I See A Huge Anti-Red Wave Forming Up, Preparing To Sweep More Republicans Out Of Congress

On Monday, John Heilemann told the Morning Joe crew "When you have a moment that becomes the fodder for universal late night comedy-- the kind of thing that everybody, even the most apolitical Americans understand-- that's a devastating moment... Even Trump, I think, has finally started to hear from enough Republicans-- 'Dude, you are killin' us. You are killing yourself politically and not only are you killing yourself but you are killing us. We could lose the Senate; we could lose the White House; we could lose it all'... It's a big moment, I think politically, because you see Republicans going 'Wow, we have some big problems here.'"

And notice he didn't even mention the House. The Republicans were never realistic if they thought they would win back the House-- but they were at least talking about it. Now, the only ones who ever even bring it up are the sad sacks at the NRCC whose livelihoods depend on at least pretending they have a shot at some victories. But the chances of the GOP losing another 2 dozen seats are greater than the chances of the Republicans even winning back six seats!

On Monday morning, the NRCC put out a press release that was one in a series of "nothing serious going on here" moments-- McCarthy Adds Candidates to 2020 Young Guns Program. Maybe McCarthy should be considering changing the name of the ill-starred program. Both his co-founders are now gone-- Paul Ryan driven out of Congress by Trump and Eric Cantor defeated by a psychotic teabagger who subsequently lost the R+6 Virginia district to a third-rate Blue Dog. McCarthy has watched the districts around his in California turn blue and he's probably got another 3 cycles before the demographic changes in CA-23 make it untenable for GOP candidates. Instead, McCarthy is throwing millions at trying to win back 3 neighboring seats Republicans are unlikely to ever win again-- CA-21, CA-24 and CA-25, all with second-rate candidates. He immediately put 2 into this cycle's Young Guns: last year's loser David Valadao, and newbie Mike Garcia. Besides the two of them, McCarthy added two other Californians-- Young Kim (CA-39) and Michelle Steel (CA-48)-- as well as three Texans: Wesley Hunt (TX-07), Beth Van Duyne (TX-24) and Genevieve Collins (TX-32).

GOP fundraising hasn't looked great in any of the districts. Valadao (CA-21) was outraised by T.J. Cox $1,953,626 to $1,692,230. Garcia (CA-25) is running in an open seat but the weak Democrat the party shoved down voters' throats, Christy Smith, is tying him in fundraising-- $1.8 million each (although Garcia had to contribute $100,000 of his own cash to stay even with her). One of the Democrats weakest and least electable incumbents, useless New Dem Gil Cisneros, hasn't even started self-funding yet (he spent $9,252,762 to buy the seat in 2018) and he's still running ahead of the GOP's failed 2018 candidate, Young Kim and has over a million dollars more than her in his campaign war chest. CA-48 is the reddest of the California districts they're chasing (PVI is R+4) and the incumbent freshman, Harley Rouda, is another pointless, weak New Dem who should be, on paper, a great target. But, like the others, not with Trump at the top of the ticket. Michelle Steel has raised $2.1 million (although $726,740 came out of her personal bank account) to Rouda's $3 million. Rouda, who used $9,252,762 of his own in 2018 to buy the seat, hasn't done any self-funding at all this cycle.

The 3 Texans are being out-fundraised as well. Wesley Hunt (TX-07) has brought in 2,195,206 against weak Democratic incumbent Lizzie Fletcher's $3,293,441. Genevieve Collins has brought in $1,635,533 ($380,00 self funded) against Colin Allred's 2,936,696. And the open seat in the 24th district shows Democrat Kim Olson outraising Beth Van Duyne $1,223,200 to $1,004,955.

Wonderring how Trump did in these districts that the NRCC decided were its 7 best shots in the U.S.? Trump lost 6 of the 7 districts. The first number is Trump's percentage in 2016 and the second number (in parentheses) is how the GOP candidate did in 2018:

• CA-21-- 39.7% (49.6%)
• CA-25-- 43.6% (45.6%)
• CA-39-- 42.9% (48.4%)
• CA-48-- 46.2% (46.4%)
• TX-07-- 47.1% (47.5%)
• TX-24-- 50.7% (50.6%)
• TX-32-- 46.6% (45.8%)

So next came the second-tier and third candidates the GOP put forward yesterday, a desperate attempt to make it look like the staffers are doing something useful. There are 14 supposedly "on the radar candidates" and 17 not quite-but-maybe-who-knows. The 14 second tier candidates are:

• Tiffany Shedd (AZ-01) vs Blue Dog Tom O'Halleran or Eva Putzova (R+2)
• Leo Valentin (FL-07) vs Blue Dog Stephanie Murphy (even PVI)
• William Figlesthaler (FL-19)-- open seat with 3 NRCC endorsees (R+13)
• Carlos Gimenez (FL-26) vs New Dem Mucarsel-Powell (D+6)
• Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02), a serial vanity candidate-- open seat (D+1)
• Jeanne Ives (IL-06) vs New Dem Sean Casten (R+2)
• Esther Joy King (IL-17) vs Blue Dog/DCCC chair Cheri Bustos (D+3)
• Sara Hart Weir (KS-03) vs New Dem Sharice Davids; NRCC has backed 2 candidates (R+4)
• Paul Junge (MI-08) vs New Dem Elissa Slotkin (R+4)
• Michelle Fischbach (MN-07)- vs Collin Peterson (R+12)
• Jimmy Crumpacker and Knute Buehler (OR-02)-- open seat (R+11)
• Scott Taylor (VA-02) vs Elaine Luria re-match; 2 NRCC endorsees (R+3)
• Nick Freitas (VA-07) vs Blue Dog Abigail Spanberger (+ 3 other "endorsed "Republican challengers) (R+6)

And the really laughable sad-sacks that the NRCC basically gave showing up pats on the head but who will get no loot and no love.

• Noran Ruden (AZ-02) vs alcoholic New Dem Ann Kirkpatrick (R+1)
• Anna Luna (FL-13) vs Blue Dog Charlie Crist (D+2)
• Byron Donalds and Casey Askar (FL-19)-- open seat (R+13)
• Rich McCormick (GA-07)-- open seat with 3 candidates the NRCC has backed (R+9)
• Beth Henderson (IN-05)-- open seat with 3 candidates the NRCC has backed (R+9)
• Lisa McClain (MI-10)-- open seat with 3 candidates the NRCC has backed (R+13)
• Tyler Kistner (MN-02) vs New Dem Angie Craig (R+9)
• Matt Mayberry and Matt Mowers (NH-01) vs New Dem Chris Pappas (R+2)
• David Richter (NJ-03) vs Andy Kim (R+2)
• Andrew Garbarino and Mike LiPetri (NY-02)-- open seat (R+3)
• Jim Bognet and Earl Granville (PA-08) vs Matt Cartwright (R+1)
• Benito Loyola (VA-02) vs New Dem Elaine Luria and NRCC has also endorsed Scott Taylor for a re-match (R+3)
• Derrick Van Orden (WI-03) vs New Dem Ron Kind (PVI is even)

Most of the Democratic incumbents are dog-shit and the territory is pretty red but with Trump at the top of the ticket, this cycle, Democrats will be heavily favored in what is shaping up to be another strong anti-red wave (that the media morons will soon be calling a Blue Wave). Republicans can take heart. They'll probably win back most of their losses in the 2022 midterms, especially if the Biden administration is as useless and pathetic as I expect it to be.

