Baumbach excoriated Barney

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State Representative Baumbach lays the smackdown on the empty promises of Sean Barney:
There are six Democratic candidates working to be our next Representative in Congress. (In full disclosure, I have endorsed one of them, [state] Sen. Bryan Townsend, with whom I have served in the General Assembly since 2012.) A mailer from Sean Barney, one of the three leading candidates, proposes a plan to boost annual Social Security benefits by $11,669 a year. Does that seem too good to be true? Of course it is! This promise is irresponsible. As Mary Poppins said, it is a “pie crust promise, easily made, easily broken.” A second of his mailers notes that the other two leading candidates don’t support this plan. Of course they don’t — it is absurd! Almost 40 million Americans receive Social Security retirement benefits. The increase being promised would cost $460 billion annually. A newly elected freshman congressman from Delaware, amongst 434 colleagues (over 55 percent of them Republicans), plans to add $460 billion annually to the program? I find it hard to envision an emptier campaign promise. Taking advantage of senior citizens, offering them a 100-percent false hope, just to get more votes, is the sign of a very desperate candidate, and one that should not be elected.
Delaware United Rocks!

Delaware United Rocks!

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Remember how the supporters of Howard Dean applied their grassroots skills to great effect after Dean's candidacy faded?  In Delaware, many of these supporters became part of the Delaware grassroots and remain progressive stalwarts to this day. Bernie Sanders supporters have taken the same approach in Delaware, and are working very hard on at least three campaigns near and dear to Delaware Liberal:  Bryan Townsend for Congress, Eugene Young for Mayor, and Matt Meyer for NCC Executive. Those supporters have joined together to create Delaware United, and they are awesome! Here's how they describe themselves:
We are a proactive group of Delaware voters from various backgrounds, all united to change the course of Delaware local politics.
They're also real cool.  They're hard-working volunteers, but they're also lots of fun.  Reminds me of what I love the most about grassroots politics.
Monday Open Thread [9.5.2016]

Monday Open Thread [9.5.2016]

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Josh Marshall on the press' noncoverage of the Trump-Bondi Bribery scandal:
Yesterday I pressed the point of the wildly dissimilar campaign coverage of Trump and Clinton, particularly the continuing saturation coverage of Clinton 'scandals' in which she's actually being exonerated and virtually no coverage of a pretty cut and dry pay-for-play story with Trump, his foundation and his efforts to protect himself legally from the fallout of the exposure of his real estate seminar scam business, 'Trump University'. But the case with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is more serious than that. We usually use the phrase 'pay-to-play' when talking about money for access, money for government contracts or friendly interventions in the legislative process. The Trump-Bondi case looks like money in exchange for killing an investigation and possible lawsuit against Trump. It would be like Hillary Clinton making a cash payment to Loretta Lynch or James Comey during the email probe. First, a small point: In the context of chatting about this on Twitter and with colleagues, I took the step of searching The New York Times website to see how much they'd written on the Trump-Bondi story. It first got attention in March and then again in June. So I figured at least a couple short mentions. It turns out the Times, at least according to a full search of "Trump University" and "Pam Bondi", has literally never published anything on the topic at all. [...] The AG's office was investigating Trump University and considering joining a lawsuit with other Attorneys General. Bondi asked Trump for money. Trump sent money. The investigation ended. The arrival of Trump's check just four days after her office publicly announced their inquiry tells quite a tale. [...] That seems like a real problem.