The rabble-rousers over at Open Left (Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, and Mike Lux) have launched a campaign against “Bush dogs”, defined as Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives who have in 2007 both capitulated on the Iraq funding bill and voted to allow Alberto Gonzales warrantless wiretapping powers.
You will probably not be surprised to learn that IA-03's own Leonard Boswell makes this list. Like many in the group, he is in the “Blue Dog” faction in the House. (Other “Bush dogs” are in the “New Democrats” group in the House, but Boswell does not belong to that club.)
Boswell's disappointing vote on these issues is only the latest in a long string of disappointments for me, from voting for all of Bush's horrible energy bills to supporting permanent repeal of the estate tax to voting for the “torture” bill in the fall of 2006.
Does Boswell really represent such a conservative district that he “has” to vote with Republicans on these issues? No, he does not. His district actually has a partisan index of D+1.4, whereas many of the Bush dogs are in districts that lean Republican, or deep-South districts where rank and file Democrats tend to be more conservative.
Chris Bowers specifically criticized Boswell in this post, in which he made the case that Boswell is NOT “voting his district” when he casts his lot with the Bush White House.
Paul Rosenberg provides some interesting data on the “Bush dogs” and how vulnerable they might be to a strong challenge: click here for more.
Some in the blogosphere have criticized this effort to target in possibly hit Bush dogs with primary challengers, saying it could endanger our majority in the House and is bad form to “meddle” in other states' politics. Chris Bowers responded to the criticism here, and Mike Lux weighed in on the dispute, and his desire to promote progressive voting in Congress without harming Democrats in truly vulnerable positions, here.
What do you think? I support letting Boswell know when we are upset about his voting, but I don't see a primary challenge as having much chance here. Anyway, Iowa is going to lose a district after the 2010 census, and Boswell will likely retire at that point.
Primary challenges against other “Bush dogs” may be well worth the effort, on the other hand. Even if we don't beat these people in the primary, we can push them to vote better, as Jane Harman and Ellen Tauscher (both California Democrats) have been doing since netroots progressives targeted them for primary challenges.
11 Comments
Down with Blue Dogs and Bush Dogs
Whatever one chooses to call them, DINO’s, whatever, they have failed the party, nay the American people. They have failed us on issues as this inane war. They have abetted the chipping away at our fundamental rights in the name of “security.” Boswell has failed us on healthcare; on the environment, on energy policy… the list goes on and on.
In sum, when it comes to doing the people’s business, and protecting the people they are elected to serve, they are worthless to us. A party that sustains such people over the long term in the name of its majority does not deserve the majority.
Bring me a candidate who can show a good chance of winning the Third Districs and I’ll be the first one to throw Lenord Boswell to the wolves. Ditto anyone else like him.
No faith to the faithless.
cman Fri 24 Aug 4:45 PM
off-topic to cman
Did you go to the “corn boil” in Clinton last weekend? I would love to hear a first-person account of that event.
desmoinesdem Sat 25 Aug 8:21 PM
I'm with you, Cman
Blue Dogs must go. It’s time for Americans to know that Democrats stand for the people’s issues like healthcare, muscular diplomacy not war,pro-workers’ rights, energy independence, clean air and water, a decent retirement…And primary challenges do push the incumbents back in the right direction which, of course, is left.
feral-cat Fri 24 Aug 6:31 PM
Leonard Boswell is a Good Man
This post disgusts me. And so do the comments. Instead of focusing on electing a Democratic president and expanding our Democratic majority, you ego-driven, unrealistic party traitors are focused on eating your own, putting your party’s agenda at risk.
Think of FORMER Rep. Jim Leach in an opposite way. The Republicans foolishly stopped supporting him, even though he supported a good amount of their agenda. Now, Dave Loebsack represents them, and I guarantee you that they would prefer Leach to Loebsack if they would have thought about it for more than five seconds.
Setting up a primary would devastate our chances to keep this seat. In case you missed the last election, Mr. Boswell needed every dollar he could get to beat back the BS attacks laid on him by Jeff Lamberti, the NRCC and third party groups. The same will be the case in 2008. Again, we should and do prefer Leonard Boswell to Lamberti or whatever other Republi-nut they put up. But a primary puts this seat back in play for the R’s.
