Paaaaaarty!

Politico's Zach Warmbrodt wrote this week that "American International Group (AIG)-- once one of the most scorned corporations on Capitol Hill for its pivotal role in the financial crisis-- got a Washington birthday bash on Monday night with help from House lawmakers. Little more than a decade after the U.S. government committed $180 billion to avert the collapse of the insurance giant, AIG used the hearing room of the House Ways and Means Committee to host a 'centennial congressional reception' to mark the New York-based company's first century in business. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) presided over the event, which featured AIG CEO Brian Duperreault and other company leaders. 'We believe in the power of relationships to make a better world for everyone,' AIG said in an invitation obtained by Politico."

And it was a bipartisan party-- with crooked congress members from both sides of the aisle. So far this cycle, AIG has spent $1,400,000 lobbying Congress and has handed out $109,763 in legalistic bribes disguised as campaign contributions (including $2,500 to Chairman Neal). Last cycle they handed out $344,502 in these legalistic bribes-- $107,682 to Democrats and $70,820 to Republicans. These are their top dozen recipients serving in the House today:

• Kevin Brady, then chair of Ways and Means (R-TX)- $5,000
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- $5,000
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC)- $5,000
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)- $5,000
• Antonio Delgado (D-NY)- $3,625
• John Larson (D-CT)- $3,625
• Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)- $3,500
• Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)- $2,720
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- $1,938
• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem (MI)- $1,753
• Mike Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)- $1,656
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- $1,500

There were senior members from both the Democrats and the Republicans at the festivities-- along with finance industry lobbyists. Members of Ways and Means and the Financial Services Committee who were partying with AIG included Brad Sherman (D-CA), Bill Foster (D-IL), Steve Stivers (R-OH), Dan Kildee (D-MI) and Gwen Moore (D-WI).

The celebration is the latest sign that memories of the 2008 market meltdown have faded in Washington. A display at the event outlining milestones in the company's history jumped from 1999 to 2015 — omitting the financial crisis and taxpayer-backed rescue.

AIG was the focus of widespread public outrage over the massive bailout the company got to stay afloat after it was nearly brought down by risky derivatives trades. At the time, lawmakers demanded that AIG employees renounce their bonuses.

"AIG will live forever in history as the poster child for greed, recklessness and incompetent if not delusional management," said Dennis Kelleher, who advocates for stricter Wall Street regulation as president and CEO of the group Better Markets.

But things have returned to normal for the storied insurer in recent years, as the company shrank itself and paid back the bailout funds. AIG has ramped up lobbying and restarted spending by its political action committee.

In 2017, AIG was successful in convincing federal regulators to undo the company's designation as a "systemically important financial institution"-- a label imposed on the insurer after the Wall Street meltdown that carried with it stricter government oversight.

...AIG has disclosed lobbying on retirement savings legislation under the Ways and Means Committee's jurisdiction. The company's PAC and employees have given more to Ways and Means Committee members in this election cycle than members of other committees, according to committee totals compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

"It comes as little surprise that these lawmakers would host a party for AIG, but it is deeply troubling that Congress would celebrate such a negligent and self-serving financial behemoth," said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for the watchdog group Public Citizen.

Meanwhile, progressive congressional candidates went on the attack over the party with AIG. Kara Voght, reporting for Mother Jones, wrote that "For progressives waging primary challenges against entrenched House Democrats, Monday’s event was a perfect example of what they see as the inappropriate coziness between centrist incumbents and the corporate interests they are supposed to keep in check."

“A lack of [government] involvement in allowing corporate giants to do what they please, set the rules for themselves, is what led to the [2008] collapse,” Alex Morse, who’s running against Neal, tells me. “A decade later, nothing has changed. There’s an open door policy between members of Congress and executives working at these firms, and it’s a slap in the face to the people affected by the financial crisis.” Neal, it should be noted, recently accepted a $2,500 campaign contribution from AIG’s political action committee.

Rachel Ventura-- who is running against Rep. Bill Foster, a Financial Services member who attended the AIG event-- described the gathering as “disturbing.” In a statement, she said that Foster’s presence was “not surprising” and called for an ethics investigation into how the party came to be.

