Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

We still have time to mess this up!

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I really should read my own blog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

All your base are belong to Tunch.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / You got me running, you got me searching

You got me running, you got me searching

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In keeping with my idea that Democrats don’t talk up their young rising leaders enough, I’d like to run occasional pieces about Democrats who might run for president in 2020. The one I’m most familiar with Gillibrand, so I’ll start with her. I realize she’s controversial but I like her. Here’s a good profile from 538:

So what to make of this impressive litany of flip-flops, her ease in changing her mind? It would appear that Gillibrand is a Democrat above all else. As the party has shifted left, so has she.

In other words, she is good at politics, if by politics we mean sensing the direction of the populace, capturing their sentiments in rhetoric, turning that rhetoric into votes, fundraising off those votes, gaining power and popularity, running for re-election, winning, and doing it all over again.

[….]

In the last week of a hard-fought 2006 election to Congress, a police report about a domestic violence incident involving Gillibrand’s Republican opponent surfaced. Gillibrand, New York Magazine later noted, “has never denied that her campaign was the source of the leak despite being asked about it several times. She defeated Sweeney by six points.”

I don’t have time to do a lot of posts so I’m fundraising in all of them. Let’s bust through our goal for Conor Lamb in PA-18.

Goal Thermometer

Reader Interactions

140Comments

  6. 6.

    Baud

    I posted this in the last thread, but it works better here.

    Today the Democratic National Committee announced the recipients of the first wave of grants from the State Party Innovation Fund (SPIF) totaling nearly $1 million. These grants will ensure innovation and early organizing throughout the country to help elect Democrats up and down the ticket in 2018. SPIF is a first-of-its-kind, $10 million competitive grant program that incentivizes early organizing through state parties and supports efforts to engage African-American, Latino, Asian American/Pacific Islander, millennial, and rural communities.

    https://medium.com/@TheDemocrats/dnc-announces-state-party-innovation-fund-recipients-75aeb61e240e

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    I like her a lot, too, but jumping all over “Al Franken MUST RESIGN NOW” was politically dumb, so I worry about that.

  21. 21.

    eemom

    a Democrat above all else.

    In the name of the holy fuck. You have GOT to be kidding me.

    Yeah. Leading the tiki-torch-bearing vigilante mob that ran one of the most effective DEMOCRATIC senators we had out of Congress was being a DEMOCRAT ABOVE ALL ELSE. Especially when he just happened to be a potential obstacle to her 2020 coronation.

    Help me, Jesus.

  22. 22.

    Groucho48

    An important subject. Breaking in to mention that, according to Politico. Dems are saying they are willin to vote for a long term budget that doesnt include a dreamer extension. That’s just wrong

  24. 24.

    eemom

    Gillibrand, New York Magazine later noted, “has never denied that her campaign was the source of the leak despite being asked about it several times.

    Also, the political heroism and/or brilliant strategizing that this supposedly reflects eludes me.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Groucho48: on the same day trump said this?

    Maggie Haberman @ maggieNYT
    Trump open to a path to citizenship for DACA recipients after 10 – 12 years. His statement sent White House scrambling

    Seung Min Kim
    So funny the Senate gang of six immigration plan happens to have a …. 10-12 year pathway to citizenship for them (10 for current DACA holders, 12 for other Dreamers)

    ETA: Also, who’s “Democrats”? Manchin and Heitkamp? Schumer and Durbin?

  27. 27.

    Eural Joiner

    If true then we’re done as a country. The GOP holds the mid terms, Trump and company run rampant for another term. Someone turn out the lights on your way out ?

  28. 28.

    Zinsky

    Electric Light Orchestra – Sweet Talkin’ Woman. I love figuring out Doug’s song references that he uses as the lede for his posts.

    Kristen Gillibrand is a great candidate. So is Adam Jennings, a candidate for Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District. Very liberal, a veteran but wants to cut defense spending, knows the facts on tax and economic issues – Jennings is hard-hitting and honest and is well-positioned to unseat the worthless Erik Paulsen. Paulsen is about as popular as genital warts and hasn’t held a town hall meeting in six years. Flush this turd away!

  30. 30.

    Emperor of Ice Cream

    I’ll crawl over broken glass to vote for whoever the Dems nominate. I’ll go so fast as to set a new world record…Grin…I’m interested in learning/seeing more of her, despite her role in Franken’s political demise, which I didn’t like (because I didn’t like anything about the Franken affair, including what Al did). And I acknowledge/appreciate that she did have a very substantial record on the issue of sexual harassment prior to that; it was appropriate for her to take a leadership role. All reasons to be open to her (plus she seems genuinely strong/tough/smart, and we are going to need that!).

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Doug!: Since you’re clearly sleep deprived and probably covered in baby drool I’ll allow it. This time. As a hardship award. But we’re watching you!!!

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    @Groucho48:

    Dems are saying they are willin to vote for a long term budget that doesnt include a dreamer extension.

    WWWWHHHHUUUUTTTT??!

  42. 42.

    B.B.A.

    Honestly I thought something else she said during the autumn of #MeToo would make her more controversial in this crowd than the topic I’ve sworn not to say anything about.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    @B.B.A.: If you’re talking about the Clinton thing, then that was less consequential than the thing your swore not to talk about.

  54. 54.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud: Barbara Boxer was either selling something during that interview or is completely unhinged.
    She sounded out of touch with reality.

  56. 56.

    Peale

    @Adam L Silverman: maybe if we started wearing MAGA hats and went to his rallies and told reporters that we were democrats until he single handedly saved the dreamers, we might be able to trick him into thinking that would be popular with his base. It can’t be too hard for a fat middle aged man like myself to find a reporter from New York looking for trump supporter to interview.

  57. 57.

    Jager

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think that guy is cutting up chickens somewhere in New Jersey today and doing Thursday night karaoke if he can get a night off. I’d love to hear his version of “My Way”

  60. 60.

    gene108

    @Mary G:

    It took the “what about Franken?” question off the table for Democrats and the media, who were going after Roy Moore’s past allegations.

    Before you say “yeah, but there’s a difference”, the media does not do subtle.

    The “what about Franken” question would’ve been asked by every TV talking head, whenever a Democrat tried to impugn Moore’s character based on past allegations.

    In other words, in my opinion, if Franken had not resigned, Moore would have won.

    Was the first allegation against Franken probably a ratfucking operation? Yes, I think it was.

    But this whole awakening to “sexual harassment bad, sexual harassment’s everywhere” is not at a point where we can deal with subtleties.

    Look how the issue of racism gets muddied, when we get subtle. There is so much “I didn’t say the N-word, therefore I am not racist, I am just pointing out a higher percentage of blacks use welfare than other ethnic groups. This is a fact from government data.”

    “He put his hands a bit too low around her waist, when posing for a photo. It isn’t harassment. He didn’t squeeze her buttocks”, is pretty much the same thread of logic racists try to use to dog whistle other racists. That can be an excuse for someone we do not like, the next time around.

    I think Sen. Gillibrand is right in saying a clear line on what is not acceptable must be drawn.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @Baud:

    Boxer came across as borderline loopy in the early going. She kept digressing into how lovable and beautiful the Dreamers were and sort of intimating that that alone would have some effect on Trump. Weird.

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    I’m about half way through Ari Berman’s latest piece, How the GOP Rigs Elections, in Rolling Stone today, and I highly recommend it.

    I have to keep stopping because it makes me scared and nauseous, then full of rage. He talks about how Wisconsin was sort of a pilot program for all the dark money, voter suppression, gerrymandering down to two houses away, secret law making, and other things they are trying to roll out all over the country now. There’s nothing much in it that I didn’t know, but to see it laid out all in one piece is truly frightening. This is where I had to stop and take some deep breaths:

    Wisconsin made it particularly difficult for certain Democratic-leaning constituencies to comply with the law. Because of how it was written, only three of 13 four-year schools in the University of Wisconsin system had compliant student IDs, and just seven of 23 private colleges. Nor did the state adequately reach out to the groups most at risk of being disenfranchised: Wisconsin ran ads about the law in 52 movie theaters across the state, but not a single ad in Milwaukee, where 70 percent of the state’s African-Americans live.

    It’s so blatantly unfair and unAmerican.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Groucho48: Thanks for the link. I don’t see how they get House Dems on board if immigration isn’t dealt with. But if there’s a shutdown, it would be better if it were the House who does it, since there’s no filibuster issue there.

  73. 73.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Baud: If I had to guess, it’s probably something less objectionable like “We’re dropping it as a budget deal demand because McConnell is giving us a straight vote on it under the terms of the last extension.”

    Meaning, if McConnell breaks his word then it goes back in their list of demands.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I don’t suppose, in this impromptu little press appearance by trump, anyone asked why Melania wasn’t going to Davos? Or if he’s ever appeared on the cover of Forbes magainze?

  76. 76.

    Yarrow

    In keeping with my idea that Democrats don’t talk up their young rising leaders enough, I’d like to run occasional pieces about Democrats who might run for president in 2020.

    Looking forward to these posts, Doug. Thanks.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @Mary G:

    so blatantly unfair and unAmerican.

    Disenfranchising blacks is very American and was the openly acceptable norm until 1965.

    Hell, gerrymandering to get your guy elected goes back to the early 1800’s, in the Congressional election of Elbridge Gerry.

    Violence was also employed in the 19th century to keep parties in power.

    America’s problem is it thought that being the first or only country to not have a monarch and elect all the leaders was good enough. The details of having free and fair elections is an after thought, and left to localities to decide, even if what they decide is not free and fair. It was good enough.

  80. 80.

    Groucho48

    @Baud:

    Yeah. There are some trenches that the right has to get by. I hope they are enough to do the job. But, WHY did we let them land on the beach, unopposed?

  81. 81.

    Jager

    @zhena gogolia:

    My BIL does business in Russia, he says the music really sucks, he was at a nightclub with some clients and said, “10-12 vodkas couldn’t ease the pain of listening to that shit”

  82. 82.

    Corner Stone

    @Calouste: Biden will be roughly 127. Zombie Reagan will be about the same.
    I don’t really care if Franken had plans to run or not. Just saying he’s toast now and if he chooses to continue public service he’s going to need a think tank gig backing him.

  83. 83.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Mary G: Berman has been doing superb work on this topic for years, and he’s practically been screaming into the void by himself. It’s always nice to see when a publication like Rolling Stone and Mother Jones picks up his work, but I really wish it were in major newspapers as well.

    I’ll add this article to my reading list for later. Thanks. (Like you, I don’t think I need the blood pressure spike right now.)

  85. 85.

    Gin & Tonic

    I know this relates to a thread from much earlier in the day, but I see in my news feed that the President of MSU is expected to step down before the end of the week.

  87. 87.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Groucho48:
    Having read it, that is quite a first paragraph based on someone saying he views the budget and DACA negotiations as separate tracks. I guess Dems COULD be caving on the issue, but this sounds an awful lot like the fifty million articles I’ve read where a writer takes a quote out of context and constructs the political reality he wants to believe.

  90. 90.

    JohnO

    I like KG, too. I think the country will be especially willing to give a woman a do-over as well so that makes the timing nice when combined with the activism already apparent on the feminine side of the fence.

    From what I’ve read the woman has a little bit of killer in her. A necessary trait. She’s photogenic, smart, and knows how to talk tough.

    And I hope Warren runs too to give KG cover on the left.

  91. 91.

    trollhattan

    @gene108:
    Anybody who doesn’t think #MeToo has hold of the nation’s attention after the Nassar sentencing hearing and the huge turnout at the Woman’s’ March is not paying sufficient attention.

