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Blue Dogs are often most reviled for crossing the aisle and voting with Republicans on key issues like healthcare reform and financial reform. Last November, when 39 Democrats voted against healthcare reform, for example, 25 were Blue Dogs. And when the reconciliation changes came to the House March 25, and 32 Democrats voted with the GOP, 25 were Blue Dogs.

Next week it will be one year since the House passed a hate crimes prevention bill that included the LGBT community. Seventeen Democrats crossed the aisle of bigotry and voted with the Republicans. All but one of them were Blue Dogs: Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Chris Carney (Blue Dog-PA), Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Lincoln Davis (Blue Dog-TN), Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN), Brad Ellsworth (Blue Dog-IN), Bart Gordon (Blue Dog-TN), Parker Griffith (then a Blue Dog/now a Republican-AL), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA), Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN), Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR), Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC), John Tanner (Blue Dog-TN), and Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS.

But Blue Dogs do even more damage than just by voting with the Republicans against working families and against equality and liberty. The worst damage they do is within the Democratic caucus, where they constantly work to pull caucus positions ever rightward, farther and farther away from the Democratic base. In committees you constantly have corporate shills— which, in the end, is what all Blue Dogs are— undercutting all attempts to work on behalf of regular American families.

I spoke to two DCCC-endorsed candidates yesterday who told me that when they got to Washington for briefings they were forced to listen to warmongering Blue Dog Jane Harman— perhaps best known for her quote, “I am proud to be introduced as the best Republican in the Democratic Party,” a distinction she shares with Joe Lieberman— on, what else, foreign policy. One candidate told me that he was sickened to hear her reciting talking points he’s heard over and over again repeated on Fox News. She and Lieberman were on the radio this week telling an NPR audience that what the U.S. ought to do is expand military operations into Yemen.

An arm of Blue America, Bad Dogs, is dedicated to working toward replacing Blue Dogs like Jane Harman and John Barrow with progressives like Marcy Winograd and Regina Thomas, and toward defeating Blue Dog incumbents like Florida reactionary Lori Edwards.

Ever since Rahm Emanuel’s chairmanship, the DCCC has practically been an arm of the Blue Dog caucus, and institutional support within the Democratic Party, particularly from Steny Hoyer, is gigantic. The DCCC always indoctrinates its candidates with Blue Dog messaging and framing courtesy of Third Way, a very reactionary Blue Dog-oriented policy shop— with leaders like Jane Harman, Blanche Lincoln, Evan Bayh, Tom Carper, Melissa Bean and Mark Pryor, all as firmly under the aegis of corporate overlords as any Republican. On top of that, yesterday six of the most notoriously corrupt K Street lobbyists, including conservative ex-congressmen Bud Cramer (AL) and Charlie Stenholm (TX), formed a new corporately oriented anti-family organization called the Blue Dog Research Forum. Their goal will be to continue pressuring the Democratic caucus to move farther and farther right and to give up on ordinary working families and accept GOP and Big Business guidelines when formulating legislation.

In a letter to Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), who co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition, Cramer and Stenholm wrote that they were establishing the organization to “ensure there will always be a forum in Washington to mark that middle ground when it comes to issues affecting the country’s fiscal health.”

The group’s goal is to be an incubator for policy ideas affecting the economy, such as energy, health care, tax policy, national defense and entitlements.

The research forum takes its name from the 54 fiscally conservative Democratic Members who have emerged as a powerful voting bloc on major legislation, but no current lawmaker has been involved in setting it up, according to Cramer, an original Blue Dog and president of the new research forum.

“They actually legally cannot dictate control or dominate what happens here,” Cramer said. “We can involve them. We can involve any Member in the policy forums we will carry forward, and we hope to be able to do that.”

However, as the lobbyists quietly set up the organization over the past several months, they have kept Blue Dog leadership generally informed. And Cramer, who now lobbies at Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, said the Members have been supportive so far.

In addition to Stenholm— who works at Olsson, Frank & Weeda— and Cramer, the board of directors for the new venture includes Jeff Murray of the C2 Group, Vickie Walling of Prime Policy Group, Stacey Alexander of Elmendorf Strategies and Libby Greer of Cauthen, Forbes & Williams.

