Jared Golden

I've been holding this little clip for the appropriate moment. Trumpanzee's insane tweet yesterday is certainly the appropriate moment, wouldn't you say? Is he a standup comedian? Did Melania grab his cell and decide to make a fool of him? We'll never know. But he does seem to be setting the scene and making excuses in advance for Kremlin interference, once again, on behalf of the supine Republican Party. Who will believe him?

Maine's second congressional district isn't white collar Portland or ritzy Kennebunkport. All 10 of Maine's wealthiest towns are in York and Cumberland counties, part of ME-01. Meanwhile ME-02 is an all-American blue collar district. And it's a swing district that Obama won by about 10 points both times he ran but that Hillary lost by about 10 points to Trump. The Democratic establishment was looking for a Blue Dog to run, a Republican-lite character who would sound like a less extreme version of the current congressman, Trump enabler Bruce Poliquin.

At this point, national polling doesn't tell us as much as district polling doesA nice theme has been developing over the past year or so: our political system is riven with corruption-- a culture of corruption-- and congressional Republicans are at the root of it. Sounds about right, although letting the Democrats off the hook is ludicrous. Sure the Republicans are more corrupt... but the Democrats are plenty corrupt.

Five months from now it will be too late. The primaries will be over and the new House of Representatives chosen. I feel certain that the Democratic wave will have swept Republican Trump enablers across the country out of office. The fellow at the blackboard up top is Trump rubber stamp and Wall Street puppet Bruce Poliquin (R-ME).

Trumpanzee, of course, had to make the primaries all about himself by tweeting an endorsement against South Carolina's Congressman Mark Sanford, whose voting record is pretty pro-Trump (73.1%) in a district where Trump only won with 53.5%-- has called Trump out now and then.

Tomorrow there are primaries in 5 states, Nevada, Maine, Virginia, North Dakota and South Carolina. We're watching Maine more closely than any of the other states. Blue America has only endorsed one federal candidate in any of the 5 states-- Jared Golden, who's running for Wall Street oriented Bruce Poliquin's seat in the sprawling non-Portland bulk of the state.

Inspiring post by Aida Chavez at The Intercept over the weekend, Out Of Poverty And Onto The Ballot: The New Wave Of Woking-Class Candidates Trying To Take Congress. I loved the comparison she started with between David Trone, who spent $13,414,225 of his own money trying-- unsuccessfully-- to buy a House seat in Maryland.

Jeff Flake (R-AZ) was on Meet the Press yesterday dancing on the head of a pin held up to the camera by Chuck Todd: "I do hope that somebody runs on the Republican side other than the president, if nothing else than simply to remind Republicans what conservatism is and what Republicans have traditionally stood for." Traditionally.Meanwhile Marco Rubio was on This week demonstrating once again that he is always

Last month, Justice Democrats commissioned an important report, The Future of the Party-- A Progressive Vision For A Populist Democrat Party by Sean McElwee. You should read the whole thing at that link. The short version: "The Democratic Party is at a crossroads as the 2018 election approaches."

Yesterday Politico began the day with couple of paragraphs detailing how normalized corruption has become in The Swamp. And, yes, of course there's never been as huge and as toxic a swamp as the Trump swamp. "YES, guys like Michael Cohen routinely get paid amounts like $1.2 million to offer insights about their boss or former boss. Yeah, it’s crazy.