Nancy Pelosi-- The Tragic Decline

There was a time that being pro-Choice, for racial equality and LGBT equality and for gun control meant you were a progressive. That's a long long time ago and progressivism has evolved. To credibly call yourself progressive, you still need to be for all those things but you now have to be against big money in politics, for universal healthcare (preferably via Medicare-for-All), for dealing effectively with the Climate Crisis (preferably via the Green New Deal), for a living wage, against a free rein for Wall Street and for big corporations... In the old days, Pelosi (unlike Biden) was a progressive. No, really, she was; I shit you not. But as the movement went in one direction... she basically headed off in the other direction. She doesn't truly support-- except occasionally with platitudes-- any progressive goals that she didn't support before she left the CPC to pursue a party leadership position, first as Minority Leader and then as Speaker.

In very recent years, as her grasp on abstracts has begun to noticeably slip, she's compensated with a kind of imperious entitlement that was far less apparent during her first round as Speaker. This week, for example, she told the media "I have no regrets about anything. Regrets is not what I do." That's right... she and Trump both. And they're both screwing up the country royally. They both have to go.

This week Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris reported for Politico on her closed-door meeting with the Democratic House caucus where she scolded progressives as as much as told them they're not as important as conservatives. "Pelosi’s comments, which were described as stern," they wrote, "came during the first full caucus meeting since a major blowup over emergency border funding last month between progressive and moderate lawmakers as well as a recent spat with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her freshman allies."

"So, again, you got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it," Pelosi told Democrats, according to a source in the room. "But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK."

Democrats in the room said they interpreted that remark, in part, as a shot at Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who called moderate Democrats members of the “Child Abuse Caucus” in a tweet over their support for the Senate’s version of the emergency humanitarian package.

...Speaking behind closed-doors Wednesday morning, Pelosi also gave an emphatic defense of the moderates in the caucus, according to multiple sources, telling the room that they’re critical to holding the House majority. Pelosi told Democrats not to make the Blue Dog Coalition their targets, but criticize her publicly if they need to go after someone.

“I’m here to help the children when it’s easy and when it’s hard. Some of you are here to make a beautiful pâté but we’re making sausage most of the time,” Pelosi told the caucus.

The California Democrat added that when her members target her, it helps fundraising, eliciting a big laugh inside the room.

“We are a family, and every family has its moments,” the speaker said.

Pelosi also indirectly criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, according to Democrats in the room, as she told members to tell their staffers to “think twice” before they tweet.

Saikat Chakrabarti, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, went after Pelosi in a series of tweets over the weekend, criticizing everything from her comments on the squad to her stance against impeachment. Chakrabarti also tweeted scathing criticism of the Blue Dogs, calling them the "New Southern Democrats."

"They certainly seem hell bent to do black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s," Chakrabarti wrote on Twitter before deleting the post.

Her remarks also come after Pelosi dismissed Ocasio-Cortez and the other members of the progressive “squad” in an interview with the New York Times over the weekend.

Pelosi questioned the group's actual influence, given that its members were the only four Democrats who opposed the House’s original humanitarian package. Ocasio-Cortez and the other progressives-- Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts-- quickly fired back, criticizing Pelosi’s remarks in a series of tweets.

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t address Pelosi’s speech as she left the caucus meeting, instead talking about the annual defense authorization bill that will be on the House floor this week.

But Omar defended her allies, saying she and other Democrats can vote however they want.

“I hope that leadership understands their role and understands what our role is,” Omar said.

Some of the moderates who felt targeted by Pocan’s tweet also spoke up in the caucus meeting, including Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, who belongs to the Problem Solvers Caucus that Pocan derided as child abusers. [She is also a vehemently anti-progressive Blue Dog who was one of the first freshmen to earn an "F" rating from ProgressivePunch and now has a horrifying 45.83 crucial vote score, indicating she isn't even really a Democrat at all.]

As a former federal law enforcement agent who focused on child trafficking, Spanberger said she was horrified that a fellow Democrat would compare members of his own party to child abusers, according to multiple people in the room. [Hard for garbage members like Spanberger to look in the mirror and realize what they are.]

Speaking to reporters later Wednesday, Pocan did not back away from his criticism of the bipartisan [right-wing members from both parties; not what bipartisan really means] Problem Solvers Caucus, which had taken credit for helping scrap the House’s more liberal version of a humanitarian border package last month.

Problem Solvers Caucus: Gottheimer (Blue Dog), Trump (Nazi), Reed (R)

“I know there are some people in the Problem Solvers Caucus that feel a little stung, because they got yelled at last weekend by constituents,” Pocan said, referring to recent town hall meetings held by moderates [wrong word, as usual-- conservatives are NOT moderates; they are conservatives] in their districts. “I understand why they’re upset, but they should be upset, because they got in trouble last week.”

Pelosi’s speech is part of an effort by Democratic leaders to knit the party back together after the bitter border funding fight last month.

Shortly before the July Fourth recess, moderate Democrats moved to block further consideration of the House border bill-- which had additional protections for migrant children-- after it became clear the GOP-controlled Senate would not take it up.

Pelosi bowed to centrists and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), agreeing to put the Senate bill on the floor and leaving progressives fuming.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) also delivered a forceful speech on Wednesday preaching unity within the caucus and urging members to speak directly with each other rather than publicly-- a sentiment that some lawmakers privately mused could also have been directed at Pelosi after her critique of the caucus' freshman firebrands. [Hoyer has a serious primary challenge.]

"If we have problems with each other, we ought to address each other," Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) said of Hoyer's message. [Yarmuth has a serious primary challenge.]

After Pelosi and Hoyer's remarks, another moderate, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), spoke up to complain that lawmakers shouldn't attack each other unless they're paying party dues. [Cuellar has a serious primary challenge.]

"If somebody has a problem, pay your dues before you start attacking other Democrats," according to a source in the room.

Some progressive members had privately discussed not paying dues to the caucus' fundraising arm earlier this year after officials announced contentious new policies that made it tougher for primary challengers to attract talented consultants.

"Privately discussed"-- but, par for the course, not acted on. Yesterday Rachel Bade and Mike DeBonis reported for the Washington Post how disrespectful Pelosi has become towards outspoken freshmen. As she increasingly loses her grasp and becomes more and more dependent on her aides, she has become more and more of a bully-- and finds it easy to express that side of her nature towards the freshmen she is so obviously jealous of: AOC (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ayanna Pressley (MA). "The four," wrote Bade and DeBonis,"are struggling with the speaker’s moves to isolate them in recent weeks, according to interviews with the lawmakers, congressional aides and allies. Pelosi has made at least half a dozen remarks dismissing the group or their far-left proposals on the environment and health care. More recently she scorned their lonely opposition to the party’s emergency border bill last month." This drives Pelosi into a frenzy of uncontrollable recriminations, like some kind of wicked witch in Cinderella:

• @AOC- 4.7 million Twitter followers
• @SpeakerPelosi- 2.67 million Twitter followers
• @LeaderHoyer- 116K Twitter followers

"The speaker’s allies," wrote Bade and DeBonis, "say concerns about the next election is driving her moves to isolate these four women. “Sometimes a leader’s got to take positions to keep the team [united],” said Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY). “She knows what got us here and what’s going to keep us here.” Meeks is a corrupt bucket of slime who runs the Queens County Democratic Party machine-- ever since AOC defeated Joe Crowley, the last boss of the Queens County Democratic Party machine. Meeks is one of the most corrupt of the New Dems and his only reason for being in Congress is to enrich himself. He has a strong progressive primary opponent this cycle, Shaniyat Chowdhury. Please consider contributing to him-- and to the other progressives Pelosi and Cheri Bustos' DCCC are trying to undercut-- by clicking on the Blue America Primary A Blue Dog 2030 thermometer on the right. And. by the way, this is the iconic photograph of Pelosi's "ally," Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, disgracefully a member of the House Financial Services Committee who would have been removed long ago if Pelosi really gave a damn about ethics, which to her, is nothing but a cudgel to beat Republicans over the head with.

“When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood,” Ocasio-Cortez told the Washington Post. “But the persistent singling out . . . it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful . . . the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color.”

The four women are trying to figure out how to respond, texting one another and weighing whether to confront Pelosi to ask her to stop. But for now, they are focused on their congressional duties, even as they defend their votes in the House that have drawn Pelosi’s ire.

“Thank God my mother gave me broad shoulders and a strong back. I can handle it. I’m not worried about me,” said Pressley, who called Pelosi’s comments “demoralizing.” “I am worried about the signal that it sends to people I speak to and for, who sent me here with a mandate, and how it affects them.”

The tensions underscore the political and generational divide between the most powerful woman in American politics, who has led House Democrats for more than 16 years, and the new band of liberals clamoring for change and trying to push the party left. Pelosi has spent more than 30 years perfecting an inside game to secure wins for her party, most notably the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The four freshmen lawmakers, by contrast, have built a massive online following and leveraged their power on the outside, including in the 2020 presidential race.

Their ability to work together-- or refusal to-- will have major implications for Democrats as they seek to oust President Trump and retain their majority in next year’s election. Pelosi "knows" that the fate of her majority rests with the moderate Democrats who captured Republican-held seats in last year’s midterm elections.

“A majority is a fragile thing,” she said, according to two people present for the remarks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private meeting, adding that members should show “some level of respect and sensitivity” to more moderate colleagues: “You make me the target, but don’t make our [moderates] the target in all of this, because we have important fish to fry.”

...Pelosi suggested to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in an opinion piece published Saturday that “the Squad” had a limited following inside the House. She specifically pointed to the example of the House-passed Democratic border bill in late June, which the group opposed.

“All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world,” Pelosi said in the New York Times interview. “But they didn’t have any following. They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.”

Several in the caucus were uncomfortable with Pelosi’s comments. Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders are expected to talk to Pelosi about her comments, according to two officials familiar with the plan. Other women of color in the House have similarly expressed concerns.

“I can’t tell the speaker to apologize, but I was taken aback by it. Because we’re all here to work together,” said Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), the first black woman to represent her state in Congress.

Notably, Hayes, Ocasio-Cortez and Omar appeared together with Pelosi smiling on the cover of Rolling Stone in a photo taken in January.

While some of the four enjoy more diplomatic relationships with Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez’s relationship with the speaker has been chilly from the start. After she upset Rep. Joseph Crowley (NY) in the Democratic primary, Pelosi moved to immediately downplay her victory, saying it was a one-off event.

Still, Pelosi tried to create a bridge with the New Yorker: During their first face-to-face meeting just before the midterm elections, Pelosi spent nearly two hours trying to convince the liberal that she was just like her, touting her background. It was around that time that Ocasio-Cortez agreed to not only back Pelosi as speaker but also vocally defend her against rebels trying to keep her from the gavel.

Now, half a year later, virtually all communication between the two women has ceased. The two have not spoken one-on-one since February when Ocasio- Cortez declined Pelosi’s personal request that she join her select committee on climate change, according to individuals who know both lawmakers.

Just days after, during a private Progressive Caucus meeting, Pelosi singled out Ocasio-Cortez in front of her colleagues, calling her out for rejecting the select committee offer. Ocasio-Cortez had publicly criticized leadership for refusing to give the committee the power to directly draft legislation.

Since then, Pelosi has made several dismissive remarks about Ocasio-Cortez, calling her Green New Deal “the Green Dream or whatever,” and suggesting that a “glass of water” running as a Democrat could win in districts as liberal as hers.

“The third and fourth time [she insulted me], it was like, ‘This is unnecessary, but I’m not going to pick a fight over it. Whatever, I’ll be the punching bag if that’s what they want me to be,’ ” Ocasio-Cortez said. But now people are telling the freshman to talk to Pelosi. She doesn’t want to, however.

“There hasn’t really been a relationship, to be frank,” she said. “It’s difficult.”

Omar, according to people close to her, has been similarly disappointed. The  lawmaker from Minnesota looks up to Pelosi and has enjoyed a positive relationship with the speaker, despite her criticisms of Israel that caused a major stir in the party. Even then, however, Pelosi gave Omar a heads-up before chiding her publicly.

In one of her first conversations with Pelosi after she won her primary, Omar told Pelosi that she couldn’t vote on the floor because of a headwear ban in the House. Pelosi promised to change the rules so she could wear her hijab in the Capitol.

For Tlaib, Pelosi’s latest comment amounted to a mixed message-- one that seemed to contradict the advice Pelosi gave in a meeting early in her tenure. “Represent your district,” Tlaib recalled Pelosi telling her. “And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

Hours after her primary win in August, Tlaib ruffled feathers by saying in a CNN interview that she would “probably not” support Pelosi for speaker. But Pelosi, directly and through intermediaries, worked through the ensuing months to keep her mind open, and Tlaib ultimately voted for her.

Tlaib then won a seat on the Financial Services Committee, a plum assignment for a freshman in a safely Democratic district. And even as she garnered outsize media attention, Pelosi appeared to have her back: When Tlaib was filmed telling a crowd of supporters in vulgar terms that lawmakers would impeach President Trump, Pelosi delivered only faint public criticism.

“Whatever is she saying is not going to impact my work,” Tlaib said of Pelosi’s comments over the weekend. “I’m going to continue to introduce legislation and policy.”

Yet some lawmakers and aides believe Pelosi’s treatment of the group is having a quiet effect on them. Many activists thought the group would band together to form a type of Freedom Caucus to deliver wins for the left, but they haven’t done so and appear almost on the defensive when Pelosi criticizes them.

They also have not tried to whip votes against a major leadership priority such as the border bill, nor muscled House support for impeachment, an idea Pelosi rejects. And they have declined to call Pelosi out by name as she sidelines liberal policy priorities such as Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal, dismissing them publicly as “enthusiasms” and “exuberances” rather than viable policy prescriptions.

“She chooses her words carefully. She does not misspeak,” said Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), a close friend of Pelosi. “There’s a big difference between being an advocate and being a legislator.”

