Moderate Republicans? Has Anyone Spotted A Live One In Congress Since Sherry Boehlert?

No friends of Darrell Issa's, the American Association of Letter Carriers endorsed Richard Hanna for reelection

Yes… Mark Pocan, the intensely progressive freshman from Wisconsin insists he knows a genuine moderate Republican. Richard Hanna (R-NY) defeated disappointing conservative Mike Arcuri in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010 to win back Boehlert's old upstate New York seat (Utica, Rome, Binghamton). The district-- now NY-22-- has a PVI of R+3 but was a 49-49% tie in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012. Last year Hanna was reelected 61-39% and won all 8 counties in the district including blue Broome County. This year Hanna's 15.79 ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is far worse than even the 3 most right-wing Democrats, John Barrow (20.87), Jim Matheson (24.35) and Ron Barber (25.00).

So what makes him a "moderate?" Well, he's one of only 6 Republicans in the House who refused to sign Grover Norquist's shrink the government and drown it pledge and he's a major supporter-- financially-- of Planned Parenthood… and voted against the GOP attempt to defund it. He also voted against their crazy attempt to defund NPR. At the same time, he's pretty bad on a wide range of issues that moderate cherish, like economic fairness and preserving the environment in a way that makes the planet habitable by humans.

Still he endorsed Jon Huntsman for president, was one iof only two Republicans to vote against shutting down the government over Obamacare (which he opposes) and he's voted against GOP attempts to gut abortion laws. He's also one of only two Republicans to back same sex marriage-- and the other one, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, has one of the country's biggest LGBT communities in her district. He doesn't. And he joined the House LGBT Equality Caucus.

And that brings us to why Mark Pocan claims Hanna is a rare member of the nearly extinct breed of Republican moderates. Pocan and his husband got married in Toronto. Wisconsin doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. Mark sees him as an overall decent and caring guy. That counts for something. But when Hanna found out about how Mark's Canadian nuptials wouldn't be recognized in Wisconsin, he offered to have Mark and his husband, Philip, fly to New York where he could officiate over a wedding. OK, that doesn't sound like any of the Republicans I've gotten used to seeing parading across the TV spreading dissension and hatred. Still, to me, he sounds like a decent, mainstream conservative, not a reactionary, which is what most Republicans in Congress are today. Listen to these two clips, the first from 2 years ago and the second from a month ago:

Conservatives In France Completely Repudiated-- What About In Savannah And Utica?

Reactionary Blue Dog John Barrow (GA) may well be the first victim of last night's healthcare reform vote when he faces Regina Thomas in July 20th's Democratic primary. And in New York the primary isn't until September 14-- with filing open until July 15-- so the rumors about brilliant Columbia University professor Les Roberts mounting a populist challenge against anti-healthcare Blue Dog Mike Arcuri could turn into either a primary challenge or a run on the Working Families Party line. We'll be watching... closely. In fact, this coming Saturday, Regina Thomas will be live blogging about her primary at Crooks and Liars (2pm, EST).

But there was another important vote yesterday besides the one in the House. It was in France and the conservatives got absolutely wiped off the face of the map by the French people. The ruling conservatives lost every single region except for Alsace, tantamount to the Republicans losing every state but... Alaska, Idaho or... Arizona, someplace off in a corner by itself.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right party was soundly defeated in the final round of France's regional elections held Sunday, in a sign of widespread disapproval of the administration two years before the next presidential election.

A coalition of left-wing parties successfully garnered 54.3% of the vote, versus 36.1% for the right, according to an Opinion Way preliminary poll. The far-right National Front party won 8.7% of national votes, but took more than 20% of votes in certain regions... Sarkozy's lavish vacations and expensive clothing as well as some occasionally vulgar outbursts caught on tape have fueled disapproval, she said.

The government's attempts at cutting back on spending, including state-financed jobs, while threatening to increase the age of retirement have also not helped its popularity.

When the economy is in crisis, people tend to "favor leftist policies, because they want more state protection . . . and now they think the Socialists will protect them," said [political analyst Isabelle] Veyrat-Masson.

Isabelle comes at lot closer to the problem that the snark about the fancy clothes and vulgar behavior. In my latest report from the Thom Hartmann/Adam Curtis intellectual front, we saw how America and British elites-- about 1% of the population of each country-- had managed to grab up 50% of the national wealth and how FDR's New Deal had scaled that back and helped create a vibrant middle class, until Reagan, the Bushes and Clinton (plus Thatcher and Tony Blair) came along-- in what Hartmann identifies as a coup from the elites-- and turned things back to a point where "the top 0.1 percent of U.S. wage earners are back up over 6 percent-- a 100 percent increase over the 1940-1980 New Deal era-- and the wealth owned by the top 1 percent is now back over 50 percent." And you saw how adapt they were yesterday at making angry white brainwashed people dance to their tune at the outrage of Democrats trying to-- basically-- tax the rich to provide healthcare for all.

