Maxine Waters: Rahm To Blame For Obstructionist Blue Dogs

[CatWoman]

One of Congress's most liberal members, Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-Calif.), declared on Tuesday that the White House's problems getting Blue Dog Democrats to support its health care agenda were largely its own doing -- or more specifically, the doing of its chief of staff.

Waters said many of the self-proclaimed conservative Democrats, including those who have stalled legislation on the House Energy and Commerce, were initially recruited to run for office by Rahm Emanuel back when he was head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"The chickens have come home to roost," declared the California Democrat. "On the one hand, don't want to spend money but, on the other hand, they want to spend money when they think it benefits them or their districts, and so they have a powerful block. They're holding it up and that is as clear as can be."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/28/maxine-waters-rahm-to-bla_n_246325.html

[BeyondGeography]

1. Axe grinder

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/26/1979255.aspx

[tritsofme]

2. Damn that Rahm for securing our majority!

There is one sure fire way to rid ourselves of Blue Dogs once and for all, invite the Republicans back to town.

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. Rahm is NOT your fucking friend.

You think he is, you are sadly mistaken.

[invictus]

19. +1

[dflprincess]

5. Rahm did not secure the majority

Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy did.

If Rahm had done it, we'd have even more Blue Dogs and DLC creeps in Congress.

[tritsofme]

9. Yea sure.

Most of the districts represented by Blue Dogs would otherwise be held by conservative Republicans.

The work that Rahm has done, especially over the past two election cycles has been brilliant.

People here have been whining about Rahm for a long time, but the man whose opinion really counts lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and Rahm has his confidence.

[glitch]

13. Yeah sure.

That doesn't speak as well for the President as you think it does.

Quite the opposite.

[ieoeja]

38. And if the majority of those districts had elected Republicans ... we would still have a majority.

And how in the world could you credit Rahm for securing the majority when, had we won 100% of the districts targeted by Rahm, we would have STILL not won a majority?

Have you also forgotten Rahm's very public fight AGAINST "wasting" money on the remaining districts?

On behalf of my district, I would very much like to apologize to the Democratic Party for sending Blagojevich then Rahm to the US House of Representatives. The new guy is supposed to be pretty decent (not who I voted for, but mostly because I wanted to keep him fighting the good fight in county government). But given the last two dumbfucks we stuck the party with, I wouldn't blame the rest of you for being wary of Quigley.

[tritsofme]

46. I'm not trying to assign Rahm 100% responsibility for retaking the majority.

But it is ridiculous the way you casually deny him any credit.

He certainly made a huge contribution, and denying that is just disengenuous.

Rahm is good at what he does, and I'm glad there are people like the President who hold him in higher esteem than you apparently do.

[ieoeja]

53. I will save you the apparently.

I think Rahm is a vile piece of shit. We don't have to worry about any confusion on my opinion.

:)

The only thing I miss about him being my representative is that I can't work against the cocksucker anymore. Not that we were going to beat him. Once our Democratic Committeeman Ed Kelly finally retired, there was nobody left to fight Daley. And Rahm is part of the Daley machine which out-Republiced the Republics.

Just as "only Nixon could go to China," only a traitorous Democrat could privatize an Interstate highway. Or all city parking. I predict our Water supply will be sold off in less than ten years. People here are calling me crazy, but he just sold all the parking meters which is more brazen than selling the water.

His son isn't even pretending, having already switched to the Republic party. When his dad retires it will be interesting to see if Daley III can switch this city Red. The core of the Daley machine has always been the southside Irish who wear their racism with pride. I have no doubt Daley III will have their support. Toss in northside economic conservatives, and all the rightists who stay home on election day knowing they don't stand a chance who will figure otherwise with a Daley heading up the ticket ... and we could have an interesting fight in a decade or two.

[invictus]

21. +1

[wyldwolf]

35. yes he did

Tell us what Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy did in 2006? Names? Places? Specifics.

