yet I can understand DCCC's
reluctance to spread limited funds
too thin in a general election when
hundreds of seats are at stake.

but with only one or two special
elections in any year, hey, go for it!
put a hundred grand behind
the campaign of the Democratic
nominee in every special election.

the publicity that comes to the only
election taking place in the country
guarantees good value for the money.

Bob has just as much right to publicly challenge the DCCC and Jesselee as Jesselee has to respond. What I may have missed is where Bob made it personal by using Jesselee's name. What I haved seen from Bob have been generic complaints about the DCCC. I have not seen any personal attack that Bob made against Jesselee or any other individual.

What you call "railing" I call constructive criticism.

I didn't bother getting into it with this post, but I don't think that the DCCC, having obviously been overspent by volunteer forces, has much of a leg to stand on in their defense, when we wound up losing by just 3 percent. But I do think they are smart enough to avoid making that mistake again.

First, it would have doubled the volunteer effort, thus signaling that the DCCC understood what was happening, and was taking an aggresive position in the effort. This would have signaled leadership to the netroots, and they would have been getting credit for the race, even if we'd lost by the same amount, instead of scorn. It also would have paid off, because they'd be getting more contributions for appreciation, rather than unsubscribes.

Second, it would have effectively locked the NRCC out. The NRCC came in first, and bought up the best hours, and effectively left the DCCC with only an option of being in the market at half the exposure of the NRCC. The DCCC knew it was close, but thought the NRCC was asleep, and wouldn't spend a dime in the race, so they waited. You never underestimate your enemy like that, when winning is your focus. Instead, money was the focus of the DCCC, conserving resources. They sat back and watched, instead of taking the initiative.

It's easy to do hindsight calculations in how Hackett could have won. It's much more difficult to act as an institution with limited resources to win, instead of having those limited resources be an obstacle to doing what it takes to win... as the gurus say, thinking and acting abundant is the key to making it happen.

The DCCC probably got the worst of all the worlds in how it played out. They did go in with resources, probably making it closer than it would have been had they sat out, then they got the brunt of the blow for the effort just missing. I know these guys that work in the DCCC work hard, and I'm sure that Rahm realizes that this was one that could have been won with a bit different strategy, so we'll see what happens next.

2) Make a useful contribution, of say,
$10,000, to every nominee, EARLY,
a week or so after the primary.  We know,
early money is like yeast. And if the early
money comes from the national Dems
it can help to stimulate local donors,
just as it absence, as noted above,
can demoralize them.

3) Make the contribution in a way
that gets press, e.g. Pelosi or another
name Dem ( obviously, one chosen
as suitable for the district, sometimes
a ranking official from a neighboring
state would be best ) flies in for
a fund-raiser and rally, photo op
presentation of check measuring
8 feet by 3 feet, amount exceeded
by that raised at the local event.

4 ) If there is not enough money
in the pot to give every candidate
a $10,000 dowry EARLY, then
set a transparent, reasonable
but attainablestandard for this
and the future year's contributions.

Such as, to every campaign in a
district where the Dem Presidential
ticket got over 45% of the vote,
OR
where the Dem share of the vote
for Congress has increased
by more than 5 percentage points
over the previous cycles.

( The second criteria because,
for example, without it next year's
candidate in Ohio-2 would not qualify,
due to the Bush share in '04. )

It would help for candidates and
grassroots Democrats to know
that a good campaign effort will be
rewarded by the national Dems
the next time around even if the
effort does not win the seat this time. )

5) In every state with three or more
Congressional districts, EARLY
funds to the district with the highest
Dem share of the vote in the previous
election. ( So not all districts in all
Southern and Border states
will be written off always. )

Well, it's a start.

Look... A LOT OF PEOPLE IN CONGRESS SUCK.  On both sides.  Find the ones that suck the worst, and make them pay for it.

this is why we need Dean's 50 state strategy.  We need someone in each district telling us what is going o there, how it's playing out.  GOPers from heavily red districts take their reelection for granted, and piss people off.  Some of them are ugly, or inarticulate, or just plain goofy.  Fuck, you can spot them on C-SPAN!

Have you seen The Waterboy?  You know when the kicker is looking for the onside kick, and spots the dork... and smiles and says "Yeah, you're my bitch..."?  That's what we have to do... see past the numbers and realize that some of these losers just don't belong in the U.S. Congress.  House and Senate.

Hindsight is 20/20, but you're just a dumbass if you can't learn from experience.  We've seen what hoarding the resources and running only in swing states/districts got us.  A kick to the nuts, and the worst fucking president in the history of presidents, with a double majority in Congress and the chance to nominate at least 1, maybe up to 3 or 4 SCOTUS justices.  WTF?

We've been getting our asses kicked by a bunch of clowns who are destroying our country.  Hackett was balls-on when he said that the greates threat to the US was GW.  We have to win NOW, because it's gonna take much longer to clean up the mess than it took them 9and us) to make it!

The plan?  Be agressive, be optomistic, go for the jugular early and count on victory to bring in more resources.  Simple... you put everything into a blow to the face... if it lands, you'll have PLENTY of time to place the next blow.  If not, the guy is on the defensive.  Hopefully.  You still need faith, and no guarantees... but you never win the fight standing there covering your head and nuts hoping the other guys runs away from your weak-ass defense.