Rep. Zoe Lofgren, aside from being a tool of the tech industry, is a middle-of-the-road Democrat, not a Blue Dog or a corrupt New Dem, not a progressive, just a Democrat doing a job. Her district encompasses the southern and eastern half of San Jose from Japantown and Alum Rock and runs down the 101 Freeway past Morgan Hill, almost to Gilroy. Once upon a time she was an idealist and an activist. Lofgren is the same age as Hillary, 68, not as conservative but closer to her politically than to Bernie; she's one of Hillary's main California surrogates. She's been in Congress since winning an open seat in 1994. She's had some ethics issues involving self-enrichment but she's not as bad as the typical congressional Hillary supporter. Laughably, 3 years after she was found to have stolen $348,186 from the taxpayers, Pelosi defiantly made her head of the Ethics Committee. It's how Congress works. She's a walking advertisement for congressional term limits. Most recently she recruited some random lawyer from Orange County to run against Lou Vince in CA-25, Santa Clarita, the Simi Valley and the Antelope Valley, probably guaranteeing that the Republicans will hold this blue seat again.Last night she was in Vegas to work on a premeditated Clinton onslaught of "trusted" slime bag congressmembers meant to smear Bernie. She's well suited to the task and tore him down viciously like some kind of ravenous prehistoric bird of prey."I served with Bernie," she croaked. "Almost everybody who has served with Bernie is supporting Hillary," not mentioning the power dynamics that dictate how shallow establishment shills like herself would never consider doing anything other than sticking with the establishment candidate. She's taken $939,668 from the Financial Sector, so she isn't sympathetic to Bernie's goals, even if many of her constituents are. The smear went like this: "You look at someone's achievement level and there's very little to show in terms of legislative achievement. I don't want to be snarky about it but the truth hurts. Hillary has accomplished a lot, both in the Senate [false, unless sabotaging marriage equality counts] and as secretary of State." No one pressed her on what Hillary accomplished as Secretary of State, but I suspect Hillary's one major mark-- the destruction of Libya as a functioning state-- wouldn't be what she was talking about.Part II of the smear is something the Clinton Machine has all her surrogates repeating-- Bernie wrecked the immigration reform efforts of 2007.
Sanders has repeated on the trail that he sided with Hispanic groups who believed the guest worker program in the bill amounted to "slavery." But the Clinton campaign blasted out his official 2007 statement on that bill to reporters, which doesn't mention that argument.Instead, Sanders's statement argued that the bill would have "driven down wages and benefits for U.S. workers by letting employers recruit lower-paid foreign guest workers." That prompted unions like the AFL-CIO to also express concerns that the bill would hurt labor."Bernie did not stand with us," Lofgren said, "and we have never gotten that close again."
The vile and ugly Clinton Machine "take no prisoners" strategy for de-legitimizing Bernie will alienate his progressive/millennial base and the damage to the Democratic Party is incalculable. Here you can see the strategy in full flower, on an anti-Bernie website owned by family retainer David Brock. At best the strategy will hand the GOP the White House in November. What could be worse? How about a schism that splits the party in two-- the elderly corporatists and establishmentarians on the one side-- a corruption-fed conservative grouping that contrasts itself to the reactionary Republicans on the right and to the progressive base on the left-- and the remnants of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt party on the other side. I guess it's time. But President Herr Trumpf... oy veh! Is America strong enough to survive that?