Felon And Gun Nut Mikey Suits Was NOT Named To The GOP's Young Guns List

Remember the good old days when the NRCC made Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm a member of their Young Guns program? Grimm managed to beat a Democratic incumbent, Blue Dog GOP-lite backbencher Michael McMahon 65,024 (49.5%) to 60,773 (46.2%). But Grimm is a big time career criminal and Congress didn't slow him down one bit and he eventually wound up in prison. So now he's a felon-- and a candidate for Congress again. This time, though, the incumbent is a Republican-- Dan Donovan, a mainstream Republican who voted against Trumpcare and has a relatively moderate voting record. So far the NRCC is not considering Grimm for inclusion in their 2018 Young Guns program. They're sticking with Donovan. But Mercer and Bannon aren't.

Olivia Nuzzi is on the Mikey Suits beats for New York Magazine. She may surprise her readers when they find out the Tea Party-backed Grimm, before he was forced to resign and assume the identity of Inmate 83479-053, had "one of the most centrist records in the 111th Congress," very much like Donovan's has been.

In a more sane time in our political history, that might have been it for Michael Grimm’s political career. Maybe he’d have gotten lucky and ended up a Fox News pundit, or on the speaking circuit somewhere... But the sane times are over. In the ensuing handful of years, as he served his time in prison and got out, American politics came unglued in such a way that invited his return.

Grimm watched the 2016 election from the sidelines. He’s never attended a Trump rally and, as a felon, couldn’t vote for him. Instead, he drove down to D.C. in his Buick to watch the results come in at a friend’s party at the Capital Grille. But his political instincts remain sharp. In a district where 90 percent of likely Republican primary voters, according to an internal campaign poll, assess Trump favorably, he’s decided to market himself as the president’s kindred spirit. And just like in his first campaign, he’s attached himself to the conservative movement of the day: far-right populism-- specifically, the variety evangelized by Steve Bannon. The Breitbart empresario is supporting Grimm’s candidacy in an effort to fulfill his promise to challenge every Republican in Washington with the exception of Ted Cruz. “Staten Island’s very much like the Rust Belt. It’s like Pennsylvania, it’s like Michigan, it’s like Ohio. These are places where the forgotten man is everywhere,” a source close to Bannon told me, by way of explaining his involvement.

...[T]here is a minor complication with Grimm’s theory of the race: Dan Donovan, his opponent, has known the president for 20 years and maintained what he calls a friendship with him. He’s almost always voted in favor of Trump’s agenda, too, and in the rare cases when he hasn’t, Donovan said he’s explained his reasoning to Trump face-to-face in the White House, where he’s often welcomed as a guest.

[DWT warning: you may puke if you read the next paragraph about Grimm wanting to perform fellatio on Trump's little cocktail sausage.]

...Grimm admits he’s only met Trump a few times, and never in a meaningful way. As a congressman, he’d visited the president’s Trump Tower office as a formality more than anything else, just like every other New York politician. But his impression of Trump, he told me, was a lasting and positive one — so positive, in fact, that if the president were the kind of person who paid close attention to his press coverage, he might come across Grimm complimenting him effusively. “I remember saying to myself, I never realized what a large man-- I mean stature-wise, he’s a big man, with massive hands,” Grimm said, outstretching his own regular hands above the table. “I don’t have small hands, but when I shook hands with him, the first time I shook hands with him, I realized he was a big man.” He sensed my skepticism. “He is!” he said, defensively. “I thought they were pretty big. You don’t think so? I thought he had a big, strong grip. I’m dead serious.” He went on about how Trump is “a pretty big guy” and “not a small man even for his height” and how his hands were “more like a workman’s hands” than those of “a CEO.”

...It’s a surprising path given that Republicans hold the White House and both chambers of Congress. Newt Gingrich recently called Bannon’s plans the “wrong strategy” and wondered why Republicans would be targeted instead of Democrats. Karl Rove has expressed disapproval, too. The 11th is a swing district, and currently the only New York City seat held by a Republican; if Donovan loses or Grimm pushes him further to the right, Democrats stand a chance to flip it. But Bannon won’t concern himself with matters of partisanship; he’s a purist, more likely to burn everything down than learn to live with compromise.

“I think they’re doing the Lord’s work,” Grimm spokesman Michael Caputo said of Bannon and his main funders, billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah. “My understanding is they want to teach a lot of congressmen a lesson, and they need to be taught. There’s no price to pay for hurting the president, and I’ve never seen that before. If you opposed Barack Obama as a Democrat, you didn’t get your committee seat, wouldn’t get invited places. If you opposed Clinton on anything as a Democrat? You were in Siberia. In the Trump era, people earn stripes for it, and that’s bullshit. Because there needs to be a price to pay if you oppose your own president-- because the president’s agenda is the Republican agenda. I don’t care if the House and Senate disagrees with him. It’s not their job. Their job is to deliver on the president’s agenda. If they don’t agree, shut the fuck up. Don’t work against him.”

Caputo is a longtime Republican operative. He worked on Carl Paladino’s chaotic gubernatorial campaign, and, most recently, as a communications adviser to the Trump campaign. Among reporters, he is known for his candor and a certain eccentricity unusual in politics (he resigned from the campaign after tweeting “Ding dong the witch is dead!” when Corey Lewandowski was fired, and he wears Grateful Dead cuff links, a nod to his days following the band around the country in between stints on campaigns). In July, Caputo-- an ally of Paul Manafort-- testified before the House Intelligence Committee, where he denied having contact or being aware of any other campaign officials who had contact with Russians. It was Caputo who introduced Grimm to Bannon, talking him up for two weeks ahead of their eventual meeting in Washington. “Well, you know, with Steve it’s mostly texts,” Caputo said of their communication. “I’ve just tried to define the man for him. Bannon is, like all veterans, predisposed for veterans.”

Still, Caputo said Bannon had some reservations about Grimm. “Steve’s like, ‘He’s a felon?’” Caputo’s job, as he understood it, was to “define Grimm in a way that would fit, that would help Steve get to ‘yes.’” That meant explaining that Grimm’s record wasn’t a problem, but an asset. “I spent my time helping him understand that this happened to Grimm long before it ever happened to Trump.” By that he meant drawing a parallel between Grimm’s investigation, indictment, and conviction, and the Russia investigations that carry implications for the two of them. “As somebody who’s spent $30,000 on lawyers, I’m not convinced that he’s guilty of anything. I think they weaponized the Justice Department against him,” Caputo said. “Bannon is facing the Russia investigation, which we all think is contrived, weaponized Department of Justice. I define the Grimm situation as very similar.”

But with all of that out of the way, what Bannon really wanted to know was, “Does he have a chance?” He asked Caputo for polling, which Caputo provided, along with other data and research. According to an internal memo, among 482 likely primary voters polled, Donovan leads Grimm 48 to 32 percent. Polling under 50 percent, the campaign believes, means Donovan is vulnerable. Further, Grimm’s favorability is 61 percent (Donovan’s is 79) which, given several years of bad press, they consider a feat. “Grimm’s immunity from the obvious attacks, combined with Donovan’s weak position as the incumbent and alignment with House leadership in opposition to the Trump America First agenda, set the stage for a clear victory in a GOP primary for the true Trump candidate,” the memo states.

Bannon met with Grimm on a Wednesday afternoon at the Washington, D.C., townhouse where Breitbart is headquartered (and where Bannon also lives). They spoke for, depending on who you ask, an hour and 15 minutes or merely 30 minutes. According to Caputo, the topics of the meeting were pragmatic-- “fundraising, the horse race, the numbers, issues, opposition research on Donovan, and potential areas of cooperation between us.” Regardless, it was enough to win Bannon over. “Steve basically took it all in, asked a lot of questions, said, I’m with you, and, We can figure out how we can work together,” Caputo said. As Grimm was leaving, he and Bannon posed for a photo. Soon, Grimm released it on social media-- a contemporary press release announcing he’d earned Bannon’s support.

“I think the guy is brilliant,” Grimm said of Bannon. But when he uses the jargon of the Trump era-- “populism” or “fake news”-- it sounds out of place in his mouth, like he’s just emerged Austin Powers–style after being melted out of a cryogenic freezer. “I never considered myself, necessarily, as … a … populist …” he told me. “But I guess I am, because whenever I had to form my opinions and platform it was by going out and meeting people in restaurants and in diners and different things.” Bannon, he added, thought he was a populist-- and surely if anyone would know, it’d be him. “He basically said that he wants to support me, he likes that I’m straightforward. I think that he said I’m a fire-breathing populist or something like that.” And it doesn’t help that his understanding of his own policy positions is, at best, shaky. He admitted to hiring undocumented workers at Healthalicious, but he now claims to be in sync with the president on immigration. During a recent appearance on MSNBC, he struggled to answer a basic question about gun regulations. And in conversation, he’s prone to explaining what he believes the president “meant to say” by way of finding common ground with him.

As for what Bannon’s support means, it’s not totally clear. Grimm said he didn’t expect anything at all, that “just having his support means a lot to me.” A member of Bannon’s team wasn’t sure how support would manifest either. “I don’t know. That is not something that is figured out. As you know, Steve is meeting with tons of candidates every week. Depending on the race, support will mean different things.” This person also characterized Grimm as “brash-talking,” “aggressive,” and “a true-blue Staten Islander”-- all good things, because “you could tell he wasn’t bullshitting.”

Another source close to Bannon explained the appeal this way: “He’s not necessarily the most conservative guy on the planet, but he’s more representative of the people of Staten Island than Dan Donovan.” Donovan, this source said, is “grown in a petri dish” by the conservative Establishment, and far too close to the Speaker to ever be acceptable to them. His voting record-- 89 percent in line with the Trump agenda, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis-- is beside the point. “Who gives a shit?” the source said. “Those are dumb Washington talking points.” Such metrics were “cooked up” in “some talking-point machine” by “somebody that knows how to do correlations and can pass a high-school statistics class” who “works for Mitch McConnell, or Paul Ryan or one of these losers.” The source added, “It’s stupid. By the way, it’s stupid when the Republicans plant it against Democrats, too. ‘Oh, they vote 96 percent of the time with Elizabeth Warren!’ It’s like, Wow, you can do statistics! Who cares? They’re fucking idiots.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill are not enthusiastic about their former colleague’s plan to rejoin them. “I don’t know a single person here who wants him to run,” a senior Republican congressional source told me. This isn’t because Donovan is so well-liked, the source added, but because Grimm was hated and known as “a loudmouth punk.”

Donovan is skeptical that Bannon will actually do anything to influence the race. “I’m not sure what Mr. Bannon’s involvement or support is,” he told me. “You can see that very carefully, he did not say that he endorsed him.” He added that Grimm was liberal during his tenure in the House. “Mr. Bannon is not going to get the wool pulled over his eyes by Mr. Grimm,” he said. “Michael Grimm didn’t vote for Donald Trump because he lost the privilege of voting because of his criminal activity. And even when he was out of prison during the Trump campaign, you didn’t hear a peep out of Michael Grimm about supporting Donald Trump.” (When I asked the White House if the president planned to involve himself in the race, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told me she wouldn’t comment “due to the Hatch Act,” a 1939 law limiting political involvement by federal employees, with the exception of the president and vice-president. Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer, told me Sanders’s response “makes no sense,” and further, he’d never heard of a press secretary invoking the Hatch Act to get out of answering a question about a president. “The White House should know what the president is doing and for the press secretary to disclose it does not violate the Hatch Act,” he said. When I pressed Sanders on this point, she eventually said, “We have nothing to announce at this time.”)

The NRCC has 3 levels of Young Guns. The first level is "On The Radar," followed by "Contender" and then "Young Guns." There are no Young Guns yet and no Contenders, just 31 candidates on the radar. None of those candidates are Mikey Suits. And very few of those candidates are likely to be in Congress in January, 2019.

• Steve Smith (AZ-01) is running against Blue Dog Tom O'Halleran (R+2)
• Steve Ferrara (AZ-09) is running for the open Kyrsten Sinema seat (D+4)
• Andrew Grant (CA-07) is running against corrupt New Demo Ami Bera (D+3)
• Justin Fareed (CA-24) is running against Salud Carbajal (D+7)
• Sean Flynn (CA-31) is running against New Def Pete Aguilar (D+8)
• Mike Miller (FL-07) is running against Blue Dog Stephanie Murphy (EVEN)
• Scott Sturgill (FL-07) is also running against Murphy
• Bruno Barreirro (FL-27) is running for the open Ros-Lehtinen seat (D+5)
• Doug Bennett (IL-10) is running against Blue Dog Brad Schneider (D+10)
• Sapan Shah (IL-10) is also running against Schneider
• Jeremy Wynes (IL-10) a third one ion against Schneider
• Mike Kleine (IL-17) is running against Blue Dog Cheri Bustos (D+3)
• Steve Fitzgerald (KS-02) is running for the open Lynn Jenkins seat (R+10)
• Caryn Tyson (KS-02) also wants that Jenkins seat
• Rick Green (MA-03) is running for the open Niki Tongas seat (D+9)
• Lena Epstein (MI-11) is running for the open Dave Trott seat (R+4)
• Jim Hagedorn (MN-01) is running for the open Tim Walz seat (R+5)
• Pete Stauber (MN-08) is running against Rick Nolan (R+4)
• Eddie Edwards (NH-01) is running for the open Carol Shea-Porter seat (R+2)
• Andy Sanborn (NH-01) is also running for the open Shea-Porter seat
• Steve Negron (NH-02) is taking on New Def Ann Kuster (D+2)
• Steve Lonegan (NJ-05) is taking on corrupt Blue Dog Josh Gottheimer (R+3)
• Monty Newman (NM-02) is running for the open Steve Pierce seat (R+6)
• Yvette Herrell (NM-02) also wants to open Pierce seat
• Victoria Seaman (NV-03) is running for the open Jacky Rosen seat (R+2)
• Stavros Anthony (NV-04) is running against New Dem Ruben Kihuen (D+3)
• Dan Meuser (PA-11) is running for the open Lou Barletta seat (R+10)
• John Chrin (PA-17) is running against Matt Cartwright (R+1)
• Dusty Johnson (SD-AL) is running for the open Kristi Noem seat (R+14)
• Shantel Krebs (SD-AL) also wants that open Noem seat
• Dino Rossi (WA-08) is running for the open Dave Reichert seat (EVEN)

UPDATE: Mercer Won't Finance Bannon's Efforts For Mikey Suits

According to Fox News, the Mercers won't underwrite Bannon's plans to replace Dan Donovan with Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm. Mercer, who has financed the world's largest urine collection operation, says Grimm is a step to far, even for him.

George Michael, Protest Singer-- RIP

SONY Records— they were still called CBS at the time— had just bought my independent label, 415 Records and I was over in England hanging out with the Clash, Generation X, the Boomtown Rats and Wire and scouting for bands I could sign to 415 now that we would have CBS’ marketing muscle behind us. I met a young unknown singer from a small indie label, Innervision, George Michael and he played me a tape of a kind of protest song called Wham Rap. It was a little slick for 415 but… 415 could change. One thing I knew instantaneously— it was a hit. Another thing I knew: this kid was going to be a superstar. I was wrong about the first supposition and right about the second. I went back to CBS’ New York headquarters determined to sign the band. I had to get permission. They liked the band. “Thanks for bringing it in. It’s not really right for 415; we’ll sign them directly to Columbia. You have a good ear.” That’s called getting fucked.

Michael’s partner, Andrew Ridgeley, appeared gay to me. And Michael was an obvious heartthrob for teenage girls. I didn’t think CBS could sell them properly in the U.S. while keeping their protest music aspect front and center. Well, that aspect lasted shorter than it took for the ink to dry on the contract, although exactly 20 years later George Michael released an epic anti-Bush/Blair song Shoot the Dog. Who would have imagined that just 5 years later Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan would adopt the duo’s second single for a Republican program for electing conservatives to Congress! It was this performance on Dec. 9, 1982 on the Top of the pops that broke the band and took out all the guess-work about how big they would be:



[See Eric Cantor rocking out in the audience? Even he sensed Wham was going to be as big as Culture Club.] CBS, which never really had any respect for indie labels, eventually muscled Innervision out of the picture and released “Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go,” the video at the top of the page, and even people who aren’t as smart as Eric Cantor knew this group was going all the way. Cantor, though, started wearing his “Choose Life” t-shirt under his suits and ties and gave Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy the iconic t-shits as well. Tom Rooney (R-LA) bought his own just before the 2008 election and is rumored to still wear it today. “Wake Me Up” was the band’s first #1 and their next release, “Careless Whisper” came out next and was their second #1. Oh, man did I get rooked!


In 1985 they became the first Western band to do a major tour of China and the resulting film (above), Foreign Skies: Wham! came out the following year, just as Wham broke up. Both guys went out of their way to appear to be straight, a typical pop music “business decision” for gay artists. Funny enough, it turned out Ridgeley really was straight and it was George Michael who preferred men. He had told my old friend, Judy Wieder, he was gay in 1999, so it didn’t come as a surprise to me at all when he finally stopped the “bisexual” pose. By then he had already been very publicly living with a gay man in Dallas and had later been arrested for having sex in a park in Beverly Hills. He was 53 when he died of as yet undisclosed causes at his home in the U.K. today. I bet he wouldn't have played Trump's inauguration either.

The GOP Far Right Agrees With Krugman-- Paul Ryan Is The Wrong Guy To Be Speaker

Former Republican congressman/MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough was a guest on Al Sharpton's show this morning, talking about how the House needs a strong new Speaker and he pointed out that Boehner wasn't one and that McCarthy wouldn't have been one. He came up with the one person already proven: Nancy Pelosi. He didn't mention, at least not while I was watching, Paul Ryan. Paul Krugman got a bead on Ryan early on and has been warning American voters about his dangerous extremism for many years. Krugman figured out that Ryan is a con artist, something those on the extreme right have started to understand as well. Yesterday Krugman was warning Paul Ryan-- for his own sake-- to run as far as he can from the speakership being offered him this week. "The hard right," he wrote, "is already attacking him, essentially accusing him of not being sufficiently crazy, and they’re right. On policy substance he’s totally an Ayn Rand-loving, reward-the-rich and punish-the-poor guy, but so are lots of other Republicans; what they want is someone willing to go along with kamikaze tactics, and he isn’t. His fall from grace would be swift." Ryan, he continues "has put himself forward as the serious, honest conservative of centrists’ dreams, someone they can cite approvingly as a way of showing their centrism and open-mindedness."

And it has been a stunningly successful act. In his heyday, Ryan was the object of an immense, indeed embarrassing, media crush-- the word “love” came up a lot.

But Ryan didn’t step into that role by actually being a serious, honest conservative; he just played one on TV. If you knew anything at all about budgeting, you soon realized that his supposedly responsible fiscal proposals were stuffed full of mystery meat. He knew how to game the system, creating the impression that CBO had vetted his plans when it had done no such thing (and in fact hinted broadly that the whole thing was a crock). But there’s never been any indication that he actually knows how to produce a budget-- and in any case, giant tax cuts for the rich and fiscal responsibility are fundamentally incompatible.

So Ryan’s current stature is really quite curious, and I’d argue quite fragile. He has been a highly successful con artist, pretending to be the reasonable conservative centrists desperately want to see; he has become a power within his party because of that external achievement. But he’s not a true hero of the crazy right; he’s valued mainly because of his successful con job on the center. So he doesn’t have a reserve of goodwill from the crazies that would let him be, well, not crazy. On the other hand, if he were to be the kind of speaker the crazies want, he would undermine that all-important centrist approbation. Being off to the side, pretending to be dealing thoughtfully with important policy issues, was where he needed to be; moving to the speaker’s chair would be a lose-lose proposition.

Some Republican congressmembers on the fringes are bringing up some very valid points about Ryan's record that should give them-- and everyone else-- a reason to pause and reflect. He was a MAJOR backer of the Bush Wall Street bailout, popular with the corrupt Establishment of both parties, but hated by many on the far right (as well as by progressives). Louie Gohmert, for example, has already said he won't vote for Ryan to be Speaker. "Back in 2008 there were a number of us that committed that we simply could not ever support a speaker who fought so hard to pass the Wall Street bailout." Kentucky libertarian-leaning Congressman Tom Massie was on the same page: "Some of my conservative colleagues remember Paul Ryan's passionate please for the TARP, the Wall Street bailout-- he was asking them to vote for it several years ago. I don't have a problem with his ideology. I would want to talk to Paul Ryan about why he kicked conservatives off the budget committee, when he was chairman of the Budget Committee. So I am still supporting Daniel Webster." These tweets are from Chad Pergram who (expertly) covers Capitol Hill for Fox News:

As for the fringe-right media, Conservative Review rates him an F.

This process is set to unfold in the Speaker’s election with multiple choices and the opportunity to force each candidate to address issues and processes important to conservatives. That is why the media and the establishment are working overtime to clear the field for Paul Ryan. That is why Mitt Romney, the very armpit of the system conservatives seek to dismantle, is begging him to run.

Paul Ryan represents one of the absolute worst outcomes for conservatives. There is nobody in modern politics whose record and true priorities are more divorced from their rhetoric and public perception. Unlike McCarthy or some of the other choices, Ryan’s ascendancy to the speakership would be hailed as fresh change. In fact, it would serve nothing more than putting the prettiest face on the ugliest policies. Just take a look at his Liberty Score for a rundown of some of the worst policies Ryan has supported.

While conservatives understand they won’t get everything they want in a Speaker, the worst thing is to perpetuate the current failed leadership structure. In 2010, three House members authored a book titled “Young Guns,” promoting a new “nuanced” conservative agenda: Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and Paul Ryan. Eric Cantor was defeated, McCarthy was blocked…now they are pulling out all the stops for Ryan.  There are many choices from which to choose, but shouldn’t we rule out the TARP coalition?

Ryan has used his leverage and respect to sabotage conservatives on every last budget fight of our time. He forged the Ryan-Murray budget deal, which actually countermanded the few budget victories we’ve had over the past few years. He was a wet blanket over the effort to defund Planned Parenthood. There is nobody in the conference who feels stronger about the need to preemptively announce we will not “default” or “shut down the government” than Ryan.

Despite being widely acclaimed as a social conservative and a devout catholic, Ryan was one of only 35 House Republicans to vote for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). This bill infringed upon religious liberties and promoted liberal values, including the sexual identity agenda.

But no issue is more foundational to our survival than the issue of borders and immigration. Yet, there is nobody around in the party who is more fanatically dedicated to the cause of open borders than Paul Ryan.  Whereas most others could be talked off the ledge on this issue, Ryan is a true believer.  When asked to comment on Obama’s executive amnesty-- the single biggest act of imperialism from a modern president-- Ryan said “call my office.”

At a time when we need the next GOP leader to fight another year of Obama’s lawlessness on criminal aliens and dangerous refugee policies, Ryan will give Obama tail winds and could possibly use his respect within the conference to promote these issues.

Nothing threatens the foundation of our Republic than the growing assault on our sovereignty. That is the number one issue of our time.  Almost nobody has the ability and desire to score points for the Democrats on this grave issue than Paul Ryan.

It’s time to let the Young Guns go the way of the Whigs. 

Erick Erickson, who admits he wants to burn Washington to the ground-- "metaphorically speaking"-- is also concerned about Ryan's cult of personality. "His cult of personality will make it problematic for conservatives should he be Speaker because everyone calls Paul Ryan a conservative and you are a loon if you think otherwise. In other words, House conservatives who might take issue with Ryan in the future will immediately be labeled as fascist totalitarians more willing to set everything on fire than work hard."

Ryan collaborated with Senate Democrat Patty Murray to raise taxes. Republicans then ran to every media outlet to declare it was not a tax increase. It is just a “user fee” because only productive citizens who have to travel for work and families on vacation will pay it.

Likewise, Paul Ryan has been the brains behind most of the fiscal deals John Boehner has cut with Barack Obama. Then there are his votes.

While in Congress, he voted for No Child Left Behind, the Prescription Drug Benefit, TARP, caps on CEO pay, the AIG bill, the GM bailout, the debt ceiling, and now the fiscal cliff. In fact, Paul Ryan is one of less than a dozen Republican congressmen to have voted for every bailout to come before Congress.

Paul Ryan is a creature of Washington. He worked on Capitol Hill, worked in a think tank, then went back as a congressman. He speaks Washingtonese with the best of them.

Imagine what even a vaguely competent DCCC could make out of this Republican Civil War. The House would be easily won back and a new era of progressive legislation would ensue-- exactly what corrupt corporate faux-Democrats like Steve Israel, Joe Crowley and Steny Hoyer do not want!

Worst Electoral Targeting Award For 2014 Goes To... Steve Israel

Texans Mac Thornberry (Amarillo), Mike Conaway (Midland/Odessa) and Kevin Brady (the north Houston 'burbs of Montgomery County) don't have to worry about Democrats; their districts barely have any. In 2012, Thornberry didn't have a Democratic opponent while Conaway beat his with 79% and Brady beat his with 77%. These are red hellholes that national Democrats don't even think about. All three have PVIs hovering around R+30. Obama only got 19% of the vote against Romney in Thornberry's district… and 20% in Conaway's and 22% in Brady's. Democrats have seats that are as Blue as these 3 are red. In New York City, for example, Jose Serrano (Bronx), Charlie Rangel (Harlem), and Gregory Meeks (Queens' Jamaica and Rockaway) are all in districts with PVIs between D+35 and D+43. Romney took 3% ofd the vote in Serrano's district, 5% in Rangel's and broken into double digits (10%) in Meeks'. Serrano, a stalwart progressive was reelected with 97%. Ethically-challenged Rangel was reelected with 91% (after scraping by in a brutal 3-way primary with only 44%) and Meeks, the worst kind of New Dem corporate whore, was reelected last cycle with 90% of the vote. the NRCC doesn't have any of these districts on its radar-- nor any of the 58 districts with PVIs of D+20 or above. There are 28 Republican districts with PVIs of R+20 or above and not even an idiot like Steve Israel wastes money contesting any of them.

Most contests are in districts with PVIs that are even or that are between R+4 and D+4. There are 78 of them. These are the 16 Democrats in the districts with PVIs between R+4 and even:

• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)- R+4
• Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ)- R+3
• Pete Gallego (Blue Dog-TX)- R+3
• Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL)- R+3
• Tim Bishop (D-NY)- R+2
• Tim Walz (D-MN)- R+2
• Raul Ruiz (D-CA)- R+1
• Joe Garcia (New Dem-FL)- R+1
• Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)- R+1
• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)- R+1
• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)- even
• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)- even
• Steve Israel ("ex"-Blue Dog-NY)- even
• Bill Owens (New Dem-NY)- even (retiring)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)- even
• Bill Enyart (D-IL)- even

And these are the 7 Republicans in the districts with PVIs between D+4 and even:

• David Valadao (R-CA)- D+2
• Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)- D+1
• Chris Gibson (R-NY)- D+1
• Mike Coffman (R-CO)- D+1
• Rodney Davis (R-IL)- even
• Tom Latham (R-IA)- even (retiring
• Joe Heck (R-NV)- even

Obviously, the Republicans have a lot more targets and the Democrats have far fewer. Both party committees are working strenuously to protect their incumbents. But those aren't the seats I want to look at today. Instead, lets look at the seats among this cohort of 78 that aren't being challenged by the two committees. In some cases there are grassroots candidates who aren't being aided by the DCCC or the NRCC and there are a few races with no candidates at all, which represents pure malfeasance on the part of the committees. First, the seats in our cohort of 78 "swing districts" with no major party challenger at all:

• CA-25- open- R+3
• PA-15- Charlie Dent (R)- R+2
• NY-22- Richard Hanna (R)- R+2
• FL-27- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R)- R+2
• FL-13- David Jolly ®- R+1

Every Republican voter will find a candidate with an "R" next to his or her name in November. Five Democrats won't. And, remember, these are from the winnable districts, not the prohibitively partisan ones. But that barely begins to tell the story. This next list is the districts where the two committees have no candidate and aren't supporting a local candidate. In many cases, the DCCC and the NRCC are telling donors to not contribute to the local candidates are paint those races as "a waste of time" and "hopeless," although these are virtually the only winnable seats that the 2 Beltway committees aren't involved with. The 16 italicized named represent NRCC malfeasance. All the rest (18) represent DCCC malfeasance.

• MI-03- Justin Amash- R+4
• FL-07- John Mica- R+4
• IL-16- Adam Kinzinger- R+4
• CA-49- Darrell Issa- R+4
• PA-16- Joe Pitts- R+4
• NJ-05- Scott Garrett- R+4
• IL-06- Peter Roskam- R+4
• VA-04- Randy Forbes- R+4
• OH-10- Michael Turner- R+3
• FL-18- Patrick Murphy- R+3
• WI-01- Paul Ryan- R+3
• WA-03- Jaime Herrera Beutler- R+2
• PA-07- Patrick Meehan- R+2
• MN-03- Erik Paulsen- R+2
• WI-07- Sean Duffy- R+2
• WI-08- Reid Ribble- R+2
• WA-08- Dave Reichert- R+1
• MI-06- Fred Upton- R+1
• MN-01- Tim Walz- R+1
• NY-02- Peter King- R+1
• AZ-09- Kyrsten Sinema- R+1
• NY-03- Steve Israel- even
• NY-18- Sean Patrick Maloney- even
• OR-05- Kurt Schrader- even
• OR-04- Peter DeFazio- D+2
• CT-05- Elizabeth Esty- D+3
• FL-22- Lois Frankel- D+3
• NY-04- Carolyn McCarthy (open)- D+3
• NV-04- Steven Hosford- D+4
• MD-06- John Delaney- D+4
• KY-03- John Yarmuth- D+4
• CA-24- Lois Capps- D+4
• PA-17- Matt Cartwright- D+4
• IA-02- Dave Loebsack- D+4

This week, NRCC announced reserving $18 million worth of airtime to attack the following 16 Democratic incumbents:

• Ann Kirkpatrick (AZ-01)
• Ron Barber (AZ-02)
• Ami Bera (CA-07)
• Raul Ruiz (CA-36)
• Scott Peters (CA-52)
• Joe Garcia (FL-26)
• John Barrow (GA-12)
• Brad Schneider (IL-10)
• William Enyart (IL-12)
• Collin Peterson (MN-07)
• Rick Nolan (MN-08)
• Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01)
• Ann Kuster (NH-02)
• John Tierney (MA-06)
• Tim Bishop (NY-01)
• Nick Rahall (WV-03)

And they have named 21 Young Guns, the equivalent of the DCCC's Red-to-Blue:

• Martha McSally vs Ron Barber (AZ-02)- R+3
• Don Logue vs John Garamendi (CA-03)- D+3
• Doug Ose vs Ami Bera (CA-07)- even
• Jeff Gorell vs Julia Brownley (CA-26)- D+4
• Brian Nestande vs Raul Ruiz (CA-36)- R+1
• Carl DeMaio vs Scott Peters (CA-52)- D+2
• Carlos Curbelo vs Joe Garcia (FL-26)- R+1
• Rick Allen vs John Barrow (GA-12)- R+9
• Bob Dold vs Brad Schneider (IL-10)- D+8
• Darlene Senger vs Bill Foster (IL-11)- D+8
• Mike Bost vs Bill Enyart (IL-12)- even
• Bobby Schilling vs Cheri Bustos (IL-17)- D+7
• Richard Tisei vs John Tierney (MA-06)- D+4
• Torrey Westrom vs Collin Peterson (MN-07)- R+6
• Stewart Mills vs Rick Nolan (NM-08)- D+1
• Tom McArthur vs Aimee Belgard (NJ-03)- R+1
• Ryan Costello vs Manan Trivedi (PA-06)- R+2
• Barbara Comstock vs John Foust (VA-10)- R+2
• Pedro Celis vs Suzan DelBene (WA-01)- D+4
• Alex Mooney vs Nick Casey (WV-02)- R+11
• Evan Jenkins vs Nick Rahall (WV-03)- R+14

What kind of money are we talking about? The Illinois races are typical. The DCCC has reserved broadcast and cable TV time in IL-10 to defend Brad Schneider and the NRSC has reserved an identical amount for former Congressman Bob Dold in the district. However, that's the only district where the GOP has kept up. In IL-12 the DCCCC has reserved two tranches of $940,000 each ($1,980,000) to defend weak incumbent Bill Enyart, one from September 12 through September 29 and another from October 21 through election day. The NRCC has only come up with $720,000 to boost opponent Mike Bost. Similar story in IL-13, where the DCCC is running Ann Callis against GOP incumbent Rodney Davis. They're reserved $940,000 worth of time in the St. Louis market and $670,000 in the Champaign market-- a total of $1,610,000. The NRCC has only managed to reserve $720,000 to defend Davis. The NRCC doesn't real real paths for victory for either Schilling against Bustos or Senger against Foster and hasn't reserved any air time in either district.

The worst mistakes Israel has made this quarter in terms of targeting-- mistakes that doom the Democrats to minority status-- were to let CA-25 slip away and to refuse to back progressives running against Dennis Ross (FL-15), Fred Upton (MI-06), Dave Reichert (WA-08), Sean Duffy (WI-07), and Paul Ryan (WI-01). This, plus the 4 blue-leaning districts he didn't recruit any candidates in and the dozen-plus vulnerable GOP-held seats where he's refusing to help local Democratic candidates, should be enough for Pelosi to have fired him. But she didn't. Maybe she just doesn't want to be Speaker again-- and she won't be-- but what about the country? How can she, in good conscience, consign the country to another 2 years of a Republican House?

Does DCCC Chair Steve Israel Seem A Little Too Cozy With The NRCC? There's A Reason

No doubt, if you read DWT with any regularity, you've noticed that we keep an eye on the DCCC. We rarely have much to say about the NRCC, not because they're any better than the DCCC or less corrupt or incompetent, but,… who cares what they do? Unlike the DCCC, the worse the NRCC are, the better for normal Americans. Yesterday, though, they announced their 36 top districts for 2014 challengers, the "The On The Radar" list. The crème de la crème of this dreck will graduate eventually to the Young Guns list.

Four of the Radar Republicans are ex-Members looking for rematches against Democratic incumbents who ousted them in 2012:

• (IL-10) Robert Dold vs Brad Schneider- D+8
• (IL-17) Bobby Schilling vs Cheri Bustos- D+7
• (NH-01) Frank Guinta vs Carol Shea-Porter- R+1
• (NY-18)- Nan Hayworth vs Sean Patrick Maloney- PVI is even

Maloney and Bustos have voted far more frequently with the Republicans than other conservative Democrats. Schneider, a New Dem, like Maloney, is also usually a pretty wasy pick-up for Boehner and Cantor on crucial roll calls. On Shea-Porter, sticks to a progressive, values-driven agenda.

The motley crew of mostly second and third tier GOP candidates follows:

• (AR-02)- French Hill in the seat Tim Griffith is abandoning- R+8
• (AR-04)- Tommy Moll and Bruce Westerman in the seat Tom Cotton is giving up to run for the Senate- R+15
• (AZ-01)- Andy Tobin vs Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick- R+4
• (AZ-02)- Rematch between Martha McSally and Rep. Ron Barber, although he may chicken out- R+3
• (AZ-09)- Wendy Rogers and Andrew Walter competing to challenge one of the worst Democratic incumbents, Kyrsten Sinema- R+1
• (CA-03)- Dan Logue vs Rep. John Garamendi- D+3
• (CA-07)- bitter GOP civil war between Doug Ose, Elizabeth Emken and Igor Birman to take on weak conservative incumbent Ami Bera- PVI is even
• (CA-26)- rematch between Tony Strickland and Rep. Julia Brownley (unless Strickland runs away from the race and completes a deal with McKeon in the district next door- D+4
• (CA-36)- Brian Nestande vs Rep. Raul Ruiz- R+1
• (CA 45)- Pat Maciariello and Mimi Walters for the safe red seat John Campbell is giving up- R+7
• (CA-52)- Fred Simon and Carl DeMaio vs weak multimillionaire New Dem Scott Peters- D+2
• (CT-04)- Dan Debicella vs Wall Street shill/New Dem Jim Himes- D+5
• (FL-26)- Carlos Curbelo vs New Dem Rep. Joe Garcia- R+1
• (GA-12)- Rick Allen vs reactionary Blue Dog John Barrow- R+9
• (IL-11)- Darlene Senger vs New Dem Bill Foster- D+8
• (IL-12)- Mike Bost vs conservative Rep Bill Enyart- PVI is even
• (MA-06)- rematch between Richard Tisei and John Tierney- D+4
• (ME-02)-Bruce Poliquin and Kevin Raye for the seat Mike Michaud is giving up to run for governor- D+2
• (MN-08)- degenerate multimillionaire Stewart Mills vs progressive Rep Richard Nolan- D+1
• (NC-07)- Rematch between David Rouzer and Blue Dog Mike McIntyre- R+12
• (NH-02)- Gary Lambert vs weak New Dem Rep. Ann Kuster- D+3
• (NY-01)- Lee Zeldin vs Rim Bishop- R+2
• (NY-21)- Elise Stefanik vs reactionary New Dem Bill Owens- PVI is even
• (WV-03)- Evan Jenkins vs conservative Rep Nick Rahall- R+14
• (UT-04)- rematch between Mia Love and reactionary Blue Dog Jim Matheson- R+16

The bolded districts have likely to be won by Republicans. So, when you hear Democrats saying they only have to win back 17 seats to regain control of the House, that isn't exactly accurate. Even if they only lose the obvious half dozen or so seats-- and that is extremely optimistic-- they really do need a minimum of two dozen seats to eject Boehner from the Speaker's chair. Could it happen? Yes… but not while Steve Israel is chairman of the DCCC-- and the Republicans know it.

The only congressional district in the country with a PVI of zero that isn't being fought over by the NRCC or the DCCC is NY-03. Steve Israel's Long Island district. A Republican could easily beat him if the NRCC engaged, like they do in every other 8 districts with zero PVIs. Obama won every one of the 9 districts in 2008 and all but one-- IL-13-- in 2012. But as Steve Israel's personal moral shortcomings and thunderous corruption becomes more widely known throughout the district, it's crazy for the GOP to just keep giving him a free pass. Straight-arrow Republican Stephen Labate is challenging him again but the NRCC is ignoring the race. Why? Is there a deal? Everyone says there is. Israel studiously ignores vulnerable districts of powerful senior Republicans-- even though the Democrats CANNOT win back the House without taking at least a handful of them-- in return for the NRCC letting him sail back into office. Among the top vulnerable Republicans being protected by the DCCC on Israel's orders are this baker's dozen of happy campers:

• Fred Upton (MI-06), Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee- R+1
• John Kline (MN-02), Chair of the Education and Labor Committee- R+2
• Mike Rogers (MI-08), Chair of the Intelligence Committee-R+2
• Buck McKeon (CA-25), Chair of the House Armed Services Committee- R+3
• Paul Ryan (WI-01), Chair of the House Budget Committee- R+3
• Michael Turner (OH-10), Chair of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces- R+3
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27), Chair of the Subcommittee on the Middle East- R+2
• Joe Pitts (PA-16) Chair of the Energy Subcommittee on Health- R+4
• Dave Reichert (WA-08), Chair Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources- R+1
• Darrell Issa (CA-49), chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform- R+4
• Peter Roskam (IL-06), GOP Chief Deputy Whip- R+4
• John Mica (FL-07), ex-Chair of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee- R+4

Thats'a dozen vulnerable senior Republican policymakers-- not hapless backbenchers-- who Israel is granting get-out-of-jail-free cards in return for his own free pass against Stephen Labate. Blue America is keeping the pressure on Israel to get serious about winning these seats. If you hear from a DCCC rep on the phone, please tell them to get serious.

Will Eric Cantor Name The 7 Legion Of Christ Child Predators To His Young Guns Mob?

Father Maciel and his prey

Some of the air and oomph was taken out of Cantor's Young Gun initiative this year when he and his Illinois operative, sneaky closet case Aaron Schock, used it to take down veteran conservative Don Manzullo on behalf of their Young Gun pal Adam Kinzinger. But the NRCC is still using the name the same way the DCCC uses the Red-to-Blue program, highlighting to donors which candidates have the party establishment's seal of approval. Many low-info donors write checks based on who the party bosses put in Red-to-Blue and Young Guns. Because they have the same name, the NRCC program is often confused with Cantor's sleazy Young Guns PAC, which is widely hated inside the GOP congressional caucus these days.

Half of the Young Guns inductees are waging competitive bids against Democratic incumbents. They are: Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania, Matt Doheny and Randy Altschuler of New York, Richard Tisei of Massachusetts, Andy Barr of Kentucky, and Ricky Gill of California.

The party is also providing support for several candidates, such as Jackie Walorski of Indiana and Jason Plummer of Illinois, who are seeking seats that Democratic members are vacating. Also tapped to be part of the program is Arizona Republican Jesse Kelly, who’s running in the June special election to complete the term of former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The committee has also inducted two contenders who are seeking seats that were created in redistricting and that do not have an incumbent, David Valadao of California and Mia Love of Utah.

One Young Gun is running for a seat a Republican member is vacating: Tony Strickland of California, who is waging a bid for the Ventura County-area district of retiring GOP Rep. Elton Gallegly.

But there's a whole stock of perfect Republican candidates just watching for Sessions and Cantor to recruit for the Young Guns. Perhaps young Schock should get right on this one. The Vatican has been forced into investigating 7 priests from the child rape organization they were running called the Legion of Christ. All 7 were active participants in sexual abuse of minors and other criminal activities. Just over a year ago, we looked at the horrific career of papal favorite Marcial Maciel, the serial rapist who headed the Legion of Christ and who was always protected by "former" Nazi, Pope Ratzinger. But the pressure to investigate the whole den of child rapists, including a recent rape of a child, has been mounting to the point that even Ratzinger had to give in. (I wonder if they'll conclude that the rapist priests were just sending inappropriate texts and IMs to their victims.)

The investigations mark the first known Vatican action against Legion priests for alleged sexual assault following the scandal of the Legion's founder, who was long held up as a model by the Vatican despite credible accusations-- later proven-- that he raped and molested his seminarians.

The Legion, which is now under Vatican receivership, has insisted that the crimes of its late founder, the Rev. Marciel Maciel, were his alone.

