Bardel, Recchia, Grimm-- there's only one sane choice for NY-11I'm over the whole concept of even voting for the lesser of two evils any longer. The lesser of two evils is, by definition, still evil, even if not as base as the greater of two evils. I voted for the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein in 2012, not because Obama isn't infinitely better in every way than Mitt Romney but because I am not making electoral decisions based on how someone stacks up against a worthless pile of stinking dog shit like Mitt Romney. Obama isn't terrible and he's had a tough time and history, I suspect, will judge him well. But he didn't have the character I was looking for to fight off the fascists. So I, in effect, cast a protest vote. "My candidate" came in fourth-- behind Obama (65,915,796-- 51.06%), Romney (60,933,500-- 47.20% and Libertarian Gary Johnson (1,275,971-- 0.99%)-- with 469,628-- 0.36%. She beat Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode, Peace and Freedom's Roseanne Barr, Justice Party's Rocky Anderson and a couple of even fringier choices.If I lived in Staten Island or the part of south Brooklyn that is included in NY-11, I'd be voting for Henry Bardel, the pro-peace independent candidate. The Republican incumbent, Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, a former FBI agent gone bad, is a Gambino crime family thug who is hoping to use his reelection as a bargaining chip to stay out of federal prison. Last week, we went over the electoral case again when the Staten Island Advance endorsed their 20 times indicted hoodlum congressman. Yesterday, the New York Daily News was even more eloquent in their disdain for both candidates-- but especially for the ghastly Steve Israel recruit, Domenic Recchia, in an editorial entitled Very Grimm Choice-- One Is Bad, The Other Is Worse.
In Domenic Recchia, the Democrats have fielded a candidate so dumb, ill-informed, evasive and inarticulate that voting for a thuggish Republican who could wind up in a prison jumpsuit starts to make rational sense.At least Michael Grimm can string three sentences together in arguing that he deserves the presumption of innocence on federal criminal charges stemming from his past operation of a restaurant.Should he be convicted, Grimm has promised to resign, paving the way for a match between two fresh candidates. All the better.Recchia, a former councilman, is clueless as to the issues. He accomplished the unprecedented feat of failing to give a single coherent answer when he was interviewed hoping for the Daily News endorsement.He was equally incoherent in debates. Even in his best showing, on Tuesday night, he couldn’t give a straight answer as to whether he supports a $10.10 minimum wage. He said no, then yes, then who knows what.Once, when asked about foreign policy credentials, he boasted of having run a student-exchange program.
In endorsing Grimm they called him "the only alternative when the mantra must be anyone but Recchia." Alas, Recchia is far from atypical of Steve Israel's recruits. He set out to find clueless, corrupt, conservative zombies-- and that explains, to some extent, why so many Democarts are sitting out the midterms this year. Other than Steve Israel, could any sentient Democrat seriously consider voting for garbage candidates like, for example, Pete Aguilar and Jennifer Garrison.His Red to Blue List is-- with a few exceptions that slipped in when Israel was busy taking bribes on Wall Street and not paying attention-- very much a rogue's list of candidates who will never be in Congress and should never be in Congress. Monday Israel was again bragging how much money the DCCC had raised. That's great news for all the sleazy consultants he's connected to... they made millions. But for the House Democrats and for working families that count of the Democrats to protect them from the far right? Disaster!
We have outraised the NRCC by $41.1 million ($172 million to $130.9 million), despite being in the minority. The DCCC has built record support from individual and grassroots supporters and dominated the NRCC on candidate fundraising.• DCCC had the best fundraising cycle ever – raising more than $172 million to date.• Raised nearly $12 million directly for candidates this cycle to compete with SuperPACs’ spending by using lowest unit rates for television.• 5 million grassroots low-dollar donors made 4.2 million contributions.• Reached $110 million in grassroots contributions.• Average grassroots gift was $25.80, with 95 percent of donations $50 or less.• The DCCC tripled the NRCC’s low dollar contributions, according to the FEC. The DCCC raised $69 million from contributors who’ve given less than $200, compared to the NRCC’s $23 million.• This cycle, Leader Pelosi completed 750 fundraising and campaign events in 115 cities, which have raised a record $101.3 million for Democrats, including $65.2 million for the DCCC directly....• The DCCC’s Independent Expenditure invested a record-breaking $67.25 million in 39 districts.• In the 22 districts where the DCCC and NRCC both were on the air, the DCCC’s early reservations meant that the committee paid approximately 15 percent less for the same air time.• The IE produced about 147 TV ads and 20 radio spots.• The DCCC quadrupled our digital advertising, driving 28 million impressions that echoed our television message to as many as 88,000 voters per district.
Watch them rack up failure after failure after failure tonight. Israel is already jumping on the blame President Obama bandwagon and two weeks ago was whining that liberals didn't give the DCCC enough money. By the way, he's being removed as DCCC Chair but insists he be given another leadership post to make up for it (so he can use it to squeeze more money out of the crooks and lobbyists he deals with).
