The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (‘DCCC’), which raises funds to support Democratic House campaigns, historically has been one of the problems facing rank-and-file Democrats. They have a long history of supporting corporate and Blue Dog Democratic candidates, who, once elected, oppose what many Democrats along with Democratic-leaning independents want. At the same time, they often hang popular, but corporate-unfriendly Democrats out to dry.

That’s no secret. But this revelation by Howie Klein is awful (boldface mine):

A very wealthy businesswoman– and one who has givens hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats– has been trying to get me to be on the board of a new company of hers for almost a year now. I don’t want to be on any more boards. But when one of her friends dangled the possibility that she would help one of the Blue America candidates, I agreed to a meeting. She was smart as a whip and very accomplished and pleasant. And she told me that Steve Israel told her to absolutely not contribute or do anything to help the candidate, a Democrat with no primary opponent in a key race.

The week before I wound up in a discussion with a minor Florida office holder– again, a super rich Democratic donor– who was eager to develop a relationship with a close friend of mine. He said he’d be happy to throw a big fundraiser for a financially-strapped Blue America candidate at his mansion, where he often raises money for Democrats. When I checked his record of giving I noticed he donates to all the conservative and Blue Dog and corrupt hacks that the DCCC is always pushing on their wealthy donors– many of whom would be aghast if they knew they were giving money to anti-Choice and anti-gay fanatics who vote frequently with the GOP. The next day he reported back that he ran the idea past Debbie Wasserman Schultz and she threw a fit and even threatened him– no more cocktail parties for you, Mister– if he contributed anything to our candidate.

Every now and then, a big DCCC donor looks more closely and realizes he’s been led astray by these horrible people who have told him reactionary bigots are really wonderful progressives. And then they come find Blue America. I wish there were more of them… because it takes 1,000 $10 contributions from netroots progressives to add up to one $10,000 check from someone who, for example, might want to really stop Paul Ryan or really hold someone accountable for pushing murderous fracking laws… or maybe just elect a clean, progressive Congress instead of the crap we’re stuck with now.

Of course, public financing of political campaigns would go a long way to weakening the DCCC’s influence. Somehow I don’t think the DCCC is too keen on that policy though.

This is yet another reason why we can’t have nice things.