The Norcross Machine Is Determined To Pick Another Congress Member To Replace Their Jeff Van Drew

The DCCC had been trying to recruit Jeff Van Drew for years. He was the perfect candidate for them-- a South Jersey machine-backed hack in the state legislature who tended to vote with the GOP more frequently than any of his colleagues. Although Obama comfortably won the district (NJ-02) twice, the long-time mainstream conservative congressman, Frank LoBiondo, seemed untouchable. The machine and the DCCC decided that the only way too beat him would be with an extremely right-wing Democrat: Van Drew. But Van Drew wasn’t interested in giving up his safe seat. So he flirted with the DCCC but never but out-- until LoBiondo announced he was finished… and retiring. At that point, Van Drew jumped right in with support for the machine, the DCCC and even his colleagues in the state Senate who were eager to be rid of him and pass the Van Drew problem on to DC Dems. “We were delighted,” one of his former Trenton colleagues told me, “to see him take his anti-environmental, anti-gay, anti-women, NRA A+ to Washington… Good riddance!”

His decision to jump the fence didn’t surprise anyone in Jersey politics-- and shouldn’t have surprised anyone who reads DWT since we had been predicting it for months… and celebrating it once knew for certain that he was about to make it official. Reactionary Blue Dogs-- especially intellectually-impaired ones and especially ones who live at Fox News the way he does and who say the kinds of anti-Democratic crap he does, usually switch parties. It was just a matter of when. A couple of days ago, Ben Jacobs of New York Magazine explained how it happened. Basically, he wrote “Van Drew panicked. Last week, the first-term conservative Democrat polled his district about his opposition to impeachment. The results were very one-sided. Over 70 percent of Democratic primary voters would be less likely to support him if he voted against impeaching Donald Trump. Van Drew immediately went silent and was unreachable by allies [DCCC chair Cheri Bustos] in the party. The next day, he was meeting with Donald Trump at the White House to discuss switching parties. Within 48 hours, word had leaked out about his decision and, within a week, Van Drew was on cable news pledging his “undying support” to a president whom he voted against 93 percent of the time."

A longtime state senator from South Jersey with a reputation for being a “right-leaning moderate” in Trenton, Van Drew “was used to getting some backlash from members of his own party who didn’t think he was sufficiently liberal,” said one New Jersey operative who worked with him in the past. But the operative said “this whole process started happening” when Van Drew became one of two Democrats to vote against opening the impeachment inquiry on October 31. Advisers had urged Van Drew to vote yes to keep his options open, but the New Jersey representative barged ahead.

The initial vote against opening the inquiry came as a particular shock to local Democrats only days before state legislative elections in New Jersey. “People were freaking out,” said Michael Suleiman, the chair of the Atlantic County Democratic Committee.

Van Drew offered a variety of reasons for opposing impeachment. Sometimes he argued the process was ill-advised with an election less than a year away. On other occasions, he said that he didn’t see enough evidence to convict Trump.

One well-connected South Jersey Democrat told New York, “He never really had a rationale that was consistent. You need to have your own narrative. Not a Republican-lite narrative, but a Jeff Van Drew narrative.” However, the New Jersey operative noted that Van Drew did not seem to view his opposition to impeachment as being “pro-Trump at first,” but simply an effort to be reflective of his district. And then “he started spiraling.”

Although Jacobs asserts that the 2018 election was “relatively easy,” he’s wrong. It should have been relatively easy. The GOP put up a pyscho-clown that even Republican voters were uncomfortable with. Van Drew out-spent him $1,877,531 to $299,475, Van Drew only managed 52.9% of the vote-- less than Obama did both times he ran. DCCC and its allies spent another million dollars smearing Republican Seth Grossman and the NRCC ignored the race entirely. In the end, Van Drew won the 4 biggest counties and lost the 4 smallest, although he didn’t live up to expectations in Cape May or Gloucester. Turnout wasn’t as strong as it should have been, primarily because progressives just didn’t want to cast their ballots for someone who holds Van drew’s reactionary ideology… “Van Drew,” admitted Jacobs, “felt bruised that his victory was not by the margins he was accustomed to in his past legislative wins, according to the South Jersey Democrat-- even though federal races are far more partisan than state-level races. The result prompted Van Drew to go back to his playbook from his days in Trenton and try to demonstrate his bipartisan credentials.” Exactly the wrong move.

Although the New Jersey operative described Van Drew as very attentive to polls in the state legislature, the congressman had long been reluctant to actually put a poll in the field on impeachment. It was suggested that he knew the data “would put him in a box” and he was afraid to see it. When he finally commissioned a poll, in conjunction with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he “genuinely freaked out” when he saw the results.

From that moment, it was only several days before Van Drew defected to the GOP. Former White House political director Bill Stepien and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie tried to clear a path for the congressman among Republicans in the Garden State. Kellyanne Conway, who was the only White House staffer present for Van Drew’s meeting with Trump, played a vital role as well.

Van Drew was the first member of Congress to switch parties in almost a decade. The last one to do so, Parker Griffith, a one-term congressman from Alabama who switched from Democrat to Republican in 2009, told New York, “Ordinarily, it’s a mistake to switch parties. I made a mistake by switching parties. The mistake I made-- I made an assumption that everybody knew as much about politics as we did in D.C., and it really is an emotional decision.”

Griffith was skeptical of Van Drew’s choice. “I hope he’s got a better handle on what he’s doing than I did.” The former congressman compared Van Drew’s Oval Office handshake with Trump to “fondling a rattlesnake.” He added, “I’m sure it made him feel good temporarily, but I don’t think Trump makes friends well, and doesn’t keep them well.”

Van Drew now faces a number of political obstacles. As Suleiman told New York, he is “now persona non grata with Democrats.” The local county chair, who had been fiercely critical of Van Drew’s stance on impeachment before his defection, said, “No one likes a weasel, and no one likes a turncoat.” Already, several Democrats are running for the party’s nomination in 2020. Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political-science professor at Montclair State University, is currently considered the favorite.

She’s certainly the favorite of the grotesquely corrupt Norcross machine that had made Van Drew’s career. And because Norcross is behind her, Bustos and the DCCC are behind her. Trump is behind Van Drew, of course, but there were already 3 loyal Republicans running against him when he switched parties, including a very wealthy self-funder, Dave Richter. Trump will hold one of his bund rallies in NJ-02 early in the New Year.

Griffith, who eventually returned to the Democratic Party after losing his primary as a newly minted Republican in 2010, noted the personal cost that Van Drew could face as well.

“He’s alienated a lot of people who put their faith in him,” said Griffith. Reflecting on his own experience, the former Alabama congressman said, “When you look in the faces of people you disappoint, and the tears in their eyes, and to this day it breaks my heart to think about it.”

The hope for Van Drew is that his embrace of Trump will help convince voters that his party switch was motivated by a crisis of conscience, rather than a crisis of polling, and ease any bitterness. But it is a big risk for the freshman congressman who represents Atlantic City-- a community that’s had bad experiences betting on Trump in the past.

On Monday, Greg Giroux wrote for Bloomberg News that Van Drew’s chances to win are iffy “House party-switchers,” he wrote, “have a mixed electoral record, with some going on to win re-election while others facing primary defeats by voters unconvinced by their political conversion… Even with presidential support, Van Drew can’t expect a coronation in the June 2020 Republican primary against opponents who have been campaigning for months to unseat him. ‘As a lifelong conservative Republican, I have a message for liberal Switcheroo Van Drew: Bring it on,’ Bob Patterson, one of the candidates running in the Republican primary for New Jersey’s 2nd District, said in a Dec. 19 statement. Patterson criticized Van Drew as ‘pro-choice, pro-amnesty and anti-Trump.’” But can that message win when Trump is behind him?

Brigid Harrison, the Machine/DCCC candidate, lives in Longport, which has always been a very exclusive area of the shore… kind of an “old money” area-- and the wrong look for the Democratic Party. Ashley Bennett announced on Friday. Last year she was elected to the Atlantic County Board of Freeholders, having gained a good reputation for challenging incumbent Freeholder John Carman after he posted a meme critical of the national Women’s March. Like most of the candidates running, Bennett is African-American. The Machine, of coursed, insisted on a white person. Amy Kennedy-- wife of Patrick Kennedy-- is also running. They live in Brigantine, another exclusive community for wealthy white people.

Other candidates who have already thrown their hats into the ring are John Francis, a West Cape May commissioner, who spent “nearly three decades as a planet walker, playing the banjo and ‘traveling the globe by foot and said with a message of environmental respect and responsibility.  He spent seventeen years without speaking.”





Another Freeholder, Jack Surrency, from Cumberland County, is also running for the seat. We’ll spend some time trying to figure out who the best candidate or candidates are as alternatives to the Norcorss Machine’s Van Drew and Harrison. Meanwhile, if you're interested in helping keep the DCCC from recruiting and electing more Jeff Van Drew types, please consider supporting the candidates here, at the Primary A Blue Dog ActBlue page. Have't they done enough damage to the Democratic Party already-- and not just in New Jersey?

Republicans Want To Get Rid Of Their Corrupt Beltway Leaders… How About Democrats?

I met with a friendly congressman this week to talk about the prospects for improving House Democratic leadership in a post-Pelosi world. Aside from assuring me that enough members of the caucus detest Steve Israel so that he's not going up any ladders, it was a depressing conversation. Acknowledging that Steny Hoyer as Speaker or Minority Leader will mean the caucus would, in effect, be run entirely by K Street, one phrase stuck in my head: "Hoyer is very likable and no one is interested in patricide." I'm glad they are get along in their cushy club there but, the people's business is more important than their comity and chumminess and Hoyer and his K Street lobbyist brigade are the exact opposite of what the Democratic Party needs.

Republicans are being forced by a motivated grassroots-- albeit led by money-grubbing hucksters like Brent Bozell-- to get rid of their own corrupt Beltway leadership. The galoots in the photo above are the 3 top GOP House leaders, Boehner, Cantor and McCarthy, and the 3 top GOP Senate leaders, McConnell, Cornyn and Thune. This morning, CNN reported on a right-wing group pushing to oust all 6 of them from leadership.

ForAmerica told CNN that it's putting six figures behind its "Dump the Leadership" campaign between now and November's leadership elections.

…"Time and again, year after year, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate has come to grassroots conservatives, and Tea Party supporters pleading for our money, our volunteers, our time, our energy and our votes," said ForAmerica Chairman Brent Bozell in a statement to CNN. "In return they have repeatedly promised not just to stop the liberal assault on our freedoms and our national treasury, but to advance our conservative agenda. It's been years. There is not a single conservative accomplishment this so-called 'leadership' can point to."

ForAmerica, which describes itself as "an online army of over 4.5 million people," is a conservative non-profit group which has often criticized congressional GOP leaders.

Democrats brag they're the "big tent" party and that everyone is welcome, including refuse from the GOP. In fact, the DCCC goes out of its way to recruit "former" Republicans and very conservative Republican-like Democrats to run, including dedicated homophobes and anti-Choice fanatics. I bet Steve Israel would never recruit an anti-Semite. Why is he recruiting anti-gay candidates like Jennifer Garrison? Earlier today, we saw that Parker Griffith, a scummy Blue Dog from the Republican-wing of the Democratic Party, who sucked millions from the DCCC before switching to the GOP-- where they smartly defeated him for reelection-- is back claiming he's a Democrat again, as he runs for governor of Alabama. The state Democratic Party has already welcomed him back into the fold and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Steve Israel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Crowley and Steny Hoyer show up at his launch party.

Multipe sources tell WHNT News 19 that former Congressman Parker Griffith is on the verge of announcing his candidacy for governor of Alabama, and as a member of the party he famously abandoned just four years ago. WHNT News 19 has confirmed that the Alabama Democratic Party recently voted to reinstate Griffith, clearing the way for a gubernatorial run that we’re told will likely be announced before Friday’s qualifying deadline.

…Madison County Democratic Party Chair Clete Wetli said Griffith has been welcomed back.

“If he’s going to support the party platform then he’s a Democrat as far as I’m concerned,” said Wetli. “He’s got some damage control to do. He’s going to have to reach out and talk to people and explain why he’s the best candidate for the job.”

Damage control with grassroots Democrats perhaps… but not with the party bosses.

Alabama Reactionaries Bobby Bright And Parker Griffith Reemerging From Their Holes?

Unless you're from Montgomery, Alabama, I wouldn't blame you if you can't remember who Bobby Bright was. As Mayor of Montgomery, Bright never had to say if he was a Democrat or a Republican. But when Republican Terry Everett announced he would not run for reelection in AL-02, a seat that had been in GOP hands for over 4 decades, Bright avoided the crowded GOP primary by running as a Democrat, albeit as gay-hating, anti-Choice NRA Blue Dog. He won the general election by 1,776 votes (just over a half of one percent). He then went on to accrue the worst voting record of any Blue Dog in Congress and voted with the Republicans virtually always. Blue America took a lot of incoming from Democrats because we worked hard to defeat him. (More about that below.) This week, he announced he's BACK-- as a Republican.

Bobby Bright has disappeared from the public eye ever since he lost his re-election bid to Congress three years ago. But after serving in city hall and on Capitol Hill, he may want to come to the Alabama State House… [H]e says he is interested in serving the people.

…Bright says if he runs, he'll switch to the Republican Party. That would put him in a primary battle against at least two people. One is Harris Garner, who owns Garner Electric in Millbrook. He says he's the best candidate... with or without Bright in the race… Another candidate is Suzelle Josey, a former spokesperson for Chief Justice Roy Moore. She wants to be the missing voice in the state senate, which has no republican women.

Before Bright even started running his 2010 reactionary campaign ads, he had already marked himself out as the single most right-wing Democrat in the House. His ProgressivePunch score-- a dismal 19.83 (out of 100)-- was not just the lowest Democrat's score; it's also lower than two conservative Republicans'! Bright had consistently shown his fealty to Boehner on every single contentious issue that came before Congress in his single term. In fact, when SCHIP came up for it's final vote only two Democrats crossed the aisle to vote against health care for needy children and Bright, of course, was one of the two. He has been sure to noisily vote against a woman's right to Choice (and, like Christine O'Donnell, he's even been against contraception), against equality for the LGBT community, against health care reform, against Wall Street reform, against energy legislation... You name it-- if Barack Obama was for it, Bobby Bright was against it. And that was the theme of his reelection campaign.

Bright's ads and campaign statements targeted and demonized Nancy Pelosi, while building up... John Boehner. He flat-out declared he wouldn't vote for her as Speaker, the bare minimum Democrats have always required of their candidates. But that didn't stop the clods at the DCCC from spending more on Bright than on any other Democratic incumbent-- enough money to have shored up the shaky seats of real Democrats like Alan Grayson, John Hall, Mary Jo Kilroy and Carol Shea Porter who unjustly lost their seats in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse that flushed Bright down the toilet. The DCCC continued spending on him, even though it was widely assumed in Washington that Bright would jump the fence if the Democrats lost the majority so he could officially be what he already was unofficially: a conservative Republican.

So here's where Blue America came in and why so many professional Democrats got angry with us. The stupid, incompetent Republicans hadn't figured out how to beat Bright. They were busy calling him a Nancy Pelosi pawn in the white suburbs of Montgomery, where he-- and his conservative politics-- were quite popular. So Blue America decided to point out his record to some of Bright's other constituents. We began a massive, targeted radio and TV campaign in just 4 counties, the 4 counties where Barack Obama did best in 2008, the 4 counties most badly effected by Bright's anti-family votes, the 4 counties that make it hard for a Democrat to win district-wide without landslide victories: Lowndes, Bullock, Barbour and Butler. When the African-American precincts in and around Montgomery were gerrymandered into the 3rd CD, the 2nd was left as a hopeless Republican bastion. It's a freak of nature that even a throwback Democrat as far to the right as Bright could have ever won the seat. He won it 144,368-142,578... but with massive support from the African-American voters in Lowndes, Bullock, Barbour and Butler counties, voters whose interests he consistently ignored from the moment he was elected. Obama only won 36% of the vote in Alabama's 2nd CD but he won landslides in Lowndes County (5,447 to 1,807) and Bullock County (4,001 to 1,389) and ties in Butler and Barbour counties. This is the radio ad some local actors made for us:



Like I said, not everyone thought it was sage to help defeat a Democrat in a perilous election. "But what exactly," I asked at the time, "does Bobby Bright bring to the table? What good would saving his seat do? He's already announced he won't vote for Pelosi (which means he won't vote to organize the House for the Democrats). He votes with the GOP on every contentious issue. He works within the Democratic caucus to destroy or water down every single piece of progressive legislation he can get his hands on. And he denigrates the Democratic brand with his framing, making it seem toxic to even be a Democrat… When Democrats passed the DISCLOSE Act in the House, to stop the flow of foreign money into American elections, something they knew would be a boon for the GOP and a disaster for Democrats, Bright was one of the Blue Dogs to cross the aisle and vote with the Republicans. He is one of only five Democrats who has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the funnel for millions of yuan, dinars and rubles being used to pervert our country's political system.

Oh, and speaking of Bobby Bright, another scummy Alabama Blue Dog who jumped the fence, Parker Griffith, actually ran for reelection as a Republican and was defeated in the GOP primary. Now he may be about to run for his old seat again, this time as an independent.

"I do not regret changing parties, (but) I think politically it may have been a mistake," Griffith said the morning after his defeat. "On principle, it was the right thing to do, and I'm happy about it."

He tried to reclaim to 5th District seat from Brooks in 2012 but fared even worse, despite pumping more than $500,000 of his own money into the campaign.

Earlier this month, Griffith told WHNT that he now considers himself an independent. "I've been on both parties, I've seen them up close and personal," he said. "Neither one of them are worth a damn. I'm an independent."

Independent and third-party candidates have had limited success in Alabama, and the 3 percent signature requirement is one of the highest thresholds in the nation. According to the Secretary of State's office, Griffith would have to collect signatures from at least 6,858 voters who live in the 5th Congressional District and cast a ballot for governor in the 2010 general election.

Are there still Democrats in the House today as bad as Bobby Bright and Parker Griffth were back then? Blue Dogs John Barrow (GA), Jim Matheson (UT), Dan Lipinski (IL) and Mike McIntyre (NC) are in the same league. And several of the New Dem freshmen, like-- from bad to worse-- Patrick Murphy (FL), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Bill Owens (NY), Pete Gallego (TX), Sean Patrick Maloney (NY) and Ron Barber (AZ), are just about there.

AL-05: Beating Parker Griffith

A friend of mine is a constituent of the dubious party switcher, Parker Griffith, elected as a Democrat, currently a Republican for North Alabama's 5th CD. For the past few months he's been volunteering his time working with his friend Mitchell Howie, the candidate we've been covering in the Democratic primary.

Mitchell is heading into the last 10 days of the primary campaign-- election is June 1st-- and he needs netroots help, but he wants to tell you a little about the candidate and the campaign from his own perspective. His guest post:

Mitchell, is an authentic progressive, something most have resigned themselves to giving up hope for in this state. He got involved in politics by volunteering time with North Alabama Health Care for All, a local single payer advocacy group. Back when Parker was a Democrat he held a town hall in a local church where he 1) launched personal attacks against Speaker Pelosi; 2) swore he would not be switching parties; and 3) told lies about what was contained in the health care bill. Mitchell was in attendance and couldn’t take it. He stood up and debated Parker on the bill in front of everyone, telling the spineless congressmen what the facts were. Mitchell was approached about running against Parker in the Democratic primary, which he declined. That changed in December when Parker Griffith decided to become a Republican. Mitchell was the only candidate in this race to come out in support of healthcare reform before the votes in Congress.

Mitchell is from here in Huntsville. After attending law school at the University of Texas, he served as a staffer to a Democratic legislator in Texas (Sylvester Turner), ultimately rising to Chief of Staff. After several years in the legislature, Mitchell joined the United States Air Force and served as a JAG Corps attorney on active duty. After coming off of active duty, he returned to Huntsville to open a private law practice. The Howie name is well known in Huntsville. Mitchell’s grandfather was a physician who ran one of the few desegregated waiting rooms in the region, and spent personal money on bailing African-Americans out of jail after sit-ins, in spite of the death threats the familly received as a result.

The State of the Campaign

Mitchell’s primary opponents are the antitheses of everything we stand for as a progressive movement. Steve Raby is
a former employee of the Federal Reserve who spent 9 years in Washington as Chief of Staff to conservative-Democratic Alabama Senator Howell Heflin. Since leaving Washington, Raby has run a lobbying and consulting firm here in North Alabama and has been the consummate gatekeeper. Raby is a self-described conservative, recently stating in an interview, "Can you be a conservative and be a Democrat? Well, Iam. Heck, I own more guns than anyone in this race." Raby has dubious connections as well, having tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to Republican candidates and other electeds who now sit in federal prison. Recently, one of our other opponents, Taze Shepard ran an ad pointing out Raby’s connections:



[UPDATE: Raby hit back today with a vicious anti-Taz ad]

Tazewell Shepard is not much better, maybe even worse, than Steve Raby. Taze served for a short time in the early 90s on the State Board of Education, but otherwise has no experience in public service. What he does have is pedigree and a penchant for legacy politics. Taze’s grandfather is the late Alabama Senator John Sparkman, and that
statement essentially sums up Taze’s platform. Taze never makes an appearance without noting that he learned his values from his grandfather, and that those are the values which we wants to bring to Washington. Only problem is that John Sparkman was a segregationist Democrat and signatory to the Southern Manifesto.

There is another candidate in the race, but he is not a serious one (although he is quite intelligent and has some good ideas). If you really want to know about him, you can watch him here.

Mitchell’s fundraising has been good for a race in this district, but he doesn’t have the family connections or the Washington rolodex of his opponents. The campaign has budgeted and spent wisely, and the energy on the ground shows it. In the only poll that has been conducted of the race, paid for by the Shepard campaign, it was found that virtually all of Mitchell’s supporters describe their support as “strong,” compared with about half for the other two candidates. You’ll notice that poll shows Mitchell lagging, but I’d point out that our base lies in young and minority constituencies (Mitchell goes to two services each Sunday at minority churches, a different two each week) which are notoriously difficult to poll. Everywhere I go with Mitchell, he speaks to new voters who commit to voting and volunteering, and it is not uncommon for us to give out more yard signs at an event than there are voters present, with them taking more for their friends.

