President Obama has nominated Republican Representative John McHugh to be Secretary of the Army. It is not exactly thrilling that yet another major national security position in the Obama administration has gone to a Republican. McHugh scores pretty low on military matters according to progressive punch, and his DW-nominate score hovers around a not-moderate 0.3. After Democrats retook Congress in 2006 largely because of Iraq, and after President Obama won the Democratic nomination significantly because of his early opposition to the war, it gives me a warm feeling for Republicans to still be occupying so many key national security positions.
Anyway, my complaining about Obama's appointments never seems to get anywhere. I'm sure that by appointing McHugh, Obama has somehow made a super-progressive move.
One ray of hope is that the NY-23, which covers much of the "hump" in northern New York State, will now have a special election. With a PVI of R+1, it was won by President Obama, and is actually slightly more favorable for Democrats than the NY-20, where Democrat Scott Murphy won a special election two months ago. McHugh himself proved unassailable, even during two consecutive wave elections for Democrats (he won by a little over 20% in both 2006 and 2008), but the seat is now clearly winnable.
However, I also worry that many of the same problems that appeared in NY-20 will be repeated in NY-23. Four months ago, Scott Murphy was selected by local party leaders as the Democratic nominee without a primary election. Murphy then immediately promised to apply for membership in the Blue Dogs once he entered Congress. Progressives were thus completely shut out from the process right at the start. Will the same thing happen in NY-23?
In the NY-23, as with other special elections taking place right now, as many progressive grassroots organizations as possible need to make it clear that they are not going to give money to any Democratic candidate who refuses to rule out joining the Blue Dogs when entering Congress. All progressive criticisms of the Blue Dogs are cancelled out and rendered utterly ineffective if we continue to funnel hundreds of thousands of small donor dollars to Blue Dog candidates. In fact, if the progressive grassroots are donating to Blue Dog candidates, it makes no sense for any Democratic candidate not to attempt to join the Blue Dogs. If Blue Dog membership can open small donor doors, and corporate PAC doors for you, then why would any Democratic candidate not just promise to try and join the Blue Dogs?
Further, we need to start making noise about the need for a primary election, and fight back against the plutocratic meme that such elections are too expensive right now. The day when our elected officials declare that we can't afford to hold new elections is the day that the American experiment in democracy ends once and for all. It is an offensive, terrible argument to make. There needs to be a primary in NY-23, and we need to be loud about the need for one. |
