Dan Lipinksi (D-IL)-- Worse Than A Blue Dog... Won't Endorse Obama

Not a leftover Halloween mask-- Rep. Dan Lipinski

About 5 years ago, Blue America started taking more than a passing interest in Illinois' most reactionary Democrat, Dan Lipinksi, a Tennessee shithead who inherited his seat from his father, also a corrupt right-wing asshole from the Daley school. We were happy to back Mark Pera in a primary race against Lipinski. Pera lost and Lipinksi veered even more sharply right. This cycle it looked like John Atkinson would challenge Lipinski but when the new boundaries were drawn, Atkinson was in another district. Yesterday he sent me this tweet:

Lipinksi has been an integral part of the Republican War Against Women. When Boehner and Cantor pass their ass-backwards bills that have no chance of being considered in the Senate, let along signed by the President, they know they can always count on Lipinski to help them call the insane junk legislation "bipartisan." That's Lipinski's roll in Congress. He's one of the most virulently anti-Choice and anti-gay Members of the House, worse than many Republicans. Next cycle we should make a real effort at Blue America to recruit and support a candidate to take him on and beat him in the 2014 primary. (If I lived in the 3rd district now, I'd be casting my ballot for Socialist Laura Anderson next Tuesday, as a protest vote.)

The 3rd is a solidly blue district. Obama beat McCain 64-35% and even under the more suburban new boundaries Obama would have prevailed 58-40%. But Lipinski won't say if he's voting for Romney or Obama next week and has publicly declined to endorse the president's reelection efforts. I think that may help us recruit a good candidate to run against him.

Lipinski voted against the health care bill, against a bill to ban employment discrimination against the LGBT community, against repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, is virulently anti-immigrant. He's the co-chair of the so-called "Pro-Life" Caucus and was an eager backer of Stupak-Pitts. And he's a warmonger to boot.

A Traitor In Our Battle To Stave Off The Republicans' War Against Women-- Dan Lipinski

The DC Democratic Establishment was out in force with a message yesterday: Stand Up For Women. They even have a nifty new Facebook page with pictures of Democratic heroes who do stand up for women-- like Jerry Nadler, John Conyers, Anthony Weiner, Louise Slaughter, Jackie Speier, Gwen Moore, Nita Lowey, Diana DeGette, and other members of the Pro-Choice Caucus. Understandably, you won't find a photo of Cook County's most conservative Member of Congress, Dan Lipinski (D-IL). You see, what they're all exercised about is the latest GOP anti-Choice craziness, which would force the IRS to conduct abortion audits. It's clearly a Republican bill but, like a lot of really extreme Republican bills, it can be called "bipartisan." That's because Boehner and Cantor have a patsy in the Democratic caucus: Lipinski. This is only the most recent unhinged, right-wing bill he's co-sponsoring with them:

Under a GOP-backed bill expected to sail through the House of Representatives, the Internal Revenue Service would be forced to police how Americans have paid for their abortions. To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?

In testimony to a House taxation subcommittee on Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee, confirmed that one consequence of the Republicans' "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" would be to turn IRS agents into abortion cops—that is, during an audit, they'd have to determine, from evidence provided by the taxpayer, whether any tax benefit had been inappropriately used to pay for an abortion.

The proposed law, also known as H.R. 3, extends the reach of the Hyde Amendment-- which bans federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is at stake-- into many parts of the federal tax code. In some cases, the law would forbid using tax benefits-- like credits or deductions-- to pay for abortions or health insurance that covers abortion. If an American who used such a benefit were to be audited, Barthold said, the burden of proof would lie with the taxpayer to provide documentation, for example, that her abortion fell under the rape/incest/life-of-the-mother exception, or that the health insurance she had purchased did not cover abortions.

"Were this to become law, people could end up in an audit, the subject of which could be abortion, rape, and incest," says Christopher Bergin, the head of Tax Analysts, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit tax policy group. "If you pass the law like this, the IRS would be required to enforce it."

The proposal, which House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has declared a top priority of the new Republican Congress, has 221 cosponsors and is expected to pass the House easily.

The two principal sponsors are deranged Republican anti-Choice fanatic Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Lipinski, whose role in this is something akin to a Judas goat-- to deliver Democratic votes. Among the right-wing Democrats joining Lipinski in this endeavor are a really unsavory lot of perpetual aisle-crossers: Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC), Mark Critz (PA), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), and Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK).

You would think the fact that Critz has had more DCCC money spent on him than almost anyone since Obama was elected might make the Beltway Democrats embarrassed to attack the Republicans for this nauseating legislation. Or the fact that Steve Israel is coordinating efforts with Heath Shuler on finding appropriately conservative nominees for 2012 congressional... you know, anti-Choice, antigay Democrats who will be counted on to vote with the GOP. But nooooooooo... nothing embarrasses these people. In fact just Thursday it was announced Lipinski signed on as the principal co-sponsor of another extremist Republican bill, this time with crackpots Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and Lord Boustany (R-LA), "bipartisan legislation to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act." The freaky little worm-like Lipinski (see photo above) has a function in life: allowing Republicans to call their uber-partisan insane legislation "bipartisan."

There's an adamantly pro-Choice, progressive Democrat, John Atkinson, running for the deep blue seat Lipinski is currently occupying. He's worth investing in. (And his supporters have a niftier Facebook page up: Stop The Repeal.)

Who Has The Courage To Stand Up For A Scapegoated Community Of Americans-- Not Dan Lipinski, That's For Sure

If you're not from Chicagoland you probably haven't heard of John Atkinson (yet). If you do live around the Windy City there's a chance you remember the full page ad (above) from last year, which ran in the Tribune, the Sun-Times and the Southtown Economist. The ads were put together and paid for by John and his wife Bonnie; I'm figuring they cost between $25 and $30,000. But they didn't work, Lipinski still bragging to this day-- and using Republican talking points in the process-- that he not only voted for the anti-Choice Stupak Amendment but that he was one of only 33 Democrats to cross the aisle and vote with Boehner against healthcare reform a year ago this month. Lipinski's ignoring the ads was part of the impetus that has made John throw his hat into the ring in seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Lipinski, one of the most corrupt and reactionary Democrats in Congress.

This weekend, John officially registered with ActBlue and he's looking like a progressive and principled candidate for sending a Democratic Establishment that countenances corporate shills and bigots like Lipinksi a good strong message. You can contribute to his campaign at the Blue America Democratic message page.

President Obama won Illinois' 3rd CD with 64% of the vote, about 5 points better than either Gore or Kerry did. It's a solid Democratic district and there is no reason the party needs to keep nominating a Republican-lite shill like Lipinski, whose politics are more in tune with his home in Tennessee than with Cook County. The 3rd has one of the highest concentrations of Muslim-Americans of any district in the country and yet Lipinski, who never shuts up about super-serving Polish-Americans and other ethnic groups represented in the district, has been silent about the plight of Muslim-Americans unfairly targeted by Republican bigot Peter King in his McCarthy-like Homeland Security hearings. The day after King began his anti-Muslim hysteria, I asked John Atkinson if he would be handling this situation differently than Lipinski. He graciously agreed to write a guest post for us:

Representative Peter King (R-NY)-- in the latest example of his Party's relentless pursuit of a narrow ideological agenda-- has found yet another way to distract this new Congress from focusing on the issues that really matter to American families and businesses. Instead of working together to create jobs, pass a responsible budget, address growing concerns about our dependence on nonrenewable resources and foreign oil, the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is spending their time investigating what they're calling "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." 

Unfortunately, these hearings aren't just a waste of taxpayer dollars, the King hearings are an affront to our hard-working, patriotic Muslim American neighbors; and an embarrassment to anyone who believes in the American principles of fairness and religious freedom. We have Muslim Americans dying in defense of our country, teaching our children, healing our sick, serving in Congress, and living next door. They are our friends and our fellow citizens. And, according to law enforcement officials, they are on the front lines of homeland security, working hard to identify and stop those who are or may be engaged in terrorist activities.

It is outrageous enough that Peter King and his Republican colleagues are leading the charge against our Muslim American neighbors. Something is deeply wrong in this country when we begin drawing lines to separate us from each other. We deserve leaders who will bring us together-- black and white, gay and straight, people of all religions and no religion at all, people of every language and every ethnicity-- to help us work together to meet the challenges that confront us all. 

There is no question that extremism is a threat to our security-– but extremism is not limited to any single group. On the day before Peter King opened these hearings, law enforcement officials arrested a neo-Nazi in a plot to murder 1500 Martin Luther King Jr. Day marchers in Spokane, Washington. And on the day the hearings opened, police arrested five people, including the head of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, an anti-government "Patriots" group, in a plot to murder judges and state troopers. (Source: Southern Poverty Law Center, http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/03/11/the-screaming-hypocrisy-of-peter-king/#more-6017)

Mr. King, why aren't we investigating "The Extent of Radicalization in the "you name the group" Community and that Community's Response"? Because, Mr. King, in America it is not OK to indict a whole community of people because of the illegal actions of a few. 

There have been times in our history when we look back and we know that our leaders, who claimed at the time to be acting in the interest of national security, got it horribly wrong. This is one of those times.

Blue America is getting to know John but my guess is that he's a very good prospect for an early endorsement. Like I said, right now you can help launch his primary campaign at our Sending the Democrats A Message page.

Congress' 2 worst anti-Choice fanatics, one from each party