Saturday morning, I pointed out on Twitter that though Pelosi managed to hold the entire Democratic caucus together to pass H.R.-3, her rather weak drug price reduction bill, just before the vote, the Republicans offered a way to kill the legislation via a Motion to Recommit. That failed but 3 super-conservative fake-Democrats voted with all the Republicans for it-- Blue Dogs Josh Gottheimer (NJ), Mikie Sherrill (NJ) and Ben McAdams (UT). Another Twitter user, Maria, offered up a typical excuse for this kind of bad vote: "NJ is big Pharma territory."What she meant is that several drug companies are based in New Jersey. The Big PhRMA companies-- Pfizer, Amgen-- Eli Lilly, AbbVie, Merck, AstraZeneca, Abbott Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Milan, Bayer, etc-- give millions of dollars in bribes to many members of Congress annually. Last cycle, New Jersey's delegation did pretty well. Among the current House members, the biggest amounts went to:
• Frank Pallone (D)- $117,200• Bonnie Watson Coleman (D)- $59,812• Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog)- $49,280• Bill Pascrell (D)- $45,500• Don Norcross (New Dem)- $38,900• candidate Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog)- $35,311• candidate Tom Malinowski (New Dem)- $24,097• Donald Payne (D)- $20,800• candidate Andy Kim (D)- $19,018• Chris Smith (R)- $12,250• candidate Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog)- $7,228
But the impetus for bribery from these savvy companies--and from their lobbyists-- follows power, not geography. Pallone didn't get a lion's share of loot ($694,170 since he was elected) because he represents Middlesex and Monmouth counties, but because he is chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and can-- and does-- protect the drug companies from progressive legislation like Medicare-for-All. The 5 current House members who have taken the most in bribes from PhRMA are those who serve their masters best, not those who live in their districts:
• Fred Upton (R-MI)- former chair of Energy and Commerce- $943,531• Anna Eshoo (D-CA), chair, Energy and Commerce's Heath Subcommittee- $891,815• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- corrupt minority leader- $849,550• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- corrupt majority leader- $719,572• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)- chair of Energy and Commerce- $694,170
A warning from progressive California congressional candidate Cenk Uygur: "Drug companies don't give politicians money for charity, they do it to buy them. And unfortunately it works. Everyone knows these are bribes. The only people who won't acknowledge it are corporate politicians on both sides and the corporate media. This is a sick system that lets people die for profit. Any politician that takes money from the drug companies is selling out their voters on behalf of their donors."On Friday evenings, Chris Hayes has taken to doings his MSNBC shows in front of a live audience. This week one of his guests was Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D). In his last couple of seconds on the air, Brown managed to blurt out one of the most crucial things he has ever said about electoral politics and how it impacts American politics. Unfortunately an ad was calling and it never got discussed on the show: "If politicians are willing to lose an election, they're always better at their job." That idea goes beyond geography, beyond sources of campaign funds, beyond ideology, even beyond partisan affiliation. It goes to character-- integrity, honesty, sense of honor... courageousness. Nothing else much matters in politics without it.It's the opposite of political careerism. And it speaks to the real reason why craven and cowardly political hacks like Gottheimer, Sherrill and McAdams were willing to cross the aisle and vote with the GOP to kill a bill that would reduce the cost of medicine for their constituents in Bergen County, in Morris County and in Salt Lake County.In the next few days, Pelosi will tell Hoyer to call an impeachment vote. Several Democrats in difficult districts have already announced they intend to vote to hold Trump accountable for his on-going criminal behavior. One, putrid New Jersey Blue Dog Jefferson Van Drew (widely expected to bolt the party and seek reelection as a Republican) has said he is absolutely voting against impeachment. He's not even in a prohibitively red district. Obama won the NJ-02 district comfortably both times he ran. Trump won in 2016-- 50.6% to 46.0%-- not because the district had suddenly turned red, but because Hillary was such a lousy candidate for the working class voters who dominate the district. The PVI is just R+1, not that much of a stretch for a Democrat.There are no normal Democrats talking about voting against impeachment, but there are around a dozen from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party who are... all Blue Dogs and New Dems, of course. These are the other Democrats besides Van Drew who are most likely to vote against impeachment... along with their districts' PVIs. (Notice that 3 are in blue districts.)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- R+12• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- R+6• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- R+13• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- R+10• Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)- D+2• Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)- R+3• Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)- R+2• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)- D+6• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)- R+4• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- R+6• Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI)- D+17
Some of the least courageous of the usual wafflers have aleady come out to say they are voting to impeach the bastard, including Elaine Luria (VA), Max Rose (NY), Conor Lamb (PA), Colin Allred (TX), Susan Wild (PA), Susie Lee (NV) and Tom O’Halleran (AZ). O'Halleran, a former Republican legislator currently pretending to be a Democrat, is now a Blue Dog. He has a very intense primary from progressive activist Eva Putzova and that has, of late, moved him towards the mainstream on issues-- like this-- where he would be more comfortable voting with the Republicans. In his announcement Friday, he said that "Trump abused the power of the presidency and broke his oath of office when he bribed the nation of Ukraine by withholding military aid they had already been promised in exchange for help investigating a political opponent. I will vote to impeach the President because this bribery and abuse of power violated the constitution and put our national security and our international relationships at risk." It's lucky we have Putzova pushing him so hard.Last summer progressive Democrat Teresa Tomlinson called for impeaching Trump. She's running for a Senate seat held by an extreme Trump partisan, David Perdue. At the time, Tomlinson wrote that "It’s fear that cripples the Democratic Party. Fear of our policies, fear of who we are, and fear of the Republicans. Yes, fear is what has politically cost us in the last many election cycles. One cannot lead if one is afraid. The thing about leadership is that people want their leaders to be brave. They care less about what you think on the issues than whether you have the moxie to fight for them and the strength of conviction to tell them what you really think... That’s what the Right can’t stand about The Squad. Those women are fearless about their beliefs. They refuse to be bullied, and that is dangerous to the Republican playbook of shaming scared Democrats into milk toast, mealy-mouthed, baby-splitting positions that are equivocal and stand for nothing. American voters revile those who won’t tell the people what they think. Even if you don’t support the policies-- or certainly some of the statements-- of The Squad, you can’t deny that you appreciate that they unabashedly tell the world what they think." She continued with a statement all Democrats wavering and quivering in fear-- especially an arch-coward like Brindisi-- should study:
Impeachment is not about undoing the last election or impacting the next. It certainly is not about the polls as the Founding Framers made perfectly clear in Federalist Paper, No. 66. It is about stopping a president who would abuse and misuse the power of the presidency so that not another day passes-- not another circumstance presents itself-- where a president, unfit for duty because of the commission of High Crimes or Misdemeanors (defined as misdeeds) can inflict his/her poor judgment on the office, the country, or the people. Oh, if only impeachment proceedings had been instituted sooner, the damage that might have been averted.Instead, Democrats are afraid of what the Republicans will say about it-- what the bullies will do to us on the way home. So, we cut through the alley to avoid the fight and controversy. We detour our duty of leadership and good government. Commencing impeachment proceedings is about employing the constitutional duty that our elected leaders were sworn to do-- not about mitigating to the finish line and hoping no one notices that we wouldn’t use the tools entrusted to us to keep the American system on the rails. All Democrats, and many Independents and Republicans, understand that Donald Trump has committed High Crimes or Misdemeanors, so if this conduct doesn’t warrant the commencement of impeachment proceedings, then what would? We must seriously consider the example of tolerance for harmful conduct at the highest levels of our government we are creating.The key to winning is that you don’t aim to win, you aim to lead. If you lead, the winning takes care of itself-- or at least you move the needle so profoundly you set up the next winner, as did Stacey Abrams in Georgia with her heroic non-loss in Georgia. She was who she was and voters responded to that.That’s not fear, that’s winning.