Murray, who serves as the forum’s treasurer, said he expects to send out solicitations in the near future asking potential corporate, union and other donors for pledges worth about $10,000 each to participate… “A lot of ideas don’t get to see the light of day,” said Greer, former chief of staff to Blue Dog Rep. Allen Boyd (Fla.). “We want to give them a place to breathe.”

Greer and Boyd worked closely with George W. Bush to destroy Social Security, for example, an idea that was embraced by Wall Street, of course, but rejected by most of Congress and most of the public.

Help fight the Blue Dogs today and get an opportunity to win an RIAA double platinum record award for the Baha Men’s smash hit “Who Let the Dogs Out.” It isn’t something you can buy in a store, but any donation today on the Bad Dogs page will enter you in a drawing to win the unique framed plaque.

Win the award

Limbaugh was still smarting from Alan Grayson (D-FL) pointing out here at DWT last January that ole Rush was more lucid when he was still taking hillbilly heroin than he’s been lately. “Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser, who craves attention. His right-wing lunacy sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev, extolling the virtues of communism. Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1% of what he wanted us to do, then we’d all need pain killers.” So it came as no surprise to anyone when Limbaugh launched into another childish tirade against Congressman Grayson, the member of Congress the extreme right fears most.

On his Hate Talk Radio show Friday Limbaugh started babbling that the congressman who represents Orlando, home of Disney World, is “loony tunes,” mixing up his media conglomerates, and claiming that he’s an order of fries short of a happy meal.” Grayson, laughing, pointed out that the binge-eating and drug addled Limbaugh’s life is “like a 5-alarm fire and all his money doesn’t make it any better.” Limbaugh huddles in his $27 million mansion, broadcasts from his basement and never ventures out unless it’s to hunt for underage boy prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. He sends his servants out to score his drugs and bring back food. “He’s one pizza short of exploding,” chortled Grayson yesterday. “If there is anyone who knows about Happy Meals, it’s Rush Limbaugh. He certainly has consumed a lot of them. He likes them with an oxycontin chaser.”

Limbaugh has refused to answer any questions from media asking him when he’s moving his operation to Costa Rica or if rumors are true that the Costa Rican government, in an attempt to preserve the morals of the country, has indicated that he won’t be welcome there.

Humor aside, it’s important to realize that corporate special interests whose predatory goals are served by the faux populism of highly-paid shills like Limbaugh, Beck and Hannity, want nothing as much as shutting Alan Grayson up. He’s been as much a thorn in their sides as he’s been a beacon of light for ordinary Americans looking for a champion inside the confines of a dysfunctional and self-serving political system. So… Blue America wants to remind everybody about a very special page, Getting Grayson’ Back. So far 934 people have chipped in to help Alan get his message out to his constituents. We’ve raised just over $35,000 of the $50,000 goal we set for ourselves. If you can, please lend a hand. And, for your entertainment and elucidation, here’s how we first became aware of Alan Grayson:

Earlier this month I was practically apologizing for writing about my favorite new restaurant in L.A. on my ravel blog because… well because it’s in L.A. and so am I and I just have to drive 15 minutes to get there. And here I am back with the L.A. stuff again. Kind of. It’s L.A. via Mali.

If you follow the travel blog at all, you may recall that a couple years ago I was wandering around Mali and Senegal. While waiting for my friend Roland to arrive so we could head out to the world’s biggest mud mosque in Djenne and then on to the unpaved wilds of Dogon Country, I somehow wound up in Ali Farka Toure’s recording studio watching Bassekou Kouyate complete I Speak Fula, the follow up to Segu Blue, his widely acclaimed 2007 international debut album.

