There’s been a lot of pearl-clutching recently over the White House’s involvement in Senate races, but they haven’t done anything illegal or out of the ordinary. And, I think people have been missing the real story, which involves Florida. The announcement that SKDKnickerbocker will be working on Governor Charlie Crist’s campaign means that the White House has already worked out a deal for Crist to caucus with the Democrats should he win his independent bid for the U.S. Senate. How do I know this? Because Anita Dunn just left the White House, where she served as a senior advisor, to head SKDKnickerbocker. So, unofficially, the White House is working against the Democrat in the race. I’d be mad about that except that Meek is so far showing nothing to make me believe he has a chance. I am not a particularly big fan of Meek, and even though I’d rather have him serve in the Senate than Charlie Crist, the White House is actually doing something smart here. Rather than alienating Crist by going all-in with a long-shot candidate, they’re working two sides of the aisle. Meek will still get the help of the DNC, the DSCC, Bill Clinton, and maybe even Obama. But, simultaneously, they’re helping Crist because they see him as the likely winner and they really want him to caucus with the Democrats. If he does, that will be a pickup for the Dems, and it will offset the certain loss of Byron Dorgan’s North Dakota seat. If the Dems can pick up the currently Republican-held Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and New Hampshire seats, they’d be up five and the Republicans would be hard-pressed to even break even on election night. We’ve seen how important 60 votes are. So, I actually have to applaud this power move on the White House’s part.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Don’t forget .. Crist also hired Josh Isay(sp?) .. who used to work for Chuck Schumer … maybe Isay works for SKDKnickerbocker too .. I don’t know .. but you are right .. it still would be interesting to see what both sides are getting out of this arrangement .. and if Meek ends up like Schlesinger(remember him?) in ’06
Isay is the guy at SKDKnickerbocker who Crist Hired. This is not the first independent that Isay has worked for…
Given Isay’s Lieber-credentials, it may weaken the argument that Crist is really going to caucus with the Dems.
Why? Lieberman caucuses with the Dems.
Reckon this might have something to do with it?
Democratic strategists turning to Charlie Crist in Florida Senate race – NYPOST.com
We’ve seen how important 60 votes is? Only marginally. The Dems would do themselves more good shooting down the filibuster next session than keeping on chasing after that 60-vote chimera. Not that every Dem caucus member isn’t a plus, but there’s no reason to assume Crist will be less of a pain than Lieberman.
Of course the WH has no power to tell Crist who to hire, so this is not an official move. It’s going to get miserable in the general if Obama and the Dems go anything less than all-out for Meeks. Let’s not forget that “backing the party candidate” has been the Dem’s all-purpose excuse for a long line of atrocities including Lieberman, Lincoln, Specter, and so on. They’re gonna have to toe that line immaculately in the general or lose some more of their base.
Blanche Lincoln is a Democratic incumbent with no ethical violations and has voted yes on the President’s agenda, all political parties are, at their cores, incumbent protection rackets, and that’s the way they continue to function (because incumbents are the base of their political power and influence). Arlen Specter is also a Democratic incumbent, but in this case, they made a deal to support him in his re-election bid in exchange for his switch and his vote was needed to pass Health Care Reform.
Kendrick Meeks is not the incumbent for that Senate seat, that’s the biggest difference between Lincoln, Specter, Bennet, and if Crist would caucus with the Democrats, I have no idea why they shouldn’t support Crist (albeit in a behind-the-scenes way).
Meeks needs to do a lot better in his polling to be considered viable in this race, if he doesn’t, then the White House needs to be willing to play ball with Crist, because a Senator Crist will be a lot better than a Senator Rubio.
Blanche Lincoln is a Democratic incumbent with no ethical violations and has voted yes on the President’s agenda
Where have you been? She was a PITA the first go-round of votes and voted against HIR the 2nd time around.
She voted for it when it counted, and it’s worth mentioning that Lincoln is the senator from Arkansas (which voted against Obama by 20 points), why do you expect her to not be at least a little bit of a pain in the ass.
Hell, if Bill Halter can get elected to the Senate, I’d be shocked if he weren’t also a pain in the ass on certain issues.
He can be a PITA if he keeps it to himself and Harry Reid. The problem with people like Lincoln and Bad Nelson is that they spout Republican talking points in public and you didn’t refute my second point. She voted with us once. Not the 2nd time. The 2nd time is when it came back to the Senate with student loan reform attached. Also, you remember the heat over the “Cornhusker Compromise” right? If Nelson wasn’t so public about it, he wouldn’t(and the Party too) have taken the public hit.
Plus, let’s not forget that Lincoln voted for the bill only after she played a central role in making it less useful and less financially rational. There was never any question about who Lincoln turned to for putting the frosting on her cake. Halter may or may not see it a little differently, whatever his personal leanings. If not, he too will have a fight on his hands.
So what, there were plenty of House Democrats who didn’t vote with us the first or second time (when the bill passed by the skin of its teeth and every member counted):
Harry Teague, Jim Matheson, Gene Taylor, Chet Edwards, and a whole host of others all voted against the bill twice, both times when it really counted. Nobody really talks about primary challenges for these guys.
I love how quick people are to deride Ben Nelson’s deal, but they had to cut a deal with Bernie Sanders for his support as well (should we call that the Socialist Sell-off to make it sound as sinister as possible?) Deal-making is what politics is about, that Ben Nelson got hammered by it doesn’t mean that he didn’t cut a very good deal for his home-state (which, as Nebraska’s senior Senator, that’s his job) and didn’t translate to a better policy outcome overall (what they ultimately did with reconciliation was to give a variation of that deal to all of the states for Medicaid for the next 5 years or so (I could be wrong on the number of years, but not on the general deal)).
Well, actually people are talking about a primary to Jim Matheson.
link
Forgot about that one, but even that isn’t really a serious challenge and is only happening because of Utah’s crazy convention system (she has only raised $9k