JAN SCHNEIDER, A REAL DEMOCRAT, IS POISED TO TURN FL-13 BLUE

In researching a story I did yesterday called "By The Numbers, Which Republicans Are Most Vulnerable To Defeat in November?" I came across Jan Schneider's name. I remembered her for two reasons: I sent her campaign a check in 2004 and she came tantalizingly close to unseating Cruella de Harris in Florida's 13th CD. Knowing that Harris would be ending her political career either in a women's house of detention or in a futile and doomed race for the U.S. Senate, I got all excited when I saw Schneider is running again. She had to have built up quite a bit of name recognition in the district and with any luck and some help from the DCCC... Oops. I checked immediately.

And there it was, as clear as day: Rahm Emanuel's renegade DCCC already has a designated shill ready to wreck Schneider's chance to successfully turn the district blue. One look at Christine Jennings' website told me all I needed to know: no passion, no positions beyond universal platitudes... Rahm Emanuel puppet. So I called Jan to ask her what's up. Take a look at her website first and compare in to Jennings'.

"It's very uncomfortable for me"-- and I could hear the palpable pain in her voice-- "to be fighting the Democratic Party because I've been a Democrat all my life." (Perhaps that Jennings is a convert from the Republican Party adds to a feeling of abandonment by the Democratic hierarchy.) When she started telling me what the DCCC has been pulling on her it reminded me of what the Inside-the-Beltway power elitists had done to Paul Hackett and what I had just watched them do to Dave Lutrin in another congressional district just down the road.

Steny Hoyer called her funders and told them not to contribute. I remember a lot of real Democrats-- you know people, not careerist scum who just happen to be having careers inside the Democratic Party structure but could just as easily at this point have careers in the Republican Party structure-- were sickened to see the exact same Rove-like manipulations pulled off by Schumer, Reid and Emanuel when they drove grassroots hero Paul Hackett out of the race they had lured him into. Hoyer also told the local party DECs to get Jan out of the race (as they had done in Lutrin's race, although the local party feigns neutrality-- which they are legally bound to be-- in primary contests). And what about Emanuel? This had his fingerprints all over it. Was he doing anything. "He lied to Kerry and Boxer. He told them both that this was a targeted race with no primary." Both did fundraisers for Jennings. (Kerry, who has been going around the country helping Emanuel-endorsed candidates, claims, in his phony mealy-mouthed way, that he never endorsed Jennings.) I have no idea-- at least not one I want to speculate about-- how Boxer could let herself be used like this.

I asked her why she thinks they don't like her. "I'm too independent-minded for them. And she has more money. But the last time we were in a primary she spent over half a million dollars and I spent $146,000 and I wound up with 48% of the vote and she got 38%" (in a 4-way race which included 2 further left candidates). Right now the DCCC propaganda is trying to emphasize the inevitability of a Jennings primary win (which everyone believes-- except the people in the 13th CD). One way they do that is to constantly point out how Jennings raises a lot more money (although $305,000 of her $400,000 total was money she put into the campaign herself). And even with that sleazy worm Hoyer calling her funders and trying to convince them to not donate to Schneider, she has raised around $70,000 so far.

Another DCCC propaganda tactic is to put out releases like this one (from the Congressional Quarterly): "Jennings is preferred by House Democratic strategists. She has received contributions from political action committees linked to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who is well-known in national liberal political circles, attended a fundraiser for Jennings in December. Jennings’ campaign also is backed by Democratic Reps. Robert Wexler, who represents the southeastern 19th District, and Allen Boyd, who represents the northern 2nd District."

Beyond comparing a thoughtful, instinctually progressive like Schneider to a candidate with no issues beyond vague generalities like mom and apple pie, just look at the accomplishments of these two women. Schneider is an accomplished attorney and author who graduated with honors from Brown University and did postdoctoral work at Columbia University and Yale (where she earned a Ph.D and a law degree. Jennings went to high school and then became a bank teller and was able to thrive in an environment where kissing up is all that matters, eventually becoming a bank president. She was tailor-made for Rahm.

Jenning's platform, as best as anyone can make out, is simply, "If you want change, vote for a Democrat." I'm sure there might be a couple of districts where that could work, although I think this Emanuel strategy of letting the Republicans just do themselves in, is fraught with danger (and not for Republicans). Rahm Emanuel may be a lowlife sleaze-meister but do you wanna believe he's as filthy and as accomplished in the dark arts as Rove? Someday, but not yet.

You may think I sound pretty harsh towards a fellow Democrat. First of all, I'm holding back some of the worst charges because they're too horrible to make without more proof-- which I'll have before I publish them-- and second of all, I'm a progressive who is less likely to throw up from the Democrats than from the Republicans. I was too young to vote for Republican John Lindsey for Mayor of NYC when he ran against the Machine troll Abe Beame but I volunteered for him and realized there was more to the kind of governance I wanted than knee-jerk party-line support of Democrats. I went door to door for Lindsey, who later, as Mayor, switched to the Democratic Party.

Today Joe Trippi and Dan Walter announced they are working with Jan Schneider to help win the 13th Congressional District. I'm sure that's going to mean a lot more than an endorsement from DWT but I am opening an ACT BLUE Page for Jan today and I hope you'll join with me in telling Rahm Emanuel and the other Inside-the-Beltway
power-mongers that democracy means letting local Democrats decide who they want to represent the party. That's why we have primaries. Who does Rahm Emanuel think he is? Boss Tweed? Tom DeLay?