Bad News For Democrats: Reactionaries Ed Case And Howard Ahmanson Want Into The Big Tent

Ahmanson & Case: more and worse Democrats, much worse

Once I worked in a Happy Kingdom and when the founder passed away turmoil struck and a flim-flam man came in and gobbled it up. That was the short version of the AOL merger with TimeWarner. The flim flam man is Steve Case, a Hawaiian hustler turned marketing man. From figuring out ways of selling Pizza Hut's cardboard excuse for pizza, Case went to work marketing for a series of video game companies, something that led directly to the creation of AOL. In 2001 Case managed to pull off the scam of the decade, acquiring the leaderless TimeWarner in a stock swap. Two years later he had looted as much as 6 billion dollars from the company and was kicked out. I lived through the tragedy as a president of a TimeWarner division but decided to quit the day I met Case in person for the first time and realized that his vision for the business was to loot and plunder what so many people so much better than him had spent decades building. Nina Munk's book, Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner tells most of the sordid story.

Today Case is the head of Revolution LLC-- a holding company that combines a shady credit card operation and a failed on-line health care company (like WebMD) with a resort management company. Case is also one of Hawaii's biggest landowners. A major political donor to both parties, typically he'll give the NRSC $25,000 and a few grand to a handful of right-of-center Democrats, mostly his cousin, Ed Case.

Ed Case is widely viewed in Hawaii as the most opportunistic of all politicians. It's an overwhelmingly Democratic state, so he calls himself a Democrat. This weekend he's in the news because he found another office to run for. Neil Abercrombie, the progressive congressman from Honolulu, is giving up his seat to run for governor, and Case, who was once the reactionary congressman from the rest of Hawaii and gave up his seat to challenge, unsuccessfully, liberal Senator Dan Akaka, now wants Abercrombie's House seat. He says he has the relationships in DC. And if by "relationships," you mean an in with every corrupt lobbyist on K Street, he's correct. "I've been there. I've done it. Hawai'i needs good representation in Washington. I can use my seniority, experience and relationships there from day one and pick up and keep going. Nobody else has that experience mix." Hopefully a more progressive Democrat will step up and challenge Case. Abercrombie, who isn't a Case ally and supported Akaka, said the Democratic Party in his district has a very strong bench. He said, "whoever emerges from the primary, I'm sure I'm going to be in very strong support of no matter who he or she is. I will certainly work with whoever it is to effect President Obama's agenda and to be supportive of the delegation and work with the delegation as governor if I'm given that opportunity."

Case is the first of what could be several Democrats to step up to replace Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, for a rare open congressional seat. State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), Honolulu City Councilman Duke Bainum, and Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann have considered potential campaigns... Case's primary against Akaka upset many traditional Democrats, and the fractures within the party have not entirely healed.

Case would prefer to run for Senate and is said to check the newspaper every day when he wakes up to see if the 85 year old Senator Daniel Inouye died overnight. His campaign against Akaka in 2006 revolved around Akaka's vote against attacking Iraq. Case said that had he been in the Senate he would have supported Bush's proposal to start the war against Iraq. Case was a consistent aisle crosser on important matters while he served in the House and seemed more comfortable voting with Republicans than with Democrats. Although he had one of the worst attendance records of any member of Congress, he consistently supported the GOP on job-killing trade legislation and on special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and GOP proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren and Jim Marshall will be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are your cup of tea to boot.

Short version: Case is exactly the wrong kind of Democrat we need in Congress-- and he has a record to prove it. If you live in California you can't not know of Howard Ahmanson, a religious right kook multimillionaire who's on an anti-gay jihad and gets lots of buildings named after himself. He's equally well known as a philanthropist and for funding Prop 8 and other reactionary Republican initiatives. Well, like Case, he's a Democrat now. He just jumped the fence. He seems to equate being a Democrat to buying a Prius. But he thinks Bush spent too much money but he defines himself as this kind of Democrat: "I like her [Sarah Palin], though I’ll have to confess that I like Bobby Jindal better. I’m now a blue-dog Democrat for Bobby Jindal for 2012." People like Ahmanson and Case should stick with the GOP where their ideas are appreciated.

So What's Wrong With Ed Case? Is He Really Worse Than Joe Lieberman? Worse Than Tom DeLay?

Thursday, when Hawaii's stellar progressive congresswoman, Mazie Hirono, announced her intention to run for the seat being vacated by her friend and ally Daniel Akaka, we dashed off a quick post that detailed some of the specifics on Ed Case's long rap sheet of corporate shillery and conservative complicity. When he was in Congress his career was distinguished by two characteristics-- he was the closest thing the Democratic caucus had to a conservative Republican and he was the laziest Member of Congress with the worst attendance record.

The post pointed to his support for Republican and corporate initiatives like job-killing trade legislation and to special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and the never-ending Republican proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and, we tried to make the point that anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN) will be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are on the menu.

But in our rush to put up a place to donate to Mazie's campaign, we left off one of the most important factors in Case's long and shameful record-- his disregard for the rights of women when it came to choice and his siding with right-wing extremist against women. Back in 2005 when Case was an astoundingly bad congressman, his Republican allies tried to defund Planned Parenthood by cutting Title X family planning out of the budget-- just as they've done this year. This year Mazie Hirono strenuously opposed that, of course. Back in 2005 an amendment by far right sociopath Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) targeted NPR, PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Title X family planning all in one shot. Only one Democrat crossed the aisle to vote for the most extreme piece of legislation of that session... Ed Case. Not even a majority of Republicans were that extreme (in those days). 197 Democrats and 122 Republicans voted NO and it failed 102-320. But Case voted YES, something even right-wing extremists like Darrell Issa, Steve Pearce, Denny Rehberg, Devin Nunes, John Culberson, Buck McKeon and Jerry Lewis, all of whom voted for essentially the same crap this year, were unwilling to do then. Even Tom DeLay and Henry Hyde found it too extreme and voted against it!

Case's backers in Hawaii try to portray him as socially moderate, rather than a reactionary extremist. But he's never explained to the women of Hawaii why he voted against funding for Planned Parenthood. There's no reason he should even be running as a Democrat. The guy has a clearly Republican voting record and it would be nothing short of catastrophic to reward his perfidy with a Senate seat. A Senator Case would make Ben Nelson and Joe Manchin look liberal. Let's help make sure Mazie replaces Dan Akaka and not the right-winger who tried to beat Akaka in a primary 5 years ago. Please consider contributing to Mazie's campaign here through ActBlue. Sending Ed Case to the Senate is tantamount to sending a conservative Republican to the Senate.

The Republican Wing Of The Democratic Party Rears Its Ugly Head In Hawaii-- Ed Case Trying Again

Earlier today we were talking about the bad Democrats who consistently vote against progressive ideas and progressive solutions and join the GOP to support the one percent against the rest of us. There are few Democrats in Congress today who were as renowned for that kind of behavior as Hawaii's former conservaDem congressman Ed Case. Since leaving Congress to run for every open seat that's come up in his state, Case has suffered rebuff after rebuff. But the cousin of AOL huckster Steve Case is never deterred-- and he's running again now. First, let's take a real quick look at what's wrong with Case and why it would be a tragedy for America if he were to win the Senate seat Mazie Hirono and he are battling for.

Let's start with his support for Republican and corporate initiatives like job-killing trade legislation and special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and the never-ending Republican proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and, if you like Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), you'd be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are on your menu. Then there's his long-standing disregard for the rights of women when it came to Choice and his siding with right-wing extremists against women. Back in 2005 when Case was an astoundingly bad congressman, his Republican allies tried to defund Planned Parenthood by cutting Title X family planning out of the budget-- just as they've done this year. This year Mazie Hirono strenuously opposed that, of course. Back in 2005 an amendment by far right sociopath Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) targeted NPR, PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Title X family planning all in one shot. Only one Democrat crossed the aisle to vote for the most extreme piece of legislation of that session... Ed Case. Not even a majority of Republicans were that extreme (in those days). 197 Democrats and 122 Republicans voted NO and it failed 102-320. But Case voted YES, something even right-wing extremists like Darrell Issa, Steve Pearce, Denny Rehberg, Devin Nunes, John Culberson, and Jerry Lewis, all of whom voted for essentially the same crap this year, were unwilling to do then. Even Tom DeLay and Henry Hyde found it too extreme and voted against it!

This week, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the biggest newspaper in the state, reported that the sleazier than ever Case, losing badly is begging Republicans to vote for him in the Democratic primary.

He described his primary with U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono as a “death match” against Hawaii’s Democratic political machine and predicted that his success, regardless of the result against former Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, in the November general election, would “drive a stake into the heart of that machine.”

Case’s comments came on the morning a new Hawaii Poll showed him trailing Hirono by double-digits. The poll found that both Hirono and Case had double-digit leads over Lingle. It also was the day of Case’s final debate with Hirono before the primary.

From Case [addressing a right-wing business group]:


Clearly, there are three candidates-- apologies to (Republican) John Carroll-- but there are three candidates that have possibility of winning the next United States Senate seat: Me, Hirono and Lingle.

And I would suspect strongly-- and I hope I don’t get myself out on a limb, but I’m going to say it anyway-- that for some of you I’m your first choice, that for a fair number of you I’m your second choice, but for none of you am I your third choice. And I would suspect strongly that Ms. Hirono is your third choice.

So the only race I’m in right now is the primary election, the Democratic primary election. Yes, some of you, maybe most of you, don’t agree with me 100 percent on several issues.

But I know very well that I can do a better job than Hirono would. I know darn well that I strike a better ground for you. I know darn well that she is the choice of the political culture of Hawaii today and I am not. And this is your opportunity to make a difference in the primary election.

So yes you can vote in the primary election. Apologies to the Republican primary candidates in the room. I hope none of you have contested primaries. But, you know, you should all vote in the Democratic primary …

I say that very bluntly and I say it for a darn good reason. You saw the papers this morning. One poll of many. I don’t agree with the poll, but the poll says that it’s either going to be me or Hirono as your next senator. Make your choice.

If you don’t want to make that choice now, make your choice in the primary election and decide later between me and Lingle.

It’s that blunt and that honest. Strike for a better political culture in the primary. Strike for the possibility of having some of the change in Washington.

You think Bob Kerrey (NE) or Joe Donnelly (IN) would make execrable senators? Case would be even worse.

FAIR WARNING: REACTIONARY HAWAII DEMOCRAT WANTS BACK IN

Reactionary Ed Case examines Senator Daniel Akaka looking for signs of an early demise

I was so happy when two reactionary Democratic congressmen-- Harold Ford (TN) and Ed Case (HI)-- reached for the Senate and were both defeated. Not only was each out of government, each was replaced by a real Democrat, a progressive with the values and principles of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. Memphis got Steve Cohen and all of Hawaii but the city of Honolulu replaced conservative and shifty Big Business shill Case with dedicated liberal Mazie Hirono. (Case's voting record was a disgrace and tended to be supportive of the worst aspects of the Bush-Cheney agenda. Mazie's picture perfect progressive voting record is tied for best in the House with Yvette Clarke (D-NY) and Keith Ellison (D-MN).

The brother cousin of predator and billionaire robber baron Steve (AOL), Ed Case is plotting a return to power. According to today's Honolulu Advertiser "Case has sent out federal fundraising letters to his supporters so he will have money available for another possible run for U.S. Senate... Akaka and U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye are both 82 and, other than Case, no one in the party has talked openly about a succession plan."

Case, the Joe Lieberman of Hawaii, would face a challenge for the Senate from Neil Abercrombie, the state's other congressman, like Mazie a dedicated progressive. But, unlike the vampiric Case, Abercrombie isn't speculating on the deaths of the two beloved Hawaii senior statesmen.

Mike McCartney, the party's chairman, said Case would be a viable candidate for Senate or governor. His campaign against Akaka caused some bitter feelings within the party but Case has a loyal following of Democrats, independents and some Republicans.

But McCartney said some Democrats might be uncomfortable that Case is raising money for a Senate campaign when Inouye plans to run again in 2010 and Akaka was just re-elected.

"It's a little presumptuous," McCartney said. "Something about it just doesn't feel right."

Trouble In Paradise-- Ed Case Is Still Trying To Claw His Way Back Into Congress

Slimy Blue Dog Ed Case Has A Closet Filled With These

Yesterday Hawai'i corporate shill Ed Case announced that he's running for the Senate seat being opened up by Dan Akaka's retirement. So far there's no progressive in the race-- just Case, basically a garden variety conservative running as a Democrat. I thought it would be a good time to bring up another Trouble In Paradise post from January, 2010.

Case would prefer to run for Senate and is said to check the newspaper every day when he wakes up to see if the 85 year old Senator Daniel Inouye died overnight. His campaign against Akaka in 2006 revolved around Akaka's vote against attacking Iraq. Case said that had he been in the Senate he would have supported Bush's proposal to start the war against Iraq. Case was a consistent aisle crosser on important matters while he served in the House and seemed more comfortable voting with Republicans than with Democrats. Although he had one of the worst attendance records of any member of Congress, he consistently supported the GOP on job-killing trade legislation and on special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and GOP proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren and Jim Marshall will be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are your cup of tea to boot.

Trouble In Paradise-- Will Liebermanism Re-Infect Hawai'i?

Hawai'i has been a solidly Democratic bastion for as long as I can remember; and that's long. Bush didn't do very well there-- only 37% in 2000 and 45% in 2004-- but he looked like a champ compared to McCain who only managed to eke out a meager 26.6% of the vote. When progressive Democrat Neil Abercrombie decided to cash in his long House career and run for governor this year, Hawaii's most ambitious political hack, came screaming into the race. Case once represented the other (non-Honolulu) Hawaiian congressional district, but he gave up that seat to run against much-loved Daniel Akaka. Akaka is a progressive and Case is as far right as you can be and still be a Democrat. Akaka kicked his ass. Case is also awash in K Street lobbyist connections.

Case would prefer to run for Senate and is said to check the newspaper every day when he wakes up to see if the 85 year old Senator Daniel Inouye died overnight. His campaign against Akaka in 2006 revolved around Akaka's vote against attacking Iraq. Case said that had he been in the Senate he would have supported Bush's proposal to start the war against Iraq. Case was a consistent aisle crosser on important matters while he served in the House and seemed more comfortable voting with Republicans than with Democrats. Although he had one of the worst attendance records of any member of Congress, he consistently supported the GOP on job-killing trade legislation and on special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and GOP proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren and Jim Marshall will be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are your cup of tea to boot.

The best shot Democrats have in defeating this slimy Republican-in-Democrats'-clothing is with State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa. The problem is that the Republicans have a strong candidate in Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou. He isn't strong enough to win the seat against a Democrat but if there's a special election, whomever gets the most votes-- among Hanabusa, Case and Djou, is the congressman. Case is likely to play the role of spoiler by splitting the Democratic vote, allowing Djou to squeak in. This weekend mainstays of the state party tried to prevent that with a unified front in favor of Hanabusa. Both the state's beloved U.S. Senators, Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, strongly endorsed Hanabusa.

At the opening of Hanabusa's campaign headquarters on Ward Avenue, Inouye, the state's leading Democrat, praised her skill as a labor attorney and Senate president and described her as a politician who keeps her word.

"It's good currency. You can count on it," he said. "She's got integrity. She's a very principled woman."
Inouye spoke in unusually personal terms about Case, a moderate Democrat who has alienated many in the party's establishment.

Inouye said Case insisted on running in a special election in 2002 to fill the remaining weeks in the late U.S Rep. Patsy Mink's term, even though many party leaders wanted Mink's husband, John, to have the honor. Case-- interested in obtaining seniority-- won the special election, and then a second special election in early 2003 to replace Mink in Congress.

Inouye said the state's congressional delegation welcomed Case but was let down. The senator said Case told the delegation he wasn't going to run against Akaka in the 2006 primary for Senate, then surprisingly announced his campaign. Case has said he never told the delegation he would not run against Akaka, only that he was keeping his options open.

Inouye and Akaka were joined by virtually the entire Hawai'i political establishment and by the state's powerful union leaders. They painted Case, accurately, as a bad faith player, an outright liar no one in Congress trusts and someone who never learned to be a team player for the good of his constituents.

Hawaii Looking For Senatorial Seniority... Fast

Hanabusa beat Case in the 2010 House special election

Politicians from Hawaii understand how congressional seniority works and the state plays up to it. When Daniel Inouye died last week he was the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and the longest serving member of the Senate, first elected in 1963. Before that he was a Congressman since Hawaii achieved statehood (1959). At the time of his death his seniority had landed him the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a post that served Hawaii very , very well. It's likely that Gov. Neil Abercrombie will be eager to choose a replacement even before the new class is sworn in so that the next senator from Hawaii has seniority over all of them.

Reportedly, Inouye's last request of Abercrombie was that he pick his close friend, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa. Hanabusa is a right-of-center New Dem whose loyalties have been more with business interests than with working families. Abercrombie is a solid progressive but he may be stuck with her since the two other top contenders are much worse. The worst of all is Ed Case-- Hawaii's version of Harold Ford. He runs for every open seat and will stop at nothing to get back into government. He's already told friends he expects Abercrombie to pick Hanabusa and that he'll run in the House special election to replace her.

Case is more a right-wing Republican, at least on economic issues, than a Democrat but the state is too blue for a wily character like him to join the GOP. He's become very unpopular with the state's Democratic base and keeps losing primaries. He was also considered the laziest Member of Congress when he served. But the elites like him-- especially in DC-- and he's got a ton of dirty money behind him.

Case's backers in Hawaii try to portray him as recently socially moderate, rather than the reactionary extremist he was when he was in the House. But he's never explained to the women of Hawaii why he voted against funding for Planned Parenthood.The guy has a clearly Republican voting record and it would be nothing short of catastrophic to reward his perfidy with another shot in either house of Congress. He's been completely consistent in his support for Republican and corporate initiatives like job-killing trade legislation and to special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and the never-ending Republican proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and, we tried to make the point that anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems such as Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN) would be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are on the menu.

The other possibility Abercrombie is said to be considering is also worse than Hanabusa, though probably not as reactionary as Case-- but more corrupt. Former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, has, like Case, lost multiple congressional elections. Let's hope Abercrombie digs deeper than the obvious and comes up with someone who will represent Hawaii's working families, rather than big money interests the way Hanabusa, Case and Hannemann would.

Ed Case-- The Silver Spike Must Have Been Aluminum

The best member of Congress from Hawaii was Patsy Mink-- a legendary FDR progressive-- served in Congress from 1965 2002, with a break to serve in the Carter administration. She was the first woman of color to be elected to Congress, as well as the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress. And a stalwart progressive. In 2002 she was succeeded by Hawaii's worst member of Congress, Blue Dog Ed Case, who served from Mink's death in 2002 until 2007 when he unsuccessfully challenged progressive U.S.Senator Daniel Akaka for his Senate seat. since then he's run against progressives several times and has always lost.

Finally, after being beaten by Mazie Hirono, in 2012, the Joe Liberman of Hawaii announced his political career was finally over. Now he's running again, for Congress, against Hawaii's most progressive political leader, Kaniela Soto Ing. Ironically, he'll probably make it easier for Ing to win, since he is now the 4th conservative Democrat to jump into the race, joining Donna Kim, Doug Chin and Beth Fukumoto.

In 2011 I wrote about Case:

Although he had one of the worst attendance records of any member of Congress, he consistently supported the GOP on job-killing trade legislation and on special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and GOP proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren and Jim Marshall will be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are your cup of tea to boot.

Monday night news started leaking out that Case is trying it again and wants to run from the Honolulu-based congressional seat. "The 65-year-old Democrat," wrote Nathan Eagle, "pulled nomination papers Monday to run for the 1st Congressional District seat, according to the state Elections Office. He has until the end of business Tuesday to officially file for the Aug. 11 primary ballot."

Mazie Hirono (D-HI) To The Rescue

Last month we were worrying that the always ambitious, always reactionary corporate shill, Ed Case, would get a free ride for the Senate seat he once tried to steal from Dan Akaka, a progressive who is now retiring. But today one of the most progressive and forward-thinking Members of Congress, Mazie Hirono, declared for the seat. This is especially good news since the latest polling shows she would beat both Case and Linda Lingle, the likely Republican nominee. Mazie's favorability rating is 64%, highest of anyone thinking about getting in the race.

“It’s very humbling to see this strong support for my work on behalf of the people of Hawaii," Mazie said after the polls was released last week. “I take their opinions seriously and have been fighting as hard as ever to create well-paying jobs, hold big oil companies accountable for rising gas prices, protect Medicare from Republican attempts to dismantle it, and promote Hawaii’s renewable energy economy. I appreciate the positive response to my leadership, but I don’t take it for granted and will never stop fighting for a stronger Hawaii."

As for Case, although he had one of the worst attendance records of any member of Congress, he consistently supported the GOP on job-killing trade legislation and on special interests legislation like abolishing the estate tax for the super-rich, making it easier for banksters to rip off consumers, screwing over working families on pensions and GOP proposals to shift the tax burden to the middle class. He generally voted with the most reactionary Democrats when they joined the GOP to stifle reform and anyone who likes Chamber of Commerce pawns and Patriot Act-type Dems like Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN) will be perfectly happy with Ed Case-- especially if xenophobia and war-mongering and making sure that victims of big corporations have no recourse to the courts are your cup of tea to boot.

If you feel like sending the Democratic Party a message that you prefer a real Democrat like Mazie Hirono over corporate shills and conservatives like Ed Case, you can do it here through ActBlue.

Ed "How'm I Doin'?" Koch (1924-2013)

And Noah declares today "Eulogize an Asshole Day"

Mayor Ed's final kvetching place has been waiting for him in uptown Trinity Church Cemetery. Do click to enlarge -- it's a pretty picture.

by Ken

Ed Koch wasn't such an evil son of a bitch as to command a slot on my personal "would like to dance on his grave" list, but he was a miserable self-serving son of a bitch, and while I can't say I'm happy we're finally rid of him (I've got a list of those too, which largely duplicates the "would like to dance on his grave" one), I can't say I'm sorry either.

Early today our poor colleague Noah, finding himself trapped in front of a screenful of "all Ed, all the time," sent this cry from the heart to Howie and me:

EULOGIZE AN ASSHOLE DAY

by Noah

The former mayor was naturally on hand that day in April 2011 when the Queensboro Bridge was formally renamed -- according to the sign Hizzoner is partially obscuring -- the "Ed Koch Queensboro Br". (Yes, the sign says "Br".) Of course for our Ed everything was pretty much always about, well, our Ed. -- Ken

Ed Koch: My 2 cents. Today is apparently "Eulogize An Asshole Day" on our local Channel One. Koch is gone. Ding Dong, the bitch is dead. There is literally nothing but Ed Koch, Ed Koch, Ed Koch, Ed Koch on New York's local news channel; not even a decent weather forecast. What a waste of valuable airtime! It's bad enough that the city had already renamed the 59th Street Bridge after him, a renaming that most New Yorkers do not accept. Officially, it's called the Edward Koch Bridge or something unearned and miserable like that. It's a beautiful bridge. It deserves better. What was wrong with "The 59th Street Bridge", as celebrated in song by no less than Paul Simon? I often think of hurling paint-filled balloons at the new signs, but damn it, they have those cameras everywhere now, so that avenue of free speech is closed to me now. The only good thing about all of this love for Koch is that it's probably driving Rudy Julieandrews completely nuts with jealousy and envy. In fact, Rudy's probably decided to hire a film company to construct a glowing all day long program about "America's Mayor -- The Incomparable Rudy G!" for the day he goes -- directly to hell. Yes, the days when cretinous politicians die should be celebrated but in more of a "good riddance" way; a "don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya" kind of way... well, actually, a "may your fingers be smashed by them slamming Pearly Gates up yonder in the clouds as the big boot of St. Peter sends you the other way" kind of way! There, I feel better now. Let his body be dragged along the subway tracks by the A train.

I especially love the image of Rudy Giuliani seething at all the love being showered on Mayor Ed, since Rudy is one of those people who resents any attention paid to anyone else as attention that should have been paid to him. Another person like that, of course, was Mayor Ed. (By the way, for the record what has generally been known on the Manhattan side of this vital bridge to Queens as the 59th Street Bridge used to be called formally the Queensboro Bridge and is now officially the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.)

Noah returned to the subject later in the day, explaining:

I guess the man just makes me feel quite nihilistic. Perhaps ol' Ed was the man who inspired the punks in the 70s. The reporters say he cleaned up the city. Hell, I still remember my feet crunching the crack vials that littered the sidewalks in his time.

AT LEAST THOSE WHO DO WISH TO DANCE ON
MAYOR ED'S GRAVE DON'T HAVE TO HUNT FOR IT

The prepared grave, complete with mausoleum-quality stone, has been waiting for him since 2009 in the southeast corner of the eastern half (i.e., east of Broadway) of Manhattan's uptown (in the mid-West 150s) Trinity Church Cemetery. As is so often the case with Mayor Ed, there is irony here.

If you blow up the photo of the waiting headstone, you will see inscribed the final words of murdered Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish." Trinity Church, which sits on lower Broadway at the mouth of Wall Street, has been, just about since the English takeover of formerly Dutch New Amsterdam, the heart of Episcopalian New York City, and as some wag once ventured, "In New York City, all money is Episcopalian."

Apparently that's not how Mayor Ed is coming to rest here. As the AP reported today:

At age 83, Koch paid $20,000 for a burial plot at Trinity Church Cemetery, at the time the only graveyard in Manhattan that still had space.

"I don't want to leave Manhattan, even when I'm gone," Koch told The Associated Press. "This is my home. The thought of having to go to New Jersey was so distressing to me."

Not long after buying the plot, he had his tombstone inscribed and installed.

But if ever there was a man who belongs in the bosom of Moneyed New York, a man in thrall to the power interests of the city, it's Mayor Ed. Which is cruelly ironic, since he entered public life as a crusading Reform Democrat, at the heart of the struggle to wrest control of the party and city government from the tight-fisted grasp of the political bosses emblemized as "Tammany Hall." Oh, I suppose it's possible that he was always more conservative than he let on back in the day, but if so, he kept it awfully well hidden.

By the end, though, Mayor Ed was not only endorsing Republicans but participating actively in New York State Republican Party politics. He liked to claim that he hadn't changed, that it was his onetime liberal allies who had. Of course that's BS. He went from a crusading-against-the-bosses reformer to a full-blown stooge of the city's power elites, Democratic and Republican. (I don't think he had to dig that deep in his pockets to come up with the $20K for the Trinity gravesite, not to mention the extra scratch for the fancy stone and the rest of the plot decor.)

On a recent walking tour somewhere around the city, I heard it told that Mayor Ed had actually said that it's the function of artists in search of affordable space to move into blighted neighborhoods and revitalize them to the point of pricing themselves out of the neighborhoods. I should add that I haven't absolutely verified that the mayor said this, but the authority for it seems plausible.

What I find remarkable isn't that Mayor Ed thought this, since as far as I can tell it has been a basic governing principle of the city's power elites for some decades now -- dating back, perhaps, to the Koch administration. No, what I find remarkable is that Hizzoner may actually have said it. No matter how fervently you may believe stuff like this, you're not supposed to say it.

I'm sorry, but this is not the Ed Koch who stood David-like against the Goliath of Tammany Hall. It's some cruel parody of that Ed Koch. So when we latter-day New York liberals, folks like Noah and me, think about Mayor Ed, the feeling goes beyond a level-headed assessment of the (much overrated) pros and (scandalously underconsidered) cons of his political legacy. There is always that feeling of betrayal.

As there has been with regard to his private life. Is there anyone who doesn't take it as an article of faith that the lifelong bachelor was gay? I'm prepared to believe that by and large he just didn't do sex, but his steadfast refusal to allow discussion of his sexual politics goes way beyond his undoubted right to privacy. During his years in public life, and in particular his three terms as mayor, the city was beginning to come to grips with the issue of the basic rights of citizenship of what we think of now as its LGBT citizens. Mayor Ed was pretty much MIA -- as was the post-mayoral Ed. (UPDATE: I should have noted that during Mayor Ed's tenure, 1978-89, the AIDS epidemic was raging, and he wasn't much more engaged than the notoriously oblivious President Reagan.)

Early on in his time as mayor, Mayor Ed became celebrated for mingling with ordinary New Yorkers and asking, "How'm I doin'?" It had a nice folksy air, the mayor hobnobbing with the commonfolk and asking -- as I assume he meant the question -- for their sense of the job he was doing for them.

Still, the way it came out, and the way it lingers in memory, it was always about Mayor Ed himself, and also the people who thought just the way he did. Other people basically had no place in his social or political cosmos. Is it any wonder that he wound up in the bosom of the Republican Party?

I won't be dancing on Mayor Ed's grave. Spitting is another matter, though.



Simon and Garfunkel sing "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" at their 1981 "Concert in Central Park."

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Constituents Are Petitioning Colleen Hanabusa To Resign From The Corrupt New Dems

The Republican wing of Hawaii's Democratic Party-- Colleen and Ed

Since getting into Congress, Colleen Hanabusa was been a disgrace to the Democratic Party, always eager to do the bidding of the Wall Street special interests and of the Military Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned the country about when Hanabusa was just ten years old. And now she's running a nasty primary campaign against one of Hawaii's two progressive U.S. Senators, Brian Schatz, because she'd like to get into the Senate, where her votes will be worth more to the special interests that pay off her and her husband.

In the 2010 open special election for the remainder of Neil Abercrombie's term, Hanabusa and Blue Dog/New Dem, Ed Case-- each consumed with personal ambition and the kind of ugly careerism that has driven both of their shady political lives-- split the vote and allowed Republican Charles Djou to win the seat. Case dropped out of the general election and Hanabusa faced a weak primary opponent, who she beat and then went on to defeat Djou in November.

Case bragged to birther-friendly blog Hawaii Reporter last year that Hanabusa was the only member of Hawaii's congressional delegation who refused to endorse Hirono against him. He and Hanabusa are ideological pals, dating back to their days in the state legislature leading anti-union "reforms" in the late '90s. When they ran against each other for Congress in 2010, Hanabusa notably didn't attack Case for being a Blue Dog or New Dem or for voting to defund Planned Parenthood. The first time Hanabusa ran for office was 1998. Hawaii voters were faced with a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Hanabusa ran on a platform of supporting the ballot measure-- opposing same-sex marriage. She steadfastly held that position for 15 years, even after the state Democratic Party platform and President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage. It was only this year-- as she's facing a progressive in next year's Senate primary-- that she changed her official position. No wonder Hirono won't endorse her-- and no wonder much of the Hirono campaign staff is working for Schatz!

Unwisely, many progressive organizations unfamiliar with her sleazy reputation and her conservative record, endorsed her in 2010-- only to watch in dismay as she made common cause with GOP reactionaries like Buck McKeon and Randy Forbes and then joined Ed Case's New Dem Caucus herself. Now MoveOn.org has a petition up asking her to resign from the New Dems. The woman who created the petition, Karen Chun from Maui Paddle, explained it this way:

MoveOn.org and various other progressive and environmental organizations endorsed Hanabusa in the 2010 House election based on her promise not to join the Blue Dogs (like her opponent). She betrayed (in spirit) that promise by joining the Blue Dog successor organization, New Democrat Coalition (NDC). NDC has been called "The Coalition Pharma and Wall Street Love" by Pro Publica who says its "close relationship with several hundred Washington lobbyists has made their organization one of the most successful political money machines since the Republican K Street Project."

The petition itself asks Hanabusa to "renounce your membership in the Blue Dog successor organization, New Democrat Coalition. This organization has worked to weaken financial regulations, shape health care reform to favor the insurance companies, fatten the wallets of defense contractors and has become the successor the corrupt K Street Project. It serves to funnel Wall Street, Defense Contractor and Big Ag money into your pockets at the expense of those of us who elected you to serve OUR interests-- not the interests of these big corporations." Do you think she'll quit the organization? I doubt it. Apart from EMILY's List, it's one of her biggest sources of funds for her race against Schatz.

If you live in Hawaii, please take a look at the petition and consider signing it. Not sure? Watch this short video by Alan Grayson... it might help you make up your mind:

It appears that the Big Stinky Cheeses of Demdom lie as pathologically as their GOP soulmates

It would count for something if thugs like Master Rahm and the DCCC stooges would stop lying about why they hate candidates like Colleen Hanabusa, but don't hold your breath.

by Ken

As Howie and I have frequent cause to note, the increasingly unapologetic right-wing sympathies of the Democratic Party leadership make it harder and harder to distinguish the power-brokers of the two major parties without a scorecard.

In his Morning Line today, washingtonpost.com's Chris Cillizza has an updated version, faithfully "carrying the water" for the Big Cheeses of Demdom, of an earlier item on the latest development in the lineup for the November election for the Hawaii House seat just lost to the Republicans in a special election:

Former Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) has opted not to run for the seat in the general election a week after he and state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa (D) split the Democratic vote and handed the seat to Rep. Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) in a special election.

The good news for Democrats in the Case decision is that are now likely to avoid a difficult and costly primary - the latest in the nation, in fact. The bad news is that the candidate they are left with is the one national party leaders -- if not their state counterparts -- regarded as the weaker of the two candidates.

Hanabusa had the support of the state's two senators -- Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka but party leaders in Washington didn't see a path to victory for her since she struggled to win over moderate Democrats and independents. While the White House and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made it quite clear they preferred Case, neither entity wound up officially weighing in at all -- a move that effectively ceded the seat to Djou for the next six months.

The November general election, of course, provides much different dynamics. There won't be two Democrats on the ballot, and the electorate will be different too. Regardless of what party leaders thought of Hanabusa before, she will now likely be the only Democrat on the ballot in a district where President Barack Obama won 70 percent of the vote in 2008.

I have no doubt that the Big Cheeses of Demdom hate Hanabusa and love Case every bit as much as loyal Waterboy Chris represents. They're just lying their sorry butts off about why.

According to Waterboy Chris, it's all about "electability." "Party leaders in Washington didn't see a path to victory for her since she struggled to win over moderate Democrats and independents." This sounds like hard-headed politics, but it's really just bullshit. They love Case because he's a proven right-wing Democratic hack, and they hate Hanabusa -- beyond the fact that she's a woman (for a woman to draw official party support these days it appears she has to be either really rich or really conservative) -- because she believes in traditional Democratic values, which drives demon Dem corporatists like Master Rahm bonkers. So much so that, as they demonstrated all too blatantly in the special election, they'd sooner see a Republican in that House seat.

Howie covered this race at some length in January, and indeed the election played out just as foreseen, with Case running third behind Republican Charles Djou and Hanabusa, thereby allowing Djou to turn the seat Republican. There are no reports of Master Rahm, the man who supposedly lives to build Democratic majorities, shedding tears.

Is it not obvious that Master Rahm and his stinky Beltway stooges aren't afraid of Hanabusa losing; but rather are riddled with angst at the prospect of her winning? Of course the Master has been playing this game for ages: masquerading as the bare-knuckled battler on behalf of the Democratic Party when his real interest is purging the party as much as possible of pols to the left of, say, Heath Shuler, and maximizing the ranks of what we might call "coin toss" Dems. Or should I say "bushels o' bucks" Dems?

I guess I stand corrected regarding my recent suggestion that the Stinky Cheeses have stopped pretending that the issue in their support of all these crap candidates is an "electability" thing:

In this election cycle even the pretense of an "electability" factor has more and more been dropped, as the official party organs increasingly find themselves stumping for candidates who (probably fortunately) couldn't beat any candidate unencumbered by a sex scandal. It becomes increasingly clear that the party hacks support right-wing "Democrats" because they're the people they're most comfortable with -- people who will fit right into the Beltway's kabuki politics, where "order" requires giving highest consideration to the people who pay for it.

Just as spinmeistering, you have to admire the effrontery of the Stinky Cheeses in imposing their view of both Democratic values and Hawaiian politics over those of the state's Democratic U.S. senators, Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka (left), both of whom solidly endorsed Hanabusa. (There can't be a lot of precedents for a national party overriding the judgment of two senators of their party.)

It could be argued that Akaka holds a grudge against Case for primarying him in his 2006 reelection bid, but that seems to quite a good reason for holding a grudge -- not to mention a commentary on Case's party "loyalty." Inouye and Akaka have made it clear that they welcomed Case to Congress after he wangled his way -- via an earlier special election, in 2003 -- into Hawaii's other House seat, vacated by the death of Rep. Patsy Mink, but that he was a great disappointment to them as a congressman, until he gave up the seat to try to oust Akaka.

Case really thinks he belongs in the U.S. Senate. Howie noted that he's said to check the newspaper every day when he wakes up to see if maybe the 85-year-old Inouye didn't. Not surprisingly, given his virually Republican voting record, during his brief time in Congress he was a favorite of the K Street cash dispensers, and as the Dem Stinky Cheeses showed in the special election, they'll go a long way to advance the electoral prospects of one of their own.

As the general election race for the House seat now held by Republican Djou gets into gear, we'll find out what they're prepared to do for a real Democrat like Hanabusa. Political common sense says this is an R seat ready and waiting to be returned to the D column, but that's without reckoning on the interest of the Stinky Cheeses of the national party in keeping her far, far outside the Beltway.

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AKAKA KICKS SOME RIGHT WING ASS

Earlier today I talked about what a dipshit excuse for a Democrat the DCCC's Baron Hill (IN-09) is, a follow-up to a similar piece on another right-wing quasi-Democratic challenger, Mike Weaver. Another reactionary Democrat, Ed Case, who has a disgraceful record of coziness with big bribing corporations-- and in support for the Bush agenda-- was soundly defeated by progressive incumbent Daniel Akaka, 55-45%.

Case closed? Probably not. Cousin of right wing religionist nutcase/robber baron Steve Case (who founded and later gigantically ripped off AOL), Ed Case has every intention of running again, probably for the seat of octogenarian Daniel Inouye. Hopefully, he'll be beaten again, as the Democratic Party grapples with its soul and figures out it's the party of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and Paul Wellstone, not the party of Al From and Joe Lieberman.

Will Pennsylvania Congressional Districts Really Be Re-Drawn Before The Midterms?

Pennsylvania is one of the most absurdly gerrymandered states in the country. Let's call it a 50/50 state. The 5 most recent presidential elections:

• 2000- Gore 50.6%, 48.6%
• 2004- Kerry 51.0%, Bush 48.5%
• 2008- Obama 54.7%, McCain 44.3%
• 2012- Obama 52.0%, Romney 46.8%
• 2016- Trump 48.6%, Hillary 47.9%

The 5 most recent presidential elections:

• 1998- Tom Ridge (R) 57.42%, Ivan Itkin 31.3%
• 2002- Ed Rendell (D) 53.41%, Mark Fisher 44.37%
• 2006- Ed Rendell (D) 60.36%, Lynn Swann 39.64%
• 2010- Tom Corbett (R) 54.49%, Dan Onorato 45.51%
• 2014- Tom Wolf (D) 54.93% Tom Corbett 45.07%

Pretty evenly split, right? OK, a small advantage statewide for Democrats. But the state has been so gerrymandered that the Republicans control both Houses of the state legislature and the congressional delegation-- by gigantic margins. Right now, the state House has 121 Republicans and 82 Democrats and the state Senate has 34 Republicans and 16 Democrats. They drew the congressional districts so... there are 13 Republicans and just 5 Democrats, instead of 9 and 9. Now that is really egregious and blatant gerrymandering!

But don't just take my word for it. The state Supreme Court thinks so too. And they want to do something about it. Now. Yeah, right now-- in time for the 2018 midterms! and they're expediting a lawsuit alleging that Pennsylvania's map of Congressional districts has been gerrymandered to a point where it is violating voters' constitutional rights. In a split 4-3 decision last month, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled a lower court's stay on the case, and put it at or near the top of the Commonwealth Court's docket with a decision deadline of Dec. 31.

Plaintiffs in the case celebrated the chance to get their partisan gerrymandering challenge heard and decided in time to potentially redraw the maps for the 2018 elections for Pennsylvania's 18 Congressional seats.

