Mark Pocan

-by Jersey Jim

JFK, 1960 on Kings Highway in front of Dubrow'sProgressive Power Hour? Was there one for AOC or Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar when their reelections were challenged by big money reactionaries in the last couple of months? There may have been... but I never heard about them.

There are few things in life more surreal than being on the ground when election fraud is taking place, feeling that knot in the stomach growing as tales of intrigue trickle in like slow-drip coffee on a particularly rough morning.

If I were Status Quo Joe, I'd be embarrassed to admit I was endorsed by California New Dem Ami Bera, a member of Congress so toxic that the California Democratic Party decided to not back him for reelection. After all, caught in an illegal campaign finance scheme, he let his elderly father take the rap and go to prison in his place! In fact, when you go through the list of members who've endorsed Biden, most are embarrassing-- Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

On CNN yesterday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that "The Republican party has got to get a grip on itself. Republican leaders and members of the Congress… are holding back because they’re terrified of what will happen [to] any one of them if they speak out." Trump appears to be overseeing the disintegration of the GOP.

You can't out-progressive Pramila Jayapal. Her vote for Pay-Go Thursday evening made me go back and reexamine my own analysis of Pay-Go.

You read about all these Democratic candidates who say they're not going to vote for Pelosi for Speaker. It's almost de rigueur for them to say it sometime during their campaign. She laughs and says she has the votes anyway. Does she?

Last cycle, the two biggest self-funders looking to buy House seats were David Trone in Maryland, who spent a phenomenal $13,414,225 of his own and took 35,400 votes (27.1%) in his primary, and Randy Perkins in Florida who spent $10,127,029 of his own and then lost to a Republican, by over 10 points 53.6% to 43.1%. The only million dollar Democratic self-funder who won in 2016 was Vicente Gonzalez, a real sleaze from south Texas, who spent $1,850,000 of his own dough.

Juan Williams betrays himself with his extreme Beltway perspective by asserting in a Hill OpEd Monday, that "Ryan has squandered his stellar reputation as a smart, conservative visionary" by turning himself into a Trump enabler. Yes, Ryan is a Trump enabler.

Last summer, the Washington Monthly ran a piece by Martin Longman, The Anti-Monopoly Message Finally Breaks Through about issues related to monopolies, corporate consolidation, and antitrust enforcement.