Heidi Heitkamp

“Sanders can’t win the presidency. He’s too far left.” Others opine, “He’ll never get anything through congress. He hasn’t ever accomplished anything.” What is this movement then? How did a ‘nobody’ build the greatest political movement and fundraising machine in the history of the United States? Because his ideas are popular. They have broad appeal. They are just unappealing to the very few who control what goes out on the airwaves and unfortunately influence a wide swath of voters.

Heidi and TrumpanzeeOn a recent episode of the NY Times podcast, The Daily, Alex Burns interviewed former Senator Heidi Heitkamp. Whether you call what happened in 2018 a blue wave-- in which case you'd be wrong-- or an anti-red /anti-Trump wave-- in which case you'd be correct-- Heitkamp lost her seat while dozens of other Democrats were winning. Kevin Cramer beat her 179,720 (55.1%) to 144,376 (44.3%), although she outspent him massively.

Staffer Jesse Overton says that Senator Heitkamp will be “super liberal” should she be re-elected. Staffers from her campaign office revealed they make Senator Heitkamp’s campaign appear more moderate than it really is to the press and voters.

Barrett by Chip Proserby David LeibowitzIndivisible has recently posted a web page titled “The 2-Step Strategy to Win the Supreme Court Fight” that clearly lays out the available conventional grassroots tools and strategies for dealing with the SCOTUS emergency. The first step is to block the approval of any Supreme Court nominee during the remainder of the current Senate session.

One strategy for conservative Democratic senators in Trump states to win reelection is to show voters back home how bipartisan they are. I wonder if touting the Wall-street friendly dismantling of Dodd-Frank is a good idea for Democrats. Republicans aren't going to vote for them; they have their own candidates.

This week 6 corporate Democrats voted to confirm Alex Azar to be Secretary of Health and Human Services:

Gorsuch throws a gang sign: "thin the herd"What do you think-- should senators be considered responsible-- by voters-- for the actions of Supreme Court judges they vote to confirm? I've always thought so.

You may have come to expect cowardly conservative careerists in the Senate like Joe Manchin (D-WV), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to cross the aisle and rubber-stamp virtually all of Trump's horrendous nominees for high public office.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., points to a chart as he questions Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, during Pruitt’s confirmation hearing before the committee. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

A few weeks ago we pointed out that House Republicans repaid the NRA for al;l it;s support by getting rid of an extremely popular rule that sought to prevent the severely mentally ill from buying guns.