Perhaps the timing of this diary is irregular considering we want to see as many Democrats as possible elected next week, but my own selection is connected to the current state of the electoral battleground in a sense. There are a number of strong contenders particularly in the House, and perhaps Tim Mahoney is currently the most obvious choice, at least for his brief remaining tenure in the House. Those with the stench of corruption encircling them, such as William Jefferson or even John Murtha, would also be worthy selections. Jim Marshall seems to be against the Dems on virtually ever major issue so I’m sure he’d get some votes. But after the final clincher this spring, I offer the dubious honor to Dan Boren of Oklahoma….
Boren has always essentially been Lieberman on steroids in terms of bad-mouthing the Democratic Party, making several cringeworthy quotes about his party’s “out-of-touch leadership” going way back to his first election in 2004. And of course he votes against us on essentially every major issue. But I was most disgusted with him last spring after the primaries ended when Boren publicly declared he would not cast his superdelegate for Barack Obama, twisting the knife in the chest of an already divided party and making a destructive spectacle out of a vote that would have been uncontroversial.
One could almost understand if Jim Marshall had done this because Marshall is in a hotly contested district. But Boren would not have lost his Congressional seat by keeping his mouth shut and casting his superdelegate for his party’s nominee….or even casting the superdelegate for Hillary in silence. Instead, Boren stuck it to Obama and gave comfort to every Oklahoman with doubts about Obama.
I realize Boren won’t be going away and that a conservative Democrat is the only kind that can hold this seat, but I would love to see Brad Carson take this seat back. At least he didn’t go out of his way to trash his party, and when pressed by Tim Russert back in 2004 on who he planned to vote for, said without hesitancy that he planned to vote for his party’s nominee.
who ran against Dan Boren in the primary in 2004 or 2006 (whenever that was).
I agree, he’s even worse than my own Congressman Leonard Boswell (IA-03), who is at least pro-choice and has endorsed Obama for the general.
But have you ever seen a weaker endorsement than the Des Moines Register’s endorsement of Boswell today?
http://www.desmoinesregister.c…
I’d have to pick Mike McNulty of New York’s 21st district for this one. You just don’t see much of the man at all! Plus, his stances on social issues are way too moderate for a D+9 district. Can’t he be just a little more progressive?
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!
but you already covered that. Other than him and Dollar Bill Jeff, I’m not familiar enough with the House Democratic caucus to know.
Niki Tsongas is a great liberal but a huge bitch IRL. My ex and a couple of his friends worked for her election back in 07. Totally unprofessional, rude to all staffers, snobby, an airhead, and a true blue blood. She thinks people should kiss the rings because her husband was once a popular Senator.
… that the worst Democrat is Bill Jefferson. While I understand Mark’s take on Dan Boren, for me someone who has National Guard and other rescue personel take him to his home while New Orleans was flooding, and basically wait around while he did who knows what (but I’m willing to bet it had something to do with his freezer) — when those men and women could have been out saving peoples lives — to me that’s as bad as it gets.
His district has a slight dem lean and is heavily black yet the guy has one of the most conservatiuve voting records of any house Dem. There is no excuse for that. Even Jim Marshall whose district is FAR more conservative votes with us more than Barrow. If Barrow doesn’t get his act together and improve relations with his black base he’s going to eventually lose a primary by someone from his left.
Members I dislike because of corruption:
Jefferson (LA-02)
Murtha (PA-12)
Kanjorski (PA-11)
Mahoney (FL)
Members I dislike for their voting records and/or personal issues:
Barrow (GA-12)
Lipinski (IL-03)
Kucinich (OH-10) – I know, he’s solidly progressive. But he misses a TON of votes because of his pointless Presidential campaigns. He also votes against progressive legislation at times if it’s not “perfect” enough for him.
Costello (IL-12) – This guy is well right of his district.
Tauscher (CA-10)
Reyes (TX-16)
Boswell (IA-03)
Moran (VA-08) – Blames Jews for the Iraq War
Boren (OK-02)
Boyd (FL-02) – Ys, he’s in a conservative district, but he loves stabbing us in the back
Harman (CA-36)
Hoyer (MD-05) – By far the worst of the party’s leaders
I don’t much care for a few local So Cal Democrats. I hate Grace Napolitano who represents me… although, I do not think she represents me at all. I have just never really had good experience with her, and I think that if her district were remotely competitive, she’d have been ousted years ago.
Another good runner up is Laura Richardson. I just did not like the special election that happened here earlier this year, or late last year. Wasn’t she the one that pointed out all the days her opponent missed, but forgot to mention that her opponent was undergoing kemotherapy at the time? Or did I get that story confused. I knwo there is a Democrat running a write in, I’m going to recommend to my friends they write him in.
Boren, easily. Not even close. The only D to not vote for EFCA. Even the Republican Policy Committee head voted for it.
Of course Dolla Bill is a crook and Mahoney is a horrible person. Also we could easily do with out Murtha, Boswell, Towns, Lipinski, Cheeks Kilpatrick, Andrews, Stark and Rush
His SCHIP vote was infuriating, along with other votes. AND we have to spend millions every cycle to defend his ass. The likes of Matheson and Terry may be very conservative, but at least they’ve found ways of thriving in their district. I’m almost to the point of saying it’s time to cut our losses and let Marshall go.
Jim Marshall may be one of the most conservative dems, but we should be glad we have him at all in a +8 republican district. Even the most conservative of dems is still worth the effort of keeping around (as long as they’re a good match for their district) because any republican would easily be far worse. I certainly don’t like some of Boren’s antics (and I think Mahoney refused to endorse as well) but at least we have a congressman from Oklahoma which has no dem leaning districts by pvi.
Barrow might be too conservative for his district, but it’ll be interesting to see if shifts more to the left now that he has dispatched Max Burns twice and is now facing lower-tier candidates. I’d rather have Barrow than Burns any day, and Barrow only beat Burns by less than 1000 votes in 2006.
In my opinion, corrupt dems are the worst because they reflect badly on the entire party. One contributing factor to the 2006 dem victory was the pattern of republican corruption and the perception that they were looking out for each other. When you have corrupt fools like Cunningham, Ney, and DeLay going down one by one, coupled with others doing things that aren’t corrupt but stupid like Foley, Sweeney, and Sherwood – people start questioning the entire party brand. In other words, we don’t need a bunch of corrupt dems hanging around dragging the party’s name down. So hopefully Jefferson will lose his runoff, and quite frankly I’m glad Mahoney is toast – he was a lousy dem anyway.
Worst:
William Jefferson (corruption)
Tim Mahoney (jackass)
Charles Rangel (corruption)
John Murtha (corruption)
Laura Richardson (deadbeat)
Dan Lipinski (WAY too conservative for district)
Ed Towns (too conservative for district)
Corrine Brown (bad dem, too conservative for district)
He hasn’t endorsed Obama, but he did say that he’ll be voting for the Democrat.
Lynn Woolsey. She urged democratic voters to vote out the moderate democrats in the caucus during the primaries. Does she understand that if not for the moderate democrats, she would not be in the majority?
Jim Moran gets on my nerves, he always acts like a smart ass and is consistently voted for most if not all free trade agreements without apology. As far as policy and votes go, you’ve got to say Dan Boren. Jim Marshall could just switch parties and get re-elected so to criticize him is unwarranted.
As far as the above discussion on who should replace Boswell I vote for Janet Petersen, Iowa has never elected a woman to Congress and she has a solid voting record.