Tim Ryan

The debates have taught me that many of our politicians don't understand what Medicare is beyond a Medicare-For-Dummies synopsis they may have read once. I noticed that as the case with Tim Ryan (D-OH), no brain surgeon to begin with. The fool got into an argument with Bernie about Medicare and thought he could skate by as though he and another drunk congressman were in a fact-free zone arguing.

Richard Ojeda and Sherrod Brown both dropped out before they could make fools of themselves. Does anyone even remember they were once "running?" And Bloomberg and the Starbucks guy? Yesterday, Ed Kilgore, writing for New York Magazine, speculated on who would drop out first.

Yesterday I spent hours on the phone talking with members of Congress about Pelosi's Rules Package vote today. That's because her damned Pay-Go provision is part of it. Many of the members I spoke with DID NOT KNOW THERE IS A VOTE AND DO NOT KNOW WHAT PAY-GO IS. By noon I was so depressed I wanted to drown myself.

Pelosi thinks it's "bad politics" to impeach Trump. (It's no less her duty than it was Paul Ryan's-- maybe more so.) She may be wrong... and her hand may be forced. A new poll, released this morning by the Associated Press, confirms that most Americans believe that Trump has obstructed the investigation by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election that put Trump into the White House.

-by Tim Russo Listen....oooh wah ooohSome folks know I used to have a pretty good Dem rolodex. Thus, in summer 2016 I tried in vain to raise the alarm with the highest-up Democrats I could reach, for months, that Ohio was trending heavily Trump. As a leading indicator in presidential elections my entire lifetime, Ohio trending Trump meant the entire Midwest was trending Trump, too.

Pelosi's first DCCC chairman was Rahm Emanuel, certainly not someone with any seniority, just someone viewed as a tough guy. Ram's guiding philosophy-- that the House Democrats needed fewer progressives interested in policy and more Republican-lite corporate types happy to sit back and leave policy to the leadership-- appeared successful and it is the guiding philosophy to this day. But it was a huge long-term loser.

Congress already has one foolish Ryan too many in leadershipUntil this past Wednesday, the only House Democrats who have publicly gotten behind Tim Ryan's challenge to Pelosi's leadership were a gaggle of reactionaries from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party: Blue Dog co-chairs Kurt Schrader (OR) and Jim Cooper (TN) and rot gut Wall Street-owned New Dems

Given: Nancy Pelosi needs to be replaced as House Democratic Leader. In any Parliamentary democracy she would have been replaced within days of the 2010 electoral catastrophe she oversaw. The premise for keeping her-- especially inside her own circle of supporters-- has always been that Hoyer, a creature of K Street, is far worse. And he is. Pelosi will be 77 in March. Three months later Hoyer will turn 78.

Dream ticketAside from the lesser of two evils approach she will eventually win or lose the general election on, Hillary's most salient appeal is that it's time-- past time-- for a woman. But she shouldn't use that argument up in the primary. Attacking Bernie as somehow sexist is really stupid.

The winning formula for Ohio Democrats?Tea leaf readers in Ohio interpreted Tim Ryan's years-in-the-making switched position on Choice-- he's always been anti-Choice, has promised supporters for years he was on the verge on switching and then, last month finally did-- to mean he would be running for statewide office.