Over half of the new Dems elected in 2006 joined the DLC. And 13 more did in 2008. Get your facts straight. :eyes:

[dflprincess]

37. Building up the local party infrastructure is what is credited

with the wins in 2006 and 2008. That was the 50 State Strategy.

However, if you are correct about how many of them have joinded the DLC and the Blue Dogs - I would have to agree with you that Dean's plan was not the success we were led to believe it was.

[wyldwolf]

44. really? Which ones? Who did it?

You have names?

[dflprincess]

50. You tell me, you're the one whose claiming that

"Over half of the new Dems elected in 2006 joined the DLC. And 13 more did in 2008"

I'm saying if that's true, then Dean's 50 State Strategy wasn't all that successful if it resulted in electing more members of the Republican wing of the party.

[wyldwolf]

55. well, the burden of proof is on you for your first claim, but as always

... I'm happy to prove my points:

2006:

Among the incoming Democrats, there will be at least 20 moderates: 15 are expected to become members of the pro-business New Democrat Coalition, nine will likely join the anti-deficit Blue Dog Coalition — and four will probably join both groups.

http://www.nytimes.com/cq/2006/11/14/cq_1938.html

About half the incoming Democratic freshmen are already planning on joining the New Democrat Coalition — a generally centrist group that emphasizes economic competitiveness and national security issues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/us/politics/09cong.html?_r=2&ei=5094&en=21fd9be66d7df098&hp=&ex=1163048400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1163186994-ykuQ+wO6r7uQ/dg0ogn+dA&oref=slogin

House New Democrat Coalition Grows to 63 Members - Across the country last night voters issued in a new direction in Congress- and overwhelmingly the candidates they elected are moderates who have pledged to become active members of the House New Democrat Coalition (NDC)

http://web.archive.org/web/20070419114206/www.house.gov/tauscher/ndc/press.shtml

[ieoeja]

40. I will tell you what Rahm did in 2006.

Fact: had we won 100% of the races Rahm targeted in 2006, Republics would have retained control of the House. The districts Rahm defined as competive were not enough to take control.

Fact: Rahm did not want the DNC "wasting" money on races he considered non-competitive. He went on national TV attacking our own party over it!

Fact: had Rahm gotten his way, the House would have remained in Republic hands.

Another related fact is that, if three-quarter of the Blue Dogs were replaced by Republics tomorrow, the Democratic party would still retain control of the House of Representatives (barely).

[wyldwolf]

45. Facts? lol

Fact: had we won 100% of the races Rahm targeted in 2006, Republics would have retained control of the House. The districts Rahm defined as competive were not enough to take control.

What you always assume is the top races Rahm targeted were the only ones the DCCC had a hand in. He was personally involved in some but pumped money into countless others.

Fact: Rahm did not want the DNC "wasting" money on races he considered non-competitive. He went on national TV attacking our own party over it!

Fortunately Rahm won his feud with Dean and got Howard to turn loose the purse strings for competitive races. :)

Fact: had Rahm gotten his way, the House would have remained in Republic hands.

As I just stated, Rahm DID get his way. Will you deny that after the famous Emanuel/Dean dust up that Rahm did not get DNC money pumped into competitive races in red districts? It's a matter of public record.

Another related fact is that, if three-quarter of the Blue Dogs were replaced by Republics tomorrow, the Democratic party would still retain control of the House of Representatives (barely).

Yeah, if some sort of sorcery was used.

[ieoeja]

49. Democrats + 25% of Blue Dogs = 50% of total congress

So if exactly one less than 3/4th of the Blue Dogs were replaced by Republics, we would still retain a majority in Congress. And it does not require any sorcery for 3/4th to be a majority of Blue Dogs.

[Mojorabbit]

8. Yes damn him for

pushing progressive candidates out of the way so conservative wealthy candidates can run as Dems.

[Supersedeas]

63. DLC

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. A "majority" that won't fucking vote with the party that elected them

is no god damn majority at all.

[tritsofme]

17. You would rather allow Republicans to govern than share power with moderate Democrats?

I don't know about you, but I prefer Chairman Conyers to Chairman Sensenbrenner over at the Judiciary Committee.

