DSCC Mission.jpg

So Chuck Schumer, head of the Democratic Incumbent Senatorial Campaign Committee sees no problem in supporting a Holy Joe "Cut-and-Run 2006" independent candidacy over dedicated Democrat Ned Lamont.  According to Hotline:

At a briefing for the Washington, D.C. political press corps today, DSCC chair Chuck Schumer was in a mood to marvel and brag. Last night, with the victory of Jim Webb, Democrats finally found their eighth competitive Senate contest. (Chuck always wanted eight; Dems need to win at least six and keep hold of the roughly four Dem-held seats that are vulnerable.)

Pointing to the victories of Webb, a Reagan Democrat with a flair for non-traditional Democratic positions, and Jon Tester, who spent half as much as his primary challenger in Montana, Schumer said that party activists had turned to pragmatism and were less inclined to hold candidates to litmus tests.

Schumer said the Dem primary voters want winners and are focused one electability. He couldn’t resist adding even "in 2008," which pricked the ears of reporters who thought he was sending a message about the relative electability of Hillary Clinton. (He wasn’t, apparently.)

Schumer said that the DSCC "fully supports" Sen. Joe Lieberman in his primary bid, and he refused to rule out continuing that support if Lieberman were to run as an independent.

There were degrees of independence, Schumer said. "You can run as an independent, you can run as an independent Democrat who pledges to vote for Harry Reid as Majority Leader."

Now we’ll skip over the irony of Chuck Schumer boasting about the Tester win. (I myself am rather happy that the Mavericks are doing well against the Heat , but I’m also aware that I had about as much to do with that as Schumer had to do with Tester’s victory.)  No, we’ll go straight to the main course — this is all about incumbency protection.  The preservation of entrenched power and maintaining the status quo.  The big, fat bird that most Democrats flipped the netroots during the Alito confirmation?  Multiply it times ten, they’re flipping it to every registered Democrat in the nation now.  It’s All About Them.

If you find this to be Not Okay, you can do several things:

  • Go to Ned Lamont’s site and sign a petition to call for Joe to commit to support the Democratic candidate in November. Nobody else is obviously going to do it.
  • Call your Democratic Senator and tell them that as a Democratic constituent you expect them to support the, you know, Democrat.  (It may seem a bit remedial but many seem to be having trouble grasping this.) 
  • Go to the DSCC ISCC blog (called, ironically "From the Roots" — oh lordy) and let them know how you feel (short, painless registration process is worth the trouble)
  • Volunteer to phone bank for Ned Lamont if you live in Connecticut by contacting one of the district offices.  As Colin McEnroe noted this morning, this could be make-or-break for the campaign as we get down to the wire.

If you do stop by the DSCC and send Chuck some love, you might want to point him to the DSCC mission statement from their own web site, which says:

The sole mission of the DSCC is to elect more Democrats to the Senate. 

This is on their — wait for it — fundraising page (see screen cap above).   Don’t they think it’s a wee bit dishonest to tell people they are raising money expressly for this purpose, and then use it to DEFEAT a Democrat?  I think they’ve got some truth in advertising issues here, myself.