Considered Action to hold Democrats Accountable

Harry Mitchell votes to legalize Bush’s violations of FISA and to continue secret warrantless spying on American citizens’ communications and data mining of their private information. Harry co-sponsors capital gains and estate tax cuts while working Americans are suffering. Gabby Giffords and Harry Mitchell both abandon their caucus to vote to continue funding the war in Iraq. With allies like these…

Is this what we elected these new Democrats to Congress to do? Considered Action doesn’t think so. Considered Action is a new 527 chaired by alternative energy entrepreneur and political donor Jonathan Read. Like many of us, Jon worked hard to elect Democrats here in Arizona in 2006, and he didn’t do it for those Democrats to play it safe and vote like Republicans on key issues of critical importance to Democratic activists like himself – and maybe you, too.

Jon and his associates who are funding Considered Action were major donors to Gabby and Harry’s campaigns, and this time around they will be investing in some tough love instead. They seek to ensure that our Democratic representatives recall that there is a cost for voting against your base. The calculation of timorous Democrats is that they can pick up some votes from Republicans on key issues without losing any votes from their base because, after all, where do we have to turn? A primary challenge? Possibly. The organization’s goal is to ensure that our Democratic representatives never forget that there are dire costs to betraying your own base…

Considered Action’s first ads will be running Friday and they have budgeted $100K toward their media efforts here in Arizona through October of this year, and they intend to ratchet that budget up every quarter until the election. The group will also soon be targeting backsliding Democrats in California and possibly other states.

Jon makes no bones about his evaluation of our new delegation members’ performance. He says of Gabby "she’s effectively doing a Lieberman." Frustrated with Democrats whose main re-election strategy is to position themselves as centrists by abandoning Democrats on key votes and who seem unwilling or unable to defend Democratic priorities to their electorates, Jonathan is explicit that he’s open to a primary challenge of targeted Democrats, saying "I hope to encourage primary candidates to challenge Harry and Gabby – and I am making my support openly available."

Many Democrats will wail in response to Considered Action’s programme that they are undermining our ability to retain Democratic seats. There are several problems with that view. If your party is not defined by some core issues, and not just a self-selected label, what does it really mean? If a primary challenger better represents the views of the party, shouldn’t that person be our nominee? Don’t we want representatives that will strongly advocate for the issues of importance to us? Should we tolerate Democrats championing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, or keeping our troops in harms way for their own political security, simply because they are Democrats? Doesn’t that harm the entire party by weakening our moral authority on the economic justice and security issues that are a vital part of our national success? Doesn’t defending power for power’s sake strike you as the beginning of become just like our opponents? At what point does pragmatism shade into nihilism? When you start giving up your ideals in the pursuit of power, how long before you no longer have any principles to live by?

Agree or disagree, the primary season has just gotten a lot more interesting.


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11 thoughts on “Considered Action to hold Democrats Accountable”

  1. Michael Bryan-

    He deserved it when he went on FOX news and slammed people in his own Party with the same attacks the pundits and Republicans use against us. He did it when he got on his knees and kissed Bush’s ass (a metaphor, btw, for his unbending support for the Iraq War). Lieberman was truly a Democrat-in-name-only.

  2. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I ask anyone who is critical of this 527 effort to hold Democrats responsible to Democratic voters and donors, where is line that a Democratic office-holder can’t cross and retain your loyalty? Has Lieberman crossed it? And don’t say he crossed it when he left the party – he was FORCED out by primary voters. When did he cross the line that he DESERVED what he got from Democratic voters?

  3. As for Considered Action, I don’t support them. I think it is mean spirited, dirty politics, that will do more to elect Tim Bee. That they ignore all that Giffords has done in her short time in Congress, her votes overall, for defunding Iraq is fine. This is a less than veiled attack…no more…no less.

    Not sure that I can do anything to “defund” them…its their money…their freedom to speak. But I certainly won’t pull any punches in my belief that they care little for a Democrat majority in Congress. I also won’t be at all shy about telling some of you what I think when you start distorting records and levying unfair attacks.

    This group seems to be much more interested in being “right” all the time than considering what it would be like to be a minority party.

    I also think it is shameful…flat out shameful…that this renewable energy supporter would attack one of the most supportive members of renewable energy in Congress.

  4. I strongly disagree with this so called action group. I do think that it is enormously important to hold the majority in the House and Senate.

    I agree with Liza on FISA…strongly…I am angry that some Democrats backed this provision…no question.

    Giffords, by the way, wasn’t among them. On the war, she recently cast a vote in favor of getting us out by April. Not what Dennis Kucinich would favor, no, but is very much in line with what almost every Presidential candidate the Democrats have up now is saying…save again for Kucinich and Ravel.

    I will definitely save my breath on Mitchell. He has a tough time of it up there in Maricopa and will indeed face a tough challenger and it will be difficult to hold that seat.

    As for Giffords, stop hating, look at most of her votes, look at what she has supported overall and then think of what you will get if/when you get Tim Bee instead.

    Maybe he will run “anti-war” and you will get a milqtoast, Moderate Republican, but he won’t vote the right way on womens issues, on Children, on the Environment, and on our civil liberties…you can bank on it. Giffords has.

  5. I guess if one decides that this is about labels, who is a Democrat and who is a Republican, then one could be satisfied with a majority of one or the other depending on which party one supports. The problem, of course, is what kind of people are behind that label. Are we really electing Democrats? Are we electing people who support Democratic values and positions when they vote on our behalf? If you want to be a cheerleader for a label, go ahead and chastise those who want to hold elected representatives accountable. But keep in mind that that makes you a fan, not an activist.

    The fact that Democrats caved on this recent vote to legalize FISA violations should be very disturbing to Democrats on many levels. The Democratic Congress has serious problems, obviously, and that should worry all of us.

  6. “Things would be different if we had a bigger majority and could override.” You’ve sure got that right! I have said and said a Republican majority is not what I ever want to see again in my lifetime! They have no respect for the minority, which would be us Democrats, and they would own setting the agenda. I would much rather make it very clear to the Democrats in Congress what they have to do to represent their electorate. Trying to influence the Republicans is a hopeless job.

  7. Wow, it looks like AZ DEMS are going the way of the AZ GOP. Eating our own. That only leads to more losing. Harry got this vote wrong. But Harry and Gabby gave Arizona more Democrats in Congress than ever before and put Democrats in charge and we agree with them probably 95% of the time. I really hope this group decides to spend $$$ in AZ races where we can BEAT REPUBLICANS — like CD3 (Bob Lord vs. SHADEGG) and CD1 (Kirkpatrick vs. RENZI/BENNETT). Things would be different if we had a bigger majority and could override.

  8. Voting against the recent FISA amendment was a no brainer for a Democrat. The 41 Democrats who voted in favor of it should not be re-elected as Democrats and they should change their voter registration to “Republican” or “Nazi” or whatever fits.

    Anyone who puts their own re-election and career ahead of what is moral, ethical, and just should not be representing other people.

  9. Hmmm … it’s worth noting Giffords voted _against_ the recent FISA amendment, and has said she now things the “new” military approach in Iraq (which she said in April she wanted to give a chance, a view I disagreed with) is failing.

    Neither of those is in line with being a Republican.

    We’ll see how she votes when things Petreus hands in his evaluation next month, however. It’s one thing to say you think the surge is failing, another to actually vote on it.

  10. Harry Mitchell may as well change his voter registration to “Republican.”

    Giffords, of course, was entirely predictable.

  11. I salute Considered Action and what it stands for!

    You can count me and my Campaign IN on holding accountable City;County;State and Federal Elected Officials accountable for representing what they promised when Elected!

    One thing that comes to mind are TWO(2) Tucson City Councilpersons who ran on a platform of repealing the Water based Trash Tax if Elected. Then when elected forgot all about it!

    As I said before I asked Nina Trasoff at the Legislative District 26 Democratic Party meeting why she left Tucson in such a hurry? She said;” Because I had to get out of this Damn Cow Town!”

    She said that in front of over 100 members and not one word came from any of them!

    That shows what is WRONG with our Party!

    Giffords is a Republican Whore who flipped Parties to run for the State Legislature ; and has done nothing but work on projects that benefit her Family Trust and herslf and her Friends; NOT you and me the Taxpayer!

    I have stepped aside many times to make roomfor others to run for this or that Office only to be shown that if I would have run and exposed corruption in every single case none of these hacks would have been elected; but Indicted!

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