Any Blue Will Do? Screw That!

Thursday night during the debate Biden accidentally answered "yes" when asked if he favored closing down the oil industry. He had had a senior moment and he didn't mean that, explaining to journalists a short time later that "We’re not going to get rid of fossil fuels. We’re going to get rid of subsidies for fossil fuels." A step in the right direction. But two worthless, reactionary Blue Dogs-- Kendra Horn (OK) and Xochitl Torres Small (NM) immediately distanced themselves from his statement. [Note: the DCCC has already spent over $10,000,000 on these two worthless corporate shills, money that could have gone to electing actual Democrats.]

Blue Dogs and New Dems-- the pro-corporate Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- have shredded the Democratic Party's brand starting... when? When Bill Clinton embraced Wall Street in 1992? When Jimmy Carter was sworn in in 1977 or when JFK became president in 1961? When the conservatives in the party establishment forced FDR to remove Vice President Henry Wallace from the ticket in 1944?

Leaving the Senate aside, let's start with House incumbents. Over 100 of them have "F" grades from ProgressivePunch. 17 have voted more frequently with the GOP against progressive roll calls than with the Democrats! From terrible to worse:

• Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)- 48.00% with the Democrats
• Conor Lamb (PA)- 47.33% with the Democrats
• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)- 44.44% with the Democrats
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)- 44.27% with the Democrats
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- 43.21% with the Dems
• Abby Finkenauer (IA)- 41.98% with the Dems
• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)- 41.25% with the Dems
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)- 40.74% with the Dems
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- 40.02% with the Dems
• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)- 39.11% with the Dems
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- 39.08% with the Dems
• Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)- 34.57% with the Dems
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- 28.40% with the Dems
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)- 28.40% with the Dems
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- 27.16% with the Dems
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- 24.69% with the Dems
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- 23.46% with the Dems

And in case anyone forgot the 2018 DCCC star recruit from New Jersey, Blue Dog shit-eater Jefferson Van Drew, he flipped to the GOP in the middle of the year and has a record of having voted 17.50% of the time with the Democrats.

Post-primary season, the Blue Dogs have 8 anti-worker/pro-corporate candidates they have endorsed. Under no circumstances should you support any of them, not with volunteer hours, not with campaign contributions, not even with votes:

• Eugene DePasquale (PA-10)
• Gretchen Driskell (MI-07)
• Margaret Good (FL-16)
• Jackie Gordon (NY-02)
• Christina Hale (IN-05)
• Josh Hicks (KY-06)
• Brynne Kennedy (CA-04)
• Sri Kulkarni (TX-22)

And the New Dems have 31 putrid candidates they are backing, each and every one of them having passed the test to prove they will make America worse. This is the list of the 31 candidates to be avoided-- unless you support the idea of corrupt, corporate governance:

• Alyse Galvin (I-AK)
• Hiral Tipirneni (AZ-06)
• Christy Smith (CA-25)
• Qualcomm heiress Sara Jacobs (CA-53)-- opposing progressive Democrat Georgette Gomez
• Margaret Good (FL-16)
• Carolyn Bourdeaux (GA-07)
• Betsy Dirksen Londrigan (IL-13)
• Christina Hale (IN-05)
• Hillary Scholten (MI-03)
• Dan Feehan (MN-01)
• Jill Schupp (MO-02)
• Deborah Ross (NC-02)
• Kathy Manning (NC-06)
• Pat Timmons Goodson (NC-08)
• Amy Kennedy (NJ-02)
• Nancy Goroff (NY-01)
• Jackie Gordon (NY-02)
• Kate Schroder (OH-01)
• Eugene DePasquale (PA-10)
• Wendy Davis (TX-21)
• Sri Kulkarni (TX-22)
• Gina Ortiz Jones (TX-23)
• Cameron Webb (VA-05)
• Carolyn Long (WA-03)
• Marilyn Strickland (WA-10)- opposing progressive Beth Doglio

(the New Dem "watch list")

• Ammar Campa-Najjar (CA-50)
• Kathleen Williams (MT)
• Desiree Tims (OH-10)
• Hillary O'Connor Mueri (OH-14)
• Christina Finello (PA-01)
• Sima Ladjevardian (TX-02)

I know half a dozen of these people personally. They all seem... nice. They just have strange idea about what a Democrat is. I've watched Congress long enough to know for sure that I wouldn't vote to put a single one of them in office. That's how toxic it is to be a member of the Blue Dogs or New Dems.

