Is it time to confront Dennis Moore yet?

[Neecy]

As expected, today he voted with the Blue Dog coalition against the following House bill:

H R 2237 RECORDED VOTE 10-May-2007 5:39 PM
QUESTION: On Passage
BILL TITLE: To provide for the redeployment of United States Armed Forces and defense contractors from Iraq

Why is Moore important? Because of his position with the Blue Dogs:

Rep. Dennis Moore (KS), Blue Dog Co-Chair for Policy - Rep. Moore, a lifelong Kansan, first won election to the House of Representatives in 1998 by defeating a Republican incumbent in a district that had not elected a Democrat since 1958. Moore is currently a member of the House Budget, Financial Services, and Science committees.

http://www.ksdp.org/node/2940

Not only has he failed us on the war, but he was one of the signers of the notorious Blue Dog letter urging Dennis Hastert to bring the Bankruptcy bill to the floor for a vote.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca10_tauscher/030805_bankruptcy.html

He also caved in to Sprint and voted against Net Neutrality - can't alienate a campaign contributor!

http://freepress.net/news/15961

But it really isn't his appalling corporatist toadying that is starting to irk me - it's his rubber stamping of this failed war. Maybe it's time for Dennis Moore to start getting some heat from his constituents - and I think his office in Overland Park is an excellent place to start. What do you think our chances are of putting together a good number of people, having a professional press notification, and making some noise? I'm sick to death of this jackass - "Democrat" or not - forging ahead with this insanity while Kansas soldiers are dying.

[Telly Savalas]

1. His position on the war is inexcusable.

I can appreciate the fact that KS-3 isn't among the most left-leaning places in America, but there's a difference between building a consensus and simply appeasing the far right-wing. The guy has enough street-cred with moderate Republicans that he could take a stronger stance against Bush's Iraq policy and not lose their support. Hell, the polls seem to indicate that even they are growing impatient with the White House.

That KSDP link says the Blue Dogs support "fiscal responsibility, government accountability, and national security." For over four years, Bush's Iraq policy has been a sustained attack on all three of these things. I can accept Moore opposing immediate withdrawal, but his unwillingness to offer any sort of dissent is grounds for replacing him.

Excuse my pie-in-the-sky idea, but is there any sort of infrastructure in place to support an anti-war candidate to oppose him in the primary? And I don't mean some Abbie Hoffman wanna-be that will poll at 2% and serve as no more than a symbolic protest. I'm talking about the sort of candidate that could appeal to the JoCo soccer moms who are finally coming around to the view that the GOP's Iraq policy is a joke - a sort of Ned Lamont Lite. Unlike Lieberman, I think Moore is an honorable enough man that were he to lose the primary, he'd back the Democratic candidate, and that this support would seal our victory over the extremist nutjob that the GOP would run against us.

Am I dreaming here?

[Neecy]

2. a primary challenge would be tough

Because he's a corporatist stooge he has a fairly good war chest - not that he really spends it, in the last couple of cycles he hasn't needed to - and it would be tough to raise money for a primary challenger. Len Jones could barely squeeze two nickles together and he was running a statewide race. Money would be the real issue in a primary challenge.

All I'd like to see is some pressure brought to bear on him about the war - and it would be interesting to see if moderate Republicans (Moore's *real* base) would join in this effort. It would be nice if the real policy arm of the Blue Dogs - Moore - would hear the voices of the voters and get a little heat. I've personally been way too easy on him - I write Brownback and Roberts frequently about the war - because he's a "Democrat". I'm just getting bone-tired of his war enabling.

[SheilaT]

3. I've been known to say

that Dennis needs to be challenged in the primary. Unfortunately, and Democrat foolish enough to try to do so, would be completely ostracized by the party. It would not be possible to raise money, it would not be possible to get any kind of help from very many Dems. Even the ones that I know who do not like him, who are activists who would support a challenger, simply are not numerous enough to matter.

What you really need to understand is that Dennis is actually a moderate Republican who simply wears the D label, because that was what he needed to defeat a sitting Republican the first time he ran. He's been confronted more than once at party events, such as Second Saturday, and just blows us off.