There has already been a great diary on the East Bay Express recycling stale insider dogma by calling Ellen Tauscher “moderate” instead of using the label “big business” which is far more accurate.

But that wasn’t the only major blunder by New Times Media reporter Chris Thompson. The more glaring example of his failure to understand the dynamics was his dismissing of the viability of the primary challenge to Tauscher. Thompson said that this was a “pipe dream” and declared that Democratic Party activists “won’t win” despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

That is what “they” said about Tauscher bagman Steve Filson in CA-11 who was stomped by 24 pts in last year’s primary in a more conservative district right next door. It was a landslide, he was beaten like a drum. Filson is a punchline in East Bay politics.

That is what “they” said about the primary campaign against then-Congressman Jeffery Cohelan who was again in a neighboring district to Tauscher but lost his re-nomination even with the union support Tauscher won’t enjoy.

That is what “they” said about Joe Lieberman, who had been the Democratic Party VP nominee yet also lost his primary in no small part to the netroots.

If you want to know what bands are playing, check out the East Bay Express. But don’t expect them to help you understand political dynamics they don’t get.

UPDATE: This story was merged with Part 1 into the complete letter here.

UPDATE: This story was merged with Part 2 into the complete letter here.

Lisa Vorderbrueggen has an article in today’s Contra Costa Times, titled, Bloggers take Tauscher to task. The article has a number of huge problems, let me list some of mine and I’m sure others will chime in with their complaints.

First off, I don’t see how this story could be written without mentioning that the exact same thing happened to Congressman Jeffery Cohelan in the next district over. OK, maybe not the exact same thing because Cohelan went into his unsuccessful 1970 primary with strong labor support. But the complete lack of historical perspective does damage to the analysis.

But not as much damage as this:

Yes, Tauscher voted to allow President Bush to start the Iraq war. But so did every other Democrat in the nation except one.

That is a lie. A lie in the pages of the Contra Costa Times. In reality, Tauscher was one of only two Bay Area Democrats to support the unnecessary, unilateral, invasion of Iraq with the vast majority opposed. In all, only 81 Democrats voted the wrong way on the biggest issue of our time with 126 voting no, meaning 60% of house Democrats were opposed.

This failure to understand even the most basic dynamics and history means this isn’t the type of article I would recommend people reading.

Yes, she nominated Lieberman for vice president at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. But that was before the Iraq war, and many Democrats supported his candidacy.

Of course, Vorderbrueggen fails to mention Tauscher’s continuing support for Lieberman after the start of the war. It would have made sense to point out that Tauscher was of his few and biggest supporters during his flop of a 2004 Presidential campaign.

Yes, she voted with Republicans for the bankruptcy bill and has supported global trade deals that progressives deplore. But Tauscher’s record on key Democratic priorities — environment, abortion rights, gun control, unions, same-sex marriage — is identical to those of her more liberal neighbors, Rep. George Miller of Martinez and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Tauscher votes with corporations against people on the major economic issues and Vorderbrueggen thinks that her record on unions is the same as Miller and Pelosi? Uh, no. But more importantly this district was designed for a Democrat who is strong on both economic and social issues and there is no reason for the voters to keep getting (literally) short-changed on economic issues.

And despite past clashes with party leaders over ideology and district boundaries, there’s no sign that top Democrats share the bloggers’ hostility.

I’m going to call bullshit. In fact, during Tauscher’s battle with John Burton I believe the exact phrase he told Roll Call about Tauscher was, “full of s-.” OK, maybe that wasn’t the exact phrase, but that is how it was printed. Tauscher hurts the Democratic Party and “top Democrats” realize this, but there is a lot of personal history. Notice the absense of support from “top Democrats” like Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. It was Barbara Boxer who once said of Tauscher shivving Pelosi, “Her doing this says to me she is a very bitter person.” These weren’t just battles about “ideology and district boundaries” but were instead intense personal battles.

The bloggers say Tauscher tried to mask her moderate roots when her staff scrubbed a couple of Lieberman photos from her Web site. (Two photos remain, however, and her staff said this was a routine site update.)

The only routine thing involved was Tauscher’s staff telling Vorderbrueggen something and her believing it instead of investigating.

But ignore the netroots and grass roots at your peril, Leach warns. These are the same folks who helped funnel the Bay Area progressive army into the campaign of McNerney, the underdog who defeated seven-term incumbent Richard Pombo in November.

This might have been a nice point in the story for Vorderbrueggen to point out that McNerney first stomped Tauscher’s candidate in the primary despite a huge financial disadvantage.

So, does Tauscher have a problem, or have cocky bloggers overstated their powers as kingmaker, or in this case, queenmaker?

No one knows.

Actually, lots of people know. But they wouldn’t know it from reading the Contra Costa Times.

