I just thought I’d add a couple more things.

First, the Bradenton Herald reprinted a Contra Costa Times article that totally buys in to the myth that the Congressional elections were a triumph of “centrism”. Ellen Tauscher, who is as happy as a clam to advance this idea, points to the thunderous contributions the New (meaning beholden to corporations) Democrat Coalition, of which she is chair, made to the Democratic victories.

As further evidence of their influence, Tauscher said the New Dems raised more than $600,000 for moderate Democrats in the midterm elections through their new political action committee.
Six hundred grand is trivial in an election that saw $2.4 billion spent nationwide. The Blue America page at Act Blue raised nearly that much, and Act Blue as a whole raised almost thirty times what the New Dems raised. So I think rushing to take credit for anything is somewhat precipitous on Tauscher’s part.

Second, I’d like to point you to a Calitics post by an 18-year old Democrat about his experiences with Tauscher

At the beginning she seemed a bit arrogant but with good policies. She told us multiple times that we were a smart district and that’s why we have a smart representative (as opposed to all the stupid districts out there) and stated that Kucinich ran for President in 2004 as a ploy to get a girlfriend. That aside, her policies sounded good. She made it very clear that she did not approve of how the War in Iraq was being handled, that she opposed the testing of new nuclear technology, and even promised to sign on to Kucinich’s Department of Peace bill (and she followed through on the promise).

Unfortunately, things began to deteriorate once she started taking questions. She fielded her questions on Iraq, Iran, and Nuclear Bunker Busters fairly well but the topic soon turned to the midterm elections. One person asked why the Democrats didn’t have a set, united platform. Tauscher responded that they did. After multiple people further questioned about what the platform was and why we didn’t know about it, Tauscher expressed her disappointment that we (remember, we’re a smart district) hadn’t done our research and that if we simply went to her website we’d find her policies. Now, of course this answered no questions because we wanted to know about a united Democratic platform not one Congresswoman’s platform. Finally one person got to the point and asked the right question. He wanted a united Democratic platform that was simple and easy for Americans to understand, one similar to the Republican’s Contract with America which helped them win in 1994. Tauscher paused a moment and then asked the man if he was a professional activist or politician. The man smiled, shook his head, and responded that he was a doctor. Tauscher promptly replied that she doesn’t plan on performing surgery just because she saw it on TV.

Something that will come back to bite Tauscher is her arrogance, and this is a pretty good example of it.

Finally, I was struck by this quote:

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., shunned any talk of seeing the visit as a way for Bush to circumvent House leaders.

“We are, of course, very supportive of our own leadership,” said Tauscher, chairman of the New Democrats. “When the president calls, you come, but this is, I think, an opportunity for us to begin to engage and we’re very hopeful this will continue.”

I’d just like to say that I, too, am supportive of my leadership. But, I hope that when the president calls her to vote with him, she controls her pavlovian response.