At this point, Mitchell’s biggest hurdle is name ID. Luckily, North Alabama is a relatively inexpensive media market, and that’s where you can help him. Democratic support for our opponents are being torn apart by the ad mentioned above, with many questioning Raby’s ties and many others questioning Taze’s tactics. I spoke some a staffer from Raby’s campaign today and they will be hitting Taze with a negative ad starting Monday. The campaign believes this provides a unique opportunity to expand the buy for Mitchell’s ad which we’ve already been running for a few weeks
which many here will recognize as paying homage to one of Mitchell’s political heroes, Paul Wellstone. Mitchell and his campaign leadership believe this buy combined with the other candidates attacking each other will help the campaign surge to at least a run-off, if not outright victory (the above poll shows that as of two weeks ago, 58% of voters
were undecided).



Mitchell needs anyone who is willing to highlight his campaign and help with a media blitz over the next 10 days. Frankly, the campaign needs money. Just a little bit of money can help us get the message out there and give us a real chance at getting a true progressive elected in this district.

On local news, we can run ads for $150-400 each in the morning, $100 at noon, and $750-$1,000 each on the evening broadcast.

We can purchase digital billboard for $100 per day each board.

We can get radio ad space for $30 per ad.

For $3,000- $5,000 we can fully flood both local cable providers guaranteeing everyone in the district gets several views of the ad.

Winning A Congressional Seat In Alabama

Thursday night, before flying back to try to shore up his crumbling political fortunes in North Alabama, ex-Blue Dog-turned Republican Parker Griffith was too frightened to vote with the GOP on the extension of unemployment benefits. The party line-- whispered in fear this time, not screeched like their usual obstructionism-- was that "we" can't afford an extension of benefits and it'll lead to more pressure to tax rich people. Griffith slinked across the aisle to vote with the Democrats-- although he passed one of his conservative Blue Dog ex-colleagues, Jim Cooper of Tennessee, going in the other direction.

Griffith's not likely to win many Democratic votes with these kinds of shenanigans and his new party just hates him. A straw poll of college Republicans at UA Huntsville last week showed him a very distant third after Les Phillip and teabagger Mo Brooks. Of the 250 votes cast 46% went to Phillip, 45% to Brooks and poor Griffith only scrounged up a measly 9%. Griffith has been forced to return loads of donations, while burning through almost all his cash on hand to try to persuade Republicans he's one of them. He's in big trouble.

This is a district that hasn't had a Republican congressman in a century and a half-- until Griffith jumped the fence and overturned the voters' decision. There are four Democrats competing for their party's nomination, from right to left Tazewell Shepard, a conservative legacy grandson who seems to think he just "owns" the nomination; a sleazy lobbyist named Steve Raby who may or may not stay in the race, Mitchell Howie and David Maker.

Shepard, an admitted conservative, who didn't even make any pretence about calling himself a "moderate" until someone clued him in a few weeks ago, is probably to the right of Parker Griffith. He seems to have thought he could just walk into the nomination because of his family connections. John Sparkman was his grandpa and he's a child of privilege who has had everything handed to him on a silver platter. He seems to believe that his pedigree is a legitimate substitute for doing the work it takes to go out and raise the money to run for Congress. As for the "strong legacy connections," it looks from his first FEC folings that they've chosen not to support him for whatever reason...He had no choice but to loan his campaign $100,000. In short, it just takes a glance at his filing to see that $129,325 of $139,422 he "raised"-- 92.7%, all but $10,097-- is from someone who is related to him-- mostly himself-- or lives in the household of someone who is related to him. He is the essence of what we don't need in Washington, an entitled dynastic politician who doesn't want to work for the people but rather is content to perate in business as usual circles-- not exactly a prediction of someone likely to be a fount of creative ways to approach new problems facing northern Alabama or America.
 
Raby, who many sources are telling me isn't even going to actually run, took in the most money ($187,410) among Democrats. That's no surprise. He's a master of political bottom-feeding: a lobbyist. Anytime anyone mentions that he makes his substantial living as a lobbyist-- and that he's given piles of money to Republicans (including $3,900 to Jeff Sessions, $2,000 Jo Bonner, $6,300 to Dick Shelby, $1,250 to Bob Aderholt, and $500 to extremist kook and former Rep. Terry Everett)-- he starts moaning about "name calling." He, on the other hand, would rather term his lobbying and his work as a political operative as preparation for a job in Congress-- which I guess it is... if Congress is all about self-serving, special interests, and insiders. He says he's the only Democrat who won't need on the job training. What he would need-- if the people of AL-05 are going to be served-- is re-training. When you look at Raby's website you walk away wondering what he stands for-- other than a grab for political power-- and why he's running (if he is). What are the issues that motivate him? When he says he has been working behind the scenes, what does he mean? Who is he working for?

Mitchell Howie, the populist in this race, is depending on the grassroots for financial support. He didn't do badly-- just over $56,000, al in small grassroots contribution-- and I like the feisty way he put it in his press release:

While some candidates play the old Washington game of stacking up piles of special interest money, and others turn to their own personal checking accounts to make multi-million dollar loans to their own campaign war chests, I have been carrying my message to the voters of the fifth district. I will fight for policies that will encourage quality jobs, work to improve our education system and foster strength in our nation's defense, and so many folks have responded generously.
 
In these difficult times, I am grateful for their support. I recognize the sacrifice that their contributions may represent and I commit both to those who support my campaign and those who do not, that when I am elected, this seat in Congress will once again belong to the people of North Alabama. 

A Case For Mitchell Howie In North Alabama

Mitchell's the tall guy

Over the weekend Alabama Democrats got some bad news as word leaked out that Josh Segall decided to withdraw his challenge to reactionary Mike Rogers in the 3rd Congressional District. Steve Segrest is the likely Democratic candidate now, and it really is a stretch to imagine him starting now and beating Rogers.

Further north and west, however, in the 5th CD, Democrats have a much better chance to elect not just a Democrat, but-- and in Alabama this is saying a lot-- a real Democrat. The current Alabama Democratic members of Congress, Bobby Bright (2nd CD), one of the worst of the Blue Dogs, and Artur Davis (7th CD), an ambitious would-be governor who thinks his path to fame and fortune is accelerated aisle-crossing, leave a lot to be desired. But Alabama's 5th CD, across the northern half-dozen counties along the Tennessee border (plus a sliver of Morgan Co.), offers Democrats a great chance for actual change.

The 5th CD is a traditional Democratic district. They haven't elected a Republican in a century and a half, but they're represented by one now. Conservative oddball Parker Griffith-- whose only qualification was that he's a multimillionaire (all the DCCC ever asks for)-- snuck into office last cycle as a Democrat, immediately became the most Republican-voting Blue Dog, declared he wouldn't vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker in 2012 and soon after officially joined the GOP. 

Now no one can quite tell who hates him more, Democrats in AL-05 or Republicans in AL-05. He has plenty of primary challengers from inside his new party, and Democrats are lining up to oppose him too. Problem with the Democrats is that most of them are just as bad as he is. One, Taze Shepard, is making it clear that he's even more conservative than Griffith! He's the grandson of Klansman and former Senator John Sparkman. Steve Raby is also a conservative Democrat, but a lobbyist who has funneled thousands of dollars to Republicans all over America. David Maker, a local misfit, is also running.

And that leaves one shot for Democrats to elect an actual Democrat in the tradition of FDR, Truman, JFK, Bill Cinton and Obama: Mitchell Howie. I asked him to do a guest post on his Green TVA proposal, since it is so integral to his campaign and so constructive and appealing to people across partisan lines. He sent me this earlier today:

In the first few decades of the 20th century, North Alabama was like a lot of other communities in our region. We have always had great communities and strong families, but a century ago most of those families made do with very little, and faced hardships in the course of their daily lives that few today can comprehend. Along with our nation, our region was in transition.
 
