Apropos of our article on Friday describing the “Rovian dirty tricks” that FL-24 Congressional candidate, Clint Curtis, alleges his primary opponent, former State Rep. Suzanne Kosmas, has been using to mislead local voters an article in today’s DeLand-Deltona Beacon highlights again Curtis’ criticism of his opponent as no more than a Democrat In Name Only (DINO).
Kosmas, in return, might ask, “Curtis who?”
She said she doesn’t know Curtis.
“I am running as a Democrat,” Kosmas said.
“Running as a Democrat.” A telling phrase, that.
While Kosmas claims to be against the war, it turns out she co-sponsored a resolution, adopted on March 21, 2003, while in the Florida legislature that pledged “support of President Bush in his stand against Saddam Hussein”.
Unfortunately, Kosmas isn’t the only hand-picked Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) candidate being put up this year almost solely on the basis of the DCCC’s short-sighted conjecture that they can win in a previously “red” district because the candidate either has lots of their own money, or is damned-near a Republican.
Curtis, the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)-endorsed candidate, has been courageously opposing head-on the hopelessly corrupt Republican incumbent Tom Feeney for years. (See this clip from Uncounted to get an idea, or this BRAD BLOG Special Coverage page.) Yet, he’s been fighting an uphill battle trying to raise money to defeat the DCCC’s candidate, the wealthy real estate developer, Kosmas, ever since he told them he’d vote with his constituents who put him in office, rather than as per the directives of Nancy Pelosi.
Yesterday, our buddy Howie Klein – who knows more about on-the-ground politics and the real positions of Congressional candidates than anyone we know — decimated the DCCC for their drive to put “Democrats” in office, at any cost. The “Stalinist” effort, as he describes it, to put such candidates as Kosmas in office (whether or not they end up voting with Republicans more often than Democrats!) has been the basis of the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program launched under the previous DCCC chair Rep. Rahm Emanuel and still in play under its new chair, Chris Van Hollen….
The latter, Klein writes, promised “in accord with democratic norms and Party rules — to allow hotly contested primaries to play themselves out and not take sides the way Emanuel had done…Van Hollen promised to not follow the Stalinist path Emanuel had lain out. But he has.”
In his piece he describes Kosmas as a “DCCC shill” and “just some rich person who promises to be easily led around by the nose,” while Curtis is the grassroots candidate who ought to be supported.
“Savvy activists learned long ago that the DCCC is entirely untrustworthy,” Klein writes, “and that many of their hand-picked candidates are the mirror image of brainwashed or brain-dead Republican rubber stamps.”
His entire article is a worth a read, if only to see where your local candidate fits in, and if they have a more Progressive, if less-monied, candidate running against them who may need your support. But his slams of the DCCC are a must read. Here’s a few choice quotes:
…
Although they try keeping it on the down low, several on the Red to Blue list are pro-war and some are corporate-leaning shills. It’s never about Democratic ideal, values, principles… it’s always getting as many members willing to call themselves “Democrats,” for whatever reason, into Congress. That’s how Democrats wind up in the majority in the House and can’t get anything accomplished.
There were 17 Democrats who voted more frequently with Republicans than with Democrats on the key substantive issues that divide the two parties. Of the 17, nine are freshmen.
…
Last year if you donated to the DCCC’s Red to Blue program, you helped elect people who are determined to keep the war in Iraq going, who voted to allow warrantless wiretaps, and who were willing to rubber stamp Bush trade policies that throw American workers out of their jobs… and who actually applaud Nancy Pelosi’s decision to take impeachment off the table. In fact, they are a big part of the reason why Nancy Pelosi did take impeachment off the table.
Go read the whole piece…
Incendiary! This should be on the front page of the damn Washington Post. God help us! Go, Clint! Go, Cindy Sheehan! Let’s rout these bastards once and for all.
No, no. The Playboy Bunny costume is much cuter….
spineocrat…the cure for legislative impotence
From what I heard, Cindy did not get enough votes to be on the ballot in SF. Anyone?
because…
link
…dear congress critter,
get your head out of your ass our fuckin’ infrastructure is failing
Soul Rebel
You heard wrong.
Doesnt anyone remember that a few months ago Rove said outright that there would be surprises in store…i think it has become obvious that there are infiltrators in the democrat party. look at pelosi…she might as well be Bush’s right hand man! and now there are subtle pushes for Obama…something stinks here. i know people are in love with obama but you have to wonder whats going on when the foreign policy advisors to BOTH Obama and McCain are from the Brzinsky (sp?) family. Looks like he will get his Grand Chessboard after all. wake up people. its time to vote out ALL incumbents and vote third party.
Vote for whomever you want in the primary, after that, get on board or be left behind
As some of you know, John Russell also contested the 2006 Florida Congressional election results. The Florida Democratic Party also tried to eliminate John Russell with even more outrageous Stalinist tactics.
See for yourself, watch Fascism in Fantasyland at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8277764543286144839
John is still running. He is also endorsed by a variety of core Democractic support groups including PDA. Check out his web site at http://www.johnrussellforcongress.com/
John has no real competition in the primary, and as you can see from his actions, he is a progressive Democrat with backbone who has a great chance of beating a Bush Neo-con in the general election.
“they can win in a previously “red” district because the candidate either has lots of their own money, or is damned-near a Republican.”—-this can be DIRECTLY attributable to Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emmanuel; kid yourselves not and start calling those two on the carpet. And Hoyer and Emmanuel want the House Speaker job.
Oh yeah Russell has my vote.
Karupt Thermadrunkâ„¢ can kiss my ass
Brown-ass Waite is a John McBush clone, she can only draw crowds at biker rallys, only because they are there for reasons other than to see her.
Emmanuel, Hoyer and Reid should be in the sights of any real Dem who wants to take back the party; we should be funding primary opposition, recall efforts, whatever it takes to get these people out of office. Once they’re on K Street, we can pass some anti-corruption laws that will send them home permanently.
If he can steer the Florida Irish and the Developers his way, maybe Curtis will have a chance. http://www.irishgop.com/gallery/Florida_2006.php