Regular readers know the Tauscher primary catapulted a month ago, but the very conservative US News and World Report has just caught on:

Likewise, perhaps instead of labeling Sen. Joe Lieberman as the Most Disliked Democrat by the liberal blogosphere-no one else in Congress is probably even close-perhaps there should be a Joe Lieberman Award given to the second-most-disliked Democrat by the so-called net roots.

A strong nominee for that award would be Rep. Ellen Tauscher from California’s Bay Area. Tauscher has been sarcastically labeled the “most popular Democratic congresswoman” on the popular Daily Kos site and identified as worthy of replacement by a more “progressive” Democrat. The National Journal has called her “the net-roots No. 1 target for ’08’s primary season.”

Not surprisingly, James Pethokoukis doesn’t point out the fact that Joe Lieberman isn’t a Democrat after he was rejected for re-nomination in Connecticut.

It is good to see that the conservatives are worried about losing their lap dog. But I’m glad even the fringe realizes Tauscher=Lieberman.

If last week was defined by Katie Merrill catapulting a primary campaign against Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, this was the week that Tauscher tried in vain to distance herself from Joe Lieberman.

The following is how the week developed…

Sunday, December 17, 2006 – Sunday morning began where late Saturday night had left off. Before dawn, Crooks and Liars posted with five links to the continuing fallout from Representative Tauscher’s federal staff scrubbing her official government website of “The Caress” picture.

Rain Storm said the picture was, “definitely worth a thousand words” while pointing out, “In case anyone hasn’t been paying attention, the 2008 election cycle has already begun.” A short time later, skippy the bush kangaroo said, “if you enjoyed the lamont run against lieberman, pull up a chair, grab some popcorn and feast your eyes on california district 10, where ellen tascher, aside from being terribly out of touch with her constituents, made the unfortunate gaffe of knocking blogtopia (and she didn’t even acknowledge that yes! we coined that phrase!).”

That afternoon, a front-page post on Calitics looked at Tauscher’s internet blunders and concluded, “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 post at Left in SF agreed, “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.”

Monday, December 18, 2006 – Headlining CA-10 as, “Just One Ned Lamont Away From Being The Next CT SEN”, the Hotline Blogometer reported, “Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s (D-CA) vote for the Iraq war, her perceived coziness with K Street and Pres. Bush, have already made her the netroots number one target for ’08’s primary season.”

The week’s bombshell came Monday afternoon at Fire Dog Lake. You see, not only did Tauscher’s congressional office scrub photos of her with George Bush, but two pics of Ellen Tauscher with Joe Lieberman were also scrubbed. FDL noted, “The days when you could hire the idiot nephew to run the netroots component of your campaign are long gone.  It should be very interesting to see who might be willing to stand in the line of fire currently being aimed at Tauscher”.

Not surprisingly, getting caught scrubbing Joementum pics was the fastest route to permanently brand Tausher as getting Liebermanned in 2008. A FDL reader set up a new home for the pics and the story hit the front page of Calitics with quotes from Tauscher on why Lieberman was rejected by primary voters during the 2004 presidential campaign. And then the story rocketed to the front page of Daily Kos, “for those who want to know the full case against Tauscher, it will be laid out over the coming year in full.” Ruck Pad suggested anyone thinking of doing netroots outreach for Tauscher, “would be well advised to think twice” and declared the fiasco, “a textbook example on how not to head off a netroots fueled primary.”

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 – The National Journal Blogometer starting things off with, “The samecircles that got such mileage out of naming Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) SOTU embrace of Pres. Bush “the kiss” have now labeled the pre-Iraq-war picture of Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) sitting with Bush’s hand on her lap “the caress.””

Josh Richman won the prize for the first reporter to ask for a comment from the Congresswoman, but he failed to pin down who in Tauscher’s office did the scrubbing or whether the Representative sanctioned the cover-up.

Calitics covered “The Caress” and posted two videos from Tauscher’s town hall meeting with Rossmoor Democrats.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006 – The Berkeley Bubble started the day off with a post headlined, “Ellen Tauscher: The Caress, the Iraq Mess, Forgetting her District’s Address?” and a short time later it was read by a house.gov I.P. address. The House Race Hotline reported, “Emboldened by their role in the Dem sweep, liberal bloggers are now targeting Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA 10), a Bay Area centrist, pro-business Dem in the mold of Joe Lieberman. Her crime? Bloggers perceive her as too cozy with Pres. Bush and big business. And as chair of the New Democratic Coalition, she’s been a proponent of free-trade agreements to the ire of the populist crowd.”

A front-page post at MyDD said, “Calitics is doing good work tracking Ellen Tauscher (including video).  She’s a real problem for Democrats, and should face a serious challenge.” A Calitics diary looked back at the type of candidate who has run against Tauscher in the tenth since redistricting.

