IA-04

The Des Moines Register and Elizabeth Warren agree that J.D. should be the next congressman from IA-04-- while the DCCC snoozesThere was a big stir Saturday night when an early version of the Des Moines Register hit the internet.

Democratic strategists couldn't be happier. Trump-- imagining that the national electorate is a reflecting of one of his hate rallies in red states-- is doing everything he can to turn next month's midterms into a referendum on him. Every poll shows most Americans-- a majority, not a plurality-- feels his unfit for the job.

Team Trumpanzee could have hardly timed their ill-advised trade war better-- for congressional Democrats. Yesterday, Ben White at Politico reported that Señor T's "trade battles are already triggering economic warnings-- and rising danger for Republicans just ahead of the midterm elections."

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.

It's hard to determine who the worst member of Congress is. Devin Nunes? Dana Rohrabacher? Marsha Blackburn? Paul Ryan? Jim Jordan? All horrible-- but there is no list of the most horrible congressmembers that wouldn't include Steve King (R-IA).

Normally, I don't buy into "lesser-of-two-evils" politics. If Democrats nominate a corrupt reactionary Blue Dog, I'm at least as incensed as I am over a Republican. That's not going to change either. And, I'm still saying that "normally" no longer applies, not with Trump and his Congress-ful of enablers and rubber stamps.

The White House by Nancy OhanianThe worst-run White House ever? You bet! Just ask Susan Glasser at the New Yorker.

Before you read J.D.’s guest post, you might want to take a look ay the brand new Iowa Survey results. You’ll notice that in IA-04, the most Republican district in the state, only 49% approve of Trump, only 43% approve of Republican Governor Kim Reynold’s job performance and that just 26% approve of the Republican-controlled state legislature.