I Could Write A Book On The Depredations Of The DCCC... Let's Start With WV-01

Get used to seeing this photo for a few days

West Virginia's northern third is basically the first congressional district, the traditionally Democratic one that includes Wheeling, Parkersburg and Morgantown. In 2010 the DCCC was certain they could win there and spent $1,294,055 independently to defeat wealthy GOP right-winger David McKinley. They came close but... no banana. McKinley defeated state Senator Mike Oliverio 90,660 (50.4%) to 89,220 (49.6%); that close. So, of course Steve Israel tried-- and tried hard-- to recruit Oliverio to run again this time... and he nearly did, but pulled out when he decided Obama is too unpopular and he'd be better off running in 2014. Israel bought into the scenario. Before I tell you how that played out yesterday, let's go back to 2010 for a moment and listen to what Doug McKinney, chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party, had to say about the state Senator and Democratic congressional candidate: "Sen. Oliverio has always been a conservative guy. He votes with the Republicans on committees. We've joked for years he needs to come over to the party who thinks like he does."

That's only part of the story. You know what ALEC is, right? The Koch brothers' state level operation to undermine democracy and promote fascism across America. It's primarily a hard-core Republican organization but in West Virginia the chairman was... Steve Israel's favorite Democrat: Mike Oliverio. Oliverio is everything a Democrat shouldn't be-- anti-Choice, bigoted to the core, pro-Big Business and anti-working family... and steeped in the kind of corruption that makes Steve Israel's heart go pitter-patter.

So Israel, who "officially" left the right-wing Blue Dog caucus and New Dem Coalition when he decided to go for a Democratic Party leadership role, set about trying to make sure to leave a clear path for Oliverio in 2014. The problem was just some activist grandmother with a grassroots following, Sue Thorn. Needless to say, Israel directed the DCCC and its allies and affiliates to ignore her and he told big Democratic donors to not give her any money. But he didn't stop there. Even though the Democrats hold a heavy registration advantage in WV-01 and even though Thorn outpolled McKinley in the primary this year (49,203 to 36,107), Israel connived with the Blue Dog PAC, Center Forward, to run TV spots against Sue Thorn. Yeah... read that again. He the chairman of the DCCC, who Nancy Pelosi admiringly describes as reptilian, watched with glee as his close allies at the Blue Dog Research Forum (now called Center Forward) took out TV spots not just for reactionary, anti-Choice Democrats like Joe Donnelly, Mike McIntyre, Jim Matheson, Ben Chandler and John Barrow, but also for reactionary, anti-Choice Republican David McKinley. Ever hear of anything like that before? Is that why Pelosi called him "reptilian?" No, she thinks he's fabulous.

Or she did. I wonder what she thinks about the breathtaking incompetence so clearly demonstrated across the board last night. All his horrid Blue Dog recruits lost. And, tragically, he was the cause of so many progressives who had ZERO DCCC support losing as well. In WV-01 Sue was beaten out by McKinley-- one of the few things that went the way Israel planned it-- around 60 to 40%.

Why Sue Thorn? For Starters, She's A Far Better Candidate Than Almost Anyone Being Pushed By The DCCC

Do you want REAL change in Washington?

Yesterday early voting started in West Virginia. Here are all the early voting locations in the first district, the northern third of the state. There's not much of an Obama campaign in West Virginia. Obama who won 43% of the vote there against McCain, will probably wind up in the 30's this time around. And while Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and Senator Joe Manchin are both putative Democrats coasting to victory, both are extremely conservative and both are shameless corporate whores in the pocket of the mine owners, only barely distinguishable from a Republican on a wide range of issues. Manchin has touted the fact that he's not endorsing Obama's reelection bid and says he may even vote for Romney.

In 2010 the DCCC spent well over a million dollars on trying to elect the leader of West Virginia ALEC, Mike Oliverio to Congress. He's even further right than Manchin and Tomblin, an ideal candidate for Steve Israel, who tried to recruit him again this cycle. Oliverio, a fervent anti-Choice reactionary who defeated longtime incumbent Alan Mollohan in the 2010 primary, went on to lose to a Republican with identical positions across the board, David McKinley, with a narrow 89,815 to 88,558. He told Israel he wanted to run again but not with Obama at the top of the ticket. Israel said he'd keep the slot warm for him until 2014.

Grassroots community activist Sue Thorn is running, an independent-minded reformer and populist-- exactly what a slimy Wall Street shill like Israel detests. Israel, a "former" Blue Dog encouraged the new Blue Dog PAC, Center Forward, to run TV ads backing McKinley, the far right Republican incumbent against Thorn. The DCCC refuses to help Thorn-- although WV-01 is a traditionally Democratic district and Thorn outpolled McKinely significantly in the primary-- and is undermining her bid to keep the seat open for Oliverio in 2014. Blue America, as usual, finds itself fighting back against the DCCC and has enthusiastically endorsed Sue Thorn. Wednesday we saw Charlestown's Gazette-Mail give Thorn a ringing endorsement and the same day West Virginia Public Broadcasting ran a very positive feature on her as well. Democrats on the ground see something there-- an eagerness to support ordinary working families-- that makes Steve Israel's reptilian skin crawl.

Thorn says her more recent political endeavors have been also on behalf of other candidates. Working for the Democratic National Committee she traveled around listening and talking to constituents’ concerns, but she’s never really aspired to serve, herself, until others began suggesting it.

“It was probably June or July of 2011 that I was at a barbeque in Grafton and somebody was complaining about our congressman and I said that if we don’t have anyone to run against him, it doesn’t make any difference. Someone said, ‘Why don’t you run?’

"I didn’t really think that they were serious but we started exploring it and I would go places-- to Parkersburg or Clarksburg and people would have shirts on that said, ‘Ask Sue to Run,’ or, ‘I told Sue to run,’ and it ended up culminating last fall in late November. We had an announcement in Morgantown. So this truly was a grass-roots movement. I was drafted by people throughout the district. And that’s what makes it a really unique campaign I think.”

When asked what some of her major concerns are and what issues she’s likely to focus on, Thorn says rebuilding the middle class is paramount. She says rebuilding infrastructure with American-made products is a key to creating jobs throughout the country.

“My grandfather, great grandfather, worked for the Works Progress Administration in Wheeling during the depression. So I tell people, my family survived the depression because the government created jobs. And they weren’t hand-outs. They built roads, and bridges, and dams, and public facilities, and I think that is exactly what the federal government needs to be doing now.”

Thorn is also passionate about social security issues.

“We have got to make social security secure for the next decades and decades. That is a guarantee. People worked for it, they paid into it. It is not a time when we need to be cutting back the benefits on that or eliminating people from that.

"In fact if we simply raised the limit, right now it’s at $110,000, people don’t have to contribute anything after that of what they earn. If we raise that limit it would keep social security secure for another thirty years, I believe is the statistic on that.”

Thorn is concerned with the suggested GOP changes to Medicare. She says moving seniors toward what looks like a voucher system is the wrong direction and that instead she’d like to see Medicare negotiating prescription drug prices as the Veterans Administration does for vets.

Thorn says defense spending is also a major concern of hers.

“There are now more no-bid contracts than there ever have been historically, and I even hear veterans say, what that’s leading to is war profiteering—that they feel that we are often going places to fight simply so that Haliburton or some other corporation can make billions in profits.

"When I talk to veterans who have to fight next to private contractors, and the private contractors are making five to ten times what our soldiers are making, and we have military families on food stamps? There’s something wrong there.”

When it comes to energy policy, Thorn believes changing energy dynamics are putting strains on the coal industry. She hopes research and innovation will alleviate economic strains in the state.

“While we need to be protecting the coal jobs that exist, we also need to be figuring out what we are going to do. What are our children and our grandchildren going to be doing? The same people, workers, who are mining coal right now, they and the next generation could be the miners of other types of energy.”

Thorn says, given the chance, she hopes to surround herself with a competent staff in Washington, DC, and in her district in West Virginia. She says it’s her goal to stay connected to constituents. To date, Citizens to Elect Sue Thorn has reported raising almost 150-thousand dollars, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. She says she hasn’t received any large corporate contributions.

“I will not go to DC with a bunch of corporations that expect my vote because they gave me money, and I’m thrilled about that. It means we’ve had to do more work during the campaign, but it also gives a great opportunity to stay connected with voters.”

Thorn says she’s excited that her focus now is campaigning door to door and over the phone.

If you'd like to help Sue and the coal miners beat McKinley and the coal barons, you can do that right here. Far more important than replacing some corrupt conservative Republican with a corrupt conservative Democrat, Steve Israel's only passion for 2012.

Sue Thorn (D-WV) And The Case Against Out Of Touch Elites

I don't know if Chris Hayes has ever heard of David McKinely, the tool of the coal barons who was elected to Congress in 2010 in the Tea Party sweep-- let along Sue Thorn, the intrepid and courageous grassroots activist who is taking on the insider DC Establishment in running against him. As corrupted as your garden variety Republican, DCCC Chair Steve Israel and his Blue Dog allies have actively campaigned against Sue. The DCCC won't spend a dime on this very winnable race-- holding out to run egregiously corrupt Mike Oliverio (head of West Virginia ALEC) in 2014-- while the corporately-financed Blue Dog PAC runs TV spots in favor of McKinely! Anyway, in his superb new book, Twilite of the Elites, Hayes, in talking about "1 percent pathologies" stumbled on a perfect reason why West Virginia working families should not, not under any circumstances, be voting for David McKinley, a multimillionaire himself.

The it's obviously a far cry from the antebellum South, extreme inequality of the particular that we have, produces its own particular kind of elite pathology: it makes elites less accountable, more prone to corruption and self-dealing, more status-obsessed and less empathetic, more blinkered and removed from informational feedback crucial to effective decision-making. For this reason, extreme inequality produced elites who are less competent and more corrupt than those in a more egalitarian social order would. This is the fundamental paradoxical outcome that several decades of failed meritocratic production has revealed: As Americans society grows more elitist, it produces a worse caliber of elites.

Early this morning we embedded the entire Brave New Films movie Koch Brothers Exposed which should be viewed by everyone who has the vaguest notion of what Hayes means in the above paragraph. Sunday, Charlestown's Gazette-Mail showed that do get it-- even if Steve Israel and the DCCC never will-- in a fulsome endorsement of Sue's campaign.

[W]e think America's middle class and average families will be better served if Democrats regain control of the House of Representatives, ensuring humane values on Capitol Hill. So we hope McKinley's Democratic challenger, party organizer Sue Thorn, prevails in the Nov. 6 balloting.

Although she's a first-time candidate, Thorn is no stranger to public life. She helped run Hopeful City, a coalition of 21 church congregations working to improve life in the Northern Panhandle, and she also was a job-creating agent for the Ohio Valley Industrial and Business Development Corporation.

As a Democratic organizer, she took a plunge for Congress when no major figures challenged McKinley. Thanks to West Virginia's lopsided Democratic registration, she drew 13,000 more votes in last spring's primary than the congressional incumbent did. We hope that margin continues next month.

Wealthy conservatives are investing huge sums in McKinley's campaign, while Thorn is running on a shoestring. It's a David-vs.-Goliath race.

During her campaign, Thorn stresses that many West Virginia politicians pose as "Friends of Coal" and take large donations from mine owners, but remain silent about coal dust disease and explosion danger that kill miners. She says her opponent "may be a friend of coal, but he's no friend of coal miners."

The daughter of a union electrician, she says her goal is "rebuilding the middle class." We hope next month's election gives her a chance to try.

If you'd like to help out in this David vs. Goliath race, you can do it right here on the main Blue America page.

Can Obama Save Us From A Koch Brothers Takeover?

It was almost as an afterthought that we appended an embed of the Robert Greenwald film, Koch Bros Exposed onto the end of a late Sunday night post about Romney and plutocracy. I can't emphasize enough how important it is for every swing state voter to see this movie before November 6... so here it is again. If you have concerns-- or doubts-- about the direction Romney would take this country should he get into the White House-- or what Republican control of the Senate and House will mean-- this documentary is an absolute must-see. Recall the speech Grover Norquist, the quintessential whore for plutocracy, gave at CPAC this summer:

All we have to do is replace Obama… We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget… We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate... Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.

David or Charles Koch-- let alone père Fred, the Bircher-- couldn't have summed up the right-wing case for Romney any better: a weak, vacillating nothing who will be what he's told by the Dark forces of American fascism.

Monday morning the Kochs must have killed a thousand kittens when they read the Washington Post report by Juliet Eilperin, Obama’s Record: Environmental Agenda Pushes Sweeping Attack On Air Pollution. I would have preferred to see the Obama Justice Department round up the banksters-- not to mention the Bush Regime war criminals-- and throw them in prison, but I've still be willing to give Obama the benefit of many doubts primarily because of his record on environmentalism. It's largely because of Obama that I drive a hybrid and that my home is powered by solar energy. That he's willing to stand up to the Kochs-- please watch the film-- is, alone, enough reason to reelect him.

The day after the November 2010 elections made clear President Obama’s greenhouse-gas legislation was doomed, he vowed to keep trying to curb emissions linked to global warming. There’s more than one way of “skinning the cat,” he told reporters.

Since then, Obama has used his executive powers-- including his authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act-- to press the most sweeping attack on air pollution in U.S. history. He has imposed the first carbon-dioxide limits on new power plants, tightened fuel-efficiency rules as part of the auto bailout and steered billions of federal dollars to clean-energy projects. He also has proposed slashing mercury emissions from utilities by 91 percent by 2016.

Obama’s end run around Republican opposition has delighted environmentalists, but it has drawn the ire of business groups and conservatives who argue he is crippling the coal industry, driving up energy costs and hurting the overall economy.

“Environmental regulation should be about protecting public health, and not about creating green jobs and mitigating hypothetical risk,” said Diane Katz, research fellow in regulatory policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “Being unemployed and poor from overregulation, or zealous regulation, is a greater risk than global warming.”

When Obama was elected in 2008, environmentalists were confident their most-cherished goals-- ending coal-fired power plants, limiting greenhouse-gas emissions and invoking new protections for public lands-- were finally within reach.

Following up on a campaign promise, the president backed legislation that would slash America’s carbon output by 80 percent by 2050. Under the proposed cap-and-trade legislation, companies would buy and sell emissions credits allowing them to pollute more.

The bill was passed by the House, which at the time was controlled by Democrats, but in June 2009 it was blocked in the Senate by Republicans and moderate [NOTE: in Washington circles the word "moderate" now connotes far right-wing reactionaries] Democrats. When Republicans won control of the House in the 2010 elections, the bill was dead.

The administration turned to the Clean Air Act, which Obama allies said the president became familiar with while serving on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Using the law’s extensive authority, the administration issued six major environmental rules, including ones that placed limits on toxic air pollutants, greenhouse gases, soot and smog-forming pollutants.

The strategy was bolstered by some outside factors. Its effort to limit carbon emissions was benefited by the natural-gas boom; many utilities are switching from coal to natural gas, which is more economical and emits much less carbon. The automobile bailout gave Obama the leverage to impose tougher fuel-efficiency standards, and the Environmental Protection Agency faced several lawsuits pending from the Bush administration that needed to be resolved.

Obama’s standards for new vehicles, said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, rank as “the biggest move to get us off our oil dependence by any president ever.” The rules, which took effect this year, will require the U.S. auto fleet to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said the administration’s array of environmental rules go to the “sweet spot of energy security, economic opportunity and reducing pollution,” and fit into a favorite Obama theme during the 2008 campaign.

But the business community argues that the regulations are heavy-handed and are hurting the nation’s economic security.

“The utility sector, which we consider a part of the manufacturing sector, has been hit extremely hard,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice president of energy and resources at the National Association of Manufacturers.

Utilities, he said, are shuttering older plants and holding off expanding existing ones out of fear that the EPA will deny them permits.

