Maryland State Senator Jamie RaskinEveryone is looking at the scramble among Maryland Democrats to replace Barbara Mikulski in the U.S. Senate. But do you recall what happened when a bunch of House incumbents in Georgia found out that Saxby Chambliss had decided to retire from the Senate? 7 Republican congressmen started rumbling over the seat. In the end Tom Price, Rob Woodall, Lynn Westmoreland and Austin Scott decided-- wisely-- to back away.
Very expensive photo shootCalifornia progressives were delighted yesterday when neoliberal corporate whore Gavin Newsom took himself out of consideration for the Senate seat being opened by Barbara Boxer's 2016 retirement plans.
The devolution of the Republican PartyI tend to think of the worst of the Blue Dog "Democrats"-- like Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Dan Lipinski (IL) and Colin Peterson (MN)-- along with shameless careerists like Gwen Graham (FL), Patrick Murphy (FL) and Ann Kuster (NH)-- as less than worthless. They routinely sell out basic core Democratic values and the interests of working families for their own personal ambitions and calculations.
Democrats, from President Obama (who has no relation with House Republicans and doesn't know much more about it than any of us do) to Nancy Pelosi, say there are enough Republicans and Democrats-- 217-- to pass a clean CR. Long Island Republican Peter King agrees. Let's say that the 5 right-wing Democrats who refused to sign Pelosi's letter to Boehner calling for a clean CR-- John Barrow (New Dem-GA), Mike McIntyre (New Dem-NC), Jim Cooper (New Dem-TN), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT) and Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)-- can be persuaded to vote for it, a reasonable, though not iron-clad assumption.
