Joe Ricketts' Ending Spending Fund was founded to help candidates with the primitive idea that federal budgets need to be "balanced," basically so that government could not engage in doing any good for citizens or for society at large. Spending creates national wealth, something conservative nincompoops like the Ricketts family refuses to understand.
Truth-telling counts for nothing at all in DC; it's all about working within a narrative, positioning, marketing. When he announced he was bailing, Paul Ryan looked into the camera and, as he so often does, lied. He said he's certain the Republicans would hold the House majority.
Saturday Max Boot played Captain Obvious in a Washington Post OpEd, Trump is drowning in scandal. He can’t focus on Syria. Is that lucky for us? For the Syrians? Like many of us, the bombing raid on Syria is seen strictly as a Wag The Dog moment the regime decided toes if they could pull off.
On Thursday evening the Houston Chronicle reported that when Blake Farenthold slithered out of Congress last week he did so without repaying the $84,000 he stole from the taxpayers to cover up the charges that he had sexually harassed a female staffer.
Albatross by Nancy OhanianThis morning's first post, Time For New House Leadership-- On Both Sides Of The Aisle, mentions the GOP struggle to replace Ryan but was really about the Democratic struggle to replace Pelosi.
Because Blue America has spent years trying to defeat Paul Ryan, about a year ago we got two consecutive call, one from former Ryan opponent and one from state Senator Chis Larson, asking me to call a very politicized progressive union iron worker in Racine County and help persuade him to run against Ryan. The Wisconsin Working Families Party had already done the heavy lift and they just needed me to push Randy Bryce over the edge.
Republican John Katko isn't worried-- DCCC bungling keeps him in his blue seatWhy is Republican John Katko, the congressman in NY-24-- the Syracuse-based district that includes all of Onondaga County and Syracuse plus all of Cayuga County plus parts of Oswego and Wayne counties. The PVI was D+5 in 2015 and D+3 now. Obama won the district both times he ran, 56-42 against McCain and 57-41% against Romney.
Let me put a new candidate on your radar. I've been hearing about him from friends in the music business. That's because this Wisconsin kid from Chippewa Fall, a small town north of Eau Claire in WI-07, Dave Obey's old seat-- a massive district covering all of northwest Wisconsin. It stretches from Bayfield and Ironwood in the north down into River Falls and the Minneapolis suburbs in the southwest across to Chippewa Falls on Lake Wissota and east through Marshfield and Wausau to Rhinelander and Eagle River.
Albatross by Nancy OhanianThis morning, Politico made it sound like the McCarthy vs Scalise battle to take over as Speaker is breaking news. It isn't. The two of them have been aware Ryan won't be running in November and they have been quietly courting supporters for the better part of a month as Ryan gets ready for the big announcement.
