Time For New Congressional Leaders? Sure, But Better Ones, Not Worse Ones

Years of targeting by right-wing media have made Nancy Pelosi one of the most unpopular politicians in America. Democrats like her though-- and especially her own constituents, Her congressional district had the biggest primary turnout of any congressional district in California... by far. In some cases turnout was double that of other districts! And she won in a landslide. But the Republican attacks actually have penetrated one group: Democratic politicians-- both congressional incumbents and especially candidates. Incumbents are so ready to throw her overboard that many are pledging to support former New Dem chieftain, Joe Crowley, the single most corrupt Democrat in the House, completely a creature of Wall Street, who may lose his primary to a 28 year old political novice, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday. If you've been reading DWT for the last decade you know I'm not a big Pelosi fan-- but she's far better than Crowley any day of the week.

On Wednesday, Politico reported that a boatload of Democratic challengers have publicly rejected her on the campaign trail, some viewing to vote against her. "If Democrats win the House by a narrow margin, the 78-year-old leader could lose only a handful of lawmakers' support and still secure the 218 votes needed to clinch the speakership in a floor vote. In that scenario, Pelosi would face a freshman class with a significant bloc of Democrats who are on record promising to oppose her or calling for new leadership. Of the more than a dozen Democratic candidates who have survived their primaries and rejected Pelosi, most are in districts that top the list of targeted 2018 seats. Whether those statements translate into ‘no’ votes against Pelosi-- when she’ll have enormous sway over new lawmakers’ committee assignments and other perks, and a presumably fierce whip effort on her behalf-- is impossible to know."

Clarke Tucker’s first general election ad [above] for an Arkansas-based House race tries to defuse one of the GOP’s most potent attacks: “I’ve said from Day One,” the Democrat declares, “that I won’t vote for Nancy Pelosi.”

Tucker, an Arkansas legislator who’s running against Rep. French Hill (R-AR), is one of at least 20 House Democratic challengers who’ve publicly rejected the minority leader on the campaign trail.

A trend that started in earnest with Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), who won a special election deep in Trump country, has spread rapidly to encompass a growing cadre of candidates-- many in must-win districts for Democrats-- that threatens Pelosi’s nearly sixteen-year grip on the party’s leadership.

The Democrats disavowing Pelosi cross ideological and geographical lines, hailing from districts that the party must win in 2018 to eliminate its 23-seat deficit in the House. Eleven of the candidates already are on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, a list of top-tier candidates in highly targeted races.

Gil Cisneros got a $2 million boost from the national Democratic Party in his Southern California primary but told Politico that he won’t be voting for Pelosi because “new leadership is needed.” Danny O’Connor is airing ads in a House special election in Ohio declaring that he won’t support the leader. Max Rose, who’s running for a coveted Staten Island-based seat, also said he wouldn't back her.

Cisneros is a worthless Republican pretending to be a Democrat. He bought the Democratic nomination with money he won in the lottery and was actually pushed by Pelosi's DCCC over far better candidates. He's a stinking pile of crap and if he provides the final vote to take her down, she'll probably deserve it-- though the country won't, not if we wind up with Hoyer or Crowley. Danny O'Connor is another conservative who is unlikely to win his race and Max Rose is an outright, admitted Blue Dog who will probably be as bad a member of Congress --if he manages to beat progressive Michael DeVito on Tuesday-- as Dan Donovan, the Republican incumbent. Rose, who doesn't have a single qualification to hold political office: "If the Democratic Party is going to earn back the trust of the American people then we need to show them that we are serious about changing our politics-- and that means we need a change in leadership." O'Connor's ad:



I dread the idea of seeing a coward like this in Congress. He's the kind of crap that has ruined the Democratic brand and made the Ohio Party absolutely worthless.

So far, there’s been no retribution for the candidates who’ve snubbed Pelosi. DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujan said that the committee “trusts our candidates” on how to address Pelosi in their districts. The DCCC has reserved millions in TV ads for candidates who don’t support her.

Pelosi is one of the biggest-- if not the biggest-- drag on Democrats running for the House, according to some Democratic pollsters. Republicans have happily exploited that weakness, raining down Pelosi-themed TV ads on special election candidates in Georgia, Montana and Pennsylvania.

“With very few exceptions, the biggest hurdle, the biggest vulnerability for Democratic candidates is Nancy Pelosi, and the strongest card the Republicans can play is attaching a candidate to Pelosi,” said a Democratic pollster, who works with some House candidates who have disavowed Pelosi. The pollster, who was granted anonymity to discuss internal strategy, added: “Most of this is about mitigating and diluting the effectiveness of that attack.”

But the public polling on Pelosi’s effect on candidates is mixed. An ABC News/Washington Post poll in April found that 60 percent of voters don’t think a position on Pelosi is important to their congressional candidate choice, while an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released earlier this month found that 45 percent of voters said they were less likely to support a House candidate if they backed the leader.

Democrats often point to Lamb, who won a special election in southwestern Pennsylvania in March, as the blueprint for addressing the Pelosi problem. Lamb weathered $10 million in Republican attack ads casting him as a stooge of the Democratic leader. Lamb responded with a TV ad of him speaking directly into the camera and calling the attacks “a big lie. I’ve already said on the front page of the newspaper that I don’t support Nancy Pelosi.”

...Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY) last week joined a small group of House Democrats who have publicly said they would not support her in November.

“I have members who have come up to me since [the story broke] and said, ‘I’ve got to do this.’ By me taking a kind of aggressive approach, I create some space, I guess, for those members,” Higgins said in an interview. “I have one vote and I have one voice but so does everybody else.”

A message to idiot Democrats in the House: by all means, dump Pelosi, but not for someone worse. Get a better leader, not a worse one. Joe Crowley is worse, much, much worse.

By the way, this probably with party leaders who have worn out their welcomes is not just a Democratic Party. Mitch McConnell has afar worse favorable rating from the public than Pelosi does. He's hated by Democrats and Republicans. And not off the hook from his own base in Kentucky. He may have more problems from Kentucky votes than from Senate Republicans. In an interview with the Lexington Herald Leader crackpot Governor Matt Bevin (R) said he does not rule out a bid against against him. He was whining that McConnell hasn't repealed ObamaCare.

Bevin said he had heard that Republicans were worried that re-visiting the failed effort would "put a tempest in the teapot" and dampen voter enthusiasm in November.

"Trust me, they will if we don't address this," he said.

Senate Republicans turned to taxes after the collapse last year of their effort to repeal Obamacare. McConnell has said he wants the Senate to spend this summer working on spending bills and presidential nominees. 
...He warned that the Affordable Care Act will only get harder to repeal as time goes on.

Bevin put $1,239,648 of his own money into a primary challenge against McConnell in 2014. He riled about right-wing extremists and was able to spend $4,485,900 in the primary-- and had his ass handed to him:

• McConnnell- 213,753 (60.2%)
• Bevin- 125,787 (35.4%)

Of course Bevin is much better known now than he was in 2014... and McConnell is much more disliked than was back then. It would be a wonderful race to watch-- at least for Democrats.