Democrats’ Man for Battles Will Lead New Senate Charge

Then his old boss, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, reluctantly took the helm of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, looking at another brutal map for Democrats eager to stay in control of Congress’s upper chamber. He had one demand: Keep Guy Cecil aboard.

“It was critically important that Guy stay in the job,” said Mr. Bennet, now reunited with Mr. Cecil, the former chief of staff who spent the last months of his 2010 campaign sleeping in the senator’s Colorado basement. “He is just excellent at what he does.”

Mr. Cecil’s return as executive director of the committee is notable in a city accustomed to political consultants cashing in for big money “downtown” — at lobbying firms and with influence peddlers off Capitol Hill. In 2010, Mr. Cecil helped engineer Mr. Bennet’s successful defense of his seat, one of the unexpected wins that kept Democrats in control of the Senate even as the party suffered a historic defeat in the House. Most assumed Democrats would lose the Senate as the 2012 season began. With Mr. Cecil directing forces, the party gained two seats.

But do not tell the reigning Democratic political wunderkind that he has a tough job. That only gets him started.

At 23, he was a Southern Baptist minister in Miami. Then he came out as gay, left a conservative church that would not accept him and went to Boston because it seemed diametrically opposite of the world he had fled. His first job was in retail, paying $19,990 a year.

His grandmother had started the family’s hard-knock cycle, running from an abusive marriage in Ohio to Miami, where she raised five children as a waitress for 40 years. His father is a boat mechanic in South Florida. His brother, born with a malignant neuroblastoma, was not supposed to walk, if he survived his first birthday. He is 32 now, with chronic health problems — and two children.

“I really have no need to complain about how hard my job is,” Mr. Cecil, 38, said with a shrug.

Which is a good thing, because he could have a lot to complain about.

After the struggles of 2010 and 2012, the road ahead for Senate Democrats does not look much smoother. Incumbents are likely to face tough races in the red states of Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana and North Carolina. Democratic retirements in Iowa and West Virginia have opened new fronts for Republicans eager to avoid a third strike in their quest to regain Senate control. Both parties are awaiting a decision by Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat, about whether to run again in South Dakota.

Beyond that, freshman Democrats, swept to power in the Obama wave of 2008, face their first re-election campaigns in the swing states of Colorado, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Oregon. Only once in 75 years has the president’s party not lost seats in the midterm election of his second term.

Mr. Cecil’s goal: “To hold the majority, that’s it,” he says.

Rob Jesmer, who in 2012 was Mr. Cecil’s opposite number at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called him “smart and relentless.”

“I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” he said.

Mr. Cecil’s approach to Senate elections goes back to the vicious 1998 re-election campaign of South Carolina’s Ernest Hollings, the last Democratic Senate victory in that state, and 2000, when he helped former Gov. Mel Carnahan of Missouri defeat John Ashcroft, a Republican, despite the fact that Mr. Carnahan had died in a plane crash three weeks before Election Day.

Mr. Cecil tries to resist national political winds and tailor each campaign to the particular candidates and the states they are running in. Republican campaigns tend to ride national waves, running on broad national issues like the size and scope of government, the level of taxation and the defense of the homeland. Mr. Cecil had different ideas for different Democratic candidates.

For instance, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota ran on “North Dakota values,” a languishing farm bill and essential air service to rural America. Sherrod Brown, practically buried under an avalanche of Republican advertising, ran as David against Goliath, even if he was the incumbent in Ohio.

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Democrats taunt Romney as rich, forget flip-flop charge (Daily Caller)

The Democrats’ orchestrated and tweeted criticism of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney turned personal during Thursday’s South Carolina debate, and focused on his wealth and demeanor, not on his policy positions or policy changes.

Romney “is worth a quarter of a billion dollars,” and “is quadrupling the size of his Pacific Coast Mansion,” said tweets from Brad Woodhouse, the communications director at the Democratic National Committee, who invited his followers to share their ridicule of Romney via a tweet hashtag “#livedintherealstreetsofAmerica.”

Romney’s wealth was also targeted by Ben LaBolt, the press secretary for Obama’s 2012 campaign. “Speaking of vacations, when will Romney’s investments stop vacationing offshore in the Caymans?” he said halfway through the two-hour debate.

Paul Begala, a consultant who is working with the Obama campaign, tweeted out his taunts, saying one hour into the debate that “Mitt hates, hates, HATES being questioned about his taxes.Looks like he wants to fire the peons who dare question him about taxes.”

A little earlier, Begala announced that “Romney should save his threats of fist fights for his croquet & polo matches.”

The personal taunts, however, followed the Democrats’ increased efforts to portray Romney as an out-of-touch elitist

For example, Romney “made millions laying people off, bankrupting companies and shorting pensions and healthcare,” Woodhouse announced at 9:10 p.m.

The Democratic activists have largely dropped their previous effort to depict Romney as a flip-flopper, although Woodhouse’s DNC sent out several emails displaying a graphic that said, “Mitt Romney; Say Anything to get elected.’

Democratic spokesmen, however, did aim some taunts at other GOP candidates, usually lamenting their failure to disagree more with Romney.

“Holy smokes. Santorum at his best. Skewers Newt for erratic, inconstant leadership as Speaker.This is getting personal. Love it,” Begala tweeted midway through the debate.

Romney “looks like he wants to punch Rick Santorum in the mouth,” Woodhouse declared 36 minutes into the debate.

The nastiest tweet, however, came during the opening minutes of the debate from Begala, and was aimed at his old rival, former House Speaker Next Gingrich. “Newt walks out. Unflattering profile shot. But then again, the camera adds 200 pounds,” said Begala.

Back in 1994, Gingrich helped end the Democrats’ 40 years of majority control in the House of Representatives. The remarkable turnover forced Begala’s client, President Bill Clinton, to remain on political defense for the rest of his presidency.

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Alcee Hastings Sexual Harassment Charge Another Distraction for Congress (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | If the House Democrats thought they were finally out of the woods with the resignation of Anthony Weiner, it appears they have thought wrong. The latest congressman to be involved in a sex scandal is Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Hastings is being investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics for allegedly sexually harassing a member of his staff. The staffer in question, Winsome Parker, worked for the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, a Cold War era entity that Hastings heads. Parker alleges instances of sexual harassment, usually involving inappropriate remarks, lasting just more than two years. She further alleges the congressman retaliated against her when she tried to report the matter. A lawyer for Rep. Hastings denies the allegations.

It is unknown whether the investigation will be referred to the House Ethics Committee. If that happens, one can only think that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is not going to be happy. Her forlorn hope of ever becoming Speaker of the House again will just get all that more forlorn. Getting her caucus snake bit with another sordid scandal is something she does not need right at the moment. The is especially true as she needs to begin accusing Republicans of wanting to kill old people again and not have to explain why her members have impulse control issues.

Hastings actually came to Congress with an ethical cloud hanging over him, having been removed from the bench for conspiring to take a bribe. The jury, however, failed to convict him on that charge.

To be sure, what Hastings is accused of seems positively decorous compared to what Weiner did. But ever since Clarence Thomas, lewd behavior toward a subordinate has become quite unacceptable. This is true in the corporate world as well as in politics.

The Hastings matter has not yet risen to the level in which it has caused calls for resignation, daily coverage in the media, and become the subject of jokes by late night comedians. It could be that the matter will be dealt with quietly, either with Hastings being absolved, or with him being found guilty and having some kind of sanction imposed on him that would be less than having to resign from the Congress. Nancy Pelosi should hope that will be the case. Otherwise she has another distraction on her hands.

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