In 2007 the Employee Free Choice Act passed overwhelmingly in the House and then died in the Senate at the hands of a de facto filibuster by the GOP. This year more than a few Blue Dogs and related reactionary Democrats don't want to vote for it but most-- though not Dan Boren (OK) or Gene Taylor (MS)-- want to stay on good terms with Labor. Of the freshmen Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL) and Walt Minnick (ID)-- each of whom is on Debbie Wasserman Schultz' DCCC Front Line list-- are all barking up a storm about not wanting to vote for the bill. Yesterday The Hill reported that the Blue Dogs are demanding that it be taken up by the Senate first (in the hope that Al Franken won't be seated by then and a cloture vote will fail, saving them the need to make a hard choice between their donors at Labor and their donors at rightist business PACs.
Last year only 2 so-called "Democrats" voted against the final bill-- Dan Boren (OK) and Gene Taylor (MS). But before the final vote, the Republicans offered a motion to recommit (a way of killing the bill). Knowing that the unions don't use recommit motions on their scorecards, 13 "Democrats" crossed the aisle to vote with the Republicans to vote yes. Three (Nancy Boyda, Nick Lampson and Tim Mahoney) were defeated in November. The ones we need to watch out for now are
John Barrow (GA)
Dan Boren (OK)
Joe Donnelly (IN)
Brad Ellsworth (IN)
Baron Hill (IN)
Jim Marshall (GA)
Harry Mitchell (AZ)
Collin Peterson (MN)
Heath Shuler (NC)
Gene Taylor (MS)
Part of the reason members like Lampson were defeated, in an overwhelmingly Democratic "wave" year, is because progressives don't want to support reactionaries, regardless of which Inside-the-Beltway criminal organization they belong to. Of course dead-asses like Baron Hill and Travis Childers are still on the DCCC FrontLine list even though they vote with the Republicans on key issues again and again. By pushing grassroots donations towards these Republican-enablers the DCCC is defeating the whole notion of why most people bother to support the Democratic Party. I'm hoping that this year independent unions, if not the in-the-pocket ones, stop supporting incumbents who have stopped supporting working families' aspirations.