This morning The Economist published a Broderesque story about Georgia reactionary John Barrow, The Loneliest Man In Congress. “Will 2014,” they ask, “spell doom for the last white House Democrat in the Deep South?” I guess it depends how you define Deep South. Apparently North Carolina, Florida and Texas aren’t deep enough, at least not viewed from a British perspective.
With Steve Israel's policy of never targeting GOP leaders, policy makers and committee chairman keeping the DCCC out of the MN-02 race that pits progressive Mike Obermueller against reactionary incumbent John Kline-- chair of the powerful and destructive House Committee of Education and the Workforce-- Blue America was over the moon that Bill Maher has stepped into the breach.
Alex Sink may have been a mediocre candidate but Republican David Jolly wasn't any better. And Sink had the advantage of running in a blue-leaning district that Obama won against McCain in 2008 and against Romney in 2012… and that Bill Nelson won against Connie Mack in the 2012 Senate race. On top of that, Sink spent way more money-- $3,195,638 to his $1,616,137.
Always the fount of Beltway conventional wisdom, the Washington Post's Fix headline parroted exactly the messaging the DSCC and NRCC want to push: These five races will decide control of the Senate.
It's almost the end of the quarter-- and you know what that means-- hundreds of e-mails from the DCCC and DSCC and their careerist candidates begging for money. Please tell them you already gave-- through Blue America-- to individual candidates whose agendas you believe in and whose values you share.As you probably know, we’ve supported Shenna Bellows' entirely grassroots campaign for Senate in Maine this cycle more than any other candidate, and now we’re asking you to step up again.
Several Democratic Party partisans, who apparently don't understand what Blue America is all about, have been pestering me to add Kansas independent, Greg Orman, to our Senate page. That's never going to happen.
Control of the U.S. Senate will come down to a race none of the powers inside the Beltway are even talking about. Democrat Tim Johnson is retiring from his South Dakota Senate seat and Johnson is strongly backing prairie populist Rick Weiland, who is also being strongly backed by former Democratic Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Harry Reid has a bug up his ass about Daschle and is letting that get in the way of supporting Weiland. Almost every other Democratic senator has endorsed him or contributed to his campaign but Reid refuses to allow the DSCC to back him.
My two favorite senators are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They both have phenomenal records, not just on voting, but on leading. No one's perfect though. Bernie, for example, endorsed anti-choice Michigan reactionary Jerry Cannon, the former commandante of the Guantánamo gulag. What does that say about Bernie? Not much; just that he's human and makes mistakes.
If Rick Weiland beats Mike Rounds for the South Dakota Senate seat in November, we'll probably be able to expect a lot more from him than your garden variety Democratic senator. That's because he will be 100% independent of the corrupted Establishment party leaders in DC. His campaign has gotten no help whatsoever from the DSCC and it's one of the most grassroots campaigns I've ever seen. He won't owe Reid or any other party leaders a thing. And he can win. Even without DSCC help, he's within a few points of corrupt former Governor Mike Rounds.
Saturday night I had dinner with Matt Stoller and Ted Lieu. Matt, a former organizer and blogger works on Capitol Hill now as a senior policy advisor. Ted, California's most accomplished state senator, is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Henry Waxman (Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Venice, Malibu, Manhattan Beach, Torrance, West L.A.) Matt wanted to know why Ted wanted to work in Washington.