It's a coup that most Americans and Britons don't even know happened, although citizens are often baffled when they look at today's French-- where the elites were not able to pull off the coup-- and see in France a strong middle class, one of the world's best healthcare systems, free college education, and a more equitable distribution of both wealth and income. (Although, with the election of neoliberal [that's a way of saying "conservative"] Nicolas Sarkozy, the coup is now under way in France, too.)

But it just hit a huge speed bump.

IN PLAY-- BIG TIME-- NY-24. SHERRY BOEHLERT FINALLY PACKS IT IN. MIKE ARCURI LIKELY TO PAINT THIS DISTRICT BEAUTIFUL BRIGHT BLUE

For a Republican, Sherwood Boehlert wasn't that horrendous. But his voting record wasn't something to cheer. Yes, he's definitely to the left of Vlad the Impaler (especially on abortion, the environment and on education issues but he was usually worse than Lieberman, worse than Jim Marshall, worse than Melissa Bean... worse than the most reactionary Democrat in either House-- much worse. The last of an already dead breed, Rockefeller Republicans, Boehlert, first elected in 1982, has long been rumored to be sick of the right-wing nut cases who have taken control of his party (I mean imagine being the chairman of the House Science Committee with these kooks and religionist fanatics in charge!!) and ready to retire. Friday he did.

My old college house-mate came from this virtually all-white central New York district and she was Boehlert's niece. He always seemed like a decent enough guy-- for a Republican. Boehlert won in 2004 with 57% (with the neo-fascist he had beaten in the Repug primary, David Walrath, a Club For Growth shill, running as a Conservative and taking almost 10% of the vote). In 2002 the Democrats hadn't even bothered to field a candidate and Boehlert won with 71% (with the neo-fascist Walrath running on the Conservative Party line). In 2004 Bush had 53% and in 2000 he had barely beaten Gore, 48% v 47%. Walrath's campaign was hampered because he hadn't been paying his taxes.

Conservative State Senator Ray Meier is the favorite to succeed Boehlert, but he’s no moderate. Meier is 100% anti-choice, 100% against stem-cell research, and was 1 of only 8 State Senators to vote against raising the minimum wage in New York State. Also running is a real Wingnutia kook named Brad Jones, mayor of Seneca Falls. It promises to be very costly and very bloody and it is a very late primary (September 12 , less than 2 months in front of the general election), putting the GOP at a distinct disadvantage to the unified Democrats (for a refreshing change).

Mike Arcuri is the Democrat who might have been able to beat Boehlert and can certainly take on either Meier or the drooling nutcase from Seneca Falls. He's the first Democratic District Attorney for Oneida County in 40 years, and one of only three in the history of the County, which makes up about a third of the votes in the district. He is a nightmare to the Republicans because he is tough and a proven vote getter in a Republican County.  The guy has been reelected three times and is even respected and popular among local Republicans. His website indicates that he's not some kind of DCCC patsy who will be pushed around by Emmanuel and Hoyer. He's forthright and clear on the controversial issues that they have demanded Democratic challengers avoid. He wants our troops out of Iraq; he flat out will fight to support women's right to choice; he's going to be the bain of law-breaking Republicans' existence with his stand on illegal wiretapping; and when it comes to the Republican's favorite hot button issue, the demonization of gay men and women, Arcuri doesn't waffle: "I oppose unwarranted government interference in the private lives of consenting adults, and I support laws that provide equal benefits, for all citizens, to health and life insurance, inheritance and other basic rights like hospital visitation." Here's a guy with guts, brains and charisma who's going to make a really great addition to the U.S. House of Representatives.

He was strongly endorsed by his main Democratic primary opponent, Les Roberts in a unity move, and about a month ago another Democrat who wanted to challenge Boehlert, Cortland Mayor Bruce Tytler also dropped out. Democrats in the district are on fire for Arcuri and their enthusiasm is going to go a long way towards painting this district blue. New York's hugely popular Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate, Eliot Spitzer is campaigning for Mike too and Hillary Clinton will probably take some time out from her jihad to re-elect Joe Lieberman in order to lend Mike a hand too. You want to help? You can volunteer here and you can make a small donation here.