For the last several months, progressive challengers have waged their primary battles on multiple fronts. Support for prized liberal initiatives, such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, and promises to curtail corporate influence have been the bedrock of their campaigns. But so was a sharp rebuke of centrist incumbents who did not share progressive activists’ urgency in impeaching President Donald Trump. Morse had hammered Neal over his lack of support for an impeachment inquiry back in July. “I can’t purport to know the congressman’s strategy, but people are angry and scared,” he told me then. “Our democracy is dying right before us, and we need members of Congress that are there to uphold the Constitution.”

Rachel Ventura, who has been endorsed by Blue America, told her supporters that her New Dem opponent, Bill Foster "voted for the 2008/2009 bailout and he was one of the 33 Democrats who recently voted with Republicans to roll back Dodd-Frank in 2018, relaxing protections for financial consumers and exempting some institutions from stress tests; ultimately opening up the doors to another financial crisis. As a member of the Financial Services Committee, Bill Foster has accepted over $1.4 Million in campaign contributions from commercial banks and hedge fund managers. If you ask me, that’s a conflict of interest. As a US Congresswoman, I will go in the opposite direction. My entire political journey has used the slogan, 'no strings attached.' It is even on my campaign T-shirts. In my congressional campaign I have remained consistent, rejecting all corporate PAC money and super PACs influences. The American people are sick and tired of a congress that is bought and paid for. Bill Foster is no exception. He has tossed aside his lab coat and is just another politician who is more interested in listening to his donors than being a voice for the people."

Blue America's Newest Endorsed Candidate, Rachel Ventura (IL-11)

Rachel Ventura is the progressive Democrat challenging New Dem, Bill Foster in Illinois’ 11th congressional district. Ventura currently serves on the Will County Board, representing swing district #9. To win her 2018 campaign, she challenged the local Democratic establishment, was outspent 3:1 and still dominated the 5-candidate primary field by running a well-organized grassroots campaign. In the general election, the all-volunteer campaign knocked on over 10,000 doors and beat the Democratic candidate by 11% and the Republican by 8% of the vote with a strong GOTV effort.

At times during her first year on the board she became a controversial voice-- challenging Democratic leadership, but she also has had some early successes that are defining of the kinds of things she will fight for on the floor of the House of Representatives.

When the aquifer that provided water to the Village of Fairmont began drying up, village officials wanted to privatize Fairmont’s water system to a company named Aqua. Ventura stepped in and worked with regional governing bodies to move the Fairmont residents over to the Joliet public water system. Residents of Fairmont, a largely African American community, saved significant amounts of money on their water bills and dodged lead poisoning. Just recently, Aqua was sued by the Illinois Attorney General and the Will County State’s Attorney for failing to treat their water properly, causing elevated levels of lead in University Park’s water system.

Ventura also successfully fought for Will County to become the second county in Illinois to adopt the Greenest Region Compact, a framework to move Will County towards a green future. Recently, she led the battle to move all of the county buildings over to 100% renewable energy, a measure that would have created jobs and set an example for other municipalities to follow.

But if she is being successful at the county level, why jump to Congress so quickly?

This spring, Rachel realized that her ability to work towards meaningful change would have to have to come at the federal level. It began with a meeting with Rep. Bill Foster to get him to sign on as a co-sponsor of the Medicare for All bill being advanced by Rep. Pramila Jaypal. After sharing her experience with Foster as a single mother who had to go without health insurance for two years, she realized that Foster was not going to be moved. He promised a follow-up meeting and then the Our Revolution group was told by Foster’s congressional office that they would only be given one meeting per group, per year.

The group rallied outside of Foster’s office in early June of 2019.

Ventura shared her personal story of her fear in leaving her previous marriage with an abusive husband and losing health insurance in the process.

“If we do not have health care as a right, there are millions of people in relationships, abusive relationships, and they fear leaving,” Ventura said. “And they stay in a horrible situation because they’re too afraid. That is not a government that works for everyone.”

A similar effort in Aurora Illinois was organized by a coalition of progressive and environmental groups (Sierra Club, Progressives of Kane County, Our Revolution and DSA) who met with and rallied outside Foster’s office on June 22, 2019, seeking his support for the Green New Deal. Again, Foster refused to support the sweeping and necessary framework to tackle the climate crisis.

About a month later, on July 20th, she announced her candidacy.




Ventura is an aggressive grassroots campaigner and a little over 30-days into the campaign, she announced having attended 68 events, recruited 150 volunteers and raised money from 93 individual donors. It will take an intense door-to-door effort to reach voters in the suburban district.

Illinois 11th congressional district is one of those partisan gerrymanders that guarantees single-party rule. But this one wasn't created by the GOP; the Illinois legislature is firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party and the Democrats drew the boundaries on IL-11, creating a D+9 district in an area that Republican House speaker Denny Hastert used to call home. West of Chicago, the bulk of the voters live in Will and DuPage counties, with smaller numbers in Kane and Kendall counties. It includes Joliet (Will Co.) in the south and all of Aurora (Kane Co.) and much of Naperville (DuPage Co.) in the north. The district is 79.6% suburban and most of the people there are in blue collar, sales and service jobs. Almost half the population is white and the medium income in $68,154.

After 2 bruising election challenges by union carpenter John Laesch, Hastert was forced to resign or face certain defeat in 2008. (Laesch has remained active in union politics and is now Ventura's campaign manager.) Conservative multimillionaire, Bill Foster beat GOP multimillionaire, crackpot and frequent candidate Jim Oberweis 57 to 43%. Foster self-funded about $2 million into his race and Oberweis put close to $4 million of his own in. Pretty disgusting! The DCCC spent $1,349,399 on Foster's behalf, about the same amount the NRCC spent on Oberweis. The following cycle the voters kicked Foster out and elected Randy Hultgren (R). Then came the new gerrymander and in 2012 Foster ran against Republican Judy Biggert in the re-drawn district and beat her convincingly, after dumping another half million of his own into the race.

Obama won the district both times with healthy margins and Hillary beat Trump 58.9% to 35.4%. It's what you call a safe blue district. And not just safe, progressive. When given a chance to choose between Bernie and Hillary in the 2016 primary, IL-11 voters chose Bernie 52.3% to 47.7%. Foster joined the Wall Street-oriented New Dem caucus and earned an "F" from ProgressivePunch for his corporate-oriented voting record. After all these years in Congress his only two signature bills were naming post offices and he's probably best known for joining the Republicans and 32 other corrupt conservative Dems to gut Dodd Frank's consumer protections. He's considerably to the right of his own constituents. Foster has refused to co-sponsor Pramila Jayapal's Medicare-For-All bill, refused to co-sponsor AOC's Green New Deal resolution, refused to co-sponsor Lloyd Doggett's bill to lower the price of drugs... and he opposes impeachment:

So... the opposite of Blue America's newest endorsee, Rachel Ventura, a progressive member of the Will County Board who has challenged Foster to debate all the issues that are most pressing and most important to the people in the district, where he doesn't even seem to live, splitting his time between DC and New York City.

In framing the primary for Will County voters recently, Rachel said that she recognizes the national significance of the race as the divide spreads wider between the progressive Democrats and the New Dem Coalition and their so-called "Problem Solvers" allies, two conservative caucuses that Foster belongs to. "We are living through a tumultuous period of upheaval and crisis and I feel like our current representative is in a state of stasis," she said. "It is just too much inaction on major issues like climate change, meaningful health care reform, wealth inequality, and campaign finance reforms. We the people deserve meaningful actions to address the crisis facing our generation and the next."

If you're with us about putting forward the kind of progressive agenda that both Bernie and Elizabeth are campaigning on, it is crucial we get rid of more dead wood from Congress like Bill Foster and replace them with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Democrats from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party-- like Rachel Ventura. Foster has accomplished nothing in Congress and it's hard to understand why he even wants to stay there. He opposes the tide of history and his time is up. Please consider contributing to Rachel's grassroots campaign by clicking on the Blue America 2020 congressional primary thermometer on the right and contributing what you can. There are already too many members of Congress from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. If you want to see action on Climate Change, the Green New Deal, banning the sale of assault weapons, a fairer tax system that requires the richest Americans to pair their fair share, we all need to step up and do what we can to replace slugs like Foster with can-do progressives like Rachel Ventura.

Illinois’ 11th Congressional District-- Crossroads Of America, And The Ground Zero Fight For The Green New Deal.

Rachel Ventura plants a Green New Deal sign in East Aurora

-by Rachel Ventura
Candidate
IL-11

I have worn many hats in my life. As a 38-year old single mother of two beautiful and gifted twin girls, I have traveled America and the world when I was a military spouse. I have worked as an actuary for both a health and a life insurance company and then changed jobs purposely because the industry didn’t mesh with my moral compass. I became a naturalist, and have worked as a substitute teacher and pet nurse. Today, I work as the business director for Legendary Games and serve as a representative to the residents of District 9 on the Will County Board. I am running for U.S. Congress because the residents of Illinois’ 11th district deserve a stronger voice. The world needs environmental leaders to step up and share a bigger vision for a Green New Deal.

Illinois’ 11th congressional district is a microcosm of the United States, where urban sprawl and rural strongholds compete for land. The latest trend of exploiting the land and workers demonstrates how easily corporate expansion is winning out and tearing up our precious farmland.

Soil is one of our best resources in Illinois, and Will County has some of the best soil in the world for growing crops; currently ranked number 3, worldwide. When we are not losing soil due to erosion by the Mississippi River or field flooding, we are quickly covering it up with concrete parking lots and sprawling warehouses. Never mind that the native tallgrassprairie here in Illinois can sequester more carbon than trees.

In 2002, CenterPoint Intermodal developed in Joliet, IL. Joliet/Elwood is the largest warehousing and distribution center in the world; not just the United States, but the world. Lured by the Chicagoland consumer marketplace and enabled by the intersections of several key highways (I-55, I-80 and Rt. 53), and railways (BNSF and Union Pacific), the warehousing district seemingly popped up overnight.

Over 300 warehouses call Will County home. A region once known for its soybeans and cornfields is now "boxed up with gray facilities, some as large as a million square feet. From the sky it looks like an enormous, horizontal game of Tetris." Companies like Amazon, IKEA, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Samsung have taken up residence at Joliet’s largest inland port in the America. Will’s County’s Community Friendly Freight Mobility Study showed in 2017 that “More freight was shipped through Will County than inbound, outbound, and intra-county freight movements combined, illustrating the role Will County plays in regional and national freight movement.” In fact, 63% of all shipped goods travel through Will County, totaling 380 million tons valued at over $623 billion dollars of freight which equates to 3.5 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product ($17.9 trillion).

Economic Impact-- The Struggle for Low Income Families:

​Sixty percent of Will County’s warehouse workers make $9-$15 an hour. The warehouses create jobs, but they are not living wage jobs. According to the Will’s County’s Community Friendly Freight Mobility Study, “the greatest job growth by percentage is projected to occur in long-distance trucking-- But, the greatest increase in the number of jobs is projected to occur in the warehousing and storage occupation, which already comprises the largest occupation in the Transportation Distribution and Logistics (TDL) industry in Will County. By 2026, there may be an additional 3,236 warehouse and storage jobs added in this sector-- increasing 55 percent from 5,900 in 2016 to 9,136 in 2026.” But it isn’t the warehouse expansion and loss of soil alone that is intrusive. The county is home to 99 temp agencies-- one of the highest concentrations of staffing agencies in the country. According to Warehouse Workers for Justice (WWJ) some local staffing agencies resort to wage theft, paying piece rates, skimping on hours, or having workers’ pay for their own drug tests.

Warehouses use temporary workers as a means of breaking labor laws and driving down labor costs. I will never forget hearing my high school friend and union organizer, Roberto Clack reading the results of a worker survey during his presentation to the Will County Board, “74% of workers reported illegal wage theft, 10% reported having access to paid sick days and 3% had access to paid vacation days. Zero percentage of workers surveyed said they preferred temporary work.” Clack said that while many workers wanted full-time employment, many of them worked as long as three years for the same temp agency. I ask, wouldn’t our community be stronger if workers were paid a living wage? Warehouse workers go on strike, Sept. 2012.

Workers have organized and fought back. In September 2012, workers from the Wal-Mart distribution center went on strike, generating an enormous amount of community support-- over 600 people temporarily shut down the Elwood Warehouse as the retail giant was ramping up for their Black Friday sales push. In 2018, the city of Joliet denied for the first time a new temp agency opening its doors.

The strike wasn’t enough to shut down Black Friday, but it inspired workers to keep fighting. The struggle for better working conditions has been ongoing and the movement is growing. Organizers realized that in addition to the higher levels of poverty that the warehouses caused, that there was a significant environmental impact. A partnership with Sierra Club and other environmental groups shed light on the environmental damage that goes far beyond the destruction of carbon sequestering prairie grass. In 2017, the Sierra Club asked Will County to place a moratorium on warehouse building until the infrastructure could support it. The Republican controlled board at that time refused to call for the vote on a moratorium.

Environmental Impact:

While WWJ was organizing workers in Elwood, IL, Amazon Tech workers in Seattle started organizing internally to make Amazon more environmentally transparent. The question was, “what is the carbon cost of Amazon Prime’s two day shipping?” Two female Amazon tech workers paired up with Seattle 350 and started digging into the online retail giant’s carbon footprint. Their research exposed a chilling fact. Exhaust from Amazon trucks, cars and planes are equivalent to 4.7 coal plants running year-round.

With success comes competition. CenterPoint attracted a competitor in 2018 anxious to build a 2,200 acres development. This Kansas City-based industrial warehouse developer, Northpoint Development, has been working on a plan to usurp the prime farmland in unincorporated Jackson Township in Will County and replace it with industrial warehousing distribution centers.

This proposed expansion would add 53,000 more trucks to the existing roadways traversing through the county. Amazon wants to build 30 more warehouses in Elwood-- 30 million more square feet of storage space. The proposed 2,200 acre expansion would further encroach on the largest tallgrass prairie in the United States, Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.

Ventura attends NorthPoint hearings

The exhaust-spewing trucks create another problem for the 2,500 residents of Elwood. Years of truck traffic has destroyed the local roads and bridges. Road construction needs paired with tax abatements to draw warehouse employers to the region have left the Village of Elwood $38 Million in debt.

Finally, a village buried in debt and tired of the non-stop truck traffic had the audacity to say, “no.” I had recently returned to my hometown of Joliet and entered the political arena as a candidate who had just run for Joliet City Council. I heard about a new warehouse expansion in Elwood and did some research and became active in a group called, ”Just Say No To NorthPoint”. More truck exhaust, more concrete, more class warfare, fewer economic opportunities and less prairie grass. It seemed like a raw deal. I joined their cause even though NorthPoint was nowhere near my district on the county board.

​The People’s climate march in September of 2018 drew hundreds to the region to focus the attention on the environmental impact of the NorthPoint expansion. Ultimately, after 16 hours of public comment and over 2000 concerned citizens, the village of Elwood voted “no” and NorthPoint’sexpansion was denied, for the time being.

People's Climate March-- Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice

I wish the Environmental Degradation Stopped with Warehouses-- It Doesn’t:

Will County is effectively the "dumping grounds" for Chicago's dirty energy industry and garbage. Will County is home to two coal plants, two refineries and one nuclear power plant. We store the things America buys and we expose ourselves to higher level toxins so we can power the region and fuel transportation needs.

The air quality in the district ranks some of the worst in the country for Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides, PM 2.5 emissions, PM-10 emissions, Sulfur Dioxide, Volatile Organic Compound emissions. The air quality index is considered moderate at an average of 66 which carries a health warning of “unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion.”

It didn’t take long to draw the conclusion that the 11th congressional district was ripe for a conversation about the Green New Deal. The current congressman, Bill Foster, touts himself as a businessman and scientist, but the truth is, he has done very little to address the looming climate crisis. Several friends met with Representative Foster, and he issued his standard, “no, it’s too expensive and too big” excuse.

I disagree. We need a big, sweeping movement across the United States that empowers and challenges Americans to engage in the cause of transforming our economy and changing the course of history to transition our energy system away from fossil fuels. The Green New Deal is massive in scope and spending, but we have the money and we have done this before. In the same way that Americans pulled together to address the crisis of the Great Depression and the Second World War, I believe that we will pull together once again. The climate crisis is our Great Depression. It is our WWII. It is our responsibility and challenge to overcome. We will overcome. We will succeed! We will thrive! To do this though, we need strong leaders and bold solutions. That is why I’m running for Congress in the 11th congressional district. We launched our campaign on July 20th 2019, with the belief that we could give a stronger voice to those who are struggling to be heard in a system that allows billionaires and Super PACs to drown out the voices of the rest of us with their unlimited campaign contributions. We need to change the current system that allows the wealthy and powerful to exploit other human beings while destroying our environment.

