Ben Ray Lujan

Monday, Susan Page, sitting in for Diane Rehm on her radio show, interviewed several people about what the next steps are for the defeated Democratic Party.

As we mentioned yesterday, the head of the DSCC, Jon Tester, was one of 3 Democrats-- the other two being NRA shills Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin-- to have crossed the aisle and voted with the Republicans to defeat an amendment by Chris Murphy that aimed to expand background checks on gun sales to include sales at gun shows and on the Internet.

Schneider (New Dem) & Dold (R)-- same gray flannel suit garbageIt shouldn't surprise anyone that DCCC Chair Ben Ray Luján endorsed Hillary Clinton yesterday. Corrupt conservatives stick together-- and who cares who Luján endorses anyway? His silly statement claimed that "Hillary embodies New Mexico values. She puts people first and will roll up her sleeves to change their lives for the better." Yeah...

DCCCThere is a natural tendency for the Beltway trade press to never offend the two party establishments and their committees that exercise so much control of access and information. It was the same way in the music industry. So you never read any criticism of the party hacks that run the NRCC or the DCCC, the NRSC or the DSCC.

NRA terrorist/House Speaker with suspicious beardPaul Ryan, the darling of the gun manufacturers' lobbyists-- and the biggest recipient in the House of their blood money-- adamantly refuses to allow a vote on prohibiting terrorism suspects to buy guns.

Illinois has more than its share of conservative Democrats in Congress with a tendency to back Republican legislative priorities and to show more sympathy for the desires of Big Business campaign donors than for ordinary working families. According to ProgressivePunch, the 4 Illinois Democrats with the most right-wing voting records-- from bad to worse-- are

The DCCC managed to lose 13 incumbents' seats and every single seat they went after held by a Republican-- with two exceptions, both right-wing Blue Dogs who are expected to vote fairly consistently with the GOP.

by Anonymous OperativePelosi has lost some of her mental facilities with old age-- as we all do. It's inevitable... and often everyone recognizes it except the person gradually becoming less focussed. When I used to ask Members if they could detect her losing it, they would either flat out deny it or get very defensive.

New DCCC Chairman, Ben Ray LujanTomorrow the Republican conference-- presumably all the old members who are staying on next year plus the class of 2014-- will vote of the recommendations of the Republican Steering Committee for committee chairs. There are 20 members of the steering committee but Boehner, as Speaker, gets 5 votes and Kevin McCarthy, as Leader gets 2 votes. Everybody else gets one vote. As far as I could piece it together, these are the other members: