According to the New York Times:
Representative Ellen O. Tauscher of California, a co-chairwoman of the 47-member New Democrat Coalition, said that 27 of the top 40 contested House seats were being pursued by Democrats who have pledged to become members of the group, which says its chief issues are national security and fiscal responsibility.
"I think there's tremendous agreement and awareness that getting the majority and running over the left cliff is what our Republican opponents would dearly love," Ms. Tauscher said, adding that this was something "we've got to fight."
juls at Calitics notes that Ellen and the Blue Dogs went off to see the Wizard http://www.calitics.com/...
and even though Dear Ellen says: "We are fully committed members of the Democratic Party and we are foursquare with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There is no sunshine between us." juls is correct in concluding:
There you have it folks. Tauscher wants to take this meeting seriously. She wants it to be a regular occurrence. Rather than having the President go directly to the Democratic leadership, she finds value in this sub group meeting with Bush. The only value is to split our caucus.
Tauscher needs to go.
Chris Bowers said it best over at MyDD:
Here is why I will continue to fgiht: because as long as Ellen Tauscher and her ilk are running the Democratic Party, the conservative movement will continue to rise. Ellen Tauscher can't beat the conservative movement. She and her friends showed us this time and time again from 1978-2004 just how utterly ineffective they are at doing anything except ushering in a new era of Republican dominance. As long as they are in leadership positions of the Democratic Party, the only avenue available to stop the conservative movement on the electoral front, this country that I love so dearly will continue on a long, downward spiral. Both defeating Republicans and wiping their Democratic enablers out of power is the only way to save my country.
Ellen Tauscher, just so you know, when you have a surprisingly strong and well funded primary challenger with tons of volunteers and lots of support in the progressive media come out of seemingly nowhere in 2008, just look over the cliff to see where that challenger is coming from. At the bottom, you will see me standing there, with hundreds and thousand of my friends and colleagues. We will be in the process of forming a human ladder for your challenger to use to climb up the cliff. When s/he reaches the top, don't be surprised if more than a few of us come along, and suddenly you find yourself outnumbered, even as you stand next to your twenty-seven new friends. And then we will see who gets run over the cliff next.
Read the whole thing at http://www.mydd.com/...
Chris was right in October. Dear Ellen raised almost $1M, in a fight against an opponent spending almost $4000 (no kidding,$4000) http://www.opensecrets.org/... That means that, just in terms of finances, we need to start NOW.
Does anyone know if you can start an Act Blue page for a candidate to be named later? Chris, this first step is for you: http://dumptauscher.blogspot.com/