What will the progressive 527s do now?

Here's one suggestion:

Turn up the heat on Republican Senators from blue states. Much has been made of President Bush's popular majority and the 55-45 margin the GOP won in the Senate. But many of those Republicans hail from states with healthy Democratic majorities. Three of them -- Lincoln Chafee (RI), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Rick Santorum (PA) -- are up for reelection in two years. Another four -- Norm Coleman (MN), Susan Collins (ME), Gordon Smith (OR) and John Sununu (NH) -- are up in four years.

Every time one of these politicians indicates they might vote in favor of privatization of Social Security, or contemplates consenting to a ultra-conservative Supreme Court justice, or hints they'll vote to impose further restrictions on a woman's right to choose, the 527s should run vicious attack ads in their home states telling their constituents what they're contemplating doing.

Republican front organizations have been doing it to moderate Democrats in swing states for years. It's allowed them to rout decent Democrats like Tom Daschle from office and achieve policy goals far beyond their numbers.

There is only one way to beat the Republican's mendacious attack machine. That's to build one of your own. Right now, the Republicans have a majority in the Senate because progressive states have repeatedly elected moderate Republicans to office who cave in to their hard right leaders at crunch time.

We're seeing the game plan in action again this week. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa) is under attack for a stray comment that suggested he holds moderate views on selecting Supreme Court justices. He's slated to take over the Judiciary Committee, where he may be able to temper Bush's ability to ram hard right nominees through the Senate.

It's still possible the religious fundamentalists' allies in Congress will deny it to him. Earlier this year, they tried to unseat Specter in the primary. Now the right wing direct mail machine is flooding Capitol Hill with faxes, emails, phone calls and letters demanding his scalp. The conventional wisdom is that he'll survive and assume the seat his seniority has earned him. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Isn't it time that the moderate Republicans in Congress start hearing from the other side of the political spectrum -- from the voters who gave John Kerry a clear majority in their home states? Perhaps if they hear from enough of them (amplified, of course, by those 527s), maybe they'll find the political courage to buck their right wing leaders. Maybe a few of these Blue Dog Republicans will even switch sides.

Posted by gooznews at November 8, 2004 08:09 PM