DCCC

I've been on Rahm-watch since 2005 and I can't imagine there's any chance he'd resign as mayor of Chicago unless it was part of a plea deal to keep him out of prison... and I don't see that happening either.

Are you ready for the frenzy?

Once Rahm Emanuel got the power to fire Howard Dean as DNC chair-- the first catastrophic decision of the Obama presidency-- replacing him with 2 consecutive talentless sieves-- first Tim Kaine and then, much worse, Debbie Wasserman Schultz-- and scrapping Dean's 50-state strategy, it was apparent the Republican Party would have a free-hand in scores of districts where they could be challenged over the long term and that Washington would no longer

This morning I spoke to an old friend, a prominent and well-off progressive attorney who lives in a red-leaning swing district with a low-profile, relatively inoffensive-- albeit very right-wing-- Republican congressman. He ran against the congressman once but, largely due to typical duplicity and incompetence from Steve Israel and the DCCC, he ended the cycle by saying he would never run again.

Anger at the DCCC is spreading. Well, anger at the DCCC has been huge for over a decade; that it's being talked about more openly and more aggressively at the grassroots level is what's different. Chris Van Hollen and Steve Israel lost dozens and dozens of Democratic House seats (incumbents) and ruined the chances of even more Democratic challengers trying to beat Republicans.

DCCCThere is a natural tendency for the Beltway trade press to never offend the two party establishments and their committees that exercise so much control of access and information. It was the same way in the music industry. So you never read any criticism of the party hacks that run the NRCC or the DCCC, the NRSC or the DSCC.

When Collin Peterson voted against raising the minimum wage, along with 5 other far right Blue Dogs, the DCCC was screaming about Republicans voting against increasing the minimum wage. That was in March of 2013. Steve Israel and Nancy Pelosi were already raising massive amounts of money to help reelect the massively unpopular-- unpopular with Democrats at least-- Peterson and Georgia Blue Dog John Barrow.

Steve Israel was trying to sell his own toxic brand of snake oil in Syracuse last nightAs we've been explaining-- basically, since 2005 or '06-- that the DCCC's governing strategies about recruitment and support are fatally flawed. Picking Republican-lite candidates who, if they manage to win in a presidential year, and then vote with the GOP on core issues ,is not a good idea.

Almost a decade ago, Blue America was toiling away on behalf of school teacher and union member Dave Lutrin, running for Congress in the Palm Beach area of Florida, pretty red district then represented by hypocritical Republican closet case Mark Foley. We knew that sooner or later Foley would slip up-- they always do-- and expose himself and become very defeatable.

The DCCC may be stupid-- or even very stupid (as well as utterly incompetent)-- but their e-mail strategy is very well-planned out. Their overarching goal is not primarily to rake in cash-- although, obviously, they love that-- but to destroy the capacity for grassroots Democrats to have an independent means of raising money for progressive and independent-minded candidates.