Chris Carney, One Of The Worst Blue Dogs Ever, Wants To Ride The Anti-Trump Wave Back To Congress

I thought that Denny Heck and Cheri Bustos, respectively, the chair and vic-chair of the DCCC recruitment committee, had the worst idea ever when they tried to recruit corrupt conservative party boy Patrick Murphy to run for the open Miami seat that is being abandoned by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. I've been told that even if Heck and Bustos were too obtuse to realize it, Murphy figured out that a 73% Hispanic district is probably not his highway back to a career. So they came up with an even worse idea-- or, at least, one as absolutely horrible. Who remembers sleazy Pennsylvania Blue Dog Chris Carney? Bustos, a reactionary Blue Dog trained by Rahm Emanuel, and Heck, a rich asshole from Washington hate progressives and are working diligently to draft as many conservative Republican-lite candidates as they can. Their paw prints are on every bad candidate seeking Democratic nomination. Few are as terrible as Carney.

Back when Blue America endorsed Carney-- before we learned our Carney lesson-- we weren't asking much of our prospective endorsees. On LGBT issues, for example, we didn't ask them to promise to support a gay marriage bill; we just asked them if they will fight for gay equality, even if they have to exhibit some leadership in a tough environment. If they couldn't do that, there was still a chance we could still root for them to beat a much worse Republican, but we wouldn't raise money for them. We expected the candidates we endorsed and raised money for back them to support a woman's right to choice, to support serious campaign finance reform, to favor serious proposals to end the occupation of Iraq, to support gay equality-- and, like I said, to be willing to exercise leadership on difficult issues. I mean, sure, we wanted candidates who were for the minimum wage and who opposed the dismantling of Social Security, but those should always be the easy issues for Democrats.

In the course of the 2006 midterms, I had several relaxed and pleasant conversations with candidate Carney and, unlike other netroots groups, Blue America endorsed him. We encouraged our members to volunteer for his campaign and to help raise consciousness in PA-10 about Don "The Choker" Sherwood... and to donate money to the campaign. 722 of our members made donations to Carney's campaign. We even made a 30 second spot sung by Rickie Lee Jones to help focus PA-10 voters on the issues at hand. And we were overjoyed when he won, convincingly, on election night.

We don't expect the men and women we support to necessarily support the same position we do on every single vote. But even in the short time Carney was in Congress, he moved further and further away from all the other Blue America endorsees who won seats. In terms of supporting progressive issues in general, he has established himself at the bottom of the barrel among the freshmen, along with candidates we chose not to endorse, like Jason Altmire (PA), Rahm Emanuel's Heath Shuler (NC), Nick Lampson (TX) and Brad Ellsworth (IN). Some of us were disappointed but none of us chose to castigate Carney. And then something happened that made us decide to speak up. We realized Chris Carney lied to us. When he wanted our support he told us he favored equality for the LGBT community, something he also made clear to the folks at Project Vote Smart, when he checked the little box that indicates he would like to "Require that crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, and disability be prosecuted as federal hate crimes."

So weren't we in for a surprise a few months after he took office when Congressman Carney joined 13 of the most die-hard reactionary Democrats in the House-- near-Republicans who almost always support a reactionary social agenda-- to vote against the Hate Crimes bill. The bill passed 237-180 and all but 14 Democrats supported... well, supported exactly what Carney promised in his campaign he would support, "that crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, and disability be prosecuted as federal hate crimes." I felt betrayed-- like I had been kicked in the stomach. Based on my research and interview with candidate Carney, Blue America had endorsed him and hundreds of our members had donated effort and money to his campaign. Some of those donors are members of the LGBT community and others have friends and family who are part of that community and others just like to think that the candidates they contribute to will support equality as a core value. Chris Carney let us down, violently.

I requested an opportunity to speak with him and went back and forth with his office a few times until they finally sent me this e-mail:

Hi Howie, I have a short statement for you that I hope will be sufficient. This statement has been issued exclusively to you. Please let me know that you received it. Thanks.

