Mike Tate Gets DNC to Waste Money Against Petri and Ryan

With Mike Tate's name attached to this idea, you have to ask yourself...will there be robo-calls?

The Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America program is asking supporters to visit the local offices of Republicans from districts won by Barack Obama last fall to ask why the congressmen "decided to go against their constituents, stand with the health insurance industry and support the status quo on health care."

The 32 targeted House Republicans include Tom Petri of Fond du Lac and Paul Ryan of Janesville. Every Republican but one, Louisiana's Anh Cao, voted against the House health care reform bill last weekend. It passed 220-215.

"This effort is just the most recent by OFA and the DNC to ensure that Republicans are held accountable for both their positions and their false claims on the issue," according to a statement from OFA. "Today, the DNC announced that House Republicans would be the latest target of its 'Call 'em Out' campaign, calling out House Republicans for their continued use of debunked claims and outright lies to distort the health insurance reform debate and block reform."

Petri blasted the bill as a "budgetary train wreck" before voting against it Saturday, while Ryan has been one of the GOP's most outspoken critics of the Dem bill.

DPW Executive Director Mike Tate singled out Petri and Ryan earlier this week for their votes, noting that both the 6th and 1st districts went to Obama in his decisive Wisconsin victory last year.

"Petri and Ryan have made it clear that they will tow the party line instead of doing what is best for their constituents and the rest of Wisconsin," Tate said in a statement.

I have no idea what goes on at the inner workings of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, but when you have the State Chairman attacking Tom Petri -- you know the guy John Nichols writes an annual column pleading to switch parties (Not happening John, Petri's so tight with Dick Cheney, Cheney calls Petri by his real first name.) -- you have to wonder if the wunderkind Tate is a student of history or not.

You also wonder, if he ever talks to his Vice Chairman, Jef Hall.  See, Hall challenged Petri in 2004 I believe (I'm not checking this as I write it) and got his clock cleaned, so he'd know a little bit about the 6th District, its make-up, and voting patterns.  If he did, he'd see that it really didn't matter what he has people do, or has the DNC spend money on, Tom Petri's pretty much there until he retires and is replaced by another in-district Republican.

See, a much fun as it is to mess around with PVI  (Presidential Voting Index) numbers and voting percentages for Congressional seats, there's no way to be sure how they come into play with a long serving incumbent like Petri (and to a lesser extent, Paul Ryan).  On the reverse side of the aisle, it's the long service of someone like David Obey in the state's 7th Congressional District which makes the D+3 PVI of his district so misleading when it comes to Congressional challenges; or in this case "State Party Chairmen Edicts."

PVI stands for "Presidential Voting Index," it's meant as a tell for where people might vote in Presidential or Congressional elections; not where they're going to, or that the percentage they voted in one election's going to be the same as how they will in the next.

Tate either knows all this, or he's as clueless as he is young.