John Kline

This week we were delighted to hear that two truly awful Republican congressmen-- John Kline in Minnesota and Dave Reichert in Washington-- are stepping down.

Everybody hates No Child Left Behind, right? (Except Jeb!, whose family has made a fortune off it.) Democrats hate it, and most Republicans say they hate it.

Compliments of John Kline (R-MN)Earlier today I spent some time on the phone speaking with Angie Craig, a candidate for Congress from southeast Minnesota, MN-02, which butts right up against St. Paul. The seat is currently occupied by one of the worst Members of Congress, John Kline.

DINO Maria Gutzeit has already proven how awful she isSometimes candidates lie about where they are politically to get support. Two of the worst Blue Dogs I ever had the misfortune to see in action-- Chris Carney (PA) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)-- swore to me on the phone before they were elected that they were dedicated progressives. Both are bare-faced liars.

Private, for-profit "colleges" have spent a great deal of money-- and they get a great deal of tax-payer money-- bribing Members of Congress to cut them some slack on their shoddy operations. Last cycle alone, for-profit education spent $1,727,926 on legalistic bribes to Members of Congress, $1,143,883 to Republicans and $582,043 to mostly conservative Democrats.

John Kline's constituents are reading about their crooked congressman this weekEarlier this month we looked into the astounding legalistic bribes John Kline takes from the for-profit college industry, far more than any other Member

Tea Party extremist Frank Guinta voted to cut the Center for Disease Control budget-- and now he's whining about inadequate response to ebolaOn February 19, 2011 the Republican Party decided to cut funding for the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2011. Although Ron Paul didn't vote that day, only 3 Republicans recognized the folly of what the House Republicans were doing: John Campbell (R-CA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Walter Jones (R-NC).

It's just two and a half weeks 'til election day.If someone feeds you a line about the Democrats taking back the House, you're talking with a dishonest huckster or someone steeped in ignorance. The House Democrats' sealed their fate when-- in the light of their 2012 disaster-- they allowed Pelosi to reappoint Steve Israel to chair the DCCC.

Bob Herbert’s piece in last week’s Politico Magazine, The Plot Against Public Education— How Millionaires And Billionaires Are Ruining Our Schools, casts Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, as the arch-villain of public education.

We’ve talked a lot about how DCCC chairman Steve Israel refuses to target any Republican leaders or policy makers, including GOP committee chairs, even ones in vulnerable blue-leaning districts. MN-02 south of Minneapolis/St Paul is a good example. In 2008, Obama beat McCain there by 10,000 votes. Four years later it was much closer but he still beat Romney in the district, which had also voted for Amy Klobuchar in 2006 and 2012 and for Al Franken in 2008.