Asked about why she hasn’t confronted Pelosi, Ocasio-Cortez said she wasn’t sure what to do.

“I do find it a little curious that leadership doesn’t want us to try to have any sort of conversation about even messaging-- but we’re just freshmen, right?” she said.

I spoke with the chief of staff of one of Pelosi's top lieutenants this morning who told me, strictly off the record, that the chance that Pelosi could win another term as Speaker-- if she's foolish enough to try for it-- is "exactly zero... She's not fit to lead the party any longer. Everyone knows that but her. Members don't want to talk about it but she's more of a detriment than anything else... If she really understood what she's done to the party she would retire as soon as she could without losing even more face than she already has... As you wrote last week, she's turned her beautiful legacy into a pile of crap."

Trump's Concentration Camps-- Funded By 176 Republicans And 129 Pelosi-Democrats

American Dream Revisted by Nancy Ohanian

The bad news: on June 27 129 Democrats joined with the GOP to vote to authorize funds for Trump's concentration camps. Briana Urbina is a top progressive candidate taking on Stony Hoyer this cycle. She told me she "cannot forgive my representative for voting in support of the cruel and inhumane treatment of immigrants at the border. The practices of this administration cannot be divorced from the system that funds it. Steny should be using his power in leadership to dismantle this system not bolster it. Our district has a vibrant and beautiful immigrant community. I have been honored to serve immigrant families as a pro bono attorney. I will continue my service to all Marylanders, native and foreign born when I am sworn in as the first Latina elected to Congress from Maryland."

The good news: 95 Democrats voted against funding the concentration camps despite Pelosi and Hoyer having shit-fit. These are the 95 who are fit to call themselves Democrats:

• Alma Adams (D-NC)
• Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA)
• Nanette Barragán (D-CA)
• Karen Bass (D-CA)
• Don Beyer (New Dem-VA)
• Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
• Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)
• Brendan Boyle (New Dem-PA)
• Anthony Brown (New Dem-MD)
• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)
• Tony Cárdenas (New Dem-CA)
• André Carson (New Dem-IN)
• Judy Chu (D-CA)
• David Cicilline (D-RI)
• Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)
• Katherine Clark (D-MA)
• Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
• Lacy Clay (D-MO)
• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)
• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Danny Davis (D-IL)
• Pete DeFazio (D-OR)
• Diana DeGette (D-CO)
• Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
• Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
• Debbie Dingell (D-MI)
• Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
• Eliot Engel (New Dem-NY)
• Veronica Escobar (New Dem-TX)
• Adriano Espaillat (D-NY)
• Dwight Evans (D-PA)
• Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
• Chuy García (D-IL)
• Sylvia Garcia (D-TX)
• Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)
• Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
• Deb Haaland (D-NM)
• Brian Higgins (D-NY)
• Katie Hill (New Dem-CA)
• Steven Horsford (New Dem-NV)
• Jared Huffman (D-CA)
• Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
• Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
• Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
• Joe Kennedy (D-MA)
• Ro Khanna (D-CA)
• Brenda Lawrence (New Dem-MI)
• Barbara Lee (D-CA)
• Andy Levin (D-MI)
• John Lewis (D-GA)
• Ted Lieu (D-CA)
• Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
• Alan Lowenthal (D-CA)
• Nita Lowey (D-NY)
• Ben Ray Luján (D-NM)
• Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
• Betty McCollum (D-MN)
• Donald McEachin (New Dem-VA)
• James McGovern (D-MA)
• Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY)
• Grace Meng (D-NY)
• Gwen Moore (D-WI)
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)
• Jerry Nadler (D-NY)
• Grace Napolitano (D-CA)
• Joe Neguse (D-CO)
• Donald Norcross (New Dem-NJ)
• AOC (D-NY)
• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
• Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
• Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
• Mark Pocan (D-WI)
• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
• David Price (D-NC)
• Mike Quigley (New Dem-IL)
• Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
• Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
• Linda Sánchez (D-CA)
• Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA)
• Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
• Brad Sherman (D-CA)
• Adam Smith (New Dem-WA)
• Darren Soto (New Dem-FL)
• Jackie Speier (D-CA)
• Mark Takano (D-CA)
• Dina Titus (D-NV)
• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
• Paul Tonko (D-NY)
• Norma Torres (New Dem-CA)
• Lori Trahan (New Dem-MA)
• Juan Vargas (New Dem-CA)
• Marc Veasey (New Dem-TX)
• Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX)
• Nydia Velázquez (D-NY)
• Peter Welch (D-VT)

It must have stung Pelosi especially hard when she wasn't even able to control members of her own leadership team and inner circle-- like Hakeem Jeffries and Ben Ray Luján, each fearful of primaries from the left. But these were Pelosi's "good soldiers" who told themselves a nice story that made it ok to vote funding for concentration camps. If any of them call you for a contribution to their reelection efforts, ask them why they decided our taxpayer money should go for locking children seeking asylum in cages inside concentration camps.

Babies in Cages by Nancy Ohanian

Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)
Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)
Joyce Beatty (D-OH)
Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)
Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
Lisa Blunt Rochester (New Dem-DE)
Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
Julia Brownley (New Dem-CA)
Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)
Salud Carbajal (New Dem-CA)
Matt Cartwright (D-PA)
Ed Case (Blue Dog-HI)
Sean Casten (New Dem-IL)
Kathy Castor (D-FL)
Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO)
Jim Clyburn (D-SC)
Steve Cohen (D-TN)
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
Joe Courtney (D-CT)
TJ Cox (D-CA)
Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)
Charlie Crist (Blue Dog-FL)
Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)
Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
Elijah Cummings (D-MD)
Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)
Susan Davis (New Dem-CA)
Madeleine Dean (New Dem-PA)
Suzan DelBene (New Dem-WA)
Antonio Delgado (D-NY)
Val Demings (New Dem-FL)
Ted Deutch (D-FL)
Michael Doyle (D-PA)
Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
Abby Finkenauer (D-IA)
Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)
Mike Foster (New Dem-IL)
Lois Frankel (D-FL)
Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
John Garamendi (D-CA)
Jared Golden (D-ME)
Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX)
Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ)
Al Green (D-TX)
Josh Harder (New Dem-FL)
Jahana Hayes (D-CT)
Denny Heck (New Dem-WA)
Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)
Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)
Steny Hoyer (D-MD)
Hank Johnson (D-GA)
Bill Keating (New Dem-MA)
Robin Kelly (D-IL)
Dan Kildee (D-MI)
Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)
Andy Kim (D-NJ)
Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)
Raja Krishnamoorthi (New Dem-IL)
Anne Kuster (New Dem-NH)
Conor Lamb (D-PA)
Jim Langevin (D-RI)
Rick Larsen (New Dem-WA)
John Larson (D-CT)
Al Lawson (New Dem-FL)
Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)
Mike Levin (D-CA)
Dan Lipinski (D-IL)
Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)
Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)
Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
Doris Matsui (D-CA)
Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)
Jerry McNerney (D-CA)
Joseph Morelle (D-NY)
Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)
Richard Neal (D-MA)
Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)
Jimmy Panetta (New Dem-CA)
Chris Pappas (New Dem-NH)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Ed Perlmutter (New Dem-CO)
Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)
Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Katie Porter (D-CA)
Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)
Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)
Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)
Raul Ruiz (New Dem-CA)
Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)
Bobby Rush (D-IL)
John Sarbanes (D-MD)
Adam Schiff (New Dem-CA)
Brad Schneider (Blue Dog-IL)
Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)
Bobby Scott (D-VA)
David Scott (Blue Dog-GA)
Jose Serrano (D-NY)
Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
Donna Shalala (New Dem-FL)
Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)
Albio Sires (D-NJ)
Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)
Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
Greg Stanton (New Dem-AZ)
Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)
Tom Suozzi (New Dem-NY)
Mike Thompson (Blue Dog-CA)
Bennie Thompson (D-MS)
Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)
David Trone (New Dem-MD)
Lauren Underwood (D-IL)
Jefferson Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)
Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (New Dem-FL)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)
Susan Wild (New Dem-PA)
John Yarmuth (D-KY)

"Denny Heck voted to give money to concentration camps," his progressive primary opponent, Joshua Collins told me. "And he did it with no expectations of improved oversight or improved conditions. We might as well be burning money because they're already getting over $700/day per detainee, and still won't even give them toothpaste and soap. That vote was despicable. And it signifies why we have to replace Representatives like Denny Heck. He's not just a lazy centrist who won't budge on important issues like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. He's actively helping the Republicans. And when asked why he makes all these bad votes, and why he refuses to support impeachment, his office says it's because he takes his marching orders from Nancy Pelosi. If he is being funded by large corporations and controlled even more explicitly by Nancy Pelosi, why in the hell should he be representing Washington's 10th? He needs to retire already. He's gotta go. That's why I'm running against him."

23 hours to go on this poll, but the trend seems set

Progressive Democrat Matt Tirman is running for the House seat occupied by New Dem chief Derek Kilmer in the sprawling 6th district west of Seattle. "The vote to give $4.6 billion in funding to ICE was not one to help the children being kept in cages at the border," he told me this morning, "but one to assuage the enormity of guilt felt by those in Congress. This was not a way to help reunite families, or help provide the humanitarian aid so desperately needed. This was simply a way for congressional members, like Rep. Kilmer, to stick a band aid on the issue and hope the American people will be placated so they could go march in their hometown parades without having to worry about messy questions about kids in cages."

Dean Obeidallah penned an OpEd for CNN yesterday, Why is Nancy Pelosi slamming AOC and helping Trump?. He was as pissed off as every progressive I know about Pelosi's slide over to the Dark Side, in terms of Trump's concentration camps and in her vicious attacks against progressives who opposed her collaboration with America's #1 enemy. She has especially singled out freshmen women Ilhan Omar (MN), AOC (NY), Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ayanna Pressley (MA) for the full scale viciousness many Democrats would rather see her aiming at McConnell and Trump. She's become a real detriment to the Democratic Party and with her legacy in shreds, should step down and disappear immediately.

"Whatever"

Pelosi's criticism came after a June 25 vote in which the four were the only Democrats to oppose a House bill to provide funding for the crisis at the southern border because as they put it in a statement, "in good conscience, we cannot support this supplemental funding bill, which gives even more money to ICE and CBP and continues to support a fundamentally cruel and broken immigration system."

In response to that vote, Pelosi told Dowd, "All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world," adding, "But they didn't have any following. They're four people and that's how many votes they got."

by Jack Spencer

In response, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter, focusing in on the dismissiveness of the speaker's "public whatever" remark. "That public 'whatever' is called public sentiment. And wielding the power to shift it is how we actually achieve meaningful change in this country," she tweeted.

What makes Pelosi's remark so stunning is that it flies in the face of her often-repeated philosophy that she has espoused to House Democrats since taking control of the chamber in the 2018 midterms. "Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power," she wrote last November.

Pelosi is 100% correct with that approach. That means, though, that diversity of opinion needs to be respected-- not belittled. This unity is vitally needed in the time of Donald Trump, since the Democrat-controlled House is the only chamber that serves as a legitimate check on the President.

Trump Has A Twitter Presidency. Is Twitter Important In The House Too?

The Tweeter by Nancy Ohanian

There are about 30 members of the House with twitter followings over 100,000-- and just 5 with over a million followers. This is an indication of power-- the power to communicate to a large number of people and make a message go viral and fundraising power as well. The average member has around 30,000 followers.

Some of these accounts have big followings because the member is on MSNBC, CNN or Fox frequently. With some it comes with the office they hold and with a few it's because their accounts are lively and controversial-- or because they are. Do any of these surprise you?

• Paul Ryan (R-WI)- 3.62 m
• Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)- 1.78 m
• Alexandria Ocasio (D-NY)- 1.62 m
• Adam Schiff (D-CA)- 1.12 m
• Beto (D-TX)- 1.08 m

• Trey Gowdy (R-SC)- 963k
• Ted Lieu (D-CA)- 892k
• Joe Kennedy (D-MA)- 720 k
• Eric Swalwell (D-CA)- 414 K
• Devin Nunes (R-CA)- 339 k
• Jim Jordan (R-OH)-- 304 k
• Darrell Issa (R-CA)- 302 k
• Keith Ellison (D-MN)- 371 k
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL)- 366 k
• Ilhan Omar (D-MN)- 282 k
• Steve Scalise (R-LA)- 265 k
• Elijah Cummings (D-MD)- 245 k
• Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI)- 216 k
• Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)- 202 k
• Mark Meadows (R-NC)- 202 k
• Louie Gohmert (R-TX)- 178 k
• Justin Amash (R-MI)- 145 k
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)- 135 k
• Seth Moulton (D-MA)- 135 k
• Joaquin Castro (D-TX)- 131k
• Jackie Speier (D-CA)- 126 K
• Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)- 122 k
• Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)- 114 k
• Steny Hoyer (D-MD)- 106 k
• Peter King (R-NY)- 106 k

I swear this post didn't start out as another paean to The Four Freshmen, but it would be hard to not notice that 4 out of the 30 are freshmen who haven't even taken their seats yet-- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NYC), Ayanna Pressely (Boston), Ilhan Omar (Minneapolis) and Rashida Tlaib (Detroit). John Nichols made me do it-- by pointing out how these 4 weren't just resisting Trump-- they were outylining the alternative to Trumpism, capturing the public-- and twitterverse-- imagination in the process. He calls them the "most valuable progressives," which could make that vile slug Claire McCaskill give up the ghost.

Omar announced that the newcomers-- two of whom had defeated Democratic congressmen in the primaries, two of whom had won crowded primary contests for open seats-- “did not come to play.” Fox News disapproved; it featured an image of the quartet with the headline “Radical New Democratic Ideas: Free College for All, Free Health Care for All, Abolish ICE, Green New Deal.” Ocasio-Cortez replied: “Fox News discovered our vast conspiracy to take care of children and save the planet.”

Yesterday, Rashida sent a note to voters in her Detroit-area district: "I’m ready to hit the ground running in Congress. And I don’t need corporate CEOs to teach me how political change works. This month, along with my colleagues, I attended a 'bipartisan' program at Harvard University billed as 'the preeminent educational and preparatory program' for incoming members of Congress. But, instead of discussions about implementing an agenda for the American people, the program consisted of speeches from corporate CEOs and lobbyists from companies like Johnson & Johnson, Boeing, and General Motors-- which is in the process of slashing thousands of jobs in my district by closing its Detroit plant; a devastating hit to our community. Among the presenters at this event for incoming Congresspeople was Gary Cohn-- Donald Trump’s former economic advisor and former president/CEO of Goldman Sachs-- who told us that 'you guys are way over your head' and 'you don’t know how the game is played.' Guess what, Gary? The game just changed. I’m going to Washington to represent working families, not corporate lobbyists and CEOs. Together, we are part of a new movement-- bringing activism to Congress and putting people over corporate profits." Don't you wish you had a Rep. in DC like Rashida? You could, you know.

Iron worker and progressive union activist Randy Bryce, as you know, didn't win his Wisconsin congressional race. But... he achieved his original goal of getting Paul Ryan out of Congress and his very active and very influential twitter feed still has over 268,000 followers, far more impactful and influential than the average member of Congress.

Nichols has another category-- Most Valuable House Player-- which he awards ti Ro Khanna (D-CA), someone who I follow closely on Twitter and who I was shocked to see has only 69,400 Twitter followers, while having one of the most valuable and perceptive policy-oriented twitter-feeds of any member of Congress. True, he has more than double the number of followers that the average member has but-- if you're not following Ro... change that today. As Nichols wrote, he "spins out more ideas in a week than most House members produce in a congressional career. In his freshman term, he emerged as the chamber’s most ardent and courageous advocate for a new approach to foreign policy by promoting engaged diplomacy as an alternative to ever-expanding Pentagon budgets. To that end, Khanna worked with Mark Pocan to end US support for the Saudi war on Yemen, and with California Democrat Barbara Lee to scrap the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which presidents have routinely used as justification for military interventions since 9/11. He also urged his colleagues to take risks in supporting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. That would be sufficient to earn him a place on this year’s honor roll. But Khanna has also stepped up as the savviest advocate on communications and technology issues in the House, circulating a pitch-perfect Internet Bill of Rights. And he moved to the forefront of the fight for corporate accountability, sharing credit with Sanders for getting Amazon to raise wages and declaring: 'I am not in the House to appease special interests, so it’s fine if Big Pharma and defense contractors don’t like me. I don’t work for them. I work for ordinary Americans who can’t afford a lobbyist.'"

Strange Bedfellows-- Saudi Interference In U.S. Politics

Few Americans have ever heard of the newly elected members of Congress, especially not the ones being touted as consequential by the establishment media. But... then there's The Four Freshmen: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NYC), Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), Ayassa Pressley (D-Boston) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minneapolis), the ones with all the tip of the spear ideas. They're the ones making waves and those ideas and the populist manner they're making them the center of the conversation is driving the Democratic establishment, the Republican establishment and the media establishment into frenzy of fear and loathing. Fox viewers have heard more about Muslim-America Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, for example, than of every Republican freshman combined!

And now the party establishment and media establishment have a new ally in their war against The Four Freshmen: Saudi Arabia, which is unhappy that the 4 of them are pushing to end U.S. participation in the Yemen genocide. The Saudis are especially out of their minds over the two young women who are Muslims-- and, according to Foreign Policy, are using "racism, bigotry, and fake news to denounce Washington's newest history-making politicians."

Ola Salem reports that "Ever since the midterm election, conservative media in the United States have targeted with special zeal Ilhan Omar, an incoming Somali-American Democratic congresswoman and a devout Muslim who wears hijab. In response to Democrats’ push to remove a headwear ban on the House floor to accommodate Omar, conservative commentator and pastor E.W. Jackson complained on a radio show that Muslims were transforming Congress into an 'Islamic republic.' The Democratic Party has several rising political stars with Arab or Muslim backgrounds, all of whom have become objects of such conspiracy theories. But it’s not only American conservatives who have been indulging in this culture war. The organized attacks have also been coming from abroad-- specifically, from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates."

The midterm elections have amplified an existing suspicion in Middle Eastern media of Muslim political activism in the United States. Academics, media outlets, and commentators close to Persian Gulf governments have repeatedly accused Omar, Rashida Tlaib (another newly elected Muslim congresswoman), and Abdul El-Sayed (who made a failed bid to become governor of Michigan) of being secret members of the Muslim Brotherhood who are hostile to the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. On Sunday, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya published a feature insinuating that Omar and Tlaib were part of an alliance between the Democratic Party and Islamist groups to control Congress. The article accused the two of being “anti-Trump and his political team and options, especially his foreign policy starting from the sanctions on Iran to the isolation of the Muslim Brotherhood and all movements of political Islam.”

In another example, a talk show on Saudi-owned station MBC discussed the Muslim congresswomen and more broadly the implications of Democrats taking the House. Prominent Arab anchor Amr Adib debated the matter with Egyptian political scientist Moataz Fattah, who suggested that Trump’s successful combating of Islamists would be undermined by the Democrats’ victory. The attacks have become so ubiquitous in the Persian Gulf that the trend itself is the subject of debate, both online and on television.

Occasionally these attacks have been made by officials of those governments, in apparent anxiety that their countries’ expensive public relations and lobbying efforts might be undermined. Just hours after Omar won her election, for example, a staffer at the Saudi Embassy in the United States accused her of following the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which he said has permeated the Democratic Party. “She will be hostile to the Gulf and a supporter of the political Islam represented in the Brotherhood in the Middle East,” tweeted Faisal al-Shammeri, a cultural advisor at the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the United States, which is part of the embassy, and a writer for Al Arabiya.

El-Sayed, an American born to Egyptian immigrants, noticed the attacks from the region during his campaign. Media in the Middle East amplified accusations by a Republican candidate for governor, Patrick Colbeck, that El-Sayed had links to the Brotherhood. Egyptian newspaper Youm7, for instance, reported that El-Sayed likely lost the election to his link to the “radical” Nation of Islam, and his relationship with Muslim-American activist Linda Sarsour, “known for her radical views.”

El-Sayed told me that political elites in places like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE felt threatened by American politicians who are also Muslim. For average Middle Easterners, his story is inspiring. (The clearest instance of Middle Easterners drawing such inspiration, ironically, was the first presidential election victory of Barack Obama, who faced false accusations of being a Muslim.)

The rise of politicians like El-Sayed, Omar, and Tlaib also undermines a core argument advanced by dictators in the Middle East: that their people are not ready for democracy. “People would not have access to power in their countries but they would if they leave; this destroys the argument by Sisi or bin Salman,” El-Sayed said, referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “What’s ironic is there is no way I would aspire to be in leadership in Egypt, the place of my fathers.”

American allies in the region also fear that the Democratic Party’s new Arab leaders will advocate for political change in their countries. Having spent millions of dollars for public relations campaigns in Western capitals, the Persian Gulf countries feel threatened by any policymakers with an independent interest in and knowledge of the region. They have thus framed these officials’ principled objections to regional violations of human rights and democratic norms as matters of personal bias. One commentator, who is known to echo government talking points and is frequently retweeted by government officials, recently spread the rumor that Omar is a descendent of a “Houthi Yemeni” to undermine her attacks on the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

The most common attack online by the Saudi-led bloc on the Muslim-American Democrats has been to label them as members of the Muslim Brotherhood, or more generally as ikhwanji, an extremist catch-all term. These attacks started long before this year’s elections. In 2014, the UAE even announced a terror list that included the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for its alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The attacks attempting to tie Omar and Tlaib to the Muslim Brotherhood started in earnest after CAIR publicly welcomed their election to Congress. One UAE-based academic, Najat al-Saeed, criticized Arabic media for celebrating the two Muslim women’s victories at the midterms, and pointed to CAIR’s support for them as evidence of their ties to the Brotherhood.

Ro Khanna (D-CA), one of the strongest voices for ending the genocide in Yemen, told us this morning that Saudi Arabia is making a big mistake by attacking these new members of Congress. "Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are voices for morality and human rights in Yemen. The concerted efforts to disparage and marginalize them, using Islamaphobia, is disgusting. The Saudi smear campaign is appalling. Fortunately, none of those tactics will succeed. Anyone would be foolish to underestimate the strength and resolve of these courageous new members."

If it was a secret before that it wasn't just the Russians helping to finance Trump's campaign and his regime, but also the reactionary Middle East monarchies, it won't be secret for long. Mueller is preparing to reveal to the public... Middle Eastern countries’ attempts to influence American politics. According to Erin Banco, writing for the Daily Beast, part of Mueller's team has been "focusing on how Middle Eastern countries pushed cash to Washington politicos in an attempt to sway policy" under Trump's kleptocratic regime and "is ready to outline what cooperating witnesses have told them about foreigners’ plans to help Trump win the presidency. Two sources with knowledge of the probe said Mueller’s team has for months discussed the possibility of issuing new charges on this side of the investigation."

Michael Flynn, Trump's top national security advisor before he was arrested and flipped, was taking money from Russia and Turkey but was also "involved in conversations with representatives and influential individuals from other foreign governments, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Israel... Flynn’s cooperation with Mueller could bring new details about the scope of the special counsel’s probe into how individuals from those countries offered not only to help Trump win the presidential election, but also how they sought to influence foreign policy in the early days of the administration."