Newt Gingrich, once House speaker, was driven out of Congress in 1997 by his fellow-Republicans who joined the Democrats in voting for one of the 84 ethics charges against him. He was formally reprimanded and forced to reimburse the House for the $300,000 he had embezzled. Only 28 Republicans voted no, the reprimand passing 395-28. He was the first-ever speaker to be reprimanded on an ethics charge.
Socialism-- of the Scandinavian variety-- was once very popular in Montana, particularly among miners. Montanans were voting for the Socialist Party candidate for president, Eugene Debs, almost doubt the rate of the U.S. in general and in 1917 Butte elected a Socialist Party mayor. That all eroded with the infamous Anaconda Road Massacre-- a corporate/fascist response to the Industrial Workers of the World and the Metal Mine Workers Industrial Union strike in 1920.
The Trumpists were whooping it up after the assassinations at the Baghdad Airport.
It came as no surprise that New York would be losing a congressional seat after the census. Speculation in Albany over a year ago was that NY-27, a large rural district in the western part of the state-- then held by crooked Trumpist Chris Collins-- would be divided up between NY-26 (Buffalo- D+11), NY-25 (Rochester- D+8) and NY-23 (Southern Tier- R+6).
Yesterday, AOC sent her followers a note: Just months ago, the official campaign arm of House Democrats (the DCCC) announced that they would blacklist anyone who worked on a primary challenger’s campaign. That’s made it much harder for progressive challengers to get the resources, staff, and tools they need to win. It’s clear that we need our own support system on the progressive side of the party.
Bernie won the SNL debate but a few hours before the show aired, the Washington Post's Paul Kane asserted that "For almost four months, House Democrats have enjoyed something that once seemed unattainable: relative calm inside their caucus.
Hillary is being left behind by history-- but embraced by Big PhRMALast week Alexander Burns wasted a New York Times column on Hillary Clinton's opposition to Medicare-for-All.
I've been talking to an increasing number of progressive candidates for Congress who have told me that they have no intention of voting for Pelosi as speaker in 2021. Flagstaff progressive and AZ-01 congressional candidate Eva Putzova head it right on the head: "If we are going to address climate and healthcare crises and inequality, we need leaders who understand that yesterday's politics won't work.
