Jim Himes

"The Russian hoax is finally dead," Trump lied on Thursday in Grand Rapids.

At a meeting of Democratic thought leaders earlier in the week, Elizabeth Warren posed a rhetorical question "Do you get the feeling that if Bernie Madoff weren’t in prison he’d be in charge of the SEC right now?" I wonder if New Dem chairman and former Goldman-Sachs banker Jim Himes was in the room, though I doubt it, since he spends so much of his spare time shuffling from fundraiser to fundraiser.

Wednesday House Republicans rolled back another Obama rule so that-- after Trump signs it-- when people file for unemployment compensation they will be able to be drug-tested. Looks like the GOP is eager to ramp up the War of Drugs again-- and fill those private prison jail cells for their campaign donors. Kevin Brady's blil passed 236-189.

Last week, we predicted that Pelosi would appoint the biggest Wall Street shill among the new freshmen, Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), to the biggest fount of congressional corruption, the House Financial Services Committee.

We had a pretty gigantic response to Sunday's post about the Republicans stabbing retired coal miners in the back over their health care.

It's worth reading Sunday's Salon post by Sean McElwee, Jesse Rhodes (the singer-songwriter?) and Brain Schaffner about the pernicious impact big Republican donors-- like Sheldon Adelson, Robert Mercer, Ken Griffin, Liz Uihlein, Paul Singer, Joe Ricketts, Ron Cameron, Diane He

Isn't it time for an actual progressive DCCC chair?People are starting to care about who Pelosi selects as the next DCCC chair. Given her track record for picking DCCC chairs, she's the last person in the world who should have that task. But Rahm won so many seats, you say? He recruited a pack of anti-working class Blue Dogs, presided over a wave election, and almost all of his awful GOP-voting recruits were subsequently defeated or forced to resign before being defeated.

If the Democrats were to win back the House in November-- and a herd of golden unicorns parading down Pennsylvania Avenue in honor of Earth Day tomorrow is more likely-- Steve Israel would be a hero and be asked to remain on as chairman for another cycle. There's no chance, not even a small one, that that will happen. Israel is the least competent DCCC chairman in history and Pelosi's unwillingness to fire him after his catastrophic performance in the 2012 cycle, is dooming America to another two years of a dysfunctional GOP-led House.

Although he occasionally writes a check to Democratic corporate whores who serve Wall Street and fight for the plutocracy-- like Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Andrew Cuomo, Steve Israel and Cory Booker-- in the last few election cycles Ken Langone has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars-- at least $800,000-- to the Republican Party

A bunch of slimy New Dems-- your father's Republican PartyAlmost half the Members of Congress (48%) are millionaires and most of the rest are there at the sufferance of millionaires and billionaires who finance their miserable political careers. The median estimated net worth of all 535 Members is about $966,000, although higher among the freshmen-- $1,066,515.