Just like the old Democratic Party, only…newer.
i got your “Progressive” party. Right here!!!
NBC News:
Shake-Up at Democratic National Committee, Longtime Officials Ousted
A shake-up is underway at the Democratic National Committee as several key longtime officials have lost their posts, exposing a still-raw rift in the party and igniting anger among those in its progressive wing who see retaliation for their opposition to DNC Chairman Tom Perez.
The ousters come ahead of the DNC’s first meeting, in Las Vegas, Nevada, since Perez took over as chairman with a pledge this year to unite a party that had become badly divided during the brutal Bernie Sanders-Hillary Clinton 2016 primary race.
Complaints began immediately after party officials saw a list of Perez’s appointments to DNC committees and his roster of 75 “at-large” members, who are chosen by the chair.
The removal and demotion of a handful of veteran operatives stood out, as did what critics charge is the over-representation of Clinton-backed members on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, which helps set the terms for the party’s presidential primary, though other Sanders and Ellison backers remain represented.
Those who have been pushed out include:
Ray Buckley, the New Hampshire Democratic chairman and longtime DNC official who ran against Perez for chair before backing Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. Buckley lost his spots on the Executive Committee and DNC Rules Committee.
James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute and prominent Sanders backer, is no longer co-chair of the Resolutions Committee and is off the Executive Committee, a spot he has held since 2001.
Alice Germond, the party’s longtime former secretary and a vocal Ellison backer, who was removed from her at-large appointment to the DNC.
Barbra Casbar Siperstein, who supported Ellison and Buckley, was tossed from the Executive Committee.The moves exposed a rift in the partnership between Perez and his deputy chair, Ellison, who have publicly broadcast their “bromance” since Perez tapped Ellison for the post in a show of unity after their hard-fought race this year for the party’s chairmanship.
—snip—
Yay!!!
The neocentrists win again!!!
You Dem loyalists…and we all know who you are…are you really that stupid?
Really!!!
WTFU.
The DNC (Also known as the DPP…The Democratic Power People. You know who they are. Don’t you?) are betting that Trump will so divide …and ultimately decimate…the Republican Party that they will be able to mop up the mess with the help of large numbers of neocentrist RatPublicans.
Dedicated denizens of the DC swamp.
Like Bob Corker and John McCain. (!!!)
Sigh…
CNN:
Corker says he ‘loved’ McCain’s speech, gave him a ‘big hug’:
Republican Sen. Bob Corker said he “loved” a speech given by Sen. John McCain that was widely seen as a sharp critique of policies espoused by President Donald Trump.
“Well the pieces that I saw, I loved, and I gave him a big hug on the floor,” Corker told reporters when asked about the remarks. “It’s a great speech.”
McCain was honored Monday night with the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In his speech, he cautioned against abandoning “the ideals we have advanced around the globe” in exchange for “some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.”
While McCain did not name the President or his advisers, McCain targeted the “America First” principles that Trump has used throughout this candidacy and presidency.
For his part, Corker has become the Senate’s latest outspoken Republican critic of Trump and his policies. In recent weeks, the senator from Tennessee has called the White House an “adult day care center,” argued that Trump was paving the path to “World War III,” and declared that a trio of Trump’s senior administration officials and Cabinet members were responsible for preventing the country from collapsing into “chaos.”
—snip—
Lie down with dogs, come up a centrist.
If you are a centrist, at least cop to it!!!
AG
As I posted here way back in February:
Was I right?
Looks like it…
Doesn’t it.
AG
The Amazonian/Washingtoonian Post is totally in the bag for the neocentrist forces:
WTFU!!!
AG
Might have captured the name of the reporter — unless it was WaPo’s editorial board. Interested in who the new stable of shills are.
I’m not surprised at Perez’s actions considering how hard unknown parties lobbied this site.
Seems they would rather keep the donkey dead than be an honest-to-goodness opposition party and broaden the map.
Ed Rogers, longtime GOP hack consultant and annoying presence on too many cable political chat shows. His blogging counterpart is apparently Carter Eskew. I don’t read WaPo regularly, and won’t pay a nickel to subscribe, but my guess is it’s the old hard right vs soft center “balance” game so common in the msm.
As for Perez and the race for DNC chair, I missed most of the commentary here, but I found it plenty depressing how it shaped up with the two finalists of him and Ellison who was closer to me ideologically but who had plenty of baggage in his past and who might have caused a split in the party. Perez’s actions recently do seem a little more blatantly one-sided in favor of the Hillary side than I might have anticipated. We’ll see if those lopsided numbers hold up when final approval occurs.
There was, as I recall, a rather impressive progressive woman from Idaho who I favored for party chair, but as she was not nationally known nor endorsed by any majors among the Dem establishment, and most importantly because I favored her, she stood no chance.
It would take me time to explain who Carole Shea Porter is – but the Party establishment was willing to risk the House seat to take her out.
I wrote about the DNC race here – which was depressing as hell. Over the last year Sanders people have successfully taken over some State DNC delegations. I think if the vote was held today Ellison might win.
Plenty of activity at the local level and at the grassroots – which is honestly just scaring the crap out of the establishment.
Yeah, imagine Gettysburg with the opposers as today.
As reported by the good grey, ever-so-centrist NY Times:
I repeat; “In separate and unrelated appearances…”
Riiiiight….
As subtle as a baseball bat from behind.
Really, folks!!! Why don’t we all ‘fess up and admit that there is only one political party of any real power in the United Sates? The DemocRatpublican Party. Trump snuck up on it…aided and abetted by its own, self-satisfied, overfed, entitlement-bred torpor…and won an election. Did foreign powers help him? Maybe. Should we consider mulltnational corporations foreign powers? I believe so, myself. Did they support the various, sad DemocRatpublican candidates? Do they continue to support the massive, continuing media blitz aimed at bringing Trump down and replacing him with someone more…cooperative? Please. Does a bear shit in the woods?
Please.
Let’s call a spade a spade.
And centrists centrists.
Please.
AG
P.S. Drudge Report headline and image:
Gotta hand it to Drudge sometimes.
Clever.
Very clever.
I actually only consciously saw the Bush/Obama mashup about the third time I wandered past it.
Says it all.
Like hell we are!!!
The rise of Trump…and the ongoing failure to get rid of him by media non-personing…shows the failure of neoliberalism/neoconservatism/neocentrism. Call it whatever the fuck you want, it’s all the same hustle. Fewer and fewer people are buying it. Instead of being a strong, consistent “center” it has lied and cheated itself into nothing but an empty hole inside of which various whores hustle their false promises.
Sad.
And disgusting.
Maybe Trump’s greatest publicity coup was labelling DC “The Swamp.” An accurate picture, although of course he simply wants to restock it with other reptiles more like himself.
Sad.
AG
I don’t object to W calling out Trump, especially if it can further the rift between the semi-sane wing and the totally crazy wing of the party.
What was more objectionable was the way Albright apparently sat on the stage with Nikki Haley and her only disagreement was over State budget cuts. Otherwise (and I’ve only seen the first 10 minutes), it looks like Albright and Rice let Haley spout all sorts of nonsense (the usual Russiagate tales, none them proven; Iran, Venezuela) with no dissent. How about a word or two in favor of, you know, diplomacy, instead of harsh and reckless rhetoric — a little too reminiscent of Haley’s UN predecessor Stephanie Powers — that only heightens world tensions.
But I suppose that would not have been in the spirit of this too-cozy kumbaya session that does appear to reinforce the charge that Rs and Ds are largely on the same page wrt FP. That said, I suppose I’d better go see if there’s anything else on the video tape worthy of mention.
Substantively, is there all that much difference between the Rice and Samantha Power nonsense and Haley’s?
About the same neocon game of the US continuing to assert itself militarily in all nooks and crannies of the world. That is supposedly showing “leadership”.
Went back to finish the video — some painful moments at the 50′ mark where Albright, in a discussion about the importance of bipartisanship in FP, notes how she had to work with Sen Jessie Helms, and how Lindsay Graham is her best friend.
Also plenty of positive comments from Albright about Nato expansion during her tenure. No hint at all from any of the 3 of being able to appreciate how the other side, the Russians, see that as a US promise broken and a threat to their security.
Thanks for the summary; now I don’t need to subject myself to that show.
These three aren’t diplomats but international lobbyists for whatever the hell US monied/power elites think they’re selling.
The Swamp Things vs the Deplorables
Decision in sudden-death overtime
Well Donna Brazile is back and they tossed Ray Buckley off the executive committee.
Some sanity returned today as they decided NOT to issue Sanders an ultimatum to run as a Democrat.
Really the stuff to watch is the move to front load the 2020 calendar. Front loading is how you maximize donor power – and that is what the establishment is doing to keep the crazies (ie no good Sanders people like me) out.
I was at an event Monday night – and really the Party has essentially torn itself apart. Carole Shea Power, a hero to the Dean people a decade a go, retired out of the blue.
It turned out the NH Party establishment was going to run someone in a primary against her.
And on and on and on it goes.
Donor power or institutional power? Not that they’re independent variables, but the donor power without institutional power isn’t that robust. Hence, Jeb’s $100 million superpac bought him nothing.
Front loading benefits candidates with name recognition and money.
I don’t think, and have really never thought that institutional support mattered that much, though it always a challenge for an insurgent to get their delegate slates filed.
Can front loading be done without institutional support? It’s not as if the DNC has the sole power to front load the primaries.
2008 was a bit of a mess as people and their state legislatures wanted their primary votes to matter; so, a whole lot of primary election leapfrogging took place. There were twenty-three primaries on super-duper Tuesday 2/5/08. The end result is that they didn’t change the IA-NH-SC outcome equation and the primary season was effectively over shortly after that (despite Clinton staying in until June).
The log-jam or critical front loading is IA-NH-NV-SC and DP institutional power is strong in all four, even if they can’t manage to elect Democrats to state and federal offices. If the key variables were name recognition and money, Clinton would have won in ’08. (Seems foolish IMO to dismiss other major variables.) What upset her apple cart is that the state based institutional power fractured. First in IA — three-way, but the bulk of it split between Clinton and Edwards. Appeared to hold for Clinton in NH and held together, just barely, in NV, but that led to the SC defections.
‘Can front loading be done without institutional support? It’s not as if the DNC has the sole power to front load the primaries. “
Well as Fla and MI showed in ’08 if the Party sets the rule and the state violates the Party will tend to win. The FL and MI delegations were only seated after an Obama-Clinton compromise that came AFTER Clinton had conceded.
Point taken though.
FL and MI ’08 were instances of dueling between different institutional powers. While I put the actions of the FL and MI legislatures within the prevailing public mood — we want to be as important as NH — there may be more to the story. Who was driving those legislative buses? Did they have an outcome agenda/objective? Were there any differences between the super-duper Tuesday states and FL/MI? Must remember that all those state primary decisions were made at the time Clinton was considered inevitable. So, what were the gain expectations for those that pushed their state primaries to the front-end?
The problem with using the ’08 DP primary events to assess who won is that it was a contest between party elites. The IA caucus results (38% Obama, 30% Edwards, and 29% Clinton) were not in line with the split among elites/the institutional movers and shakers.
Where are you getting that Clinton isn’t a major piece of the party? The compromise on the FL and MI delegations was window dressing to make the whole matter moot before the general election. (Or face-saving for Clinton who fueled the rancor over the months by insisting that those non-elections should could for her.)
A friend reminded me this morning that the wikileaks included this: