primaries

The best thing about my Memorial Day weekend was meeting a young woman in Maryland who's decided to take on Steny Hoyer. Briana Urbina was born in AOC's district in the Bronx. Replacing Hoyer will be even more difficult than it was replacing Crowley but after spending some time speaking with Briana, I'm convinced she's got the makings of another great congresswoman, like Alexandria. She wrote on her campaign website that "as both a lawyer and a teacher Briana witnessed the impact of failed policies at the state, local and federal level.

As you know, Cheri Bustos-- with the support of Pelosi and Hoyer-- has moved to ban primaries against incumbent Democrats. The policy is tremendously unpopular and people who never even knew what the DCCC is re now hating it. Thanks to Bustos, the DCCC has become a dark spot against Democrats. Way to go!

Wednesday morning Pelosi and Schumer headed over to the White House to discuss an already doomed infrastructure plan (and to be booted out by the always gracious Señor Trumpanzee). A reporter asked her about the closed door Democratic Party caucus she had just left (not even chiefs of staff were allowed in-- just members). She told him-- and his tape recorder: "It was a very positive meeting, a respectful sharing of ideas. And I think a very impressive presentation by our chairs.

Yesterday the big news was that Alabama Republicans had passed a total, punitive-- and unconstitutional-- ban on all abortions in their state. The worst DCCC chair ever, the odious Blue Dog from northwest Illinois, Cheri Bustos, thought that would be a good day to announce that she's hosting a fundraiser for Congress' most anti-Choice Democrat, fellow Blue Dog, Dan Lipinski. That's the invitation above.

When Ben Ray was chair of the DCCC last year...When Tom Udall announced he wouldn't run for another 6 year Senate term in 2020, DC swamp monster, Ben Ray Luján, immediately announced his availability. Like his old pal, Joe Crowley, Luján is quite popular in DC and if it was only lobbyists and consultants and the Washingtonian elite voting, he would win.

I haven't seen him in a while, but I used to run into George Takei in one of my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurants all the time. It's an unspoken word in L.A. that you don't bother the celebrities, so I never did say anything to him. Takei is a good solid member of the Democratic Party and he often pushes the party line, feeling, no doubt, that he's doing God's work.

One month from Tuesday there's a special election to fill the empty congressional seat in PA-12. Haven't heard much about it, have you? You weren't meant to. The DCCC and NRCC have a gentleman's agreement that this one goes to Team Red without a contest. The DCCC is ignoring the district entirely.

The headline is idiotic. The Texas Monthly asked, trying to be provocative, I suppose: Can Out-of-State Liberals Oust a Texas Democrat? The answer, of course, is NO. Only a solid home-grown progressive Democrat from Webb or Bexar County is going to oust Henry Cuellar.

When Bustos and Pelosi formulated the excuse for the DCCC's vile new anti-progressive "no primaries" diktat, they claimed it was to protect freshmen in swing districts, but that was a typical Pelosi lie. If they wanted to protect endangered freshman, they could have formulated a rule to protect endangered freshmen. Instead their incumbent-protection racket is trying to protect conservative incumbents-- like what was once Joe Crowley-- from insurgent progressives like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

According to a new poll from the University of Chicago's General Social Survey, 54% of Democrats describe themselves as liberals. In 1974, when GSS first asked that question, only 32% did, most of the rest describing themselves as moderates or conservatives. Harvard's Co-operative Congressional Election Study released this year, show that even Dems who identify as conservative, support progressive policies.