  93. 93.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @trollhattan: Agreed, though I think it could be advantageous in some ways that some of them clearly aren’t paying attention. As I put it last night (quoting Sun Tzu, of course), all warfare is based on deception. The fact that these people are essentially deceiving themselves doesn’t make it any less fortuitous for us. If they don’t understand the full extent of people’s (particularly women’s and POC’s) fury, that’ll likely make November an easier climb.

  94. 94.

    Mike in DC

    My ideal slate of 2020 candidates:
    Kamala Harris
    Corey Booker
    Kristin Gillibrand
    Xavier Becerra (alternatively, Julian Castro)
    Random White Guy(Sherrod Brown, Tim Ryan, whatevs)

    No Biden, no Sanders, and I doubt Warren runs.

  98. 98.

    Gin & Tonic

    @eemom: I’d read that they need to actually hold a board meeting to accept her resignation. Whatever, going, gone, all the same. It had to happen.

  100. 100.

    Groucho48

    My main concern with Gillebrand is that she tends to adjust her position to her voters.Thats not necessarily a bad thing and when she moved to the Senate, she said she believed her job was to represent her district, but, she leaned liberal. Her time in the Senate mostly confirms this

    As a NYS resident, I’d be fine with her as President.

  103. 103.

    tobie

    I’m not a fan of KG. She has always struck me as boring, and she went after a Senator who, as far as I can tell, was far more effective in his job than she is. That said, I’ll knock on doors for her and vote for her if she’s the party nominee.

  104. 104.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mike in DC: on behalf of Random White Guys, we have better than Tim Ryan. Kander and Murphy are good choices.

    also, too

    Washington Examiner @ dcexaminer
    Donations pour into shark nonprofits after report on Trump saying he hopes “all sharks die”

    Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair
    The economics of Trump is fascinating

  109. 109.

    Mike in DC

    @Corner Stone: I don’t want a white guy to be the nominee. Hence the “random white guy” joke. Ryan is one of those RWGs mentioned as a possible candidate. I’m well aware of the lameness of Congressman Ryan.

  111. 111.

    Groucho48

    @Corner Stone:

    Exactly my response I *hope* it’s 11th dimensional chess but, these are Dem Senators we’re talking about.

    href=”https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/24/democrats-drop-dreamer-demand-with-budget-deal-in-reach-366992″>@Frankensteinbeck:

    Well, it’s Politico. There are a lot if equivocations in the article, but, also, some scary quotes from Dems.

    I don’t want to derail this thread more than I have, and, I expect, if there is anything to it, there’ll be a thread on it tomorrow.

  114. 114.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Mike in DC: If we’re going with currently serving congresscritters, Schiff wouldn’t be the worst white dude imaginable. The guy seems to do well on television and he’s clearly quick on his feet.

    I definitely favour a not-white dude though, just because white dudes have been fucking up the country for so long that I mostly don’t trust them as much these days. Plus, white dudes seem overall to be lacking in empathy in comparison with people who have more systemic experiences being oppressed, and while being a minority or a woman doesn’t automatically guarantee that someone will have more empathy than a particular white dude, on the whole there seems to be a positive correlation. (And I’m saying this as someone who’s passed as a white dude for most of their life, though in the age of Trump I now actually consider myself neither of those things.)

  117. 117.

    Groucho48

    @(((CassandraLeo))):

    I really like Schiff. He has all the qualities and such liberals love. But, a flat, lawyerly, affect is not the way to the Presidency. Would that it wasn’t so, but, a Presidential candidate needs to show some fire and emotion.

  118. 118.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Groucho48: I suspect you’re probably right, though there’s an outside chance that enough people will find exactly those qualities reassuring after 3+ years of the Trumpovich clown show (apologies to all the clowns I just libelled – I’m not sure even Pennywise deserved that). At this point, I’m not sure anyone can definitively predict what the American populace would be willing to go in for two years from now.

  119. 119.

    Mike in DC

    @(((CassandraLeo))):
    The more people talk about our need to appeal to the WWC and grab some Trump voters, the more determined I am that we go as far away from that as possible. And win big. Just to shut them up for a minute.

  121. 121.

    Groucho48

    @(((CassandraLeo))):

    I really hope you are right. It might work if he gets a savage VP to run with him. I mean, I am impressed with the guy, but the things, I, a white middle class, somewhat intellectual guy likes has, hustorically,ranked. From Adlai Stevenson on.

  122. 122.

    Corner Stone

    Why do people keep mentioning fucking clowns in this thread? What is wrong with you people?

  131. 131.

    Fair Economist

    @Corner Stone:

    Barbara Boxer was either selling something during that interview or is completely unhinged.
    She sounded out of touch with reality.

    She’s quite in touch with reality. The reality is that extended shutdowns to obtain policy gains always fail. The reason is pretty simple – if there’s no federal government, we turn into Somalia, and that’s worse than almost any policy shift. When the shutdown starts to bite, the public blames the blockers.

  132. 132.

    Fair Economist

    @Mike in DC:

    The more people talk about our need to appeal to the WWC and grab some Trump voters, the more determined I am that we go as far away from that as possible. And win big. Just to shut them up for a minute.

    And you are right. The WWC is not swinging in this election. More-educated white women are. That’s the group that will determine this election.

  135. 135.

    glory b

    @JohnO: Yeah, let me know when she uses that killer instinct on someone whose not a fellow Dem.

    I’ll vote for her if she wins the primary, because I’m a member of the BASE (African American women). Otherwise, no. No reason she couldn’t have let the system play out for Franken, that whole thing smelled to high heaven, and she didn’t seem to catch on.

    I haven’t heard anyone say they were coming out and voting Dem because of that move.

    And another thing, what’s with the Me Too movement? I can see the need for it for actors and entertainers because they are independent contractors. I see it for members of the military because of the chain of command issue. But sexual harassment has been illegal since the seventies and there is the EEOC, state and local civil rights agencies and attorneys looking for wins around this issue for decades.

    A friend of mine who is an investigator for a state agency said sexual harassment complaints have dropped in the last few years, and even Mom and Pop employers have cut and pasted harassment policies into their employee handbooks. Big employers investigate and fire within a day or two of getting the complaints because they don’t want the liability, and it’s an easy fix.

    I heard someone on a progressive program call this uncharted territory. What? I’ll give Gillibrand a thumbs up for her work on the problem in the military, but she’s not inventing the wheel here.

  136. 136.

    glory b

    @tobie: “…she went after a Senator who, as far as I can tell, was far more effective in his job than she is. That said, I’ll knock on doors for her and vote for her if she’s the party nominee.”

    Yeah, pretty much this.

  137. 137.

    tam1MI

    @Waratah: I know many Democrats who will happily give money, knock on doors, and vote for anybody who opposesaid Kristen Fucking Gillibrand, so yeah, I think she “fires people up”.

    Me, personally, I will vote for ANDREW CUOMO each day of the week and twice on Sundays before I EVER vote for Kristen Fucking Gillibrand!

  138. 138.

    Stan

    @gene108:

    Disenfranchising blacks is very American and was the openly acceptable norm until 1965.

    It was openly done in Albany county, Gillibrand’s home town in New York, until a couple years ago. The democratic-party-controlled county has lost 2 (maybe 3, I can’t recall) civil rights cases over it.

    Gillibrand was nowhere to be seen during these very, very public events.

  139. 139.

    Stan

    @tam1MI:

    I will vote for ANDREW CUOMO each day of the week and twice on Sundays before I EVER vote for Kristen Fucking Gillibrand!

    Wow, even I won’t go that far and I’m no fan of Gillibrand.

  140. 140.

    tam1MI

    @Stan: To me they are basically two peas in a pod. They are both crass opportunists who will screw over allies, friends, and anyone else in the blink of an eye if they think it will serve their purposes. The only difference I see between them is that Cuomo doesn’t come trailing a band of obnoxious cultists in his wake who think his cutthroat narcissism passes for “bravery”. So yes, he is a better choice than Gillibrand, albeit marginally.

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