Exclusive: Rep. Tauscher Talks Progressive Politics And The Netroots
Exclusive: Rep. Tauscher Talks Progressive Politics And The Netroots
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) has become a controversial figure in the liberal blogosphere. ThinkProgress sat down with her recently to discuss a number of issues, including her views on progressive politics and the netroots.
We asked Tauscher about her warning to fellow Democrats shortly before November’s election not to “go off the left cliff.” Tauscher said she was simply repeating “what hundreds of people have said to me.” She said that “the growth area” for the party is “in red states, in red seats, with mostly moderate or conservative Democrats.” “I don’t consider saying, ‘Don’t go over the left cliff,’ to be pejorative,” she said. “I think it’s about being reasonable.”
But Tauscher defended her progressive credentials. “I have a record that’s pretty much second to none when it comes to progressive politics,” she said, citing her high ratings from reproductive rights, environmental, and labor groups. “They certainly cannot be targeting me because of my record.”
Tauscher told us she doesn’t read Daily Kos, where many diarists have been critical of her, but said, “I read many blogs. … I certainly have bloggers from my district, I have people that I talk to all the time.”
We asked about a recent Washington Post profile of Tauscher, which quotes Calitics blogger Brian Leubitz saying, “You can sense her contempt for the grass roots.” Tauscher responded, “I’m pretty much without contempt for anyone except perhaps for people in the Bush administration.”
But she took issue with what she described as unfair attacks by anonymous bloggers. “I think many of the criticisms from the blogosphere are perhaps a little personal and not really fact-based and certainly not about my record,” she said. “I’m not going to be persuaded that personal criticisms by people that don’t identify who they are, don’t identify where they’re from, and don’t know enough about my record to criticize it in a realistic way are people I’m meant to listen to.”
Rather, she said, “I think there are people that don’t like moderates, don’t consider us to be passionate enough. I consider myself to be a very passionate moderate.” Tauscher added: “As far as I know, the people that are criticizing me have never attempted to reach me. … People who want to engage with me, its very easy to find me, its very easy to call me, its very easy to email me. I’m happy to engage with them.”
Watch the full interview:
Our first Tauscher post on Iraq is HERE.
Transcript:
TAUSCHER: I’m the chair of the New Democrats. I’m on leave from the Blue Dogs.
NICO: You’re on leave. Are you taking any steps to convince the Blue Dogs, who you may share some views on and some history with, to support this bill…
TAUSCHER: Yes.
NICO: …and if so, I mean, what sort of points are you making to them to help them recognize the importance of it?
TAUSCHER: Well, I think the Speaker has been eloquent, and as I said earlier, masterful, in putting together this package and making sure that the package has real benchmarks to change course. We promised to change course in Iraq. What we’re dealing with is a belligerent and confrontive president who will not only not listen to the American people, his own generals, whether they’re in the service or retired, the Iraq Study Group, and the Congress, and many of our allies who have become part of the Coalition of the Unwilling and left Iraq because they don’t see an end in sight. … The Iraqis have got to stand up and make the political accommodations necessary to cut the insurgency in half and start to begin to deliver security and stability to their own people. We do not have a military mission in Iraq, we have not for a very long time. And to have our fighting men and women in the middle of a civil war is not only an incorrect interpretation of the authority the president was given, but it is, I think, just not going to provide the kind of energy needed to get the Iraqis to do what they are meant to do. The Iraqis have some very tough choices to make, including their government. They have to be a little fearless, not feckless. They have to be a little more about getting things done than using us as a crutch, and the reason I didn’t support the surge is, I think we’ve been too big of a crutch, apparently, for the Iraqi government, and more American troops is just a bigger crutch. I’m for taking the crutch away, and that’s why the Iraq Study Group and the benchmarks we’ve included in the supplemental really give a sense of what the scope of what this mission should be. It should be a mission to very quickly provide stabilization for the Iraqi government, to provide the ability to train their troops, but we are leaving. And we are leaving not because we’re weak, not because we’re cutting and running, but because this is not our mission. … The two assets of the American people that we have expended for four years, we have overused them. One is our people, and the other is our money, and we have domestic and other needs for the money that we have to stop spending in Iraq, and we have to bring our people so that they can rest, and can be rewarded, and spend time with their families and get ready for the next mission.
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FAIZ: Congresswoman, if we could ask just two more questions. I’d like to ask you about the current skepticism about if you in the blogosphere and some of the progressive netroots. I think, as I was doing some research, I saw that many of them mentioned a quote that you had said earlier that you warned Democrats not to go off the left cliff.
TAUSCHER: Yes.
FAIZ: And you also said to C-SPAN the other day, when the questioner followed up and said, you don’t really listen to people like the Daily Kos do you, and you said, no, I don’t. And –
TAUSCHER: No, he didn’t ask me if I listened. He asked me if I read it.
FAIZ: If you read it, and you said you don’t listen…
TAUSCHER: …Right…
FAIZ: …read it…
TAUSCHER: Right, I don’t read it.
FAIZ: You don’t read Daily Kos?
TAUSCHER: No.
FAIZ: Do you read any other blogs, though?
TAUSCHER: Yes, I do, I read many blogs. But let me be clear. I was repeating what my constituents said to me.
FAIZ: Right.
TAUSCHER: I was repeating, when I said, “Don’t go over the left cliff,” what hundreds of people have said to me. When we achieved the majority after 12 years of fighting to do it, we achieved the majority by winning in red states, in red seats, with mostly moderate or conservative Democrats, because that’s where the growth area for us, by the way, is. That’s where the seats are that we needed to attain to get to 218 to be in the majority. I don’t consider saying, “Don’t go over the left cliff,” to be pejorative. I think it’s about being reasonable.
FAIZ: But on Iraq specifically –
TAUSCHER: On Iraq…
FAIZ: You’ve taken a centrist position, or at least you’ve articulated what you believe is a centrist position for Democrats as a whole.
TAUSCHER: Yes, and so does the Speaker.
FAIZ: What does that mean for Iraq?
TAUSCHER: If you listen to what the Speaker says, the Speaker also says that she believes we have to govern from the middle. And I think that that — you will see that in the many of the things we have done, because we have many new members that are from jeopardized seats, you know, that already have a number of Republicans running against them. We would like to stay in the majority, and I think that there’s nothing wrong with being a moderate or a centrist. I think that my progressive record is second to very few members. I have a hundred percent pro-choice record. Hundred percent with the environment. I always have the AFL-CIO endorsement. I am the original co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. I think that I have a record that’s pretty much second to none when it comes to progressive politics. So I’m not going to feel — I don’t feel defensive about it, and I think many of the criticisms from the blogosphere are perhaps a little personal and not really fact-based and certainly not about my record. … And so I think that outsiders can say what they choose. I am only concerned really with what my constituents have to say.
FAIZ: I wanted you to address one thing. I just want you to take on this one issue because I read this one quote from this online activist who was quoted in the Washington Post saying, “You can sense her contempt for the grassroots.” And as I searched around, I saw this quote, where you said, “She also called the netroots ‘an important group to engage with and we are determined to listen to everybody.’” So it seems that either your message isn’t getting across or that the netroots feels that you’re just somebody who doesn’t support them. You’re conducting this interview now with a leading progressive blog. Can you tell us a little bit about — what is your feeling towards the progressive movement in the blogosphere, particularly on Iraq. I mean, that seems to be the issue that really motivates them, and when they feel a sense of contempt towards their position, I think they react in these kinds of ways that you’re seeing. Maybe you can try to address some of this criticism about — do you have a sense of contempt for the blogosphere?
TAUSCHER: Well I think that I’m pretty much without contempt for anyone except perhaps for people in the Bush administration. I don’t know where this idea that I don’t have a relationship with the blogosphere comes from, but I will tell you I certainly have bloggers from my district, I have people that I talk to all the time. I’m happy to sit and talk to you. I can not speak to as why they have decided to target me. They certainly cannot be targeting me because of my record. They certainly cannot be targeting me because of the work that I’ve done. I don’t be believe they can be targeting me, either, because of the relationships that I have and the bills that I’ve espoused, the things that I’ve done and said. I do think people can be critical when they choose to be. Part of my job too, is not only for me to reach out and listen to people, but also for people to reach out and talk to me. As far as I know, the people that are criticizing me have never attempted to reach me. I certainly spent a lot of my time talking to my constituents the people that I support and work for at home.
I would say these are not people that I work for at home. I’m perfectly happy to engage with people when they choose to engage with me. But it’s difficult to engage with people when their first attempt to engage with you is a significant criticism, especially one that is not, I consider, fact-based. So, I don’t know where this all came from. I think there are people that don’t like moderates, don’t consider us to be passionate enough. I consider myself to be a very passionate moderate. And I consider myself to be someone that as worked enormously hard over the last 11 years to achieve the kind of pragmatic, progressive politics for my constituents. I think I’ve been rewarded with their support at the ballot box. And people that want to engage with me, its very easy to find me, its very easy to call me, its very easy to email me. I’m happy to engage with them. I’m not going to be persuaded that personal criticisms by people that don’t identify who they are, don’t identify where they’re from, and don’t know enough about my record to criticize it in a realistic way are people I’m meant to listen to.
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Tauscher is more Lieberman than progressive. Big bucks and Israel come first. She’s a democrat to get elected.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:20 amBlogs will continue to be mostly bullshit until there’s accountability for the content and anonymous commenting is eliminated.
It’s still the wild obnoxious west in blogland.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:23 amDave sez:
Exactly what do you mean by ‘accountability’? Just curious.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:29 amTauscher may be well meaning, but she is very confused if she really believes that the Democratic party is anywhere near to going off “the left cliff”. She has bought into a storyline that is largely Republican in origin, that the Democratic party is somehow at risk of being hijacked by leftists, and therefore must reach out to moderates, which is a code word for almost-Republicans. It’s absurd, and it shows that Tauscher is one of many politicians who haven’t yet really gotten the message of the 2006 elections, that dissatisfaction with the Bush administration and the Republicans is nearly uniform outside of the 30 percenters. The independents have already been won over and there is no need to swing right to capture them. Republican strategists are suckering Democrats like Tauscher into moving the Democratic party further and further right, the outcome of which could be to create a schism within the party that does not now exist. It is a classic divide-and-conquer strategy.
Tauscher doesn’t seem very smart to me.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:31 amVK ~ She doesn’t get triangulation
March 26th, 2007 at 10:38 am#5 good summary of my post
March 26th, 2007 at 10:43 amDave,
You mean accountable like Fuxnews?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/6/13482/03023
March 26th, 2007 at 10:49 amShe is an intelligent and well spoken politician but as Verbalkint states her misguided conclusion that the Democratic Party can go off the Left Cliff is dead wrong. The Republican Party has gone so far right that our own Constittution has been attacked. Now she thinks that centrists are goign to save the Democratic Party. A centrist Democratic Party is what the republicans were before Reagan. She wants to continue to play the tug-of-war but keep her foot next to the middle line and not pull back. There is a big danger in having an exreme right party and a centrist party switching control every decade. One erodes freedoms while the other “holds its ground”.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:51 amDave: Anonymity is not the issue. Credibility is. If an “anonymous” poster has a track record for posting accurate information and criticism, then that poster has credibility. Your sweeping assertion that the solution to too much free-for-all on blogs is to eliminate anonymous commenting, “Dave,” doesn’t do much for your credibility.
In any event, the blistering and dead-on criticisms of Tauscher have come from well-respected bloggers, including Kos himself. It’s clear she is the Lieberman for ‘08 unless she starts representing her increasingly progressive, Democratic district.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:55 am‘Progressives’ are not going to go anywhere if people on the ‘left’ keep nit-picking every Democrat that’s not ‘grass roots’, enough.
So what if she doesn’t read the Daily Kos?
Shut-up and pick on on a republican, you idiots!
March 26th, 2007 at 10:56 amTauscher made her fortune in finance, represents a Southern California like district in the East Bay of the SF Bay Area. Walnut Creek, for example, is a right wing commuity. Her pretenses to liberalism speak to her ability to triangulate.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:02 amShe’s a doormat for the Republicans, just like Lieberman. I found this interview where she explains her refusal to vote against the class action lawsuit reform bill and the bankruptcy reform bill:
http://www.democrats.com/tauscher
Neal: …What a lot of people don’t understand is why Members of Congress, whether Republicans or Democrats, would support holding people responsible, individuals responsible for paying their bills, but wouldn’t tackle the issue of some of the credit card companies, the predatory lending, some of these outrageous interest rates…
Tauscher: We would absolutely do that if we were writing legislation. If we were in the majority we would have a much better bill. Suffice it to say I would prefer that, and I am for us being the majority so we are in the legislative writing business. But I am also very much opposed to us just being the party of No.
Neal: But don’t Democrats have a better chance of stopping some bad legislation if they hold together… For instance, in the Senate some people argue if the Democrats had held firm on that issue they could have gotten a couple of Republicans, peel them off, they could have blocked this bankruptcy bill. If there’s sort of a divide and conquer mentality, if Democrats truly don’t have an opportunity…
Tauscher: My constituents did not send me to Washington to vote no all the time. I could do that from my kitchen in Alamo, California. They sent me back here to be ready to work in a bipartisan way. Because the Republican majority does not take the effort or the opportunity to work with us to cure the bill doesn’t mean that I still can’t say if you pass it, and I believe that there are good things about this bill or important things about this bill, that I’m not going to support it.
Right. She doesn’t think they’re good bills, but she’s going to vote for them, because she doesn’t want her constituents to think she just votes “no” all the time.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:03 amI’m personally suspicious of anyone who self-identifies as a “moderate”, because my experience has been that they mean “center-right” to “pretty right wing except without the jackboots.” Coming from a Democrat, it indicates they’ve bought into the notion that liberal=evil.
When push comes to shove, “moderates” are the ones who vote in favor of invasions and wars that later turn out to be a really stupid idea.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:04 amI don’t read Kos or Atrios either, and I’m a liberal Dem. I think they’re the perfect example of ‘groupthink”.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:05 amTalking Points Memo and TP are more my liking.
#10
March 26th, 2007 at 11:06 amWhy? This is not where we want to be either. Why should we fall all over ourselves because they wear a (D) after their name? I don’t think she gets it either and we certianly don’t need someone representing moderates (diluted republicans). In case you don’t get it, progressive is different than democratic.
Ya kinda sound like a bootstepper with that attitude to me. Just sayin…..
“I was repeating, when I said, “Don’t go over the left cliff,†what hundreds of people have said to me.”
Meaning, “I can’t think for myself, so I have to say what others say for me.”
Man, this sounds like the entire Bush regime. All puppets obeying the strings pulled for them.
Are they all using ONE brain? Wait, don’t answer that. I think we all know the answer to that one.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:06 amShut-up and pick on on a republican, you idiots!
Comment by Stram — March 26, 2007 @ 10:56 am
It isn’t about picking on someone. It is about counseling wayward Democrats against choosing a failed strategy.
For some reason this thread seems to be attracting people who don’t want to see this kind of issue debated.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:07 amDid you ask the Congressman what happened to her photos with Bush that were so prominently displayed on her website, especially the now-infamous photo of “the caress” with Bush in the cabinet room?
Does she regret cosying up to Bush now that he is so unpopular? Does she still approve of his performance in the war on terror, or does she now disapprove? In what respects, and why?
Seems like a fluff piece to me. Not worthy of this website.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:10 amdigg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!! digg suxx!!
March 26th, 2007 at 11:14 amThe problem with the Democratic party is not its left leaning roots, but rather the gradual takeover of the party by those claiming to be “moderates”, blue dogs, and card caring members of the DLC. When push comes to shove, these politicians are republicans at heart. These trojan horse politicians are infiltrating the Demoratic party thoughout the country, and they need to be exposed for what they are, voted out of office, and replaced with individuals who will vote on democratic priniciples.
Issue after issue, whether it’s ending the occupation of Iraq or the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, we are told that the votes aren’t there, despite the fact that Democrats hold the majority. To be sure, republicans would vote against such measures, but there are also a number of democrats who would fall in with the republican line.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:17 am#20
March 26th, 2007 at 11:31 amSo true.
#20 – you hit the nail squarely on the head. DLC Democrats have no place in our party – they are, by any other name, Republicans.
March 26th, 2007 at 11:37 amToo many liberals in politics have lost their minds to the political machine. They are never going to heal the divide in America by trying to appease conservatives or the so-called moderated who are really just deluded conservatives.
Why would long time conservative voters, who watch Fox and listen to nothing about how liberals hate Amerca, listen to anyone claiming to be liberal or progressive? Why would they vote for a progressive who is trying to be conservative when there are real conservatives?
Liberals, Democrats, and progressives should be spending their time showing these conservatives that THEY believe in liberal policies whether they believe it or not. They should be showing these red-staters everything they have done throughout history to make their lives better and sager. These are facts while conservatives only seem to help the rich at the expense of most red-staters.
Liberals need to stand up and face reality…the world is mostly liberal and supports mostly liberal policies. They just don’t realize it due to decades of Republican PR money going into painting everything of “value” as conservative while everything “immoral” is liberal. Not only does it have little to do with policy, but it relies on lies and the rewritting of history to be true.
I honestly believe that Democrats and progressives trying to appease conservative by acting like conservatives will damage America just as much as Bush has.
March 26th, 2007 at 12:07 pmI am so thankful that her district starts a few miles to the east of my house… Barbara Lee speaks for me!
March 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pmTauscher is definitely a Republican in Democrat’s clothing.
Re: “Tauscher made her fortune in finance, represents a Southern California like district in the East Bay of the SF Bay Area. Walnut Creek, for example, is a right wing commuity.”
Ken Melvin is correct that Walnut Creek was a right wing community (by Bay Area standards) back when it was represented by Bill Baker. Tauscher beat Baker in 1996 largely because Baker had stopped listening and was no longer in step with his own district.
The demographics of CA-10 are continually evolving. Now, the redistricting that previously helped protect Tauscher’s right flank has exposed her left flank. To those of us who live in Distict 10, the question is whether or not Ellen Tauscher is listening to her own constituents.
March 26th, 2007 at 12:43 pmTauscher is way better than the conservative Republican she defeated in the 90’s. But her district, Contra Costa, has gotten even more moderate since then too.
I don’t mind centrist democrats so much. The Democratic Party isn’t autocratic and top down like the Republican Party, so speaking out against someone isn’t that awful….I just wish she would be more judicious in pointing out her “too liberal” counterparts and spend more efforts pointing out the crazy Dr Strangeloves in the Republican Party right now.
March 26th, 2007 at 1:07 pmShe is very fond of saying that she just represents the views of her constituents. Well, we’ll see. If she is reelected in 08′ then I guess she is right. If she is thrown out of office (which I suspect she will be), then she is using her constituents to justify her Ron Emanuel view of Democratic politics. I’m willing to bet the farm that those Democrats aren’t going to fare well in the next election. If it hadn’t been for Howard Dean and his 50 states strategy, we would still be under the thumb of the Republics.
March 26th, 2007 at 1:19 pmShorter Tauscher: No, really, I’m progressive. I mean, I’m a moderate. Except when I’m progressive!!
March 26th, 2007 at 2:47 pmShe really does look like a drag queen.
Just sayin’
March 26th, 2007 at 3:43 pmTauscher is a repugnant-repub in Democrat’s clothing, like Joe LIE-berman—-IT’S TIME TO WIPE THE repugnant-repub MINDSET OUT OF AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY AND GET AN INFUSION OF FLAMING LEFT-WING DEMOCRATIC VALUES TO CURE THE ILLS THAT BESET OUR SOCIETY CAUSED BY repugnantp-repub rightwingnut crank fudge-pachyderm CHICANERY, DASTARDLY MACHINATIONS, UNDERHANDED AND CORRUPT ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, GREED, GRAFT, SOCIAL AND CLASS DIVISION DESIGNED TO DIVIDE AND CONQUER THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!! ENOUGH OF THE FASCIST-NAZI ANTICS OF CHIMPya, Bushland Uber Allies, AND ITS AIDERS AND ENABLERS IN ALL THE MEDIA OUTLETS AND IN CONGRESS—-TIME TO GET RID OF THESE TRAITORS TO TRUE DEMOCRACY AND THE AMERICAN WAY!!!!!
March 26th, 2007 at 7:35 pmI don’t know much about this woman; so I don’t have an opinion.
With that said, “off the left cliff,” yea…for me that would represent supporting illegal activity to the detriment of our nation, like illegal immigration.
Also, I think our representation of “gun control” has not been communicated very effectively; have you read an NRA magazine lately? They think we’re all gun haters, hunter haters, and “anti-American.”
I’m all for complete common sense; when people educate themselves, they’ll understand what “detriment” I refer to concerning illegal immigration (hint ‘tragedy of the commons,’ the effect of millions of people and the unnatural population growth on the environment, etc).
blah blah blah; gun control…I always always defer to the Bill of Rights where these issues are so “debateable.” We all know where the Bill of Rights stands on the right to bear arms.
With that said, I hate censorship, abuse of government/authoritarian power, the idea of a ‘nanny-state,’ the fact of greedy american corporations raping us for a profit, the widening gap of income between the haves/have nots, racism, un-patriotic patriotism (with us or against us BS!!!), poor people having to forego medical care, homophobes, etc and so on.
I also think there’s a sort of ‘bubble’ in the support of Obama. I think that african-americans have it right in a sense, but they’re not communicating effectively, that all this support for Obama who is minor-league by far, but not a peep when it comes to Jesse Jackson, or Al Sharpton from the progressives. Too black vs. not black enough? Absolutely accurate, even if distasteful a consideration. I will not vote for Obama; his words and demeanor (as a Chicagoan) are not impressive. Hillary, Edwards, Gore, yea.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:13 pm