Another Blue Dog Made The Natural Transition To The GOP-- Will Gene Taylor Beat Steven Palazzo In Tomorrow's Republican Primary?

Sunday morning we asked what it's like to be a Blue Dog in America today. And the picture that emerged was far from pretty. When looking at the natural progression from Blue Dog-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- to plain old Republican, we focused on the freak from Kansas who led the anti-gay and anti-Choice forces of hatred and bigotry in her badly afflicted state, Janice Pauls, finally finding her natural home in the GOP. But tomorrow-- primary day in Mississippi-- another failed Blue Dog, defeated congressman Gene Taylor is looking for a comeback… as-- what else?-- a Republican.

He's ignoring FEC rules that require him to report the source of the quarter million dollars he's spending on the race. Is he getting covert support from the Blue Dog caucus in the GOP primary. No one will know before tomorrow, that's for sure. The biggest newspaper in the southeast Mississippi district, MS-04-- PVI is R+21 and Obama won 31% of the vote in 2008 and 2012-- endorsed Taylor. It's a crowded primary and the Tea Party has a couple of crackpots in the race even more extreme that Steven Palazzo or Taylor (which ain't easy). Although the open primary allows Democrats to vote in the GOP contest, Taylor is unlikely to beat Palazzo and even forcing a June 24th run-off is a stretch.

When asked to explain his transformation from a Blue Dog to a Republican, Taylor has no trouble at all. It's perfectly natural and may Mississippi Republicans are former Blue Dogs themselves. “I’ll make it very simple. When I first went to Congress, almost all of the southern Democrats were pro-life, almost all of them were for 2nd Amendment rights, almost all of them believed in a strong national defense, and almost all of them believed in a balanced budget. Over the years that changed."

It's been a quiet race compared to the bitter primary between Establishment Republican Thad Cochran and far right extremist, neo-fascist Chris McDaniel for Senate. (There's also a defeated Blue Dog in that race, Travis Childers, who's hoping McDaniel wins and that he get slip into office as a result of the GOP civil war, something like Indiana Blue Dog Joe Donnelly did when a neo-fascist took out Dick Lugar in the Republican primary.)

Taylor, who served 11 terms as a "Blue Dog" Democrat starting in 1989, switched parties to take on Rep. Steven Palazzo in the Republican primary.

But Palazzo, who topped Taylor in 2010, is in the catbird's seat now, according to Stephen L. Rozman, professor of political science at Tougaloo College in Jackson.

"It's difficult because Palazzo is entrenched," Rozman said. "Palazzo is still going to recall Taylor's past, looking at him as opportunistic, trying to get in as a Republican. It's an uphill battle."

In addition to 44-year-old Palazzo of Biloxi and 60-year-old Taylor of Bay St. Louis, three other GOP candidates seek the seat-- 48-year-old Tom Carter of Carriere, 24-year-old Tavish Kelly of Picayune and 73-year-old Ron Vincent of Hattiesburg.

…"So, what does Taylor do? As a Democrat, he lost the last time, and momentum is going against a Democrat winning. So, he's doing what he has to do. He's doing it in the primary."

..."People aren't being fooled," Palazzo told the Associated Press. "You can't be a lifelong Democrat and wake up the day of the qualifying deadline and say, 'I'm a Republican.'"

Taylor, though, says people thank him for running.

"I think people have realized they want a congressman that's accessible to them, that they can talk to face-to-face," Taylor told the AP.

When Palazzo unseated Taylor, his margin of victory came from support in three inland counties, Pearl River, Lamar and Jones. Taylor says he's focusing more attention away from the coast this time around.

Taylor has hammered Palazzo repeatedly for his 2012 vote to approve the Biggert-Waters flood insurance law, under which the Federal Emergency Management Agency proposed expensive rate increases.

"He voted to raise peoples' flood insurance rates by unlimited amounts," Taylor told the AP.

Palazzo said "no one" foresaw how FEMA would administer the proposed changes. "Congress' intent was for them to do an affordability study," he said.

Palazzo voted in March with most other members to defang that law, which he says is his top achievement.

Taylor also says Palazzo isn't doing enough to protect the district's military bases and criticized him for balking at supporting money to pay flood insurance claims following 2012's Superstorm Sandy.

Taylor says the Sandy vote will hurt Palazzo's ability to seek hurricane aid for the Mississippi coast in the future. Palazzo disputes that, though, saying even as one of the House's more conservative members, "I can still get things done."

Here's Taylor demonizing Nancy Pelosi-- and claiming Palazzo supports her-- in a crude TV spot:

Will The Beltway Democratic Party Become Just Like The Mississippi Democratic Party?

Two of the most reactionary and bigoted Democrats to have served in Congress in modern times were Mississippi Blue Dogs Gene Taylor and Travis Childers. Both amassed voting records that would make any right-wing, hate-filled yahoo delighted. Yesterday each announced his far-fetched plan to get back into Congress. Taylor, who represented Mississippi's Gulf Coast between 1989 and 2011, finally admitted what I've been saying for over a decade: he's nothing but a Republican. He'll be primarying Steve Palazzo, the GOP incumbent who beat him in 2010, 52-47%. The qualifying deadline was yesterday at 5pm.

At the same time, Childers, who was just as far to the right as Taylor announced his intention to run for the Mississippi senate seat as a right-wing Democrat. He was defeated on the same day as Taylor-- the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse-- by Republican Alan Nunnelee, 55-41%, after just a term and a half. He was one of the assholes who voted for the Stupak Pitts Amendment to make the Affordable Care Act anti-Choice and then voted against the overall bill anyway.

His only path to victory would be for neo-fascist and Confederate secessionist state Sen. Chris McDaniel to beat incumbent Thad Cochran in the Republican primary, leaving a way for Childers to point out that he's the "true conservative" while McDaniel is an anti-American proto-Nazi. It may be a distinction to fine for the Fox-washed voters of Mississippi but… it's a chance. But if Childers wins, what do the Democrats get at vote time? Remember, he was one of the 5 misongynist Democrats who took up arms in the Republican War Against Women to vote against the Lily Ledbetter Paycheck Fairness Act. And what makes anyone think he wouldn't follow Taylor right over the fence at the drop of a hat? Even funnier, the other "Democrat" in the Senate primary is failed Tea Party Republican Bill Marcy.

It's just an absolute disgrace that the DSCC has fallen this low-- to support someone who is so not a Democrat-- while ignoring excellent progressives, Shenna Bellows and Rick Weiland in far more fertile states, Maine and South Dakota. Even more tragic is for Beltway faux journalists to take their stories directly from the DSCC and dub Childers a Top-Tier Recruit.

Childers is following a similar path to  Sen. Joe Donnelly, who jumped from the House into a 2012 Senate race against Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana, hoping he would lose to a conservative rival. Lugar lost the primary to Richard Mourdock, whose outspoken conservatism proved out of step, even in a Republican-friendly state.

Cochran is regarded as the most vulnerable Republican senator in a primary, and outside conservative groups are united behind McDaniel. Cochran, a veteran appropriator, hasn't faced a challenging campaign since he was first elected to the Senate in 1978.

Regardless of the Republican nominee, Mississippi is still a very tough state for Democrats to contest, especially in a midterm year. President Obama won just 44 percent of the vote in 2012, and African-American turnout is lower in a midterm election. Childers won reelection in a presidential year-- he was first elected in a 2008 special election-- but lost by 14 points to GOP Rep. Alan Nunnelee in 2010.

The last time Democrats contested a Mississippi Senate race was in 2008, with former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove as their nominee. But Musgrove lost badly to Sen. Roger Wicker, by 16 points.

Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS) Is Hysterical Because Someone Accused Him Of Favoring Working Families For Once

Taylor's the one on the left; Norquist insisted he stand on the right

Few Democrats, even among the worst of the southern Blue Dogs, vote so consistently on the wrong side of the aisle as Mississippi reactionary Gene Taylor. According to ProgressivePunch only a dozen Democrats have voted more with the GOP than with their own party; Taylor's one of them. Mississippi isn't exactly friendly to progressive ideas, but Obama did worse in Taylor's congressional district (32%) than in any other district in the state, including the Mississippi district represented by neo-Confederate Republican Gregg Harper (where Obama won 38%). Taylor's voting record is similar to other far right Democrats' like Dan Boren's, Chris Carney's, Travis Childers', Joe Donnelly's, and Heath Shuler's. In other words, he's generally against everything the Republicans are against.

So it came as a horrifying shock to Taylor yesterday when Grover Norquist’s lunatic fringe anti-democratic organization, Americans for Tax Reform-- until recently a front group for Jack Abramoff's pay-for-play bribery operations-- accused Taylor of favoring working families by supporting health care reform. Taylor, who opposes reform and anything that would help struggling working families, went bonkers. No one recalls Taylor ever getting so worked up about anything as the hint that he may be doing something that benefits ordinary Americans. Maybe he thought it would adversely affect his lucrative fundraising machine.

“Americans for Tax Reform are lying sacks of scum, and anyone who knowingly repeats this false information is also a liar,” Taylor said in an unusually blistering statement for a member of Congress. 

...“I am opposed to the current health care reform bills being debated in Congress,” Taylor says on his website. “We should not create an expensive new government health program or promise new government health benefits when we have not figured out how to pay the future costs of Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, and other federal health programs that were promised by previous Presidents and previous Congresses.” 

Taylor is a Blue Dog and several members of the economically conservative coalition on the Energy and Commerce Committee did sign off on a deal with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to move the health care bill out of the committee, Rabin said. But Taylor isn’t even a member of the committee, and he hasn’t changed his view of the bill.

It's great when America's enemies attack each other. Taylor has taken $265,153 in legalized bribes from the Medical-Industrial Complex and another $52,090 from the Insurance Industry. He's selling his constituents out relatively cheaply. We should get Mike Stark to ask him if he's a birther.

WILL PUTATIVE DEMOCRATS JIM MARSHALL AND GENE TAYLOR BETRAY CHILDREN AGAIN?

As I mentioned earlier, the Democratic leadership in the House, much to the chagrin of Republicans, has decided to compromise on the GOP complaints about S-CHIP and reintroduce a modified version of the bill. Hoyer has been asking the 44 or 45 Republicans who have supported the bill on their advise on how to get another dozen or so votes so that the House can present Bush with a bill that is veto-proof. Perhaps he's meeting with Gene Taylor (D-MS) and Jim Marshall (D-GA), as well. They're the only two Democrats to have voted to sustain Bush's veto.

Republicans have been barraged by calls and e-mails from constituents and several are thought to be faltering. One bitter right-winger, Ric Keller of Florida, was bitching to the Washington Post that Democrats need his vote but "don't even have the courage to ask me for it." Keller's constituents have been hearing radio ads from USAction and MoveOn about his anti-family vote. In fact the newest barrage of pro-family groups advertising is hurting several Republicans:
Marilyn Musgrave (CO)- AFSCME, USAction, MoveOn
Tim Walberg (MI)- AFSCME, USAction, MoveOn
Sam Graves (MO)- AFSCME, USAction, MoveOn
Randy Kuhl (NY)- AFSCME, USAction, MoveOn
Tom Reynolds (NY)- AFSCME
Tim Johnson (IL)- SEIU
Rodney Alexander (LA)- SEIU
Michele Bachman (MN)- SEIU
Robin Hayes (NC)- SEIU
John Peterson (PA)- SEIU
Thelma Drake (VA)- SEIU
Barbara Cubin (WY)- SEIU
Tom Feeney (FL)- USAction, MoveOn
Ric Keller (FL)- USAction, MoveOn

Nobody's advertising in Georgia or Mississippi? Hmmmm... You think we should get this one on the air? Would you chip in if we did?




UPDATE: BUSH VOWS ANOTHER VETO

Speaker Pelosi sounded very concilatory when she offered to work with Republicans to fix their main stated objections to the S-CHIP legislation Bush vetoed. Today Bush says he doesn't care what Pelsoi claims to be doing, he's got his veto pen out and ready for use.

Pelosi's main point is that the legislation, is already "supported by a bipartisan coalition, Democrats and Republicans across the country. Republican and Democratic governors support the SCHIP initiative. Every organization that you can name, from the AARP to the YWCA, and everything in between, AMA, the Catholic Hospital Association, Families First, are lobbying for the passage of this legislation." Over 70% of ordinary Americans also support it. But even though only 24% of Americans give Bush a passing grade on his job performance, he still has enough rubber stamp Republicans willing to back his every move so that he can enforce his unpopular veto down Americans' throats. And according to this afternoon's Congressional Quarterly Bush vowed another veto.

BUSH AND HIS REPUBLICAN RUBBER STAMPS BLOCK PASSAGE OF CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE

Only the wealthy need apply

You've probably heard by now that Bush-- whose approval rating is down to 24% (as low as Nixon's ever was)-- applied enough pressure on a handful of Republican trolls in Congress to have his disgraceful veto of children's health insurance sustained 273 in favor of health insurance to 156 in favor of Bushism, or 13 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority it takes to override a veto. Very few people changed their votes. The only Republican shift was vulnerable Long Island congressman Peter King (R-NY) who had voted against health care for children when the bill came up twice before and ducked the issue today by staying away. Craziest comment of the day came from the other King, Iowa's whacked out neo-Nazi Steve King who renamed the bill that 73% of Americans would like to see made law "Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents." As for the Democrats-- of the 8 who voted "no" last time, the House leadership convinced 3 to vote to override and grassroots efforts (including the Blue America PAC campaign directed at Baron Hill, Mike McIntyre and Bob Etheridge) helped crack 3 harder core nuts. That left 2 "Democrats," Georgia war-monger and reactionary Jim Marshall and Mississippi Republicrat, voting with the Republicans.

A friend of mine from Air America just asked me why the Democrats don't ask Marshall and Taylor to just go and join the GOP since they vote with them so frequently on all the core issues. The answer is simple. The ossifying Democratic political machine of the Inside the Beltway establishment doesn't care all that much about the core issues-- at least not in comparison to getting better offices, more power (apparently for its own sake, since they almost never use it for anything worthwhile) and better parking spots.

Madam Off the Table "vowed" she would "insist" all 10 million kids would be covered in any negotiated settlement. She is no longer a believable figure. Her empty promises and partisan rhetoric ring very empty. And her leadership team, Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer, are far worse.

More and better Democrats? How about just "Better Democrats" and we'll worry about the "more" after that? Three who are credible are got us reactions right after the vote. Rep. Tom Allen, who is running for senator in Maine against the Bush-Lieberman hack who currently holds the seat, was, like almost three-quarters of the American people, very disappointed in the failure to swing any more Republicans over to the side of children's health care. "This bill has wide bipartisan support in Congress and will have a real impact on thousands and thousands of working families in Maine and across the nation who are struggling to provide adequate health insurance for their children. It deserves to become law. Though disappointing, the President’s decision was not surprising. It is yet another example of this Administration turning its back on working families and the middle class. Our nation deserves real health care solutions, and it deserves a government that will act in the best interest of American children."

Eric Massa and Larry Kissell are two Blue America-endorsed candidates running against Republicans who voted to sustain Bush's veto, respectively, Randy Kuhl and Robin Hayes, each a disgraceful rubber stamp tool. Speaking from Biscoe, North Carolina, Larry said that "Hayes claims he supports the State Children's Health Insurance Program and wants to see it strengthened. He had his chance today, and chose loyalty to President Bush over the working families of this District. I believe Hayes is wrong and I also believe that when he faces our District next November that the people will show their loyalty to North Carolina's children."

