I hope you are having a nice weekend after what has been a difficult week. Congrats on you victory, a small ray of sunlight on a cloudy day. We are so thrilled to have you join our NewDem Coalition!Oh, and by the way, Jared is the second richest Democrat in the House-- after fellow New Dem John Delaney. Last year his net worth was $92.6 million, up smartly from $88.6 from the year before. He's considered a dot.com wunderkind on Capitol Hill, having sold his online greeting card (BlueMountain.com) and floral delivery (ProFlowers.com) businesses. He's a big Uber investor.
I am now announcing my intent to run for Chair of the New Democrat Coalition. Please take a moment to look at the attached prospectus outlining my qualifications and my vision for the future of the Coalition.
Thank you for your consideration. Please do not hesitate to follow up with any questions or thoughts. I hope that I can count on your support.
A member of Congress warned me today that Democrats will vote on leadership races Thursday "so that no one has any time to put together any challenges based on the election failure." He was't happy that the sleaze-bag former head of the New Dems, Queens Democratic boss Joe Crowley-- a Wall Street plant inside the caucus-- is running for the caucus chairman's job. "He expects to be the Leader after Pelosi and Hoyer are gone. The only alternative seems to be Wasserman Schultz. What would your activist friends that about that choice?"
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal emphasized the Democratic Party identity crisis as exemplified by the explosive battle over the chair of the DNC. So far Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison, pharmaceutical lobbyist Howard Dean, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman and DNC vice chair Raymond Buckley, lobbyist and South Carolina Chairman Jaime Harrison and centrist former Governor Martin O'Malley are running. There are even rumors that the much-reviled and serially failed Steve Israel is campaigning for the job. Ellison seems like the perfect candidate except for one glaring blemish-- support from the worst Democrat of all: Chuck Schumer-- and the fact that many people are saying there is a need for a full-time chairman, not something I recall anyone saying when Wasserman Schultz was given the job.
I gather the House leadership wants to get the votes out of the way quicker than usual-- before the members, just back in DC-- can start grumbling among themselves and plotting to change the spectacularly failed leadership itself. So Nancy, Hoyer, Clyburn stay and they move Crowley up to Caucus head and then let Barbara Lee and Linda Sanchez fight it out for Caucus vice chair.
The NeoDems Leadership days are coming to an end bank on it.
ReplyDeleteOh god, that idiot Joe Crowley was interviewed on MSNBC on Wednesday in one of those stupid rotunda balcony quickies and he was appalling. Embarrassingly hacktastic. He stuttered and mumbled his excuses for total Dem disaster and according to him there was nothing that new and improved "messaging" wouldn't cure. In other words, redesign the package on the same old shit sandwich. I wanted to leap through the teevee screen and throttle him. These mofos DESERVE to be obliterated.
ReplyDelete"and the fact that many people are saying there is a need for a full-time chairman, not something I recall anyone saying when Wasserman Schultz was given the job."
ReplyDelete--
You are missing an important distinction, Howie. DWS was a presidential appointee because there was a Democrat in the White House. When a Democrat is not in the White House, the elected National Committee members vote for their next chair.
It *is* a problem for Ellison that he has a full-time job in the House. The two national committeemen I talked to both told me they'd love to have him, but that now of all times, we needed a full-time chair.
Now, a couple of things about that. #1, we need to remove the presidential appointment and make the DNC chair elected at all times. Obama screwed us and screwed us good in that regard. #2, if Dean is now a pariah because he was a pharma lobbyist, fine then, get someone else. But that someone else will need to do what Dean did -- use the resources of the DNC to help build the party at the local level -- because that's what's needed always.
The "party" is wholly owned subsidiary of money, inc. Ellison as DNC head won't change that because the entirety of the org will still be corrupt.
ReplyDeleteA 50-state strategy won't really help because the party will still be by, of and for the big money.
VOTERS MUST WAKE THE FUCK UP and leave them to burn themselves to cinders.
The Party is a PARTIALLY owned subsidiary of big money. The appointment of Keith Ellison will be an important first step in moving the Democratic leadership leftward.
ReplyDeleteI agree that given Ellison's background & he is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (that Sanders & 5 other ppl started in the early 90s); given the fact that he bravely endorsed Sanders, when few would. I think he's a great choice now.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Schumer backing Ellison?
ReplyDeleteYes, why? Is Schumer seeing the light? Very unlikely? He is Jewish, however, so maybe he is getting worried about Bannon being the chief strategist, a true anti Semite. Will the Jews soon be info it, too?
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