But the Vatican investigation of other Legion priests indicates that the same culture of secrecy that Maciel created within the order to cover his crimes enabled other priests to abuse children-- just as abusive clergy of other religious orders and dioceses have done around the world.

...While the investigation is under way, the accused priests are being kept away from children, the Legion said.

"Over the past few years, in several countries, the major superiors of the Legion of Christ have received some allegations of gravely immoral acts and more serious offenses ... committed by some Legionaries," the statement said.

...Preliminary investigations of an unspecified number of other priests accused of abuse found them innocent, the Legion said.

The scandal of Maciel and the Legion ranks as one of the worst of the 20th-century Catholic Church, since he was held up as a model for the faithful by Pope John Paul II. The orthodox order, which has about 900 priests around the world, was praised for attracting both money and vocations to the priesthood.

Documentation from Vatican archives, however, has shown that as early as the 1950s, the Vatican had evidence that he was a drug addict and pedophile.

Only in 2006 did the Vatican sanction Maciel to a lifetime of penance and prayer for his crimes. He died in 2008 and a year later the Legion admitted he had fathered three children with two different women and had abused his seminarians.

The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 and is pushing through a process of reform.
Aaron Loughrey, 35, was a 17- or 18-year-old Legion seminarian in Ireland in the spring of 1995 when he says he was forced by a superior to masturbate him in bed. Loughrey, who left the Legion before being ordained, says he has been in counseling almost ever since as he seeks justice from the order.

He said that the vow he took as a seminarian never to criticize the actions or deeds of a superior made him unable to question what the priest had told him to do. In a parallel to the way Maciel abused his seminarians, Loughrey says his superior had told him that an unnamed illness gave him terrible cramps in his lower abdomen that could only be eased with massage.

"In my heart and in my conscience I believed that I had acted that night like a true Legionary-- putting my superior's needs before my own-- and I stuffed the unsavory thoughts and feelings to the back of my mind," Loughrey has written.

In an email Friday, Loughrey said he was certain there were more than just a handful of abusers in the Legion. Those currently under investigation represent about 1 percent of Legion priests.

"I would like to say I am glad about this (investigation), but I am honestly not hopeful that anything will come of it," he said.

This is, of course, the problem of forcing people-- priests and Republicans-- to live their miserable lives in closets. They always go insane. Always. Closets are for clothes, not for humans.

Hello, DCCC... Wayne Powell Is Taking On Young Gun Eric Cantor Just A Little South Of Where You Are

Last cycle we talked a lot about how the DCCC adamantly refused to even recognize the campaign against John Boehner by a valiant young progressive Democratic veteran, Justin Coussoule. They would go out of their way to invite every Democrat running for Congress to an event-- once an event in his own district-- and leave Justin out. If I ever doubted the DCCC was the enemy of progressives, I understood it after watching that campaign. It's as if they were doing all they could to protect Boehner rather than defeat him. This year we, once again see almost the same pattern we always see when it comes to Conservative Consensus posterboy Paul Ryan. The DCCC just absolutely refuses to help Rob Zerban in a race that is absolutely doable. That's pushed Blue America to lend a hand ourselves. So what about the third in the Republican trio of arch-villains?

Recently we met Virginia attorney and progressive vet, Wayne Powell. He's running a vigorous campaign against Eric Cantor, Republican Majority Leader. Cantor has been severely wounded by his interference in Republican primaries but, once again, the DCCC is taking an adamantly hands off approach. They're ignoring Wayne Powell. We added him to our ActBlue page. And I asked him to introduce himself to DWT readers.

Cantor as “Part of the Problem” of Legal Corruption in Congress

-by Wayne Powell, Democratic candidate for Congress (VA-7)

In Eric Cantor’s section of his 2010 book entitled Young Guns includes his description of the circumstance of both major parties when he was elected in 2000, a corrupt culture where “…the illegal corruption of the process leads to members indicted and behind bars, and the legal corruption of the [political process] leads voters tossing out the incumbent party.”(Page 29, Young Guns). I intend to see that this prophesy is realized in my race to unseat Mr. Cantor this election year, since he is the epitome of the corrupt culture that he describes in his book. He is the consummate political operator, a Washington insider who has become the poster child for what’s wrong with our political system.

In a lackluster congressional career over the past dozen years, he touts two recent initiatives by which he claims bipartisanship and an effort to “clean up” the political process, and spur job growth: the “STOCK Act,” and the “JOBS Act,” which neither prevents insider trading by the “political intelligence” agents who foster insider trading on Wall Street, nor stimulate job growth, but rather reduces the very regulation on Wall Street firms which led to financial and economic disaster in 2008. Even his own party colleague Senator Chuck Grassley from Iowa derided Cantor’s stripping of the requirement that political intelligence operators register and that there activities be monitored stating that by taking out that provision the “…House would fulfill Wall Street’s wishes by killing this provision.”

In the “Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act,” Cantor claims authorship of the law that really doesn’t direct its primary focus on job growth, but on the reduction of regulations that have not be proven to hamper job growth in the first place. The possibility of fraud, and a recurrence of activities preceding the economic meltdown of 2008 is present, and the SEC chairman herself opposed the JOBS Act, stating that the Act could actually chill job growth if investors become concerned with the adequacy of protections and might make capital formation harder, not easier.

So if you wonder what it means if an insider trading bill promotes insider trading, and if a job promotion bill is really an effort to further deregulate the market, then we need to return to Cantor’s book and his statement that he had come from a “…place that believes in hard work being rewarded. I had come to a place where special interests are rewarded.” Page 29, 30, Young Guns). Well, I come from that same place, Richmond, Virginia.

I grew up as the son of a welder in the Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond, and I had to work hard out for everything I have. From 12 years old on-- nothing was ever given to me. I sought loans for my education after my father died at 51 years old, and later joined the Army, and commanded troops in the War on Terror. I built businesses and a law firm from scratch. I'm running for Congress to represent folks like my father, and my mother who survived on Social Security payments and with the help of me and my sister until she died. These are the kind of people that need our help in these tough economic times. I'm running my campaign with the same work ethic that helped me rise to the rank of Colonel in the Army and led to accomplishments in my business and professional careers. I’m running against a man who epitomizes exactly what he criticizes, a political operator who panders to special interests from the wealthiest and privileged corporate interests on Wall Street and beyond, and who has no time for his own constituents.

I'm not a politician. I am someone who believes, like most Americans, that something is drastically wrong with Congress and our country’s political system, a system where multi-national corporations and the wealthiest control too many of our elected representatives like Congressman Cantor.

There is a good reason that Cantor was dubbed the champion of the “overdog” by his colleagues in the Virginia House of Delegates. My first Commander in the Army told me in 1974, if you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. There’s no doubt that Cantor is part of the problem.

While I'm running to represent everyday Virginians: families struggling to make ends meet, and small business owners, Cantor is only focused on pleasing those who raise enormous sums of money for him and his Super Pacs.

My campaign will lay out a forward looking vision for Virginia's 7th district that places people first. I'm also running to reform Congress, create jobs, and to make sure every American has the opportunity to find a job. Congress is broken, and I'm running to fix it and end Congressman Cantor's culture of corruption.

To do that, I need your help. Follow my campaign on Twitter, like on me on Facebook, or sign up for email updates from my campaign.