Crazy BratSteve Israel, whose Long Island district has a rare 0 PVI (equally split between Democrats and Republicans) doesn't challenge any Republican leaders. All the House GOP leaders-- every single one of them-- has immunity and in return, Israel, the worst choice as a DCCC chair in history, is the only incumbent in a 0 PVI district that isn't a battleground.
Shady billionaire-backed Ro Khanna primarying Mike HondaBlue America has endorsed only 2 House incumbents facing reelection difficulty. And one, Mike Honda, represents Silicon Valley-- CA-17, a heavily Democratic area-- D+20 which Obama took with 72% last year. Honda even did better than that, beating his Republican opponent 74-26%, more than 100,000 votes separating them.
I know just where to go for some Inside-the-Beltway convention wisdom and yesterday I found out that momentum has swung away from House Democrats and towards House Republicans-- they're tied at 39-39%-- because Obama's image has suffered due to the amateurish roll-out of the Affordable Care Act website. The GOP-directed media frenzy over the website worked. And now it's time to get back to reality.
Becerra, Grayson, Ellison-- actual leaders, not money-grubbersI'm never really comfortable with a corrupt out-of-touch Beltway committee parachuting into an American congressional district and telling the Democrats there who their candidate for Congress should be. In the old days, even the worst DCCC chairmen-- think Rahm Emanuel-- used to tip-toe, at least publicy, around interfering in primaries.
When I was growing up, my grandfather always told me to never trust the Democratic Party. "They're not as bad as the Republicans." he always said, "but they're bad in their own way. They make believe they stand up for the working class, but they're just out for themselves." Even back then, it was clear the party was dominated by careerists. The Republicans complain about their party in the same way.
Remember this video Alan Grayson made to explain a handful of congressional Democrats who "are anti-Choice, who are pro-war, who are against workers' rights, who do nothing to promote jobs or promote health or safety?" In it he makes the case the voters deserve a real choice on election day. "If you have two Republicans running against each other, one with an "R-E-P" next to his name and the other one with a "D-E-M" next to his name, its a tremendous disservice to the public... If you run as a Democrat, there are certain things that you should stand for.
Carl Sciortino with Ed Markey on election dayLast night, Alan Grayson (D-FL) endorsed Carl Sciortino for Congress, the progressive in a tight 5-way primary to replace Ed Markey. He joins People for the American Way, Blue America and all the Massachusetts LGBT and progressive organizations who have already endorsed.
MikeWriting at BlueTheNation, Jonathan Nathan makes the point that "One of the most important races of the 2014 election cycle is one you’re not likely to hear an awful lot about, at least not from the sort of pop-politics talking heads one finds on the news networks and cable channels and major blogs. That’s because it’s an intra-party race between two Democrats.
McConnell is an ugly example of the American ruling elites who have perverted democracy for the advancement of their own careers. At this point, it almost doesn't matter if McConnell is a conservative or a liberal; all that matters is that he represents Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate, not the working families of Kentucky.
Tuesday, conservative polemicist Byron York was worrying the Republicans could lose the House in 2014. And if the Democratic Party was even vaguely competent, they could.
