David Sirota's "The People Party vs. The Money Party: Here are the players" is spot on

[papau]

Democrats that are warm and fuzzy progressives/liberals on social issues, but suck up to big money rather than helping the working man economically, are members of the "Money Party" per David Sirota. I think Sirota's list - while as he says it is in no way a comprehensive list- is spot on. The Money party Democrats that I watched in the 50's giving the right every economic legislative victory it wanted, despite Democratic Party Control at times, is what made my going into the streets over Vietnan so easy. Our job -to either get rid of them, or convince them to leave the dark side - is going to be extremely difficult until we get public financing of elections. Perhaps a coalition for the working man - a Peoples Party - that includes social conservatives is needed on economic issues.

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http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=4A2A77DC-E0C3-F08F-96ABCB28933CFB39

The People Party vs. The Money Party: Here are the players

The fact that our nation's politics is divided not between Democrats and Republicans but between the People Party and the Money Party is obvious to anyone who looks at the political system honestly (which is to say, not most journalists or Washington political hacks). Calls for "bipartisanship" and faux "centrism" that has nothing to do with the actual center of American public opinion are most often moves to prevent the political debate from analyzing the People vs. Money divide that actually fuels our politics. We already have plenty of "bipartisanship" - Republicans and a faction of Democrats who regularly join hands to screw over the vast majority of Americans. Many people ask me who? Who are the leading members of both sides of the actual divide? The answer is that there is no official list because no one is forced to formally declare their allegiance to the People Party or the Money Party. But it is fairly obvious which lawmakers in the new majority have specifically defined themselves on economic justice issues. Though this is by no means a comprehensive list, here are the ones to watch in the coming Congress:

PEOPLE PARTY LEADERS

Freshman Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jon Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA): This is the core group of economic populists who defined the larger populist trend in the 2006 election. Brown has a long record in the House as an economic justice champion, as has Sanders (who I worked for years ago). Tester (pictured above from an event he did here in Helena last night) made his campaign about cleaning up K Street corruption, and Webb has declared that his top issue is going to be addressing the taboo issue of economic inequality.

Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Russ Feingold (D-WI) , Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL): Dorgan has been one of the strongest voices against profiteering by the energy and pharmaceutical companies, and has recently written a book called "Take This Job and Ship It," which is one of the strongest declarations against lobbyist-written trade deals from any sitting Senator in recent memory. Similarly, Feingold has voted against every major lobbyist-written trade deal that has come through the Senate, even airing campaign ads on the issue well before that kind of message became more popular. Kennedy, as the incoming chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee is expected to continue his rabid support for the People Party on nearly every economic issue. And Durbin, now the number two Democrat in the Senate, has also had a solid record on trade, and is additionally talking about pushing public financing of elections - the most effective way to cut off K Street's ability to manipulate Congress.

House Chairpeople George Miller (D-CA), David Obey (D-WI), John Conyers (D-MI), Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Henry Waxman (D-CA): Miller will now head the Education and Workforce Committee where he is expected to turn his longtime leadership on pension security, wage protection and union organizing rights into legislative action. Obey, who will head the Appropriations Committee (and who I worked for a few years back), will make sure that any budget submitted by the White House that slashes health care, education and labor law enforcement will be dead on arrival, and replaced with a real spending plan that protects people (Obey was the guy who famously authored amendments to slash tax cuts for millionaires in order to better fund these priorities). Conyers will head the Judiciary Committee, which oversees all sorts of regulatory affairs where his pro-consumer record will finally have a chance to shine. Slaughter will chair the powerful Rules Committee - the panel that governs how the entire chamber operates. She has been an outspoken leader against media consolidation - one of the toughest issues to champion because the broadcasting industry is so powerful. And finally Waxman will head the Government Reform Committee, where we will now have a chairman who is serious about rooting out the waste, fraud and corruption that has plagued the no-bid Iraq contracts given to President Bush's cronies.

Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) Nancy Boyda (D-KS), and Bruce Braley (D-IA): Ohio's trio of Kaptur, Ryan and Kucinich have been among the staunchest critics of lobbyist-written trade pacts and advocates for the middle-class agenda in the House. Freshmen Boyda and Braley both ran their campaigns almost exclusively on the trade issue. In Braley's case, the Wall Street Journal noted that he made opposition to the Bush administration's free-trade agenda a centerpiece of his campaign" urging "more focus on labor rights in national trade policy and talked of using economic sanctions to keep America competitive." UPDATE: A reader suggested Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) on this list - I totally agree. Peter has been one of the leaders on economic issues for years.


MONEY PARTY LEADERS

Sen. Chuck Schumer and Reps. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD): All three of these men, now in leadership positions, have made very little effort to conceal that they answer to Big Money interests. Schumer, for instance, recently trumpeted a new report calling for post-Enron corporate reforms to be gutted. Emanuel was the architect of NAFTA who used the prospect of his being in the majority on the Ways and Means Committee to suck corporate cash out of Wall Street. Hoyer bragged on his website about starting his own K Street Project, and, as I documented in Hostile Takeover, one of his top legislative staffers serves simultaneously as an official for his corporate fundraising operation - 'nuff said.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA): Tauscher has been one of the most aggressive spokespeople for the Money Party, using her position to undercut major Democratic efforts to address core economic issues from a middle-class perspective. As an example, it was Tauscher who ran to newspapers desperately trying to let K Street know that she would be working to undermine Democrats' efforts to reform our trade policy. More recently, she told the New York Times that Democrats would be engaging in a "kabuki dance" with their own base voters - implying that there would be moves for show, but that pay-to-play business as usual in Washington will continue in the new Congress.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (CfL-CT): Lieberman's reelection campaign (which I worked against) was funded by a massive infusion of K Street and Republican cash, and he will - as usual - be using his position to shill for the special interests who have so openly relied on him. If ever there was a lobbyist in Senator's clothing, Lieberman is it.

Any Lawmaker Who Signed This Letter: Any lawmaker who signed this famous letter begging then-Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to immediately pass the credit card industry-written bankruptcy bill is most likely a committed member of the Money Party. There may, of course, be some exceptions as some lawmakers on the list may have realized the error of their ways. But anyone who still believes in this letter and the bankruptcy bill it advocated for is very deeply committed to the Money Party because the bill was arguably the most brazen tool of middle class economic persecution that ever came through the Republican Congress. Yes, some bills were perhaps more far reaching, but most of those were at least packaged as an effort to help regular people, even if they weren't. By contrast, the bankruptcy bill made absolutely no real effort to pretend it was anything other than a weapon to hurt regular citizens. And therefore, anyone Democrat who signed a letter to a Republican Speaker of the House asking that he pass this bill was making a statement not just on this bill, but on their entire philosophy and loyalty on every economic issue. <snip>

KEY SWING VOTES

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) ...Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT)(Papau note - Dodd supported PSLRA, Private Securites Litigation Reform Act which would have made it difficult to punish corporate wrongdoing) ....Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) - ....Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) -... Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) - .....Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) (Papau note - Barney is solid Peoples Party - but Harry Reid - who voted for the Bankruptcy Bill - and Diane Feinstine should here or in the Money Party) - ...Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) - ...Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (Papau note - only my personal knowledge of Hill's fight for single payer National Health before the committee was given its HMO only marching orders by Bill keeps her out of the Money Party clasification so far) ...Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) - ...<snip>

Cross-posted at Huffington Post and DailyKos Posted by David Sirota


http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/11/04/political-physics-2006-a-tale-of-three-parties/

Political Physics, 2006: A Tale of Three Parties (DC/K Street Elites, Grassroots Theocrats, Grassroots Progressives)
By: Pachacutec


http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?pid=144330

Same Old Same Old (Pelosi last December pushed Rubinomics on the incoming Freshmen and did not arrange any contact with labor who had a different view on trade)
William Greider


http://LiberalsLikeChrist.Org/about/demvsgop.html (reminds you that better economics happen in Democratic Controlled periods)
and graphs:
http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/graphs.html
http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/busheconomy.html

[BayCityProgressive]

1. totally agree

We need a People's Party or Workers Party so that people aren't continually fooled into voting for pro-business Dems.

[KoKo]

2. K&R....below the "Noise" we have folks working for Change...just like the

rest of us who aren't tied into the MSM's Latest Doings and "War Thing" ...it's what is going on "behind the scenes" with building whatever new Party comes forward from the Bush/Clinton Chaos.