Ken Langone, the Long Island vulture capitalist who put together part of the money for the founders of Home Depot, has a current net worth of something around $3 billion. He'll be 83 before the midterms and he's doing all he can to disadvantage progressives with his money. Generally, he gives contributions to Republicans but he's fine with conservative, Wall Street-friendly Democrats too. Little Chuckie Schmucky always gets a check from Langone, although his biggest contributions inevitably go to the RNC and the NRCC (the Republicans' version of the DCCC)-- so far around $150,000 for the latter. This cycle, understanding the ramifications of the coming blue wave, Langone is donating to centrist Democratic PACs in an attempt to shape the character of the Democratic majority. He's working diligently to save the House for the Wall Street and corporate elites.On Friday, the Wall Street Journal's Alexandra Wolf reported that when Langone saw Bernie’s rallies (on TV of course) during the 2016 presidential campaign, he was "shocked by the number of young people there. It troubled him that they were so enthusiastic for higher taxes and spending and an expanded government role in health care, child care and higher education. 'If these kids are moving up in our system now, we're in trouble,' he recalls thinking." He "decided that capitalism needed a full-throated defense. So he wrote a book being released next week, part memoir and part free-market manifesto, I Love Capitalism. It's not even officially out yet and it already bombed.Last month the House voted on Arkansas former bankster French Hill's bill H.R.4790, the Volcker Rule Regulatory Harmonization Act Two crooked New Dems were co-sponsors-- Josh Gottheimer (NJ) who has taken Financial Sector bribes this cycle that amount to $868,574 already, and fellow House Financial Services Committee members Bill Foster (IL-$234,785 this year). The bill passed with every Republican but one and with 78 Democrats, primarily New Dems and Blue Dogs-- 300 to 104. 103 Democrats, led by Pelosi voted against it. Those 78 spurious Democrats are Langone's kind of congressmembers, despite the "D"s next to their names. The Volcker Rule Regulatory Harmonization Act was a top priority for Wall Street this year. Why? After a conference committee with the Senate-- and assuming Trump signs it-- the bill will weaken the Volcker Rule, which prohibits banks from gambling-- they call it "making speculative investments"-- with their ordinary depositors' money, by exempting banks with less than $10 billion in assets. The bill takes the FDIC out of the regulatory equation and leaves the policing up to the very Wall Street-friendly Federal Reserve. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the chair of the FDIC explained that exempting smaller banks would "open a door" to risky behavior. He said supervisors catch risky trades after they go south, not before: "That is why you have the Volcker rule in the first place." The American Bankers Association, Citigroup and Bank of America were the big players in lobbying to weaken the Volcker Rule-- as the major campaign contributors to the New Dems. Blue America doesn't endorse New Dems. New Dems muddy the Democratic Party brand and make it difficult for voters to understand that there is a difference between the two Beltway parties. At one point, for example, we were leaning towards endorsing Harley Rouda as the best-- if flawed (ex-Republican)-- candidate to take on Dana Rohrabach. There are no good New Dems. They are the Wall Street wing, the Republican wing, of the Democratic Party and they do a great deal of damage to the party and to the country. Earlier today we ran the names of all the candidates who have been endorsed by the New Dems this cycle. Here's a list of all the current members of the heinous organization. The bolded names voted with the GOP last month to weaken the Volcker Rule. First the New Dems' 9 elected offices:
• Jim Himes (CT- $5,979,437)• Suzan DelBene (WA- $705,640)• Derik Kilmer (WA- $823,865)• Jared Polis (CO- $1,039,777)• Terri Sewell (AL- $1,810,721)-absent• Gerry Connolly (VA- $1,212,467)• Ron Kind (WI- $3,045,096)• Kathleen Rice (NY- $1,550,271)• Scott Peters (CA- $1,298,375)• Pete Aguilar (CA- $800,195)• Ami Bera (CA- $1,339,115)• Donald Beyer (VA- $783,581)• Brendan Boyle (PA- $363,247)• Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE- $230,874)• Anthony Brown (MD- $155,108)• Julia Brownley (CA- $561,606)• Cheri Bustos (IL- $844,194)- absent• Salud Carbajal (CA- $433,607)• Tony Cardenas (CA- $691,556)• Andre Carson (IN- $818,084)• Joaquin Castro (TX- $567,658)• Lou Correa (CA- $199,690)• Jim Costa (CA- $1,002,628)• Joe Courtney (CT- $1,229,696)• Charlie Crist (FL- $2,895,457)• Henry Cuellar (TX- $1,391,863)• Susan Davis (CA- $504,546)• John Delaney (MD- $2,349,692)• Val Demings (FL- $308,304)• Eliot Engel (NY- $1,768,101)• Elizabeth Esty (CT- $1,048,648)• Bill Foster (IL- $2,417,863)• Vicente Gonzalez (TX- $172,214• Josh Gottheimer (NJ- $1,839,60)• Colleen Hanabusa (HI- $880,163)• Denny Heck (WA- $1,295,242)• Bill Keating (MA- $518,403)• Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL- $782,588)• Annie Kuster (NH- $1,259,136)• Rick Larsen (WA- $991,852)• Brenda Lawrence (MI- $289,825)• Al Lawson (FL- $151,100)• Sean Patrick Maloney (NY- $2,614,948)• Donald McEachin (VA- $95,119)• Gregory Meeks (NY- $3,356,088)• Seth Moulton (MA- $1,516,542)• Stephanie Murphy (FL- $273,423)• Donald Norcross (NJ- $854,512)• Tom O'Halleran (AZ- $276,004)• Beto O'Rourke (TX- $840,145)• Ed Perlmutter (CO- $3,776,273)• Mike Quigley (IL- $936,529)• Cedric Richmond (LA- $520,800)• Raul Ruiz (CA- $710,932)• Adam Schiff (CA- $1,452,221)• Brad Schneider (IL- $1,847,646)• Kurt Schrader (OR- $889,840)• David Scott (GA- $3,059,594)- absent• Kyrsten Sinema (AZ- $2,812,394)• Adam Smith (WA- $1,087,860)• Darren Soto (FL- $186,115)• Tom Suozzi (NY- $696,402)• Norma Torres (CA- $132,880)• Juan Vargas (CA- $1,502,865)• Marc Veasey (TX- $520,706)• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL- $2,344,886)