Luis Garcia Withdraws From Congressional Race In Florida-- Blames Debbie Wasserman Schultz And Steve Israel

Last year DWT short-circuited for a few minutes when the DCCC, after identifying career criminal and woman beater David Rivera as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country, practically handed him reelection on a platter by recruiting Luis Garcia. At the time, I wrote, "It's as though Israel said, find me the worst garbage in the state and bring him to me. Voila-- Luis Garcia, a former member of the Democrats For Jeb Bush steering committee, who recently threatened to switch parties and join the Republicans."

Luis Garcia is a Steve Israel kind of Democrat, except for one thing-- he can't raise any money and he's as lazy as a log. Last month Israel started pressuring him to get out of the race, by recruiting another (equally lame) candidate. Monday night Luis Garcia stomped his feet, withdrew from the congressional race and threatened-- once again-- to leave the Democratic Party. I wish he'd take Steve Israel with him. He's running for County Commissioner against Bruno Barreiro and his sugar daddy, wealthy Republican auto magnate Norman Braman, to finance that race. (Braman and his wife have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the careers of right wing politicians, Republican front groups and a few super-corrupt Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz.)

"As I'm looking around, I think I can affect more issues here, at the local level," said Garcia, a former Miami Beach fire chief and later city commissioner, who in his six years in the Florida Legislature has represented many of the same constituents as Barreiro. "The way the county is managed right now, you have different kingdoms. A commissioner is basically a king ... They are not responsive to their constituents."

Garcia also said he will likely leave the Democratic Party and have no party affiliation because he is so disappointed with how national Democrats treated him in the Congressional campaign.

The question now for Democrats is whether they will be able to find a viable candidate able to raise enough money and enough of a profile to challenge Rivera.

Democrats have said they want to target Rivera's swing seat, which they see as winnable because Rivera has been under a cloud of investigations into his personal and campaign finances since before taking office.

However, the state investigation against Rivera has stalled, and the candidates Democrats have tried to recruit appear reluctant to run. Former Miami-Dade Commissioner Jimmy Morales said he is not running, and former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas told The Miami Herald on Friday that he was not sure he would jump in the race even if Garcia, as was rumored, dropped out.

...Predicted Garcia: "They're going to revive a couple of political cadavers that have lost other elections ... They missed a big opportunity to take that seat back."

Looks like ex-Democrat Luis Garcia was taking a potshot at solid Democrat Joe Garcia, the best possible candidate for the seat. (And it looks like he's considering jumping in. In fact he said, “I’m more than thinking about it, because clearly there are very few people who have the name recognition and the team and the possibility to put a campaign together for a United States congressional seat in a few weeks.”) Luis isn't right about much, but if it's left up to Israel and Wasserman Schultz, he isn't far from the mark. These two clowns can't do anything right.

And speaking of how lame and incompetent-- and thoroughly corrupt-- Steve Israel is, one of his mentors was in the Rolling Stone this week. No, not Vanilla Ice; Rick Perlstein took a shot at explaining how exactly Rahm Emanuel has a problem with democracy.

Rahm Emanuel is no friend of democracy.

You may have heard about the unprecedented restrictions on protest for the G8 that Emanuel rushed through the City Council-- the "sit down and shut up ordinances," Occupy Chicago calls them-- granting the mayor the power to deploy surveillance cameras across the city without approval or oversight, and quadrupling, to $200, the fine for rallying without a permit (and making said permit almost impossible to obtain). But did you hear about the nearly $200,000 contract for new full-face police shields-- Emanuel’s first deployment of his new power to purchase goods and services for the summit without City Council approval or competitive bidding? How about the solicitation of bids for medieval joust-style riot armor for police horses, or the provisions to deputize to the Chicago police "other law enforcement agencies as determined by the superintendent of police necessary for the fulfillment of law enforcement functions"-- a possible wedge for the introduction of private security firms like Xi, the former Blackwater.

