Somebody has to push back against the anointment of Schumer and Emmanuel. I don't have what it takes, but this stinks. If Schumer and Emmanuel had had their way, we'd be a lot worse off.

Somebody has to push back against the anointment of Schumer and Emmanuel.

Some of the most glorious victories and embarrassing defeats were the handiwork of these clowns.

I personally think picking right-to-lifers like Casey in order to "fit" the jurisdiction makes as much sense as picking segregationists to run in the South. When you win you lose.

Whatever you think of that opinion, standing up for principle is the path to victory rather than accommodating vice.

Re: Alcee Hastings:

When the voting record of the Impeachment Trial Committee was reviewed, it revealed that the twelve members of the committee did not vote to impeach by the required two-thirds majority on any of the articles of impeachment. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Impeachment Trial Committee, Senator Bingaman and Senator Specter, filed statements in support of acquittal. The committee proceedings were videotaped, but it is unclear how many senators actually reviewed the tapes. Nonetheless, enough senators who had not heard the evidence personally voted to convict to constitute the necessary two-thirds majority.

http://classes.lls.edu/archive/manheimk/fedcts/hastings1.html

I used to have detailed files on the entire case from the trial in which Judge was found not guilty to the impeachment in which the majority of senators convicted without hearing the evidence.

Without a doubt, guilty defendants are acquitted and innocent are convicted. My opinion is that the judge was clearly framed.

Sometimes the voters are more discerning than the pundits, even on extremely rare occasions our own wonderful Josh Marshall who presumably only saw the black mark again. The stain is on the carelessness of the Congress which can always use a few more good men and women and not ersatz Democrats I think. Ersatz is what Schumer and Emmanuel like. I am grateful that even a Specter can occasionally stand on principle.

Best, Terry

Harry Reid asked him to stay. He did a really good job from what I see. Rahm wants a different leadership role in the house, so the DCCC chair is open. Seems like things would be smoother with turnover in one of the Cs rather than both of them. If Schumer didn't want to do it, they should ask Barak Obama. As for the DCCC, not sure who it should be. It's obviously wide open for someone with the right skills.

I suspect the foundation of the dispute between the Schumer factions and Howard Dean and the DNC forces rests in a certain amount of disinterest the forces on Capitol Hill have in stronger state Democratic Parties that actually have the proceedures and influence in place to pick their own candidates. In the end, Dean's effort is about returning much more of that influence to the State Parties, because by professionally staffing them, giving them the technology and resources, they will naturally claim that power away from the less accountable Hill Committees.

But I can assure you that within the DNC the "Dean Way" has huge support right now. It isn't just the wins on the Federal Side of the Nov 7 Election, it is State Legislative pick-ups, Governors, State Officials, and on down ballot to County officials and all. And, The DNC is made up of State Chairs and elected delegates -- and I have no doubt they will all be standing on their chairs giving Iowa style shouts at the next DNC meeting when Howard shows up.

This is all about power within the party, and for all the good work Schumer did this cycle, in fact the legal party is the 50 state parties, which in turn create the DNC. Since the 1970's many State Parties became morbid, some actually went bankrupt. But Dean bailed them out and has begun revival therapy.

No my party was, as of 2004 among the more healthy State Parties, but we still got DNC help. Since the press does not report the actual content of the 50 State plan, I thought I would copy to TPM'ers the report to State Central from our state chair describing it all. Judge for yourself...

- - - - Begin DFL Central Committee Report-
______________________________________________
From: Brian Melendez [mailto:brian.melendez@usa.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 1:07 PM
To: 'DFL State Central Committee (dfl-state-central@yahoogroups.com)'; 'DFL State Executive Committee (dfl-state-exec@yahoogroups.com)'

Subject: How we really won

How We Really Won

Election Day 2006 was a tremendous victory for the DFL Party. We gained two statewide constitutional offices, holding the Attorney General’s office (Lori Swanson) and picking up the Auditor (Rebecca Otto) and the Secretary of State (Mark Ritchie), who will administer future elections. We not only held the Minnesota Senate, we gained six seats. We gained 19 seats in the Minnesota House, took back the majority, and with it the Legislature. We elected a United States Senator (Amy Klobuchar), who will go to Washington with a Democratic majority. We gained a seat in Congress (Tim Walz), helped take back the majority, and brought two key committee chairs (Jim Oberstar and Collin Peterson) and a spot in the House leadership (Betty McCollum) to Minnesota, while electing the first Muslim (Keith Ellison) in American history.

“This year was easy,” some will say. “We really got lucky,” others will say. “We didn’t win, the Republicans lost.” “The Democrats would have won this year no matter what.” “We just rode the wave.”

Uh huh. The view from the cheap seats can be pretty simplistic. But viewed from the trenches, this election cycle was anything but easy, lucky, or simple. We can now celebrate one of the greatest victories in the DFL Party’s history. And yes, we did benefit from a trend that favored our candidates. But this election could have slipped through our fingers, and resulted in another cycle of Republican misrule, in any of a dozen ways — quite a few of which nearly happened. But in a grueling year-and-a-half campaign that could have gone either way right up until the final hours, we outfought, outnumbered, and outsmarted the Republicans at every turn.

Throughout this cycle, I have largely refrained from commenting publicly on the Party’s strategy. For example, while the Republicans were out bragging to the media about their “Voter Vault” and their “72 Hour” get-out-the-vote strategy, we were building an even better voter file, and implementing a superior strategy . . . without them knowing about it. Now that Election Day has come and gone, and our strategy has paid off, I can share the top dozen ways that we won:

1. Great candidates. The endorsing conventions last spring gave us an outstanding slate of candidates, from the top of the ticket to the bottom, all across Minnesota. And the Party stood behind those candidates, even against aggressive intraparty challenges. So just how much difference does the endorsement make? Out of 236 endorsed candidates, 235 of them — 99.6 percent! — came safely through the primary and went to the general election. The Party and its endorsement process are the strongest that they have ever been.

2. Synergy between the activists and the campaigns. The precinct caucuses in March hit a 24-year high for attendance in a non-Presidential year: 29,067 DFLers attended their caucus. Not since 1982 have so many activists attended the Party’s caucuses in a non-Presidential year. And the Party and its campaigns activated, motivated, and mobilized those activists, from the voter-identification work in the spring and summer through the get-out-the-vote drive in the fall, with local party units as the driving engines. The collaboration among the State Party, local party units, and campaigns was as close as it has ever been.

3. A true grassroots organization. Two years ago, the Party’s permanent staff was based entirely in St. Paul. This year, the Party hired a permanent field director for each congressional district, on the idea that each district director would coordinate campaign work in the even-numbered years and focus on party-building in the odd-numbered years. This field program has taken an unprecedented commitment of resources to local organizing. But it has paid off handsomely.

4. Strong outreach to allies and key constituencies. The officers and staff have opened up communications not only with party units and other activists, but also with other key allied constituencies such as elected officials, organized Labor, and donors, all of whom were given reports on the Party’s work throughout the cycle. The Party has also reached out to key voter constituencies under a strong outreach program led by Outreach Director RoseAnn Zimbro. And of course, the best outreach of all was candidates from traditionally underrepresented constituencies — especially Representative-Elect Keith Ellison, the first African American elected to Congress from Minnesota, and the first Muslim ever elected to Congress; Senator-Elect Patricia Torres Ray, the first Latina elected to the Minnesota Senate; and three women (Amy Klobuchar, Lori Swanson, and Rebecca Otto) elected statewide.

5. Wise stewardship. The Party raised more money for this cycle than ever before. But more to the point, we deployed our resources prudently and effectively. We slashed spending on consultants, who delivered advice but not votes, and focused on identifying and contacting voters. We shifted our focus from strong Democrats, who were already likely to vote for our candidates, to “drop-off” Democrats — the persuadable voters who might vote for our candidates if they heard from us a time or two. Not only did we raise more dollars than ever, but each dollar got more bang for the buck.

6. A state-of-the-art voter file. Last year, when we were hiring a new Voter File Manager, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called Jaime Tincher a “rock star.” The voter file that she (and a few thousand volunteers) built proved it: the DFL Party now boasts the most sophisticated, interactive, user-friendly, comprehensive voter file in the nation. When the Democratic National Committee measured Jaime’s microtargeting, her modeling was the most accurate in the nation, and is now being studied as a basis for the national modeling for the 2008 cycle. (And besides running such a top-notch operation, we ran it under the radar — while the Republicans were bragging about their Voter Vault, they had no idea that we were massively outgunning them, because we weren’t broadcasting our strategy.)

7. The most sophisticated get-out-the-vote drive in Minnesota history. The voter-identification work that goes into the voter file in the spring and summer isn’t an end in itself: it supports the voter-contact work that drives turnout in the fall. This year, the voter-identification work and Jaime’s sophisticated modeling and microtargeting ensured as efficient as possible a get-out-the-vote drive. Not only did we identify the best high-turnout, high-performing precincts for lit drops, door-knocks, and persuasion calls, we actually identified which voters were the most persuadable. Coordinated Campaign Manger Mitch Stewart planned and executed a statewide sweep that took the best advantage of the voter file when it came time for voter contact.

8. Cooperation among candidates, caucuses, organized Labor, and the Party. Politics can be an everyone-out-for-themselves, dog-eat-dog world, even within the same party. But this cycle, the candidates, the legislative caucuses, organized Labor, and the Party pulled together with unprecedented cooperation. The new interactive voter file helped change the culture, once the campaigns realized that their candidates were benefiting from the other candidates’ voter-identification work, so there was no need for competition among proprietary candidate-specific databases. But the cooperation went far beyond the voter file: candidates at all levels banded together and helped each other in ways that we don’t usually see. (And while we’re on the subject, let me give a shout-out to the individual who, besides the Party organization and staff, has devoted himself to helping all the Party’s candidates at all levels, from the U.S. Senate race to legislative races: Senator Mark Dayton.)

9. A coordinated statewide campaign. Some cycles, it has seemed like the State Party focused on federal and statewide elections at the expense of lower-level organizing. But “all politics is local,” and it’s by winning at the Legislature and on the school board that we will transform this society into the Minnesota that we want to live in. This campaign began translating that philosophy into action, with both statewide and local campaigns identifying voters for each other, and with the State Party as a clearinghouse delivering information and services to candidates at all levels around the state. It culminated with a first in the Party’s history: the joint field operation in the campaign’s final weeks. Instead of the traditional practice of running parallel and duplicative field operations, the Klobuchar, Hatch/Dutcher, Swanson, Ritchie, Otto, Walz, McCollum, Ellison, Wetterling, Peterson, and Oberstar campaigns — all the statewide campaigns, and all the congressional campaigns with field staff — as well as the state Senate and House caucuses rolled their field staffs into a single coordinated field staff with Mitch Stewart in command. This unprecedented cooperation resulted in the largest, most efficient voter-contact operation in Minnesota history.

10. A coherent, coordinated communications strategy. For more than a year, Communications Director Jess McIntosh and Deputy Director Nick Kimball laid the groundwork for the messages that helped elect our candidates and helped undermine their opponents: Mark Kennedy was President Bush’s lapdog. Tim Pawlenty pledged that he wouldn’t raise taxes, but his policies resulted in dramatic increases in fees, health-care premiums, and property taxes. These messages come naturally now — but a year ago, they were novel and untested, and it was by steadily repeating them over many news cycles that they sunk in with the activists, with the media, and with voters. We got those messages across because Jess and her team crafted a solid theme, backed it up with facts, then enlisted the activists and the campaigns in its delivery — for example, by sending weekly talking points to party-unit chairs and activists, and by meeting weekly with the Senate and House caucuses, so that a consistent message was going out across Minnesota from the State House to your coffee house. And when the Republicans attacked, we hit back, hard; we stuck to our message; and we never let them gain ground. We even co-opted some traditionally Republican themes, like accountability and fiscal responsibility.

11. A world-class staff. Minnesota was such a hot battleground in this cycle that the State Party could cherry-pick the top-notch political operatives from other states. And we did: Andy O’Leary from Indiana, Mitch Stewart from South Dakota, Jess McIntosh from New York, Jaime Tincher from West Virginia . . . each one the best in the business, who joined an already top-notch staff from Minnesota (plus some that we have since hired, including David Weinlick and RoseAnn Zimbro). Not only was this staff a unique combination of top-notch talent, but they came to Minnesota with their loyalty only to the State Party, not to favorite candidates or constituencies within Minnesota. Their professionalism, and their neutrality, let the Party play its role as honest broker among the campaigns, and built up a level of trust that helped foster cooperation rather than competition for resources in the Coordinated Campaign.

12. A positive, issue-oriented campaign. The Republicans ran on wedge issues: abortion, gay marriage, immigration, and a strategy of smearing as unpatriotic anyone who criticized their failed policies. You can run on those issues, but you can’t govern on them. The DFL Party ran on the issues that affect people in their daily lives: education, health care, jobs, transportation, environment & energy, tax justice, and withdrawal from Iraq. Our candidates ran a positive, issue-oriented campaign. (And when we did occasionally criticize our opponents, it was always factual, and never personal.)

These innovations were practically all new in this cycle, and many of them transpired only after strong push-back in favor of the old status quo. Without any one of them, we may well have lost this election.

Now, finally, the people of Minnesota have taken back their government, and they have done it through the DFL Party. But the battle isn’t over. Politics isn’t short-term work, and it didn’t end with yesterday’s election. The 2011–12 Legislature — elected in November 2010, two biennial cycles from now — will enjoy the chance of actually drawing Minnesota’s political map for the following five cycles. The Party’s long-term goal, having won back the Legislature in this cycle, must be holding the Legislature and winning the Governorship so that we can redistrict the state in the manner that the Constitution contemplates. (For the past four decades, a divided Legislature has failed in fulfilling its constitutional mandate, and the battle over redistricting has ended up in court.)

This cycle was the first of the three that we must win in order to accomplish that goal. We’re one-third of the way there.

Meanwhile, let’s celebrate the fact that a Democratic majority will again advance a populist agenda in St. Paul and in Washington. And let’s look forward to the day — now not too far off — when another Democrat will take the oath as President of the United States.

Brian Melendez

8 November 2006.

- - - -end DFL Central Committee Report - -

I realise that's lots of detail, but it reflects what the DNC is doing.

Here's another pundit weighing in: The new Democrats, say analysts, are likely to force the party to shift more toward center, or else butt heads with more liberal congressional leaders.

Not only are we getting helpful advice from Bob Novak, but also Tom Delay. Certainly, Novak and Delay have the best interests of the Democratic party at heart. And Jon Tester has a buzz cut, so he must be a conservative Democrat.

And here's James Carville!

It'd be nice if we could listen to Josh and Kos, and watch the Republicans form a richly deserved circular firing squad for once.

But some of these asshats need to be slapped down. They could not even wait for November 7 to start their dog in the manger act.

Was Specter standing on principle when after he tried to amend the Military Commissions Act, by eliminating the waiving of Habeau Corpus on the grounds that it was unconstitutional, he voted for the godforsaken thing?.......Oh, and by the way, in case you hadn't notice the Dems need big enough tent to include Anti-Choice candidates. Simon says, take a step back and look at the big picture. When other, more fundamental, rights are being theatened I think we are way beyond abortion being the litmus test seperating the parties.... Besides, there is a big difference between opposing abortion (Casey) and being on a crusade to end it (Santorum)....To defeat Santorum and help regain control of the Senate, Casey was the only logical choice Dems had in Pennsylvania. And Pennsylvanians thought so by a 60-40 margin.

Interesting to hear that the Democratic-Labour relationship is alive and well. Bill Clinton shared Democratic consultants with Labour in 1996 and it was credited with aiding Labour in their huge win in the 1997 election.