Sowing The Seeds of Discord

Who's counting their chickens before they're hatched with an article like this, the media for running it or the Democratic Congressmen for playing along and being quoted? I suspect it's a little of both, but the politicians should know better.

As Democrats enter the final days of their push to take back control of the House in next week's election, two divisive backroom leadership fights are brewing within the party, raising fears that Democratic unity could be fraying even before the first votes are cast.

For some Democrats, the battle between Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), the minority whip, who had been expected to ascend to majority leader without opposition, and Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.) threatens the party's efforts to appear ready to govern.

In what could be another high-profile showdown, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the ambitious former White House aide who runs the Democratic campaign arm of the House, may seek the third-ranking post of majority whip, pitting him against Democratic Caucus Chairman James E. Clyburn (S.C.), the only African American in a leadership position.

This could exacerbate racial strains in the House, since both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have complained that Emanuel is insensitive to minority concerns. Members of the black caucus accused him of using strong-arm tactics to collect dues for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and the Hispanic caucus withheld its dues last year until Emanuel hired a Hispanic staffer at the DCCC.

There's simply no point for this article a week before the election. If the Democrats win there'll be weeks to speculate on this stuff. Same with yesterday's ridiculous Ellen Tauscher quote in the New York Times, which set off Chris Bowers (and with good reason):

For the past several years, the progressive movement had, supposedly, risen to power and influence in the Democratic ecosystem by fervently playing by the rules.

•We didn't support third parties against Democrats we didn't like. We kept it in the party, and used the primary system the party had in place.
•We didn't sit on our hands when the candidate we backed in primaries lost. We always supported the winner just as fervently as we supported our candidate.
•We found thousands of new activists to serve as precinct captains at a time when the party infrastructure was dying.
•We channeled hundreds of millions of dollars into Democratic campaigns, significantly closing the fundraising gap with Republicans.
•We opposed Republicans at every turn, fought them tooth and nail on every issue, even when some sections of the Democratic Party did not want to fight. We were more partisan than most Democrats.
•We built huge media operations on a shoestring budget, without any official support whatsoever.

We played by the rules. We followed their rules more than Democrats in Congress followed them. And now, here is our payment:

Representative Ellen O. Tauscher of California, a co-chairwoman of the 47-member New Democrat Coalition, said that 27 of the top 40 contested House seats were being pursued by Democrats who have pledged to become members of the group, which says its chief issues are national security and fiscal responsibility.

"I think there's tremendous agreement and awareness that getting the majority and running over the left cliff is what our Republican opponents would dearly love," Ms. Tauscher said, adding that this was something "we've got to fight."

We are not wanted by large sections of the Democratic leadership. There are many out there who want our money, but they don't want us. There are many out there who want our precinct-by-precinct activism to help GOTV, but they don't want us. There are many out there who want us to fire up the base, but they don't want us. There are many out there who want to use our media to help spread their message, but they don't want us. There are many out there who want us to support primary winners, but they don't want to do the same. There are many out there who want us to fight Republicans, while they say they want to work with both sides. There are many out there who wanted us to play by Democratic Party rules, but they they have no intention of playing by those rules themselves. To them, we are akin to going over the cliff.

It's just completely unhealthy to have this debate out in the open, which Democrats always make the mistake of doing. But the flip side of that is a reminder of what we'll be up against in the near future, no matter what happens on Election Day. The media still loves to write the story about how the Democrats are in disarray. And they'll keep doing it. It's what they know, it's easy to pick off a Blue Dog Democrat willing to slap his own party around for a quote, and they'll keep doing it. Hopefully if the Republicans really crater in this election you'll see additional Republicans are in disarray stories as well. They're easy to write, and reporters want to create a little story to distract themselves from having to write substantively about an issue. The end result is damaging to democracy, but particularly the party who actually give a damn about the issues they advance.

Why won't Democrats refuse to play the game? Whoever becomes the next whip, Emanuel or Clyburn, needs to shut down the whole shebang and quick. It's useless and corrosive. Force reporters to report instead of playing inside baseball.