The Worst Of The Worst-- Next Year's Most Horrible Members Of Congress

Without Steve Israel's incompetence, Glenn Grothman wouldn't be on his way to becoming a Member of Congress

There are some close House races that may not be decided until 3 weeks from today. But the vast majority of the 435 elections have already been decided. Because of gerrymandering, some districts are so red or so blue that the incumbents don’t have electoral opponents. Of Texas’ 36 seats, there are no Democrats running against right-wing extremists Sam Johnson (TX-03), John Ratcliffe (the TX-04 open seat), Jeb Hensarling (TX-05), Kevin Brady (TX-08), Mike Conaway (TX-11), and Lamar Smith (TX-21), and there are no Republicans taking on Al Green (TX-09), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), who votes with the GOP all the time anyway, Gene Green (TX-29), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30), and Marc Veasey (TX-33). That said, of the 36 seats, only one is considered competitive this cycle, the TX-23 race pitting right-wing Democrat/Blue Dog Pete Gallego, the incumbent, against an even further right-wing Republican, Will Hurd. It’s the only House race in the state that the two Beltway party committees are spending money in. The DCCC has spent $1,185,973 to keep Gallego, even though he votes with the GOP more frequently than with the Democrats on crucial roll calls, and the NRCC has spent $1,225,606 smearing Gallego on behalf of Hurd.

New York’s democracy is nearly as moribund as Texas’ and of it’s 27 House seats, 10 incumbents have no major party opponents at all and only 7 have even remotely serious contests. Florida has the same number of seats as New York, 27, and there are no Democrats running against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), David Jolly (FL-13), Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), and Ander Crenshaw (FL-04) and no Republicans running against Ted Deutsch (FL-21) and Kathy Castor (FL-14). There is only one race in the entire state the two Beltway party committees are spending money in (FL-02) which finds Bob Graham’s Blue Dog daughter challenging an even worse Republican, Steve Southerland.

Point being— the whole ugly mess, a decrepit sold-out substitute for democracy, is pretty predictable. Perhaps there are a dozen close House races. Will the crooked Dem from Brooklyn beat the indicted Mafia thug from Staten Island? Still up in the air. Will the conservative corporate whore backed by Republicans but running as a Democrat beat the liberal icon in a D+20 Silicon Valley district? Will a Republican wave form to wipe out more Blue Dogs and New Dems who have voted with the GOP for the last two years— unsupportable fake-Dems like John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV), Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ)? Will the San Diego Republican who grabbed a young male staffer’s crotch and who has a history of preying on other males who work for him still be able to beat the 8th richest member of Congress, another wretched New Dem, this one backed by the Chamber of Commerce? That’s what’s left of our democracy.

It made it easy enough for Alex Isenstadt to predict some especially reprehensible sure winners yesterday at Politico. Like most Americans, Isenstadt admits he would find it “tough to pick most of the House’s 435 members out of a lineup, but several likely incoming freshmen are sure to stand out— or at least try to— in the years ahead. He suggests some to watch, mostly Republicans, of course, and starts with what he called “the Bomb Throwers," none of whom are being opposed by Steve Israel’s stone dead DCCC. These are the worst of the worst— in the House; there are some Senate doozies as well— we can expect to work furiously to further undermine American democracy after January:

• Glenn Grothman (R-WI) who is warning voters about a Democratic “war on men”

• Jody Hice (R-GA), a hate talk radio host who claims Muslim-Americans don’t deserve First Amendment rights and has argued that women shouldn’t enter politics unless they ask their husbands for permission first.

• Mark Walker (R-NC) looking for a war with Mexico

• Barbara Comstock (R-VA), a lobbyist, a far right partisan who helped lead the effort to impeach Bill Clinton who is currently obsessed with Hillary’s crimes in Benghazi

• Debbie Dingell (D-MI), a pathetic party boss and hack who is inheriting her not dead husband’s seat

• Kathleen Rice (D-NY), another corrupt Wall Street Democrat because… we don’t have enough of them already?

• David Brat (R-VA), who will always be the crackpot teabagger who beat Eric Cantor

• Mia Love (R-UT), who will always be the “see Republicans have negroes too” congressperson.

By the way, for those who wasted money by contributing to the DCCC this year, they’re not opposing any of these Republican monstrosities at all, having just pulled $2.8 million dollars out of John Foust’s campaign to beat her, a campaign that was winning and may now be doomed thanks to Steve Israel’s incompetence and corruption.