Monday, November 13, 2006

The media may not know it, but Master Rahm does: In the new House Democratic caucus, he will have daily contact with people who know just what he is

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Although I was in Florida and without computer access for several days after the election (the lack of computer access is the subject of the first of two Tales from Jebland I want to share with you as soon as I have a chance to write them up), I'm sure I could have gotten some of the more detailed results if I'd really tried. But I didn't, and so there were a lot of results I didn't get until I returned home over the weekend.

One race I was really nervous about was California's 11th Congressional District, one of the earliest races Howie alerted DWT readers to, back when Jerry McNerney was struggling in the Democratic primary against opponents including a lavishly financed Rahmpuppet, just for the right to challenge one of the GOP's Sleaziest, "Dirty Dick" Pombo. My innate pessimism had me convinced that with all those barrels o' cash the GOP would pour into that district in the final days, the slime would slither over the finish line.

It didn't happen, as you can see from all those microphones in Jerry's face above.

As long-time DWT readers know, Jerry ran a Rahm-free campaign, and not necessarily by his choice. Master Rahm was apparently so peeved by the thumping his puppet got in the primary--where his Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is absolutely not supposed to be involved (and all through the primary season the DCCC continued to spew the grotesquely blatant lie that it was honoring the strict prohibition against its involvement in Democratic primaries)--that like a monstrously petulant child, he turned his back on the district, even when polls showed Jerry not only competitive with but ahead of Dirty Dick.

Clearly Master Rahm would rather have had the slimeball environmental rapist Pombo reelected once he couldn't have a Rahmocrat run against him. What the media and other genuflectors at the shrine of Rahm's supposed electoral genius don't or won't grasp is that the Master spends about 95 percent of his time, energy and resources fighting Democrats, not Republicans. (Note to Master Rahm: If you think 95 percent overstates the case, what would your estimate be? 90? 85?)

Well, Jerry McNerney ran himself a heckuva campaign, and I know because, having contributed a tiny bit of money back in the primary, I paid the price you always do when you give to a campaign: bombardment with endless pleas for more contributions. It's a pain in the butt, but you've got to do it. And I know from the steady stream of e-mails that Jerry's campaign never relaxed, never relented. In the end, everyone who participated in it played a role in ending the congressional career of one of the House of Representatives' rankest abusers of his office.

And in the end, in this case and a number of others around the country, the joke is on Master Rahm, because he's going to have these people in the House Democratic caucus who know just who and what he is. Their mere presence will provide a daily reminder that he's not only not much of a Democrat, but no sort of democrat.

I know a lot of really good Blue America candidates waged heroic but ultimately losing battles this year. But this latest attempt to wrest control of the soul of the party from the Beltway insiders is just beginning. If the media people would look just a bit closer, even they should be able to see that the party's real hero and visionary in this election isn't Master Rahm or his Senate henchman Chuck Schumer, but Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, whose vision of a 50-state party represents exactly the break that has been needed from the stifling culture of Beltwayism.

Democrats came oh so close in districts that Master Rahm would never have thought to contest, and in many others established a presence where the party hasn't had one in a generation or more. That wasn't just about this election, or even principally about this election. It was about building, or rather rebulding, a real national party.

To all those hearty warriors who fought the good fight but fell short, I hope we all make good our promise that we'll be there when they roar back into battle next time.

7 Comments:

At 10:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Maybeso. But Dean came off as real gentlemanly this weekend when pressed by Wallace:

WALLACE: The election results were barely in when a top Democratic strategist, James Carville -- you can see where I'm headed with this -- a former adviser to Bill Clinton, started going after you. And let's take a look at what he had to say.

"The RNC --" this is from Carville -- "The RNC did a better job than the DNC --" that's the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee, "-- this year. He says the House and Senate Campaign Committees made up for your shortcomings and that Congressman Harold Ford should replace you as chairman of the DNC.

First of all, what do you make of this criticism, and do you have any intention of stepping down?

DEAN: I have to say I get a laugh out of that one. Here we have -- let's leave the federal races aside, because the DCCC and the DSCC did do a wonderful job. But the truth is we got six additional governors. We got nine additional legislative chambers. New Hampshire now has a Democratic house and senate for the first time in a century.

We did great. And I think the time really has come now, now that we're in power, at least in the Congress, to pull together, to be unified. We've got a lot to do in the next two years. We've got to elect a Democratic president, and so...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/11/howard_dean_dan_bartlett_round.html

 
At 11:44 AM, Blogger KenInNY said...

Dean has to get along with these people. But you notice that he is unhesitatingly pushing the good old "50-state strategy" that he's been fighting for.

Ken

 
At 2:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A 50 state strategy is the only winning strategy. It is an inclusive strategy that unites Amermicans, and THAT is why they do not like it.

The politicos normally like divide and conquer. If you unite America it is possible that you will create the solid majority of populists that will never hand over control.

Now, that is a thought worth thinking.

 
At 5:24 AM, Blogger Jim said...

Agreed. Dean's 50 state strategy is what won the Congress. It's time to get ride of the influence of the betway Dems and their mouthpiece Carville, unless we want to keep on gettin 40% of the vote.

 
At 7:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think that Carville and crew HAVE to go along with Dean. It was clear in the DNC Chair elections that Dean was the choice of the vast majority of Democrats. Carville, H.R. Clinton, and the rest may like to think they run the party, but they are mistaken.


p.s. f.W!

 
At 7:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Although the Chicago Tribune crowned Rahm king of the free world on Sunday, they didn't make too much of the fact that his hand-picked candidate Tammy Duckworth got beat by a nasty unlikeable conservative. Granted it was Henry Hyde's old seat, so you would've had to used dynamite to get a conservative out of it.

Anyway, Rahm probably wrote the story himself. Carville is a reptile.

 
At 11:34 AM, Blogger zelduh said...

I cannot believe that the institutional old school, old-style, exclusive (rather than "inclusive") Rahm team is taking credit for this great win. Rahm and HRC owe Dean a HUGE debt of gratitude and acting as if they wrested control of Congress all on their own is, IMHO, as dishonest and petty as the Republican spinning machine that we just defeated.

I worked really hard in 2004 only because Dean energized me.

I worked so much harder this year because DEAN MOTIVATED ME. (In fact, I took two weeks off from work so that I could call people, send out 1,000s of emails, and post on Christian, Libertarian and John Birch Society blogs.)

No, Rahm Emmanuel and James Carville; you could not have done this without Howard Dean. And the Democratic Party is better positioned to win in 2008, due to Howard Dean's forward-looking, inclusive 50-state strategy!

 

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