Cops with attitude in Donald Trump's world (source; click to enlarge)by Gaius PubliusA reasonably short piece, but one that poses a key set of questions for our "next six months" watch over the revival or demise of the Democratic Party.
Few people remember Joe Biden's Senate record. But I'm one who does. "Corporate whore" comes rapidly to mind. Biden was a right-of-center establishment Democratic who represented Wall Street interests while painting himself as a man of the people who road Amtrack. Outside of Delaware-- where he was a sentaor from 1973 'til 2008-- no one ever bought the hype back then, though Politico, which wasn't around then, does today.
Some say the presidential push that Paul Ryan is making now is actually to set him up for a 2020 run after this year's GOP Dunkirk (see video above, which I found on Donald Trump's Twitter feed yesterday). After all, Bernie would be 80 when he starts his second term and Hillary would be 74.
Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)-- $1,837,210 in bribesYou may recall that about a month ago we were looking at the exertions ole Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)-- one of the less discreet bribe-takers on the House Financial Services Committee-- was making on behalf of his Wall Street financiers. He has nothing to worry about.
At tonight's SisterGiant/BlueAmerica progressive candidates forum (6pm, PT; 9pm back East), Marianne is interviewing congressional candidates Mike Noland from Illinois and Mike Manypenny from West Virginia. Last night she spoke with Rep. Ted Lieu (CA), Carol Shea-Porter (NH) and Rubin Kihuen (NV). That link just above allows you to watch the brand new interviews and the archived ones as well.
This is probably a bad year for a candidate to be counting on establishment endorsers. But the DC Democratic establishment hasn't figured that out yet. The wretched pro-Wall Street Schumercrats the establishment is running against progressives are all bragging about endorsements they've gotten from pathetic figures who are despised by the Americans who have heard of them.
Increasingly loathed Democratic Party bosses like Schumer, Wasserman Schultz, Hoyer, Emanuel, Van Hollen, Israel can't understand why Bernie is doing so well. They want to stop him, of course, but, according the a report from Lauren French and John Bresnahan, they also want to emulate... something.
In this tweet yesterday, Washington Post columnist and notorious villager Aaron Blake was trying to drive traffic to an article by a colleague, Amber Phillips, about Orlando congressman Alan Grayson, who both referred to as "Congress' most bizarre member," presumably, at least in Amber's and Aaron's world, more bizarre than, for example,
In the video above, the establishment candidate for the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nomination, Katie McGinty, is very clear that she didn't accept any money from the oil and gas industry. That's what Democrats expect from their nominees since the oil and gas industry seeks to bribe politicians with funding. Pennsylvania Democrats ended the sleazy career of pro-fracking Blue Dog Tim Holden in 2012 when progressive insurgent Matt Cartwright called him out for his ties to Big Oil.