When President Roosevelt and a Democratic Congress created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933, a model was created for targeted government investment and innovation. An example was set for how the power of the federal government can be leveraged for great results when action is motivated by a commitment to service.

I am running for Congress from Alabama's Fifth Congressional district because I believe the time has come to return to Congress that commitment to service. Once in Congress, I plan to put forth a jobs proposal to recapture that original spirit of the TVA, by creating what I'll call a Green TVA (GTVA). Where the TVA's primary and lasting mission is to bring electrical power, the GTVA will work to enable Northern Alabama to serve as a center of research and development into the clean energy technologies of the future.
 
Few areas of our country are as well positioned to leverage local engineering and technical expertise as Northern Alabama. Paired with Marshall Space Flight Center and the TVA's existing research facility in Muscle Shoals, the GTVA will ensure that our region will continue to chart America's future in innovation. That innovation will draw manufacturing firms from across the globe to Northern Alabama, where they will find our unmatched blue-collar workforce. We already have the infrastructure to ship newly manufactured goods across the globe, where they are in high demand.

It's well known that the TVA's expanded scope of work included projects that directly created jobs, but what some might not recall is that the jobs created by the TVA went well beyond those who went on the Authority's government payroll. The positive business climate created by the TVA brought private investment and jobs far beyond those directly hired to work on energy or economic development initiatives.

In this same way, the GTVA can serve as a business magnet for North Alabama, attracting private investment and partnered research in the areas that will help draw the map for our country's path to energy independence. For every dollar-- public or private-- spent on research, there is an economic impact returned to the community multiple times over. An infrastructure like the GTVA, bringing serious government investments to bear in addressing the most pressing technical challenges of our time, right here in North Alabama, is exactly what our community needs.

Like the TVA, the GTVA will play an important role in community development as well. Researching and commercializing ways to generate more energy will be most effective only if paired with concrete steps to create a culture of conservation. So the GTVA will dramatically expand projects such as the Campbell Creek Energy Efficient Homes Project, looking into improvements in weatherization technologies. That research will then be employed by crews to make the homes of qualified seniors more efficient, to minimize the bite being taken out of fixed incomes by ever-rising energy costs. The GTVA will also research new technologies, and make government buildings-- including schools and state and local government buildings-- more energy-efficient, so that fewer tax dollars fly out of poorly insulated windows. Initiatives will be undertaken with clear goals, and followed up on with regular reports posted on the GTVA's website -- ensuring that the tax dollars invested are going where they're supposed to go.  

Though our region remains strong, our state suffers from one of the ten worst unemployment rates in the country. I believe that Alabamians look to our portion of the state, and our strong foundation, to create growth that can resonate. Like the TVA before it, the GTVA represents a chance to seize this opportunity to employ government investment and a targeted commitment to service, to lift our great state out of the Great Recession. Lastly, I consider this jobs initiative as a way to strengthen our national security because fostering energy independence will help disentangle America from countries that willingly sell us oil but hate our way of life.

Please join us in making this vision a reality by visiting HowieForCongress.

Republicans Were Right When They Said Parker Griffith Can't Be Trusted On Health Care

Parker Griffith is having a tough time with his re-election battle in northern Alabama. The one-term former Blue Dog was the single most consistent aisle crosser in Congress, voting with the GOP far more frequently (on contested, substantive issues) than with the Democrats. He was especially incensed that most Democrats oppose abolishing the estate tax-- a crucial issue for this conservative, multimillionaire who has developed a political outlook based strictly around Greed and Selfishness. But Republicans in the district have a profound dislike for Griffith a dislike carefully nurtured by the national Republican Party and their noise machine. Take a look at the NRCC ad devoted to Griffith above. One day they are demonizing his and the next day he's St. Parker. Today he delivered the weekly Republican national radio address.

A doctor-- although the Republican Party has pointed out that he was a crooked doctor, milking the system and mistreating his patients for personal profit-- Griffith says he switched teams because the Democrats had lost their way on health care reform. First off, were the Republicans lying when they spent thousands of dollars to point out what a corrupt sack of shit Griffith was professionally? Or are they lying now? It's got to be one or the other. Rewriting history is a tricky thing and there's bound to be someone like Winston Smith around.

His speech today was pure right wing shillery: "a massive government takeover of healthcare," "higher taxes," "slashing Medicare benefits," "job killing"... and that was just the first paragraph! "It would," he avows, "put federal bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions that should be made by patients and doctors" [though according to the GOP, certainly not corrupt, sleazy doctors like Parker Griffith]. Who is he talking to? People who haven't had any experience with the healthcare system in the last decade? Decisions are made by for-profit insurance company executives whose bonus schedules are determined by how many people they can turn down for treatment their doctors recommend. Who else can possibly believe these Republican lies but the totally ignorant and clueless-- and, perhaps like Griffith-- delusional or self-serving?

Mitchell Howie Makes The Move-- A Progressive Challenger For Congress

My district's Representative is 76 and ailing... and retiring. McCain only got 12% of the vote around here-- although that must have come from some other part of the district. Republicans don't bother to run serious campaigns here; the Democratic primary is virtually the election. In 2008 Diane Watson took 88% of the vote. In 2006 and 2004 the GOP hadn't bothered trying. Last night she endorsed 100%-- maybe 300% Karen Bass to follow her. Bass was Speaker of the state Assembly. I'm sure she'll make a decent enough congresswoman; all my friends who know her tell me she's very sharp and very progressive.

Now, in Northern Alabama the electoral dynamic is very, very different. Congress' worst Blue Dog, Parker Griffith, after spending the year voting with the GOP more often than not, finally jumped the fence and came out as a Republican three days before Christmas-- a real lump of coal for northern Alabama... and Democrats nationwide. Progressives, on the other hand, were hardly fazed. We were very much aware that Griffith voted against health care reform and clean energy. He voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which was named for a woman from his state. He even went so far as to promise a vote against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker and implied she should be committed. On the 22nd of December, Griffith made his love for Republican ideology official and cast his lot with the GOP.

In the competition to ensure that Parker Griffith is no longer employed, North Alabama has now been presented with three Democratic candidates who will face one another in a June 1st primary. Taze Shephard was elected to the Alabama Board of Education in the early 90’s, but his biggest claim to fame is being the grandson of segregationist Alabama Senator John Sparkman. When I called his office after he announced, it was as cold as a Republican's and they told me they'd get back to me; they haven't. Conservatives never do. Also in the race is longtime political consultant and former lobbyist Steve Raby. Aside from Raby’s establishment credentials (he has gone so far as to acknowledge that he is the “establishment candidate"), he’s got a rather peculiar donor history, which I worked with the folks at Left in Alabama to spotlight.

[H]e's given lot's of money to Repubs. Opensecrets shows that since 1996 Stephen Raby has contributed $33,950 to Republican causes and $73,950 to Democratic causes. He has contributed to both the State Democratic Executive Committee of Alabama and the Republican Party of Alabama. In the 2008 cycle he contributed to both Mike Rogers, R ($2,000) and Josh Segall, D ($500 $1,000*) in the AL-03 contest. He not only contributed to all the Republican Senators and Representatives from Alabama, but to the likes of Duncan Hunter, Curt Weldon, Lisa Murkowski and Kit Bond. Raby's last Republican contribution was $2,300 to Richard Shelby in 2008.

Judging from the first two candidates in the field, we can see how Alabama’s Fifth District got stuck with a turncoat like Parker Griffith. Luckily, there is a better option.

Wednesday, Huntsville Attorney Mitchell Howie filed qualifying papers to get on the ballot. Here is a video of him addressing the Madison County Democratic Executive Committee last week:



Howie’s grandfather was a doctor in Huntsville during the civil rights struggle and had one of the first integrated waiting rooms in the area, where black and white children, who were treated regardless of whether or not their parents could afford the care, played together openly. Howie’s grandparents also often posted bail for civil rights protesters arrested in sit-ins, resulting in death threats for the family at the time.

After law school in Houston, a stint on a Democratic legislator's staff in the Texas State House, and five years of active duty service in the United States Air Force, Mitchell Howie returned to Huntsville to start his own law practice. One idea he has proposed in his campaign is the establishment of a Green TVA. Stating that the Tennessee Valley Authority revolutionized North Alabama in the New Deal era, Howie believes that similar efforts should be undertaken to develop clean energy technology in North Alabama. Doing so, he hopes, will bring jobs to the district and create innovative technologies that will benefit the country as a whole. For a Southern Democrat and economic populist, Howie takes some fairly progressive positions such as being pro-choice (he says he personally is against abortion, but doesn’t think that government should have a say in decisions between a patient and her doctor), in favor of health care reform, and staunchly supporting a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell."

If you would like to support Mitchell Howie, donations can be made at ActBlue, or you can email info@howieforcongress.com

Are There Really Eight Democratic House Members WORSE Than Parker Griffith?

CQPolitics has a shiny new interactive toy that measures-- more or less-- party unity in Congress. It's not nearly as fine-tuned, sophisticated or comprehensive as what ProgressivePunch does-- and not nearly as useful. But it's fun. This morning, for example, they posited that former Alabama Blue Dog/freshly minted Republican, Parker Griffith, was only the eighth least loyal Democrat and that other Boehner Boys crossed the aisle even more frequently. The problem with CQPolitics system-- which they have in common with almost all the Insider measuring systems-- is that they include all votes including routine housekeeping matters, naming post offices, easily and purposefully manipulatable process votes, etc. Progressive Punch, among other things, also has a key way of looking at members' votes on substantive matters only.

So, according to CQPolitics Griffith's unity score for 2009 was 70%. Here were the less loyal Democrats:

Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)- 41%
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)- 45%
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)- 59%
Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)- 63%
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)- 63%
Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)- 68%
Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA)- 69%
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)- 69%

Now if we look at ProgressivePunch's 2009 score based on substantive votes only, their algorithm comes up with a somewhat different result. Only one Democrat had a worse voting record than Griffith (who scored a dismal 15.38) and that was Mississippi Blue Dog Travis Childers (13.85, an exact tie with 4 Republicans: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Walter Jones, Jimmy Duncan, and Delaware Republican Senate candidate Michael Castle). According to the comprehensive ProgressivePunch scores for 2009 the Democrats most prone to cross the aisle and vote with the GOP on substantive matters were-- from bad to worse:

John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)- 30.77
Artur Davis (AL)- 30.65
Ann Kirkpatrick (Blue Dog-AZ)- 29.69
Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA)- 29.51
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)- 29.23
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)- 29.23
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)- 29.23
Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN)- 28.12
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)- 27.69
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)- 26.15
Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)- 24.62
Frank Kratovil (Blue Dog-MD)- 24.62
Scott Murphy (NY)- 24.07
Jim Marshall (Blue Dog-GA)- 23.08
Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA)- 23.08
Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID)- 21.54
Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ)- 21.54
Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA)- 20.31
Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL)- 20.00
Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK)- 18.46
Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS)- 15.87
Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL)- 15.38
Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS)- 13.85

Saturday morning Blue America will be rolling out our first endorsement of 2010. Our first candidate is a model for what our PAC will be aspiring to do this election cycle. She is a community activist and a movement progressive. When she gets into Congress we won't have to twist her arm to do the right thing and we won't have to hold her hand while she votes in her own constituents' best interests while the bad guys threaten her from the sidelines. She's been fighting the bad guys for years and years and their snarling and growling don't scare her away. Please stop by CrookandLiars.com Saturday morning at 10AM and get to know her. Ah, yes, she's challenging a mangy Blue Dog, one of many we hope to encourage to go work directly for K Street instead of working for them covertly on the public's dime.

In Alabama, Ron Sparks declines to run in AL-05, sticking to his gubernatorial bid

"It would be an honor to represent the people of the 5th Congressional District in Washington. It would be my honor to stand up against those who break their word and betray their supporters. But right now I think it's more important that I represent the people in the 5th Congressional district in Montgomery."

-- Alabama State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks,

in a statement today

by Ken

Well, Alabama State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks has made his decision. He's not going to switch his sights from the Democratic gubernatorial nomination (to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Bob Riley) to the nomination for AL-05, the House seat currently held by first-termer Parker Griffith, apparently one of the less popular members of Congress, all the more so since he announced his (largely technical) switch from DINO-dom to full-fledged Confederate, I mean Republican, Party membership.

Sparks had been encouraged to run for that seat in 2006, when long-time Rep. Bud Cramer retired, but declined, and he's declining again. "I made a commitment to the people of Alabama when I decided to run for governor," he told the Associated Press.

When I wrote on Monday that DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen was reported to be personally lobbying Sparks into the race -- thereby also leaving a clear path to the Dem gubernatorial nomination for go-along, get-along Rep. Artur Davis -- I mentioned that Howie had written about Sparks in 2007, with some pretty inspiring quotes to back up the claim that he's a fiery populist. I thought of requoting those quotes, but eventually settled for including a link. Or at least I thought I did.

No, I was sure I did. Except I couldn't find any damned link there! Well, I've inserted it now, but since people who read that piece originally didn't have the link available, I'm also going to resurrect those 2007 quotes, so you can see what caught Howie's attention back then:

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of the $3 a gallon gasoline. I'm tired of seeing Exxon-Mobile bringing out these $10 billion profits. I'll tell you something: There's something wrong when you pay an executive, a CEO of a large company, $28,000 an hour. We haven't increased minimum wage in this country since 1997. We had a minimum wage in Washington, and they tied the estate tax to it. It's not about the working people when you tie those two types of legislation together.

Things are not getting better in this country. You know, we've got a president who marched us off to war with no plan. I'm a veteran. I served this country. But there is something wrong when you carry your soldiers into battle and won't give them the tools to fight with. Don't send these young men and women across the water to fight for our freedom in this country when you won't give them a gun to fight with and you won't give them a bullet-proof vest. Then when they come home, you don't want to give them what they deserve. That's wrong, ladies and gentlemen.

Apparently the Davis campaign people are less impressed. Josh Kraushaar reports on Politico's blog that Davis spokesman Alex Goepfert said, "There is a reason why Ron Sparks continues to lag way behind Artur Davis in every poll -- he has no core convictions, believes in nothing and as a result will say anything, and the last thing he ought to be is governor of Alabama."

And Sparks shot back:

I am seeking the Democratic nomination for Governor against another man who has abandoned the values that put him in Congress.

My opponent, voted against vital health care reform measures. He voted to protect the rights of credit card companies rather than the rights of Alabama families. He thumbs his nose at the democratic leaders of our state and panders to right wing power brokers and big business contributors. He draws more of his support from Manhattan than he does from main street Alabama.

Yes, it would be an honor to represent the people of the 5th Congressional District in Washington. It would be my honor to stand up against those who break their word and betray their supporters. But right now I think it's more important that I represent the people in the 5th Congressional district in Montgomery. My opponent is a man who breaks his word and betrays his supporters.