Last month, urged on by several business and energy groups, the GOP-controlled House passed the Stop the War on Coal Act, which would reverse several Obama regulations and proposals. It would bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, jettison the stricter fuel standards and give states primary authority over the storage and disposal of coal-combustion waste. But that bill has little chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Because the administration, faced by partisan polarization, has moved ahead on its own, opportunities for compromise have been lost, some say. Eisenberg notes that during former president Bill Clinton’s second term, the two parties negotiated passage of such significant environmental laws as the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act.

“The big difference is you had a Congress and an administration a little bit willing to work together on the issues,” he said.

...Obama friends and foes agree on one thing: The president will probably pursue an even more aggressive environmental agenda if reelected.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said in a statement he would expect Obama to push for more national monument designations in a second term. “From nearly day one,” he said, “the Obama Administration has attempted to impose policies that would block public access to public lands and cause significant economic harm and job loss.”

When it comes to putting more public land off limits to development, he added, “Such decisions should not be made by unilateral orders from the president” using a 106-year old law.

Environmental leaders expect Obama to try to take tougher action on limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants if reelected.

Obama hinted as much during a speech to a crowd of Colorado State University students in August.

“We’re on track to emit fewer greenhouse gases this year than we have in nearly 20 years,” he said. “You can keep those trends going. That all happened because of you.”

The bill Eilperin referred to above, H.R. 3409, which the GOP calls the Stop the War on Coal Act was introduced by a shill for the mine owners and polluters, Bill Johnson (R-OH) and had 19 consponsors who take large legalistic bribes from the anti-environmnetal polluters. Although 13 Republicans broke with their leadership to oppose it, it passed 233-175, as the Blue Dogs and New Dems rallied, to their corporate masters' sides (including, dangerously, Shelley Berkley, the exceptionally corrupt New Dem who would sell her grandmother for a nickel and is the Democratic candidate for the Nevada Senate seat and an even worse Blue Dog, Joe Donnelly, who the Democrats are running for the Indiana Senate seat). One of the co-sponsors of the bill was West Virginia corporate whore (and crooked multimillionaire) David McKinley. McKinely is always on the side of the mine owners and always against the miners... always. His opponent this year is an advocate for miner families, Sue Thorn. I can't imagine she would ever have voted for this unserious legislation. Thorn:

Being a "Friend of Coal" isn’t enough, especially when regulations concern worker safety. In the recent draft 2013 budget, House Republicans added language that would prevent the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) from implementing new limits on coal dust. An amendment by Congressman David McKinley will make it tougher to control combustible coal ash or unsafe air quality in mines, even though there is a surge in black lung cases. Black lung is now striking coal miners at younger ages and with less time in mines. This is no time to prevent the enforcement of these life-saving regulations.

When elected officials receive campaign contributions from coal barons they seem to ignore the needs of coal miners. I will always be a "Friend of Coal Miners."

The Koch brothers and the political whores like McKinley who are their willing puppets, are an existential threat to this country and to our families. It's enough of a reason to overlook Obama's many flaws and defeat Romney and it's enough of a reason to consider making a contribution to congressional candidates who will help the president along the way with a forward-looking environmental agenda.

What Does Steve Israel Have Against West Virginia?

This afternoon we took a look at DCCC math and the committee's patently false claims about targeting. I promised we'd take a look at one of the races they spent heavily on in 2010 and see what they're doing there this cycle. Come with me to beautiful northern West Virginia, WV-01, a traditionally Democratic district that covers a third of the state, including Wheeling, Parkersburg and Morgantown. 

But first a couple words about the state of the state's political culture. The West Virginia Democratic Party Establishment, home of arch-conservatives Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and Senator Joe Manchin, has strayed very far from its good ole populist days-- when it was, far and away, the top dog in the state. When I was a kid, West Virginia was one of the most dependably Democratic states in America. Starting in 1932, West Virginia gave its electoral college votes (now 5 but back then 8) to every Democrat until Eisenhower's landslide reelection in 1956. (West Virginia had been one of only 9 states that voted for Adlai Stevenson in 1952.) After that they were back in the Democratic fold until 1972 when Nixon beat McGovern in every state except Massachusetts (and DC). The state was with the Democrats when Carter ran against Ford in 1976 and when Carter ran against Reagan in 1980... and even backed Dukakis against Bush I in 1988 (one of only 9 states to do so). They went for Clinton both times and... that was it. They backed Bush II twice and then McCain and this time they're solidly behind Romney. The last poll available showed him beating Obama 52-38%.

In 2010 an especially rabid reactionary, state Senator Mike Oliverio of Morgantown, decided to challenge 14-term Democratic incumbent Alan Mollohan. Oliverio has a long record of shilling for Big Business and Wall Street banksters and prides himself on being virulently anti-Choice and hysterically antigay. He was co-chair of the West Virginia chapter of ALEC and, for some reason Bush publicly thanked him for helping get Sammy Alito confirmed to the Supreme Court. And if you still don't get the point, in 2010 2010, the state GOP chair, Doug McKinney, referred to Oliverio's over-the-edge conservatism by saying, "Sen. Oliverio has always been a conservative guy. He votes with the Republicans on committees. We've joked for years he needs to come over to the party who thinks like he does." Does that turn your stomach? It gave swinish DC Dems like Chris Van Hollen, Joe Crowley, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Steve Israel woodies... just the kind of "Democrat" they're eager to fill the House with. Once he dispatched Mollohan, using right-wing Republican talking points, the DCCC embraced him like a favorite child. In all, they spent $1,294,055 on Oliverio's failed race, $1,264,732 of it on negative advertising against McKinley who narrowly beat him. The West Virginia Democratic Party spent another $57,700 on Oliverio and Oliverio was able to raise $1,449,376 (to McKinley's $1,783,039, of which 45% was a check McKinley wrote to his own campaign). Ironically, pro-business pacs spent more helping Oliverio than McKinely and labor unions gave to both almost equally. Mining interests gave Oliverio $86,450 and gave McKinley $89,551. Going into November, Cook, Rothenberg, CQPolitics and Real Clear Politics all called the race a tossup and Larry Sabato said the race was leaning Republican. In the end 2010 was a bad year for Democrats and McKinley edged him 90,660 (50.40%) to 89,220 (49.60).

DCCC Chair and "ex"-Blue Dog (and New Dem) Steve Israel wasn't ready to give up on Oliverio and he tried recruiting him again this year. Oliverio at first said he would run but then backed out because he didn't want to be on the same ticket as Obama, even though the district has a 191,258-127,114 Democratic registration advantage. Instead, a grassroots populist, Sue Thorn, jumped into the race. She pulled 49,203 votes in the primary to McKinley's 36,107. But Steve Israel, upset that his treacherous Blue Dog wouldn't run, declared the district unwinnable and has consistently refused to allow the DCCC to get involved with the race. So that $1,294,055 they spent on Oliverio in 2010... so far this year they spent a grand total of ZERO dollars on Sue. Think about it and think about why. I'd like to point out now that Sue has been enthusiastically endorsed by Blue America and, if you can, please consider helping her campaign.

Interestingly, although Israel won't authorize a dime of spending on Sue's campaign-- hoping to get a Blue Dog to run in 2014-- DCCC staffers have attacked McKinley in press releases, some of them very effectively. This one went out last Friday:

Congressman McKinley Leaves for Two-Month Taxpayer Funded Vacation

Congressman David McKinley (WV-01) and House Republicans called it quits and hightailed out of Washington today to take a nearly two-month taxpayer-funded vacation without creating jobs for the middle class and veterans, without stopping an upcoming tax hike on middle class families and small businesses, and without reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act or the Farm Bill. Earlier today, DCCC Chairman Steve Israel and about a dozen top-tier Red to Blue candidates gave a Pink Slip Notice of Termination to this Tea Party Republican Majority-- for failing to get the job done.

While Congressman David McKinley failed to get the job done on these items, for the next two months he will still get paid nearly $30,000 of his $174,000 annual salary.

“Congressman David McKinley called it quits and bolted Washington for an almost two-month taxpayer-funded vacation,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Congressman McKinley fled Washington without creating jobs for the middle class and veterans, without stopping an upcoming tax hike on middle class families and small businesses, and without reauthorizing the Farm Bill or the extending the Violence Against Women Act. “This is just the latest proof that the only job that Congressman McKinley cares about is keeping his own, even if it means turning his back on the middle class, seniors, veterans, farmers and women.”

It’s no wonder, approval of this the McKinley-Republican Congress has hit an all-time low-- 13% percent-- which is the lowest ever this late in an election year, according to Gallup.

I asked their press release lady why they didn't mention Sue. No response. But it was similar to a press rlease they sent out on August 16, which cuts down McKinley and fails to mention Sue:

With Congressman McKinley on Defense Over Ryan Budget, Republicans Worried about Losing Seats Like McKinley’s

Now that House Republicans including Congressman David McKinley (WV-01) are forced to run with Paul Ryan’s Medicare-ending budget on the ticket, Republicans are increasingly worried it could cost House Republicans seats like Congressman McKinley’s this November.


From Senator McCain's 2008 top political advisor Steve Schmidt saying Republicans are “worried” to former NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds saying the damage of Ryan’s plan to end Medicare is comparable to when Republicans lost the Majority in 2006 over President George W. Bush’s failed Social Security privatization efforts, countless Republicans are saying that the Ryan budget could cost Republicans seats this November.

“Congressman David McKinley is in trouble, on defense and in danger of being defeated this November, now that he must run with an unwelcome new running mate-- the Ryan budget that ends Medicare,” said Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Congressman McKinley is in jeopardy because his party voted to end Medicare and raise health care costs for seniors by $6,400 in order to give $265,000 in tax breaks for people making over $1 million. Even Republicans say that the Ryan budget, which puts millionaires over Medicare, could cost House Republicans seats and put Ryan Republicans like Congressman McKinley in jeopardy.”

But neither Ryan nor McKinley will ever really be in jeopardy as long as Steve Israel-- reptilian or not-- is head of the DCCC.  Sure can win this thing. It would be easier if the DCCC would help, but she can do it with our help instead. Here's the place, whether you can spare $5 or $50 or $500.

The War On Coal... Miners

You may have read Kate Sheppard's story in Mother Jones last week about a wealthy coal exec who dressed up like a coal miner to help right-wing Republican Andy Barr beat right-wing Blue Dog Ben Chandler (KY-06). The only preference I have in this race is that they both lose. I don't have any idea why Chandler calls himself a Democrat. In the current session he voted with the Republicans on 67.42% of the crucial, substantive roll calls, more often than Republicans Ron Paul (R-TX) and Walter Jones (R-NC) and almost exactly tied with Tim Johnson (R-IL). The only Democrats with voting records to the right of his were 9 other Blue Dogs several of whom are transitioning into lobbying next year. As far as specific coal votes, he's been with the GOP two-thirds of the time on subsidies for coal, with the Republicans almost half the time on the environment (career-long) and, also career-long, with the GOP more than half the time on air pollution. 

Thursday Robert Semple penned an editorial for the NY Times you may have missed, 'Stop the War on Coal' Act, almost a public policy obituary for Republican conservationist Russell Train who died last week, age 92. Train was Nixon's first chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and later was "administrator of the fledgling Environmental Protection Agency-- helping shape landmark statutes like the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. His death serves as a reminder of the G.O.P.’s historic tradition of environmental stewardship, a tradition stretching as far back as Teddy Roosevelt, which the party has now repudiated." Completely and utterly repudiated... and with a vengeance.

Within hours of Mr. Train’s  death, Republican leaders in the House brought to the floor a bill called “Stop the War on Coal Act, “ which seeks to weaken and in some cases overturn laws and rules protecting the very things that Mr. Train stood for-- clean air, clean water, a stable climate and fair effective regulation of the big polluters, including but not exclusively the fossil fuel industry.

The bill (which the senate will certainly strike down) contains no new ideas.  According to a database compiled by Representative  Henry Waxman and the Democratic staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Republicans have voted an astonishing  302 times this year to hamstring the Environmental Protection Agency, weaken clean water and air rules, undermine protections for public lands  and coastal areas, and block action to address global warming – all while seeking to make the regulatory climate as favorable as possible for the oil, gas and coal industries. The  virtue of the latest bill (I use the word virtue loosely here) is that it contains just about all of those bad ideas in one place-- one-stop shopping as it were, for those who haven’t been keeping up with the Tea Party wrecking crew in the 112th Congress.

In recent years, much to his surprise as an old Republican loyalist, but perfectly in keeping with his values, Mr. Train found himself working behind the scenes to defend the Obama administration and especially its embattled E.P.A. chief, Lisa Jackson, in her efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change. He was also a strong supporter of President Obama’s most important environmental achievement so far, the agreement with Detroit to double automobile efficiency and greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles by 2025.

One suspects, however, that his final years would have been much happier had he been spared the sight of his own party trashing much of what he worked for.

The bill passed 233-175, 13 Republicans voting against it and 19 Democrats, including Chandler, of course, voting for it. All but 3 of the Democrats who voted with the GOP were Blue Dogs and New Dems and the other 3 almost always voted with the Blue Dogs anyway. One of the co-sponsors of the bill was West Virginia corporate whore (and crooked multimillionaire) David McKinley. McKinely is always on the side of the mine owners and always against the miners... always. His opponent this year is an advocate for miner families, Sue Thorn. I can't imagine she would ever have voted for this unserious legislation. Thorn:

Being a "Friend of Coal" isn’t enough, especially when regulations concern worker safety. In the recent draft 2013 budget, House Republicans added language that would prevent the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) from implementing new limits on coal dust. An amendment by Congressman David McKinley will make it tougher to control combustible coal ash or unsafe air quality in mines, even though there is a surge in black lung cases. Black lung is now striking coal miners at younger ages and with less time in mines. This is no time to prevent the enforcement of these life-saving regulations.

When elected officials receive campaign contributions from coal barons they seem to ignore the needs of coal miners. I will always be a "Friend of Coal Miners."

The DCCC is spending approximately $2 million to try to save Ben Chandler's seat in Kentucky this cycle-- so he can be around in 2013 to vote with the GOP two-thirds of the time again. But in Sue Thorn's very winnable race? The DCCC is spending not even two cents. They're perfectly happy to have McKinely sitting in a traditionally Democratic seat until 2014 when they can run some awful Blue Dog again-- like the one McKinley beat in 2010. We're not and we're trying to help Sue win her race. It's an uphill struggle. The working families she appeals to don't have money for campaign contributions and she can really use some help in getting her message out. Here's where you can help if you'd like to.

Top 10 "Underground" House Races Party "Pros" Inside The Beltway Aren't Paying Any Attention To

Yes, Steve Israel is "reptilian," but whose side is he on?

Sarah Jaffe at Alternet seems a lot more tuned in than the DCCC or Cook. She looked at 10 congressional races this week that could spell big gains for progressives-- not reactionary Blue Dogs and New Dems or even just garden variety lockstep Democrats-- in November. She examined 10 independent-minded progressives who stand out from the pack but who the DCCC is either ignoring, sabotaging or just paying lip service to.

One of the candidates Jaffe focuses on is Patsy Keever and yesterday the Keever camp sent out a press release to local media asking them to take a look:

Two days ago Sarah Jaffe, associate editor at AlterNet, released her top 10 list of under-the-radar Congressional races to watch. The battle here in NC-10 between Patsy Keever and Patrick McHenry rated a spot on the list.
 
She writes, “North Carolina redistricted notorious Blue Dog Heath Shuler out of Congress […] But that might wind up helping Patsy Keever, who's facing off in the 10th against Patrick McHenry.” The article also quotes Alex Pareene at Salon as saying that McHenry was “born to be cheerfully corrupt: He’s a product of the College Republicans, an organization that trains little Lee Atwaters, Karl Roves and Grover Norquists in the arts of scorched-earth campaigning and wholly irresponsible 'governing' on behalf of the monied interests that bought you your job.”
 
“I think that the article is on target,” said Keever's campaign manager Bruce Mulkey. “We are running a very well-organized, people powered campaign, and Patsy is being met with enthusiasm wherever she goes. I hope the pundits are paying attention on November 6, because I think they’re going to be in for a big surprise.”

These are the kinds of candidates being supported by Blue America and if you;d like to help, you can find them all either here or here. These were the 10 races Jaffe says are "flying under the radar, where you just might see an upset." She starts with the most winnable race in America that the DCCC is ignoring, Lee Rogers' courageous battle against backward and corrupt House armed Services Committee Chairman, Buck McKeon:

1. CA-25: Democrat Lee Rogers vs Republican Buck McKeon

Buck McKeon is a trifecta of loathsome: a Republican in a district that Obama won in 2008 who got preferential treatment from housing-bubble blowers Countrywide, and who, as the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, refused to hold hearings on sexual assault at the Air Force's training facility at Lackland. He was also one of the forces behind California's anti-gay Proposition 8, and is the co-chair of the House drone caucus (for real).

So why aren't we hearing more about his opponent, surgeon Lee Rogers? As could be expected, Rogers is running heavy on health care, leaning on his experience with the system-- he says that 75 percent of his patients (he's a podiatrist) are on Medicare-- and calling for improvements to the Affordable Care Act. He's called for keeping drug addicts out of prison, getting out of Afghanistan, and investing in infrastructure. As Blue America's Howie Klein notes, McKeon hasn't had real competition in a while, so this race could get interesting.

2. NY-23: Democrat Nate Shinagawa vs Republican Tom Reed

Nate Shinagawa is running as both the Democratic and Working Families Party candidate in upstate New York's 23rd district against Republican Tom Reed. He is one of the youngest candidates for Congress this year (just 28 years old) and a former student labor activist. He's already spent six years in the Tompkins County legislature, and has been an outspoken critic of fracking-- a practice his opponent is all for-- which New York Governor Cuomo would like to open up in his district.

In addition to welcoming fracking in his backyard, Reed was one of the GOP members of Congress on an infamous trip to Israel, where in addition to enjoying the hospitality of AIPAC's nonprofit offshoot the American Israel Education Foundation, at least one legislator copped to going skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee. (Reed says that he and his wife were “appropriately clothed.”) He's been cited as a possible future GOP “star” from New York, and he's a big fan of Paul Ryan and his (wildly unpopular, especially in New York) budget.

3. PA-16: Democrat Aryanna Strader vs Republican Joe Pitts

Joe Pitts's name is familiar to anyone who cares about reproductive justice-- along with Democrat Bart Stupak, the Pennsylvania Republican was the author of the infamous Stupak-Pitts amendment to the health care reform bill-- a sneak attack on abortion rights that would've restricted access to abortion coverage in private health insurance plans.

Pitts should be a huge target for Democrats, but despite a leftward trend in his district and a bit of redistricting that might make it even more likely to swing Democratic, they're not pushing very hard. But Aryanna Strader is. She's a 29-year-old veteran, a mom, and a small business owner, and she leaves no question where she stands on reproductive freedoms-- she argues that Pitts “started the war on women's health.”

There are two independents running in the 16th as well-- Jim Bednarski, a former Republican who apparently wants to win the seat without fundraising, and John A. Murphy, who called Strader the Democrats' Sarah Palin. Pitts is smoking his competition when it comes to fundraising, though-- which might make one wonder about the Democrats' commitment to electing pro-choice politicians, since there's plenty of money being funneled into other Pennsylvania races, including Mark Critz's race at the other end of Pennsylvania-- despite his support for Pitts' H.R. 358, dubbed the “Let Women Die Act” because it would, well, let women die if their doctors were opposed to abortion.

4. MI-11: Democrat Syed Taj vs Republican Kerry Bentivolio

If this district sounds familiar, it's because Thaddeus McCotter resigned from it earlier this year after a chunk of the signatures qualifying him for the primary ballot were found to be fraudulent. (Four of his staffers were charged with violating election law.) Dr. Syed Taj is one of several M.D.'s running for Congress this year on their practical health care experience. He's skipping the special election for the remaining weeks of McCotter's term (really, weeks), choosing to focus on the general, where he's facing a Tea Party candidate, Kerry Bentivolio, who's well, unique-- Mother Jones describes him as “a reindeer rancher, Santa impersonator, and political novice who once starred in a low-budget movie suggesting that 9/11 was an inside job.” A former teacher, he's facing questions about his treatment of students, and he got a chunk of funding for his campaign from a 21-year-old Ron Paul fanboy
.
Taj has spent over 40 years as a doctor, including a stint as Chief of Medicine at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn. He's been endorsed by the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit News, Representative Keith Ellison, Senator Debbie Stabenow, the Michigan Nurses Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

5. WV-01: Democrat Sue Thorn vs Republican David McKinley

West Virginia is coal country, and any political battle in the state is likely to have Big Coal's dirty fingers all over the race. Sue Thorn's challenge to David McKinley is no exception. Multimillionaire McKinley (what is it with these rich members of Congress in some of the poorest districts?) has gotten a good chunk of his campaign cash from Murray Energy, the company whose Utah mine at Crandall Canyon collapsed and killed nine people-- and which got slapped with the largest fines ever from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (until the 2010 explosion at Upper Big Branch mine right in West Virginia, that is).

McKinley tries to claim that Thorn doesn't support coal mining and works under a big picture of a miner-- but Jack Spadaro, former head of the National Mine Safety and Health Academy, doesn't buy that:

There's no question about that, he's a hypocrite. He may say that and have that poster in his office, but he hasn't done anything to further the interests of miners and to make their workplace safe.

Meanwhile, Thorn has pointed out that McKinley's voted against stronger protections against black lung (which is having a resurgence) and better safety regulations. And she spent her Labor Day at events with actual workers, not just pictures of them.

6. WI-01: Democrat Rob Zerban vs Republican Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan's busy running for Veep, of course-- but just in case, he's also running for reelection in his House district. And Rob Zerban would like to take that job from him as well. Zerban's probably the first serious challenge Ryan has faced in Wisconsin since his election; he's raised over $1.4 million for his race so far, and points out that Obama carried the district in 2008 (and still would have even after redistricting). He told AlterNet's Joshua Holland:

I’ve lived my version of the American dream. I was only able to do that because our government was there when I needed help. I realize that being a successful small business owner-- someone who employed 45 people, providing excellent wages and benefits-- I realize that this isn’t something I accomplished all on my own. Our government helped me get an education on Pell Grants and loans, I was able to go on and start these small businesses. I want to make sure economic opportunity exists for everybody in this country, not just the wealthy and the well-connected.

Zerban's wife is a teacher and they were both part of the Capitol protests against Scott Walker's anti-union bill. He endorses a “Medicare for All” single-payer system, noting that people don't start small businesses, in part, because of the sky-high costs of health insurance.

Ryan's selection to the presidential ticket may have helped put other Congressional races in play for the Democrats-- it'd be pretty funny if he managed to lose his own, too.

7. NC-10: Democrat Patsy Keever vs Republican Patrick McHenry

North Carolina redistricted notorious Blue Dog Heath Shuler out of Congress(Shuler decided to step down after some of the more Democratic-leaning parts of his 11th district were sliced out and dropped into the neighboring 10th). But that might wind up helping Patsy Keever, who's facing off in the 10th against Patrick McHenry, described by Alex Pareene at Salon as “born to be cheerfully corrupt: He’s a product of the College Republicans, an organization that trains little Lee Atwaters, Karl Roves and Grover Norquists in the arts of scorched-earth campaigning and wholly irresponsible 'governing' on behalf of the monied interests that bought you your job.”

Keever, on the other hand, won a primary over more conservative Asheville mayor Terry Bellamy (who had the backing of the national party). The former schoolteacher is a sharp critic of the corporate education reform policy currently being celebrated at both party conventions, writing recently:

Vouchers and charter schools are not the answer. Defunding good programs and instituting unfunded mandates are not the answer. Adding more students to each classroom while decreasing support systems for teachers is not the answer.

Howie Klein notes that unlike Hayden Rogers, the anti-gay, anti-choice candidate (and Shuler's Chief of Staff) now running in the 11th district, Keever's getting little support from the Democratic party in the 10th. This, even though she strongly opposed North Carolina's anti-gay marriage Amendment One and was endorsed as pro-choice by NARAL. Interestingly, the DCCC named Rogers a “Red to Blue” candidate, which gives him additional funding even though he's running to replace his old boss, a theoretical Democrat, while Keever's running against an honest-to-goodness Republican.

8. CA-39: Democrat Jay Chen vs Republican Ed Royce

Ed Royce is a longtime incumbent who's gotten more money from the financial sector than any other member of the California delegation; he's one of the few senior Republicans to actually join the Tea Party Caucus, has said that Arizona's “Papers, Please” anti-immigrant law should be the national standard, railed against multi-language ballots, and voted against extending the Voting Rights Act. But he's in a new district this time, and this one is 30 percent Asian-American and 30 percent Latino-- creating a perfect opening for Jay Chen to take a crack at defeating him.

Chen still faces an uphill battle, but the school board member and Navy Reservist is running on the issues that matter-- making education more accessible, better health care (he's ultimately a single-payer supporter) and financial regulation. He recorded Mandarin-language ads to urge the Chinese-American community to vote against Proposition 8, and even though the DCCC doesn't see fit to spend money on his race, he's determined to keep fighting.

9. PA-03: Democrat Missa Eaton vs Republican Mike Kelly

Missa Eaton is one of many educators running as a Democrat in a time of reduced funding for schools and universities. The daughter of a union bus driver, the assistant professor of psychology is challenging super-rich incumbent Mike Kelly and mentions the student debt crisis as one of her issues to tackle. She's also no slouch on trade policy, an issue that might not be sexy but is deeply important in the era of outsourcing.

Eaton's getting union support in her blue-collar western Pennsylvania district (represented, before Kelly, by Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper) and won the “Keystone Challenge” from the state Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, Mike Kelly compared the health insurance mandate to cover contraception to Pearl Harbor and September 11. No, really.

10. TX-16: Democrat Beto O'Rourke vs Republican Barbara Carrasco

Beto O'Rourke's already won one rough race this year-- his primary, where he knocked off conservative Democrat Silvestre Reyes, in part in a battle over drug policy. O'Rourke favors marijuana legalization and bluntly calls the drug war a “failure.” The El Paso city representative argued that marijuana prohibition only fuels the cartels and stokes violence just over the border. It didn't hurt that Reyes had other problems-- $600,000 in campaign funds steered to himself and family members, say, or a vote to defund Planned Parenthood. Tim Murphy at Mother Jones notes that try as Reyes might have to make drugs an issue in the campaign, the race was really won on the economy.

O'Rourke's also pushed for benefits for same-sex partners and is pro-choice, pro-contraception, and pro-health care. The district remains largely Democratic even after redistricting, but O'Rourke still has to go through Barbara Carrasco, a Republican whose website pledges that she'll “FIGHT for America's Free-Market Economy” and “PROTECT our Children-- Born and Unborn.”

"Ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, the head of the DCCC-- who Nancy Pelosi endearing refers to as "reptilian"-- would rather see Republicans win than watch more progressives get into the Democratic House caucus. He's not supporting these candidates and there is documentary evidence that he's personally told major Democratic big dollar donors to not give them any support or contributions. Nancy was sure right when she used the term "reptilian" to describe Israel, regardless of what she had in her heart, which no one can really know for sure anyway.


Once again, these are candidates who can win but who the DCCC is basically ignoring so they can fight for more anti-Choice, anti-gay, pro-Business conservative Democrats in the imagine of horrible Beltway hacks like Steve Israel, Joe Crowley, Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, careerists with their own corrupt agendas. If you'd like to help the progressive candidates win seats in Congress instead of more Blue Dogs, you can contribute here and here.

Labor Day-- More Than Just A Day Off

I like how progressive Democrat David Gill re-did his Facebook page today in honor of Labor Day. Any Democrat who isn't running on the issues that impact the lives of working families that Gill brings up, shouldn't be running... at least not as a Democrat. David's Labor Day greeting was a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.: “History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.” Yes, organized labor, along with businessmen and women and politicians who weren't obstructing progress, built our country. Now conservatives and their greed-driven selfish financiers are trying to destroy it. And they have two well-paid notorious Wall Street whores, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to be the smiley faces behind the steel glove. Although, I should note, that Leo Gerard, President United Steelworkers, the best of American unions, won't take any of their crap. He had a pleasant message to his members today... and some plans to get the country back on the right track.

Another Blue America candidate, West Virginia's Sue Thorn emphasizes these issues every day she's campaigning and today, before setting off for a number of union-oriented events around the district she sent out this tweet:


Her multimillionaire right-wing opponent, David McKinley tries to make a case that she doesn't support coal mining. But he only backs the mine owners-- who finance him lavishly-- and she supports the men and women who work in the coal mining industry. So who really supports coal and who doesn't? Public News Service took a look last week:

Federal records show one of Congressman David McKinley's largest campaign donors is Murray Energy, the mine company owned by Robert Murray. Mine safety experts say Murray was directly responsible for the deaths of nine miners at Crandall Canyon in Utah in 2007, and McKinley's opponent says the congressman should return Murray's money.

Sue Thorn says McKinley let Murray host a fundraiser for him this spring, despite the mining company having one of the worst safety records in the industry. She says McKinley calls himself a friend of miners, but votes to block black-lung disease protections and better safety rules.

"He is voting with the people who are giving him money, people like Don Blankenship and Robert Murray. To pretend that he is somehow caring about coal miners is very hypocritical."

Despite multiple phone calls and e-mails, including written questions submitted to his office, McKinley has refused to comment.

According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the roof at Murray's Crandall Canyon mine collapsed because the company was removing supporting pillars to get at the remaining coal.

The former head of the National Mine Safety and Health Academy says Robert Murray personally chose what was known to be an unsafe practice. Jack Spadaro calls Murray's actions a "principal cause" of the accident that killed six miners and three of the rescue workers who went in after them.

"You'll see Bob Murray's hand in the events that led up to the mine disaster that resulted in the deaths of nine miners."

Until the Upper Big Branch disaster in West Virginia in April 2010, Crandall Canyon had resulted in the largest-ever MSHA fines. But Spadaro says Murray has a history of using his political influence to help him cut corners. Murray did not return a call requesting comment.

McKinley has a full-size poster of a coal miner in his office and tells visitors he's in Washington to represent miners like that one. To Spadaro, it's hypocrisy.

"There's no question about that, he's a hypocrite. He may say that and have that poster in his office, but he hasn't done anything to further the interests of miners and to make their workplace safe."

Labor Day greetings from an anti-working family asshole

Due north of Sue's Appalachian district is another mountainous resource extraction area where a progressive woman is facing off against a far right multimillionaire freshman. This time, we're talking about PA-03 where Missa Eaton (D) is facing Mike Kelly (R), who's wife is an heir to the Phillips Petroleum fortune. Kelly is an anti-union fanatic. Missa, supports the legitimate aspirations of working families and, of course, unions. Like every Democrat and every thinking American, she understands exactly who built this country. This was her Labor Day message:

Today is the 118th time our country has officially celebrated Labor Day as a federal holiday. As we enjoy this day of rest and commemorate it with picnics and parades, let us also thank the men and women who have helped build this great nation into the economic leader it is.

Through hard work, sweat, and even blood, the American workforce produced our Industrial Revolution. This same amazing workforce built the planes, tanks, and ships to arm and protect our nation in numerous wars. And today, this American work ethos lives on in our workers as they continue to make our country a leader in the new, global economy.

My parents instilled a strong work ethic in me that I carry with me every day. They worked hard and they worked with their hands. Because of the values they taught me, I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work for the people of Pennsylvania’s Third District.

I am proud to have the support of many labor groups, including: Teamsters Joint Council 40, Teamsters Local 261, Teamsters Local 397, United Steel Workers, United Auto Workers, Utility Workers of America Union, United Mine Workers, Iron Workers Local 3, United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters, Service Employees International Union, Communications Workers of America, Union of Electrical and Radio Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers Local 33, AFSCME Council 85, and the National Education Association.

Enjoy your Labor Day

A jog west and we get to MI-11 in the Detroit suburbs, the open red seat Taj Syed is turning blue. Taj is a successful physician. His patients, though, to whom he's dedicated his life, are mostly working families. He's running for them. "Here in Detroit," he told his supporters today, "our shared history in the Labor Movement carries a special meaning for Labor Day as we are acutely aware of the struggles and sacrifice that workers have made to build a strong middle class and more just society."

Union leadership and workers advocated and fought for civil rights, equal pay for equal work, safe working conditions, decent wages and benefits, the promise of a secure retirement through Medicare and Social Security, and enhanced opportunities for all who put in a fair days work. This work and sacrifice has had a powerful impact in leading efforts for building a middle class across the state and nation that continues today.

Today, we also celebrate the labor movements’ ability to adapt, innovate and advance the causes of the American worker and American Auto Industry. Our workers right here in this great area demonstrate every day that given the opportunity our workers are the best in the world and possess the skills and determination necessary to lead the world in producing exceptional vehicles-- competing globally and leading the auto industry world wide.

Union members across our district and economy deserve a special thank you this labor day-– from the police and firefighters protecting our community to the teachers educating our youth, the tradesmen building a 21st century infrastructure and the nurses caring for those in need.

That’s why this Labor Day, I vow to keep up the fight for working middle class families across Greater Detroit, and the nation.Together as one, we can protect the jobs, wages and rights that made this country the strongest nation in the world.

I wish you and your family a relaxing and hopeful Labor Day

So does DWT! And we hope youl enjoy every weekend-- while you still can. Oh... and Red Smear... from Iowa:

Denny Rehberg And David McKinley, Fearing Their States' Voters, Try Throwing Ryan And His Budget Overboard

The other day Bill Moyers wrote how the extreme right-- for the first time since Barry Goldwater-- finally have a reason to be happy. "[I]n Paul Ryan, the Golden Boy from Janesville who schooled himself in the ideology of right-wing think tanks inside the Beltway, they finally have one of their own-- a true believer for the new Gilded Age. The country, too, now has a choice, not an echo. And that should add up to a definitive election in November." Moyers was writing about the presidential election. But it's also true of the congressional elections.

Savvy Republican politicians are sensing that... and many are desperately trying to distance themselves from Ryan's plan to kill Medicare, even though they voted for it, many of them several times. Denny Rehberg, now in a tight race for the Montana Senate seat held by Jon Tester, voted against it and he's running TV ads to make sure Montana voters know he abandoned the GOP leadership on Bush's bankster bailout (causing Boehner to label him a "knuckle-dragger"), on their job exporting trade policies and, of course, on Ryan's highly toxic budget. Watch:



The script the Montana Republican Party came up with says: "Rehberg refused to support a Republican budget plan that could harm the Medicare program so many of Montana's seniors rely on... and that's good for Montana." Logically it would be even better for Montana, not to mention the rest of the country, if the Republicans who are pushing these awful policies didn't have the majority they're seeking to shove this garbage down everyone's throats.

The first time Ryan's Medicare-killing budget got out of committee and was voted on was the day after April Fool's Day, 2009. It was soundly defeated, 293-137 and 38 Republicans joined all 255 Democrats voting against it. Denny Rehberg was not among those 38. He voted for the Ryan budget and he voted to kill Medicare. So that ad above isn't really correct.

Ryan changed it the following year (H.R. 4529) but it definitely would have killed Medicare and would have started the process of turning Social Security over to his cronies on Wall Street. It died in committee. But then dozens of teabaggers and other right-wing extremists were elected to Congress and Ryan was ready. It sailed through committee and passed the House on April 15, 2011, 235-193. Every Democrat plus four Republicans-- Walter Jones, David McKinley, Ron Paul and Denny Rehberg-- voted against it. (A month later the Senate killed it 57-40, with 5 Republicans-- Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and the two Maine ladies-- joining most of the Democrats in rejecting it.)

Ryan introduced a new version this past March and the House passed it 228-191, this time with 10 Republicans joining every Democrat in opposition. Ron Paul was away from Washington campaigning for the presidency but, again, Walter Jones, David McKinley and Denny Rehberg voted NO-- along with 7 Republicans worried about their reelection prospects: Justin Amash (R-MI), Joe Barton (R-TX), Johnny Duncan (R-TN), Chris Gibson (R-NY), Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), Todd Platts (R-PA), and Ed Whitfield (R-KY). [Connie Mack (R-FL), already thinking about running for the Senate, called Ryan's budget "a joke" and managed to avoid voting one way or the other.] So these Republicans are the good guys? Not a chance! Most of them are either shilling for some corporate cronies who didn't get all they wanted or are afraid of defeat at the polls. And, as Sue Thorn explained, they voted for it anyway when it came up again as a cynical "deem and pass" maneuver. A “deem and pass” move allows lawmakers to support a piece of legislation when voting for a separate bill. Before voting on H.R. 4089, an unrelated piece of hunting and fishing legislation, House lawmakers voted to support the Ryan budget, “deeming and passing it.” McKinley and Rehberg both voted to deem and pass and both are now frantically advertising their claims to have opposed Ryan's budget. Sue Thorn isn't letting McKinley get away with it and she's been making sure the local media knows he's trying to mislead the voters.

"Ryan’s budget is in the limelight once again now that Ryan has been selected as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Voters deserve to know the truth about whether our representatives support or oppose this budget.

“After admitting the Ryan budget would hurt seniors, the congressman voted to pass it. Voting to end Medicare is a shameless move. Seniors deserve better than having to choose between groceries and life-saving medications. The Ryan budget is wrong because it would raise costs for seniors by thousands of dollars and end Medicare as we know it. We can’t turn back on the promise we made to seniors.

“The Ryan budget is an undeserved punishment for working people. My opponent voted to increase taxes for low-income earners to cut taxes for millionaires and give tax breaks to Big Oil corporations. To raise profits for Republican donors, the bill eliminates funds we need in middle class communities for roads and bridges, law enforcement and emergency response.

“The bill slashes Pell Grants and strips funds from schools, all to cut tax rates for the upper 1 percent. We shouldn’t be punishing people for going to school and striving to contribute to society. Since taking office, my opponent has continually showed his allegiance to billionaires and special interests, as well as his disdain for working people. Voting to pass the Ryan budget is just another example of how the congressman’s top 1% values don’t align with the middle class values of the people of West Virginia.”

If you'd like to help Sue get that message out throughout the sprawing West Virginia first district, here's how you can.

Patsy Keever And Sue Thorn Show Democrats How To Kick Some Butt On The Ryan Budget

Meh and meh

Yesterday we talk about how the disdain with which Floridians hold the Ryan plan to kill Medicare and privatize Social Security is likely to help Democrats reelect Bill Nelson to the Senate and defeat a few House Republicans in that state, particularly John Mica, Allen West, David Rivera (unless the widespread rumors are true that the Fanjul brothers have tasked their puppet, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with saving his seat), Bill Young and Vern Buchanan-- as well as a few hapless boobs, like Adam Hasner and Todd Long, who have gratuitously embraced killing off Medicare. OK, well Florida's a good state that needs some shaking up-- but it turns out Republicans all across the country are worried that Ryan's selection is screwing up GOP incumbents' chances for reelection... from sea to shining sea.

Republicans strategists are worried that Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) addition to the presidential ticket will cost their party House and Senate seats this fall.

Their concern: Democrats will successfully demonize Ryan’s budget plan, which contains controversial spending cuts and changes to Medicare.

“There are a lot races that are close to the line we're not going to win now because they're going to battle out who's going to kill grandma first, ObamaCare or Paul Ryan's budget,” said one Republican strategist who works on congressional races. “It could put the Senate out of reach. In the House it puts a bunch of races in play that would have otherwise been safe. ... It remains to be seen how much damage this causes, but my first blush is this is not good.”

Many Republicans in tough races this year, especially in the House, voted for Ryan’s proposal, which makes it hard for them to distance themselves from it... Former Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who chaired the NRCC from 2003-2006, warned that he foresaw in this election shades of President George W. Bush’s fight to create a voucher program for Social Security early in his second term, which many say cost the GOP seats in 2006.
 
“You saw what happened to Bush with Social Security in the 2006 election,” he said. “This is deja vu.” ... He also commended Republican House candidates like Maggie Brooks and Chris Collins-- both Republicans running in New York-- for “accepting no responsibility” for Ryan’s plan.

...[O]ne Republican strategist who’d seen the NRCC’s memo worried that the plan offered little new advice, and having Ryan at the top of the ticket lent additional credibility to Democrats on the issue.

“It becomes more difficult. The Republican argument and Democrat argument on Medicare now aren't on equal footing anymore-- Ryan being on the top of the ticket gives Democrats more credibility,” the strategist said. “There's going to be more resonance when the Democrats attack our guys. It's going to be a part of the national discussion, there's going to be more credibility on this now, and we're not going to be able to wave them off as nonsense."

Kate Nocera at Politico reinforced the notion that many Republicans are freaking out about Ryan. After all, it wasn't just Connie Mack-- who voted for his flimflam budget one year and then ducked out on the vote the next time around-- who admits the budget is "a joke." Nocera points out that relatively "normal" conservatives like incumbent Robert Dold (R-IL) and challenger Richard Tisei (R-MA), "are trying to create some distance from the Ryan worldview. Other congressional Republicans in tight races, like New York’s Ann Marie Buerkle and Florida’s Allen West [both deranged, over-the-top teabaggers] are launching into vigorous defenses of their votes for the Ryan budget" to kill Medicare.

The reality is that Ryan is now every Republicans’ running mate whether they like it or not, forcing GOP candidates who would just as soon run from the debate over senior citizen entitlements to embrace the third rail of American politics like never before.

One GOP insider lamented that party leaders “have spent the last year” trying to take Medicare off the political front burner, but the Ryan pick “puts it all back out there now.” ... Republican unease with the Ryan plan was on full display earlier this summer, when the National Republican Senatorial Committee put money behind an ad that touted Rehberg’s opposition to the polarizing budget plan.

“And Rehberg refused to support a Republican budget plan that could harm the Medicare programs so many of Montana’s seniors rely on,” the 30-second commercial promoting Rehberg’s Senate candidacy blared.

One of the most likely wins for a real Democrat in a congressional district captured in a battle between a slimy Blue Dog and a slimy teabagger is Sue Thorn's campaign against David McKinley who voted against Ryan's budget once and then for it the next time. Sue was happy to welcome Paul Ryan into the West Virginia campaign, where Medicare and Social Security are highly prized:

"Now that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is in the limelight as the Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. McKinley is seeking to distance himself from the extreme policies Ryan has proposed. Don't be fooled. The Ryan budget ends Medicare and raises health care costs for seniors, while giving tax breaks to millionaires, Big Oil, and companies shipping jobs overseas. McKinley voted to pass the Ryan budget and send the middle class into poverty (after he voted against it.)"

Sue is a Blue America candidate, as is Patsy Keever, who is opposing close Ryan crony Patrick McHenry, another right-wing extremist. Sue and Patsy are both incorruptible populists, making them ineligible for help from Steve Israel's DCCC which is primarily interested in finding transactional crooks like Israel himself. Please consider contributing to Sue and Patsy directly through Act Blue-- no sticky DCCC fingers walking away with over half the money. Sue and Patsy are both on this page and both are on the same page in regard to Ryan's likely impact on their own race. Sue agrees with Patsy's assertion that she "believes the Social Security retirement age should stand at 65 and Patrick McHenry voted to increase it to 70. If you want the retirement age raised to 70, then vote for Patrick McHenry. If you want it at 65, then vote for Patsy Keever." This afternoon, Patsy called a press conference to explain to NC-10 media how Paul Ryan is going to help North Carolina voters focus on McHenry's voting record:

Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan is bad for North Carolina and bad for America.

On March 29, 2012, Paul Ryan, aided and abetted by my opponent, Patrick McHenry, passed a budget in the U.S. House of Representatives that betrayed every man, woman and child in North Carolina.

The Ryan/McHenry budget would have destroyed Medicare, cut agriculture by $60 billion, cut taxes for the super rich and increased the budget deficit by 3 trillion dollars.

That would have hurt every man, woman, child and business in North Carolina.

By choosing Ryan as his running mate, Mitt Romney has embraced the most extreme posture of the most extreme parts of the Tea Party Republicans.

Bizarrely, Patrick McHenry even found a way to be more extreme than Ryan and his fellow Tea Party Republicans. On the same day he voted for the Ryan budget, McHenry voted for a budget that would have, among other things, raised the Social Security retirement age to 70. More than 100 of his fellow Republicans, including Paul Ryan, did not vote for this budget… but Patrick McHenry did.

The conventional wisdom about my campaign is that this district is so Republican that I will struggle to be competitive. That changed when Mitt Romney picked Paul Ryan as his running mate.

Paul Ryan is too extreme to be elected in North Carolina… and Patrick McHenry is more extreme than Paul Ryan. Democrats, Independents and mainstream Republicans in North Carolina’s 10th District all share one thing in common… they are not extremists.

Beginning today, my campaign will focus on the hijacking of the Republican Party by extremists including Paul Ryan and Patrick McHenry. Mitt Romney may be willing to embrace an extremist to win an election but I don’t think Democrats, Independents and mainstream Republicans of North Carolina will.

I am going to present policy alternatives to the extremism of Ryan and McHenry. I am going to make the argument that these are serious times, and we need serious people to address serious problems. Neither Paul Ryan nor Patrick McHenry can be taken seriously because of the extreme positions they have adopted.

I love these mountains and the piedmonts that sweep down from them into rich valleys and farmland. I love the people who inhabit the cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods across the 10th District. It has been my pleasure to be of service to them as a teacher, a member of the Buncombe County Commission and a member of the state legislature. I owe the people a debt. A debt of gratitude. A debt of honesty. A debt of fearlessness.

I stand now against the extremism that has hijacked a once great political party in the form of extremists like Paul Ryan and Patrick McHenry. I stand for the seniors, the working people, the teachers, the small business owners, the farmers and their children and grandchildren. I stand for the Democrats, the Independents, and, yes, I stand for the Republicans who look at these extreme policies and say, “These are not my values.”

Patrick McHenry can run but he can’t hide. I will expose his extremism. I will expose his betrayal of our values. I will not rest until the truth is known.

In my heart of hearts I hope that those who hear and read these words will decide to stand with me. I hope that reporters and editors who read my words, on this and in coming days, will make a decision to hold Patrick McHenry accountable. To make a decision to stand silently in this dire moment for our republic is to give in to the darkness and despair that has given rise to these extreme policies.

I see a better day for America. I see a bright sunrise that ends this season of darkness. I believe the policies of the Democratic Party, as championed by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, will hasten us toward this sunrise and that the policies of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and Patrick McHenry will deepen the gloom at the expense of the people whom I have served as a teacher and elected official and whom I seek to serve in Congress.

Perhaps I will win this election. Perhaps I will not. The record will show, however, that Patsy Keever stood square shouldered against the madness in 2012 and said, “Enough is enough.”

So let us begin.

Patsy Keever versus Patrick McHenry Policy Difference #1: Patsy Keever believes the Social Security retirement age should stand at 65 and Patrick McHenry voted to increase it to 70. If you want the retirement age raised to 70, then vote for Patrick McHenry. If you want it at 65, then vote for Patsy Keever.