In the way of context, let me tell you I’ve been very lucky with music in my life. Even before becoming president of Reprise Records, I had always had good music juju. I was knee-high to spit when I snuck off to the Brooklyn Paramount Theater to catch Maxine Brown. Not only did she sing my favorite song, Oh No, Not My Baby, but she came out the stage door afterwards and gave me a big kiss and an autograph that I treasured until I went to Afghanistan 5 years later. In the interim I booked concerts at my school by Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Temptations, The Fugs, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Pink Floyd, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Otis Redding, The Byrds, the Dead… all the regular stuff we used to dance around to in college back then. And I was a dj and so on. Even when my music juju screwed up, it didn’t screw up too bad. I once drove all the way to some village near Lyallpur in Pakistan, the familial home of the famous Ali Brothers (of my most enjoyable acid trips) only to find the Ali Brothers, Nazakat and Salamat, the world’s greatest Qawwali singers, away on a concert tour. Years later I was working in a meditation center in Amsterdam and someone persuaded me to go upstairs to hear some “trippy Indian music” and it was… Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan. Point: I’ve seen everyone (except The Beatles, all of whom I’ve seen individually). And the further point, when I saw Bassekou is the Jimi Hendrix of the ngoni, a description that is now widely used, and that the concert I saw him play at the French Cultural Center in Bamako was one of the greatest and most inspired live shows I’ve ever seen in my life… well, it’s not like some kid telling you about the first live music he’s ever seen. I knew Jimi Hendrix when he was the lead guitarist for the Night Hawks fronting John Hammond. He did his first American concert after he became the Jimi Hendrix Experience for me and that night I watched incredulously as he and my mother smoked a joint. I hung out with him in Essaouira and saw him play at the Isle of Wight Festival before he died and I went off in search of the Alis.

That said, Bassekou is not just playing in L.A. tomorrow (Sunday), he’s playing a free show— at Amoeba Records on Sunset, around the corner from that favorite L.A. restaurant I was talking about! If you’re in the L.A. area— unless you’re lucky enough to have tickets for one of the shows at the Getty Center— don’t miss this chance. Bassekou plays ngoni on President Obama’s favorite record, Kulanjan but he’s not well know in the U.S. yet, although he’s a superstar in Africa and on his way to being one in Europe. This is what I wrote after seeing him play in Bamako:

I don’t know how to describe the concert without losing the essence of what the music did for everyone involved— both on and off the stage. Let me tell you, though, as magnificent as the recorded versions of his songs are, the live show is what makes it so amazing. The concert defined hot. When those syncopated rhythms get going, there is no resisting their power. Mali is the birthplace of the blues— and the blues is still very much alive and vibrant here— and it is the ancestral home of rock’n’roll in every imaginable way. Bassekou has that coursing through his blood and he knows exactly how to convey it to the audience. And the dancing was as good as the music! Absolutely breathtaking! Truthfully, I can’t remember the last time music compelled me to jump out of my seat and dance in the aisle. Last night it did.

I found this video on YouTube— Bassekou at the Orange Peel in Asheville, NC a couple weeks ago. I wonder if Heath Shuler made it to the show. Bassekou will be in Savannah on April 2nd and I’ll definitely tell Regina Thomas to check it out; it’s right up her alley. In this clip it looks like a local banjo player found his way onto the stage; you can tell who he is because he’s the one with the store-bought instrument. If you’re in L.A., hasta mañana. Otherwise, Bassekou’s U.S. tour schedule is here. Wow! 4 nights in Minneapolis and three in Lafayette, Louisiana!

Should we get them bigger American flags or bigger computer screens?

Most people outside of North Carolina who have ever heard of this unfortunate batshitcrazy extremist just know Virginia Foxx for her tight embrace of bigotry and radical right buffoonery. Everyone knows she hates immigrants and she hates gays and she hates… well… she sure hates public education. She just doesn’t believe in it. Like so many Republicans, she doesn’t think education is for everyone, just for the offspring of the wealthy.

Yesterday she had an opportunity for a two-for-one, a chance to show her disdain for needy children and for public school with one nasty vote. My own congresswoman, Diane Watson, introduced a simple resolution yesterday (which had over 50 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle), H.Res.362. It expresses the House’s support for the goals and ideals of the National School Lunch Program and “recognizes that our pupils deserve access to high-quality, safe, and nutritious meals in school.” It passed 403-13, every Democrat and 155 Republicans, including the entire GOP congressional leadership voting in favor.

So who could possibly be against this? Let me give you a hint. Every single member of the North Carolina congressional delegation, Democrats and Republicans voted in favor, except one. Yes, of course, Virginia Foxx joined the hateful likes of hard core anti-America fanatics like Paul Broun (R-GA), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Tom McClintock (R-CA), and Ted Poe (R-TX), no one who is taken seriously by anyone in Washington.

This was about a program that the important agricultural interests in western North Carolina heartily support. But, as usual, Foxx wasn’t looking out for the interests of her own constituents— not the needy families she spits on but not even the well-connected AgriBusiness firms she’s usually sucking up to!