Congressman Carney has not wavered from his original position of equality. Treating people the same is one of his core values, creating separate constitutional classes detracts from that goal. This was overarching legislation that created too many classes of people, and Congressman Carney could not support it.

This was a difficult decision and some of our supporters will disagree. As always, Congressman Carney voted with what he saw to be the best interests of Pennsylvania's 10th District.

I explained that sending me the Republican Party talking points-- which have long and routinely been used by the party of hatred and bigotry to try to please their rabidly homophobic base while covering their asses is not satisfactory.

So what did I want from Congressman Carney? Well, I wanted him to publicly apologize for a vote that encourages and enables the bigots and haters and I'd like him to return the 722 contributions he accepted from Blue America members. I had dozens of complaints from members already and at least one has sent Congressman Carney a letter, copying me, requesting a refund:

Dear Congressman Carney:

Apparently, we had a misunderstanding with regard to your support for equal rights for gay Americans when you sought Don Sherwood's seat last year. I supported your campaign, through BlueAmerica on the advice of Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny.com.

Now that you have voted, with some of the most reactionary Democrats in the House of Representatives, against the Hate Crimes Bill, I have reconsidered my previous support of your campaign. I would like to have my contributions returned, please. I am disabled and on a fixed income. I can only support candidates who support gay rights and, more importantly, keep their word to me and to those I trust to evaluate candidates.

I have provided my contribution information below and would appreciate your sending a check as soon as possible, as there are candidates who share my values who need my support. Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.

So now Bustos and Heck want this garbage back in Congress and think they can swing it if the anti-Trump tsunami is high enough. The district has been gerrymandered considerably since Blue America helped defeat Carney. Scranton's not part of it and the PVI is a prohibitive R+12. Obama lost the district to McCain 57-42% and lost it to Romney 60-39%. Last year Trump beat Hillary there, 66-30%, helping Trump narrowly clench Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes. The Democrat who ran against Tom Marino was Mike Molesevich; he didn't get 30% of the vote.

Mark McDade, teachers union representative, is running and Scott Brion, who ran against Marino in 2014 wants to give it another try. Former Bradford County Commissioner Mark Smith, who now works as Governor Wolf’s Director of Government Affairs and Outreach, is supposedly considering a run as well. But Bustos and Heck want the Democrat most like Marino-- and most like themselves: Carney. Borys Krawczeniuk is the local reporter who knows the area politics better than anyone and has been reporting on it forever. He wrote that Carney says he's thinking about running and the DCCC is "polling district voters about their views of Carney and Marino, according to two people who received automated calls Wednesday afternoon."

Some "Democrats" Say Progressives Are Being Too Mean To Trump And His Cronies

The DCCC recruited some real dogs for the 2016 cycle. Most lost and the few who won are now in Congress voting with Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy for the Republican agenda. That would be "ex"-Republicans Charlie Crist (FL) and Tom O'Halleran (AZ) and wretched Blue Dogs Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Stephanie Miller (FL), and Lou Correa (CA). House Democrats would be better off without them. The DCCC wasted millions and millions of dollars on electing and trying to elect these crap conservative candidates. The ones in Congress have exactly one function: allowing Ryan and McCarthy to tell the media that their horrific legislation is "bipartisan," thereby infuriating and alienating the Democratic bases. In committee, corrupt conservatives, especially Crist and Gottheimer, are already helping the Republicans to push their agenda forward.

On top of that, the DCCC and Pelosi's House Majority PAC wasted immense amounts of money on dreadful losers-- some in blue districts that Hillary won-- but who just couldn't motivate voters. Plenty of voters who, for example, cast their ballots for Hillary in CA-25 just couldn't pull the lever for a crap candidate like Brian Caforio. Same in VA-10, where Hillary beat Trump by a very hefty 52.2 to 42.2%, but where the DCCC's horrid candidate, LuAnn Bennett, lost against a very weak Republican incumbent, Barbara Comstock by nearly 25,000 votes, 52.9% to 47.1%. The DCCC and Pelosi wasted around $6 million on that race. Shit candidates like Lon Johnson (MI-01- $2.2 million), Joe Garcia (FL-26- $5.5 million), Pete Gallego (TX-23- $3.5 million), Colleen Deacon (NY-24- $1.1 million), Monica Vernon (IA-01- $1.5 million), to name just a few, were horrendous recruits who no one is held accountable for.

Hillary beat Trump in TX-23 49.8% to 46.4% but the Blue Dog who TX-23 Democrats had already been ousted in 2014 after disgusting them, Pete Gallego lost a race in a district where the population is 71% Hispanic. So what does Pelosi do? She re-ups DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujan to another term. And what does Lujan do? He re-ups conservative shithead Denny Heck as chairman of-- wait for it-- the DCCC Recruitment Committee. And scared-of-her-own shadow Republican-lite shill Ann Kuster was put in charge of incumbent protection-- which always amounts to protecting (as in financing) the Democrats who can't get any grassroots enthusiasm going because they vote with the GOP (like Kuster does). And so on...

Heck was whining at the House Democrats' retreat the other day that the special election districts are too tough for the DCCC. Maybe someone should sit him, Lujan and Pelosi down and explain to them that in business, real success depends on developing a long term strategy, not going to a one-cycle quick fix. Under Pelosi, who has zero understanding of how business works, the DCCC has never looked beyond the current cycle, which is why they not having losing ingrained in their DNA. That's going to be very hard to break free of but I can guarantee one thing-- re-hiring losers like Denny Heck and Ben Ray Lujan ain't gonna do it.

And then you have Garbagcrat Jim Webb, the ultimate fake Democrat-- remember when he ran for president and couldn't even get to 1% in any polls?-- on Meet The Press for some reason. And what does he want to moan about? What do racist pigs like him always want to talk about? Yes, that the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left and that they're not honoring slaveowners and are being mean to Trump and his fascist goons. That's the kind of messaging the Republican wing of the Democratic Party in Congress loves to hear-- the New Dems, the Blue Dogs, assholes like Lujan and Heck... and the horrible recruits Rahm Emanuel disciple Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL) is trying to re-recruit the garbage candidates who lost last year, last cycle. These people never learn. Let's hope this new Dan Sena guy is smarter than his bosses and learns how to ignore them.

Congress Divides Into 2 Camps-- Those Supporting Military Families And Those Supporting Predatory Lenders

Lou Vince-- progressive congressional candidate for CA-25

The Military Times super-serves a very specific readership. A few days ago they went into overdrive because conservatives made it clear that there is an expansion of legislation Elizabeth Warren has pushed that they want to destroy-- protection for military families from predatory lenders. House Republicans sensed they had the opportunity to wreck that. It's coming up on election time and they are eager to show Wall Street they will throw anyone under the bus, even military families being systematically victimized, on behalf of the generous banksters. Republicans, they reported, were "attempting to stall a sweeping Defense Department policy change that would give troops more protection from high-cost debt."

Last September, defense officials proposed new rules that would expand the types of credit covered by the maximum 36-percent interest rate that can be charged to service members and their dependents.

The new rules, which have not yet been published in the Federal Register, would apply to most forms of credit, including credit cards, deposit advance loans, installment loans and unsecured open-end lines of credit.

..."This is a clear attempt to delay" the final rule, said Tom Feltner, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America. "The final rule has already been well-researched by DoD."

As previously mandated by Congress, DoD has already reported to lawmakers on the need to expand the implementation of the Military Lending Act-- a full year ago, in April 2014.

"We're hoping members of the House Armed Services Committee will stand with service members on this and not with payday lenders," Feltner said.

