Roy Herron may feel like he needs to run away from Nancy Pelosi to win a seat in Congress, and maybe it will work for him. But he shouldn’t complain about the DCCC refusing to give him money. If he won’t vote for Pelosi as Speaker, then he’s almost useless to the Democrats.
The vote for Speaker is taken by the full house. The Democrats may have a preliminary vote within their caucus about who to nominate, but once that is settled, they only have one candidate in the running, and that candidate will be Pelosi. The Republicans will probably pick John Boehner, who is currently the Minority Leader. Whoever gets the most votes is going to win. If Mr. Herron votes for, say, Steny Hoyer, that’s a vote that Pelosi loses in her quest to retain the speakership. If she loses the speakership then the Democrats lose control of the lower chamber and all of its committees. There is no incentive for the DCCC to give any money to anyone who has pledged not to vote for Pelosi. Herron made that choice, but he has no right to complain about the consequences.
Has the DCCC canceled ads for Bobby Bright then? He’s the Rahm-bot who joked(I use that loosely) a few weeks ago about Pelosi dying so he wouldn’t have to vote for her. And he’s since come out and said he won’t vote for her as Speaker.
I don’t know the answer to that question.
It would be interesting to find out. One obvious difference is that Bright is an incumbent. So it really would be .. well think Joe Biden .. if Bright was cut off. It’s not as big for Herron because he’s running for an open seat.
that’s true. Doesn’t Bright have to pay dues to the DCCC?
He should .. doesn’t mean he is .. I remember reading something a few weeks ago(that Bowers put together I believe .. I know he did it on ’08) .. that Blue Dogs are slow paying their dues .. or don’t pay at all .. in general .. Progressives are better at paying .. and get less back .. shocking .. I know!!
“I’m not a democrat. I’m you.”
How did this asshole get nominated? Was he the Dem establishment’s pick?
the more i think about it, blue dogs really are their own separate party. stuff like this is what defines whether you are part of the party or not. and its no suprise that people get confused about this because our discourse does a horrible job of sizing up the issue. A party is really about two things: unity on process things like votes (and especially votes for leadership) and a shared ideological vision. To be effective under our current political and electoral institutions a party should be tight on the first and loose on the second. The GOP does a good job with this- moderates like Snowe have policy views extremely different from Jim Demint, but she generally toes the line when it comes to process votes. Dems suck at it.