Later that day, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Spun Cycle Blog offered a hyperlink-free post that was widely mocked and Carla Marinucci was quickly refuted at Ruck Pad.

Thursday, December 21, 2006 – A Calitics diary looked at Tauscher’s endorsement page from 2006 and notes that neither Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi nor Senator Barbara Boxer made the list.

A MyDD diary (that remained recommended for more than 48 hours) looked back of the major, public feud between Pelosi and Tauscher, “In the end, Tauscher’s two blunders ended up with Burton creating a new 10th District that would remove any fear of Tauscher losing in a general, but one that was specifically designed to allow her to lose in a primary if she kept undermining Pelosi. Tauscher wasn’t redistricted out of a seat, but was given a clear shape up or ship out choice.”

D-Day disputed the Tauscher/Lieberman link, “there’s NOBODY like Joementum when it comes to arrogance, false victimhood, dishonesty, and condescension.”

Friday, December 22, 2006 – The internet tubes were quiet on the last weekday before Christmas, but the 18 year-old high school student we mentioned last week posted his second diary on Calitics and the Rescue Rangers bumped the Pelosi/Tauscher Feud to the front-page of Daily Kos.

Saturday, December 23, 2006 – On Festivus Day, there was but one airing of grievances. A post at Calitics using the Way Back Machine to see Tauscher’s thoughts on her nomination speech for Joe Lieberman.

There should be much, much more next week in the Ellen Tauscher Weekly.

Today’s look at Joe Lieberman and Ellent Tauscher is brought to you by a special machine that takes you way back to August 14, 2000:

“I asked Ellen to nominate me because we share the values and concerns of America’s working families and understand the real issues that affect their everyday lives. Ellen is a strong and effective leader with a vision for the future to build on the foundation of our unprecedented prosperity and use the surplus to benefit all working families,” said Senator Lieberman.

Of course, Joementum flopped in the debate, rolled over during the recount, and the surplus was spent on their war. Lieberman and Tauscher both over-compensate for their insecurity by enabling the Republican Party. The gains we made last year were in-spite of the way these two constantly seek to find the halfway point between good and stupid. If you tell them the Democratic base thinks gravity is 9.8 m/s/s, they’ll suggest we start the negotiations at 4.9 m/s/s and insist that eventually the GOP will acknowledge at least a degree of gravity. The main difference is that Tauscher won’t get a do-over.

From today’s House Race Hotline:

Emboldened by their role in the Dem sweep, liberal bloggers are now targeting Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA 10), a Bay Area centrist, pro-business Dem in the mold of Joe Lieberman.

When Berkeley Bubble wrote on Tauscher, guess who showed up?

And  MyDD’s Matt Stoller gave us a shout out:

Calitics is doing good work tracking Ellen Tauscher (including video).  She’s a real problem for Democrats, and should face a serious challenge.

UPDATE: While DC seems to get it, this is stoopid talking:

But defenders of Tauscher note that Kos and some others in the blogosphere sharply targeted the moderate Lieberman — and got credit for getting him defeated in the Democratic primary — only to find their influence was viewed as profoundly weakened when he was handily re-elected as an independent in the mid-term elections.

Tauscher can’t run as an independent once she loses and it was the same blogs that BEAT LIEBERMAN that also put Tester and Webb over the top. I don’t know who views flipping the senate as “profoundly weakened”  influence, but Marinucci should stop listening to them.

UPDATE II: Ruck Pad goes in-depth on Carla Marinucci

Over at CA Majority Report, former gubernatorial wannabe Steve Westly looks at what he calls the, “three key lessons from this year’s midterm election.” Setting aside the fact that you should never take advice from anyone who hired Garry South, the biggest problem is what Westly failed to learn.

The defining characteristic of this year’s campaigns was the wholesale rejection of the Democratic Leadership Council. Westly was DLC and lost to a candidate who asked the DLC to take his name off their list. In CA-11, the DLC route Steve Filson took resulted in him being stomped by 24% points.

That same day in Montana, Jon Tester scored a 26% point victory over a DLC candidate with far more money. Two months later, former DLC Chair Joe Lieberman lost his primary.

This is a trend, the biggest primary in 2008 is against former DLC Vice Chair Ellen Tauscher.

We are seeing the same dynamic in the 2008 presidential primary. The first two major candidates to pull out, Mark Warner and Evan Bayh, are both prominent DLC members and current Chair Tom Vilsack is expected to follow suit shortly. That will leave Hillary Clinton as the only remaining DLC candidate and her campaign is imploding.

This might be a painful lesson for Westly, but it is the lesson that should be drawn from the midterms. That, and never hire Garry South.