Afternoon Must-Read: Ed Luce: Washington’s Two Foreign Policies
Monday Smackdown: Danny Vinik Makes Us Aware That Reason Is Still Publishing People Like Peter Schiff. Shame on You, Reason!

On Matt Miller Doesn’t Go to Washington: Live from the Bluffs at Malibu...

Map of the District Congressman Henry WaxmanI liked Matt Miller at lot when we worked on opposite sides of the White House during the early Clinton administration, but...

Matt Miller: Mr. Miller Doesn’t Go to Washington: "The reason I was in New York...

...when the phone buzzed was to meet with a publisher about a new book proposal—the next installment in what Jody lovingly mocked as my ‘one man government-in-exile’ series. The premise was that after two terms of a president seen by much of the country as a virtual socialist...

Note that Matt Miller does not, himself, endorse the assertion that Barack Obama is "a virtual socialist". But he does not qualify it either...

Wingnuts are supposed to think: Oh! Matt Miller gets it. Barack Obama is far-left!

Journalists with a clue are supposed to think: Well, he didn't tell a lie--even though Obama is not "a virtual socialist" and has tried to govern as a more-or-less old-style moderate centrist, "much of the country" does see him--because he has African-American, and because Rupert Murdoch's people have told them he is--"a virtual socialist".

But what are the voters of the 33rd congressional district of California going to think?

This is a district that gives Obama, Boxer, Feinstein, Brown something like 85% of their votes? The kind of person who would say, without qualification or explanation, that Barack Obama is "seen by much of the country as a virtual socialist" and has spent much of his time arguing for a Third Way to the right of today's Democratic and the left of today's Republican Party is not the kind of person who is likely to attract much grassroots support or raise much money in the 33rd congressional district of California.

And outside money-funded media-blitz campaigns are pushed as effective primarily by professional campaign consultants who get a cut from or are part of a reciprocal favor network funded by such media buys. Nevertheless:

I would need to wage a different kind of race. I couldn’t compete for endorsements from the local Democratic clubs and interest groups; Wendy and Ted had been mining those fields for years. And we knew I would start way behind in name recognition and that only money could close the gap. The basic plan was straightforward: Raise the money, hope to be competitive for the L.A. Times endorsement and build on the Westside NPR listeners who would be my base. A threshold strategic question was whether there was any good use of my time besides raising money, since cable TV and direct mail were the only way to reach enough voters in a district that end to end spans more than 50 traffic-snarled miles...

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/mr-miller-doesnt-go-to-washington-112173_Page3.html#ixzz3JoW1Qn9o

Yet, somehow, dealing with the fact that one has to run an outside-money media-blitz campaign by making fun of people who can wage a grassroots-based campaign doesn't seem the best of moves:

Back in L.A., the spewing of bromides and pabulum in the service of ambition had begun. Wendy Greuel told reporters that she “knew instantly in my gut” that she wanted “to serve the people of the 33rd district and … fight for the families here,” a passion so fierce she was moving her family into the district to do just that. Ted Lieu declared, “I am running because I love America,” leaving a dangerous opening for potential rivals who hated it...

Nor does the lack of self-awareness which leads you to denounce the fundraising imperative when you are the only one of the five candidates who will wind up getting more than 10% of the vote who is chained to it:

I had written before about how crazy it is that we expect politicians to spend four hours a day (or more) on the money chase. But nothing prepares you for what it’s like to be in the candidate’s chair. First order of business is introducing you to the bizarre rites and rituals associated with reaching out to the 1/20th of 1 percent of Americans who fund campaigns, and I soon learned consultants have studied dialing for dollars with anthropological precision. One consultant’s motto is, “Shorter calls means more calls!”—i.e., more money. So stop all the chitchat. When you make the “ask,” another told me—and that’s typically for the max of $2,600 per person, $5,200 per couple—just say the number and pause: Don’t keep talking. And above all, don’t leave L.A. for an out-of-town fundraiser unless you’re guaranteed to rake in at least $50,000, and preferably 100 large. Anything less and it’s not worth the hassle...

Did Ted Lieu, Wendy Greuel, Elan Carr, or Marianne Williamson even leave LA for out-of-town fundraisers during the primary campaign? Time spent in LA in front of 33 District people who are more likely to care and contribute--and there are lots of rich politically-active and -aware people in the 33 District, more than you could talk to. Ted (who won the general election), Elan (who was the other candidate in the general election), Wendy, and Marianne could work a different kind of campaign: could tell their bases "you know me, you think I would be good at this job, so please tell your friends" as well as the cable-TV spots and the direct-mail litter.

And Miller's reaction to people who try to engage him on policy seems distinctly odd:

Then I race out to have coffee with a wealthy environmental activist. He quizzes me on my global warming agenda and concludes that my call for a big carbon fee and dividend plan doesn’t suffice. He lectures me on the need to think more about incremental steps I would support. He’ll give $500 for now.... Part [of me] marvels at how quickly I’ve slipped into a new skin. Ben’s too young to know the film The Seduction of Joe Tynan, but I start bleating on about “the seduction of Matt Miller”...

But, Matt, you were there in 1993 when we got this close to the BTU tax, and failed. A call for a big carbon fee and only for a big carbon fee in America's current political climate is a plan for no global warming policy at all. Wealthy environmental activist is trying to teach you and help you--not trying to turn you into some kind of a prostitute.

And the end is off too:

(Poor Wendy’s polls apparently had her winning—she had left me a cheery voicemail on Election Day at 5 p.m. saying what a great campaign I’d run, clearly a prelude to asking for my endorsement the next day.) There were loose ends to tie up, and people to thank. It would be hard to do justice to the gratitude I felt for the hundreds of friends, family, donors, volunteers and other cheerleaders and helpers.... Jody and I were going away to decompress and get reacquainted; as she put it, “the marriage won.” I went to the village in Pacific Palisades to run errands.... Life felt oddly normal. I walked my grocery cart through the aisles without any angles or ambitions. I didn’t need to be “on.” I was no longer seeking my neighbors’ money, or smiles, or approval, or votes. I wondered how long it would be before I knew whether a taste like this whets the appetite—or kills it.

But calling the other candidates who have run great campaigns--or those who haven't--to tell them they have done so isn't something you do just because you want their endorsement should you win. It's something you do if you are interested in building, maintaining, and participating in the grand social network that is our collective deliberation process. And it is something you do if you respect your fellow candidates--if you are grateful to them for spending their time and energy helping to give the voters of the 33 District options, and for being willing to take on a very taxing and difficult but also rewarding and definitely underpaid job.

My google searches can find no record of Matt Miller endorsing either Elan Carr or Ted Lieu, the two candidates who survived the primary and made the runoff.

Ted Lieu will be sworn in in January as the Representative from the 33 District of California.

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