, is making sure voters in CA-31 know that Miller voted against the minimum wage and that she will lead on increasing it-- a very clear difference. If you'd like to help Eloise replace Miller, you can do that here. Eloise:

"As the daughter of an immigrant family, I believe deeply in the American Dream. I was able to go from an onion picker to an attorney and small business owner through hard work and determination and because of the unmatched opportunity that my family was able to find here in America. These days, stories like mine have become the exception.

"At the very core of the American Dream is the idea that everyone should have a chance to strive for success, prosperity and fulfillment, yet our minimum wage hardly rewards honest work with honest pay. How are hard-working Americans supposed to get by, let alone dream about their future, when working a full-time minimum wage job barely puts them above the poverty line?

"Even with a growing number of Americans in minimum wage jobs, House Republicans are determined to stand in the way of a fair and necessary increase in the minimum wage that would create security and expand opportunity for millions. They are more than willing to stand up for Wall Street CEOs who walk away with staggering annual bonuses, yet they expect for the average American to fight long and hard to take home more than $7.25 per hour.

"As a Member of Congress, I will stand up to this type of blatant hypocrisy and be a vocal advocate when it comes to reducing inequality, creating opportunity and making the American Dream accessible to everyone. It’s time to begin valuing the work of every American in a meaningful way, and the first step to doing so is increasing the minimum wage."

Progressive Champions Like Eloise Reyes Stand Up To Bigots

The new 31st congressional district, which runs south of L.A. from Upland and Rancho Cucamonga out to San Bernardino, Colton, Loma Linda and Redlands, was carved out of Democratic-leaning areas that were once represented by Jerry Lewis, David Dreier and Joe Baca, 3 conservatives who are no longer in Congress. It's the bluest district anywhere in America with a Republican congressman. And that congressman, Gary Miller, isn't just a standard, garden variety Republican; he's a far right ideologue and has been for his entire sordid career. The people of CA-31 deserve better, a lot better. The only reason Miller, who had never represented one square inch of CA-31 before he won last year, is in the congressman from this D+5 district, is because DCCC chairman Steve Israel insisted on trying to elect an unpopular and unsuitable empty suit to the office, Pete Aguilar, an appointed mayor of Redlands, who came in third behind two Republicans in his own city. Aguilarwas so unpopular-- outside of DC backrooms-- that he managed to lose the district to both Republicans last year. So, of course, Steve Israel wants to anoint him as the Democratic candidate again. This time CA-31 voters will make that decision, not Steve Israel. And the popular and well-respected candidate is Eloise Gomez Reyes.

Eloise fits the profile of the district in ways that Gary Miller and Pete Aguilar never will. Miller and Aguilar want to reduce Social Security benefits for seniors, veterans and the handicapped. Eloise wants to go to Congress to work to increase those benefits and protect them for future generations. "I grew up in a family where everyone did their part to make ends meet," she told us recently. "My brothers, sisters and I all worked the onion fields alongside our parents to help pay for our school clothes. I understand what it means to work your whole life, pay into Social Security and expect to live out your final years without having to make critical choices between food or medicine or rent. It’s simply wrong to try to balance the budget on the backs of our seniors, veterans and the disabled. I’m running for Congress to make sure that never happens to anyone in San Bernardino, Upland, Redlands or anywhere else in America. Whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat who proposes it, 'chained CPI' is just another way of saying "benefits cuts"-- and I will always hold Congress accountable when it comes to keeping the promises we have made to our seniors. The families here in the Inland Empire will always come first for me, before anyone in Washington or anyone on Wall Street."


Chained CPI is exactly what Pete Aguilar and Gary Miller want to do to working families in CA-31. Aguilar doesn't want to admit it to voters today but in May of 2012 he told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin he would have voted for the Simpson-Bowles plan if he was in Congress. That's a conservative plan that seeks to balance the budget on the backs of the people who can least afford it and it embraces Chained CPI for retired workers. When the very right-wing editorial board of the San Bernardino Sun News endorsed Republican Bob Dutton last year, they said they had almost endorsed Aguilar. They sensed in him someone as conservative and unfair to working families as Dutton. "Aguilar," they wrote admiringly, "has been something of a fiscal hawk in Redlands. The city work force has been reduced by 17 percent over five years, and the city is currently negotiating with unions to get employees to pay toward their own retirement benefits. On the federal level, Aguilar told us, he would have voted for the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan (which did not, unfortunately, get to Congress for a vote)."

