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.
