Online Political BlogYour source for politics

This is really not acceptable.

As the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) battles to keep ahead of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), a handful of Democrats who are either in solidly safe seats or retiring have yet to pay their dues to the House fundraising arm — funds that would go toward boosting the election chances of their vulnerable colleagues.

The Huffington Post obtained the dues sheets for several of these House members. In total, they owe ,134,509 in unpaid dues to the DCCC. All members, except Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), have enough cash on hand to cover the balance. Individually, they owe anywhere between ,000 and 0,000.

For the majority of these guys (and most of them are men) it’s not an issue of not having the cash on hand. Most of them have at least enough to pay a portion of their dues. Some of them might have valid opposition:

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) told the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim and Arthur Delaney earlier this year that strong progressives don’t always get enough backing from the party committees. “When I give my dues to the DCCC, or when you contribute to it, you have no distinction as to where your money is going to go,” he said. “And it goes to front-liners and usually Blue Dogs, and [they] usually vote against our issues. And that’s a real frustration. And usually, if there’s a progressive running, it’s the last consideration in terms of support.”

That’s where the netroots can help. We can give to individual progressive candidates, rather than to the DCCC. And on the topic of giving to the DCCC, why should individual donors give if actual Dem Members won’t? These guys need to pony up. After all, they’ve got jobs–they can afford it.

The Week – In a key race to watch, the Tea Party candidate for Delaware’s Senate seat is trying to oust establishment Republican Mike Castle in a Sept. 14 primary

“People always underestimate Alaska,” says Sen. Mark Begich.

Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) didn’t need to be asked — when it was clear Joe Miller would be the Republican Senate nominee, he picked up the phone and started raising money for Scott McAdams. While Democratic staffers are heading to Alaska, the national party hasn’t paid McAdams much attention — yet….

When Begich jumped into the race to unseat a longtime senator in 2008, the line from national Democrats was, “Alaska? Good luck with that,” Begich told TPM in an interview. In fact, all signs pointed to him losing on election night two years ago. “The establishment always says it’s a state that can’t be won, and when I lost election night we were written off,” Begich said. But after all the votes were counted, Begich was the next senator from Alaska….

“McAdams is authentic and as a former mayor, well, with all due respect to my friends in the Senate, we don’t need any more lawyers in the Senate,” Begich said. Miller is a lawyer who has never held public office.

McAdams definitely has work to do to get his campaign fully up to steam after his opponent’s surprise primary win over incumbent Lisa Murkowski. He had a rough interview with RealClearPolitics in which he was hesitant to jump in to some policy issues.

On the other hand, you’ve got Joe Miller who should maybe be showing a bit of hesitation before spouting off his extreme positions: that Obama is leading America into socialism, that all power has to be returned to the states, that Social Security should be abolished, just for starting positions. Makes McAdams’ reticence to spout off uninformed policy positions look downright professional.

In the latest NBC/WSJ poll, 36 percent of respondents said they have a somewhat or very negative opinion of the movement, compared with 28 percent who said they view it positively.

Lagging in both fundraising and recent polls, the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat said Tuesday it will be a week-to-week decision on how much TV time he can buy up until the Nov. 2 general election.

Politico – “He keeps treating this country like a fire hydrant,” says the former presidential candidate.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, who has presided over the nation’s third-largest city for 21 years, announced Tuesday that he will not run for a seventh term.

You have probably heard by now that Democrats are doomed–DOOOOMED!–in the upcoming midterm elections. Our best move is probably to surrender to our new tea party overlords, who might just show some mercy if we bow down low enough. In fact, if we kowtow today, maybe we will even get to keep a constitutional amendment or two!

To put it bluntly, f*ck that. Instead of cowering, we are going to attack.

We are going to make Republicans defend their Senate seat in Kentucky, where Orange to Blue candidate Jack Conway is competitive with tea party favorite Rand Paul. Today, Conway is holding a moneybomb, and Daily Kos is helping out by looking for 500 members of the community to contribute to his campaign.

You can join in by contributing , and making the tea party play some defense for once.

We are better off on the attack. Every dollar we force Republicans to spend playing defense is a dollar they won’t be able to spend trying to defeat incumbent Democrats. Further, every tea party candidate we defeat is a blow to the media narrative that the far right is taking over. And if Conway can win this race, in Kentucky, in a tough year for Democrats, it’ll send a message that voters want a government that works for them.

Kentucky is one of a small number of states where Democrats have a legitimate shot at picking up a Republican held seat. We need to hit seats like these as hard as we can in order to keep Republicans on the defensive. So play some offense today, and contribute to Jack Conway. It will feel a lot better than just playing defense all the time.

Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate David Haase said he’s meeting Tuesday with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski as the Republican Murkowski is being urged by supporters to find a way to stay in the race despite her loss in the primary last month.

Time.com – There are still 60 days to go before Election Day but the smart money — lots of it — is on the GOP winning very, very big