Earlier this morning, I was reading a post entitled, "What Happened to the Energy of Hope Here at Daily Kos?" Normally, I view topics such as this as navel gazing. I much prefer either educational posts that help produce a record or those which have a definitive call to action. I was going through the post when one particular comment froze me in my tracks. The commenter wrote that much of the cynicism and criticism directed toward the President and the leadership of the Democratic party are low blows and "a lot of it has to do with the remarkable tendency for self sabotage among progressives."
Self sabotage? Really? That comment dredged up several unfortunate memories, and I'll detail my memories of "sabotage," and I am willing to name names below the jump.
I live in central Illinois near Peoria. I'll start by telling you about my State Senator, Dave Koehler.
Dave's roots are in organized labor and grassroots action. He got his start as a United Church of Christ minister and community organizer working under Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Worker Ministry. He moved to Peoria in 1978 to work at the Peoria Friendship House and then became the first director of the Peoria Area Labor Management Council, whose mission is to stabilize labor-management relations by strengthening the collective bargaining process.
Dave went into politics several years ago, serving on the Peoria County Board from 1982-1988 before moving on the Peoria City Council in 1989. After leaving the Peoria City Council, he served as Chief of Staff to George Shadid who was the long time sheriff of Peoria County before coming a state senator. After Shadid retired, Dave was elected to his first term as a State Senator. While in the Illinois Assembly, Dave has headed committees, passed legislation, and is consistently one of the most progressive members of the state's delegation.
Although an ordained minister, Dave sponsored the Illinois Civil Union legislation a few years back and has been an advocate for marriage equality. I tried embedding a YouTube video, but I had trouble. The link is here. Senator Koehler has an enviable track record. Almost thirty years of public service with a record of accomplishment for Illinois families. Hell, Dave's even a bad ass as one punk with a gun found out.
In 2012, Dave was preparing to run for Congress against Tea Partier Bobby Schilling in the newly redrawn IL-17 which due to redistricting was going to become more favorable to Democratic candidates. (Lane Evans one of the founding members of the Congressional Progressive caucus represented the majority of this district for over twenty-five years) As the date for filing neared, Dave had his petitions ready to get on the primary ballot. He was the first federal candidate anywhere to be endorsed by the AFL-CIO in the 2012 election cycle.
Enter Dick Durbin.
Dick Durbin had a meeting with Dave Koehler one Friday afternoon to tell Koehler that he, Durbin, would be endorsing his former babysitter, Cheri Bustos. Yes, you read that correctly. Cheri Bustos was in fact the babysitter to Dick Durbin's children while her father was an aide to the late Senator Paul Simon.
As if that wasn't bad enough, it gets worse. As one can see from this story from Cheri Bustos' hometown paper, Dave Koehler had only the weekend to round up enough signatures to get his name on the ballot to retain his seat as a State Senator.
Thanks to the intervention of a sitting U.S. Senator, instead of getting a progressive stalwart, we got a DCCC backed conservadem named Cheri Bustos, who is ranked 187th out of the 202 members of the House Democratic caucus according to Progressive Punch. She has been named one of the Ten Worst Democratic Freshmen by Howie Klein over at Downwithtyranny! for her votes to approve CIPSA, cutting food stamps, the Keystone pipeline, and voting for every gutting of environmental and financial regulation that Wall St. lobbyists can think up.
In the 2012, IL-13 primary, Dick Durbin and the DCCC threw their weight and lots of cash behind Matt Goetten who promised to caucus with the New Dems. Unfortunately for them, Dr. David Gill a progressive emergency room physician who campaigned for a single payer health care system won the primary. After the Illinois primary, Steve Israel, the chairman of the DCCC, put out his Red to Blue list. Every Illinois primary winner, but one was on the list and received money and help from the DCCC except one, Dr. David Gill. Dr. Gill was finally put on the list at the very end of August.
In 2006, then Senator Barack Obama threw his weight, money, and people behind Tammy Duckworth in her primary against the progressive community organizer, Christine Cegelis who had earlier almost defeated long time incumbent Henry Hyde.
Progressives remember how Senator Obama threw his weight behind Joe Lieberman in his primary with Ned Lamont, and how Obama tepidly campaigned for Lamont from a distance when Joe ran as an Independent. And don't get me started about Rahm Emmanuel's days heading the DCCC, or about how Progressives were shut out in favor of the Rubinites and Arne Duncan from cabinet positions.
If you have any similar stories of Progressive "self-sabotage," from your state or region please feel free to share them and provide links.