Fire Dog Lake Email on Ellen Tauscher

President Obama says that allowing bankruptcy judges to write down mortgages is an important part of his plan to arrest the downward spiral of the foreclosure crisis, but corporatist members of Congress and bank lobbyists are trying to stop that.

For every foreclosure in a neighborhood, home values drop by an estimated 1%. Credit Suisse says that if judges have the ability to write down mortgages, it will stem the tide of foreclosures by 20% and it won't cost the taxpayers a single dime.

But banks want taxpayers to bail them out -- and members of Congress like former Wall Street investment banker Ellen Tauscher and her New Democrat Coalition are helping them.

http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/02/action-tell-speaker-pelosi-to-stand-up-to-ellen-tauscher-and-the-bank-lobbyists-she-represents/

They are bragging that Nancy Pelosi "buckled" under their pressure and now the bill is sidelined at a time when mortgage relief is desperately needed and time is of the essence.

Can you help?

Write a letter to the editor of your local papers (just enter your zip code) saying you expect your Member of Congress to represent you, not the banks, and you'll be watching to see if they oppose Tauscher and her bank lobbyist cronies:

http://action.firedoglake.com/page/speakout/Bankers

Sign a petition to Nancy Pelosi telling her not to "buckle" to pressure from bank lobbyists working through greedy corporatist Members of Congress, and to act swiftly to give judges the authority they need to write down mortgages:

https://secure.firedoglake.com/page/petition/BankLobbyists

It's time to let Congress know they need to represent the people who elected them, not bank lobbyists.

Thanks for your help,

Jane Hamsher and the Firedoglake Team

Washington Post front-page story

It is great to see the Democratic Party having a debate about how we can optimize our position in DC. At the heart of the debate is making sure we can have the best representatives possible. In CA-10, we have a Representative who is out of line with her district, but the discussion we are now having will be a win for the district.

The voters deserve a choice and the process of democracy is a win for the voters. If the process makes Tauscher a better representative, it is a win. If the voters choose somebody who they think can do better, it is a win. Even having this debate is a win.

No matter what, I don't think we'll see Tauscher standing behind the Bush any longer, which is a win.

CA-10: Let's Take This Primary on a Trial Run

Ellen Tauscher Weekly, V2.01

On St. Patrick's Day 2005, then Congressman Rob Portman was tapped by President George Bush as U.S. Trade Envoy. The progressive blogosphere paid attention within two hours and the very next day, Swing State Project publisher DavidNYC wrote the following on the front page of Daily Kos:

Portman's district is very Republican - it voted for Bush over Gore by a 63-35 margin in 2000. I'd say this makes it extremely unlikely that we'd win this seat. As I understand things, the most Republican district represented by a Democrat is PA's 17th, where Tim Holden sits. His constituents went for Bush over Gore 56-42, but the district was much Dem-friendlier when Holden was first elected. In any event, a 63-35 margin is quite a bit worse.

But I don't think this is only bad news, and I don't think we should write this seat off. Rather, I think an off-year special election (which will likely take place either in August or November) for a seat we have little chance of capturing is the perfect time to get creative and try out new ideas.

As Atrios is fond of observing, being in the opposition can be fun. Similarly, it can also be freeing. I'd love to see local, grassroots/netroots-type Dems get behind a candidate willing to be bold - to do things like Jeff Seemann's highly successful "Campaign Manager for a Day" and whatever daring ideas lie beyond. We can use this race to experiment - to see what works and what doesn't - in plenty of time for the midterm elections next year.

Back then, the OH-02 race had all the numbers going against it, but the initial things that made it worth fighting for were the facts that the major national bloggers were willing to link to good stuff on the race, some pioneers were willing to fight to the point of (actual) potential lawsuits, and there was a vacuum effect because the GOP thought they had it easy and DC Dems indicated little interest in getting involved.

So we fought and learned a great deal. Not only did we fight, but we played the expectations game so effectively that our loss dominated the national media as a win. And the netroots decision to fight despite the odds invigorated the local grassroots to the point where in 2006 Vic Wulsin did better than the Hackett results that were a nationwide story. But nationally, many of the tactics refined during the Ohio 2005 Special Election were used successfully across the country during the 2006 general election. I would suggest that we think of the inevitable primary in California's 10th district along the same lines.

It makes sense for the netroots to decide to fight in CA-10 -- against Ellen Tauscher in the primary.

The netroots may win or may lose, but because of the support the local blogs will receive from national supporters, we will be able to test and pioneer new tactics that Democrats everywhere can re-deploy against Republicans in the general election.

While many Californians are prominent national bloggers, there has never been a single race to force the teamwork that in other states has resulted in a unified group that coordinates offline to win online.

Another benefit is that high profile early races draw people from around the country who believe in themselves to the point where they think they can be an asset in the all-hands-on-deck battles. During Hackett's campaign, a young volunteer drove to Ohio from Florida because she knew deep down inside she had game and was looking for a place to prove it (she is now the chief blogger for the DNC).

So let's take Web 2.0 out for a test drive in California's 10th Congressional District. Let's test and if successful refine the tactics we need to redeploy during the 2008 general election in races nationwide. We have the talent, the national bloggers' links will give us the platform, and even if we don't win the primary we will help win more seats for Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2008 if we decide to test the next generation of online politics against Ellen Tauscher.

Katie Merrill Catapults a Primary in CA-10

Ellen Tauscher Weekly, V1.01
This was the week that the anticipated 2008 primary campaign against Ellen Tauscher transitioned from an idea into reality - with political editors taking note. San Francisco Bay Guardian Executive Editor Tim Redmond labeled it a, "district to watch." SFist Editor Jon Shurkin stated, "it's on." And California Majority Report Editor Donald Lathbury explained one incentive for all of the coverage when he noticed, "CMR's Katie Merrill posted a piece that has generated quite a bit of heat in the blogosphere (not to mention quite a lot of traffic for CMR, go Katie!)."

Indeed, this race will bring many eyeballs to the writing of California pundits and the early attention of the race can almost all be attributed to Katie Merrill. Since so much was written last week, here is the first post in the handy Ellen Tauscher Weekly to keep everyone on the same page moving forward.

Monday, December 11, 2006 - Former Ellen Tauscher campaign manager and chief of staff Katie Merrill began the week with the worst political mistake since Gary Hart goaded the press into following him around. For some unknown reason, Katie Merrill described the netroots efforts in 2006 as having "ultimately failed" and suggested people could not be "good Democrats" if her benefactor were to face democracy in the primary.

Within a few hours, there was a Calitics diary pointing out that only a few months earlier Merrill had described herself as a "political Luddite" who knew nothing about online politics. Robert Salladay then picked up the story for the LA Times Political Blog. By mid-afternoon, Ruck Pad had destroyed Merrill's position with a detailed, 8-point rebuttal (that agreed with Katie Merrill's assertion that she had no clue about the blogosphere). Monday evening there was a Calitics post on Tauscher and Republicans along with a recommended diary on MyDD wondering if Merrill was auditioning to be Sean Smith or Dan Gerstein (in reference to the Joe Lieberman staffers whose contempt for democracy served as an online rallying cry that helped Ned Lamont win the 2006 Connecticut primary). Monday was a disaster for Tauscher, but the week got worse.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, Editor and Publisher of the most read political blog in the world, threw down against Katie Merrill. Kos wrote that he could understand why she feared what he characterized as a, "vicious fight for this seat" but declared, "we will have a candidate, and there will be a primary." Within an hour there was a second diary and a third by dinner time.

At Calitics, there was a long, passionate diary declaring that Ellen Tauscher does not share my values. And Left in SF noted a rumor that, "some bloggers may start a blog specifically to take on Tausher and make her accountable for her actions".

But a short time later something even more remarkable happened. An 18 year old high school student took Congresswoman Tauscher to task. He noted, "Her belief that government is for professional activists and politicians undermines all that netroots, grassroots, and the Democratic Party should stand for. If we want to remain in control of the House and Senate, if we wish to take back the White House, than we've got to be the party of the people and it's Democrats like Tauscher that are standing in our way." And so, but the end of Tuesday night, Katie Merrill had guaranteed the very primary she was seeking to avoid.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - The day began with a post by Jane Hamsher, titled, How to Win Friends and Influence People on the popular nationwide blog, Fire Dog Lake. The post picked up where Tuesday night left off in a way that showed a high school student had more political game online than Katie Merrill. But Merrill surfaced a short time later in the comments at CMR, where she stuck her head in the sand by concluding, "On the contrary, my post far from backfired. In fact, the critical responses to my post on CMR and on different blogs prove my point." Uh, yeah. Within two hours she had be given the nickname, Counterproductive Katie. Ruck Pad responded, "Your post backfired completely, insuring that there will be a primary challenge of Tauscher that will be supported locally and nationally. It created a sense of unity and purpose." At Left in SF it was detailed how Merrill had poked a stick in the eyes of people with far more fundraising ability than Tauscher's friends in the DLC.

Thursday, December 13, 2006 - The battle for CA-10 made The Left Coaster in the morning, "In my view, it is counterproductive for her supporters (see here) to make the situation worse by misconstruing the reason why the netroots have an aversion for Rep. Tauscher."

That night the SFist noted, "Now Tauscher is in trouble with the netroots for showing up and not pulling a Jim Webb (Webb, by the way, rules) They're even throwing the "L" word to describe her, you know, Lieberman. The site Calitics has been all over her lately and even has a post from one of her constituents saying that she's really not that nice of a lady. And needless to say, the Kossacks are in full bile spewing mode. There's even talk of running someone against her in the next primary and when her campaign spokesman pooh-poohed the whole thing, the netroots brought the pain. Oh, it's on." The SFist went on to note the conventional wisdom when it comes to soon-to-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "It doesn't help that it's well known that Tauscher and Pelosi don't get along."

Friday, December 14, 2006 - In the morning, the issue was revisited by the California Majority Report where the editor suggested, "the potential clash between Rep. Ellen Tauscher and an unknown primary rival is certain to be a topic of discussion here far into the future."

A short time later, a Calitics article pointed out how Ellen Tauscher had scrubbed her official government website of a notorious photo of her and President George Bush that had been making the rounds on the blogs. As Jane Hamsher noted at Fire Dog Lake, "Don't worry, Ellen. We'll remember."

Saturday, December 15, 2006
The website scrubbing scandal entered Day 2 on Saturday with the SFist noting, "Tauscher's site may have been scrubbed clean of the picture, but that picture now exists all over the place."

Late Saturday night, the picture and the scandal were on the front page of Daily Kos, "And if you're wondering what a netroots-backed primary challenge looks like from day one, read this. We're going to have fun with this future race."

Indeed.