Final Call: 2012 MVP Nominations Due By Sunday

Please post your nominations for those who were Most Valuable to the Progressive Cause in Delaware this year by this Sunday night, December 9, at 11:59 p.m. I start culling through the names and a year's worth of news from both DL and elsewhere on Monday morning. Some of you have already provided outstanding suggestions, but I know that there may well be some great ones that I have not yet come across.

At Least 124 Bangladeshi Garment Workers Perish In Fire

Guess who they make made clothes for:
Bangladesh exports about $18 billion worth of garments and is a big supplier to companies like Walmart, H&M and Tommy Hilfiger. Workers in the country’s factories are among the lowest-paid in the world with entry-level workers making a government-mandated minimum wage of about $37 a month.
Need I take the guise of Captain Obvious and point out that that's why these garments are so inexpensive? Didn't think so.

So. Who Will Be the Next Speaker of the House?

Today's bare-bones News-Journal story reports that both Pete Schwartzkopf and Helene Keeley are seeking the position. The News-Journal does not report that each candidate has a slate. If my sources are correct, and it's not certain that they are, each slate has at least one major head-scratcher on it. Here they are: Speaker: Pete Schwartzkopf Majority Leader: Valerie Longhurst (??!!) Majority Whip: Quin Johnson vs. Speaker: Helene Keeley Majority Leader: Bryon Short Majority Whip: John Viola (??!!) I don't know who will win, but I believe that this contest represents the first clear emergence of different factions within the Caucus.

2012 MVP Award Nominations Are Now Open!

Who will make the 4th Annual MVP (Most Valuable to the Progressive Cause) Awards List? We're open for any and all of your suggestions. Here are the criteria: 1. This list is Delaware-specific. Those who most helped the progressive cause in Delaware this year. 2. Nominees need not be progressives to qualify. Both Christine O'Donnell and Tony DeLuca previously made the list. I'm thinking that John Sigler is a shoo-in this year... 3. Nominees do not have to come solely from the political arena. In fact, I would love to recognize those who are doing great work away from the headlines. 4. Nominees will only be considered in the form of on-line responses to this thread. Those submitting nominations must have some supporting statement on behalf of the candidacy. Deadline for nominations is Sunday, December 9.

In Praise of Tom McGonigle

I see that Tom McGonigle, Gov. Jack Markell's Chief of Staff, is stepping down from public service to return to private practice. Just for the record, Tom McGonigle is one of the finest public servants I've ever come across. A real straight-shooter, skilled at bringing people together, smart (but never in that 'let me show you how smart I am' way), very serious, and compassionate. And, did I mention self-effacing? Be honest, how many of you even knew that he was Jack's chief-of-staff?

When You’ve Lost Rowdy Roddy Piper…

you've lost the rasslin' universe.  Especially all the Little Hulksters who said their prayers and took their 'vitamins'. I'm a proud subscriber to Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Weekly. Make of that what you will, armchair psychoanalysts. Which is where I got this tidbit:
Roddy Piper was not happy about hearing about what Linda McMahon spent: "Can spend 90 million on losing elections but won't give the people that earned that money for them medical or retirement help of any kind." (You see, one way that Vince and Linda 'built this' was to designate their superstars as 'independent contractors', not employees. Hence, no pensions or health insurance. Oh, and WWE owns the monickers for the characters, so the wrestlers get screwed out of royalty money as well.) The election was not even as close as it appeared last night.  As of a few hours ago, Chris Murphy was ahead 55% to 43% or more than any of the polls indicated.  A key difference according to analysts in Connecticut is that women voters did not trust her. Male voters were split on whether she was intentionally misleading people in advertising, while women voters overwhelmingly believed that to be the case. So, her own ads helped do her in.

Some Idle Thoughts on the National Election

1. Barack Hussein Obama, the 'Community Organizer'. Remember the ridicule from the Rethugs on this meme? Like he was some two-bit operator pocketing suspect government contracts? Well, Obama effectively organized by far the best grassroots organization ever, and he and his political team have effectively trained hundreds of brilliant community organizers who will be running insurgent campaigns for the foreseeable future. And doing great work outside of the field of politics. BTW, many of these brilliant and idealistic organizers will also populate ballots themselves for the next twenty years or so. Guess what? He is a great community organizer, only the community is the entire country. Or, at least, every tiny community in every swing battleground state in the country.

El Somnambulo Predicts ‘Em All For You

My Delaware predictions, with pithy comments: President of the United States: Obama/Biden again win Delaware handily. Down-ballot races could well be impacted by (lack of) R enthusiasm, especially upstate. United States Senate: Tom Carper, Delaware's senior DLC cheerleader and in effect the Father of Delaware DLC politics, wins easily. Only an egomaniacal madman like Alex Pires could almost turn Carper into a sympathetic figure. There was a viable insurgency campaign to be run against Carper, but Pires chose not to run it. Continue inside for more...

‘Bulo To Predict ‘Em All For You…

...Wednesday morning at 10 am: Radio: The Al Mascitti Show-WDEL 1150 AM on your radio dial Media: Right Here At Delaware Liberal So, if you think you've got any late-breaking Delaware upset specials, now's the time to persuade me...the piece is completed, but I can always edit it.

Delaware Political Weekly: October 20-26, 2012

We get stuff forwarded to us all the time. From campaigns, from sources, from ’sources’, and from the parties. I call it ‘working the refs’. Part of the game, nothing wrong with it. Even if/when you don’t believe what you’re being fed, the information/propaganda is still worthwhile, b/c it at least gives you an understanding of which races the parties are prioritizing. There can now be no doubt that both the D’s and R’s are intently focusing on the 29th Rep. District, a Clayton/Dover district in Kent County. Incumbent Lincoln Willis is widely viewed in Republican circles as one of the (very few) rising stars in the Party. Were he to win this year, I would not be at all surprised to see him elected to a leadership position within the House Republican Caucus. Challenger Trey Paradee is, at worst, a live underdog in this race. You will recall that he almost defeated incumbent Pam Thornburg four years ago, the district has been redrawn in a manner that would appear to favor Paradee, and Paradee is a great campaigner. The Democratic Party has been touting this race, and the R’s have circled the wagons around Willis. When I featured my “Most Intriguing Races of 2012″, I wrote that this race was ‘under the radar’. It is under the radar no more.