Legislative leaders said they would defend the existing maps, which they noted have been in play here since 2012.

...Initially filed in June, the case brought by the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and 18 voters from across the state argues that the Congressional district lines were drawn with such an emphasis on finding advantages for Republican candidates in 2011 that Democratic voters have literally been punished for their voting patterns.

Plaintiffs say the result has made a mockery of the fair elections process, and they hope to use a battery of statistical measures to prove it.

By one such measure, called the "efficiency gap," Pennsylvania ranked with North Carolina as one of the two most gerrymandered states in the nation.

The efficiency gap basically tries to measure competitiveness in districts by comparing single district election margins throughout the state, resulting in a metric designed to show which party is getting the biggest bang for its votes.

Still, the only real black-and-white test in Pennsylvania for redrawing Congressional lines is equal population. So the plaintiffs here have alleged violations of equal protection and freedom of association clauses in the constitution.

Thursday's Supreme Court decision saw four of the court's five justices elected as Democrats-- Christine Donahue, Kevin Dougherty, Deborah Todd, David Wecht-- insist on a trial.

Donahue, Dougherty and Wecht only came onto the court last year, and this is their first bite at the redistricting apple.

The majority held the case "involves issues of immediate public importance," and said it will retain continuing supervision of the case, which suggests that any appeal of a Commonwealth Court decision would be expedited.

Chief Justice Thomas Saylor and justices Max Baer and Sally Mundy dissented.

The case before the Commonwealth Court is expected to result in a civil trial with, at minimum, several expert witnesses called by both sides. The court's decision could range from upholding the existing map, to calling for an immediate redraw.

Time has always been of the essence for the plaintiffs, because they hope to effect a change in the state's maps in time for the 2018 election cycle, which actually starts this winter with circulation of nominating petitions for party primaries.

The court's action immediately injected a layer of uncertainty into the political jockeying taking place across Pennsylvania now, as candidates gearing up for Congressional races have to wonder if they will be in entirely different districts by February.

A case can be argued that every district in the state should be scrapped and redrawn from scratch by a non-partisan body. The most notoriously gerrymandered districts are in the Philly suburbs, PA-06 (Ryan Costello), PA-07 (Pat Meehan) and PA-16 (Lloyd Smucker) but it's going to be a mess untangling the mess that the district boundaries across the state are.

Earlier today, Matt Cartwright a congressman from a district (PA-17) that twists and turns from Carbondale to Scranton and Wilkes-Barre and then south to Pocono Summit, the Delaware Water Gap and Nazareth and as far south as Easton in the east and Freemansburg in the west, told us that "Pennsylvania’s Congressional map is an abomination, a perfect example of politicians selecting their voters, instead of vice versa. I think we are fortunate to have a majority on the state Supreme Court willing to dive into this question and fix our preternaturally bollocksed up Congressional boundaries. It is hard to imagine that any tribunal could conclude that this map is not violative of any reasonable standard of electoral fairness. The real question is the one you have asked at the beginning:  whether the Supreme Court has the will to race time and put a new map in place for 2018. My prediction is that the Olympic-caliber foot-dragging Republicans in Harrisburg will test the high court’s resolve-- to do the right thing-- to the utmost.

Mary Ellen Balchunis, is a political science professor who has run twice before-- and in the most gerrymandered district in the country: PA-07. She told us that "America Votes, a national nonpartisan organization has said: 'PA is the worst gerrymandered state in the nation and PA-07 is the worst of the worst.' Penssylvania has two gerrymandering cases this month. The Pennsylvania state gerrymandering case begins in State court next week with the Speaker of the House Mike Turzai expected to testify. As the former congressional candidate in Congressional District PA-07, often called the 'poster child for gerrymandering," I have been working with Concerned Citizens for Democracy to end gerrymandering and the Agre v. Wolf case. Our case began in federal court on Monday with a panel of three judges,and is also fast tracked for a decision before the 2018 midterm election. Gov. Wolf's lawyer has said that if this challenge is successful and a redrawing is ordered, he would work 'to accommodate that process, including adjusting primary dates and schedules.' This case is relying on the Election Clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives the states the power to run elections, not to allow partisanship in their decisions and gerrymandering. The case is also asking for Traditional Neutral Districts that are equal in population, contiguous, compact, and respect boundaries by not dividing counties, municipalities, townships, and boroughs unless absolutely necessary to create a congressional district."

And this year state Senator Daylin Leach is the leading candidate for that same PA-07 district. "Historically," he told us, "Pennsylvania has been among the most aggressively gerrymandered states in the nation. Our legislature has not been a leader on most national issues, but they have been determined, passionate and creative when it comes to guaranteeing that the voters of our state are completely irrelevant on election day. I am ecstatic that the courts may finally be putting a stop to the theft of votes that our redistricting process is."

Victory Fund Needs New Leadership With A Coherent Strategic Vision

An OpEd by Peter Rosenstein in the current issue of the Washington Blade takes Beltway gay careerist organization, the Victory Fund, to task for the shortcomings that were demonstrated by their approach to the 2012 election cycle. Although they would like to claim credit for helping Tammy Baldwin win a Senate seat, they will be better remembered for their strategically flawed attempt to defeat a tried and true friend of the LGBT community, John Tierney, while working to replace him with a top GOP/Young Gun priority, Richard Tisei, a gay conservative, who only stopped voting against gay people when he finally came out of the closet. As Rosenstein noted, the Victory Fund is "more concerned with their percentage of winning candidates rather than building for the future. Many of our finest politicians lost their first campaigns and went on to have stellar political careers. First time potentially viable LGBT candidates need our support and most believe it is the Victory Fund’s mission to provide that support and encouragement." Victory Fund has an ugly history of refusing-- often with special cruelty-- to support LGBT grassroots candidates. Blue America watched the disappointment and heartbreak in several candidates made to jump through childish hoops only to be shunned by the insipid, power-crazed Victory Fund careerists. This past cycle we saw that in New Jersey with Ed Potosnak and in Michigan with Trevor Thomas. The Victory fund was too busy with Richard Tisei to help either of them.

As you might recall, Ed Potosnak, a science teacher and small business owner, ran a hard fought race in 2010 in a New Jersey Congressional district that President Obama carried in 2008. As a candidate for Congress who was openly gay, Ed made his case for support to the Victory Fund to no avail. Despite this lack of support, Ed was able to secure the nomination over the Democratic Party’s insider candidate in the primary. Ed then went on to mount an aggressive, grassroots, campaign against the freshman incumbent/teabagger Leonard Lance. Blue America supported Ed because of his commitment to keeping America competitive, creating jobs, ending cronyism and reforming elections, strengthening the middle class, and protecting the safety net. After an unsuccessful first bid, Ed reentered the race for the 2012 as an even stronger candidate in NJ’s most completive district. The second time around the DCCC added Ed’s race to their watch list, but the Victory Fund insisted on sitting on the sidelines. During the critical “off-year” Ed continued to campaign and raise money amassing more than $175,000 by year end, all without the help of the Victory Fund-- although, he did have some help from fellow LGBT progressives Barney Frank and Jared Polis. Ed ended his campaign this past January to lead the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, still dismayed that the Victory Fund refused to back him.

