DCCC

Republicans won 51.8% of the vote in a jungle primary because Steve Israel backed a candidate Democratic voters can't relate to. And he's doing it again this year.The Beltway committees like the DCCC and NRCC get their information about America from the Cook Report and the Cook Report gets its information from the Beltway committees like the DCCC and NRCC. It's a closed loop of cluelessness.

If you missed me putting Buck McKeon's resignation from Congress into context for KPFK listeners yesterday, here's a short, abbreviated version above.

I've known him for many years, through many campaigns and he would lose his job-- and his ability to get jobs-- if he were to use his real name.

Corrupt Inland Empire conservatives rally around their boy Pete Aguilar, including his pal Jerry Lewis,  Bill Emmerson,  Mike Morrell  and, of course, Gary MillerFriday I was busy blaming Steve Israel of the DCCC-- and his counterparts at the NRCC-- for the fact that more than half the Members of Congress are millionaires.

This week the Center for Responsive Politics issued a widely cited report that makes clear that, for the first time ever, most Members of Congress have net worths of over a million dollars.

You may not remember Dick Gephardt, once a powerful congressman from Missouri with ambitions to be Speaker and vice president and president. None of that worked out for him and he's just a sleazy K Street lobbyist now working for Goldman Sachs and other criminal enterprises… but he was the House Democratic leader from 1989 until 2003.

Several months ago, when the DCCC endorsed Pete Aguilar for the D+5 Inland Empire congressional seat he lost last year to two Republicans because of his obvious inability to connect with Democratic voters, I tried calling him to ask him where he stands on issues. Like virtually all DCCC-manufactured candidates, his website is devoid of issue positions. I reached what I thought was a naive volunteer, a pleasant kid with a Chechen accent, named Boris.

Tomorrow, Monday, is the last day of Blue America's fundraiser for Keith Ellison and Mike Obermueller, two Minnesota progressive champions. You still have time to click this link, watch a little "Policy of Truth," see a photo of the prize-- a rare and collectible RIAA-certified double platinum award for the Mode's Violator-- and help us make sure Keith and Mike win next year.

LGBT activists in Ohio were shocked when they heard Steve Israel was recruiting virulent homophobe Jennifer Garrison to run for Congress. Israel is now pressuring pro-equality Democrats in Congress-- including gay members-- to contribute money to Garrison's campaign. She isn't a garden variety anti-gay politician. She built her entire political career on intense homophobia.

no, not in play-- thanks to Steve IsraelYesterday was the deadline for congressional candidates to file in Illinois-- the first in the nation. (Next up: Texas, December 9 and, in January, West Virginia and Kentucky.) But Illinois is all set now in terms of congressional candidates. The lucky ones are the candidates with no-- or only token-- opponents. They can spend their election dollars building power by helping their colleagues.