New York Congressman Steve Israel mocked Republican efforts to turn California into a red state, a campaign routinely hyped by Rep. Kevin McCarthy that has fallen dramatically short of its aims.
"Yeah that worked out really well for him in 2012. He lost six seats. That's really good" Israel, who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said sarcastically in an interview with BuzzFeed Friday.
"He got wiped out. He got wiped out in California. Wiped. Out," Israel continued. "I understand that he has to say what he has to say, but he says it with such a sense of bravado that it just annoys me. I'm a huge Mets fans, it's like me telling you the Mets are going to win the World Series. Promise you the Mets are going to win the World Series. No, they are last place or second-to-last place. So Kevin McCarthy has no credibility on that."
All but one of the "Young Gun" candidates, McCarthy's pet program funded by the National Republican Congressional Committee, were defeated in 2012 in California. Republicans actually only lost four seats in California in last year's election, not six, as Israel said.
UPDATE: McCarthy spokesman Mike Long says in an email, "It's totally understandable for Steve Israel to lose his cool like that following the embarrassing recruiting job he's doing. Whip McCarthy would sympathize, but when he was NRCC recruitment chair in 2010 he knew what it took to win a majority in one cycle."