More and Better Democrats Equals Less Bush Dog Power

More and Better Democrats Equals Less Bush Dog Power
by: Matt Stoller
Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 23:44:28 PM EDT

We're going to have an exciting announcement soon, the first Bush Dog primary challenge to an incumbent since the Bush Dog campaign started. But I want to talk about Dan Maffei and why it's so important to support progressives at the same time we're going after reactionary Bush Dogs. You can give to Maffei here, but the short story is that if you want withdrawal from Iraq after 2009, we damn well better be sure we have people like Maffei in Congress.

And now to the Bush Dog campaign. We've put up primary challenges on the Blue Majority page before, and we love doing it. Donna Edwards, for instance, took on 2006 Bush Dog Al Wynn, and is going after a much more frightened Wynn this cycle. But the Bush Dog campaign is not just about primary challenges, though there will be several this cycle and my prediction is that there will probably be very few Bush Dogs in Congress by 2010. The point is to create criticism, an environment of accountability, and to get to know the people who are enabling right-wing policies.

With that in mind, I'll point out that step one of the Bush Dog campaign is nearly complete. Every Bush Dog except Bob Etheridge (NC-02) and Nick Lampson (TX-22) has been profiled. We've learned that John Tanner (TN-08) is a rarely challenged opinion leader, that Henry Cuellar has moved left since his primary challenge, and we've begun to understand the role of Emily's List in electing Melissa Bean and Stephanie Herseth Sandler. The number of mentions of Bush Dog Democrats on Google continues to increase, as does media coverage of the term. And we've had our first victory, with Darcy Burner's fundraising from the netroots forcing her conservative primary opponent, Rodney Tom, to drop out.

The key to the Bush Dog campaign is to have a carrot and stick strategy. We need to offer sticks in the form of primary challenges and criticisms, and carrots, in the form of support for progressive candidates that stand up for our values. We need to be building a stronger party at the same time as we offer criticism from within. That's why people like Dan Maffei and good Democrats in Congress are so important.

So you know, we're trying to be a little judicious with Blue Majority this time because we now have the majority, and we don't want our values to be sold out and our candidates to 'go DC'. Bloggers don't have an ideological policy checklist, because that's easily gamed and not a useful lens for people-powered strength. Instead we are trying to gauge whether our candidates will be there when it really counts. There's no way to know for sure, but every candidate we've chosen so far - Al Franken, Donna Edwards, Darcy Burner, Charlie Brown - has a demonstrated record of progressive political courage. And I can guarantee you that if Chris Bowers likes him, Dan Maffei is a guy who will push extremely hard to get us out of Iraq, regardless of how many residual troops the next President will try to leave in there. Here's Chris:



Character in politics matters, and so does putting in a new generation of leaders. Maffei is part of the trend of putting new and more aggressive progressives into Congress, people who will lead and puncture the stale and ridiculously calcified conventional wisdom. Give if ">you can. You'll be proud you did as Dan kicks ass in Congress in your name.