-by Michael WolkowitzMichael is an old friend and Chairman Emeritus of The Brady Campaign/Center to Prevent Gun Violence.Sure, the Air Force should have entered Devin Kelley’s name into the National Background Check System. That might well have stopped him from buying traceable guns from registered gun dealers.
A couple days ago, we noted that one of Ryan's top lieutenants in Texas, House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling is abandoning the sinking ship. Hensarling announced he's had enough.
A lot of Republicans, when they work up the nerve to criticize Señor Trumpanzee, try to couch the criticism in a paean to the greatness of his judiciary and cabinet picks. First of all, he doesn't care how criticism is couched; he'll be looking for an opportunity at revenge sooner or later-- and it won't be pretty-- and, second, his personnel selections are among his worst and most existentially risky decisions, not his saving grace.
By "ideologically diverse" Ben Ray means recruiting anti-Choice conservativesIf I call one more progressive member of Congress today to ask him or her why the DCCC is stiffing so many progressive candidates during Candidates Week, which began yesterday, I'll hit an even dozen. And they all tell me basically the same thing: the DCCC says all candidates are welcome. Are they?
On Monday, Evan Lund penned a post, Climate Denier Congressman Lamar Smith Contends With New Foe: Declining Voter Support, for an environmental website, Earth Island Journal, that should strike a note of fear in the Lamar Smith campaign... if they read environmental websites. They don't.
During his deranged campaign rally in Phoenix Tuesday night, Trump had several disparate stream of consciousness themes but what tied them all together was his profound pose as the ultimate victim. Forget about Heather Heyer, who was murdered by a Trump Nazi fan boy, Trump insisted he was the real victim. He's always pretending to be the victim. It's always been his slimy modus operandi.
Blue America has been busily vetting new congressional candidates since spring. Sometimes it takes a while since we don't base our endorsements on questionnaires but, rather, on "getting to know" the candidates and what they stand for and what their capabilities are. We've certainly gotten to know Derrick Crowe, our newest endorsee-- a progressive Texas Democrat who is running a campaign based on what he wants to do to represent the interests of TX-21 working families in Congress.
I know it's hard to imagine but there was a time when the DCCC used to give their candidates my contact info and tell them to talk with me about progressive issues. That was almost a decade ago. Today they tell their candidates to avoid me at all costs-- or else! And many of their candidates do... but not all.
Texas hasn't been a big part of progressive plans for winning back Congress in recent years-- nor even Democratic Party plans. Most of the few Democrats the DCCC has backed there have been dreadfully corrupt conservatives like Pete Gallego, Vicente Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar and Filemon Vela. They were certainly openly hostile to Beto O'Rourke when he first ran for Congress in El Paso against another of their corrupt conservatives, Sylvester Reyes.
