This is what the Republican Culture of Corruption Looks Like In 2018With future Speaker Nancy Pelosi's connivance, Denny Hastert-- then Speaker, currently in prison for raping underage boys-- protected alcoholic Florida Congressman Mark Foley (a "nice guy") from ever having to face charges from dozens of young men-- congressional pages-- that he had sex or tried to have sex with them.
It's not easy getting Jess King on the phone. It's not easy getting her campaign manager on the phone either. Every time I try-- morning, midday, evening-- they're out working their sprawling Pennsylvania district. The newly created 11th district, which no longer has Adams County or the nice blue parts of Harrisburg and Reading it once had is going to take the kind of work that few campaigns want to undertake.
Above is a first rate long-form video done this week by Brave New Films on J.D. Scholten, the former baseball player-- and progressive Democrat-- running against Iowa bigot and neo-fascist Steve King. It's unlikely the ad will ever be seen on television, although it's very likely it will be seen by lots of IA-04 voters. The video and shorter excerpts from it show start appearing on social media very soon. Does that count? Oh, I think so.A campaign manager contacted me about an ad recently.
Lets keep our eye on the ballWriting yesterday for Vanity Fair, David Drucker: reported that GOP insiders consider the House already lost. "Inside the swamp," he wrote, "Republican operatives have already made their peace with losing the House.
Even though congressional party leaders are blocking it from becoming part of the official Democratic agenda and even though both the DCCC and the DSCC screened candidates to find ones who didn't back it, 84.5% of Americans (and 70.1% of all Americans) support Medicare-For-All. Friday in Illinois, President Obama explicitly expressed-- for the first time, at least in public-- his support for Medicare-for-All.Democrats and independents are about to turn out in droves to defeat Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress. The media is calling this a "blue wave." But that's utter bullshit.
Will the Democratic Party EVER recruit someone like Alexandria? EVER?Bill Barrow and Juana Summers are making a mighty ambitious claim for the A.P., one that I only wish was accurate: "Democratic leaders are embracing the enthusiasm of their base." On what universe are Democratic leaders are embracing the enthusiasm of their base?
Another cue that someone's likely to be goodI graduated college and went to live overseas-- actually I just went for a summer vacation but stayed for almost 7 years-- traveling and living in various places in Europe, Africa and Asia.Once Nixon was removed I came home and eventually washed up in San Francisco and had to get a job in the real world, something I had never experienced. Previously I had worked as a smuggler and then in a meditation center.
The governing philosophy of the DCCC-- which just has to change-- is that the Democratic Party can only be the lesser of two evils. Anything better than that will alienate the powerful Republican wing of the party (the Blue Dogs, New Dems, "ex"-Republicans and fellow travelers). So the congressional party stands for... not much. Earlier you may have seen the meme up top that Ro Khanna posted.
Last Tuesday one of the most promising candidates running for governor, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, lost his race. I tweeted that he ran a great campaign but that it was now time to get behind Gretchen Whitmer and help her defeat Trump's hand-picked extremist candidate Bill Schuette. One of the first people to "like" my tweet was Abdul.