The cops sure do love their new masks. Which has long-memoried Chicago lefties freaking out. "People have been known to throw bags of urine, human feces, and also inflammatories at officers," claims Mike Shields, the aptly named president of the Chicago police union, and the old shields "allow for fluids to drip through." In 1968, the city justified the beating of peaceful protesters at the Democratic National Convention with just such piss-and-shit claims, which were almost certainly urban legends, according to Chicago investigative journalist Lewis Z. Koch, who produced all the street footage at the convention for NBC news in 1968. Koch also finds contemporary parallels in the games the city played then with protesters' requests for permits to march near the action. People who want to protest will protest anyway, permits or not-- that's what happened in 1968-- but by complicating the permitting process the city ensures that the protesters who show up will be mainly the most committed extremists, raising the likelihood of violent confrontations. Perhaps that’s why Obama pulled the plug: He grasped that Mayor Emanuel's macho bullshit made an apocalyptic smackdown during "Occupy Spring" almost inevitable.

...What Rahm seems to be doing is building a new machine for our age of union busting and austerity. His budget, which the City Council passed 50 to 0 like it was some Soviet Party Congress (maybe it had something to do with the hundreds of thousands Goldner's PAC had to spend), killed six community mental health clinics, saving $2.3 million dollars, and proposed to carve $10 million and 110 union jobs from Chicago’s libraries; in the face of protest, he restored $5.3 million and 55 workers to the system, which Alter claims shows how flexible and magnanimous he is. As the progressive Chicago journalist Curtis Black points out, it’s instructive to compare that $7 million in precious, precious budget savings to some of the free public money he’s handed out to corporations. An animal testing company that serves Big Pharma, Experimur LLC, got $3.7 in "tax increment financing"-- basically a loan given with little public accountability that’s supposed to be paid back by the tax revenue future growth creates-- to save their 26 jobs: "It does appear that, job-wise, libraries get you a bigger bang for your buck," he told the Community Media Workshop’s publication Newstips. And he offered his second biggest campaign contributor, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange already a very profitable corporation, a TIF grant of $15 million for office renovations, including a luxury bathroom. (The CME turned the grant down.)

Welcome to the new machine: cuts to schools, libraries, and mental health; cash to corporations. And should you have the insolence to protest it– well, you’d better be able to afford a damned good lawyer.

How Badly Are Steve Israel And Debbie Wasserman Schultz Screwing Up? Don't Ask!

Normally DWT comes down on corrupt political hacks DCCC chair Steve Israel (NY) and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL) because they always push wealthy, Establishment conservatives over grassroots progressives and working class candidates. But if it wasn't so sad, I'd be laughing about how badly the two of them cocked up a district that was once widely considered the easiest red-to-blue get in the whole country, FL-25, currently held by a freshman wingnut drowning in ethics abuses and endless scandals, David Rivera, the one who beats up women. McCain won the district in 2008 (50-49%) but the Republican-controlled legislature showed what high regard in which they hold Rivera by redrawing his district so that Obama would have edged McCain instead. The new boundaries are better for a Democrat than our old pal Joe Garcia could have ever imagined when he decided to pass on challenging Rivera again. We'll come back to that in a minute.

I've been told by a very good source that the Fanjul brothers-- the big bucks behind the American sugar industry and major financial players for corrupt conservative politicians on both sides of the aisle-- count on Wasserman Schultz to guarantee the political viability of their Cuban right-wing Republican protégés in increasingly Democratic South Florida. As chairman of the DCCC's red-to-blue program, Wasserman Schultz did exactly that for her pals, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart in 2008, willfully wrecking the campaigns of their 3 Democratic opponents. That earned her a nice promotion to the head of the DNC, where she's doing an even worse job... for Democrats. Wasserman Schultz enforces a hard-line anti-Cuban position for the Fanjuls and makes sure that Cuban sugar can't be imported and they can keep the price of domestic sugar artificially high. They help her build her political power inside the Democratic Party in return.

I was shocked and appalled last year when the DCCC recruited an abysmal, notoriously lazy candidate for the seat, Luis Garcia, a former member of the Democrats For Jeb Bush steering committee, who not long ago threatened to switch parties and join the Republicans after he voted for one of the Florida GOP's crazed anti-Choice bills! I couldn't believe they were going to inflict this crap on us-- and in a district even clueless imbeciles like Israel and Wasserman Schultz realized was so, so ripe for the plucking.

So now they've managed to compound the damage by actually going around the back on the lame candidate they recruited a few months ago (Garcia) to find an even lamer candidate and probably the most likely Democrat in Miami Dade to guarantee that Rivera is reelected, former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas.

As usual, the Miami Herald is on top of the story, with all the nuances-- although this story is pretty straight forward and it's hard to believe that even someone as clueless as Wasserman Schultz, who vaguely runs the Florida show for DC Democrats, isn't getting it. Remember, knowing he was first and foremost a hard-liner on Cuba, Wasserman Schultz and Israel pestered Garcia to run against Rivera last year. He agreed. But he's lazy and the DCCC hasn't helped and he hasn't raised even close to the amount of money needed for the race. He blames-- publicly-- Wasserman Schultz, who has refused to help with the big donors.

“Every step of the way, I have met road blocks -- road blocks -- from Debbie Wasserman Schultz,” Garcia said.

The final insult came this week when Garcia fielded a call from former Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who is mulling a run for the seat.

“Alex said that he had been called by Debbie Wasserman Schultz and that Steve Israel had come down to meet with him, all behind my back,” Garcia said. “I placed a call to Steve Israel. He hasn’t returned my call. I’m not very happy about that.”

In a written statement, the congresswoman's spokesman Jonathan Beeton said: "The DCCC asked the Congresswoman to make a call to another candidate in South Florida. She does many calls to candidates for the DCCC and this was one of those calls."

Garcia acknowledges the high-level help for Penelas “doesn’t bode well. But it doesn’t say a lot of good things about the national party. At the very least, I was handled disrespectfully-- maybe a little bit dishonestly.”

Garcia isn’t planning to go away.

“I don’t lay down for anybody,” said Garcia, a former Miami Beach city commissioner nicknamed “El Bombero" for his time as fire chief. "I'm not going quietly."

Garcia pointed out that, under Penelas, Miami-Dade lobbyists and friends of the mayor got rich off airport contracts. Also, he knocked Penelas for supporting a half-cent sales tax for transit projects that didn’t do much to help transit projects.

“A lot of the problems in the county go back to Penelas. He had a large staff,” Garcia said. “A lot of his flunkies went to work in transportation, for instance, and look at the state of Dade’s transportation system.”

Rivera, by contrast, had only kind words for Penelas. "I've always considered Alex a friend.  He campaigned for me when I first got elected.  We've worked together on efforts for pre-k education and St. Thomas University.  And his wife is a wonderful person."

Garcia said things were so different last spring when Charlie Kelly, the DCCC’s southern political director, went so far as to try to call Garcia’s wife to get him to run. Garcia was then flown to Washington and said he met with Israel.

“You have to do this for your country,” Israel said, according to Garcia.

“What do we need to do in the Hispanic Caucus to get you to run for Congress?” said California Rep. Xavier Becerra in a separate meeting.

Said Garcia: “I was really made to feel wanted.”

“The promised help never really materialized. The first time I was supposed to meet with Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She kept postponing and postponing for two days and I couldn’t meet with her at the end because I didn’t want to miss my flight,” Garcia said.

He said he raised about $100,000 by mid-summer-- without Wasserman Schultz’s help. But Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer helped steer about $12,000 to him.

When he went back to a party event in Washington, he said Wasserman Schultz was offensively blunt.

“Boy, you guys are pathetic. You didn’t raise enough money,” she said, according to Garcia.

“It was embarrassing. I don’t know why,” Garcia said. “I thought I had a good relationship with Debbie. I thought she would help me with fundraising in South Florida. But she never did.”

And now Penelas, best known for having been called "the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America " by Al Gore in 2004, is getting cold feet about running. He's now an anti-Choice absolutist-- he was vaguely pro-Choice when he ran his disastrous Senate primary (in which he got 10%, losing both Miami-Dade and his own precinct-- which one would hope would alarm the phony-baloney head of the DNC. who makes believe this issue is paramount-- at least when she's talking about anti-Choice Republicans.

He's embarrassed that Florida Democrats are already scolding Israel and Wasserman Schultz for Penelas' horrific record on the environment. Miami-Dade environmentalists rank him right along with the worst of the GOP corporate shills and hate him for his "build anywhere" policies. As mayor he moved the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) line several times, allowing developers to encroach on the precious Everglades. Much to the dismay of Democrats and environmentalists, he attempted to convert the dormant Homestead Airforce base into a commercial development including an airport and it took President Clinton to finally shut him down.

A few days ago we wrote about another horrible fake-Democrat running, this one in Maryland, John Delaney who is best known as a Loan Shark. Maybe Steve Israel likes loan sharks. An exposé of a recent Republican mayoral candidate and his loan sharking business also revealed that Penelas has also engaged in the practice as well. Penelas's 52% interest loans were made public when he had to foreclose on an apartment building in Hialeah. The documents were made public during the foreclosure proceedings but have not been reported yet in any of the news media since Penelas is now a private citizen and not yet in the race. As soon as he jumps in, the 52% interest rate and his loan-sharking will become an issue.

Israel and Wasserman Schultz, almost seem determined to wreck the Democrats chance to win back the House. They ought to know that polling in 2004 showed that a majority of Miami Dade residents considered Penelas "corrupt" for creating a pay-to-play atmosphere in county hall where only well connected lobbyists prevailed. (Of course they probably don't see that as a real problem, just something that needs to be papered over.) Penelas is despised by rank and file Democrats for Gore, his positions on issues and the perception of corruption. Rivera is under federal and state investigation, has been unable to do any substantial fundraising ($92,833 cash on hand as of the beginning of January and $134,000 in debts). The district is better for Democrats but the party cannot win with an ethically and issue challenged candidate who is loathed by the base. Israel at least had the good sense to go to Joe Garcia before he settled on Luis Garcia-- but that was before the new boundaries were drawn. Wasserman Schultz has tried to torpedo Joe Garcia in the past-- not hard core anti-Cuba enough for her and the Franjuls-- but he's the obvious candidate with the best shot of winning the seat and turning it blue.

Who Remembers Culture Of Corruption Poster Boy David Rivera (R-FL)?

Election pamphlet from a Republican primary battle

This week at a Virginia fundraiser, Romney revealed that the 3 top contenders on his VP short list are 2 extreme right-wing governors-- Bob McDonnell of the host state and Chris Christie of New Jersey-- and Florida's superficial proto-fascist junior senator, Marco Rubio. Interestingly, one of Rubio's former roommates, chief lieutenants and gangsterish business partners, Rep. David Rivera made it onto another short list at the same time: the list of sitting congressmen being investigated by the FBI and IRS on criminal tax evasion charges. The scandal-plagued congressman, with astounding ethics questions that have followed his entire sleazy career, is being investigated because he didn't pay taxes on a secret million-dollar contract he signed in 2006 between a casino and a company he had his mother front for him!

Investigators are looking at whether taxes were paid on a secret million-dollar contract Rivera signed in 2006 to manage a campaign to expand gambling in Miami-Dade County.

Among those being interviewed by FBI and IRS agents is Lori Weems, an attorney who helped draw up the contract between the owners of a Miami casino and a company linked to Rivera. Her attorney, Andres Rivero, says at least five other people are being interviewed as witnesses.

Rivera has denied he was paid for his work. The contract was made through a company started by Rivera’s mother and later run by a close family friend.

The Miami Herald Rivera's hometown paper, is on the case and reported this week that the Feds are "examining undisclosed payments from a Miami gambling enterprise" to the larcenous congressman.

Agents with the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service have begun interviewing witnesses knowledgeable about a $1 million consulting contract between Flagler Dog Track — now known as Magic City Casino — and Millennium Marketing, a company co-owned by Rivera’s 70-year-old mother and her business partner, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

In the next few weeks, federal agents are scheduled to interview Lori Weems, a lobbyist and lawyer who drafted the consulting contract while representing the Magic City Casino, sources said. Earlier this year, FBI agents also interviewed Esther Nuhfer, a Miami lobbyist and political consultant with close ties to Rivera, sources said.

Members of the Havenick family, who own the Magic City Casino, have cooperated with investigators, who appear to be examining federal tax-evasion charges.

If that last line is accurate, it's probably the end of the road for Rivera... but no one knows if Rubio will be collateral damage. And this is on top of an on-going corruption probe into his outrageous campaign finance practices. The state Republicans are so embarrassed by Rivera's antics that they are considering adding Key West to his district to make it bluer (while making neighboring Ileana Ros-Lehtinen safer). There are few districts anywhere more likely to oust a Republican incumbent this year and replace him with a Democrat.

So, needless to say, the DCCC has come up with the absolute worst politician they could find in the area to put up against him, a legislator from a neighboring district, Luis Garcia, who was on the steering committee of Democrats For Jeb Bush and was more recently threatening to switch parties-- after voting for one of the Florida GOP's crazed anti-Choice bills! This is a primo seat that can be won by a Democrat... unless the DCCC screws it up by making sure there isn't one in the race.

Michigan As Microcosm For Democratic Party Doom... Or Renaissance?

Yesterday we looked at Ken Quinnell's crowd sourced study of which state legislatures were the worst in the country. The big 3 were, Wisconsin, Florida and, at #1 worst, Arizona. I was surprised Michigan only came in at the 10th worst. After all, Rick Snyder and his zombie legislators are attacking the foundations of democracy itself and seem to be on the path to full on fascism. Of course, Michigan has a long and sordid history of flirting with fascism. So Snyder's actions this year aren't considered beyond the pale in many Michigan circles.

Michigan became the first state to pass a Financial Martial Law bill, giving unelected emergency managers extensive powers to run local governments without oversight from local officials, effectively eliminating democracy in areas of the state that hit hard financial times.

The law granted sweeping new authority to appointed managers, including powers to cancel or renegotiate union contracts, sell off assets and privatize public services. In Detroit, the school district’s emergency manager, Robert Bobb, announced shortly after the passage of the bill that 8 schools would be closing and 45 others bid out to private charter operators; in April, he issued layoff notices to every teacher and staff member in the district. In Benton Harbor, manager Joseph Harris issued an executive order effectively stripping all city boards and commissions from taking any action whatsoever.

Word is if you are an orphan, Michigan isn't the place to be, since the state is cutting money to help orphaned children get clothes. The Michigan legislature also doesn't seem to like LGBT people much, as it tried to punish universities that give benefits to same-sex domestic partners.

Non-Michiganders were exposed to what the GOP was up to in that state for the first time this spring with this report from Rachel Maddow:





So perfect for a Democratic takeover, right? Um... maybe... if enough voters decide they can get excited about choosing between the lesser of two evils. Last week Eric Baerren did a study of Michigander's attitudes towards the state's Democratic Party. Pretty bad! His conclusion: "Michigan Democrats hate the Michigan Democratic Party" and that "50 percent of Democratic voters in Detroit think that the Michigan Democratic Party is out of date and too focused on the past."

When asked who is the best Democratic leader in Michigan, most Democratic voters in the latest Denno Research poll, conducted on behalf of Michigan Liberal and First Shift with Tony Trupiano, said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. Levin got 34.5 percent of votes. Coming in second? "I have no idea," or "None of the above," with 31 percent, edging out Debbie Stabenow 26.3 percent. Mark Brewer, the state party chairman, came in second to last with barely above percent.

Know who does well with Michigan Democrats, probably better than anyone else? Barack Obama. We've heard a lot about the possibility that Obama could lose his base support next year. They like his economic policies (well, except in the U.P.), they like his war policy, they think he's struck the right tone, they think they're better off since he was inaugurated. Right now, according to this poll, Obama will have his base support, especially since it's pretty clear that Democratic voters really, really don't like what Republicans are doing right now.

The people that need to worry about losing their base support is, in fact, the Michigan Democratic Party (my guess is that they've already done it). In every relevant question, the MDP polled poorly. Michigan Democrats and independent voters who vote for Democrats blame poor messaging and leadership for much of last year's wipeout, and in a poll of the best Democratic leader, Mark Brewer beat out only Gretchen Whitmer (which was itself surprising).

Taken as a whole, I think what this poll is, is a giant no-confidence vote in the Michigan Democratic Party among Democrats and progressives. To that bloc of voters, the MDP is wallowing in the past, rudderless, out of date, and too reliant on organized labor.

As angry as Michigan voters are at Snyder and his right-wing legislators, "they place a surprising level of blame for their party's failures last year on lackluster candidates and message... Nearly 50 percent [of respondents] said it was a combination of lousy candidates, bad messaging and a lack of leadership at the top."

How indicative is the Democratic Party mess in Michigan of a national malaise across the country? My gut tells me, very. It's why so many millions of Democrats and left-leaning independents stayed away from the polls entirely in 2010 and let the teabaggers take over the House. No one was enthusiastic about seeing malevolent slimebags like Boehner and Cantor take over but voters were repulsed by the empty promises from Obama and the reactionary politics of the Blue Dogs and other corrupt ConservaDems. So they let them go down to a well-earned defeat. More than half the Blue Dogs were driven from Congress. But did the DCCC learn a thing? Absolutely not. They immediately named an "ex" Blue Dog, conservative hack Steve Israel, to head the committee and started recruiting the exact kind of candidates the voters had just defeated-- in many cases, the very same people, like conservative shills Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona and, reportedly, Chris Carney in Pennsylvania. And some of the DCCC's "new" faces dredged up by Israel are even more disgusting.

Republican mobster David Rivera (FL-25) is probably the most vulnerable Republican incumbent anywhere. Florida Republicans are so embarrassed by his behavior and his blatant corruption that they're considering adding Democratic-leaning Key West to his district to help get rid of him (and make Ileana Ros Lehtinen safer). So what does the DCCC come up with to fight Rivera? It's as though Israel said, find me the worst garbage in the state and bring him to me. Voila-- Luis Garcia, a former member of the Democrats For Jeb Bush steering committee, who recently threatened to switch parties and join the Republicans.

Similarly, in Albuquerque, the DCCC recruited an anti-union, anti-environment corporate shill, Marty Chavez, to run for the open congressional seat, despite the fact that the state's leading progressive legislator, Eric Griego, was already a declared candidate.

And the DSCC is busy trying to get reactionary Blue Dogs Joe Donnelly (IN) and Jim Matheson (UT), who consistently vote with Boehner and Cantor on key issues, to run for Senate seats. Is there any wonder that ordinary working voters are disgusted with the Democratic Establishment in DC? And that's not even to mention Obama offering to make the Republicans' dreams come true with more devastating tax breaks for the rich coupled with catastrophic cutbacks to Social Security and Medicare. Yes, a "D" is better than an "F"... but how much better? Enough to get you to bother to go vote?