Worst Democraps In Congress-- Time For NRA Champion Anthony Brindisi

Brindisi addressing other right-wing fake Democrats

There are just 10 Democrats left who haven't come out for an impeachment inquiry. It's probably the final list-- cowardly careerists afraid of losing their seats. These are the final 10-- 9 Blue Dogs and someone who should be tossed out of the Progressive Caucus-- with Trump's 2016 win numbers in their districts:

• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)- 54.8%
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)- 53.5%
• Jared Golden (Coward-ME)- 51.4%
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)- 53.2%
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)- 49.3%
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)- 39.1%
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)- 61.8%
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)- 53.6%
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)- 50.1
• Jeff Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)- 50.6%

Before we get into Brindisi, I want to just mention that DCCC chair Cheri Bustos and Señor Trumpanzee can hold a joint fundraiser for Jefferson Van Drew. Wouldn't that be clarifying? Van Drew was on Fox & Friends yesterday throwing shade at fellow Democrats for opening an impeachment inquiry. Trumpanzee tweeted "'All that’s swirling around us now is Impeachment. We talk about it day and night, it’s what’s on the news, there is NOTHING that has turned up that is Impeachable. Our founding fathers set impeachment to be extremely rare. We need to get good stuff done. Let the people vote... we are going to have an Election very shortly.' Rep. Jeff Van Drew, Democrat of New Jersey. @foxandfriends Thank you. Just another Witch Hunt by Nancy Pelosi and the Do Nothing Democrats!" Van Drew told Fox viewers that he doesn’t believe anything "turned up that is truly is impeachable" at this point.

I can understand why Collin Peterson is so scared of Trump voters. He's got a really hard core rural red district, filled with Trumpists. But none of the others do. Trump won marginally in the other districts. The second biggest Trump score was in Brindisi's upstate New York district-- all or part of 8 counties that wanted CHANGE, not Trump. How do I know? In 2016 these counties completely rejected the the status quo candidacy of Hillary Clinton. In fact of the 8 counties in Brindisi's district all 8 went to Bernie in the primary (listed in order of population):

• Oneida

• Bernie- 7,272
• Hillary- 6,054
• Trumpanzee- 10,830

• Broome

• Bernie- 9,176
• Hillary- 7,035
• Trumpanzee- 8,409

• Madison

• Bernie- 2,346
• Hillary- 1,880
• Trumpanzee- 2,968

• Herkimer

• Bernie- 1,755
• Hillary- 1,377
• Trumpanzee- 3,955

• Chenango

• Bernie- 1,494
• Hillary- 958
• Trumpanzee- 2,384

• Cortland

• Bernie- 1,878
• Hillary- 1,402
• Trumpanzee- 1,627

• Oswego

• Bernie- 3,066
• Hillary- 2,424
• Trumpanzee- 6,151

• Tioga

• Bernie- 1,825
• Hillary- 1,232
• Trumpanzee- 2,801

Last year the Republicans managed to lose the two biggest counties-- Oneida, Broome-- hold the 3rd biggest (Madison) by a virtual tie and lose Cortland by double digits. So win is Brindisi such a woos? I asked a member of Congress yesterday. He told me that all Brindisi ever does is whine about how anything the caucus wants to do that is even vaguely progressive. "Do you want to end my career?" is his one and only cpontribution to any discussion about anything. "And I bet he skips right over to Peter King and tells him everything he's heard from our side of the aisle. (Because he's one of the chairs of the Blue Dog caucus, Brindisi is privy to planning sessions so he's hearing a lot more than he should.)

The other day, Brindisi and the Republican next door, John Katko, made a joint statement to the media about opposing the beginning of an impeachment inquiry. Katko is an absolutely horrible member of Congress and, hopefully, the DCCC won't screw up the election again, which will mean he's replaced by progressive champion Dana Balter. But Brindisi is actually a worse-- and more destructive-- member of Congress than Katko is. And Brindisi has no primary. Cheri Bustos has threatened anyone who wants to primary him and, in fact, has been fundraising for him, even after his joint statement with Katko:

