Delaware Dem

Friday Open Thread [6.12.15]

Booman on why there are so many GOP presidential candidates:

The most obvious is that the Bush/Cheney years were such an unmitigated fiasco that they left a black hole in their wake from which no leadership could emerge. Anyone with any experience was discredited. The more of an expert you wanted to be on the economy or foreign policy, the more of a dunce you looked like to all sentient human beings.

In any case, there was no heir apparent and McCain and Romney fell flat on their faces. What we got instead of leadership was a collective primal cry of pain and blame shifting that manifested itself in the modern Know-Nothing Tea Party Movement and Mitch McConnell’s strategy of maximal nihilistic opposition.

But this only explains the reason that no one could emerge with any credibility. That the Republican Establishment is back with another Bush tells you just how empty the legitimate well of talent had become.

Continue Reading »

All Eyes on John Carney

His nascent campaign for Governor may hinge on how he votes on Fast Track and the Trans Pacific Partnership, and counting on an anti-Gordon sentiment will not be enough to overcome going against the Unions and the American worker. From the New York Times:

“With a final House showdown coming on Friday on President Obama’s push for accelerated power to pursue a sweeping trade agreement, the vote brokering has begun — and it is all tilting to the right. The legislative changes clearly show the fate of the president’s expanded trade-negotiating power rests with Republicans, not Democrats, even more so because Republicans have blocked provisions favored by pro-trade Democrats.”

This is your cover, Mr. Carney. The Republicans added non germane right wing toxic pill amendments, so you had to vote no. That is what you tell your business cronies. And there is hope since Carney was not among the 8 traitorous Democrats who kept the bill alive yesterday in a rule vote.

Continue Reading »

Thursday Open Thread [6.11.15]

“President Obama has run an amazingly scandal-free administration, not only he himself, but the people around him. He’s chosen people who have been pretty scandal-free,” conservative New York Times opinion writer David Brooks said last week on PBS’ NewsHour.

Continue Reading »

Wednesday Open Thread [6.10.15]

“Republicans in Congress are worried the Supreme Court will hand them a major headache this month if it rules against the federal health insurance exchanges in more than 30 states, ending subsidies for millions of people,” The Hill reports.

And we are going to make them own it. It’s their lawsuit. They have wanted to kill Obamacare from the beginning. They are responsible. They will get the blame.

Continue Reading »

Tuesday Open Thread [6.9.15]

The National Journal has an inside look at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) courting and winning over of the Council for National Policy — “a shadowy nonprofit populated by the Hill staffers, think-tankers, consultants, donors, and ideological mercenaries who call themselves ‘movement conservatives.’ They meet several times each year around the country to discuss legislative initiatives and political strategy, always in secret and always off the record.”

I’m telling you now, Ted Cruz will be the Republican nominee.

Continue Reading »

Monday Open Thread [6.8.15]

Egberto Willies of Daily Kos says that President Obama has already fundamentally changed this nation and the next President must reflect that:

It is a formidable task to nudge the juggernaut [i.e. the United States] leftward where there is both an uncompromising, obstructive right-wing Republican Party and a sect of the Democratic Party beholden to the plutocracy. It is even more difficult when the citizenry, the poor and the middle-class, have been so beaten down that they no longer feel their worth and they no longer feel they can make a difference.

Well, the president has done his part sans TPP and a few other missteps. The next president must be someone who will unabashedly effect liberal policies, progressive policies. Going forward, it is time to ensure that the cleaver is used against the plutocracy, and it is time to ensure the planted seeds are fertilized and grow. […]

Obamacare must morph into Medicare for all (single payer). Social Security must be expanded by taxing all income, wages and capital gains, equally. The federal minimum wage must be increased to what it would have been if it kept up with inflation with an earned productivity benefit added. The defense budget must be retooled away from a corrupt military industrial complex to serve our true defense needs. The entire American infrastructure must be rebuilt. Where the private sector is derelict in maintenance and build-out of critical infrastructure, the government must intervene (universal wi-fi access, electrical grid, etc.).

Continue Reading »