Elizabeth Warren

Several Beltway trade magazines referred to the 7 reactionary Democrats who voted with the Republicans Thursday for their deranged Benghazi witch hunt as "moderates." I assume they are using the term "moderate," as they always do, to connote "not progressive" and as a substitute for "conservative." "Moderate" actually is the opposite of "extremist," not the opposite of "liberal." In fact, the 7 pro-witch hunters all among the most conservative Democrats in Congress.

I'm up to the part in Elizabeth Warren's new book, A Fighting Chance, when she's the chairman of the congressional oversight panel (COP) for TARP.

Friday, in a little-noticed post about Donna Edwards being named to head the DCCC's Red-to-Blue program, we glanced at the success Wall Street had in burdening American families with an unfair and grotesque new bankruptcy law. Needless to say, every single Republican voted for this monstrous concoction of the predatory banking lobbyists.

The vote yesterday to shut down the Republican Party filibuster of the minimum wage bill ended badly, 54 in favor, 41 opposed (not counting Harry Reid who had to switch his vote to oppose so he can bring the bill up again later). It needed 60 votes to overcome the filibuster. Five votes shy.

If there's one lesson I'm getting out of the new Elizabeth Warren book, A Fighting Chance, so far, it's that the system is rigged-- fixed against ordinary Americas to favor economic and political elites. "Economic and political elites"... where is the line that even differentiates them these days?

On Sunday, Steve Kornacki took a little look at the expanding rift between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and much of the Democratic base. It's worth looking at the video above. Salon's Joan Walsh did a particularly excellent job straightening out Beltway political entrepreneur Ann Lewis, who actually defended Cuomo by quoting Ronald Reagan. I'm not going to get into speculating about what the Working Families Party may or may not do, beyond saying that with the union leadership telling them they;re on their own, they probably won't do much.

Tuesday night Rachel Maddow had a couple of inspiring segments on her show dedicated to Elizabeth Warren and the release of her new book, A Fighting Chance. She included an inspiring interview, included above complements of YouTube.

Do conservative voting records by vulnerable Democrats like Mary Landrieu (LA), Mark Pryor (AR), and John Walsh (MT) make it hard for you to get worked up about Democrats whining that they could lose the Senate?

Although the successful 61-35 cloture vote last week to break the Republican filibuster on extending unemployment benefits was the real test, yesterday the Senate officially passed the bill, 59-38, and sent it to the

It's no secret that Blue America is as excited about the Shenna Bellows race in Maine this cycle, as we were about the Elizabeth Warren race in Massachusetts last cycle. The two women are different in many ways, of course, but both are strong, independent-minded, brilliant and focused on breaking through the same-ole/same-ole that has made Washington so utterly dysfunctional.