A recent congressional race in Michigan’s 3rd District is a prime example of where the Victory Fund has gone astray. Trevor Thomas, a gay man running in the primary asked for a Victory Fund endorsement early in his campaign. The Victory Fund turned him down suggesting that if he could raise $100,000 on his own and prove he was a viable candidate it would reconsider. Trevor did that and the Victory Fund turned him down again. A Victory Fund board member recently told me that the group decided not to endorse Thomas because they thought even if he could win his primary he couldn’t win the election. That board member also told me that the Victory Fund looked at the DCCC and saw that it wasn’t supporting Trevor in the primary but instead supported a self-funded candidate. [Let me mention that the self-funded candidate, Steve Pestka is a rapid anti-Choice fanatic and a really vile social conservative.]

Thomas raised a lot of money on his own in the primary. He received the endorsement of two current members of Congress early in his campaign. About a month before the primary, the DCCC realized that in the pre-primary reporting period his opponent raised a weak $4,000, while Thomas pulled in nearly $40,000 in less than 15 days without a single dollar coming from PACs. The DCCC then gave the green light for other sitting members of Congress to endorse, including Barney Frank. He received endorsements from two former members of Congress, including Patrick Murphy, the leader in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Still, the Victory Fund wouldn’t endorse. Thomas found support from former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm; from the state’s former lieutenant governor who had just run for governor; a progressive PAC dedicated to veteran’s issues and Cecile Richards of National Planned Parenthood. The chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, Rep. Diana DeGette, along with Frank, started raising money for him. What he didn’t ever get was support from many big LGBT donors who told him they only contribute to candidates endorsed by the Victory Fund.

Trevor Thomas wasn’t an unknown quantity. He was deputy communications director at HRC and communications director for SLDN during the final fight for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The executive director of the SLDN was an active supporter and fundraiser for Thomas.

Thomas raised about $400,000 for his campaign and had an independent group backed by veterans chip in another $150,000. He got 45 percent of the vote against a competitor not particularly friendly to the LGBT community, who spent $700,000. If only Thomas had had the early support of the Victory Fund, he might have either kept his opponent out of the race or gone on TV earlier to get his message out. Democratic pollster Mark Mellman shared a poll early in the campaign with the Victory Fund showing if Thomas had the money to get his message out he could win big-- with one test showing a win by as much as 20 percent. Thomas’s story was compelling, including the fact that he was a product of the auto-industry, both his parents working the line for more than 30 years.

In Trevor’s case it wasn’t the mere $5,000 the Victory Fund gives to endorsed candidates but rather making people aware of his candidacy so they would give. While the Victory Fund wasn’t even interested in listing him on its website, National Planned Parenthood and a national veterans group, along with Jennifer Granholm, didn’t blink. They knew Thomas, knew his talents, but then so did the silent Victory Fund.

The time has come for the Victory Fund to take a look in the mirror and perhaps rethink their mission. The Victory Fund is based on ground broken by EMILY’s list whose name stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast. Early money is often primary money for an LGBT candidate. It allows them the chance to grow and get their message out. I fully understand having a set of criteria for an endorsement but it is clear that if Trevor Thomas didn’t qualify there is a problem with the current criteria. In Michigan it was EMILY’s List that stood early with Jennifer Granholm when others stood with her primary opponent in her race for governor. The source and power of EMILY’s List is clear; they stand loyal in oftentimes divided primaries, going up against the DCCC if needed and they fight like hell and win. That’s a lesson to be learned.

Maybe it’s time to develop another organization so LGBT candidates can get their names out to the broader community; a place where every “out” candidate can list themselves, their bios, their positions and an analysis of how they see themselves winning. If the Victory Fund doesn’t feel it necessary to review its current criteria maybe they shouldn’t be the only gatekeeper to funding for LGBT candidates. We need the Victory Fund but if they don’t feel this is their role then we also need an organization dedicated to building that bullpen of LGBT candidates who will become the leaders of the future.

Brian Schatz-- Abercrombie Makes The Best Possible Appointment To The Senate

A new progressive U.S. senator

When Daniel Inouye died last week, anyone would have predicted New Dem Colleen Hanabusa would have been appointed by Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie to succeed him. It's what Inouye is reported to have wanted. When we looked at the situation here at DWT a week ago, Lt. Governor Brian Schatz seemed like too good of an idea to even give serious consideration. It looked to me that it would be the only way to keep reactionary corporate whore Ed Case-- who was gearing up to run for Hanabusa's seat-- out of Congress.

But I didn't give Governor Abercrombie enough credit. He gave Schatz the appointment the day after Chrtistmas. The state Democratic Party had given Abercrombie 3 names to pick from: Schatz, himself a former chairman of the state party; Hanabusa; and Esther Kiaaina, the deputy director of the state's Department of Land and Natural Resources. He made the right decision, though not everyone in the Establishment thinks so.

"Senator Inouye conveyed his final wish to Governor Abercrombie," said Jennifer Sabas, Inouye's chief of staff. "While we are very disappointed that it was not honored, it was the Governor's decision to make."

Abercrombie said Inouye's views and wishes weighed on his decision-making process, but "no one and nothing is preordained." He said the possibility of a special election to fill Hanabusa's seat weighed on him in choosing Inouye's successor.

"Sometimes you have to set aside personal considerations in order to look for the good of the whole," the governor, a former congressman, said at a press conference.

Schatz said he would board a flight to Washington sometime this evening, with hopes of being sworn into office sometime on Thursday afternoon. The Senate reconvenes on Thursday to take up the urdent business of reaching a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff on Jan. 1.

Just as important as keeping Case out of Congress is the fact that Schatz, who at 40 will be the youngest member of the Senate until Chris Murphy (D-CT) is sworn in in January, is also a progressive and a reformer with a great record on environmental issues. Hawaii's Senate delegation, Schatz and Mazie Hirono, is likely to turn out to be the best in the whole country.

UPDATE: New Dem Hanabusa May Retaliate With A Run For Governor

Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, who had already, at least figuratively, measured the drapes in Daniel Inouye's office, is telling friends she may get even with Neil Abercrombie by running against him in the 2014 primary. She claims Inouye staffers are encouraging her, unable to comprehend that in death Inouye couldn't name his own successor, the pro-corporate Hanabusa and that Abercrombie was able to appoint a progressive. The other aggrieved party in this is the even worse corporate whore, perennial candidate-- and arch reactionary-- Ed Case. He's likely to run against either Abercrombie or Schatz in 2014 and against Schatz again in 2016.