You can draw your own conclusions from what went down this weekend in Anaheim. But I have to call attention to what is being put out there as a growing meme, that DiFi somehow worked with Chris Dodd to "kill" telecom immunity in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Nothing could be further from the truth, and anyone pushing this line is delivering blatant misinformation.
Sen. Feinstein voted AGAINST stripping immunity out of the Title II provisions of the bill. The eventual vote to report out a bill without immunity was simply a chance to buy time. As I noted the other day, James Risen's article in the New York Times nailed this:
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who also opposed Mr. Feingold's measure, pleaded with Mr. Leahy to defer the immunity issue because she wants more time to consider several compromise proposals.
What happened in the Judiciary Committee was a punt. There's going to be a floor fight, and NOTHING is resolved. DiFi wants to sign on to a bipartisan centrist compromise that probably won't be a compromise at all. If and when she does so, we can assess her position on the merits; for now, we can continue to tell her how we feel on the issue (And I hope Chairman Torres along with anyone else concerned about granting legal amnesty to companies who break the law and violate our privacy will continue to do so). But suggesting that she "led the fight" to kill telecom immunity is an insult to my intelligence. How can you kill something that's not dead, and where the so-called leader is actually looking for ways to return it to the bill on the floor? Try that logic on somebody else.
(Incidentally, the way certain progressive organizations whooped and hollered and jumped in to take credit for DiFi's vote, which was nothing more than a vote to take pressure off of her, didn't help matters.)
DNC CHair Howard Dean knows exactly what's up with the so-called "Presidential Electoral Reform Act", it's just one more way to keep GOP in office by gaming the system. It's just one more dirty trick from the gang of villains that brought you Abu Ghraib, the Katrina botched handling, and the rise of the Taliban in Afganistan. They are both corrupt to the core and unfit to lead. More Video over the flip.
The Merc is reporting on a new strategy from the CDP to disrupt signature-gathering for the Dirty Tricks Initiative:
"We're asking volunteers and activists to be fraud busters," Art Torres, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said in a telephone conference call, "to help stop Republicans from stealing the White House."
Torres said he's calling on party volunteers to help find the location of signature gatherers and post them on the state party's Web site "so everybody can see where they are, and we can proceed to the locations to offer rebuttals or register Democratic voters at the same time.
"Our intention is not to harass, nor to engage, nor to debate people collecting signatures," Torres added. "This is the first time I've authorized a 'do not sign' campaign, which we want to be not only non-violent but non-intrusive on anybody else's First Amendment rights."
Let me just say that I think this resolutions thing is a much ado about nothing. More than anything it is instructive for how the party responds to its rank-and-file. Nevertheless, I'm here, and so your intrepid blogger will follow it for you.
But first of all, let me make a couple remarks about Art Torres' comments in the general session. I'm disappointed and annoyed that he resorted to blaming "the blogs" for criticism that the Party received after the last convention, as part of some comments that he made justifying the CDP’s efforts to compete statewide. It's an unfair and deliberately vague characterization. What blogs? Which bloggers? Is there anything specific? And can you say with a straight face that the ONLY or even the main people to take issue with various matters that happened at the convention are bloggers? The rank-and-file grassroots wrote those resolutions. The rank-and-file grassroots had the problems with how they were handled in the resolutions committee. They had the issues with the quorum call. They led the fight to create an Audit Committee and the resultant fallout.
We REPORTED it. And I stand behind my belief that reporting the facts and making opinions on policies and events are NOT personal attacks. It's a convenient excuse to blame "mean dirty hippie bloggers" for every criticism ever leveled at the Party. People have substantive questions, and blogs are one way, and really one of the smaller ways, for people to express those questions. I think that, at least on this site, there was an extremely healthy debate about the convention fallout, and it's simply unfair for Torres to lash out in that way.
I will add that the fact that Torres felt the need to defend himself, and defend the Party's goal of electing Democrats statewide and implementing a 58-county strategy, is a win in itself. I think we all want to work to that end; it's certainly a major part of what we do here at Calitics. You can quote me on that, Art. By name.
I'll toss some notes about the Resolutions Committee in the extended entry.
I thought I'd give a little bit more detail about what happened at the end of the convention, which ended with a quorum call and an abrupt close to business.
Let me first say that I do not have this inflated sense about the importance of CDP resolutions. They reflect the spirit and the passion of the activist community of delegates, but they are not pieces of legislation that can be enforced. They are a nice endorsement for certain issues, and the delegates can feel like they have done something. But they are not binding. It has to amuse me, in a cynical way, that this entire brouhaha is over a nonbinding resolution on Iraq, brought to you by many of the same people who decried the Congress' nonbinding resolution on Iraq.
That said, I do think it's a serious issue from the standpoint of small-d democracy and the ability for the will of the delegation to be expressed, as well as what it bodes for the real structural reforms that are needed in the party.
I'm slightly skeptical, but pleased, at Art Torres' answer to this question.
CMR: What is the 58-County Strategy and how is it going to help us be successful in 2008?
AT: Howard Dean and I worked together on the 50-State Strategy when he was running for Chair of the Democratic National Committee. I was part of an effort to make sure he was elected chair because I felt he would be the most progressive and effective chair, which has proven to be right. It's taken a little time for us here in California to establish a 58-County Strategy, which I announced in December of 2006, and we're going to be more incremental given the resources that we have available. But the most important priority for me is a Jerry McNerney seat, the Charlie Brown seat - which will be his seat once he defeats Doolittle - and Gary Miller in Southern California. We're going to reach out to those communities where we can coordinate with counties with the resources we have available for voter registration and finally to make a mark on those counties that were up to this point considered red, that are now purple or turning blue.
I'm willing to give Torres a chance to live up to this. Miller didn't have an opponent in 2006, but if the CDP says they want to devote resources there, let's see it. Same with Brown in CA-04, and to be fair Torres has previously admitted mistakenly not making this a priority last year. What bothers me is that this 58-county strategy is being discussed on the federal electoral level instead of about local and state legislative races; that's where party-building really begins. As a delegate, I want to work with those leaders in the party who talk about reaching out to all counties. I also want to ensure that they actually go about doing it. That's why I'm supporting the creation of an Audit Committee and a resolution expressing support for a 58-county strategy.
Reps. John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis and Gary Miller, all are under some sort of federal investigation, yet the dirty three are still planning on running for re-election in '08 (as long as they don't get indicted by then). Each one has taken their turn under the corruption spotlight. Right now it is Miller time, as the investigation into his tax evasion heats up.
Roll Call, the insider rag in DC says today (sub req):
Dena Bunis at The OC Register spoke with CDP chair Art Torres in DC during the DNC winter meeting and shared a few nuggets.
The most notable, although perhaps not terribly surprising, revelation, is that Rep. Gary Miller (CA-42) is on the CDP's hit list in 2008 (h/t CMR.)
I asked Torres if he thought the party had any chance to get Sanchez any Democratic company in the Orange County congressional delegation.
The chairman does have one possibility.
He mentioned the recent FBI probe of Rep. Gary Miller's land deals, and said that depending on the outcome, it could make the Diamond Bar Republican vulnerable in the 42nd District.
We already knew this race is on the DCCC's radar. Good to know they're on the same page.
And who does Torres cite as his dream challenger to Miller? Joe Dunn.
Calling all Bay Area Deaniacs! Howard Dean is coming to San Francisco to join Phil Angelides, Gavin Newson, Art Torres and mark Leno for a good old fashioned "Take Back California" Rally!
