As if it wasn't hard enough, in 2006, to have to fight against the Lazy Media's stenographic efforts in promoting the neo-conservative talking points, progressive candidates also had to fight against the strong will of Rahm Emanuel. The Democrats won in November 2006, in spite of, not because of the efforts of Mr. Emanuel. His blueprint for "success" in the 2006 Congressional elections was to find DLC-friendly, "Republican-ish" candidates to field, giving us the present day dilemma of the Bush-Dog Democrats helping to seize defeat from the jaws of victory on the National Stage.
Many of the candidates that Emanuel helped elect have joined with a group of self-styled conservative Blue Dog Democrats and have cast key votes with Republicans and stymied Democratic efforts to end the occupation of Iraq and the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
In an article just published at Truthout four races from this time period show a pattern of deviousness which was Mr. Emanuel's Modus Operandi.
I am not the first to diary on this article (please check out this diary by bmaples for a different but important take on this story, and don't forget to spread some mojo over there), but I would like to place my personal slant on the material presented therein.
Although I was by no means an insider in either of the efforts by Christine Cegelis for the IL-06 races in 2004 and 2006, I was a fairly active volunteer and ardent supporter of hers. I believe that there are quite a few like me in the IL-06 who were sorely disappointed in the DCCC meddling in the latest Congressional races. Now I am sure that there are thousands throughout the country who experienced similar frustrations by the underhanded and ham-fisted efforts of Mr. Emanuel to regain a Democratic majority. When I think of the DLC, he and Joementum are the first faces which come to my mind, and they are several of many reasons why we must fight the DLC as much as necessary.
A well-documented instance of interference by the DCCC during a Democratic primary occurred during the contest between Christine Cegelis and Tammy Duckworth. Cegelis, a strong proponent of withdrawal from Iraq, encountered unexpected and effective opposition from the DCCC.
With friends like Mr. Emanuel, who needs enemies, eh? Even though she was grossly outspent by her incumbent opponent in 2004, Christine Cegelis narrowly lost that election by building a grassroots organization in the IL-06 where none had existed before. This valiant effort by her and her organization, instead of being rewarded with support by the DCCC, was instead met with derision, contempt and interference every step of the way.
Emanuel, himself a congressman from the neighboring 5th District of Illinois, apparently tried to recruit six different candidates to run against Cegelis. According to Kevin Spidel, campaign manager for the Cegelis campaign, all of Emanuel's attempts failed because the potential candidates "all said 'hell no!' They knew the resentment they would face. If you were in the district, you knew how much Cegelis was loved. She built her own machine."
Although Mr. Emanuel has earned my bitter and life-long contempt for his actions in this race, he wasn't satisfied with stomping out the grassroots progressive movement in IL-06, but carried it out in many other places, like FL-13:
Schneider became concerned about possible interference from the DCCC during the 2006 primary because, according to Schneider, Jennings had a very wealthy Democratic contributor on her side. Frank Brunckhorst III, a well-known donor to both the Democratic Party and to powerful Democratic members of Congress from Florida, accompanied Jennings to the Democratic National Convention in 2004.
Cegelis and Schneider, outspoken anti-war candidates who ran competitive campaigns in 2004 against incumbent Republicans, were challenged and defeated from within their own party in 2006. Both races ultimately ended in extremely close losses for the Democratic Party.
Too bad not all of the efforts by Mr. Emanuel were the unqualified electoral disasters, as shown in the two examples above. Unfortunately, we ended up with this
Wealthy businessman Tim Mahoney, a self-described "fundamental Christian," was recruited by the DCCC to run against then-Congressman Mark Foley in Florida's 16th District. According to The Palm Beach Post, Mahoney switched his registration from Republican to Democrat in July of 2005. Mahoney did not support a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
instead of having this person in Congress:
David Lutrin, a school teacher, union activist and staunch supporter of immediate withdrawal from Iraq, decided to run against Foley before Mahoney entered the race.
Fortunately, there was a bit of a "bright spot" in all of Mr. Emanuel's disasters. The Netroots finally were able to undo the damage wrought by his work in CA-11:
Despite the primary interference, McNerney did not get discouraged. "Jerry was not bitter or angry about the experience," Carrillo said, adding, "he just went out and decided to prove them all wrong. He really is Mr. Smith goes to Washington."
The campaign received a boost from an old-school Republican, former Congressman and veteran Pete McCloskey, who came out of retirement to challenge incumbent Congressman Pombo in the Republican primary. Pombo beat McCloskey, but the fight left Pombo damaged. McCloskey, one of the authors of the Endangered Species Act, attacked Pombo for his assault on environmental protection regulations and his association with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. After losing the primary, McCloskey supported the McNerney campaign. McNerney ended up winning the seat with slightly more than 53 percent of the vote.
I want to encourage everyone to visit the Truthout site and read the article in its entirety, as I had problems with the temptation of just doing a massive block quote of the entire article. However, in the interests of journalistic fairness, I'll avoid that temptation and just hit the publish button.