First Horse, THEN Cart

Ryan Grim of the HuffPo:

The organization will be dedicated to finding progressive candidates who might have an outside shot at winning and "take them under our wing," in Green's words. The group's name -- the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, or the P-triple-C -- is a reference to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which financially backs Democratic candidates it thinks have a shot to win but does not prioritize progressive Democrats over conservative Democrats. The DCCC has had a patchy relationship with the liberal blogosphere, which charges it with relying too heavily on old-school expensive Democratic consultants and not being willing to take chances on progressive candidates.

How about maybe we instead work on getting Democrats with intestinal fortitude, personal integrity, and a basic comprehension of ethics and morality? You know, so we don't have to deal with more episodes of Reid being spineless, Rangel being crooked, Blago being evil, Murtha being clueless, Caroline Kennedy being... Well, a self-serving entitlement-burdened Kennedy, basically.

We have the opportunity to start cleaning up the trash in this party. And what are the progressives wanting to do instead? Score political points and increase their market share.

And, of course, everyone is also playing their favorite game known as What Digby Said:

This is an essential component of progressive politics. The stale CW of the village Democrats gets passed on to congressional candidates by simple osmosis --- there's no creativity, no use of modern methods and no real progressive message and the progressive ends up losing.

Regretfully for the progressive wing of the party, they end up losing not because of the ever-dreadful conventional wisdom and less-than-full-throated support from the DCCC but because those particular politics don't always play well in Peoria, much less any given congressional district. Or, as in one of the races referenced in the HuffPo article, they can run such a poor campaign that they couldn't even get elected for the Berkeley City Council.

As a party, we need to run smarter, not simply run outside the lines for the sake of intra-partisan squabbles. Given how the DCCC has become an old-boys network of mostly self-serving snake-oil salesmen and seems to be mostly interested in pandering to J Street consultancies, it would be better if someone were to revamp the national party's networks along these lines rather than doing it only for those particular politicos that follow their own agendas.

After all, it worked out oh so well for the Club For Growth, the Christian Coalition, Heritage Foundation and the National Center For Public Policy Research... In the limelight for a few short years, and all geared up to be on the descendant for a while.

I have to wonder if the Progressive wing of the Democratic Party would rather just blow everything in a blaze of glory, just like the GOP did over the first 6 years of the Bush43 Administration, rather than strive for something more lasting. If so, they're certainly on the right track with this ever-present push for allegedly "better" Democrats.

If these folks have their way, I predict that not only will the Dem majority only last 4 years, but they will be lucky to not pull Obama down with them and keep him from a second term.