In the next 10 days the DCCC and Pelosi's SuperPAC will spend millions of dollars helping to elect these conservative candidates-- and not much helping progressives. (The ones in blue are the progressives.) These are the candidates that these groups had spent the most (over a million) on before this weekend:

• Rep Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)- $7,866,938
• Christy Smith- $7,728,919 Includes the spending in the special election she lost)
• Rep Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- $7,621,687
• Rita Hart (IA-02)- $5,896,987
• Sri Kulkarni- $5,749,664
• Rep TJ Cox (New Dem-CA)- $5,320,109
• Carolyn Bourdeaux- $5,126,518
• Rep Xochitl Torres Small- $4,988,768
• Rep Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)- $4,978,578
• Amy Kennedy- $4,830,590
• Candace Valenzuela- $4,533,197
• Rep Anthony Brindisi- $4,396,328
• Kate Schroder (OH-01)- $4,371,004
• Rep Kendra Horn- $4,165,196
• Rep Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- $4,155,685
• Dana Balter (NY-24)- $4,131,598
• Rep Ben McAdams- $4,068,280
• Rep Andy Kim (NJ)- $3,973,965
• Jackie Gordon- $3,649,928
• Kara Eastman (NE)- $3,510,587
• Betsy Dirksen Londrigan- $3,500,820
• Gina Ortiz Jones- $3,464,091
• Dan Feehan- $3,437,352
• Jill Schupp- $3,434,612
• Rep Joe Cunningham- $3,354695
• Hiral Tipirneni- $3,383,888
• Eugene DePasquale- $3,188,406
• wealthy socialite Rep Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)- $3,056,114
• Rep Abby Finkenauer- $3,003,170
• Rep Abigail Spanberger- $2,876,863
• Kristina Hale- $2,839,768
• Wendy Davis- $2,818,222
• Kathleen Williams- $2,729,430
• Rep Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)- $2,310,273
• Rep Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)- $2,227,113
• rich lottery winner Rep Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)- $2,192,622
• Hillary Scholten- $1,985,694
• Rep Cindy Axne- $1,911,390
• Christina Finello (PA-01)- $1,686,457
• Nancy Goroff- $1,641,713
• Rep Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)- $1,563,736
• Diane Mitsch Bush- $1,525,481
• Rep Elaine Luria- $1,336,672
• Rep Pete DeFazio (OR)- $1,287,300
• Joyce Elliott (AR-02)- $1,173,133
• Cameron Webb- $1,073,021
• Rep Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)- $1,054,635

So many millions of dollars wasted on worthless incumbents who no one likes! And spending on progressives who really need the money-- next to nothing other than for Kara Eastman, Joyce Elliott and Dana Balter. What about Jon Hoadley, Mike Siegel, Julie Oliver, Audrey Denney, Nate McMurray, Adam Christensen, Liam O'Mara to name a few. "Too progressive for the district" is what the DCCC always says (off the record).

I spoke to Liam O'Mara, a professor of the history of ideas, who is also a candidate running in Riverside County's CA-42-- with no recognition from the DCCC whatsoever. "The idea that I am 'too progressive for the district' is rubbish," he told me yesterday. "The most progressive prior candidate out here also happens to have done the best against Calvert. We currently have the best early return rate of any Democrat in recent memory, and that follows a primary cycle that saw more votes to the Dems than any previous primary in ages. Right now FiveThirtyEight gives my campaign a better chance of flipping the district than they've seen yet, and a higher chance of flipping the seat than quite a few candidates in the long lists above. Progressive-populist leaders used to dominate in the most socially conservative corners of the country, because more people vote their wallets and their hopes than anything else. To say that we are out of touch with the needs and wishes of the electorate is to surrender preëmptively to Republican control and Republican arguments... when what we ought to be doing is standing out there and winning over hearts and minds. The Democratic party needs to stop focussing on safely blue seats and start trying to win people over... and we can't do that with tepid, half-baked conservatism."

Let me make a suggestion: click on the 2020 ActBlue congressional thermometer above and show Liam O'Mara some love. Unlike most of the DCCC candidates, he would actually make Congress a better and more productive place.