“Emanuel Conception”
They say they are Democrats, but don’t believe it.
When Mark Foley had his meltdown over House pages, he already had a Democratic opponent in the general election, David Lutrin, a local teacher who started from the ground up to build a credible campaign. He was a real Democrat seeking to change what was happening in Congress. He was getting some help and guidance from members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and was working on getting name recognition in the 16th district of Florida.
Then everything changed. Just before Foley’s problems became public, Rahm Emanuel persuaded Tim Mahoney, a wealthy Republican, to switch his voter registration and run for Foley’s seat. Lutrin was cast aside. You may have read about Tim Mahoney’s problems that are probably going to cost the Florida Democrats a seat in Congress in an election that should have been a “slam dunk”.
As Lambert noticed in this New York Times piece, the Democratic majority leader of House, Steny Hoyer, isn’t interested in moving to the left. See, just because people vote for Democrats and elect them to Congress, that’s no reason not to legislate like Republicans.
The current House leadership may need some assistance with their Stockholm Syndrome. Having minimal experience in the majority, they seem to assume that they must still act like a minority party and do what the Republicans want because voters really don’t want Democrats to take the lead, no matter how they vote.
BTW, when Rahm decided to get involved in the 16th he didn’t just mess over David Lutrin, he also dumped on Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who was supposed to be the liaison between the DCCC and Florida. She was cut out of the loop.
4 comments
Rahm Emanuel ….. Grrrrr.
I still can’t forget how he was instrumental in screwing up my congressional district’s primary in 2006. I live in the Illinois 6th. We had a very good progressive local democratic candidate with a lot of support going after the vacant seat from the retiring Henry Hyde. He swooped in and funded Tammy Duckworth instead of supporting the local candidate, Christine Cegelis. Tammy won the primary by a few percentage points (and millions of dollars spent).
I have nothing against Tammy. But she doesn’t even live in my district. And bringing her in the way they did angered a lot of people in the district. The republican candidate won in the general election.
I remember that, now that you mention it. That was another race that was picked up on the blogs. Emanuel and Hoyer want Blue Dogs, not Democrats, in Congress. This is going to make the Senate the “liberal” house, which is something of a joke.
I almost tossed my breakfast this past Sunday when on one of the Sunday Talking Head Shows (I believe it was This Week on ABC) they had Rahm on as the “supporter” of Barack to do battle with the token McCain Supporter.
Rahm…as a Barack supporter? He did everything he could to get Hillary the nod. I couldn’t watch his BS and immediately switched channels.
Emanuel is a supporter of Emanuel and no one else. He will do well in a moderate Republican Obama administration which is reaching out to the Blue Dogs, not the liberals in Congress.