Not afraid to speak truth to powerIgor Volsky and Judd Legum of Think Progress are trying to keep track of who's for bombing Syria and who's opposing it in Congress. And while they're getting a few specifics wrong here and there, theirs is one of the better "whip counts" available to the public right now.
Same crap, though one wears blue panties and one wears red panties (big ones)As you may recall, Blue America backed-- vigorously backed-- Rush Holt for the Democratic nomination in the New Jersey Senate primary. Newark mayor Cory Booker won, and won big. On the Republican side of the fence, an extremist sociopath, Steve Lonegan, won the nomination and he's genuinely far worse than Booker on almost everything.
I feel badly that we haven't found any good progressive women running for Congress yet and that so far all the Blue America-endorsed candidates are men. On the other hand-- aside from the cycle being young-- all of our candidates for governor are women.
Rahm Emanuel was never a big fan of Hillary Clinton. Perhaps that's why he's been giving the thumbs up to his wealthy Wall Street supporters who want to write checks to Chris Christie's gubernatorial campaign, like hedge fund crook/billionaire Ken Griffin, one of Emanuel's top supporters.
Every New Jersey Democrat I know-- even the best of 'em-- are warning about the need to rally around Cory Booker now that he's in a face-off against a big bad right-wing lunatic. Early this morning, on her way to the airport, Barbara Buono told me that "When the polls closed I went to Cory Booker’s election night party. I know that Blue America members may not have supported Cory in the primary.
And Cory Booker-- same crooked garbageChristie made sure that the election for the open Senate seat would not fall on the same day as his own election-- costing New Jersey taxpayers millions of dollars-- because he was afraid Cory Booker's celebrity status would turn out lots and lots of Democrats who might not otherwise bother voting... and who could tilt his own race towards Democrat Barbara Buono.
Tuesday is election day in New Jersey-- not the general election, which is in November, but the special election primary for the open Senate seat. Wall Street has been successful in creating the conventional wisdom that their puppet, Cory Booker, can't be stopped. But a late summer special election primary is really about turning out voters more than anything else. Cory Booker may be a TV celebrity but he has a putrid record of failure and a sleazy relationship with Big Business special interests.
A week from today, we'll wake up knowing who won the Democratic nomination-- tantamount to election-- for the open New Jersey U.S. Senate seat. Will it be another progressive dedicated to representing working families? Or will it be a shameless careerist who takes his every move from his Wall Street benefactors. Last week, Blue America and Progressive Democrats of America made the case for Rush Holt against Cory Booker.
This week Blue America and Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) sent a joint letter to all our members asking them to support Rush Holt for the open New Jersey Senate seat. The August 13 primary has 4 Democrats vying for the nomination-- Rush Holt and Frank Pallone, both progressive congressmen, General Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, a kind of boss-affiliated garden variety Democrat, and the Wall Street candidate, Newark Mayor Cory Booker. The special election itself will be held October 16. Digby penned the letter:
