The Republican wing of the Democratic PartyA reminder: As soon as Blue Dog/New Dem Cheri Bustos grabbed the DCCC chair for herself, she instituted an aggressive new policy aimed at progressives challenging Blue Dogs and New Dems (like herself). She officially declared that any campaign consultants, vendors, polling firms, strategists or operatives who worked for a campaign running against an incumbent would be blacklisted by the DCCC.
UPDATE: There are now 211 members of Congress in favor of opening an official impeachment inquiry-- meaning all they need is 7 more, something they will have before the end of the day.On Tuesday morning-- apparently with an OK from Pelosi-- John Lewis, who is considered by many the "conscience of Congress," spoke on the House floor, reversing his public impeachment position. "We cannot delay. We must not wait. Now is the time to act. I have been patient while we tried every other path and used every other tool.
In June, Blue America endorsed a bartender, rugby player, former legislative aide and Democratic Socialist, Shaniyat Chowdhury, for Congress. He's running in the deep blue (PVI is D+37) southeast Queens district (NY-05) that includes Jamaica, the Rockaways, Cambra Heights, Laurelton, Rosedale, Ozone Park, St Albans, Kew Gardens (+ a sliver of western Nassau County including Valley Stream and Elmont).
In 2018, corrupt conservative, Darren Soto, pretended he was a progressive during his primary battle with Alan Grayson. After he won, he stopped pretending and admitted he's a member of the right-of-center, Wall Street owned and operated New Dems. Yesterday, like virtually all the New Dems, Soto voted against impeaching Trump. It reminded me on one of Grayson's brilliant TV spots which focused on impeachment. Watch closely. The point is simple: "I'll vote for impeachment; Soto won't." And Grayson was... clairvoyant?
One of the big surprises in recent years when I talk with new congressional candidates is the number who tell me that the reason they're running is climate change. The first one who ever told me that was when I spoke with a state Senator in California struggling with the idea of leaving his family behind in his beloved southern California to immerse himself in tawdry Washington by running for Congress.
In his State of the Union interview Sunday with Jake Tapper, Justin Amash (I-MI), Amash was steadfast in his position that it isn't Trump-- who he obviously detests-- that caused him to leaved the GOP but Congress itself. He told Tapper he had made the decision to leave the party before he called for Congress to begin the impeachment process and before Mueller issued his report. While Tapper kept trying to get him to say something negative about Trump, Amash wanted to make the point that he "had concerns with the Republican Party for several years.
There are a lot of bad Democrats in Congress. It's fair to say Josh Gottheimer is the worst non-freshman in the House. By the numbers, he has the lowest score of any Democrat for 2019-- 20.83. Even the garbage pile of freshmen Democrats the party would be better off without have voting records that aren't as bad as Gottheimer's:
Jamie Dimon is the CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, America’s biggest bank. His net worth is over a billion dollars. Th U.S. Treasury gave JPMorgan $25 billion in taxpayer money to keep the bak afloat in 2008 after Dimon had gambled in speculative mortgages. Many in the Obama administration urged him to appoint Dimon Treasury Secretary but he picked Timothy Geithner instead.
Shaniyat Chowdhury is a first-generation American, a young marine corps veteran, for state legislative aide, international rugby star and Queens bartender… and candidate for Congress against one of the most corrupt machine politicians left in New York City— conservative New Dem Gregory Meeks.
