I guess Chris VanHollen has Rahm on speed dial for advice on these matters.

You might think they almost want to lose the special election.

…but Case has a more conservative voting record — something the DCCC evidently thinks will help them in a district that has a D+11 PVI.

Ah, so this is the 11-dimensional chess we keep on hearing about.

The Dems are certifiable idiots. Their entire plan is to lose.

If things get ugly, the door will open for Djou, and an improbable win for a Republican in a seat that gave Obama 70 percent.

Is it evil for me to harbor a very small bit of a ‘Yea’ ?

I am a know-nothing about these races, but from an outsider’s POV, it seems to be about who will lick Rahm’s boots with most enthusiasm.

That is part of Rahm’s 50 state strategy. Corrupt everyone and destroy the Democratic Party to save it from the Leftists.

This is why it was such a surprise to see Van Hollen being so forthright on admitting that the Senate HCR bill really hurt Martha Coakley and was hurting other Democratic candidates.

This is a guy who was handpicked by Rahm Emanuel to succeed him at the D-Trip. Yet even he can’t deny that the Baucus-Nelson-Wellpoint bill is electoral kryptonite.

What else is new? The DCCC has always been like this and Rahm Emanuel made it policy.

If the answer to every GOP question is “lower taxes,” the answer to every Dem question seems to be “run to the right.”

But as Marshall Ganz said, “Barack Obama never would have won if he’d campaigned on the politics of narrow self-interest.”

I guess they were watching a different election in 2008 than the rest of us.

to save it from the Leftists.

Oh I don’t wish to attempt any correction Frank, It’s just that I don’t really view myself or most Progressives really as “Leftist”. It conjures up all sorts of other extreme notions.

I’m really comfortable thinking that we’re all fairly normal, but the rest of them, the D’s and R’s, all of them have gone completely Nuts, Ape Shit Nuts.

The DCCC probably thinks that by increasing the number of Republicans, they increase the likelihood of bipartisan legislation. /s

Certainly the label can be debated. To me, I mean to Rahm a leftist is someone who does not write Rahm a $10,000 check.

Q: How corporate can Democrats be?

A: How corporate do you want us to be?

Soooo, is it apparent yet that there are only the two wings of the Rich Party?

Soooo, is it apparent yet that there are only the two wings of the Rich Party?

and they even Caucus together at times, oops I meant to say they’re Bipartisan

Apparently not, to the faithful. A stalwart contingent on the left maintain the health-care law is a great progressive achievement, and anyone who feels otherwise obviously wants children to die. Obama’s catastrophic first year has been transformed in their minds into a march of triumph. These folks are living in Lefty Bizarro World–but I must say, I envy their febrile euphoria.

Chicago Blue Dog No. 1

Which side are you on?

I think you will find organized labor, not just ASCME, strongly against Case.

Case is a millionaire neo-liberal with no feeling for working people or organized labor. The maritime unions despise him for his gratuitous opposition to the Jones Act.

Thank you for giving us some info on this, Jane. You have raised the profile of these races, what can we do? Should we send money to Hanabusa?

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

This is the political threat that is potentially far more dangerous than the Teabagger paper mache army: the threat of another 1994 when even if the Dems don’t lose their majorities (which I don’t think they will) the fascists increase their nuimbers and the Blue Dogs increase their numbers to the point that the 1950′s Republican Party becomes the Democratic Party of the 2010′s.

What is happening now could be turned around if there was an uprisin’ inside the Democratic Party like there was in 2005 out in the states and political subdivisions and Howard Dean was put in charge of the DNC. This won’t happen, however, if we talk about giving up our numbers to the corporate controlled teabaggers by legitimizin’ them and offering to coalesce with ‘em…I have said this before: work within the Democratic Party and you have a chance to give the big boys indigestion but join the Teabaggers and you become an Orc in the corporate Brownshirt army.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION BUT DON’T USE IT ONE YOURSELF FOR GOD’S SAKE!

This surpises people?

This is why we need an official break with the Democratic party. I have never nor will I ever be a party man. The Democrats prove why every day.

