Yesterday's loss in Georgia's special election may have begun a process that should have happened back in November.



Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the defeat was “frustrating” and urged a shake-up at the top of the party.

“Our leadership owes us an explanation,” said Mr. Moulton, who voted against Ms. Pelosi in the last leadership election. “Personally, I think it’s time for new leadership in the party.”

Yes. Extreme incompetence should lead to people losing their jobs, not "Unity".

This shouldn't even be a controversial position, except on Wall Street.

For some reason, only progressives were not taken by surprise.



"Well, seems we spent $30 million to get 48% in Georgia ... and next to nothing to get 48% in South Carolina. One has to wonder what impact $30 million would have if it was directed to state Democratic parties instead of a gazillion TV ads," he wrote. "Maybe try standing for something and investing in grassroots instead would be the lesson?"

"It's time for them to stop ratf-----g even the hint of a left in their party and activate those voters who usually don't vote."

- Felix Biederman

This might be the low-water mark of the Democratic Party. It certainly seems like a 90-year low in national party representation should be it.

On the other hand, it is still possible for the Dems to fall even further. Proof that lower-lows are possible can be witnessed in the state of Florida.



Where the Florida Republican Party is hell-bent on making life worse for every poor person in the state and turning the Everglades into the Rick Scott Memorial River of Oil, the Florida Democratic Party is simply an incompetent group of corporate boot-lickers that has no idea how to win elections. Despite the fact that registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Democratic candidates are routinely trounced in local and federal elections and can barely win seats in extremely blue cities such as Miami.

Florida has been saddled with a Republican governor since the 1990s: Democrats were unable to topple Jeb Bush, Charlie Crist, and even Rick Scott, a thief who is the anthropomorphic version of that smog-spewing factory from the Pink Floyd album cover Pigs.

Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by more than 330,000 voters in Florida. Not to mention 3.5 million unaffiliated voters.

Yet Donald Trump won in 58 of Florida’s 67 counties last November.

In the state Senate there is a 25-15 Republican majority. In the House, Republicans have 77 seats, Democrats have 38.

That's bad. Really, really bad.

And yet, it can get worse. Just witness what happened this week at a large party fundraiser. Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, Stephen Bittel, decided that there was no need to recognize House and Senate members onstage.



Braynon’s counterpart in the House, Rep. Janet Cruz of Tampa, was angry at the disrespect but Bittel responded with a quip about how much money was being raised...

But Bittel then went the extra step and said “the black caucus members were acting like three-year-olds and childish,” Braynon told POLITICO, adding that Bittel singled him out for being “like a child.”

Braynon was so angry that Democratic staffers almost forced him out of the room, which he left upon their advice.

“The leader would have killed the chair,” said a Democrat who witnessed the incident said. “Why did he have to blame the black caucus? It was Cruz who was the first one really upset about it. It had nothing to do with race … Bittel isn’t a racist. But he’s a rich white man who doesn’t know that the things that come out of his mouth can be really offensive.”

It appears that Bittel will keep his job, despite not uniting the party or raising the $30 million for the party like he promised to do.

How is that even possible? Consider who he is and how he got the job.



Billionaire Democratic donor Stephen Bittel isn’t waiting until 2018 to claim a top position within the party, but is currently using the influence his donations have provided to give himself the position of Florida Democratic Party chair. Bittel’s Machiavellian ascent to top ranks of the Florida Democratic Party incited outrage among Bernie Sanders supporters, who are pushing to remove the corrupt influence wealthy and corporate donors have on the party.

Someone brought a poster print out of @stephgrut email that delegitimizes Stephen Bittel @MiamiDadeDems committeeman Candidacy ;)#BittelGate pic.twitter.com/bj1FFvWwEb — MiamiGator (@GeoffMiami) December 21, 2016

In 2015, Bittel was appointed as co-finance chair of the DNC by Wasserman Schultz....

In May 2016, Politico reported that Bittel and other donors used a secretive Democratic group, Florida Alliance, to circumvent the state Democratic Party, and to push for the efforts and causes they prefer, operating in the dark through a network of nonprofit organizations.

The Democratic Party can sink lower because the Democratic Party is corrupt.

The GOP is at least as corrupt, but it is more competent.

Any hope of the Dems ever winning again has to start with a real, transparent, anti-corruption reform campaign. Anything less would leave the Dems with the same corrupt infrastructure, and whatever progressive agenda items that make it through would always be subject to being undermined.