After losing so badly in 2012, the DCCC is telling him to try to sound a little more like a Democrat this year. They may even be getting him a tutor so he'll be able to say a few words in Spanish. And he's not supposed to campaign in favor of cutting Social Security or putting up higher border fences anymore. But that will never make him a fighter for progressive values like Eloise. If he ever manages to defeat Miller, he'll basically be just a lighter, slightly less conservative version of him. Now's a time we need fighters on issues where Eloise has been a fighter and where Aguilar has been a… punter. Watch that video up top again. And then think about what Gary Miller is doing too make sure there will never be comprehensive immigration reform. Miller stands with Steve King. Aguilar won't be will he ever fight Steve King? Not if you judge by his past. This is what Miller's amigo, Steve King has been up to this week:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) hinted in an interview with Newsmax this week that he'd consider trying to oust Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), should he bring immigration reform to the House floor.

King, perhaps the House's most vocal opponent of comprehensive immigration reform, praised Boehner's performance during fights over government funding and the debt ceiling, saying he "did serve to unify the conference better than I thought."

But he didn't firmly commit to support the speaker in the future if he was crossed on immigration.

"We'll have to see how the future issues play out," he told Newsmax on Monday. "For example, if immigration comes before the House, it would be the most divisive thing that could be brought up by Republicans in the House. Then I would have a different answer to that question."

King and Boehner have clashed on immigration before. King opposes passing any legislation that could be combined with a Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill-- regardless of whether he'd support the measure as a standalone bill. While Boehner has said he would not allow a vote on the Senate's bill, he has also said he hopes to pass other measures.

King caused a major headache for Boehner and other GOP leaders in July when he compared young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to drug mules. Boehner quickly put out a statement calling King's comments "wrong" and "hateful."

He later told reporters that King's language had made the reform effort more difficult.

"What he said does not represent the values of the American people or the Republican Party," Boehner said at the time.

Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski noted that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made similar comments in August on immigration reform and Boehner's speakership.

“I think … if [Boehner] allows something to pass out of conference that looks anything like the Senate bill and is passed with a majority of Democrats, I think that will be the final thing he does as speaker," Paul told conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham at the time. "So, I think he knows that, and I think he’s going to be very cautious, and I hope he will defend us on this and not pass something that looks like the Senate bill."

What people in CA-31 need is someone who will stand up and fight back against these hate mongers, not someone who will bend over for them like Pete Aguilar.

More Polling In The Inland Empire-- More Good News For Eloise Reyes

Ros-Lehtinen (FL) and Denham (CA), 2 Republicans in favor of immigration reform... unlike Gary Miller

Gary Miller, a multimillionaire, crooked Confederate Civil War reenactor from Arkansas was always an odd pick for the new Inland Empire district carved 2 years ago out of the districts of retiring congressmen David Dreier and Jerry Lewis and defeated Blue Dog, Joe Baca. The only reason Miller won is because DCCC Chairman Steve Israel insisted on backing a pathetic empty suit, the appointed mayor of Redlands, Peter Aguilar. Aguilar was rejected by Democratic voters and lost to two Republicans. He even came in third in Redlands! Steve Israel almost looks like he wants to keep Miller in the seat; he forced the DCCC into the awkward position of endorsing the wealthy but socially conservative Aguilar again, despite the obvious progressive choice, Eloise Gomez Reyes.

CA-31 is the single bluest district in the country-- by far-- with a Republican incumbent... and we can thank Steve Israel's incompetence for that. Why Nancy Pelosi doesn't tell him to go defeat Fred Upton, Peter King and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and keep out of California, a state that he's proven himself to be entirely clueless about, is beyond me. But the good news here is that another batch of new polling indicates that Miller's time in DC is just about over.

The first batch of PPP polling in CA-31, released October 6, was meant to measure voter feelings towards Miller in regard to the government shutdown he championed. His approved rating was a dismal 27% and if the election had been held that day, 48% would have voted for his Democratic incumbent and 39% would have voted for Miller. Once voters were told that Miller supported the shutdown, he kept his 39% of Tea Party nuts but the Democratic opponent increased her share of the vote from 48 to 51%.

  Less than a month later, PPP was back in CA-31, this time working with SEIU, and measuring how dissatisfied voters there are with Miller's obstruction of comprehensive immigration reform. Without even mentioning that Miller is a notorious racist and xenophobe, the situation pollsters found looked extremely bad for him. PPP claims Miller could improve his chances for reelection if he gives up on his long record of dogged opposition to immigration reform and backs the bill that fellow Republicans Jeff Denham (R-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) just signed onto as co-sponsors. In CA-31 overall support for comprehensive immigration reform is 66% and only 23% say they oppose it. Even among Republicans, support for comprehensive reform is 58% (with 31% opposing). Among independents-- a key factor in this district-- 62% support it and 32% oppose it.

PPP learned that voters say they would be more likely to give Miller a second chance if he backed immigration reform-- and by a significant margin. 39% said they be more likely to vote for him if he did and only 28% said they would be less likely to vote for him. Among independents, 37% say they would be more likely to vote for Miller if he votes for immigration reform and only 33% say that vote would make them less likely to back him.

Meanwhile, as you can probably guess, Eloise Reyes is the strongest backer of immigration reform among all the candidates running and has already worked the hardest on the issue. This morning she told me that "I don’t need a poll to tell me that comprehensive immigration reform is overdue in our country. My brothers, sisters and I were raised in an immigrant family, and so many of our neighbors, colleagues and friends here in San Bernardino County are first-generation Americans. I’ve heard the stories about undocumented workers exploited by their employers, families torn apart by deportation and the students sidelined from higher education because they could never even apply for a loan.

"These tragedies are not the stories that should be defining America.

"The reality is that over 11 million Americans are living in the shadows, and nothing is going to change unless we create a path forward for the immigrants who are currently here and the immigrants who want to come here. The American Dream is not something that starts and stops with those of us who have already made it. Comprehensive immigration reform is about putting a system into place that protects the core values of our country-- opportunity, access, inclusion-- and this week’s PPP proves that reforming our immigration system is the American thing to do."

Blue America has endorsed Eloise and if you'd like to help her beat Gary Miller and Blue Dog/NRA super-star Joe Baca, who's trying to worm his way back into Congress, please consider making a contribution here.

Will California's GOP Solve Its "Latino Problem" ( i.e., Racism And Bigotry)?

Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican consultant in California politics since the Nixon era, told the NY Times that “Until we solve our Latino problem, we’re not going to be a viable state party, and it’s hard to understand how that’s possible without fixing immigration.” The Times explains what everyone in California is already well-aware of:

Advocates of a comprehensive immigration overhaul argue that California is a cautionary tale for Republicans in the rest of the country and that if the party does not help pass legislation this year, it will risk losing Latino votes for decades to come. Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, which is pushing for an immigration overhaul, points to 1994 as the start of problems for the state Republican Party. Pete Wilson, the governor at the time, led the campaign for a state ballot initiative severely limiting access to public services, including schools and emergency medical care, for illegal immigrants. Voters approved the measure, but it was ruled unconstitutional by federal courts.

“California became one of the bluest states in the country because the Republican Party followed Pete Wilson off the anti-immigration cliff,” Mr. Sharry said. “McCarthy isn’t going to want to lose more seats, and he has to see that members who are becoming champions of immigration reform aren’t just living to tell about it, but they’re getting love letters.”

Across the state, other Republicans have softened their stance on immigration. Representative Ken Calvert, whose district covers Riverside County, has said he supports citizenship for those who were brought to the country as children and would consider some kind of legal status for others. Representative Gary G. Miller, whose district in San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles, is roughly 50 percent Latino and considered a prime target by Democrats, removed several strongly worded statements against immigration from his Web site this year.

That's funny about Miller because his entire political career has been based on two pillars: greed and racism. The Times story highlights Kevin McCarthy and David Valadao and mentions a couple of other beleaguered Republican congressmen in passing. In all 10 California congressman have 30% or more Hispanic populations in their districts:

• David Valadao (72%)
• Gary Miller (49%)
• Devin Nunes (46%)
• Jeff Denham (40%)
• Buck McKeon (38%)
• Paul Cook (36%)
• Kevin McCarthy (35%)
• Ed Royce (35%)
• Ken Calvert (33%)
• Duncan Hunter (30%)

The DCCC isn't used to fighting tight battles in California and they ignored almost all of these districts in 2012 when they should have-- at the very least-- been building an infrastructure to win them all in 2014 or 2016. Most people blame Steve Israel's lack of vision, but it's important to remember that Israel-- whose only talent is to suck large amounts of campaign cash from Wall Street's corrupt special interests and from wealthy elites-- was appointed by Nancy Pelosi and, astonishingly after his dismal failures in 2012, reappointed by Pelosi to the same post this year. McKeon, Denham, Miller and Valadao would all be working as lobbyists today if not for Israel's incompetence. This cycle the DCCC won't be able to start the focus on McCarthy because they have to make up lost ground on the 4 relatively easy races they blew in 2012. And, at least in the case of Valadao it may be too late-- even though Obama beat McCain in his district 52-46% and last year routed Romney 55-44%.

When Representative David Valadao came out in favor of a path to citizenship for millions of people living in the country illegally at an open forum this summer, the crowd erupted in applause, and young activists nearly knocked one another down as they rushed to embrace him.

Since then, Mr. Valadao, a freshman Republican, has become a bit of an unlikely celebrity among Latino farmworkers and their families in California’s Central Valley, where immigration has shaped the agricultural industry for decades.

Another Republican career, saved by Steve Israel's sheer incompetence. While Obama was slaughtering Romney in the district, Israel blew the Democratic nomination with a botched primary and a loser candidate, John Hernandez, who underperformed Obama by 14 points in the district. Valadao spent $1,181,113 to win CA-21, while Hernandez spent $99,754. Rove poured $592,026 into the district to help Valadao. The DCCC spent exactly nothing after Israel's candidate, Blong Xlong, lost the primary. So far this year, the DCCC has no candidates running against Valadao, Nunes, McCarthy, Royce, Calvert, Cook, Hunter and they have another messy primary to contend with in CA-31, Gary Miller's blue district (which Obama won 57-41%). So far, Israel is putting all his eggs in one basket: CA-10, where he's backing a bee farmer, Michael Eggman against Denham.

As the immigration debate simmers in Washington, California Republicans face a very different reality than a majority of their party colleagues, who elsewhere largely represent districts that are overwhelmingly white.

More than half of California’s 15 Republican members of Congress have districts that are at least 30 percent Latino, making them potentially vulnerable to Democratic challenges and prime targets for those pushing for a path to citizenship. In Mr. Valadao’s district, Latinos make up 70 percent of the population.

With Republicans all but relegated to a minority party in California-- Democrats hold every statewide elected office, maintain a large majority in the State Legislature and hold a vast majority of Congressional seats-- many here blame the party’s decline on its stance on immigration.

...All of this has put pressure on Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican whose district is about one-third Latino and includes part of Bakersfield, a working-class, immigrant-heavy city that Mr. Valadao also represents. As the majority whip, the third-ranking leader of the Republican-controlled House, Mr. McCarthy is expected to play an important role in deciding which legislative proposals end up being voted on and which are squelched this fall.

In the past, Mr. McCarthy has called the immigration process broken, saying that the priority must be on securing borders and that he is opposed to an amnesty. Aides to the lawmaker did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

One commercial appearing on cable television in his district attacks “obstructionists” blocking an immigration overhaul. Another accuses him of “talking about legalizing 11 million illegal aliens, making it easier for them to take jobs.”

After a union-backed protest in Mr. McCarthy’s district in August, demonstrators marched into his office with pictures of immigrants, along with farm tools and produce, in an attempt to illustrate their impact on the community here. In the arid Central Valley, where dairy farms and peach and almond orchards stretch for miles, immigrants have provided the steadiest source of agricultural and service employees.

Mr. McCarthy told a local radio station last week that most of the protesters had come from outside his district. [From next door in McKeon's district?] Mr. McCarthy also faces pressure from those against illegal immigration. “He’s shown that he is flexible on immigration and has said we need to be more open to foreign workers, but the great irony is that he’s in a district with high unemployment,” said Joe Guzzardi, the national media director for Californians for Population Stabilization, which opposes any kind of citizenship for those in the country illegally.

...Angelica Salas, the executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, said Republicans were “sort of wedged between a rock and a hard place of their own doing.” The coalition organized dozens of events singling out Republican congressmen last month.

She said Mr. McCarthy had met with her and other activists and signaled that he was open to supporting citizenship. “What I see him trying to deal with is the recognition that there’s a real interdependence on immigrant labor in his district,” Ms. Salas said, “but also some very shrill Republicans who either don’t get it or don’t care.”

While Mr. Valadao said he did not have plans to increase pressure on his Republican colleagues, other local leaders have been more willing to openly voice criticism.

“We have people who graduated from our colleges who can’t get jobs because they can’t get citizenship,” said Mayor Harvey L. Hall of Bakersfield, a Republican who spoke onstage at a protest directed at Mr. McCarthy. “All you have to do is go out on the weekend, and you can see that our growth as a city depends on the immigrant population.”

Lee Rogers at the immigration reform rally in the Antelope Valley yesterday. His approach is very different from McKeon's desire that Hispanic immigrants "self-deport"

Last year when he ran against McKeon, Lee Rogers won in the Antelope Valley, which McKeon shares with McCarthy, and which has a lot of recently-registered Latino voters. For many independents in CA-25, regardless of partisanship, the economic argument is the winning argument. This morning, Rogers, who is running against McKeon again-- unless, as rumored, McKeon chickens out and becomes a lobbyist-- told us that "the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the California Chamber support immigration reform because our broken system has to be repaired to keep America competitive in the world. Even more good news is that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office calculated that the Senate Bill would reduce our federal deficit if it became law. I stand with American businesses knowing that immigration reform will be a shot in the arm to the U.S. economy and reduce our deficit. Any member of the California delegation who rejects comprehensive immigration reform is sacrificing our economy for their own xenophobic ideology." You can help Rogers defeat McKeon here and remember, this Republican problem isn't confined to California, not by a long-shot.

Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) Is Retiring... Yawn?

CA-45 is entirely within Orange County... and not the more liberal part on the coast. The district goes from the Anaheim Hills, North Tustin and Irvine down to Mission Viejo and Lake Forest. The eastern part of the district beyond Silverado and Trabaco Canyon is uninhabitable. Last year Campbell won reelection against a credible Democrat, Sukee Kang, 59-41%. Campbell spent $1,421,706 and Kang spent $754,627. The DCCC completely ignored the race and spent zero, same as they did when Beth Krom ran in 2010 and when Steve Young ran in 2008 and 2006. They don't see this R+7 district as worth investing in. McCain bested Obama 51-47% and Romney won there 55-43%.

There doesn't appear to be a Democratic challenger yet, although someone will probably give it a try. So far, the action is all in Crazyville. Every Orange County GOP officeseeker who can walk upright and string a sentence together wants to run. The primary should be a joy to watch-- and it won't be the first time. In his new book, And Hell Followed With Her, about the Minutemen mayhem, Dave Neiwert recounted how ambitious extremist Jim Gilchrist ran for Congress against Campbell. (This was a year before Gilchrist told the Orange County Register that "I'm not going to promote insurrection, but if it happens, it will be on the conscience of the members of Congress who are doing this. I will not promote violence in resolving this, but I will not stop others who might pursue that." Bush appointed Wall Street shill and super-reactionary Congressman Christopher Cox to the chair of the SEC (which turned out to be an absolute catastrophe for America and helped trigger the Great Recession) and it created a rare open seat in Orange County.

The special election rules created a wide-open field in the primary in which ten Republicans and four Democrats vied for their parties’ respective nominations. Gilchrist ran instead as the sole candidate of the American Independent Party, which is the California affiliate of the Constitution Party. That organization, as it happens, is essentially the Patriot movement’s own party: in the 1990s, it was one of the original promoters of the militia concept among mainstream conservatives, and its politics and candidates have been in that same mold ever since.

Gilchrist got a brief scare when former congressman Robert Dornan-- an archconservative in the John Birch Society mold, notorious in his time for inflammatory and frequently bigoted remarks (his nickname was “B-1 Bob”), who had lost his seat in the 1996 election to Loretta Sanchez-- made brief waves by indicating he wanted to run for Cox’s old seat under the AIP banner. But party leaders, who saw Gilchrist as a potential rising political star, rebuffed his efforts.

After the primary, only an establishment Republican named John Campbell and a Democratic attorney named Steve Young remained on the ballot-- along with Gilchrist, who campaigned hard against Campbell on the basis of his supposedly “soft” stance on immigration. And when Election Day came around on December 5, it was a testament to Orange County’s deep-red conservatism that Campbell still won handily with 44 percent of the vote, while Young came in second with 27 percent, and Gilchrist finished a close third with 25 percent.

Afterward, Gilchrist declared victory anyway: “The time of the modern Minuteman, the Patriot, the time of the American people is here, and America WILL return to the rule of law-- whether the special interests, and the party label enforcers, and the open borders lobby-- and the mainstream media-- like it or not!”

Yes, 25% of the voters in this OC hellhole were willing to vote for a murderous neo-Nazi fanatic whose goal is to destroy America. What a place! And next year is already looking like another wild jungle primary in Crazytown. This week another Republican crackpot, State Sen. Mimi Walters, joined the fray. She's already been endorsed by 7 reactionary California congressmen-- Darrell Issa, Ed Royce, Kevin McCarthy, David Valadao, Doug LaMalfa, Jeff Denham, and Paul Cook-- which is very inconvenient for Rep. Gary Miller, who finds himself in a blue district and wants to run for the open seat in CA-45 to avoud political oblivion.

Walters is largely considered a wholly owned subsidiary of religionist lunatic Howard Ahmanson, Jr., who is no longer living in an insane asylum. Think Progress was first to point out the connection to Walters and the far right's attempt to overthrown democracy and replace it with a "Christian" version of Sharia law, what the lunatic fringe behind Walters calls "total integration of Biblical Law." Ahmanson funneled money into her failed campaign for state Treasurer through his shady Fieldstead operation.

Fieldstead & Co. is an incorporated private company which Ahmanson uses to distribute money to his favorite causes without having to disclose the donations publicly.

Most notorious among these was the Chalcedon Foundation. Ahmanson served for decades on the board of this radical Christian Reconstructionist organization and heavily funded its efforts. The group’s late founder, Rousas John Rushdoony advocated for American laws to literally follow those in the Book of Leviticus, including death by stoning for gay and lesbian people and similar execution for adulterers, juvenile delinquents, non-believers, and most other Americans. While Ahmanson has made clear he personally does not advocate “the stoning or execution of homosexuals,” he conceded to the Orange County Register in 1985: “My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives.”

Ahmanson is a major funder and director of the Discovery Institute, a group which promotes creationism and tries to obstruct science education. He was one of the largest contributors to the unconstitutional Proposition 8 campaign to take away the right of same-sex couples to marry in California, spent heavily in support of school vouchers efforts in Colorado and California, backed CareNet (a group that provides “crisis pregnancy centers,” which mislead women about abortion), and, reportedly, funded a $1 million smear campaign against the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop and efforts to split the worldwide Anglican Communion over LGBT inclusion. And, he was the second-largest donor to a 2006 California ballot initiative effort which would have required the government to compensate any property owners if land-use or zoning laws hurt the value of their property; Walters served as honorary chair for the unsuccessful effort and called the position her “proudest accomplishment.”

In her time in the California Assembly and Senate, Walters has accumulated a voting record that is very much in line with Ahmanson’s far-right views. She has consistently voted against LGBT equality, endorsing Prop. 8, protecting harmful “ex-gay” therapy, and opposing anti-discrimination laws. She opposes women’s reproductive rights. She also is a strong supporter of “school choice” and vouchers.

Walters has called herself a “proven conservative” and has drawn criticism for her anti-immigrant campaign ads. She voted against California’s same-day voter registration law and amassed an embarrassing 3 percent lifetime score from the California League of Conservation Voters.

In the past, even anti-LGBT conservatives like Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and former Gov. Linda Lingle (R-HI) have returned campaign contributions from Ahmanson in light of his radical views and record (Full disclosure: in 2004, the author was president of an LGBT-rights group that successfully pushed Wolf to return a $1,000 contribution from Ahmanson). But Walters has accepted his money since her 2006 campaign.

The Lamest Ducks In The House-- A Beltway-Eyed View

Accidental Congressman Gary Miller, California's Confederate sympathizer

This week, Roll Call points to California Republican Gary Miller and Tennessee date rape drug doctor Scott DesJarlais as being the two incumbents most likely to lose their seats in 2014. Close behind are detestable Blue Dog reactionaries Jim Matheson (UT) and Mike McIntyre (NC), New Dem Ron Barber (AZ) and GOP fringe loon Mike Coffman (CO). The retirements of these four characters by their constituents who be steps in the right direction for making Capitol Hill a better place-- even if we would need 2-300 retirements like this for it to actually make Congress function on behalf of the American people.

Gary Miller, of these four, is the most likely to be working as a lobbyist after 2014. He is an accidental congressman-- as well as an extremist crackpot, a crook and a confederate Civil War reenactor. So how did Miller come to represent a district, CA-31, where Romney only managed to get 40.6% of the vote? The district, which includes Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, Colton, Redlands, Loma Linda and Rialto, is a minority majority district (44% Hispanic and 11% African American) and should have gone to a Democrat in 2012. The DCCC and California Democratic Party botched it up and 4 Democratic contenders in the open primary split the vote so badly that two Republicans, Miller, who represented a neighboring district previously, and state Senator Bob Dutton wound up with the most votes and went on to the general election. Redlands Mayor Peter Aguilar, the heavy favorite, didn't get a chance to compete in the general, where Miller beat Dutton 82,212 (55%) to 66,603 (45%).

So Aguilar is running again and it should be a slam dunk, right? Sure... because everything in politics goes just as its planned. Meet defeated Blue Dog Joe Baca, who was hounded out of office in 2012 by Mike Bloomberg. Baca is an NRA stalwart and Bloomfield, in effect, bought the seat for another conservative Democrat-- although an anti-NRA one-- then state Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod. Her voting record, in terms of progressive issues, has been at least as bad as Baca's, if not worse. And now Baca says he wants to run in the open primary against Aguilar and Miller. Oh, dandy.

DesJarlais, a physician who was having sex with multiple patients-- some who he gave drugs and one who he encouraged to get an abortion-- is widely viewed as an embarrassment and he's likely to lose a primary... unless there are multiple candidates. State Reps Joe Carr and Kevin Brooks will probably run but right now state Senator Jim Tracy is the favorite and he outraised DesJarlais 4 to 1 this quarter. Obama won just under a third of the district in 2012, down from 35.8% in 2008 and TN-04 (Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Winchester, Cleveland and Smyrna) is not a good fit for Democrats. In 2012 DesJarlais-- even under the cloud of scandal-- beat Democrat state Sen. Eric Stewart 128,500 (56%) to 101,944 (44%). So far this year, no Democrat has emerged as a candidate. So this will just be replacing one wingnut with another wingnut.

Ron Barber, a right-wing Democrat, has a pitiful voting record that is sure to deflate Democratic voters. He's foolishly banking on attracting Republicans with his Republican voting record, but the GOP candidate, Martha McSally, he just managed to beat by a nose (143,173- 141,771) in 2012 is probably running again-- and this time Obama won't be on the ticket to draw Democrats to the polls.

Mike Coffman also just scraped by in 2012 (47.8% to 45.8%) but this year he'll be facing popular former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff in a blue-leaning district. (Obama won CO-06-- which includes Littleton and Centennial south of Denver, Aurora east of Denver and Brighton north of Denver-- 51.6%- 46.5%.) The DCCC is all in on Romanoff and this is considered a "must win" top priority race for them.

As for the two nearly extinct Blue Dogs, this is what Stuart Rothenberg had to say in his report for Roll Call:

Two incumbents who were almost given up for dead (politically, that is) last cycle but survived-- Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina-- are likely to face stiff challenges again. Either or both could move to the top of the vulnerability list next year.

Democratic partisans may pooh-pooh the danger to both incumbents in 2014, noting that we have heard reports of their problems before and saying that if the two Democratic congressmen won with an unpopular (in their districts) president on the ballot, they certainly can win again against the same opponents in 2014.

Republicans can counter that unsuccessful 2012 Utah Republican nominee Mia Love didn’t run nearly as good a race as GOP strategists had hoped, and she’ll likely have a better campaign-- and be a better candidate-- in a rerun.

The same, of course, could hold for the unsuccessful GOP nominee against McIntyre last year, David Rouzer. Rouzer, then a member of the state Senate, lost to McIntyre by a mere 654 votes in 2012.

Both McIntyre and Matheson vote with the Republicans on crucial issues as a default position. Matheson has the single worst voting record of any Democrat in Congress this year-- a ProgressivePunch score of 21.05, tied with right-wing GOP freaks like Matt Salmon (R-AZ) and Tom McClintock (R-CA) and worse than 14 other Republicans, including... crackpots Louie Gohmert (TX) and Phil Gingrey (GA) and Staten Island Mafia figure Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm! McIntyre scores a 38.89, also worse than Grimm! The sooner these two are gone from the Democratic House caucus, the better off the Democrats will be.

The Republican Extremist Most Likely To Lose In 2014: Gary Miller

I started visiting Morocco in 1969 and I've been there over a dozen times since. At some point it can't just be about laying around Marrakesh, Essaouira, Tangier and Fes. So some years ago I set out across the Atlas Mountains south of Marrakesh and discovered Taroudant, which is kind of what Marrakesh was like in the 1960s... before it became so cosmopolitan. I loved it and kept going back. From there we'd set out for Tiznit and even Sidi Ifni further south and east and then, eventually, for Ouarzazate, Zagora south and west and even Mhamid right at the edge of the Sahara, the last stop before the 2 month camel ride to Timbuktu.

I just saw the Cadillac ad (above) with the driver going through the Atlas Mountains at the Dadès Gorges. We did hire a camel driver and his son to take us out into the Sahara Desert... but not as far as Timbuktu, which we did eventually get to-- in a jeep. As for the curving passes of the High Atlas... oh yes; we did that, several times in fact. But once was a time I'll never forget. We weren't going nearly as fast as the Cadillac in the ad-- nor did we have nearly as good a vehicle-- but we were descending pretty briskly when... no more pavement. The asphalt suddenly gave way-- with no warning-- to gravel.

You know what happens when the asphalt suddenly gives way to gravel? It had never crossed my mind 'til then either. But we spun right out of control and headed for one of those drops you can see in the Cadillac ad. In fact, the bottom of that gorge is filled with cars and trucks that did go over during the years. I'd like to say it was my reflexes and skillful driving that saved us-- and it may have been; who remembers anything but the sheer terror? But I think it was just luck. The car came to a stop an inch for the deadly drop. Within second a dozen old Berber men were swarming all over us, as though they came out of the sides of the rocky crevices. Each one wanted to touch my heart. For luck I guess.

I was delighted to see the DCCC begin blasting away at Republicans who refuse to support low tax rates for all income under $250,000 unless the low rates are also extended for income over $250,000 as well, something the country just can't afford. The ad below is one they did for the single most vulnerable Republican in the whole country, corrupt right-wing extremist Gary Miller, who plays Confederate officers in Civil War reenactments. This cycle he managed to win reelection in a new district, CA-31, only because too many Democrats ran in the crazy new open primary resulting in two Republicans facing off in the general. Obama beat Romney in the district 57.2-40.6%. Miller is the DCCC's #1 target for 2014. Sharper than you thought, huh? But this ad campaign is also targeting 20 other Republicans they see as vulnerable next cycle, including Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Tom Reed (R-NY), two major Blue America targets as well. Nothing to do with Morocco or Cadillacs... just twisted roads and going over cliffs: