Ann McLane Kuster-- New Hampshire's Most Disappointing Politician

One of the most popular media personalities in New Hampshire alterted me to a hot local story about Ann Kuster recently, commenting that Kuster is "merely a disingenuous politician who thinks we won't look behind the curtain." One doesn't have look to far behind too many curtains to see what's amiss here. First, though, keep a few facts in mind. Buster ran as an independent-minded, grassroots progressive in the far bluer of New Hampshire's 2 congressional districts. After being elected she dutifully joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus but quickly quit and joined the Wall Street owned and operated New Dems. She's been a straight-down-the-line centrist shill ever since, a puppet for Hoyer and Israel and, basically, a careerist hack in the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.

Kuster was one of the 30 New Dems to cross the aisle last month to vote with the Republicans on the CRomnibus bill. When forced to defend her odious bill back in New Hampshire, she just lied to her constituents, claiming she would have opposed the bad parts of the bill if she could have. Be when she actually had a chance to oppose the worst part of the bill-- the CitiGroup-written provision that forces American taxpayers to bail out failed banksters addicted to reckless and irresposnsible gambling-- she seems to have conveniently forgotten that she had already voted for it, first in committee and then on the House floor.

Tacked onto the massive spending bill were two policy issues that she said shouldn’t have been included in a budget bill and instead should have been dealt with “in the normal course of the policy debate.” But she voted for the bill, which passed 219-206, to avoid the alternative: another government shutdown.

One of those issues was an amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that the White House said weakened “a critical component of financial system reform aimed at reducing taxpayer risk.” The other was an amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act to allow individual donors to contribute to national political party committee accounts for conventions, buildings and recounts in amounts that are dramatically higher than what the law currently permits.

“As standalone bills, I would be opposed” to those measures, she said, but she felt it was “a better deal than if we’d closed down the government and come back in January when the Republicans controlled the Senate.”

The bill tacked onto “CRominibus” that gutted a key Dodd-Frank provision, allowing conditions to return that triggered the recession, is HR 992.

Rep. Kuster’s statement that she would be opposed to a standalone bill is curious.

Here is Rep. Kuster voting for a standalone HR 992 in committee.

And here is Rep. Kuster voting for HR 992 as a standalone bill in the full house:

Currently, Kuster is putting herself forward as the "logical" candidate for Kelly Ayotte's Senate seat if centrist Governor Maggie Hassan resists DSCC recruitment efforts. Or maybe it's Ayotte's camp that is behind the steady leak of rumors. There isn't a better guarantee of a second term for her than a Kuster nomination.