By James Petras :: 08.11.2015 Prologue: In the village of Duma, an 18 month old Palestinian baby died following the fire-bombing of his family’s home by Israeli settlers. The father of the child died of burns a week later and the surviving mother and young sibling are barely alive – covered with burns from racist […]
More than a few highly qualified progressives told me they would never-- or, in many cases, never again-- waste their time and resources running for Congress with Blue Dog Steve Israel anywhere near the DCCC. Technically, Nancy Pelosi replaced him with New Mexico novice Ben Ray Luján, although many observers see Luján as little more than a figurehead, with Israel still calling entirely too many shots, especially in regard to recruitment.
Last week was a good one for the White House between the Supreme Court decisions on Obamacare, same-sex marriage, and redistricting and Obama's success in getting enough conservative, corporately owned Democrats-- primarily New Dems-- to vote with the GOP to pass Wall Street's trade agenda (Fast Track, as a prelude to TPP).
Writing for Stars and Stripes and the Washington Post Sunday, Anne Kim, an operative for Wall Street's deceptively named Progressive Policy Institute (a pro-corporate/anti-worker New Dem outfit that was founded by the DLC to promote neoliberal ideas like NAFTA and the TPP), decries how much more it costs reactionary Democrats-- New Dems and Blue Dogs-- to run for election than it costs real Democrats.
After last cycle's electoral debacle for the Democrats, I spoke with a dozen Democratic candidates from competitive districts who felt they lost, at least in part, because of astonishing DCCC malfeasance. Almost every single one of them brought up Steve Israel, and not one person said a single word in his defense.
New DCCC Chairman, Ben Ray LujanTomorrow the Republican conference-- presumably all the old members who are staying on next year plus the class of 2014-- will vote of the recommendations of the Republican Steering Committee for committee chairs. There are 20 members of the steering committee but Boehner, as Speaker, gets 5 votes and Kevin McCarthy, as Leader gets 2 votes. Everybody else gets one vote. As far as I could piece it together, these are the other members:
Stockman was never convicted for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing-- and, the Texas Republican Party being what it is these days, he even wound up back in Congress.
Now it's the Beltway Democrats' turn for an autopsy. Early indications are that they are in such a state of denial that the whole exercise will probably prove as pointless as the one the GOP did after they had their asses kicked by the electorate in 2012.
