progressives vs Democrats

Sanders' latest Iowa ad.

When Hillary attacks Bernie's single-payer health care plan, she acknowledges-- at least when pinned down-- that it's better than her own tepid, incremental proposal... but her argument, and that of her team, is that Bernie's plan could never pass this Congress. You don't say? Nothing that helps ordinary working families that either Hillary or Bernie proposes could pass this Congress. If Bernie is the nominee, the Democrats will surely recapture the U.S.

Last night I mentioned that a progressive Member of Congress who had just endorsed Hillary's very establishment campaign instead of Bernie's-- with which he is much more ideologically aligned-- had written that he believes "that Bernie has pushed her far enough to the left now that she is supporting more progressive policies that help regular people and the poor.

Steve Israel, de facto head of the DCCC (and the most outspoken member of their recruitment committee) and with a new title Pelosi invented for him, Chair, Policy and Communications, is making noise again. His war against progressives is multi-faceted and never-ending.

Apparently there will be no cost-of-living increase for Social Security recipients next year. Worse yet, there are people with the power to do it who are talking about increasing Medicare deductibles, perhaps by 50%, and increasing the Part B premiums. At a time when out-of-pocket health care costs are already the number one expense for seniors and people with disabilities why isn't Congress acting to prevent an outrageous spike in Medicare costs.

Over the weekend, one of the most talked-about pieces from the mainstream press was Patrick Healy's NY Times report on dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party establishment, "Democrats Find That Anti-Establishment Isn’t Just a G.O.P. Theme." "Anger at the political establishment," Healy wrote,

Some districts are just so red, Democrats don't even try anymore. The reddest district in Arkansas, for example, is in the northwest corner of the state, bordering Missouri (not far from Branson) and Oklahoma. The PVI is R+19, and Obama only managed to win 34% in 2008 and 32% in 2012. It's John Boozman's old seat and the district hadn't elected a Democrat since 1967.

Big Oil and the bipartisan pack of corrupt state legislators their lobbyists buy at bargain prices freaked out over the climate-change legislation that was barreling through the California legislature. Democrats hold 52 seats in the Assembly; Republicans have 28. When lobbyists can bribe enough Democrats to vote with the Republicans, guess what happens?

As "journalists" go, Josh Kraushaar is certainly well-known as a major Beltway asshole, but his headline writer at National Journal did a piss-poor job on a relatively (for him) decent article, despite a few ridiculous assertions on his part that his readers have come to expect.

Even a low-level Mafia thug like "Mikey Suits" Grimm was able to beat Blue Dog Mike McMahon, who consistently voted against Democratic Party valuesDo you remember when Chris Van Hollen's DCCC recruited conservative Democrat Mike McMahon to run for the Staten Island congressional seat after incumbent Republican Vito Fossella was discovered to have two families, one in NY and one in Vir