Moving on Democrats

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/story/21787/

 

Moving on Democrats

 

By John Byrne, Raw Story. Posted April 19, 2005.

 

MoveOn targets a Democratic leader with a massive ad buy. Some

criticize the move, but MoveOn calls their action a defense of core

progressive values.

 

The original story is available at Raw Story.

 

Is it time to move on Democrats?

 

According to the Washington director of the progressive lobby

MoveOn.org PAC, the answer is yes.

 

In an aggressive ad buy starting today, MoveOn.org targets the

Democrats' number two in the House, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). The

group believes Hoyer failed progressives by not rallying Democrats

against the bankruptcy bill, which they say caters to credit card

companies and special interests.

 

" Last year, half the personal bankruptcies in America were ordinary

working people with extraordinary medical debt, " an avuncular

announcer reads in their 60-second radio ad. " You'd think Steny Hoyer

would've helped them. Think again. "

 

MoveOn.org, which raised some $60 million last year from a membership

of 3.1 million, has largely backed Democratic candidates and causes.

Though they have questioned a few Democrats, their new attack on a

Democratic leader -- during a time when Democrats are rallying

together against House leader DeLay -- has raised the bar.

 

" We want to send a message that if you walk away from the Democratic

Party [as] leader, then we're going to ask our members to get involved

in your district, your hometown, " MoveOn PAC Washington director Tom

Matzzie told RAW STORY.

 

Matzzie says they have spent " near six figures " on a " close to

saturation " buy in Hoyer's district that will include two Washington,

D.C. AM stations, " including the one they have on in Capitol Hill

offices all day long. "

 

Hoyer's office declined to comment on the ad when it was released

Friday. Other leadership offices have also declined.

 

Privately, some Democratic strategists and congressional staffers have

questioned the decision to run an ad attacking the party leadership,

especially during a push to focus on the ethics scandals dogging House

Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

 

Matzzie, however, maintains the time is ripe -- that it is always

appropriate to question Democrats who vote against what he sees as

core progressive values.

 

" We're not the party, " he said, when asked about charges that the ads

were poorly timed, " We are going to take positions on issues, and

we're going to be true to our members and to America's middle class

families before we acknowledge any sort of notion of Democratic fealty. "

 

Hoyer, MoveOn believes, has broken with core progressive values to

support the working class.

 

" He sided with the credit card companies over middle-class families, "

Matzzie said.

 

" Mr. Hoyer has a good record on a lot of issues and we like him, " he

added. " It's probably OK for some Democrats to disagree with their

party ... but it's never acceptable for a leader in the party ... to

disagree with the rest of the party on an issue connected to core

values like justice for middle-class values, especially when it's such

an obvious Republican bill. "

 

Some disagree. Jim Kennedy, communications director for former

President Bill Clinton, who says he's speaking only for himself,

asserts that the move to corral those who don't vote along party lines

is counterproductive.

 

Attacking Democrats who don't vote on party lines is a " very

Republican thing to do because it's the Republicans who have been so

strong in enforcing a doctrinaire [strategy], " Kennedy asserts.

 

" We as a party shouldn't go down that same road, because I think our

strength is in the diversity of our leaders and the greater

willingness to tolerate different points of view, " he told RAW STORY.

" And if we start trying to enforce one ideology, than we will go down

a path that won't help us win. "

 

Matzzie demurs.

 

" We think we need to be an opposition party, " he said. " It's not

acceptable for a Democratic leader to take a position opposed to

protecting the middle class. "

 

Given that the bill has already passed, Matzzie said the ad is

intended to send a message to Democratic Party leaders.

 

" We wanted to tell a story about what's going on in Congress, " he

said. " This is a Republican bill. It's not acceptable for Democratic

leaders to be collaborating with Republicans on such key issues. "

 

Matzzie says the group targeted Hoyer because of his position in the

Democratic leadership. The Democratic leader in the House, Rep. Nancy

Pelosi (D-Calif.), voted against the bill; the leader in the Senate,

Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), supported the bill but opposed a procedural

vote that would have prevented the bill from going to a vote.

 

Democratic supporters of the bankruptcy bill say attempts to tie the

bill to financial service firms are misleading.

 

" The insensitivity of lobbying with bankruptcy reform has been no

greater than any other, " the Democratic author of the bill Rep.

Richard Boucher (D-Va.) remarked to RAW STORY last month. " People who

don't like a measure as sort of a last refuge will say that supporters

are pandering to a special interest. "

 

Regardless, financial service firms have channeled millions of dollars

into the bankruptcy debate, and an army of lobbyists have called for

the bill's passage since it first surfaced eight years ago.

 

Of 198 Democrats who voted on the bill in the House, 73 supported it;

18 Dems backed the measure in the Senate. President Bush is expected

to sign the bill into law.

 

Will MoveOn move on other Democrats?

 

Matzzie says the group intends to continue to hold Democrats' feet to

the fire if MoveOn sees " betrayals on real core issues. "

 

The political action committee has remained a potent force since the

election, having signed up nearly 400,000 new members. They recently

demonstrated their fundraising muscle with a letter the group sent out

written by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.); the appeal raised $634,000 for

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) in a single day.

 

Asked what issues might lead the group to attack other Democrats,

Mattzie said, " Bankruptcy legislation is an example, but Social

Security is the core Democratic line in the stand. "

 

Matzzie says the MoveOn membership has welcomed the ad. Responses, he

says, have been " all positive. "

 

John Byrne is editor of Raw Story.