So it looks like a pretty ugly gubernatorial primary ahead. For what it's worth, Swing State Project blogger James L., who was the source of those 2007 Ron Sparks quotes, isn't much impressed with Sparks's gubenatorial campaign, and neither are his commenters. "It's difficult not to agree that Artur Davis is useless," James L. writes, "but I don't see why Sparks saw any upside in staying in such a fratricidal primary where he'll be severely outgunned financially. I think this move shaved a few years off of his political longevity."

As for AL-05, Politico's Josh Kraushaar reports: "Democrats are now looking at several other candidates, including Public Service Commissioner Susan Parker (who ran against GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2002) and former state Supreme Court candidate Deborah Bell Paseur."

By way of background on Susan Parker, here is a March post, "Why Susan Parker Is Right for Alabama's Fifth District," from the blog Left in Alabama, which by the way our progressive friends on the ground in Alabama caution us isn't noticeably "left," being in fact pretty comfortably aligned with the Davis-DLC world view.

#

If Alabama turncoat Rep. Parker Griffith makes it to the GOP nomination, he may face a formidable Dem challenger in Ron Sparks

by Ken

Howie has been tracking the stone's-throw journey of first-term Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith in AL-05 -- from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party to the Confederate heart of the Republican Party, where it appears he's running into a formidable obstacle in the form of a ready-and-waiting R candidate for his seat, Mo Brooks.

Now, as Jonathan Martin reports in Politico, it appears that State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, whom Howie wrote about in 2007 as "a fiery populist" -- with stirring quotes to back this up -- "who could ignite sparks" in a potential Senate race, which never materialized, could become a factor. Sparks, who has strong North Alabama roots, has been targeting the Democratic gubernatorial primary against lackluster Rep. Artur Davis, but is now being lobbied personally by DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen to seek the Dem nomination in his political stronghold.

“He’s a great fit for the district,” said a senior House Democratic aide, noting that the party also urged Sparks to run for the seat last year, when the seat became open following the retirement of Democratic Rep. Bud Cramer.

Justin Saia, Sparks’ campaign manager, would only say that the commissioner is “open to entertaining other options” -- but then made the case for why his candidate would be formidable in the congressional campaign.

“He has won every county in the 5th twice,” Saia said, noting Sparks’ roots in north Alabama.

Martin also notes:

If Sparks were to jump into the House race, Alabama Democrats could avoid a gubernatorial primary that is already dividing the party and threatens to hamper their chance to reclaim the governor’s mansion after eight years of Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who is term-limited.

And it may present state and national Democrats with their best hope for exacting revenge on Griffith, who took their cash in 2008 only to slam the party a year later in announcing his switch.

“[Sparks] is north Alabama to his bone marrow even though he lives adjacent to the actual 5th,” said a veteran Alabama Democrat. “The folks in the 5th love him and his announcement would silence all other [Democratic] challengers because they know it's Sparks in a walk.”

Perhaps more noteworthy than the news itself (although Sparks certainly sounds like an upgrade over Griffith) is that it's reported so Dem-sympathetically in Politico, which usually manages to find the storm cloud in any Dem news and the silver lining in all things GOP. Is it possible that Parker Griffith is so unpopular that even Politico is titillated by the possibility of his former party having its "revenge" on him?

#

More Blue Dog Huntin'

Yesterday we cheered the departure of reactionary Alabama shithead Parker Griffith as he crossed the well-trod path (for him) to the other side of the aisle permanently-- or at least until Alabama Republican primary voters put him out of his misery next year. For good measure, we threw in a hallelujah that Texas Blue Dog Jack McDonald had taken his million bucks and pulled out of the race against Mike McCaul. If there's one thing the House Democratic caucus does not need, it's Blue Dogs posing as Democrats.

So, although I'm currently in the wilds of Albania-- and only barely able to access an Internet installed for the Albanians by my friend Evil Jesus-- I was very happy when I got an e-mail from Marcy Winograd back in L.A. with the image of the two impediments to the progressive movement above. Marcy is prominently featured on the Blue America page dedicated exclusively to electing real Democrats to replace Blue Dogs, in her case, Jane Harman. Here was Marcy's message, in part:

Like so many of you, I’ve had enough of people like Joe Lieberman hijacking health care reform. Four years ago, it was the voters who put him back in office-- a decision I suspect many are regretting. 

Unfortunately, there’s more than one “Lieberman” in Congress. My Blue Dog opponent Jane Harman is the Lieberman of the House-- priding herself on her ties to war profiteers and Big Pharma-- all the while pretending to be a liberal...

Harman is the Lieberman of the House-- playing progressive when it suits her interests, but then turning her back on the people who need her during key votes. 

In her own words, from a previous election:

“I was flattered to be introduced in the last election as the best Republican in the Democratic primary.”

I can win this race.  In 2006, I ran a last-minute campaign against Harman, built mostly on grass-roots efforts-- and still took almost 38% of the vote... [W]e need to get the word out to primary voters that:

• Harman voted to protect the pharmaceutical industry at the expense of patients--  making it more difficult for breast cancer patients to buy affordable generics.

• Harman voted against the bill that would have permitted judges to reduce mortgage payments in bankruptcy courts.
 
• Harman voted to protect and bail out the big banks while supporting legislation that made it more difficult for consumers to declare bankruptcy.

• Harman applauded Bush's illegal wiretapping program; three years later she claimed she never supported it.

• Harman lobbied for the Iraq invasion and occupation while personally investing in military contractors.

On the Blue America Bad Dogs page you can donate directly to Marcy's campaign, and you can also donate to Blue America's independent efforts to go after Harman and other slimy Blue Dogs. Please consider helping.


UPDATE: Will Chris Carney Will The Next To Switch?

Blue America discovered early on how duplicitous and devoid of principles Chris Carney is. Aside from being a reflexive reactionary, the man has no sense of morals whatsoever. So it should surprise no one that he is discussing switching parties with John McCain.

You Can't Really Call Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL) An Ex-Democrat Since He Never Was One, Not In The U.S. Congress

Last August DWT posed the question How Does One Justify Singling Out Just One Blue Dog-- In This Case Parker Griffith Of Alabama-- As The Worst Democrat In The House? It wasn't a tough case to make, and back at the link I have a chart, a snarky photo and a video of another one nearly as bad. Then just over a month ago I tried to point out that Griffith, a multimillionaire whose personal self-interest is always with the GOP, was hysterical about the estate tax. Watch him on the House floor in November making duplicitous Republican Party talking points on the estate tax. It would be virtually impossible to watch this and not guess he was either already a Republican or about to join that party:



Today, when the mainstream media suddenly discovered Parker Griffith for the first time, as he announced he would be joining the GOP, Media Matters was prepared to show that his voting record had never strayed from that of any slimy Republican. In fact there are 7 House Republicans with either an identical ProgressivePunch score on crucial votes or a better one! He opposed equal pay for women, opposed the stimulus bill, opposed clean energy legislation, opposed healthcare reform, voted against the budget and against regulating the banksters. Basically, from the day he slipped into the House he was a charter member of the Boehner Boys. His latest ProgressivePunch score on crucial issues is not just closer to every single Republican in the House than it is to progressives like Donna Edwards and Barbara Lee, it's closer to every single Republican than it is to fellow Blue Dogs and conservatives like Leonard Boswell, Dennis Moore, Jim Cooper and Allen Boyd (the only Democrat to sign on to Bush's plan to abolish Social Security).

The Republican Party used to hate him and feel he was the perfect target for their fear and smear tactics (click that NRCC ad). Now they have to decide how heavily to lean on their hand-picked candidate who was due to run against him in November, Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks. If today's statement from Brooks' campaign is any indication, it should be a delightful GOP primary.

“We’ve known for a long time that Parker Griffith’s principles are either for sale to the highest bidder or can change depending on how the poll results are looking,” [Brooks campaign manager Bruce] Tucker said. 

“He seems to speak out of both sides of his mouth. When he’s in Washington, he gives his support to [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi. When he’s in the district, he makes her sound terrible.”

Are the Democrats better off without Griffith in the House, forever and inexorably dragging the caucus further right and further away from the interests of working families? Well... you know where the Pope goes poo-poo, right? This is the guy, as we mentioned last summer, who promised his constituents that if they re-elected him, he would vote against Nancy Pelosi, who he referred to as a mental case, as Speaker next year. Now the DCCC won't have to waste another $1,000,000 trying to save a seat for someone who votes with the GOP all the time. Come to think of it, they'll need that money to try to save the seat of the only other House Democrat as bad as Griffith, Mississippi reactionary Travis Childers. Blue America has a page, Bad Dogs, dedicated to defeating Blue Dogs. If you have any interest in helping out, please let us know.


UPDATE: Skipping A Couple Confederate States Over To Texas

A few months ago I spent 30-40 sickening minutes on the phone with the DCCC's recruit for Mike McCaul's somewhat vulnerable seat in Texas, Jack McDonald. His sole qualification was that he was rich and willing to spend his own money on a race. He bragged to me about being a Blue Dog, but when I engaged him on the subject he was unsure what Blue Dogs are all about. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that the DCCC had found themselves another disastrous loser. I called Larry Joe Doherty and begged him to run again. (He was noncommittal.)

Today McDonald announced he wouldn't be running after all. He's raised nearly a million dollars so far. One less Blue Dog we'll have to contend with.

Blue Dogs Show Their True Color On The Estate Tax-- And It Ain't Blue

People who live in nice houses like this have pretty tulips-- and the clout to get out of paying their fair share of taxes

The battle over the Estate Tax is heating up again. The simplistic way to look at it is that the defenders of wealthy elites-- the Republican Party and DLC and Blue Dog Democrats (particularly Blanche Lincoln)-- are opposing real Democrats, who want to reform a system that the Bush Regime re-jiggered to save a handful of billionaires immense amounts of money (which is, at least in part, what put the deficit out of whack). That story line works, but it doesn't tell the whole story. It really isn't just the obvious villains who are currying favor with the richest 1 percent of Americans.

Tuesday CQPolitics carried a report that the House was likely to delay consideration if any kind of estate tax. Recall that when Blanche Lincoln and Jon Kyl tried to lower the rate on estates worth more than $7 million (under which the rate is zero; they pay nothing), their efforts (in her case on behalf of the Walton family which owns so much of WalMart) met some success.

Congress is under extreme pressure to act by the end of the year. If it does nothing, current law will make the estate tax disappear on Jan. 1, only to return in 2011 at higher rates and lower exemptions... Democratic leaders [K Street toadies Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel] want to move a permanent extension of the 2009 structure of the estate tax, which features a $3.5 million per-person exemption and a top rate of 45 percent.

Liberals are upset that such an extension-- which would cost $233.6 billion over 10 years and benefit the country’s wealthiest families-- would not be offset, even as they have to scrape up every dollar they can to offset health care legislation.

Meanwhile, a moderate faction led by Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has offered a proposal that would be more favorable to estates. It would gradually bring the top rate down to 35 percent, and push the exemption up to $5 million and index it for inflation.

Berkley’s legislation mirrors a plan supported by a bipartisan group of senators during the budget debate earlier this year. The amendment-- offered by Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.-- was adopted by a 51-48 vote, signaling that Republicans and moderate Democrats had the clout to get a better deal for estates than the 2009 rates.

Wednesday's CQPolitics followed-up with the story of a revolt from the Democratic congressional ranks. Real Democrats are telling Hoyer and House Ways and Means Committee Chair-- and notorious crook-- Charlie Rangel that they're not going along with this proposal that puts an unfair tax burden of the middle class to clean up the mess that corporate America made on behalf of the very wealthiest families. John Larson (D-CT) and Richard Neal (D-MA) led the revolt that ended in a Ways and Means Committee vote that backs a one-year extension and ties it to a broader overhaul of the tax code next year.

That move would spare Democrats from endorsing a tax cut for the wealthiest few families during a time of double-digit unemployment.

But Rangel, D-N.Y., and Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., have been seeking a permanent extension of current law, which would cost $233.6 billion over 10 years but would not have to be offset under the budget framework backed by Democrats.

An estate tax bill is expected to reach the floor after the Thanksgiving recess.

Under current law, the tax includes a top rate of 45 percent and a per-person exemption of $3.5 million. If Congress does nothing, the tax disappears Jan. 1 and then returns, with a $1 million exemption and a 55 percent top rate, in 2011.

Rangel said that no final decisions had been made and that committee Democrats would meet again later Wednesday.

But Larson and Neal said the direction Democrats were heading was clear. A one-year extension would make the estate tax levels expire at the same time as many other provisions in the tax code, potentially giving members an opportunity for a broader rewrite of the revenue structure. It was unclear whether the estate tax measure would include specific language that would somehow trigger a broader tax measure.
A one-year bill could face some difficulty, however.

A leading Ways and Means moderate, Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., warned that the push for a one-year extension might falter in the broader Democratic caucus.

“It’s not about that room,” he said, gesturing toward Rangel’s off-the-floor office, where Democrats met Wednesday morning.

He threatened to vote against the rule that would bring such a bill to the floor and said other members of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Caucus might do the same.

Before you listen to Parker Griffith (Blue Dog-AL), who is both a multimillionaire and the single most reactionary Democrat in Congress, please remember that assets left to spouses (or charities) are exempt from estate taxes, as are family farms. The idea behind an estate tax is to ameliorate the accumulation of tax free wealth in the hands of a small number of families. Estate taxes in America are far too low and have already led in the dangerous direction of perpetuating the nation's wealth in the hands of a few powerful families. Even conservative icon Winston Churchill famously argued that estate taxes are argued that estate taxes are “a certain corrective against the development of a race of idle rich," and argument entirely embraced by two of America's wealthiest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. As Buffett pointed out in 2006, in regard to predators like Griffith: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” That same year he also said "I would hate to see the estate tax gutted. It's a very equitable tax. It's in keeping with the idea of equality of opportunity in this country, not giving incredible head starts to certain people who were very selective about the womb from which they emerged."

Now please listen to this neo-Confederate Blue Dog scumbag reading Republican Party talking points, all distortions, about the estate tax:



And speaking of slimy, greed-obsessed and selfish rich people like Parker Griffith, the IRS announced this week that their crackdown on off shore banking cheats will produce billions of dollars. Almost 15,000 Americans who were cheating have come forward in time for the leniency window.

A rush of tax evaders applied before the program's Oct. 15 deadline-- nearly double the IRS preliminary tally-- taking advantage of guarantees that they wouldn't face criminal prosecution if they paid taxes, interest and reduced civil penalties... The leniency offer accompanied the IRS' legal battle with UBS, which in February agreed to a $780 million settlement of criminal charges that it had secretly sent bankers into the U.S. to help American clients evade taxes. The bank later turned over data for up to 250 Americans whose accounts had alleged signs of tax evasion.

Under the federal civil settlement, Swiss authorities have until August to disclose accounts for 4,450 American clients of UBS. Federal officials said the first 500 would be identified by month's end.

The targeted UBS accounts include those that held more than 1 million Swiss francs-- roughly $985,000-- any time between 2001 and 2008 for which "tax fraud or the like" is suspected.

And a bonus-- Forbes is reporting that the IRS will be looking for patterns that point to specific financial advisors and companies that were steering their clients into cheating on their taxes. I sure hope there's no amnesty or leniency for them.