How The DCCC Promotes The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party While Kicking Progressives To The Curb

It's been a lonely decade blowing the whistle on Blue Dogs, New Dems and the DCCC... but lonely no more. Lee Fang and Ryan Grim have been doing great work at The Intercept, Cenk does a good job, and yesterday's post by Michael Sainato, The NRA’s Favorite Democrat Is Helping Shape 2018 Midterm Elections, was a stupendous take down of one of Congress' worst right-wing Democrats, Texas Blue Dog Henry Cuellar-- right up there with Kyrsten Sinema, Dan Lipinski and Collin Peterson. He wrote that Cuellar, once known as George W. Bush's favorite Democrat, is "an NRA ally with an A+ rating, has voted with Trump over 64 percent of the time, the most of any Democrat in Congress, though his district leans +9 in favor of Democrats according to Cook Political Report. Hillary Clinton won Cuellar’s district by 19 points in the 2016 Presidential Election."

Though Vice recently rated Cuellar as the “top Democrat in Congress who warrants a progressive primary challenger,” [along with fellow Blue Dogs Collin Peterson, Kyrsten Sinema, Tom O'Halleran, Josh Gottheimer, Stephanie Murphy, Jim Costa, Dan Lipinski and Lou Correa + New Dem Scott Peters] he is running unopposed in the primary and general election. Cuellar’s lack of opposition in his district has enabled him to support Republicans’ agenda, while asserting himself into Democratic Party leadership. DCCC Chair Ben Ray Lujan serves as co-chair of the DCCC Latino Council with Cuellar, who also serves as co-chair of the Blue Dog PAC and chair of the Blue Dog Coalition in Congress. DCCC Chair Lujan told Bloomberg in July 2017 that Blue Dogs have “been incredible partners” in developing the party strategy for the 2018 midterm elections, as nine of the DCCC backed candidates so far have been endorsed by the Blue Dog PAC.

Listen to Cuellar on Fox News with Tucker Carlson right after the NRA/GOP massacre in Parkland, sucking up to Republicans and the NRA while confusing viewers that he's a Democrat. These are the 9 worse-than-worthless right-wing Blue Dogs backed by the DCCC so far this year. They all aspire to be just like Cuellar... and that's just fine with hypocrites like Ben Ray Lujan, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer:

• Brad Ashford (NE)
• the NRA's Anthony Brindisi (NY)
• Paul Davis (KS)
• Brendan Kelly (IL)
• Conor Lamb (PA)
• Ben McAdams (UT)
• Dan McCready (NC)
• Max Rose (NY)
• the NRA's Jeff Van Drew (NJ)

Sainato explains that the DCCC is embracing Cuellar and his toxic strategies for the midterms "despite his open embrace of the NRA and other nefarious industries." Maybe despite... maybe because they like exactly what Cuellar is. "So far this election cycle, Cuellar’s largest campaign donor is the private prison company, the GEO Group, which has benefitted from lucrative government contracts for private immigration detention centers." [I'm sure influential Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz aren't complaining about that.] "Given that Rep. Cuellar’s congressional district extends to the U.S.-Mexico border, these donations are problematic in undermining progressive efforts to abolish the private prison industry that has perpetuated mass incarceration for profit. During the Obama Administration, Rep. Cuellar joined Republicans on immigration and border policies, drawing criticism from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Cuellar launders this tainted money into the DCCC and last year gave them $150,000 over and above his dues. That buys a lot of influence in Lujan's totally and disgustingly corrupt committee. Politico reported that "Blue Dog and DCCC staffers now meet on a weekly basis, and leaders of the centrist coalition say the campaign arm is working hand in hand with them on recruitment."

The influence of the Blue Dogs in DCCC recruitment is evident in the candidates endorsed by the DCCC, many of whom are facing progressive challengers in primaries. As part of the DCCC’s Red to Blue Program, the Democratic Party is manufacturing primary nominees who have long records in support from the National Rifle Association. In New Jersey, the DCCC, the Blue Dog Caucus, and several County Democratic Party Chairs are rallying behind Jeff Van Drew to run in the second congressional district. Van Drew has a “100 percent” rating from the NRA during his tenure as a State Senator.

Elaine Luria (NRA-VA)

The DCCC is backing several other candidates with NRA and gun lobby ties. In the New York State Assembly, Congressional Candidate in the 22nd district, Anthony Brindisi, joined Republicans to oppose the 2013 gun control legislation, SAFE Act and received a “100 percent” rating from the NRA in 2017. In Virginia, candidate Elaine Luria voted for the NRA “A” rated Republican incumbent Scott Taylor in her district twice in the 2016 Republican Primary and General Election. Conor Lamb, the Democrat candidate in Pennsylvania special election in the 18th district, has dodged taking a stance in favor of gun control, instead emphasizing mental health. Ann Kirkpatrick who is running for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District after a failed Senate bid in 2016, received an “A” rating from the NRA in 2012 and previously praised the organization, though she has shifted to the left on the issue since.

The NRA’s most recent federally backed legislation was a house vote in December 2017 to allow non-residents of a state the ability to conceal carry guns in states that permit it. Six Democrats voted in favor of the bill with Republicans, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI). In the 2016 election cycle, Cuellar, Bishop, Peterson and Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN) were the only House Democrats to receive donations from the NRA.

In media appearances, Rep. Cuellar has consistently reaffirmed his NRA friendly positions on guns. He appeared on Fox News in October 2017 to affirm that Democrats should not “politicize” the Las Vegas mass shooting by calling for gun control, a Republican talking point. The DCCC sent out an email to candidates emphasizing this stance after the shooting.

The next month, Rep. Cuellar told NBC’s Meet the Press, “if somebody wants to kill somebody, they will find a way,” when asked about gun control as a solution to mass shootings in the wake of the Springland shooting in his own district. Rep. Cuellar’s office did not respond to a request for comment on his gun control stances or involvement with the DCCC.

In addition to these Democrats, Rep. Darren Soto (D-FL), first elected to Congress in 2016, has a long record of support from the NRA in the Florida State Legislature, receiving several “A” ratings and voting in 2015 to strengthen the controversial Stand Your Ground law.

The NRA support for Democrats has waned over recent years as the party has trended more in favor of gun control measures, to the point where even past NRA allies like Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) are finding themselves opposing the organization that formerly provided them financial backing. But the DCCC and Democratic Party’s open support for more candidates with NRA leanings suggests party leadership is favoring a trend further right, in opposition to progressives pushing the party to the left.

Tragic: Nancy Pelosi Is As Unpopular As Paul Ryan

Recently, DC elections pundit Dave Wasserman aimed a harsh barb at DC Democrats: "If more than 50% of your '16 voters lived in just 9 states & 94 of America's 3,141 counties... you're probably not a healthy national party." Fact is, neither party is healthy. I don't care about the other party but is the Democratic Party salvageable? As they have mentioned themselves, the best thing the Democrats have going for them-- not that it's enough-- is Trump. His plummeting job approval numbers are now below 1/3 for the first time. He's not on the ballot in 2018 and the only way voters can express that disapproval will be by replacing Paul Ryan with @IronStache, replacing Darrell Issa with Doug Applegate, replacing Ron Estes with Jim Thompson, replacing Ted Cruz with Beto O'Rourke and dozens more congressional Republicans with progressive Democrats-- from "the red district" in Maine to all 4 red districts in Orange County. (A bonus would be seeing Democrats clean their own house and get repeal and replace their own disasters like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Dan Lipinski, Joe Crowley, Kyrsten Sinema... even Pelosi, all of whom have spirited primary challengers this cycle.)

Recently we did an unscientific poll asking twitter users who they would rather have campaigning for them if they were congressional candidates, top Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer or Joe Crowley or an iron worker named Randy Bryce who's never been elected to anything outside his union. 88% picked Bryce (and not one person picked Crowley, the likely post-Pelosi/Hoyer Democratic House leader). This is in line with what I'm hearing from actual congressional candidates. Virtually no one wants Pelosi, Hoyer, Crowley, Wasserman Schultz, Tom Perez or Ben Ray Lujan coming to their districts to campaign for them publicly. Instead, everyone wants Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, the Obamas, Ted Lieu, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Keith Ellison... and Randy Bryce. That's too painful for DCCC leaders to hear or wrap their heads around, let alone to think about changing the entirely counterproductive, dysfunctional way the DCCC operates.

