Politico:
After a host of battleground district House Democrats voted against the health care bill Saturday, liberal blogger Markos Moulitsas, founder of the widely read Daily Kos, urged followers of his blog to stop donating to another party committee — the DCCC, the committee charged with reelecting Democratic House incumbents — and instead contribute directly to candidates.
“So here's the bottom line — skip any donations to the DCCC,” Moulitsas wrote on Monday. “They'll be dumping millions into defending these seats. Instead, give to those elected officials who best reflect your values.”
I know the Politico thinks this is some kind of scoop or trend or something, but fact is, this site has never made a habit of fundraising for the DCCC, or for the party committees aside from some early DNC fundraising when Howard Dean was first elected chair.
For the party committees, as I've long said, their number one priority is electing candidates with "D"s next to their names. That's it. If you don't want your money going to the likes of Charlie Melancon in Louisiana (running for Senate, voted against health care reform in the House), then don't give money to the DSCC. If you don't want your money going to these no votes on health care reform in the House, then don't give to the DCCC.
I'm not sure that's controversial, and it's certainly no shift in site policy. We have always focused on candidates, and what's more -- we've focused on candidates on the second and third tier, ignored by the national party, so we don't even overlap with the national party very much. We let them throw millions at the top-tier races, and we throw thousands at the lower-tier ones hoping to strike gold (and we do, on occasion).
Now the DNC is a bit different, because I have lent my name to Americablog's Don't Ask, Don't Give pledge. This is simple: Democrats made a series of promises, DADT among them, and vowed to make change happen if only we gave them our votes. And we did, in record numbers, and Democrats have huge majorities in Congress and a White House with a national mandate.
I get that some things take time, and the legislative process isn't always as fast as we'd like. But here's the thing -- don't come begging for money when you haven't delivered on your promises.
We did our part. It's now our party's turn to deliver. Until they do, it seems ludicrous for them to ask for money, especially with whines about "Republican obstructionism". The obstructionism is coming within our own party. When it gets its house in order and delivers on their promises, then that'll be different.
p.s. Remember when we had a real DNC chair?