The Worst Democraps Who Want To Be President, Part VII: Frackenlooper

Yesterday Terry McAuliffe's vile SuperPAC-- Tenaciously Moving America (TMAC 200 PAC)-- sent another note trying to sell McAuliffe-branded merchandise, like they do every few days. "We're counting down to March 31st-- less than 27 days until Terry announces his presidential plans! In a race as important as this, Terry has proven his dedication and service to the American people... I have made it clear to [another candidate], as well as every other person who has approached me, including five or six of them running, that if McAuliffe runs, I am supporting him."

And, on the same level... "Today, Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper launched his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hickenlooper announced his decision to run in a campaign video, 'Stand Tall.'" McAuliffe was episode 5 in the DWT series, The Worst Democraps Who Want To Be President. I hoped I would never have to write one on Frackenlooper. The Dylan song on this video of him playing banjo with Old Crow Medicine Show is almost prophetic: "You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere."



It came as no surprise to anyone that Hick was going to run, since he started a SuperPAC for himself in September of last year. In October there were even rumors that he and John Kasich would run as a centrist ticket. I can only imagine the argument between 2 alphas over who'd be top and who'd be bottom. Frankenlooper immediately started down the Clinton "no-can-do" path that lost her so many millions of votes: "I’m running for president because we need dreamers in Washington, but we also need to get things done." But, but, but, but, butt, butt, butt... I hope Kasich screwed you up the butt, you loser. Fake moderates don't get anything done. They never have and they never will. It's all greasy baby step incrementalism that voters are fed up with. Go away, you butthole. I'm glad you didn't run for senator and now you'll be politically obliterated completely.

Hickenlooper leaves for 2 days in Iowa Thursday where he hopes voters who remember his distant cousin Bourke Hickenlooper from when he ran for lieutenant governor in 1936 or when he saved a woman from drowning in the Cedar River in 1942, are still among the living. Ole' Bourke himself, a Republican of course, passed in the 1970s. His followers though, if there are any, will feel comfortable enough with the current Hick's right-of-center policy agenda. In fact, most of his campaigning will be in Steve Kin's district, the most conservative part of Iowa. Still, Hick is only polling zero in the current Iowa Democratic surveys.

The case he makes is that he can work with both sides. Neither side, though, likes him much. He opposed the legalization of marijuana ballot measure in 2012, which passed despite him. Now he tries to take credit for it. He's proud he got background checks passed-- even though it wasn't until after the Aurora massacre. He doesn't support Medicare-For-All or the Green New Deal or anything else that is inspiring Democratic voters.

I don't have many friends in Colorado-- maybe a dozen. But they all agreed on one thing: Hickenlooper would lose his own state, a blue-trending state that Obama won both times and even Hillary managed to win (with 48% to Trump's 43%). They also generally agree why he would lose Colorado. "He sold the state to the oil and natural gas interests," one pal in Denver told me, something echoed by everyone else I know there. That's how he got the widely used Frackenlooper nickname.

Folks in Denver also blame him for-- and hate him for-- the I-70 expansion, which is making parts of the city primarily lived in by poor people and minorities, unlivable in terms of air quality. Last year, David Sachs wrote that Hick wouldn't "admit that widening I-70 through Elyria Swansea is a mistake that will clog Denver streets with more traffic and spew more particulate pollution into the air. In fact, he insists that the project will be great for public health... Expanding I-70 requires digging up contaminated soil from a Superfund site in the country’s most polluted ZIP code. But Hickenlooper stuck to his claims that adding more car lanes will be good for our air quality and our health... The north Denver residents who live with alarming rates of respiratory problems aren’t buying it. Along with Denver’s largest neighborhood organization, they have demanded an end to the I-70 project."

A friend of mine who I went to college with and who lives in Chaffee Park just north of the I-70 said there isn't a person in North Denver that would vote for Hickenlooper. I said, what if it's him or Trump. "I don't know anyone who would ever vote for either. No one here thinks he has any chance of being nominated anyway... He ain't goin' nowhere."

Diana DeGette-- Smug And Out Of Touch After Too Many Years In Congress

Perhaps you noticed that Blue America is raising campaign contributions for Denver progressive Saira Rao this week. On Saturday Rao and DeGette debated. In the photo up top, the DeGette supporters-- old white people-- are on the right and the Rao supporters-- everyone-- else, is on the left.

Our sources in Denver who went told us that DeGette noted she didn't regret taking corporate money, including from AT & T or being a Super-delegate who voted at variance with her constituents. Apparently the candidates' supporters got into, yelling at each other during the debate, another sign that the party's progressive and corporate camps are growing apart by the minute. Again, note the demographic difference the Rao and DeGette supporters the future vs the past. One source told me, "it was like two separate political parties."

A New And Better Day In Denver?

Denver is not a swing district. Obama won it by double digit margins both times he ran and in 2016 Hillary beat Trump there 69-23%. The PVI is a healthy D+21. And in the 2016 caucus Bernie won 14,624 (54.4%) to 12,,097 (45.0%). The is exactly the kind of district that should be sending someone to Congress who is pushing the envelope for progressive ideas-- for someone on the cutting edge like Alan Grayson, Ted Lieu, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Jamie Raskin or Mark Pocan. Instead Denver has a ho-hum, garden variety Democrat who has a "B" rating from ProgressivePunch and is basically, a waste of a seat, Diana DeGette, who takes money from the corporate PACs that pollute the political environment and isn't a single-payer enthusiast or anything that will overturn the status quo.

Denver deserves better than Diana DeGette-- and this year, on June 26, Denver has a golden opportunity to elect someone better: Saira Rao. I asked Saira about a specific issue that differentiates the status quo Democrats from the cutting edge Democrats: student debt cancellation, a key progressive plank. Saira: "It’s time to end the insanity of the cost of college tuition in our country and how we are handling the student-debt problem. Although there doesn’t seem to be an easy or quick fix, The College for All Act gets us closer to that place-- to the American Dream of attending college and being able to afford it. The bill creates a federal-state partnership where the federal and state government team up to provide families earning up to $125k per year, cover their tuition for public community colleges. It would also cut student-loan interest rates in half for new borrowers."

But there's even more that needs to be done and Saira is right on top of it. She told us with great enthusiasm:

A new study just came out published by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College that shows us a path to digging out of the $1.4 trillion dollar hole we face in Colorado and across the country. The report states that if we eliminate the debt, "44 million Americans who carry it could boost GDP by between $86 billion and $108 billion per year, on average for the 10 years following the cancellation. It would also lower the average unemployment rate by 0.22 to 0.36 percentage points over 10 years and could add between 1.2 million and 1.5 million jobs per year."

In Colorado this legislative session, a bill was introduced to regulate student education loan services. The bill would have forced loan servicers to give students accurate information about their loans. There are over 761,000 Coloradans who owe over $24 billion in student debt. That is outrageous and we need to work with the state government to find a solution so the future generation across the country can get access to quality education, not live in fear of how they plan on paying that will help boost our job force and economy in the process.

That really is an American game-changer. And we all know that the only way to even consider getting this done is by having leaders in Washington who will fight for us rather than for their big corporate donors. Colorado Democrats voted overwhelming for Bernie-- not for Hillary and not for Trump. That wasn't random. But despite what her constituents wanted DeGette, a Super-delegate went to the convention and voted for Hillary anyway. When next generation legislation is introduced in Congress by people like Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Ted Lieu or Mark Pocan, DeGette is always MIA. The reason Blue America has endorsed Saira Rao is because she'll be part of that team, not avoiding it.

Clicking on the 2018 ActBlue congressional thermometer on the left will take you to the Blue America page where you can contribute to Saira Rao's grassroots campaign. Helping her win this race is a very worthwhile endeavor and I hope you'll join us in supporting her.

Diana DeGette Isn't A Terrible Congresswoman But Denver Deserves Better-- Meet Saira Rao

Last year in Colorado, the state's Democrats went heavily for Bernie over Hillary. He took 71,928 votes (58.9%) to her 49,256 (40.4%). Wasserman Schultz and the DNC had rigged the convention rules so that Colorado sent 40 Clinton delegates and just 38 Bernie delegates. Denver County was Bernie Country by a similar margin as the whole state's, but Congresswoman and super-delegate Diana DeGette didn't care what her constituents wanted and had voted for; she went to the convention and voted for Hillary-- a slap in the face to local voters. DeGette always knows better than anyone else. Her constituents were furious-- and haven't forgotten. Her primary opponent this year is a Denver progressive, Saira Rao, who we just endorsed this week. I asked Saira to introduce herself to DWT readers with a guest post. The confessional headline below is her own. The ActBlue congressional thermometer below is Blue America's... a place where you can help Saira make sure she has a chance to get her message out to Denver voters:


Corporate Democrat-Turned-Progressive Runs For Congress
-by Saira Rao

My name is Saira Rao. I am 43 years old. I am running for Congress in Colorado’s congressional district one. I am a recovering neoliberal corporate Democrat.

There I said it.

A step back to the fall of 2016. I did what I always did—this time, with the kind of passion typically reserved for an excellent chicken vindaloo. My efforts to get Hillary Clinton elected bordered on mania. We housed Clinton volunteers from Canada at our home for three months. My 8-year-old daughter took a break from soccer season to join me. We phone-banked, we knocked doors, we carved HRC jack-o-lanterns, we lit candles.

Then Hillary lost. Like so many other neoliberals, I wept, I mourned, I tweeted about the “Orange Cheeto,” I broke up with friends who had been lukewarm about Hillary.

And then I woke up. We can all recall the horror of the first Muslim ban, with planes landing, people arriving at airports only to be told they’d be sent back, families destroyed, hysteria, confusion, TRAUMA. One of my best friends, Neeti Pawar, founding President of the South Asian Bar Association, did what she always does-- she helped. Neeti spent her weekend at the Denver International Airport fighting for people’s civil rights-- and then attended our Representative’s one annual town hall of the year, held a few days after the Muslim ban at the-- wait for it-- police building. Guess who isn’t feeling so safe going to the police building in that climate? Neeti was one of a handful of non-white people in a crowd of roughly 1000. She asked about immigration and DACA protections. Her questions weren’t received well. Neeti kept at it. She was told to leave or remain silent. Neeti followed up and was told by staffers that civil rights weren’t the representative’s “issue.” Civil rights are life and death for people of color.

Look, America has had a love affair with white supremacy since the beginning, only it was largely closeted. Trump emboldened folks to come out, the KKK, Nazis, etc. That’s all the obvious stuff. Less obvious, but equally insidious, are the neoliberal, corporate Democrats who flood the streets with pink hats, rail against Donald Trump morning until night but then turn a blind eye to Black Lives Matter. A friend recently said: “Conservatives are boots on the ground white supremacists. Neoliberals shine their boots for them before they go to battle-- and then talk smack about them on Twitter afterwards.”

After this thing with Neeti, I got to thinking-- and I know many of you will roll your eyes, wondering why it took me so long to connect the dots-- why is it that we don’t have a Clean Dream Act when the Democrats were in power for so long? Why is it that prescription drug prices soared on the Democrats’ watch? How is it that we have the greatest income inequality in nearly one hundred years? Why doesn’t Flint have safe drinking water four years later? Why are we allowing our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico suffer and suffer and suffer?

Corporate Money In Politics

Again, I realize you knew this all along. But this was a big awakening for me. And I have to say, the fact that it took me as long as it did, makes me deeply concerned about how asleep most Democrats continue to be. This dirty money isn’t a sideshow, it’s the main event.

If the Earth had a super pac, we’d stop trashing it. If Dreamers were rich and white, we wouldn’t be deporting them. If Democrats weren’t taking MILLIONS from Big Pharma, insulin wouldn’t have gone from $1.80 to more than $300 a shot in a few years.

We will never be able to have nice things-- healthcare, education, racial, social, environmental equity until the corporate money is out. It’s not rocket science: Eli Lilly cuts you a check, you answer to Eli Lilly. AETNA funds you, you answer to AETNA.

How is it that we give corporations a $1.4 trillion dollar tax cut, but we can’t figure out a way to eliminate student loan debt, which incidentally is $1.4 trillion dollars. The money is there-- our priorities are completely out of whack. We choose profits over people. We choose profits over the planet.

There’s a saying in the book business, of which I’m in in my normal life: “If you don’t see the book on the shelf you want to read, go write it.” I look around Colorado. All 9 members of our congressional delegation are white. There’s a ton of corporate PAC money lining coffers here, there, everywhere. We don’t have much time to turn this ship around, and I decided to stop hoping and praying a true progressive, not beholden to corporate money, would show up and run. So I did it myself.

The primary is June 26th but Colorado is a vote by mail state and the election will start when ballots drop June 4th! Let’s prove to America that we can do this and do it right. That we can choose people over profits. I don’t like talk of taking our country back. Let’s take our country forward.


UPDATE: Democratic Establishment Needs A Lesson From Voters

Today, Denverite published an article by Esteban Hernandez showing how the Democratic establishment tries to undermine grassroots progressives like Rao and Levi Tillemann.

An email sent out by the district and provided by Rao’s campaign shows only DeGette was given a speaking opportunity during a primary candidates forum. While the state district falling within the CD1 boundaries, only DeGette was listed as a speaking candidate.

After Rao’s campaign pointed this out, the committee organizers invited her the day before the event. But Rao decided not to go because it was such short notice. Rao said the party has gone out of its way to put up “institutional roadblocks” and treat her like “a second-class citizen.”

“It’s constantly this, ‘You should be grateful for what you have,'” Rao said.

Together with Levi Tillemann’s complaints against the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in CD6, it raises the question of whether the Democratic Party has moved on from its 2016 divisions as it hopes to ride its “blue wave” to this fall’s election.

“Those wounds still are raw,” Tillemann said. “What I tend to talk about is the fact that I did support Bernie, and I contributed to his campaign, and I was inspired by Bernie.”

Tillemann added he volunteered for Clinton’s campaign after she won the party’s nomination.

Rao, though, was a Clinton supporter. She bills herself as a progressive who’s running to help get the party back to its roots and to ensure the party has a robust primary process. There are areas where Rao said she differs from DeGette, including her supporting a single-payer healthcare system and keeping corporate money from politics. She also said she got into the race because it’s time for new leadership.

“We keep electing these same people over and over again. It’s obviously rigged in their favor,” Rao said.

DeGette, in contrast, has previously questioned support for single-payer healthcare and has taken donations from PACs.

...DeGette didn’t seem interested in discussing the Tillemann meeting with Denverite; when asked if the meeting had been cordial, DeGette declined to answer yes or no. A DeGette campaign spokesperson said DeGette told Tillemann she saw her role as a senior Democrat as someone who should stay neutral and ensure races stayed positive.

But Tillemann said his conversation last summer with DeGette had some similarities with the conversation he had with Hoyer.

“It didn’t go well,” Tillemann said, before continuing, “It ended rather abruptly at her discretion.”

DeGette said she doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the DCCC to be involved in “weighing in” on candidates, which she expressed to the committee. She said she hasn’t endorsed any candidate in the race and that Hoyer’s suggestion that Colorado’s Congressional delegation picked Crow over Tillemann didn’t include her. Tillemann said he was surprised to hear DeGette said she was being neutral.

DeGette was willing to share this about the CD6 race: “I find it deeply disturbing that a candidate, that anybody, without the knowledge of someone, secretly taped a conversation with a senior member of the House.”

Rao said she hasn’t been approached by DCCC members, but wasn’t surprised by the recordings. She called out U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, another long-time incumbent, for defending Hoyer after the recordings were made public.

“It sounds like the mob,” Rao said. “Nothing about that surprised me.”

ISN'T THERE A LAW AGAINST ADVOCATING VIOLENCE ON THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES?

Pig-boy irrevocably answered that question himself today

When I wake up in the morning will I turn on CNN and to hear those two bran-dead robots they have reading the news in the morning chattering about how Rush Limbaugh was kicked off the air, his broadcast license revoked? Or, better yet, will I read that the FCC revoked KOA's license and will auction it off?

I was a radio dj for a good part of my life. I was always one step from saying something that would jeopardize not just my own license but the licenses of the radio stations I was broadcasting on. But I never went over the line. I think Republican Party propagandist Rush Limbaugh did today. Call me crazy but I would think calling for riots in a major American city is pretty serious stuff and maybe even the GOP's FCC should look into it... very seriously.

Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments calling for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

He said the riots would ensure a Democrat is not elected as president, and his listeners have a responsibility to make sure it happens.

"Riots in Denver, the Democrat Convention would see to it that we don't elect Democrats," Limbaugh said during Wednesday's radio broadcast. He then went on to say that's the best thing that could happen to the country.

Obviously, Limbaugh is tricky enough to give himself a slick excuse for his dog whistle suggestion to his far right listeners to go make trouble. John Amato has the audio up at Crooks & Liars. Limbaugh goes on and on about his Operation Chaos plot to make sure Clinton wins the Democratic nomination and that he "dreams" that violent riots break out in Denver.

"The dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention and we have a replay of Chicago 1968 with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that. That’s that’s the objective here.”

KOA is vigorously defending their star revenue source-- and not even claiming that he was on drugs or having a psychotic episode during his bizarre rant. No, they are just parsing words and trying to deny the obvious. As you can see there's an ad for Hilton on the page. I called my travel agent and asked her to make sure that under no circumstances do I wind up in a Hilton Hotel until she hears otherwise from me. I'll try to figure out who else advertises on KOA.


UPDATE: LIMBAUGH HAS NOT LOST HIS LICENSE & KOA IS STILL ON THE AIR TOO

Limbaugh was unrepentent and still calling for riots in Denver and the Bush Regime's FCC failed to take him off the air. Denver's Mayor John Hickenlooper said, "Anyone who would call for riots in an American city has clearly lost their bearings." Hickenlooper doesn't ask the question but normal people have to wonder if Limbaugh is still on probation for drug abuse or if he's fallen off the wagon again.