Building a majority coalition in Congress requires a big tent, unless you are content being the eternal minority.

[PVnRT]

48. Funny - the Republicans managed to do it with a pup tent

"Big tent" is a verboten phrase on the GOP side, yet they managed to build a majority that lasted 12 years.

[Raineyb]

51. These blue dogs are no better than Republicans

And just as fucking useless. Rahm is the one who pushed more progressive candidates out of the way for his preferred candidates. We don't have all that much to thank him for.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

39. Lest you forget...

The PEOPLE of the district elect them, not the party.

[liskddksil]

16. And the progressives who did win 2006

did so with out DCCC / Rahm's support. Paul Hodes, Carol Shea Porter etc.

[depakid]

34. And what's that sort of "majority" worth?

Not bloody much in terms of policy, it seems.

[PVnRT]

47. A majority is useless unless it can get things done

[JVS]

59. Which he did how?

[Arkana]

3. Uh, yeah...blame the Chief of Staff for the fact that people he recruited

to run for Congress as the DCCC head are obstructionist assholes in office.

There's nothing wrong with this analogy, no sir.

[beachmom]

6. Let's not forget that Maxine Waters is hardly a clean politician.

[glitch]

14. Any evidence for that libel? nt

[BeyondGeography]

22. She is old-school crony corrupt, and there's plenty of evidence

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2122550

Here's the group that details her corruption:

http://www.citizensforethics.org/about/staff

and here's their report (see pages 173-177):

http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/BD%202%20Report.pdf

More recently, she has been caught in a conflict of interest involving TARP funds:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/13/nation/na-maxine-waters13

In other words, you have misused the term "libel."

[glitch]

27. I highly recommend people actually read the links you provided and form their own judgments.

Thanks for adding to the discussion, but we will have to agree to disagree.

[PassingFair]

7. Woot!

He forced DINOS's into positions
where local progressives had smooth
sailing.

The chickens are roosting alright, and
they're NOT all Blue Dog chickens...

The "DON'T KNOW" faction of the New
Dem chicken variety are against
Progressive legislation as well....

If one of these "don't knows" is
YOUR representative in Congress or
in the Senate, PLEASE call them.

http://standwithdrdean.com/where_congress_stands

[donheld]

10. I knew that from the minute Obama picked him

[Uzybone]

12. LOL

she has a point, but it is completely superseded by the fact that if they were not blue dog democrats recruited by Rahm, then they'd be straight up republicans.

[glitch]

15. Not true. Rahm put in repuke lite when he saw Progressive Dems running and likely to win.

He's not a fool, just... committed to his cause.

[paulk]

29. I find that hard to believe

Every blue dog I'm aware of came from a conservative district.

You're going to have to make your case...

[glitch]

31. DU at the time was full of IRL stories about progressive dems being sabotaged.

You've been here since 2002, I'm surprised you missed them.

[tritsofme]

32. Slights based on hurt feelings mostly.

No more validity to the cries then or now.

Rahm moved forward with candidates who could win.

Democrats retook the majority.

[ieoeja]

41. Again: had we won 100% of the seats targetted by Rahm ... Republics would have held majority.

It was those seats Rahm publicly fought AGAINST us running any candidates that retook the majority.

[hileeopnyn8d]

42. I agree

and some of those "blue dogs" like Patrick Murphy, who just narrowly beat the Republican candidate, end up being the ones to champion progressive bills. In his case, it would be the repeal of DADT.

They're obviously not all like that, but some of the worst of the blue dogs were in districts that elected people like Hostettler six times!

Sorry, not blaming Rahm.

[Raineyb]

52. It's easy to miss things when you don't want to see them.

:shrug:

[paulk]

57. unintentional irony?

[paulk]

56. I don't consider anecdotal stories from DU "real life"

you are going to have to provide an actual account of a progressive candidate winning a district (in polling vs a Republican), only to be sabotaged and replaced by a blue dog for your argument to carry any wieght.

[4lbs]

18. Wow that's assuming a lot.

It's assuming that Progressive Left Democratic candidates would have beaten a Repuke in these somewhat conservative areas of the country.

I don't think they would have. Moderate Democrat was as far left as the voters in many of these areas felt comfortable going.

A Democratic candidate that was too far left would have just been defeated by a Repuke.

[dflprincess]

20. The DSCC shoved Amy Klobuchar down our throats in Minnesota

over a far more progressive candidate. While there are some odd parts of the state, we have managed to elect progressives to the Senate and we could have in 2006. Klobuchar has been a big disappointment and we have the the Republican wing of the party to blame for that.

[4lbs]

23. Who was her main competition in the DFL? I read that they all dropped out leaving her to run for

the Democratic nomination unopposed, against the Republican and Independent candidates.

Shouldn't you be blaming the DFL state delegates for making her the frontrunner for the Democratic nod?

[dflprincess]

26. Ford Bell would have been her main competition

However, even before the caucuses were even held, the state organization (not the delgates) had forced Patty Wetterling out and completely ignored Bell - a lot of this went down at one State Central Committee meeting. Once Wetterling dropped out the state chair got up and acted like Amy had no other competiton. Bell did get up and call them on it - and then they went back to ignoring him.

Klobuchar's campaign team was extremely rude and hostile to anyone not supporting her and Bell acutally picked up quite a few supporters at that State Central meeting. Unfortunately, when you have both national and state party machinery aligned against you (and the state party is supposed to be neutral until there is an endorsement) you don't have that much of a chance.

Of late Klobuchar has been flirting with the Blue Dogs and refuses to give a straight answer about her position on healthcare. This is costing her support and many of us are hoping a member of the Democratic wing of the party will challenge her for enorsement in 2012.

[4lbs]

28. Interesting. I agree that if she waffles on true healthcare reform, she deserves to be defeated in

2012 by a true Progressive.

[Leo The Cleo]

24. Not A Fan Of Maxine

She is certainly not my favorite congressperson. As a democratic congress person she ranks at the bottom. I don't know if she's right, but I still don't like her.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

62. What she says here is the truth.

It started to happen under Clinton's watch - Rahm decided the only way for Dems to be competetive with the GOP's corporate cash was to feed at the same trough.

This story is no big secret.

[SoCalDem]

25. I love maxine.. She can always be counted on to say the truth

This is the dilemma we face. Ousting "moderate" republicans and exchanging them for "conservative" dems only helps with the numbers, but those people cannot be trusted.

The extra-sad truth is that , as long as we have legalized bribery (lobbyists) and "pay-to-play" advertising on tv, in order to get elected, we will never get good legislation.

They will only do what the people who pay them want.

[Vidar]

30. Sing it loud, Maxine!

[TheKentuckian]

33. I'd say Klobuchar qualifies as a moderate, MN could elect a fairly liberal Senator (obviously)

but she's no conservative in context of American politics. I wouldn't call her out of step with her state and is kind of a red herring in this discussion. The reality is most blue dogs really do hail from more conservative districts and states. I don't think it is logical to completely dismiss that we pulled some seats from areas that were fairly unexpected. We did that by running candidates that had appeal in the areas they ran.

There are no rational arguments for allowing the Republicans to fully control these seats in the name of ideological purity. For the most part we did what we had to do. Politics is all the art of compromise and often those compromises come at the jump by running candidates that are less than ideal to win.

[mvd]

36. Not good

I thought Rahm was picked to get people to support the President, not to bow to the big corporations. I always liked Dean more than Emanuel.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

43. Maxine is my girl!! n/t

[Dinger]

Go Maxine!

But watch your back; they're coming for you.

[Dinger]

54. Go Maxine!

But watch your back; they're coming for you.

[JVS]

58. Team of rivals not working out so well?

[jesus_of_suburbia]

60. Who picked the team? *shrug*

[JVS]

61. Whose support may have been conditioned on getting to be picked for the team?

[Cha]

64. Get 'em line, Rahm..that's

your job.