Daily Archives: December 18, 2006

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Ellen Tauscher and Joe Lieberman

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Considering the fact that Ellen Tauscher is Joe Lieberman’s BFF in congress, it isn’t surprising that Ellen Tauscher is scrubbing Joe Lieberman pics from her website. While this an acknowledgment she is running scared, for some reason Ellen Tauscher is failing to realize why Lieberman was rejected by Democrats in each of the last two cycles.

While the internets have slammed Counterproductive Katie for suggesting the successful primary campaign against Lieberman was misguided, it is Ellen Tauscher herself who has the money quote on Joe Lieberman’s rejection.

From the SF Chronicle, 2-4-2004:

“Joe just couldn’t compete,” said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, an early Lieberman supporter.

“I think this is not a rejection of Joe. This is more about satisfying the Democratic desire to have somebody who is going to go out and beat George Bush. He’s just a very, very good man, but he’s not what it’s going to take this time in the voters’ opinions,” Tauscher said.

While Tauscher tries to spin it as an electability issue, there was more to the result than that (and it won’t be an issue facing Tauscher in a safe district).

Because of that campaign, Lieberman was considered a formidable, front- running candidate when he entered the 2004 presidential race late in 2002.

But Lieberman’s presidential candidacy never caught fire, largely because he had been a loyal vote for the war in Iraq and President Bush’s policies on terrorism and homeland security.[…]

In his withdrawal speech, Lieberman acknowledged that his centrist positions may have cost him in the campaign.

Ellen Tauscher can scrub her website all she wants and all it will do is create a backlash. The question is, “Which side of the fence are you on?”

Blog Roundup

Blog Roundup 12/18/06

I just got back from vacation, and boy has it been hopping around here!  I’m still trying to work out some kinks in the Blog Roundup System, but hopefully we’ll get a team together to bring a daily blog roundup online soon.  Until then, perhaps you can satiate your appetite for the bloggy goodness over the flip.

Teasers: Leno/Migden is a go, Is centrism a hoax?, Phil’s back, non-white flight?, and some stuff on primary challenges.  Plus, as always, more!

  • The possible ’08 Leno/Migden primary is getting a bit crazy.  Tim Redmond, of the Bay Guardian, has been blogging consistently about the race. First there was the poll.  Then Tim tracks the fallout. Now, it’s official (yeah, that URL is strange, but no, Leno is not challenging Newsom).  Leno announced that he would run against Migden to the Harvey Milk LGBT Club.  This is a term-limits inspired battle, where both candidates will end up fighting a two-front battle.  The progressive core of SF Dem politics will be split fairly evenly, and the more moderate (by SF standards) Marin county Dems might end up selecting the nominee.

  • Frank Russo, as always, has some great analysis.  First, he tackles the budget. Rumors are flying that the new budget will seek to reverse aid to California’s neediest citizens by cutting spending on poverty programs.  Steve Maviglio also questions the wisdom of such a move. Of course, Arnold is in a very precarious position.  He ran on an anti-tax pledge, but promised new spending programs.  Meanwhile we have a $5b (at least) structural deficit with no solution or plan from the Governor.  So, where does he go? Yup, back to Arnold 2.0…he attacks the poor.  Of course, this is all somewhat speculation, Schwarzenegger’s budget will be released around Jan. 10 following the State of the State speech.

  • Frank’s got one last bit of 2006 election wrap-up, this one points to the SoS race for some patterns.

  • The cat’s out of the bag…four years early.  Phil Angelides wants another shot at it in 2010.

  • Hannah-Beth Jackson   pokes holes in the Arnold as a centrist meme.  yeah

  • Over at dKos, leftilicious (ooh…nice handle) has the scoop on Federal Judge Jeremy Fogel’s decision to declare a moratorium on lethal injections in California.  Personally, I think that the fallibility of humans and our justice system should require the end of the death penalty.  However, that being said, if you are going to kill people, at least the state-sanctioned murder should be pain-free.  But, at some point, we will realize, like the rest of the Western world, that executions serve nobody.  Blood lust only begets more blood lust.

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  •   Don’t think the primary challenges are limited to Tauscher.  Jane Harman was the subject of a pretty fierce challenge from a political novice, Marcy Winograd.  However, there are rumblings of another challenge in 08.  Harman in 06 carried much of the same baggage as Tauscher carries today.  Harman repented and attempted to cozy up to the grassroots.  Winograd still took 36%, and there’s still strong antipathy towards Harman.  Of course, her very public spat with the Speaker to be didn’t help things.

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  •   BradBlog  has Riverside Supe Jeff Stone saying that he doesn’t think anybody could hack Sequioa’s machines…he even offered 1000-to-1 odds.  Pretty sweet deal.   A Finnish computer scientist likes those odds and would like to take a crack.

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  •   Blogging Bayport Alameda has an interesting take on flight from public schools, especially as it relates to the Asian-American community.
     
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    Sen-09: Scamble for Perata’s Seat

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    Matier and Ross mention Assemblywoman Loni Hancock and former members Wilma Chan and Johan Klehs have already formed exploratory committees to make bids for the open seat when Don Perata is termed out in 2008. The fundraising is on, expect this race to get expensive. Here is a map of SD-09 (PDF).

    Add this with the battles for the Sen-03 and CA-10 and the bay area is going to have one helluva 2008 primary season.

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    Continuing Fallout from Ellen Tauscher Internet Blunders

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    Ellen TauscherCounterproductive Katie Merrill seems to have been outdone by Ellen Tauscher’s congressional staff, whose website scrubbing has traveled wide and far through the internet tubes.

    It started here, jumped to Fire Dog Lake and on to the SFist. The cover-up then made the leap to the front-page of Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars.

    While it is quite clear that Tauscher’s current team only knows how to be counterproductive online, the larger problem is that her campaign should lack the ability to hire a netroots consultant who knows better. Working for Tauscher would be a career killer for a blogosphere coordinator and while the money might be good, it would be likely to cost other clients (a Democratic candidate would be a fool to waste money on an internet firm facing the wrath of the progressive blogosphere for selling out in this marquee race).

    Not only has the fallout from this week’s missteps catapulted a primary campaign, but in all likelihood it prevented Ellen Tauscher from hiring anyone more productive than Katie Merrill.

    UPDATE This is not what Tauscher wants to be reading in the Hotline on a Monday morning:

    Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s (D-CA) vote for the Iraq war, her perceived coziness with K Street and Pres. Bush, have already made her netroots target number one for ’08’s primary season.

    UPDATE: Sasha at Left in SF:

    The very cluelessness, though, that makes a staffer go through the Congresswoman’s web site and scrub any pictures of her with Bush or Lieberman, thinking it’ll help, will make a fool out of any internet consultant who tries to step in. Hiring an internet consultant for the very purpose of insulating the candidate from the internet is a pretty good way to end someone’s career. You’d have to be awfully cynical about politics and pretty contemptuous of the netroots to take that job. Some people might want “window dressing” on their resume, but it’s not going to help Tausher convince anyone, and it’s going to make whoever takes the job a reputation as a cynical hack.

    A cynical hack who works for the DLC. Ouch.