Harry Belafonte, one of the first celebrities to embrace-- and bankroll-- the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, is endorsing Bernie today. I image Hillary's neocon foreign policy agenda makes him sick. Most Military-Industrial Complex Democrats are enthusiastic Hillary supporters, so it's good to see Belafonte step up to the plate and explain what she's always been all about and how detrimental her election would be to the cause of peace. Sure, she's better than the Republicans, but... what a low bar, especiallyin the middle of primary season! Last night, the only income level Clinton won was voters who make $200,000 or more. Sanders won all over income levels below that. What does that tell you about their respective appeals?Think of the worst Democrats in Congress-- the ones who vote most frequently for the GOP agenda, who want to help dismantle Dodd Frank's financial consumer protections, who want to gut Obamacare, who back the NRA, who are willing to compromise away Social Security and Medicare benefits, who work hand-in-hand with Wall Street's lobbyists... the Blue Dogs and New Dems and conservative garbage who, for one reason or another, wound up on Team Blue, The DINOs-- they're all stumping for self-proclaimed "progressive" Hillary Clinton. Let's turn to ProgressivePunch, which tracks every single vote in Congress, and look at the lifetime crucial vote scores. Although they all have "F" grades, these are the Members with the 15 worst scores-- in order of horribleness:
• Gwen Graham (Blue Dog-FL)- 28.57• Brad Ashford (Blue Dog-NE)- 36.73• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)- 38.05• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)- 39.96• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- 39.98• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)- 43.90• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)- 43.93• Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)- 47.99• Raul Ruiz (CA)- 50.79• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)- 50.92• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)-51.12• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL)- 51.54• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)- 51.69• Filemon Vela (New Dem-TX)-54.77• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)- 56.97
Any score less than 70 indicates a virtually worthless Democrat on many issues that are core, values-driven and made contentious by ideological conservatives and reactionaries. The only one of these conservative Democrats who hasn't endorsed Hillary is Arizona conservative Kyrsten Sinema. All the others-- the ones with A+ NRA ratings and the ones who oppose Obamacare and who are undermining Dodd Frank and the EPA-- have endorsed Hillary."But good Democrats have endorsed her too," you might counter. That's true; some good Democrats had a lapse in judgement-- for whatever reason-- and endorsed her, but most of the best Democrats in the House have either endorsed Bernie-- Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and KeithEllison (D-MN)-- or have stayed neutral, expressing support for both candidates, like Alan Grayson (D-FL), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Jim McDermott (D-WA). One prominent super-progressive congresswoman, who has endorsed Hillary, put it to me like this, "Look, you know my voting record and you know that it's a lot more like Bernie's. But it's time for a woman president and that's what's motivating me." Yep... that's what she's got going for her: she's a woman... and if she wins the nomination, the other argument will be "she's better than any of the Republicans."By her ugly, virulent and dishonest attacks on Bernie-- both by her horrible cast of corrupt conservative surrogates and, more (barely) subtly, by herself, she is turning off progressive general election voters. I wonder how many general election votes her husband lost for her this week with his vicious and patently false attacks on Bernie and Bernie's followers. Clintonian sore losers are whining that Bernie won because Vermont is so close to New Hampshire. That's 100% bullshit, of course-- otherwise Hillary wouldn't have lost Connecticut and Vermont in 2008, which are covered by the media from their huge next door neighbor where she was senator. New Hampshire gets Massachusetts media, not Vermont media. In fact, New Hampshirites say Vermonters are just a bunch of New Yorkers with fake flannel shirts. Bernie won because of his message, which is why he had such a landslide that cut across almost all demographic lines. He won women her supposed raison d'être... and ultimate firewall. Now, let's bring this home for Bernie-- and for the congressional candidates who have endorsed him and are running on his issues. Please tap the thermometer:
