Paul Clements

Several months ago, when the DCCC endorsed Pete Aguilar for the D+5 Inland Empire congressional seat he lost last year to two Republicans because of his obvious inability to connect with Democratic voters, I tried calling him to ask him where he stands on issues. Like virtually all DCCC-manufactured candidates, his website is devoid of issue positions. I reached what I thought was a naive volunteer, a pleasant kid with a Chechen accent, named Boris.

House Republicans may not have "the time" to vote on important measures with wide popular support like comprehensive immigration reform, ending workplace discrimination against the LGBT community (ENDA) or raising the minimum wage-- none of which Boehner will allow onto the 2013 schedule-- but they do have time to further attempt to steal the food out of the mouths of children by

A couple hours ago the Democratic Motion to Recommit-- their response to Upton's bill to gut the Affordable Care Act-- would have given State Commissioners authority to go after bad actor insurance companies. It didn't extend health plans permanently like bill offered by Mary Landrieu, only extending them through the end of 2014.

Fred Upton's Monkey CourtOn Wednesday, the House voted 292-122 to gut a significant portion of the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection law. Irresponsible banksters addicted to risky gambling will once again be able to take those risks knowing that if they get into trouble, the taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab.

Fred Upton's "monkey court"Today Congressman Fred Upton grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sabelius over the error-plagued launch of HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s enrollment website for mandatory health insurance. Would that he were so assiduous in his support for Americans’ access to high quality, affordable health care!This is the same Upton who voted 40 times to defund the Affordable Care Act.

Last week, MoveOn and PPP polled some of the swing districts where the DCCC protects Republican incumbents. The results were breathtaking, especially for media folks who only get their information from Cook and the DCCC. Blue America candidates are on target to beat long-time Republican incumbents and one of the strongest showings was from first-time candidate, Paul Clements, who's running against Fred Upton in western Michigan. Upton is underwater in terms of his constituents' approval.

Last week, when MoveOn and PPP released their much buzzed about polls showing how Democrats could pick up many seats, the first thing I noticed was that these were all the Steve Israel seats they had polled.

Thursday afternoon, all but 15 Republicans voted to take $40 billion out of the food stamps program. It will never pass the Senate or be signed by the President, but it was a way for Republicans to reassure their crazy Tea Party base that they're as greedy, selfish and filled with hatred as the people who vote for them are. Progressive Caucus co-chairs Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) and CPC Whip Barbara Lee (D-CA), like every Democrat in the House, voted NO.

Fred Upton, Steve Israel-- corrupt cronies in CongressThe DCCC announcement this week of another batch of candidates has been called their "worst recruitment effort in history." No one should be surprised that most of Steve Israel's picks for their Jump Start program could be barely described as "the lesser of two evils" in comparison to their opponents.

Wikipedia defines "mystery meat" as "a disparaging term for meat products, typically ground or otherwise processed, such as chicken nuggets, Spam, Salisbury steaks, sausages, or hot dogs, that have an unidentifiable source.