How do people get to be party leaders in Congress? The simple answer is that the members elect them. The more accurate answer is that they purchase the loyalty of their colleagues, usually with vast sums of cash they raise from special interests. "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has reportedly raised $25.9 million in 2017 through hosting 124 lavish fundraising galas across the country to boost the campaign coffers of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)," wrote Michael Sainato yesterday. "Herein lies the primary reason she has kept her leadership position despite her unpopularity with voters and even her own colleagues, who have lost faith in her ability to lead. In a recent survey of 20 House Democratic candidates, only one would vocally support Pelosi. This survey comes just weeks after several congressmen spoke out about the need for leadership change. 'President Putin probably has a better approval rating in Georgia than Nancy Pelosi,' said David Kim, a candidate in Georgia’s Seventh Congressional District, in an interview with McClatchyDC."

Since the 2016 election, Pelosi has made several gaffes and contradicted the Democratic Party’s messaging as she fights to preserve the party establishment’s status quo.

In December 2016, she reduced calls for reform by saying in an interview, “I don’t think Democrats want a new direction.”

During a CNN town hall in February 2017, she condescendingly told a millennial who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders, “We’re capitalists, that’s just the way it is,” in response to a question about why Democrats don’t embrace Sanders’ policies. She went on to explain that Democrats should strive for compassionate capitalism.

After Georgia special congressional election candidate Jon Ossoff lost partially due to Republicans aligning him with Pelosi, several Democrats began speaking out about the need for change in party leadership. Pelosi’s abrasiveness toward progressives and Sanders supporters inspired a primary challenger, Stephen Jaffe, to face her in the 2018 Democratic primaries.

Recently, Pelosi’s obliviousness to the party’s problems have been even more apparent than usual. She essentially reduced the Democrats’ new platform and Better Deal slogan to a marketing campaign when she said the change is “not a course correction but a presentation correction.”

On July 30, she told Fox News that she is “a master legislator.” Her actions and rhetoric demonstrate that she favors maintaining her own political power and that of the Democratic establishment over entertaining the possibility that her poor leadership has been poisoning the party. “We have unity in our own party. You saw it with the fight on the Affordable Care Act in the House and in the Senate,” Pelosi insisted.

The only unity Pelosi has been able to achieve is with the party’s donors. In November 2016, she attended a closed door conference with donors to perform an autopsy of the 2016 election. In 2017, she has used her super PAC, the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund, to raise money for herself and the DCCC. The fund is similar in structure to Hillary Clinton’s controversial Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee with the DNC, which Politico reported was used to essentially launder money to the Clinton campaign. So far this year, about $1.2 million has passed through the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund. Another committee, Nancy Pelosi for Congress, has received over $1.2 million in campaign contributions in 2017. Her leadership PAC, called PAC to the Future, has received over $300,000 so far this year, including $2,500 from Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s super PAC.

The Washington Post reported that Pelosi racked up million-dollar fundraising hauls at “a trio of ‘Speaker’s Cabinet’ VIP events this year in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.” Some of the top donors listed donations of $16,200 each via employees from the investment bank Moelis & Company, private venture capital firm Ambex Venture Partners, Regis Management Investment Advising Firm, Klein Financial, Francisco Partners Private Equity Firm and DFJ Venture Capital. Max contributors and Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund donors include DNC Treasurer William Derrough, lobbyist Michael Berman, oil tycoon heirs Gordon and Ann Getty, former Bill Clinton adviser Tom Werner, billionaire George Marcus and former White House Press Secretary under Obama and now Amazon Senior VP James Carney.

The fact that Nancy Pelosi, one of the top Democratic Party leaders, is courting donors in the same manner that has poisoned the Democratic Party’s reputation confirms that Democrats have learned nothing from their losses. Instead of revamping the party through grassroots organizing and fundraising, Pelosi travels the country with billionaires and corporate executives. Nothing in the Democratic Party will ever change until politicians who prefers donors over voters are removed from leadership roles.

One of New York's sleaziest conservative members of Congress, at least among Democrats, Long Island New Dem Kathleen Rice, recently told the media that House Democrats "need leadership change. It's time for Nancy Pelosi to go, and the entire leadership team." Many right-of-center politicians like Rice have long opposed Pelosi, but now even liberals and progressives are sick of her and just want her to take Hoyer and Crowley and Wasserman Schultz and go away. One member of Congress told me that "The current leadership team is old and in the way... As you said in your blog last week, Nancy's expiration date is long past due. The idea of Hoyer or Crowley as leader really makes me sick though." What a way to wade into the 2018 midterms!




The DNC: Crawling From The Wreckage

Many say Obama's first appointment after being elected was his worst appointment ever. That would be Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff and I couldn't argue against the characterization. But, keep in mind that it was Obama who also appointed Debbie Wasserman Schultz to chair the DNC. Wassermann Schultz had tried-- really hard bribes flying-- for the DCCC chair and Pelosi snubbed her by picking the equally worthless Steve Israel for the job. Wasserman Schultz's self-pitying caterwauling was so loud and unceasing that Obama gave her the DNC job just to shut her up. What, after all, could go wrong?

Well, she stunk the place up so bad, she had to be fired but her stench has damaged-- severely damaged-- the core of the organization, perhaps fatally. Establishment hacks go wild when someone reminds them that Wasserman Schultz and her DNC did all they could to fix the primaries for Hillary Clinton, helping the worst possible candidate to win the nomination and, setting in motion a series of events that led to the country's biggest political catastrophe since the Civil War.

Today, the DNC is still a smoldering ruin-- primarily because Obama insisted that his guy, Tom Perez, be the new chair. The Democratic base isn't buying it and the DNC is essentially bankrupt. Michael Sainato wrote last month that "The organization reported that May 2017 was its worst fundraising month since the Iraq War in 2003, and April 2017 was its worst fundraising month since 2009. In May, the DNC also reported that it has $1.9 million in debt. Despite the fact that former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez was recruited by Barack Obama to appease the party’s donors, lobbyists and PACs, even they have refused to prop up the failing brand.

Democratic voters have so far refused to fill the fundraising void left by the party’s corporate and wealthy donors. Tom Perez is a painful reminder that the Democratic establishment has suppressed reforms that would prove to voters that the party is prioritizing their interests. Democratic leadership subverted pro-Sanders DNC chair candidate Congressman Keith Ellison’s candidacy, ignored demands to ban superdelegates, and failed to re-enact the ban on lobbyist and PAC donations that Debbie Wasserman Schultz lifted to enable Hillary Clinton to keep up with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ fundraising. Perez’s Unity Tour with Bernie Sanders backfired; he was met with boos at several of the tour’s stops and supporters showed up in favor of Sanders-- not the DNC.

Every opportunity for reform has been shut down by leadership, and Clinton campaign officials have been rewarded with leadership positions in the party or cushy mainstream media gigs. Facing calls for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to step down, top Democrats have made excuses for her unpopularity and the fact that Democratic congressional candidates lose when opponents say the candidate is her ally. Perez gave Keith Ellison a fabricated position as deputy DNC chair, which Ellison has used to try to manufacture party unity while the party’s establishment remains in power. In May 2017, former Emily’s List Executive Director and Clinton supporter Jess O’Connell was appointed to DNC CEO. Even though former DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile left resigned in embarrassment after leaked emails revealed she violated the DNC Charter to help the Clinton campaign, she has remained on the organization’s payroll and the DNC sent out two separate fundraising emails from her in July.

Instead of acknowledging that reform is needed to change the direction of the party, Democratic leadership is doubling down on failed strategies and rallying behind unpopular, failing leadership. The DNC has tried to enthuse its supporters with marketing campaigns and slogans, but its efforts have fallen short.

...The DNC has failed to salvage its reputation after former Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned in disgrace for rigging the Democratic presidential primaries. The DNC needs a drastic overhaul to recoup its losses. The party needs to stop relying on Trump’s ineptitude and develop clear messaging of its own. Unfortunately, the current Democratic leadership isn’t capable of mitigating failure in this respect.

This kind of thing is great for late night TV ratings but if this is what the Democratic Party is counting on to wingback Congress-- this and a slate of sub-par "ex"-Republican self funders and Blue Dogs as candidates-- they won't. Voters don't care about this and they don't care about the careers of self-absorbed politicians; they care about what the politicians offer them.