If you want to help expand a progressive Democratic majority, start supporting Seldon Spencer. Send Spencer money, volunteer all your time, do whatever you can to push him across the finish line. Let’s beat who really is against progressive change: Rep Tom Latham.
Don’t spend any of your energy on anything besides expanding our majority.
snipehunter Sat 25 Aug 11:40 AM
Boswell underperformed the top of the ticket
Don’t get angry at me–I’ve voted for Boswell and contributed to his campaigns. But his repeated votes for Bush policies, defying the will of his own district, have turned off a lot of people.
Many of my friends voted for Culver but didn’t want to vote for Boswell yet again after he agreed to sign away part of the bill of rights to Bush. That’s why he got such a slim majority against Lamberti in a year when Culver crushed Nussle.
Boswell would do better to retire and let us run a stronger candidate for the seat.
desmoinesdem Sat 25 Aug 11:59 AM
... but I sometimes wonder 'What's The Point?"
Seriously.
Right now, I look at Boswell’s record and I have to wonder why I bothered to work for the guy the past few elections.
The bankruptcy bill, Congressional “reform” and this joke of a farm bill. It’s too late for anyone to mount a significant primary challenge, but I think for ’08 I’ll be putting my efforts elsewhere.
sousy Sat 25 Aug 9:05 PM
Boswell was rock solid on labor issues
Boswell was rock solid on labor issues. And I really respect him for holding onto this swing district despite age and health issues even though his party was in the minority.
However, his votes on the war, torture and domestic spying have all been terrible.
In any event, he has raised over $500,000, so any primary challenge is moot.
corncam Thu 30 Aug 3:37 PM
Expand Our Majority
Boswell’s race was closer because Lamberti and the NRCC dominated the air waves with negativity. Think back. Was there any Nussle commercial that even came close to the venomous attacks put out by Lamberti? There wasn’t.
I think, if you are that turned off by Mr. Boswell, then you should actively work for Dems that make you happy. Selden Spencer is a great progressive Dem. It would be absolutely fantastic if he could beat Tom Latham. Selden needs our help and I think it would be great if we came to his aide.
I’m suggesting that we should try to maximize our opportunities for expanding our majority, possibly getting to a veto-proof majority. We should not focus on eating our own, putting safe seats “in-play” and throwing much-needed resources out the window. A primary would do exactly that.
snipehunter Sun 26 Aug 9:22 AM
I have donated to Selden
and I agree, he’s a great guy.
If you read my post, I didn’t advocate a primary challenge to Boswell at this point, especially since we are going to lose that district after the next census.
But I stand by my feelings of disappointment in his voting record. He betrayed the Democrats too many times on too many issues I care about.
desmoinesdem Sun 26 Aug 12:39 PM
Seldon self-proclaimed "Blue Dog"
I heard Seldon Spencer say he would join the Blue Dog caucus if he were elected to Congress. I was amazed to hear that!
iowavoter Mon 27 Aug 12:51 PM
Harry Truman Once Said...
…”Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.”
I gave money to Leonard Boswell’s campaign last fall, and voted to reelect him. But I held my nose while doing it. Honestly, every time I’ve talked to Leonard Boswell, every time I’ve asked him where he stood on specific legislation, he has never once supplied a straight answer. In addition, his deplorable voting record on constitutional rights leads me toward the conclusion that Leonard Boswell is hopelessly out of step with the views and values of the majority of voters in the IA-03.
I agree with Harry Truman: it doesn’t mean much for a Democratic majority to have someone in the caucus like Leonard Boswell, who inevitably votes with the Bush administration every time push comes to shove. Party label means little in this case. Boswell may as well cross the aisle to the GOP side and be done with it. If he did, we could at least get to work to elect an actual Democrat to represent us in Congress.
~iPol
http://ipol-2008.blo…
iPol: the Personal Pronoun, as applied to politics.
ipol Thu 30 Aug 11:13 PM