Yesterday, after a good deal of noisy press scared the crap out of the GOP, the delay was narrowly defeated in the House Armed Services Committee. Only 5 Republicans stood up for the troops and their families and crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats. Republicans Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Steve Russell (R-OK), Rich Nugent (R-FL), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and Chris Gibson (R-NY) were the only Republicans on the committee willing to stand up to the extremists and greedballs. Some endangered GOP incumbents who are fighting for the political lives-- Bill Shuster (R-PA), Mike Coffman (R-CO) and Steve "I'll drop your ass" Knight (R-CA)-- jeopardized their own reelections by screwing over military families.

House lawmakers narrowly voted to remove controversial language delaying new rules on payday lenders from their annual defense authorization bill early Thursday morning, calming concerns from advocates who saw the move as potentially undoing financial protections for military families.

By a 32 to 30 vote, members of the House Armed Services Committee stripped provisions from the legislation that would have delayed Defense Department plans to expand the scope of the 2006 Military Lending Act by requiring a new report due next spring on DoD's rule-making procedures in that regard.

Opponents of the clause said the rules are already long overdue, and accused supporters of giving predatory lenders a new opportunity to victimize troops.

"Each day we delay, we put more service members in harm's way," said Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., who led efforts to remove the provisions.

Joe Heck (R-NV), chairman of the Armed Services Committee's Military Personnel panel, is worried that the Pentagon is putting too much effort into protecting military families and not enough effort into protecting payday lenders-- perhaps as many as 40,000 of them who make a living by ripping off active-duty servicemen and women and their dependents. Joe Heck and his GOP cronies want to make sure their businesses are not trampled on just because they're crooks. Heck voted to slow down (kill) the process. "This has already been a long and drawn-out process," said Rep. Susan Davis (D-CA). "We're not allowing (troops) to fall victim to predatory lenders. We know they're out there." Heck maneuvered to call the vote at 4 AM yesterday, but he failed to persuade the 5 Republicans to switch their votes and crap on the troops.

Yesterday, progressive former LAPD officer Lou Vince declared for the House seat that right-wing fanatic Steve Knight accidentally won last November. CA-25 is now a Democratic majority seat and Vince has a better than ever chance to win in this northern L.A. County/eastern Ventura County district. Knight, one of the most ideologically motivated extremists in the whole Congress, voted against the fighting men and women and their families. Lou would have voted with the bipartisan majority that defeated the attempt to kill the regulations. "I'm relieved a handful of Republicans crossed the aisle and helped the Democrats save the day for military families. Protecting the men and women who are on the front lines protecting us is not a partisan issue, and Steve Knight needs to explain to Simi Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and Antelope Valley voters-- regardless of party-- why he decided to side with the payday lenders instead of our own military families. This is the first day of my campaign, but I'm ready to vow right now that when I'm in Congress I will never take the side of bankers and Wall Street and campaign donors over the interests of the ordinary struggling men and women of this district. Never."

Lou, a Marine veteran himself, found himself very much in agreement with other congressional vets on the committee, like Seth Moulton (D-MA), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Tim Walz (D-MN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Mark Takai (D-HI) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). Gallego told his own constituents in Phoenix why he felt so strongly about the legislation. "Military members and our families are more vulnerable to predatory lenders. I voted to strike the Republican provision that would delay implementation of new rules that seek to protect military members and our families. Every day that we wait to implement regulations, more military families get saddled with outrageous loans they can’t afford. It’s a shame that Republicans would rather cater to special interests and give in to the banking industry than side with our men and women in uniform. Above all else, we need to protect the men and women who are putting their lives on the line for our country’s freedom and safety."

Is Washington's 3rd CD Too Conservative For A Real Progressive? Heck, No!

If you follow our Blue America endorsements, you're probably aware of the great enthusiasm we have for Washington state Senator Craig Pridemore. Rarely do voters get such a clear record of accomplishment as Craig's with which to judge a candidate. But what about his Democratic primary opponent, Denny Heck? What does anyone actually know about him other than the power elite wants him to inherit Brian Baird's seat? Baird has endorsed him as have several big names in Democratic state politics. I'm hearing whispers that the DCCC is telling donors to stop giving to Pridemore and that sounds a lot like their normal modus operandi.

It was obvious from the beginning they would feel more comfortable with a conservative candidate with flexible ethics like Heck. But I'm thinking that when Craig started picking up serious support-- from the Majority Leader of the Senate (Lisa Brown) and the Speaker of the House (Frank Chopp) as well as the local firefighters unions, the International Longshoremen, and, last week both the Sierra Club and the Washington Federation of State Employees (AFSCME)-- the DCCC decided that they had to do more than just tell Heck to make sure to take no positions on anything controversial. So now they're trying the old Rahm Emanuel/Steny Hoyer routine of starving primary campaigns by progressives of contributions.

But it isn't just ideological. The DCCC powers, like sugar lobby queen Debbie Wasserman Schultz, bend over backwards to help elect easily corruptible shills whether it's Tim Mahoney in 2006 or Lori Edwards in 2010. And Heck meets their standards well. A blogger in Washington who knows him well sent me this column from the Seattle P-I from 1991:

Denny Heck, Gov. Booth Gardner's strongman chief of staff, got $4,550 in campaign contributions from Washington chiropractors last April after their request for $2 million got restored to the state budget.

Heck denies any connection between their request for Medicaid funds to compensate welfare clients treated by chiropractors and the money kicked in to help him pay off a 1988 campaign debt.

The Department of Social and Health Services' funding for chiropractor patients got chopped from the 1989-91 state budget. The governor's office played a key role in its restoration early last year.

"There's no question it looks funny," said Heck, who, nevertheless, claimed the budget decision was made by Budget Director Len McComb.

Yeah, real funny... a barrel of laughs. McComb admitted he had discussed the matter with Heck, who was eager to pay off a campaign debt from one of his losing runs for office and "at least 90 chiropractors chipped in $4,550 to his campaign treasury in mid-April 1990, 17 months after the election campaign." Funny... and a coincidence? If Denny Heck wants to be a corrupt wheeler dealer, isn't that what the Republican Party is for. Why does the DCCC want to saddle us with another one like this?

Unlike the pitiful turnout for primaries in most states, Washington's vote-by-mail system is likely to generate as many as a quarter million voters, quadruple the number of people who vote in House primaries around the country. People in Olympia know Heck as a bully and a ruthless wheeler dealer but in WA-03 he's just the guy who's been endorsed by the outgoing Congressman Baird. Craig's going to need all the help we can give him. Please consider contributing to his campaign through Act Blue. When the Sierra Club endorsed him last week they pointed out that Craig would be continuing his work to protect the environment.

Pridemore has advocated for smart growth as a Clark County Commissioner and as a state legislator. He fought for increased transit funding and options as well as better land use policies. He wrote one of the country’s first successful pieces of legislation to cap greenhouse gasses. Senate Bill 6001 saved Washingtonians from asthma, heart disease, cancer and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Pridemore has worked to enhance economic opportunities to incentivize clean technology development. He proves that protecting the environment and promoting jobs can happen together; his bill directed state agencies to attract green business and prepare our work force for them.

"We are deeply grateful to Senator Pridemore for his work,” said Holly Forrest, a Sierra Club activist in Vancouver. "He is a true environmental champion who not only does the right thing on environmental issues, but also leads the fight to protect our state’s clean air, clean water and special places."

Along with the endorsement, the Sierra Club will lend its strength to Pridemore's campaign. "We pledge to do all we can to help ensure Craig Pridemore is elected," concluded Holly Forrest. "Scores of Sierra Club volunteers will contact voters on his behalf and we will speak to the public as often as possible about his exemplary environmental record. We look forward to a victory party for the environment on election night and to many more years of Senator Pridemore fighting for the environment as a US Representative.”

Blue America has worked with the Sierra Club on behalf of candidates in the past. I'd take them over the DCCC any day of the week.