Mr. CharismaHis hilarious/outrageous ads about Mitch McConnell-- "swamp captain," "cocaine Mitch," "China family"-- helped turn Republican mass murderer and Senate candidate Don Blankenship into something of a folk anti-hero, not just in West Virginia but across the nation. And... much to the delight of Joe Manchin and the DSCC, Blankenship ain't goin' away.
Tomorrow is Tuesday... primary day in 4 important states: North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia and Ohio-- each of which was carried by Señor Trumpanzee. If you think the GOP primary in West Virginia is crackpotsville... well, you're right, but almost sane compared to what's going on in Indiana. Last week we looked at the mess the Indiana senate primary has turned into.
West Virginia is the Trumpiest state in the union. The PVI is R+19 and Trump beat Hillary 489,371 (68.5%) to 188,794 (26.4%). Trump won every single county in the state. (In the primary, Bernie also won every single county in the state and beat Hillary 124,700 (51.4%) to 86,914 (35.8%). In fact, on primary day, there were plenty of candidates where Bernie took more votes than Trump.
In his delineation of the tragedy of Ruben Kihuen, Jon Ralston wrote Monday that it was Reid who elevated "someone with so many known ticking time bombs in his past." Ralston expressed sympathy, not with the Democratic Party establishment or even Kihuen but with so many people who "had reposed faith in and who so many mu
So far, the senators who have signed on as cosponsors to Bernie's Medicare-For-All bill are Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Pat Leahy (D-VT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Al Franken (D-MN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)-- 15, so, with Bernie, that's 16 out of the 48 Democrats in the Senate. Bernie will make his formal announcement at 2pm (ET)-- in one hour.
When Pelosi and Ben Gay Luján cluck to the media that they're proudly, defiantly recruiting and financing Blue Dogs, anti-Choice fanatics and "ex"-Republicans to run as congressional candidates, they're talking about political opportunists like Jim Justice and Joe Manchin, two arch-conservatives from West Virginia.
Sure, they can't all be this good-- but we should aim high... especially in primariesFor Democrats like Elizabeth Warren, Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin, Alan Grayson, Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee, Ted Lieu, Randy Bryce and, of course, Bernie, the Democratic Party is, first and foremost, a vehicle for making the country a better place. These are values-rich progressives who are all about policy solutions for real problems.
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)
Cops with attitude in Donald Trump's world (source; click to enlarge)by Gaius PubliusA reasonably short piece, but one that poses a key set of questions for our "next six months" watch over the revival or demise of the Democratic Party.