Pointing out how Kuhl has been bought out by Big Tobacco, Eric, a cancer survivor, was swinging a lot harder at his pathetic opponent. He said Kuhl had drawn a line in the sand. "Randy Kuhl, George Bush and their friends the tobacco lobbyists are on one side of the line and working families, the American Cancer Society, and doctors all around the country are on the other. Kuhl has once again shown his loyalty to his boss George Bush, by rubber-stamping the President's agenda, no matter what the cost. He does not understand the priorities of Americans if he's standing up against an overwhelmingly bi-partisan proposal to care for our kids. It doesn't get anymore black and white than that. We need a change in this Nation, not more rubber-stamping of the President's failed policies. My opponent has been right there on all of the important issues, lockstep with the President and our community deserves better. Randy Kuhl has decided to stand with the President and his downright lies to keep thousands of children out of the doctor's offices. George Bush wants a compromise that will deny health insurance to more children, and I don't think that's an acceptable compromise. Sacrificing the health of our children is unconscionable and I promise that I will stand up for our kids once I am elected to Congress."

And we shouldn't support any Democrats who aren't willing to take stands like Eric Massa, Tom Allen and Larry Kissell.

CURING ALL THAT AILS THE DEMOCRATS? WELL... HOW ABOUT THIS FOR A START?

Yesterday I wrote a long and sometimes meandering post about Blue America taking direct action against the 5 renegade Democrats who joined the GOP to support Bush's veto of health insurance for needy children. Blue America and some of our allies from other blogs hope to run 40,000 calls into each of the districts of the 5 reactionaries and make sure the voters know that there are even some Democrats who vote like Republicans.

This shot over their bows is an action we're asking you to help out with. The idea is to get them to vote with the Democratic Party leadership when an attempt is made to override Bush's veto (October 18). The DCCC is covering the Republicans and trying to pressure some of them into switching votes. We like that. And we think the 5 Democrats-- Jim Marshall (GA), Mike McIntyre (NC), Bob Etheridge (NC), Baron Hill (IN), and Gene Taylor (MS)-- need the same kind of prodding.

You can donate at the Blue America PAC, not for one of our endorsed candidates but to the PAC itself, near the top of the page.

The calls were recorded by Michelle James a working mother who is hard-pressed to make ends meet and can't afford the cost of health care for her son. Listen to the message to Gene Taylor of Mississippi.



Taylor has a really awful voting record, in many ways the very worst of any Democrat in the House of Representatives. He voted against health care for needy children and he votes consistently with the Republicans on most crucial issues. He's virulently anti-choice (and even opposes the use of contraceptives) and on Iraq... he's as bad as any Bush Dog and many Republicans. He's earned these calls. Let's hold them accountable for how they vote. The kids can't do it themselves.

Do putative Democratic Reps. McIntyre, Hill, Marshall, Taylor and Etheridge but onto their side's strategy to demonize Graeme Frost, the 12 year old who made the plea for support for S-CHIP last Saturday? Do you consider yourself the kind of person with a heart? Or are you a Republican? If you think you have a heart, please read Digby's post on how Boehner and the GOP has decided to smear the Frost family.

This is so loathsome I am literally sick to my stomach. These kids were hurt in a car accident. Their parents could not afford health insurance --- and sure as hell couldn't get it now with a severely handicapped daughter. And these shrieking wingnut jackasses are harassing their family for publicly supporting the program that allowed the kids to get health care. A program, by the way, which a large number of these Republicans support as well.

They went after Michael J. Fox. They went after a wounded Iraq war veteran. Now they are going after handicapped kids. There is obviously no limit to how low these people will go.

They'd better pray that they stay rich and healthy and live forever because if there is a hell these people are going to be on the express train to the 9th circle the minute they shuffle off their useless mortal coils.

Christy over at FDL has a great take on this too. But one more thing before I move on to write a story on the latest Republican caught in a toilet trying to fellate some person trying to relieve himself-- who probably voted for the Party of Hatred and Bigotry... In today's Wahington Post Jeff Birnbaum writes about how Harry Reid is giving up on the Democrats' promise to tax billion dollar hedge funds fairly. Is that because Harry Reid and the Senate Democratic leaders are bowing to the pressures-- and enticements-- of the millions of dollars spent by lobbyists to deep six this? Possibly. "Reid's assurance all but ends the year's highest-profile battle over a major tax increase. Democratic lawmakers, including some presidential candidates, had been pushing to more than double the tax rate on the massive earnings of private-equity managers, who the Democrats say have been chronically undertaxed."

In response, private-equity firms -- whose multibillion-dollar deals have created a class of superwealthy investors and taken some of America's large corporations private -- hired dozens of lobbyists, stepped up campaign contributions and lined up business allies to wage an unusually conspicuous lobbying blitz. Their argument was that higher taxes would run counter to accepted tax policy and slow economic growth.

Some lawmakers have touted the tax boost as a way to pay for such expensive measures as the repeal of the alternative minimum tax, which this year alone threatens to increase taxes on 23 million households. But lawmakers and lobbyists agree that if the tax is not raised this year, its chances are not strong in 2008, either; Congress tends to be leery of tax increases in election years.

In one meeting with industry representatives last month, Reid said the private-equity tax plan would not be considered in the Senate this year, according to a participant. Rather than citing the lobbying push, Reid implied that the reason had to do with the lack of time on the jammed Senate schedule.

The "jammed schedule?" Condemning citizens banding together to do what Reid and the Democrats should be doing-- ending the occupation of Iraq? Obama says it's the lobbyists and he may be right. I just say it's too many fake Democrats like Mike McIntyre, Jim Marshall, Gene Taylor, Baron Hill and Bob Etheridge. Wanna do something about it? For real?


UPDATE: JANE SEZ

Jane Hamsher over at FDL just found out from some Republican shills she knows that there are no poor people in America. Who knew?


UPDATE: GOING DOWN WITH THE SCHIP

Does Bush have compromising photos of each of the pathetic pygmies™? How else could anyone explain why they're backing his gigantically unpopular veto? Ruth Marcus gives it a try in tomorrow's Washington Post they're all congenital liars and don't even know when they're lying.

JUST A LIST-- WHO'S BEEN NAUGHTY? WHO'S BEEN NICE? LET'S REMEMBER (OR, AT LEAST, ARCHIVE)

This week the House of Representatives passed H.RES.63, a resolution disapproving of "the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq." It was proposed by very conservative Missouri Democrat Ike Skelton, who has, until recently, been a hard line supporter of Bush's Iraq policies (kind of like Murtha). Among the cosponsors were the most anti-war of Democrats, Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) and a Republican critic of Bush's perfidy in Iraq, Walter Jones (R-NC). It passed 246 to 182. Two right-wing Democrats joined the Republicans to vote for perpetual war in Iraq and 17 Republicans bailed on their party's corrupt and irresponsible leaders to join Skelton, Murtha and Pelosi in pushing this bill.


First, the two Democrats who voted, as they often do, with the Republicans: Jim Marshall (D-GA) and Gene Taylor (D-MS). A little reminder: when you donate to the DCCC-- like when Kerry or Clinton or someone like that sends you a rah-rah e-mail asking you to do that-- the money goes to prop up the Jim Marshalls and Gene Taylors of the world.


For anyone keeping track, the Republicans who couldn't bring themselves to vote in favor of Bush's failed and catastrophic strategy were (in order of how vulnerable their seats are considered in '08): Phil English (PA), James Walsh (NY), Mark Kirk (IL), Michael Castle (DE), Fred Upton (MI), Tom Davis (VA), Ric Keller (FL), Tim Johnson (IL), Jim Ramstad (MN), Steven LaTourette (OH), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), Tom Petri (WI), Walter Jones (NC), John Duncan (TN), Bob Inglis (SC), Ron Paul (TX), and Howard Coble (NC).