How to destroy a party from within

This story ran today on National Journal's website.

For the good of the Democratic Party, pray it's not true:

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/04/dscc_to_play_i...

For anyone who doesn't know who the DSCC is or what they do, they are the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, and their job is to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate. It's not their job to choose candidates in primaries; in fact, doing so makes their primary task more difficult because of the hard feelings they leave in the wake of their meddling. People don't send them donations to blow in primaries trying to make Democrats' choices for them.

Now, it's open knowledge that Jennifer Brunner and Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the current head of the DSCC, don't get along, and that Jennifer was pretty blunt with him. The DSCC has shown naked favoritism to Lee Fisher, to the point of being instrumental in crushing Jennifer's fundraising. That's not just some rumor: Menendez and his
henchmen have been actively warning donors away from this campaign.

But apparently, it wasn't enough. If the DSCC is indeed planning to spend the money on Fisher primary ads that their Democratic donors gave them in hopes of electing a more progressive Senate, they're admitting that all their strong-arm, behind-the-scenes tactics haven't kept Jennifer from being competitive, so now they have to press their thumb even harder on the scale to drag Lee Fisher by the scruff of his neck through the primary. That sure doesn't say a lot for his ability to beat Rob Portman in November. And it says they backed the wrong candidate to begin with. If Jennifer is still so competitive she's scaring them into misappropriating money like this, it's clear that if they had backed Jennifer, she'd been running away with this election.

Maybe they can push Lee Fisher over the primary finish line. It's hard to guess. But they won't be able to rebuild relationships with angry Democrats — not just here but around the country — who don't like the insiders boys club in Washington telling them who their candidate should be.