The Democrats Will Also Shit Themselves.

[Thad]

Republican donors, probably.

It was published in the Wall Street Journal, so pretty much, yeah.

[Thad]

[Mongrel]

remember to SuPPoRT tHE nOmiNEe

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md ... story.html

Maryland gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous needs all the help he can get to unseat incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan (R), but he’s facing resistance from some fellow Democrats uneasy with his left-wing platform.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett is declining to endorse Jealous for now because of concerns that Jealous’s positions on taxes, school funding and Amazon.com’s second headquarters would penalize Leggett’s constituents in the state’s most populous jurisdiction.

Long-serving Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), an influential moderate, offered only tepid backing for Jealous while praising Hogan for “governing from the middle.”

[mharr]

There's been some talk recently about fixing the balance of the supreme court by 'packing', legislating a significant increase in size and filling the new slots with liberal justices. Seems like something you might want to discuss after being elected, since it gives the incumbent party some very obvious ammunition to use against you, and might inspire them to do it first, 'fixing the balance' in a very different direction.

https://www.vox.com/2018/7/2/17513520/c ... reme-court

[Thad]

I'm not aware of any Democrats who are actually current or prospective officeholders advocating for stacking the court. It's not as if the party is known for taking policy cues from Jacobin.

[Mongrel]

[Thad]

NYT:

In his two terms as governor, Andrew Cuomo has had significant accomplishments. But he has done little to combat the corruption in the Legislature and his own administration, and he has allowed the subway system, the foundation of the New York City economy, to rot. The case for change, at a time when so many New Yorkers yearn for change, is not hard to make.

[...]

But Ms. Nixon’s lack of experience in government or management of any sort do not inspire confidence that she could overcome the old guard in Albany to fulfill her promises and run the state. Her campaign has, at times, boiled down to a largely negative message — that she is not Andrew Cuomo — and while that can indeed seem an appealing truth, it is not, in the end, enough.

I hate this shit.

I have a feeling the Gillum/DeSantis race in Florida is going to be used as a bellwether. If Gillum loses, the Democratic establishment will spend the next two years beating us over the head with the message that progressives don't win elections. (If Gillum wins, on the other hand, the Democratic establishment will spend the next two years beating us over the head with the message that Gillum got lucky and you still shouldn't expect progressives to win elections. But that message will probably be much less effective.)

This is, of course, absurd reductivism. Whether or not a progressive can win an election depends on the election.

[Mongrel]

Now I want her to win just so the NYT opinion staff can eat a dick. Given recent events, the NYT would probably be better off just shuttering their Opinion section anyway.

[Mongrel]

"Pocahontas" is gonna stick, isn't it?

[Metal Slime]

"Pocahontas" is gonna stick, isn't it?

Yep, don't know why she thought it was a smart idea to do the DNA test. She played a stupid game with a stupid person and all she got was a stupid prize.

[Thad]

It was a waste of time, but I don't think it's the serious gaffe people are making it out to be. I don't think she's any worse off than she was last week, really.

The worst thing she's done is pissed off some tribal groups, and that was foolish and insensitive. Her "I'm just explaining the origin of the family story, not claiming membership in a tribe" backpedaling is a start, but it seems to me that if she wants to do right by indigenous people, she should listen to them. Do some outreach. Hire more as staffers. Campaign for indigenous rights.

It's really not hard to demonstrate that you're less racist than Donald Trump.

[Joxam]

I'm native and while I think what she did was stupid I find it funny as hell that, even when congressional Republicans have the moral high ground to call into question her understanding of minorities and their way of life (we actually do use blood quantum tests to certify tribal membership, for example, just not a DNA test) they decide to go even more racist with it.

[Metal Slime]

I get both acts are illegal, but they aren't the same Chuck.

[Mongrel]

REALLY hoping this is just gossip, or someone floating a trial balloon or something: Close Hillary aide claims she plans to run again in 2020

[Cait]

[Thad]

The opposition to Pelosi feels like so much kabuki. Is there even a challenger yet, or is it just



I don't love Pelosi, but I've come to respect her. She's a very effective leader. She's very good at counting votes and making deals.

I don't always like the deals she makes, but that's part of the job: arriving at compromises that the base and the establishment can agree on -- and if some of the opposition can get onboard too, that's gravy. She's made compromises in the past that I believed were unacceptable, but I also know what a Speaker who can't get his party to compromise looks like.



Another part of the job is, well, exactly this: getting blamed for everything by everyone; becoming the face of your party that's used in attack ads against everybody who's running for office. Any notion that the next Democratic Speaker will be any less vilified by the Republicans and Fox News -- or less controversial among the various factions of the Democratic coalition -- is an illusion.

I wouldn't mind seeing Pelosi step down in favor of a new leader -- but who? Nobody seems to want the job, and the people who have been mooted as replacements don't seem any better than she is. A lack of experience isn't even necessarily an impediment right now, since a Democratic House can't really do much besides block whatever crazy shit Trump and McConnell are pushing -- but hopefully come '21 there will be a Democratic President and it would sure be nice to have a Democratic Speaker who knows what the fuck they're doing.

It seems to me like the answer is, keep Pelosi, while paying a mind toward training the next generation of party leaders (and by "next generation" I do not mean 66-year-old Marcia Fudge, though eyeing more members of the Congressional Black Caucus for leadership roles would be a very good idea).

The most ridiculous thing about this is, of course, that Schumer sailed to re-election as minority leader without any fuss. God dammit, Democrats, if you're going to dump one of your Congressional leaders, you are picking the wrong one.

[Blossom]

[Blossom]

[Thad]

DCCC introduces No-More-AOCs rule

The DCCC has announced that any vendor or consultant who works with a candidate mounting a primary challenge to an incumbent Democrat will be cut off from doing any business with the Democratic Party in 2020.

[Brantly B.]

Do you guys WANT more Howard Schultzes?

...

Actually it's probably best you don't try to answer that.