Will Corey O'Brien Take On Paul Kanjorski?

Briefly, I lived in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. The congressman was-- and still is-- Paul Kanjorski-- a corrupt, socially conservative shill for Big Business. A heavyweight on the House Financial Services Committee, Kanjorski has been an apologist for the banksters and has taken more in legalized bribes ($3,185,464) from the financial/insurance/real estate sector that he's supposed to be regulating than any other member of that committee except ranking Republican shill and chief bankster apologist Spencer Bachus ($3,789,474).

In November, Kanjorski came closer to being ousted by northeast Pennsylvania voters in the 11th CD than any other Democratic incumbent. While Obama was racking up an impressive 57% win in the district-- significantly better than either Gore or Kerry-- Kanjorski was nearly defeated by virulent xenophobe and wingnut Lou Barletta (52-48%). The Obama voters were clearly not endorsing Barletta's Know Nothing politics; they had just had it with Kanjorski's sleazy politics.

This morning Gort42 broke the news that a (former) Kanjorski ally, Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O'Brien, who caused a stir and ruffled some feathers last year by endorsing Obama in the run-up to the presidential primary-- in the middle of Clinton Country, would probably be challenging Kanjorski in next year's congressional primary.

But progressive Democrats can cool their heels for now. O'Brien is no champion of progressive values-- In fact, he's a better packaged avatar of social conservatism-- anti-Choice and against equality for gays. O'Brien looks like he could quickly grow up to me another Kanjorski-- just a lot slicker. Here's an effective, if phony-sounding, ad he ran last year: