Chris Carney: Backstabbing Dick
After pursuing funding from progressives, and promising to work for equal rights for gay Americans, Chris Carney promptly turned his back on his campaign promises and voted “no” on the Hate Crimes bill. The following diary is written by Howie Klein, who raised copious amounts of money for progressive candidates:
In the course of last year’s midterms I had several relaxed and pleasant conversations with candidate Carney and, unlike other netroots groups, Blue America endorsed him. We encouraged our members to volunteer for his campaign and to help raise consciousness in PA-10 about Don “The Choker” Sherwood… and to donate money to the campaign. 722 of our members made donations to Carney’s campaign. We even made a 30 second spot sung by Rickie Lee Jones to help focus PA-10 voters on the issues at hand. And we were overjoyed when he won, convincingly, on election night.
When he wanted our support he told us he favors equality for the GLBT community, something he also made clear to the folks at Project Vote Smart when he checked the little box that indicates he would like to “Require that crimes based on gender, sexual orientation, and disability be prosecuted as federal hate crimes.” So weren’t we in for a surprise a few days ago when Congressman Carney joined 13 of the most die-hard reactionary Democrats in the House — near-Republicans who almost always support a reactionary social agenda — to vote against the Hate Crimes bill.
Now, progressives are asking for their money back, just as I did when Stephanie Herseth voted for the Bankruptcy Bill. If you’re a daily kos member, please recommend the linked diary.
Republican or Democrat, you can’t break promises to your base and expect there will be no repercussions.
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