Brindisi is bad on just about everything. His ProgressivePunch score is not just an F-- it's tied with fellow Blue Dogs Jeff Van Drew (NJ) and Joe Cunningham (SC) as the worst Democratic record in Congress. His crucial vote score is exactly 20%. As a point of reference, conservative Republicans John Katko (NY) and Thomas Massie (KY) voted more progressively than he does, respectively 21.35% and 28.50%. Brian Fitzpatrick scored a 20.10% and Justin Amash's lifetime score in 32.86%. Amash is very conservative but his score for the current cycle is 57.78%. Compared that to Brindisi's 20.0%. And Brindisi sucks across the board. When Jim Clyburn's moderate background check bill came up for a vote, 7 Republicans voted for it and just 3 Democrats voted against it, Brindisi, of course, being one of them. How about raising the minimum wage? That should be easy for every Democrat, right? Well, almost every Democrat. Three Republicans voted with the Democrats to raise the minimum wage. Six Blue Dogs who hate the working class-- Xochitl Torres Small (NM), Kurt Schrader (OR), Joe Cunningham (SC), Ben McAdams (UT), Kendra Horn (OK) and, of course Brindisi (NY) voted to kill it. Does this lunkhead think voters-- who backed Bernie in 2019-- in Binghampton, Rome, Utica, Cortland and Oneida don't want better wages? This clown deserves to lose his seats. I asked my friend the congressman if he agrees. His whispered, "yes!" This is the kind of raw sewage in a suit and tie that Cheri Bustos is trying to protect from progressives.





And the Democrats who kiss up to the GOP most-- and most frequently vote for their reactionary positions and policies-- are the ones the NRCC goes after with the most vehemence. This ad above started running over the weekend to destroy freshman Blue Dog Max Rose, even though he-- like his pal Brindisi-- has adamantly and publicly opposed an impeachment inquiry. This is the misleading press statement the NRCC sent out: "Aware of the political damage it will cause, Max Rose is desperate to convince Staten Island voters he hasn’t backed the socialist Democrats baseless impeachment of President Trump."

Are There Any Arch-Villains Who Could Lose Their House Seats Next Week?

Yes, "House," so we won't be talking about Ted Cruz, the only Senate arch-villain up for reelection this cycle. Every House seat is up for reelection and a case could be made that's they're all arch-villains since they all enable Trump. Do they? Well, yes... but some enable Trump more than others. FiveThirtyEight has Trump adhesion scores and there are only 5 "perfect" scores. Two of the perps, Troy Balderson (OH-12) and Michael Cloud (TX-27) just got into Congress and their scores aren't based on enough roll calls yet to be relevant; two others-- Ryan Zinke (MT) is now in the cabinet and Jason Chaffetz works for GOP-TV-- don't count either. And that leaves just one pure suck-up: Steve Scalise (LA-01), terrible but not especially an arch-villain as a garden variety far right pile of crap.

Next come the 38 Republicans who voted contrary to Trumpanzee just once-- the bill imposing sanctions on Trump amigos Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un. These are all bad guys-- really bad guys-- but are any worth going back in a time machine to strange them in their cribs? Debatable. Locals might feel the Stephen Knight (CA-25) is that bad and it would be hard to argue against them. He's been worse than puke for his whole career, but he was actually worse in the state legislature-- not in terms of voting obviously-- but he's pretty quiet and a total backbencher who just votes terribly. The good news is that he's going to probably lose his seat to conservative Democrat Katie Hill (New Dem). Same for closet case David Young (IA-03) in Des Moines, who is likely to lose to a nothing Democrat, Cindy Axne. Mimi Walters (CA-45) is also in the category and is likely to lose to progressive Katie Porter. David Valadao (CA-21) might lose to T.J. Cox if the wave is big enough and people stick with the DCCC lesser of two evils strategy. Mike Bost (IL-13) could lose to awful Blue Dog Brendan Kelly, I guess. And Michael McCaul (TX-10) might be beaten by Mike Siegel if everything goes right next week. But are there real arch-villains in the truest sense of the term in this 98.9% category? YES!

First the good news-- Team Blue could take one out: Chris Collins (NY-27), the first member of Congress to have endorsed Trump, someone so corrupt that he was arrest by the FBI recently, indicted on a myriad of charges based around insider trading and is currently out on bail... and drooping in the polls so badly that his progressive opponent, Nate McMurray has just pulled ahead of him:

That leaves three more arch-villains, two of whom do not have serious opponents, murderer and gay-hating closet case Patrick McHenry (NC-10) and Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) and one that maybe, maybe, maybe could be defeated-- the notorious Devin Nunes. It's a very red district and his conservative opponent, Andrew Janz is very weak, but he has raised $8,252,310 (much of it stolen by consultants and now he barely has enough to compete with Nunes-- just $854,154 unhand to Nunes' $4,952,478. BUT... if the wave is strong enough and everything goes right for Janz on election day, there's a teensy weensy chance. 538 rates Janz's shit at 1 in 20 (5.1%), so... don't bet the farm on this one.

Here are the states of the race-- according to 538. so not terribly accurate-- for the rest of the 100% arch-villains left in Congress:

• Pete Sessions (TX-32)- 7 in 10 election shot (68.7%)
• Liz Cheney (WY)- better than 99 in 100 for reelection (99.9%)
• Duncan Hunter (CA-50)- badly called 6 in 7 shot at reelection (85.3%); this more like 50-50.
• Virginia Foxx (NC-05)- 19 in 20 reelection chances (95.7%)
• Doug Lamborn (CO-05)- 49 in 50 chance at reelection (97.8%)
• Greg Gianforte (MT)- 5 in 7 (72.1%); this is also a 50-50 race
• STEVE KING (IA-04)- (see below-- and the video up top)
• Scott DesJarlais (TN-04)- better than 99 in 100 (99.3%)
• Mark Meadows (NC-11)- better than 99 in 100 (99.7%)
• Dave Brat (VA-07)- toss-up (terrible Democrat though, Abigail Spanberger, not worth praying for)
• Jim Jordan (OH-04)- 19 in 20 for reelection (95.8%)
• Mo Brooks (AL-05)- 99 of 100 (99.9%)
• Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)- just 3 in 8 shot of winning (35.8%)
• Louie Gohmert (TX-01)- 99 in 100 (99.9%)
• Matt Gaetz (FL-01)- 99 in 100 (99.9%)

After Gaetz we're in Blue Dog territory, with Trump-loving faux-Democrats Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Conor Lamb (PA-18), Collin Peterson (MN-07), Kyrsten Sinema (AZ-09), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Tom Halleran (AZ-01), Stephanie Murphy (FL-07), Jim Costa (CA-16), Sanford Bishop (GA-02), Jacky Rosen (NV-03), Charlie Crist (FL-13), Dan Lipinski (IL-03), Brad Schneider (IL-10), Jim Cooper (TN-05) and Ami Bera (CA-07). The best of all worlds would see them all lose with the Democrats still taking enough red districts to win; but that's not going to happen.

Now, in terms of Steve King... this will be one of the big wins of the evening if everything works out. King is a real life genuine Nazi and the Democrat running against him-- with no help from the DCCC, of course-- is J.D. Scholten, a top notch progressive. Because the DCCC opposes Scholten, journalists and pundits give him the short end of the stick. But this is a winnable seat-- very tough, but winnable. Here's the inaccurate 538 forecast:

As of October 17, King had raised $736,629 and had $176,312 on hand. Scholten had raised $1,684,427 with $316,359 on hand. On Saturday, when the Washington Post questioned him after the slaughter of Jews in Pittsburgh about all his visits to Nazi rallies in Europe, he defended the revitalized Nazi Party in Austria (the Freedom Party), founded by a former Nazi SS officer. "If they were in America pushing the platform that they push, they would be Republicans." That's correct, although other Republicans were uncomfortable with his statement. A staffer from the office of another Iowa member of Congress told me, on condition of anonymity that "most Republicans in Congress" hope the Democrat wins [and that] Steve [King] moves to Austria full time and gets himself the SS uniform he has always craved." King is a notorious Jew-hater but claims the proof he doesn't hate Jews is that he knows some personally and that he supports Israel.




UPDATE:

Congressman Carlos Curbelo is a conservative Florida Republican. He told MSNBC this morning that he would never vote for Iowa's neo-Nazi member of Congress, his colleague Steve King. "His comments and his actions," said Curbelo, "are disgusting. And look, I know nothing about his opponent, but I will tell you this: I would never cast a ballot for someone like Steve King." So does that mean he won't be voting for Ron DeSantis in Florida's gubernatorial race?

The Worst Of The Worst-- Next Year's Most Horrible Members Of Congress

Without Steve Israel's incompetence, Glenn Grothman wouldn't be on his way to becoming a Member of Congress

There are some close House races that may not be decided until 3 weeks from today. But the vast majority of the 435 elections have already been decided. Because of gerrymandering, some districts are so red or so blue that the incumbents don’t have electoral opponents. Of Texas’ 36 seats, there are no Democrats running against right-wing extremists Sam Johnson (TX-03), John Ratcliffe (the TX-04 open seat), Jeb Hensarling (TX-05), Kevin Brady (TX-08), Mike Conaway (TX-11), and Lamar Smith (TX-21), and there are no Republicans taking on Al Green (TX-09), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), who votes with the GOP all the time anyway, Gene Green (TX-29), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30), and Marc Veasey (TX-33). That said, of the 36 seats, only one is considered competitive this cycle, the TX-23 race pitting right-wing Democrat/Blue Dog Pete Gallego, the incumbent, against an even further right-wing Republican, Will Hurd. It’s the only House race in the state that the two Beltway party committees are spending money in. The DCCC has spent $1,185,973 to keep Gallego, even though he votes with the GOP more frequently than with the Democrats on crucial roll calls, and the NRCC has spent $1,225,606 smearing Gallego on behalf of Hurd.

New York’s democracy is nearly as moribund as Texas’ and of it’s 27 House seats, 10 incumbents have no major party opponents at all and only 7 have even remotely serious contests. Florida has the same number of seats as New York, 27, and there are no Democrats running against Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL-27), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), David Jolly (FL-13), Gus Bilirakis (FL-12), and Ander Crenshaw (FL-04) and no Republicans running against Ted Deutsch (FL-21) and Kathy Castor (FL-14). There is only one race in the entire state the two Beltway party committees are spending money in (FL-02) which finds Bob Graham’s Blue Dog daughter challenging an even worse Republican, Steve Southerland.

Point being— the whole ugly mess, a decrepit sold-out substitute for democracy, is pretty predictable. Perhaps there are a dozen close House races. Will the crooked Dem from Brooklyn beat the indicted Mafia thug from Staten Island? Still up in the air. Will the conservative corporate whore backed by Republicans but running as a Democrat beat the liberal icon in a D+20 Silicon Valley district? Will a Republican wave form to wipe out more Blue Dogs and New Dems who have voted with the GOP for the last two years— unsupportable fake-Dems like John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA), Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY), Nick Rahall (Blue Dog-WV), Ron Barber (Blue Dog-AZ)? Will the San Diego Republican who grabbed a young male staffer’s crotch and who has a history of preying on other males who work for him still be able to beat the 8th richest member of Congress, another wretched New Dem, this one backed by the Chamber of Commerce? That’s what’s left of our democracy.

It made it easy enough for Alex Isenstadt to predict some especially reprehensible sure winners yesterday at Politico. Like most Americans, Isenstadt admits he would find it “tough to pick most of the House’s 435 members out of a lineup, but several likely incoming freshmen are sure to stand out— or at least try to— in the years ahead. He suggests some to watch, mostly Republicans, of course, and starts with what he called “the Bomb Throwers," none of whom are being opposed by Steve Israel’s stone dead DCCC. These are the worst of the worst— in the House; there are some Senate doozies as well— we can expect to work furiously to further undermine American democracy after January:

• Glenn Grothman (R-WI) who is warning voters about a Democratic “war on men”

• Jody Hice (R-GA), a hate talk radio host who claims Muslim-Americans don’t deserve First Amendment rights and has argued that women shouldn’t enter politics unless they ask their husbands for permission first.

• Mark Walker (R-NC) looking for a war with Mexico

• Barbara Comstock (R-VA), a lobbyist, a far right partisan who helped lead the effort to impeach Bill Clinton who is currently obsessed with Hillary’s crimes in Benghazi

• Debbie Dingell (D-MI), a pathetic party boss and hack who is inheriting her not dead husband’s seat

• Kathleen Rice (D-NY), another corrupt Wall Street Democrat because… we don’t have enough of them already?

• David Brat (R-VA), who will always be the crackpot teabagger who beat Eric Cantor

• Mia Love (R-UT), who will always be the “see Republicans have negroes too” congressperson.

By the way, for those who wasted money by contributing to the DCCC this year, they’re not opposing any of these Republican monstrosities at all, having just pulled $2.8 million dollars out of John Foust’s campaign to beat her, a campaign that was winning and may now be doomed thanks to Steve Israel’s incompetence and corruption.