The Green New Deal seeks to change the system at its very foundation by restoring democracy and addressing income inequality. We cannot tackle the climate crisis by enabling the same people who created the mess, attempt to fix the mess with half-baked carbon capture cons. The fossil fuel industry is doing everything in its power to delay fundamental change, buy off lawmakers, develop slick greenwashed marketing campaigns, and attempting to utilize the crisis they created to justify more bailouts and subsidies.

We need to stand firm and demand a comprehensive solution that seeks to employ the low-wage warehouse workers in a new energy economy, making homes energy efficient, installing solar panels, building an efficient high-speed rail system, and developing the infrastructure necessary to support electric vehicles. We can do this! We’re all in this together.

Republicans May Be Sorry For Rigging The Way Congress Works

In Sunday's Spokesman-Review, the most read newspaper in Washington's 5th district, Lisa Brown published an important OpEd, Divided We Fall. "The situation in America today," she began, "with pipe bombs mailed to political figures, the shootings of Representatives Gabby Giffords and Steve Scalise, and the killing of journalists, here and abroad, should be a wake-up call for us to protect our democracy. Leaders of all political parties must denounce violence and threats of violence as ways to address political differences, without qualification, without attempting to justify or rationalize, and without pointing fingers at our political opponents."

We should teach our children and remind each other that free speech, free assembly, and voting are how we resolve political differences in America. Doing that can help rebuild trust and bridge the toxic divides that plague our politics today.

All political leaders should reaffirm our support for the free press. President Trump was wrong to call the media the “enemy of the people,” and wrong to speak approvingly of physical violence against a journalist. A “body slam” could be metaphorical, but in this case, it was real, and nothing to joke about or condone.

...I call on leaders in both political parties to take action to set a different tone. This means not only not succumbing to the rhetoric and obvious attempts to divide us, but resolving important issues like health care, immigration, and budgets, in a bipartisan way. The failure of this Congress and of my opponent to make meaningful progress on these issues that are important to Eastern Washington’s families and economy, is the main reason I left my position as WSU chancellor to run for Congress.

...I believe the root of the toxicity in the current political environment is connected to growing income inequality, and associated economic and social insecurity experienced by many Americans. And these trends are unfortunately exacerbated by policies of this Congress... Above all, to improve trust, and bridge these divides, we need to tell the people the truth-- the truth matters and trust is impossible without it.

Lisa is talking about bi-partisan, even non-partisan, norms of our society, norms that are unrecognized by a profoundly ignorant, self-centered illegitimate "president," who has trampled on them and dragged the rest of his party along for the ride. That ride is likely to get very bumpy very soon. And I don't just mean, bad election results a week from tomorrow. "A GOP rule change," wrote Anthony Adragna for Politico Sunday, "handed unilateral subpoena authority to many House committee chairmen. Democrats cried foul, but now they hope to use it against Trump." Another clear example of the GOP stomping all over the norms. So what happens now? Democrats who are looking forward to investigating the kleptocratic and fascistic Trump Regime will have the Republicans to thank "for one of their most potent tools-- a sweeping subpoena authority that Democratic lawmakers denounced as an abusive power grab three years ago." The shoe is about to change feet-- on 14 of the 21 standing committees where the GOP rules allow chairmen to issue subpoenas without any bipartisan cooperation. When the Republicans were passing the new rules, some of them worried that giving committee chairmen subpoena power would eventually come back to haunt them. It's about to.

House Republicans changed the rules in 2015 to allow many of their committee chairmen to issue subpoenas without consulting the minority party, overriding Democrats objections that likened the tactic to something out of the McCarthy era.

Now the weapon that the GOP wielded dozens of times against Barack Obama’s agencies could allow Democrats to bombard President Donald Trump’s most controversial appointees with demands for information. And many Democrats are itching to use it.

“The Republicans have set the standard and, by God, we’re going to emulate that standard,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told Politico.

Oversight would be one of the few concrete goals that Democrats could accomplish with control of only one chamber of Congress and Trump still in the White House. They have a long list of potential targets, including likely demands for Trump's tax returns and probes into Cabinet members such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Before the 2015 rule change, most House subpoenas needed at least some bipartisan cover, requiring a majority vote of committee members and consultation with a panel’s ranking member. The change erased those requirements and allowed the chairmen to proceed unilaterally, although the exact rules vary by committee.