As you may know, Blue America has endorsed her opponent, plainspoken farmer and carpenter Billy Kennedy from Watauga County. This morning we asked him how he left about Foxx’s bizarre vote.

What a sad day for North Carolina’s 5th Congressional district. Rep. Foxx was one of just 13 House members to vote against H RES 362, a bill “Expressing the support of the House of Representatives for the goals and ideals of the National School Lunch Program.”

If you can’t say “yes” to the “goals” of America’s national school lunch program, then what the heck can you say “yes” to? America’s national lunch program provides a mid day meal to over 30 million school kids every day and snacks for children in after-school programs. The School Lunch Program operates in public schools, non-profit private schools, and some child care facilities. Its goal is to provide “nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches.”

1-in-7 children in North Carolina lives in a household that is forced to reduce food intake, alter normal eating patterns, or go hungry because they lack the money or resources to obtain adequate food. More than 800,000 NC school children take part in the National School Lunch Program each day. In 2007, even before the current recession hit, 7 out of 10 children in Alleghany County participated in the school lunch program. Almost that many children got free or reduced lunches in Surry, Wilkes and Ashe counties, and more than half the children in Yadkin and Forsyth counties participated.

What was Rep. Foxx thinking? Maybe she was still mulling over the words of Rush Limbaugh who said just this February about our national school lunch program: “It never occurs to the parents to go to the grocery store?” I doubt Rush Limbaugh has ever gone hungry, and it looks like Rep. Foxx isn’t having any trouble finding her next meal either. In fact, maybe she should get out of the Washington House members’ Longworth cafeteria a little more often, where on Tuesdays she can dine on Wild Mushroom, Cheese Stuffed Ravioli at a discount and where the coffee comes from Pura Vida. At least that’s what the “United States House of Representatives Dining Service Website” says.

It’s past time to retire Virginia Foxx back to her taxpayer subsidized Christmas tree farm and get her out of a position where she can continue hurting American families. The woman is demented. Please consider a contribution to Billy’s grassroots campaign.

Yesterday’s D v R showdown in the House wasn’t about healthcare reform or even about the dirty filthy banksters stealing the national wealth. It wasn’t about Afghanistan or about taking the ability of corporations to purchase the services of wily politicians. But it was a showdown that went to highlight one of the basic differences in worldview between conservatives and humans. George Miller’s H.R. 4247, the Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act passed with a wide majority, 262-153, all but 8 conservative Democrats joined by two dozen mainstream Republicans pushing it over the finishing line (where Jim Bunning, Richard Burr and Jim DeMint are likely laying out their strategy to filibuster it to death in the Senate).

If God were to strike down all the obstructionists in the Senate and it were to become law, it would provide the first comprehensive protections for children against abusive disciplinary actions by schools. Cheered on by the American Federation of Teachers and dozens of disability groups, the 145 Republicans and their 8 motley ConservaDem allies— mostly Blue Dogs like Jim Marshall, Gene Taylor, Kurt Schrader, and Harry Mitchell— were brushed aside despite wailing and moaning by every single member of the pathetic GOP hierarchy, from John Boehner and Eric Cantor to Roy Blunt, David Dreier, Thaddeus McCotter and Paul Ryan. (Among the co-sponsors were normally very conservative Republicans like Gregg Harper of Mississippi and Cathy McMorris Rogers of Washington.)

The legislation stems in part from a government report last year that found evidence that hundreds of children— from preschool age to high school— had been traumatized or physically harmed by being held down or locked alone in rooms, some even tied to chairs. Many had developmental problems or were in special needs programs; many others were in regular classes. Some children have died, apparently because of overly aggressive discipline, according to numerous reports over the last decade.

The bill would prohibit, except in cases of imminent danger, any restraint that restricts breathing; any mechanical restraint, like straps; and chemical restraint, by drugs other than those prescribed by a child’s doctor. It allows for “time outs” but not for a child to be locked in a room, away from supervision. It requires states to keep careful records of incidents of restraint and seclusion, and for schools to report incidents promptly to parents.

In testimony reported by WKOW-TV in Madison, Wisconsin, we learned that many of the torturous tactics were used predominantly on special-needs students. Keep in mind that Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who is a huge torture booster in all cases, was one of the Republicans to vote against the bill, which “would implement minimum federal safety standards for public schools, similar to those already in place for hospitals and other community facilities.”

The foster mother of Cedric Price testified before Congress. “The teacher put him face down and sat on him. He struggled, and said repeatedly, ‘I can’t breathe,’” said Toni Price. Cedric was a special education student who was smothered to death in 2002 by his eighth-grade teacher.

I wonder how Ryan would feel about Liza, Charlie or Sam being smothered to death in school. Ryan wasn’t part of the Republican House leadership when the party’s entire upper echelon banded together to protect Mark Foley, even after they were aware he was molesting young male pages under the auspices of Congress. Among Foley’s protectors who knew he was having illicit relations with the boy pages were a dozen who voted against prohibiting torture yesterday, like Boehner, Dreier, Blunt, and Shimkus.

Another vicious torture booster (and sex predator), Ken Calvert (R-CA), voted “no,” as did every single Republican member of Congress from California. Calvert, who was arrested in the act of receiving fellatio from a young, drug addicted prostitute in his car, and who steals from taxpayers and refuses to pay child support or alimony, has no empathy and no respect for anyone in a position of vulnerability. I was able to contact the Democrat running against him, Bill Hedrick, who is a public school teacher in Corona. He’s been a teacher for 35 years and is currently in his 5th term as president of the Corona-Norco Board of Education, which is responsible for over 50,000 children. Bill’s wife is also a school teacher. Unlike Calvert, Bill favored this legislation:

“Every child deserves to be treated with dignity. Schools need to use the many research-based, humane behavior techniques available. The prohibited practices read shockingly like a page from the Inquisition.

“I don’t know what is worse— the need to end such abusive practices through federal action, or the fact that 153 members of Congress saw fit to oppose ending medieval methods.”

Coincidentally, Bill is the latest challenger to be added to the Blue America list of endorsed candidates. He’ll be joining us for a live blogging session this Saturday, March 6, at Crooks & Liars (11am, PT).

The first time I ever spoke with Eric Massa, just around five years ago, he impressed me for a number of reasons, his sterling, “non-politician” character being first and foremost. Once we got into discussing the most important issues of the day, I realized that this guy running for a congressional seat in upstate New York’s most overwhelmingly Republican district, had more progressive, more forward-looking perspectives than candidates in far “bluer” districts. He told me there were three policy goals he had in running for office: fair trade policies that would help create jobs in America rather than ship them overseas, ending unwinnable wars of aggression in distant parts of the globe (like Iraq and Afghanistan) and reforming the way healthcare is delivered to the American people so that it is accessible to everyone in need.

So yesterday we had anti-Choice cultist Bart Stupak whining that Obama’s bill wasn’t anti-choice enough for his tastes, John Boehner changing tack and weeping that the bill isn’t too long anymore but that it’s now too short (Harry Reid told him to stop his sobbing), while the neo-fascist editorial page of the Wall Street Journal croaks that the process, which was begun in the 1940s and has been obstructed by the far right ever since, is moving too fast, and the Republicans plot to deluge the bill with hundreds of superfluous, obstructionist amendments unrelated to health or care or reform.

Meanwhile, Eric Massa has been true to the goals he espoused since being elected in NY-29 with a 5,000 vote margin over an entrenched incumbent on the same day McCain won the district 51-48% over Barack Obama. Last week Eric was filmed as part of Robert Greenwald’s series, Brave New Conversations a survey of how leaders in various fields are working to make society and our world a better place for mankind. As part of the interview, Robert asked Eric about his views on single-payer healthcare, aware that, along with Dennis Kucinich, he was one of only two progressives to vote against the House healthcare reform bill. Please take a look and see how Eric came to his strong feelings about how to reform healthcare:

At noon today PDA’s second in a series of Brown Bag Lunch Vigils will take place around the country, at congressional offices of members who both support escalation in Afghanistan and members who oppose it. We started looking at this new movement a couple weeks ago and I tried to put it into context as an integral part of the American peace movement last weekend. Since then, the number of people participating has skyrocketed and the number of congressional offices being covered shot up to 60 as of yesterday.

The purpose of the vigils is to peacefully oppose war funding. The first batch took place January 20th, at the district offices of 22 members of Congress. “Brownbaggers” are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any bills that fund the occupation of Afghanistan and the escalation of the war there, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment and to cosponsor HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Congress members’ commitments are tracked at defundwar.org. While brownbaggers hold vigil at congressional district offices today, allies Inside the Beltway will visit the Capitol Hill offices of the same congress members. “Brownbaggers” will assemble, peacefully, at 10 a.m. at the Independence Avenue entrance to the Rayburn House Office Building.

PDA has also found that its members are demanding that Congress pass straightforward “Medicare for All” legislation and trash the tainted, corporate-friendly bill the two political parties have worked out with the Medical Industrial Complex. Donna Smith, Co-Chair of PDA’s Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, said “We plan to speak with the offices of every congressmember whose constituents are holding vigil that day. We will confront them not only with the direct financial and human costs of war, but also with the tradeoffs. We have 45,000 preventable deaths due to lack of healthcare access every year in this country. That’s a choice our representatives make. Right now they are choosing war.”

Here’s the most current list of vigils. Details are here (and there are a few that are starting as early as 11AM so do check). The members that I’ve highlighted are the Democrats who voted last June to deny funding already. These 32 were the only ones with the guts and the sense to stand up to Rahm Emanuel’s bullying. (Particularly dangerous warmongers are in italics.)

AZ-05 Rep. Harry Mitchell

CA-05 Rep. Doris Matsui

CA-06 Rep. Lynn Woolsey

CA-09 Rep. Barbara Lee

CA-10 Rep. John Garamendi

CA-18 Rep. Dennis Cardoza

CA-22 Rep. Kevin McCarthy

CA-23 Rep. Lois Capps

CA-24 Rep. Darrell Issa

CA-31 Rep. Xavier Becerra

CA-33 Rep. Diane Watson

CA-34 Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard

CA-37 Rep. Laura Richardson

CA-40 Rep. Ed Royce

CA-42 Rep. Gary Miller

CA-45 Rep. Mary Bono-Mack

CA-46 Rep. Dana Rohrabacher

CA-48 Rep. John Campbell

CA-50 Rep. Brian Bilbray

CA-53 Rep. Susan Davis

CO-04 Rep. Betsy Markey

FL-07 Rep. John Mica

FL-09 Rep. Gus Bilirakis

FL-10 Rep. Bill Young

FL-17 Rep. Kendrick Meek

ID-01 Rep. Walt Minnick

IN-09 Rep. Baron Hill

KY-01 Sen. Mitch McConnell

MA-01 Rep. John Olver

MA-02 Rep. Richard Neal

MA-03 Rep. Jim McGovern

MA-08 & 09 Sen. John Kerry

MA-10 Rep. Bill Delahunt

MD-04 Rep. Donna Edwards

ME-01 Rep. Chellie Pingree

ME-02 Rep. Mike Michaud

MI-09 Rep. Gary Peters

MS-01 Rep. Travis Childers

MS-04 Rep. Gene Taylor

NJ-04 Rep. Chris Smith

NJ-06 Rep. Frank Pallone

NY-18 Rep. Nita Lowey

NY-28 & 29 Rep. Louise M. Slaughter/Eric Massa

OH-13 Rep. Betty Sutton

OH-17 Rep. Tim Ryan

OR-04 Rep. Peter DeFazio

OR-05 Rep. Kurt Schrader

PA-02 Rep. Chaka Fattah

PA-07 Rep. Joe Sestak

PA-15 Rep. Charlie Dent

UT-03 Rep. Jason Chaffetz

WA-02 Rep. Rick Larsen

WA-03 Rep. Brian Baird

WA-06 Rep. Norman Dicks

WI-03 Rep. Ron Kind

WI-07 Rep. David Obey

You’re probably not aware that Democratic members of Congress have to pay “dues” to the DCCC. Blue Dogs notoriously earmark their contributions to other Blue Dogs or for reactionary Democrats within the caucus or running for Congress. This year they’re all getting behind right-wing shill Lori Edwards in Florida, for example. Are members of the much bigger Congressional Progressive Caucus earmarking their money for progressives? Of course not. With leaders like Lynn Woolsey running around campaigning for Blue Dogs against progressives, the CPC is a joke.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been talking with some of the smarter CPC members about helping fellow progressives and I’ve been impressed with the receptivity I’m finding. Blue America will be announcing some exciting online events with some of these members soon. Meanwhile, I decided to look through some of the leadership PACs of members of Congress to see who they’ve been donating to so far. What a disappointment right from the start! I checked CPC member Neil Abercrombie’s Aloha PAC and of the $28,500 he’s handed out so far, $9,500 has gone to Blue Dogs, $8,000 has gone to non-Blue Dog conservatives who generally vote with the Blue Dogs, $4,000 has gone to moderates. The only progressives getting anything were Mike Capuano (MA), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH), Steve Kagen (WI), Eric Massa (NY) and Carol Shea-Porter (NH). No challengers got anything.

Another legendary progressive, Earl Blumenauer of Portland, has a very active PAC, the LivPAC. The list of endorsees practically starts out as a who’s who among Democrats who are least likely to vote for the issues most important to Blumenauer! Among the batch (all incumbents) are reactionary Blue Dogs Jason Atmire, John Barrow, Chris Carney, Kathy Dahlkemper, Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth, Baron Hill, Frank Kratovil, Walt Minnick, Harry Mitchell, Scott Murphy, Glenn Nye, Kurt Schrader, Heath Shuler and Zack Space, although other— somewhat less toxic Blue Dogs were also thrown bones, like Leonard Boswell, Betsy Markey, and Mike Arcuri. Other conservative getting dough from Blumenauer’s PAC include Wall Street shills Melissa Bean, John Adler, Suzanne Kosmas, Bill Foster and Ann Kirkpatrick. What a huge disappointment!

Contrast that to Allen Boyd’s Harvest PAC and keep in mind that Boyd was the Democrat Bush dug up to co-sponsor his bill to kill Social Security. So far Boyd has handed out $22,000 this year— all of it to Blue Dogs. The biggest contribution was to his female mirror image, Lori Edwards ($5,000) and one donation is counted by Open Secrets as a $1,000 contribution to a Republican because it went to former Blue Dog Parker Griffith of Alabama, presumably before he officially became a Republican. Or look at corrupt Blue Dog Mike Ross of Arkansas. The $60,000 his Our Congress PAC has gone exclusively to conservatives, almost all of them Blue Dogs, including $5,000 for Lori Edwards. Similarly David Scott’s BRAVE PAC has made 5 contributions so far, each one to an extremely reactionary Blue Dog. I might point out here that when I complained to the DCCC that they were breaking their vow not to interfere in contested primaries for open seats by endorsing Edwards, they first pointed out to me that she was raising so much money and that Tudor wasn’t. She actually hasn’t raised very much money and except for a few dollars that Boyd and Debbie Wasserman Schultz squeezed out of some of the sleaziest lobbyists in Washington, virtually all her money has come from Blue Dog incumbents. Not one fucking progressive incumbent has given one cent to Doug Tudor. And then they cry that there are too many Blue Dogs in the caucus to get anything done!

No one would dispute that NY Democrat Maurice Hinchey has a wonderfully progressive voting record. And he even named his PAC The Progressive Victory Fund. He only made one contribution in 2008. It was to John Boehner’s biggest ally in the Democratic caucus, arch-reactionary Blue Dog, Travis Childers, whose votes have canceled out Mr. Hinchey’s on nearly ever important matter that’s come before Congress. (He gave him four grand.) And arguably the most liberal member of Congress, heroic Oakland Congresswoman, Barbara Lee, has made just one donation so far this year— to moderate to conservative waste of a seat Kendrick Meek (FL), $5,000. I guess they’re friends or maybe it was a Congressional Black Caucus thing. And what about liberal icon Henry Waxman? Because of his reputation as a fighting progressive his L.A. PAC takes in a lot more money than most liberals’ leadership PAC. And he makes big donations. So far this year he’s given all of it to conservative Democrats, including $5,000 to warmonger and Military-Industrial Complex patsy Jane Harman, the richest Democrat in the House, who is fighting for her political survival against an L.A. community leader far more progressive than Waxman, Marcy Winograd.

So what’s the take-away? We’re doomed as progressives because progressives are self-loathing pinheads? Maybe. But on the other hand… we can reach out to people like Marcy Winograd and Doug Tudor ourselves and help them overcome the odds and win seats. It worked with Alan Grayson and Donna Edwards. The Establishment hated both of them. Now they’re each in Congress— and each toiling effectively for working families and not for the Establishment. Please consider a donation, even if only $5 or $10 to Marcy, Doug, and Regina.

I really hope I’m not going to upset  any animal right activists with this photo. If I do, I’m sorry.