The Democrat leadership in washington and around the nation is going one direction and the base of the Democratic party is going another direction.

Obama and Rahm are dreaming of the day when the Democratic Party of FDR, becomes the Republican Party of Reagan.

Yes, this is going to end very badly!

The question no one wants to asks, is why do all the phony Democrats in Washington and around the Nation talk like progressives and govern like conservatives?

If you want to be a Conservative Democrat tell the base of the Democratic Party the following:

I am Democract and I like war
I am Democrat and I support big business destruction of the middle class
I am Democrat and I hate roe vs wade
I am Democrat and I hate the idea of a public option
I am Democrat and I love George Bush

stop with all the talking like a progressive, Tell the base of the Democratic Party where you stand.

Not sure. The whole situation is so sketchy it’s hard to figure out what’s going on. You read it over and you think “there must be something else going on here, because I just don’t understand it.”

It looks likely that the Dems will lose Obama’s Senate seat, over issues that were known a the time of the primary: http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/04/kirk-moves-ahead.html

For whatever reason (aside from the obvious), the Dems are freaking out.

Obama is a Blue Dog. There is absolutely nothing surprising about his using the party’s machinery to elect more of the same. What we are seeing here is not an aberration. It is the modern Democratic party. We should be resisting them at every opportunity. The only thing we can trust them to do is work against our interests. We should not help them in any way, shape, or form to further theirs.

Norske,

work within the Democratic Party and you have a chance to give the big boys indigestion

I just don’t see how that will have any positive affect. The D’s have the majority and we see which way they’re going. Every day with every issue.

Someone else on a different thread mentioned the analogy of the D’s to a drunk.

Got to let them hit bottom.

Doing anything to prevent the bottom is enabling, it is simply attempting to prevent the inevitable but prolonging the pain.

I tend to agree.

Jane. You are wonderful. But as I keep on saying and as you have surely noticed by now. They are all pod people. Run like hell! At some point it will be your only option. I’d get in a ‘pre-emptive’ run if I were you. Better choice of options for those who go early.

Amazing analysis Ms.Hamsher. It seems like preserving the status quo and moving further right is a policy embraced by the powers that be. An apparatus like DNC blocks all progressive candidacy while the whips in congress surpress those that might support good legislation. Case in point the Dodd financial regulation bill…Paul Krugman observed it will not stop the destruction of the economy and we will have another crash soon. Knowing that how can the critters act like Ostriches sticking their heads in the sands of denial while Rome burns?

“But I frankly can’t come up with any good reason why they’re doing this.”

Well, have you considered the old standy – $$$

Ed Case is a wealthy man with wealthy friends. He is perfectly capable of financing his own race, and steering other money to DCCC and elsewhere.

Yep, though I prefer to call them neoliberals straight out. Blue Dog is so quaint. *g*

Back to work.

Namaste

Which side are you on?

Nicely Done.

I see a time approaching, very soon, where different Unions could be opposing each other on policy (or should be). Such as Labor vs Service if service stays in camp with the corporatist interests.

I’m shocked! DCCC backs insider. Damn. Never expected that. Not in a million years. That’s a real turn-up. I’m gobsmacked, totally. I mean, jeepers.

You know what Norske, I’m tired of this. If you think anyone has suggested “working with teabaggers” prove it. If not, STFU.

“Hafer is a pro-choice candidate and Critz is anti-choice.”

+11 district? Tells you plain and simple what DCCC thinks of women’s rights. Assholes.

So the DCCC would rather loose than give the seat up to a more progressive candidate? That smacks of the worst crime there is inside the Democratic party, Naderism!

Rahm and Obama think it will be much easier for the president to run for re-election in 2012 against a ‘do-nothing’ GOP Congress than if the hapless Democrats are in charge. They appear to be doing everything they can to elect Boeher Speaker.

I’m sure you are right but that just makes no sense – turns my brain to scrambled eggs. I understand the Rs better than I do the Dems and that’s scary.

I would imagine that a number of House members are getting pretty nervous right now. NONE of the promised positive bounce or acclaim that Rahm, Obama and Pelosi promised because of passing HC”R” have happened.

They are now in the worst of all worlds.

1. Having a bill that is very unpopular.
2. Having to spend time selling the bill.
3. If they ignore the unpopular bill, it will remain unpopular.
4. If they spend time defending it, that is time they can’t address something else.

They are now stuck. They can’t leave the subject of health care because that will permanently cement it as unpopular. But, if they keep on it, people will grow even more tired of it as a subject. They can’t make any kind of pivot to another subject while HC”R” is still on the table.

The worst of all worlds.

AND, their hard core base is even more unhappy with the “reform” than the right.

Reality is hitting hard. Likely, they will pull out something in Hawaii, but I think Murtha’s seat is gone, gone, gone.

Regarding HCR, it seems Obama did not learn anything from Bush.

Seems they are both doomed to have “Bring it on!” brought down on them.

Djou’s had a bunch of ads up. None, of course, mention that he’s a Republican.

It makes perfect sense, and also happens to explain their behavior.

If Democrats maintain control of both Houses of Congress, Democrats will be accountable for leadership and management of the economy, the wars, the jobs ‘recovery’ — everything! But if there’s a GOP Congress, stalemate and a SCAPEGOAT for the stalemate: the GOP Congress.

Obama is looking out for himself (surprise!) and Rahm is too.

Citizen Hamsher:

You would hafta be deaf around here for the last couple a months if you haven’t heard the calls for workin’ with the Teabaggers and splittin’ the Democratic Party. And, dear heart, I remember someone on the frontpage of this very blog during the healthcare debate hintin’ that such a political alliance would somehow provide leverage for a public option or some such nonsense and there were calls to work with Grover to weaken the right wing. Sigh…it was just a matter of time before the hostess started tellin folks to STFU when they don’t agree with ‘er. If ya wanna be a player that’s fine but don’t be solicitin’ money from folks and then tell ‘em ta STFU when they don’t swallow the party line.

AND, their hard core base is even more unhappy with the “reform” than the right.

I agree.

I’ve said in other comments that I think one thing Rahm et al. don’t appreciate about us f*^&ing r@#$%^s is that we’re not just “energized to vote” on election day: we bring other voters with us, through our canvassing, phone-banking, GOTV, e-mailing, donating so additional GOTV workers can be hired and ads can be run.

There should be a “multiplier” to calculate the true effect of alienating — yea, shitting on — the most energetic, active portion of the “base.” There’s likely to be more effect than just the 800,000 staying home.

Some of us may go to the polls to vote for down ticket races or for a third party — just to show we exist and didn’t give Dems our votes. But all of that “other stuff” that would happen if we had a good candidate and party, ain’t gonna come about.

Oh, it makes sense but it doesn’t make any sense, if you know what I mean. I can’t imagine not wanting to be in control when you are in control. Everything is so upside down these days that I feel as if I’m the insane one.

Are you sure they (Obama and Rahm) are looking for a GOP scapegoat, or just majorities that they can work better with?

It would seem pretty clear that the national Democratic Party really hates its activist base, and in general wants to continue the institution of a top-down machine run out of the DC establishment. In other words, the party is quasi-mafia-like in operation and regards various elections as a way to cement and hold its power, and to place candidate favored by big donors into office in order to service the donors and party together.

Really, I don’t know why anyone would vote for candidates from either of the two parties again … it is pretty clear that both parties are basically power- and money- driven and are not about governing in the public interest.

Let’s all not forget that today’s court decision that prioritized the profits and power of Comcast over the need to allow the internet to grow as a broad public medium and small entrepreneur’s playground was issued by a CLINTON appointee.

Jane, please keep us informed when you find out anything more about these races. I’m sure you will receive some tips, how to sort them out will be the issue.

We are watching our primary elections heat up, and it is not a pretty picture. A lot of teh wack starts to come out, and it takes a bit of the inside skinny to gain any inkling of how it all falls out.

But I think you are in a position to get to the inside track. I am sure you must have read some of the comments about supporting alternative candidates last week, on the Seminal. Jason and others talked about not tilting at windmills, and it is a hard call, “electability.”

I’m sure the DCCC prefers people they know or think they can control. It is possible that big donors or others help to sway the DCCC, and it is also possible that the DCCC just does not understand local politics and follows some path of least resistance. Of course it is also possible that the whole DCCC business is crooked and cooked. . .by Rahm or who knows who else.

Good luck to sort it out, thanks for your work.

No. More. Anti-Choise. Democrats.

The Dems are certifiable idiots. Their entire plan is to lose.

Yes, it’s insanely stupid to us, but not to Obama & Rahm who want nothing but right wingers because that’s what they are.

No, they just want a different population.

Ding, beyond him wanting to elect more blue dogs – they have plans to do this (and part of the plan was getting Obama in as prez).

Gonna be funny when they water down the Dems so much it switches back to R – then the corps won’t need Dems since 1. their power cycle is up (and quite short this time), and 2. R’s really don’t need to lie as much since what they want to do is much closer to what they say (of course they want to do stupid things).

Speaking of moving to the right – look at England: for 13 years Labor grows more like the Cons – now their run may be up and they have moved the center to the right. Now the real right wingers will get in a do some additional damange.

Everything is moving to the right.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m still reeling in shock from watching the Wikileaks murder video. Been thinking about it all day and it suddenly occurred to me that a huge difference between Obama and Rahm versus us is how differently they must have reacted to it.

They would have reacted the same way the helicopter shooters did and wouldn’t have seen anything wrong except for the rotten and disgusting person or persons who provided the video, or copy of it to Wikileaks. Both hate whistleblowers because they want to end whistleblower protections and I suspect they’d like to criminalize whistleblowing, if possible. Point is they despise people like us who are horrified by what the shooters did and think whistleblowers are courageous heroes.

They seek to elect people like themselves, regardless of party affiliation, and I think we’re seeing a continuation of their effort to purge the Democratic Party of all of its liberals and progressives.

This is one of many reasons why I believe we no longer have any influence, or possibility to influence the Democratic Party in any positive manner. I don’t necessarily want to form a third party or join an existing one, but I see no other alternative except going it alone as an independent voter or dropping out and not voting. I don’t like those choices.

Unlike many of you. I’m not willing to give up on forming alliances with people on the right. Main Street faces a common enemy, but it isn’t an African-American foreigner with a socialist agenda and designs of having the government take over their Medicare. It’s a bought and paid for free market enthusiast, who just happens to have dark skin, and he wants to privatize government and assist American corporations to take over the world.

Our task is to get everybody on Main Street on the same page and there really isn’t any other viable option. PERIOD.

Make sense?

At last, a Rahm strategy I can agree with (even if my own goal – sufficiently destroying the current national Democratic arterial plaque so that actual progressives can start circulating – is much different from his)!

Thanks for that thought. I considered myself a moderate in the ’60s and still do today: it’s the rest of the country that’s fallen off the starboard-side cliff in the intervening 40-plus years.

I believe that there are widely-available chemicals which can achieve the same effect, possibly with less significant brain damage.

Were you actually around during the ’50s? If today’s Democratic party were even close to as moderate as the (post-McCarthy) Republican party of the ’50s there would some real potential for the kind of “uprisin’” which you’re suggesting, but as things actually stand, the way Dean’s efforts toward reform in 2003 were so effectively redirected after 2004 into party-building in which even nominal progressives still toed the party line makes it clear that the only way to work WITHIN the party is first to beat its D.C. representation to a bloody pulp and then replace it en masse.

If tea-baggers might be of some help in that beating, that’s fine with me.

Lots of interesting parallels with “They will greet us as liberators” and “Mission Accomplished!” here (Edit: As I guess you yourself suggested in 40) save perhaps for the part about the base being upset. Of course, it’s no news that the Democratic party has learned a great deal from Republicans over most of the past decade, but not, it appears, much about what DOESN’T work (unless they just don’t care as long as their immediate goal becomes a fait accompli).

Just to be clear, ‘some of us’ have been doing exactly what you suggest for quite a while now. Since things got even more disgusting over the past year, a percentage of those (well, I, anyway) have pledged to vote Republican for national offices until such time as a robust public option available to all becomes law (not that this is my only complaint, but having a definite criterion to determine when I can stop voting Republican makes it more difficult for me to waffle as I might otherwise be tempted to).

From a brief glance at the description in the related blog article the decision appears to have been unanimous, and quite reasonable: it’s not a pro-corporate decision per se, but simply pro-rule-of-law.

This correctly places the onus on those who MAKE the law to cover this area – if they decide to.

Actually Rahm is head of the Corporatist Party. If you mean disenfranchise the 69 million voters then I disagree. But you say you agree with Rahm. He has tried to destroy OUR mandate if you want to call it progressive. Stop the Bushie wars, stop the Bushie police state and we were promised UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.

There is an Obama problem for us D’s orphaned by the betrayal of the leadership. But the Rahm Problem goes way farther back. Any genuine Democrat, orphaned or not, has to fight his sabotage of OUR party. Plus Rahm is a corrupt thief as are all the Emmanuel brothers.

Perhaps you should have made a greater effort to understand my post before responding to it. Reading some of my later posts (I’ve been doing a bulk catch-up here) might help.

Perhaps. However your suggestion of brain altering chemicals is not a solution for most of us.

I live in Hawaii, in the First Congressional District. I have been following Hawaii politics for over 20 years.

It is clear to me that Hanabusa is ahead in the race, and that Case is the spoiler. Hanabusa has the endorsements of the senators and all the key unions. Hanabusa is leading in the polls. Case does get some support from conservadems and anti-Dem independents, but I think those folks are likely to vote for Djou anyway.

DCCC’s apparent conclusion that Case is more electable seems to be based on pure fabrication. To intervene for the purpose of upending several union endorsements and the senators’ endorsements in an attempt to eliminate the front-runner seems totally wrongheaded to me. And, further, why piss off Inouye, Akaka, and the unions?

The only conclusion that I can draw is that there is an ulterior purpose here. Case was a Blue Dog when he was in the House. (See his Wikipedia entry.) He supported the Iraq war, and that was a key reason he challenged Akaka in 2006. Case also supported the Credit Card Industry Giveaway Act of 2005.

The DCCC (Rahm?) is doing this willfully and in a manner that seriously risks causing the Dems to lose the seat. If they honestly merely wanted to eliminate one of the two Dems, with the sole purpose being to ensure victory, the logical choice (as if logic counts anymore) would be to freeze out Case, not Hanabusa. This really makes no sense at all.

Not that I am enamored of Hanabusa, either. Definitely an Establishmentarian, like Coakley.

DCCC’s apparent conclusion that Case is more electable seems to be based on pure fabrication.

Ah – reminds me of the same assertion about Kerry at the end of 2003 and into 2004. Sounds as if it may work out about as well, too.

I’m suspecting it’s all by design.

But a lot of us just don’t have the patience, nor will we salute a political party as if its the flag.

But the thing is Republicans are not too enthusiastic to win too.

They are too impressed with the Democrats for the corporate welfare bills being passed by them and no accountability actions by them which they know even their right wing will never allow them to do. If they can they are too willing to let Democrats keep the majority and do the job for them.

Anyway Democrats are doing this to maintain status-quo in my opinion. Things will change for better only when a catalyst of a clean third party shows up in the congress and senate.

The question no one wants to asks, is why do all the phony Democrats in Washington and around the Nation talk like progressives and govern like conservatives?

I think Democrats in washington right now are more conservative & corporate friendly than republicans. If Republicans were in Majority we might have had at-least some accountability and end to corporate welfare since their base would not have tolerated this one bit.

Democrats in congress and senate need to read some books regarding the period of FDR & LBJ. Learn how progressive taxation was in that period creating a transition to more egalitarian society, how Glass-Steagall Act was created and fixed the boom and bust cycle we used to have for good, how enforcement of laws during the time led to the growth of the markets and for investment to roll in. etc.

Thanks for this information. Perhaps we need to organize a calling campaign to the DCCC to let them know that we are paying attention to these foolish games. Has there been any recent polling in this race?