Many Democrats argue that Republicans only have themselves to blame for weaponizing the subpoena process, and that their own party should not unilaterally disarm now that the power has been unleashed.

“What goes around comes around,” said former Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI). “Would I expect them to give up the unilateral subpoena power by chairman? No. And I don’t think they should.”

That’s not the uniform viewpoint of everyone in the party. Rep. Bill Foster (New Dem-IL) led a group of 38 Democrats in an October 2016 letter urging GOP leaders to abandon the power during the next Congress. He told Politico he still thinks chairmen should not have it.

“I would continue to oppose unilateral subpoena power,” Foster said in a statement. “During my time in Congress, I have seen the majority party use this power to compel individuals to testify who differ from the committee chairs on policy matters. Committees should be expected to hold a vote on a subpoena to determine if the committee issues a subpoena.”

Most House Democrats think Foster is a pompous, self-serving, spoiled asshole and don't pay any attention to his constant whining. Two of the biggest abusers of the subpoena power were House Financial Services chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and House Science chair Lamar Smith, bother of whom saw what was coming and announced their retirements. Devin Nunes, the poster child for the abuses, will-- if he gets reelected-- be the poster boy for the retribution.

Illinois New Dem Bill Foster Doesn't Beat His Wife-- So What Kind of Senator Would He Be?

Illinois Democrats can do a lot better

Illinois is one of the most Democratic-leaning states with a vulnerable Republican seantor-- Mark Kirk-- up for reelection in 2016. Local fave Hillary Clinton is likely to sweep the state comparable to how Obama did in 2008, when he thumped McCain 3,419,348 (62%) to 2,031,179 (37%). Kirk himself was elected in the 2010 midterm, low voter turnout, with just 48% of the vote against a weak Democrat who got 46%. But so far, Illinois Democrats have come up with an even weaker cast of characters to take Kirk on than Alexi Giannoulias. Beltway media seems determined to refer to conservative congressional hacks Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog) and Bill Foster (New Dem) as front-runners. Both have awful voting records that won't inspire grassroots Democrats to even bothering to vote. And if Tammy Duckworth decides to run, she's probably the instant fave. She's neither a Blue Dog nor a New Dem but her voting record is just about as bad a Foster's and Bustos'. These are the 3 ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote scores:

• Tammy Duckworth- 64.91
• Bill Foster- 55.25
• Cheri Bustos- 43.72

Of course, instead of covering the race as though policies, vision and records were in any way relevant, Beltway media has its own sick perspective on how to look at candidates. Let's take Bill Foster. Foster has a very mediocre voting record, a lifetime ProgressivePunch crucial vote score of 55.25, even worse than reactionary Blue Dog Dan Lipinski's. In this new session he's already voted with the Republicans-- twice-- to deregulate dangerous Wall Street practices that put taxpayers on the hook for bankster shenanigans. But an article in one of the Beltway trade papers prefers to focus on his personal life when talking about the Senate run.

Three-term Rep. Bill Foster, who won easily in November, and his ex-wife Ann, say there is no truth to allegations in their 1996 divorce that the congressman abused her, the Chicago-Sun Times reported on Friday.

...The court document shows that Ann Foster asked her husband to move out of their house because “the Defendant has pushed, shoved, and caused physical abuse and emotional harm of the Plaintiff, thereby putting her in fear for not only herself but also for the parties (sic) minor children."

But Ann Foster said she did not read the filing before signing and she told the judge there was never any abuse and the judge allowed her husband to remain in the house.

She said that the divorce filing has generated round-the-clock calls from reporters during Bill Foster's election campaigns, including robo calls asking voters if they are aware of Foster's history as a “wife-abuser.”

“Ever since Bill decided to go into politics, every single campaign season since 2008, there are a number of months when I am plagued by constant phone calls," Ann Foster said.

Not a whisper about Foster's stand on any policies or anything of any importance to a voter interested in knowing what he or she would be voting for.

It Isn't Only Republican Slime Who Need To Be Driven From Office... There Are Also Nominal Democrats Just As Bad... Remember Tim Mahoney?

Tim Mahoney: GOP hypocrite disguised as nominal Democrat

Regular DWT readers already know that we help raise a good deal of money for progressive candidates. As you can see at ActBlue, the only netroots fundraising operations that have surpassed ours was John Edwards' presidential campaign and the DailyKos, MyDD & Swing State Project effort, Netroots Candidates. We have more donors and have raised more cash than even Barbara Boxer's professionally-run PAC For Change, or Wes Clark's WesPAC. And, believe me, it's a lot tougher raising money for congressional candidates-- our job-- than it is raising money for Obama. That guy's on the TV every day! Eleven of our 2006 candidates are now members of the House and three U.S. Senators were elected with our help. This year we think more than a dozen of our House challengers will win and at least a few of our tough race Senate candidates will also win.

But you've probably also noticed that here at DWT we don't hesitate to call out reactionary and corrupt Democrats. We're in the business of helping to elect progressive leaders, not coddling nominal Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. We don't endorse them and we don't look the other way when they, inevitably, get into trouble.

There's a huge buzz today about public enemy #1, Rahm Emanuel, and one of his butt-boys, Tim Mahoney, a Republican he recruited in 2006 to run as a Democrat based on one factor: Republican incumbent Mark Foley is a sex pervert. Emanuel and Hoyer drove a progressive, grassroots union member, Dave Lutrin, out of the primary to make way for a repulsive countryclub Republican, Mahoney. Since getting into the House, Mahoney has had a basically moderate Republican/Blue Dog voting record. Judging from the tough substantive votes that divide the two parties, Mahoney has basically rubber stamped Bush's agenda 48% of the time and voted with the Democrats 52% of the time. Only 12 Democratic freshmen have worse voting records (i.e., voting more with the GOP than with their own party). Across a broad array of issues, Bush and John Boehner have been able to count on Mahoney.

And if Mahoney votes like a Republican, and seems like a Republican, and sounds like a Republican, it's because he is, to the depths of his being, a Republican. You want proof? He was caught in a sex scandal. He and Emanuel have been covering it up and there's a tape of him treating the woman exactly how you would expect a Republican to treat someone in this situation. "The only person that matters is guess who? Me," said Mahoney. "You understand that. That is how life really is. That is how it works." You can listen to the tape and read more about it TPM. Pelosi has called for an investigation. Let's hope this wrecks Emanuel's career. He's the biggest impediment to progressive values in the entire Congress. Needless to say, John Boehner, a typically corrupt bucket of slime, is trying to drum up some outrage over this mess but all he'll do is make people think it's typical partisan bickering with pots calling kettles black.

Less well known, and less likely to impact anyone's election chances, is how another fake Democrat, Bill Foster, the conservative who replaced Denny Hastert, has been distancing himself from the Democratic Party. During the high-profile primary and original race against Jim Oberweis, a multimillionaire, lunatic fringe ice cream maker the GOP put up to replace Hastert, Foster used the tagline "Scientist, Businessman, Democrat" on his website and on all his ads. Since getting into Congress and voting with the Republicans on key issues-- like keeping the war in Iraq going-- Foster has also changed his little slogan. Now he's using:

"Scientist, Businessman, Independent Solutions"

And instead of helping to build the Democratic brand in IL-14, he's doing all he can to distance himself from it and brag to voters that he's just the same as a Republican, the worst thing a Democrat can ever do.

"I'm getting a lot of people saying they're supporting McCain," Foster said of voters who plan to punch Foster's name on Nov. 4.

He reports a lot of McCain supporters have said they'll punch Foster's name on the ballot on Nov. 4.

Obama's home state! And Foster's campaign-- and his voting habits-- are playing to Republicans and ignoring progressives. So... Blue America will never ask you to endorse these kinds of make believe Democrats. The ones we endorse are progressives in their hearts and souls and who are in politics to serve the needs of working families. That's not Tim Mahoney and it's not Bill Foster. We should deal with Foster with a carefully planned primary for 2010. As for Mahoney, he could well lose his seat in 3 weeks. If he doesn't we should replace him-- again via primary-- with an actual Democrat. If he does manage to win again, it will probably be attributable to an anti-Republican tsunami getting ready to sweep that party from power in all but the most backward precincts. In case you're wondering what Republicans are saying about John McCain now and what's he done top their party, watch this: