2016 congressional races

Last month Jason the Greek, a Kos diarist, talked about six little-noticed, underfunded but exceptionally important House candidates. The Democrats would need to net 30 seats to evict Ryan from the Speaker's job and take control of the House. Jason seems more optimistic than I do that this is possible.

When the PA-07 progressive Mary Ellen Balchunis-- endorsed by every Democratic party organ and institutional ally in southeast Pennsylvania-- smashed the DCCC recruit who they had helped raise money and run a campaign, even adding him to their Red to Blue program, the DCCC responded by abandoning the district to GOP incumbent Pat Meehan and taking the district off the map.

Two progressives who want America to invest in studentsThe AFL-CIO seems to take some kind of perverse pleasure in backing a handful of faux-moderate Republicans.

Paul Ryan's political raison d'être has been clear since he was first elected to Congress-- slashing the New Deal and subsequent social insurance policies to ribbons. That's what he got from reading Ayn Rand's books when he was just a little right-wing nut in high school.

Well... it is for voters in congressional races in Colorado, New York, Oklahoma and Utah. New York is tomorrow's big deal but let's take a quick look at the other state's first. There are no serious primaries for either party in House races in Colorado but there's a hot Senate contest.

Cain: "Poliquin is trying to have it both ways, criticizing Trump in public while praising him in private, and refusing to answer questions on whether he will support Trump in November. Mainers deserve straight answers."Americans are being asked to vote for the lesser of two evils. If we do, we will always and forever be asked to do the same.

I don't expect we'll see many ads as blatantly anti-Trump from Republican incumbents as the one above from Mark Kirk's campaign. I suppose he's gambling that any Trump die-hards who are so outraged by it that they won't vote for him, will be more than made up for by Illinois' independents. I don't think Trump has responded yet. Maybe no one has mentioned it to him or even told him Mark Kirk is a Republican senator.Trump knows Rubio, though. And it must infuriate him that Rubio is being negative about him again-- even if he's finally stopped making fun of Trump's deformed penis.

Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and the Rev. MartinLuther King Jr. back in -- well, a very long time ago"All politics is local."-- former House Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-MA)by KenIt was, I think, a couple of weeks into the new year when the calendar arrived in my mailbox -- a really nice 2016 wall calendar produced by the U.S.

Long before DFA, MoveOn or the nurses' national union came to their courageous decisions to support Bernie over Hillary, Blue America had made it's first-ever presidential election.

Barbara Lee says no wars without congressional approval; Fred Upton disagreesLast week the House passed the 2017 Defense Appropriations bill. As part of the debate, Barbara Lee (D-CA) offered an amendment that would prohibit the use of funds for the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, a blanket excuse any president-- Clinton or Trump-- could use to attack anyone, anywhere without seeking constitutionally-mandated congressional approval.