Corrupt Corporatists Steve Israel, DWS Declare Fratricidal War Against Progressives

[Demeter]

http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2015/10/corrupt-corporatists-steve-israel-and.html


Steve Israel, de facto head of the DCCC (and the most outspoken member of their recruitment committee) and with a new title Pelosi invented for him, Chair, Policy and Communications, Israel’s war against progressives is multi-faceted. Although Pelosi, when giving him his new job, said that he “has consistently proved the depth of his wisdom and the strength of his strategic vision in making our case to the American people,” she overlooked the fact that under his catastrophic chairmanship, the DCCC– largely because of him and only him– managed to lose a net of 8 seats in a year when Obama won the country and a much smarter DSCC chairman just about swept the field and won tough races in Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Israel’s incompetence and /or lame strategy cost the Democrats CA-10 (Denham), CA-21 (Valadao), CA-25 (McKeon), CO-06 (Coffman), FL-10 (Webster), IL-13 (Davis), MI-01 (Benishek), MI-06 (Upton), MI-11 (Bentivolio), MN-02 (Kline), MN-06 (Bachmann), NV-03 (Heck), NJ02 (LoBiondo), NJ-03 (Runyan), NJ-05 (Garrett), NY-11 (Grimm), NY-19 (Gibson), NY-22 (Hanna), NY-23 (Reed), NY-27 (Collins), NC-08 (Hudson), NC-11 (Meadows), NC-13 (Holding), OH-06 (Johnson), OH-16 (Renacci), PA-06 (Gerlach), PA-07 (Meehan), PA-08 (Fitzpatrick), PA-12 (Rothfus), PA-15 (Dent), TN-04 (DesJarlais), VA-02 (Rigell), WI-07 (Duffy) and WI-08 (Ribble)...In 2014 Israel led the DCCC to an even more disastrous year by following his same lame playbook. He lost a net of 13 seats, primarily conservaDems who he had counseled to vote with the GOP at every opportunity, like Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ), Joe Garcia (New Dem-FL), John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Brad Schneider (New Dem-IL), Dan Maffei (New Dem-NY), Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX), Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV). 3 other right-wing Democrats– Bill Owens (New Dem-NY), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC) and Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)– knew they would be defeated and retired, their seats all going to Republicans. Israel’s only victories were for right-wing Democrats Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL), Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE) and Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA), Aguilar the only one likely to retain his seat in 2016.

So yesterday Chairman Strategic Vision lashed into progressives again in an interview with Alex Brown for the National Journal, denouncing them for fratricide for daring to side with working people against the corporate TPP. Neglecting to mention that on June 12 a preliminary TPP vote narrowly passed the House (219-211, only 28 wretched excuses for Democrats voting in favor, Israel railed against Democratic allies, saying “We have to stop the fratricide. It’s hard enough to go up against Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers. Our members shouldn’t have to go up against Sheldon Adelson, the Koch brothers– and members’ friends.” The “friends” Israel referred to are the labor and progressive groups that have gone after the 28 Democrats in the House and 13 in the Senate who voted to pass Trade Promotion Authority in June. That measure limits Congress to an up-or-down vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal that will land on Capitol Hill early next year. TPP has been a key priority of the Obama administration, but is opposed by most Democrats...

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Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who heads the Democratic National Committee and voted for TPA, said she has heard nothing about such a backlash– an issue on which every other member of the House seems to have an opinion. She said she met recently with labor leaders, including the AFL-CIO, without it coming up. “I’ve honestly not heard any threat whatsoever to any Democrat related to the trade deal,” she said. “I have a hard time commenting on something that I haven’t heard.” Still, many of the other members in her caucus say the focus should be on winning the House– not a single trade vote. “I have committed to making sure we win back the majority, and that starts with returning incumbent Democrats in swing districts—including those that I sometimes disagree with,” Kildee said. “Obviously, I think this is important to labor, and I think they should take a strong position. … But I think we should focus on the long-term battle as well as the short-term battle.”

Wasserman Schultz, a congenital liar, is very much aware that labor is helping recruit a strong Democratic candidate to run against her in a primary next year, presumably Tim Canova, a professor of law and public finance at Nova Southeastern University. A Sanders supporter, Canova has been critical of Wasserman Schultz’s performance as chair of the DNC, including her role in limiting the presidential debates. “It’s bad for Democrats and bad for the country, but she’s apparently decided that it’s good for her own career to hitch her wagon to Hillary Clinton– but it’s a wagon filled with a lot of baggage and broken promises to American workers.


EVER SO MUCH MORE AT LINK

[HassleCat]

1. The Obama presidency

I don't think things have become worse in the past seven years. In fact, we have made progress in certain areas.

[TBF]

2. I am done with the DNC and DCCC -

when they start supporting working folks again we can talk.

[saidsimplesimon]

4. Working folks need to support candidates

in their states. We need leaders in all 50 states who will fight against redistricting, ALEC/Koch money, and all other forms of voter suppression.

[TBF]

6. I vote in every local election -

sadly here in south Texas the dem candidates often don't even challenge the repugs. Sometimes there are green candidates though so I vote for them when I can

It is a sad state of affairs down here, the DNC doesn't send money here. Wendy Davis flopped spectacularly when they withdrew funding.

[HooptieWagon]

3. DLC declared war on Progressives 30+ years ago.

It's overdue that we acknowledge the fact that the 'lesser of 2 evils' is still too evil.

[AzDar]

5. K & R

[Enthusiast]

7. Kicked and recommended! It has been pretty hard to ignore.

We have to clean it up.

[emsimon33]

8. K&R, K&R, K&R...

[merrily]

9. Thank you for this thread, Demeter. Unfortunately, a lot of America has never heard of

things like DNC Chair, DCCC and DSCC. It would be nice if this kind of thing were taught in school, but, apparently, our education system would rather keep it a secret. Especially since the Party does not really need donations from us anymore.