Some Democratic presidential candidates are not happy with the Democratic National Committee, and their anger is no longer being kept private https://t.co/VbzScHjep7
— Dan Merica (@merica) June 7, 2019
Which coastal metropolis is Pete Buttigieg from again? https://t.co/A0GYH5XLWj
— Molotov Frappuccino Thrower (@agraybee) June 7, 2019
Never say never, in this debased world, but I personally estimate Steve Bullock’s chances of becoming our next President as roughly equal to my own — and I ain’t running. Histrionic proclamations from his devoted staff won’t improving his chances, IMO. But his public tantrum gives ‘conservative’ media guys another chance to bring out their favorite Dems in disarray! talking points…
… Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is largely unmoved by these complaints.
In an interview with CNN Thursday here in Atlanta, Perez subtly knocked the candidates who have yet to meet the grassroots fundraising threshold and are publicly complaining.
“I think everybody has to be proficient,” he said when asked about complaints about the threshold. “If you want to be President of the United States, you have to develop a proficiency at grassroots fundraising.”The three candidates at risk of missing the debates are Miramar, Florida, Mayor Wayne Messam, whose campaign has struggled to get any traction; Rep. Seth Moulton, who announced his campaign in late April and has yet to qualify on either threshold, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who has currently not qualified for the debates by either committee standard and whose team is the angriest about the possible snub.
Bullock got into the race in mid-May, relatively late compared to other 2020 contenders. The governor has told CNN that he launched late because, as the governor of Montana, he had to oversee his state’s legislative session, which happens every two years. Bullock did that and the body passed Medicaid expansion. His advisers now believe that the DNC rules are punishing a candidate who stayed at work instead of running for President….
You did your job, Gov. Bullock. Waddya want, a cookie? Would neglecting your current responsibilities have made you a better contender for such a sought-after promotion?
And here I didn’t think it was possible for me to wholeheartedly approve of anything Tom Perez says.
Sidebar — I’m beginning to wonder whether Seth Moulton is hoping to be recruited by his natural allies in the anyone-but-Trump ‘sensible Republican’ demographic:
… The one candidate who is not antagonistic of the DNC despite finding himself on the verge of missing the first debate is [Seth] Moulton, who has publicly admitted he is likely to miss the event.
“No, I’m not going to make the first debate, but I knew that getting in so late,” the congressman told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview this week. “But I think that’s OK, that there’s, this first debate’s going to have 20 people. Folks are barely going to get a chance to speak. This is a long campaign. And it’s not going to be decided by the Democratic National Committee in their debates. It’s going to get decided by the American people. And that’s where the response to my campaign has been so positive so far.”…
Gravenstone
Come late to the game, then throw a tantrum when they don’t change the rules to accommodate you. Sounds almost … Trumpian. Not a good look, governor.
FelonyGovt
With this many candidates, there has to be some cutoff. As it is, the initial debates may not be that informative given the large number of people involved and the random distribution over the two nights.
Not the DNC’s fault that no one has ever heard of these people.
Omnes Omnibus
I am finding the online characterization of Moulton as GOP-lite and general piece of shit to be rather interesting. I have two college friends in his district, one an establishment Dem and the other from pretty far left, and both have nothing but good things to say about him.
rikyrah
The DNC didn’t hide the rules. If you got in late, and don’t qualify ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I haven’t looked at D-Kos in years, but this made me smile
in other circular firing squad news…
they’ll do it again if they can
MattF
See, FYI, primary campaigns are about what happens when some pressure is applied to a candidate’s ambitions and organization. It’s ugly sometimes, but that’s the system. If you’ve got a better way– go ahead and propose it, or leave the room. And if the door hits your ass on the way out, c’est la vie.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They’re the same people. They will do the same things.
B.B.A.
The Great Lakes are kind of a coast…
patrick II
We need some sort of criteria to get into the debates so it wouldn’t be like the Republican debates of 2016 where a bunch of guys who just want to profit from book sales get into the debates and one of them accidentally becomes president.
Major Major Major Major
Sad! Though my favorite whining about the rules is how no matter what completely even-handed and transparent decision is made, there are high-profile Sanders backers complaining that it’s evidence of a conspiracy against him.
joel hanes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Moulton came at the queen and missed.
Barbara
My opinion of Seth Moulton went up based on that response. Not that I would work for him or donate, but there is almost nothing worse than whining.
Brachiator
Should I know who Bullock is?
Sounds like he is in the running for the Jeb! Bush Please Clap Political Anonymity Award.
Major Major Major Major
Why was Moulton on Hewitt?
Sab
@B.B.A.: Didn’t we have a Northcoast president a while back who was pretty good at the job?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: he’s building a big tent. Desus and Mero for African-American millennials, HH for the baby boomer shmoo vote
delk
He’s just whining because he’s cutting it too close for comfort…. no, wait, that’s Jim J Bullock.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m sure he’s a very fine man — I was genuinely impressed when he was campaigning for his current job! — but he is, by training & inclination, very much one of that nearly extinct breed, the New England Liberal Republican. Unfortunately for him, the only electable role for Republicans here among us Massholes is the governorship, and Charlie Baker is too hardened a target.
No lie: Were Moulton to run against Trump, I’d send him as much money as I could afford, if only to encourage further rebellion!
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
Only traction he can find?
@Brachiator:
If you did know, would it make any difference?
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
While your wiki link did lead me to learning about a new (to me) cartoon character, it didn’t actually help me understand why you used the word.
Jim Parish
@B.B.A.: As Sade put it: “Coast to coast, L.A. to Chicago”.
Kent
I recently read about Biden’s attempts to cut contraceptive coverage for women. This wasn’t old 1970s stuff but recently: https://theintercept.com/2019/06/05/joe-biden-worked-to-undermine-the-affordable-care-acts-coverage-of-contraception/
This sort of bullshit is damn near a deal-breaker for me. I mean of course if it comes down to Biden vs Trump I will eagerly vote for Biden. But in terms of picking a favorite 2020 primary candidate, this sort of sucking up to the fascists on the religious right just makes my blood boil. Here is how this sort of corporatel religious clause works out in practice because I have personal experience.
My wife and I used to live in Waco TX where we moved for her medical training. A decade ago Waco had dozens of smaller independent physician practices and small physician groups scattered around town. Most of the primary care physicians were independent and worked at either or both of the two local hospitals: Providence (Catholic Hospital chain) and Baylor Scott & White (Baptist). About a decade ago both of the two hospitals went on a giant buying spree and started buying up all the primary care clinics around town. The way that medicare and medicaid did reimbursements made this basically happen as the same procedures billed by a hospital were reimbursed at a higher rate than the same thing billed by an independent clinic.
What this meant was that basically every single nurse and medical assistant in Waco went from working for private physician groups to working for either a giant Catholic corporation or a giant Baptist corporation without changing jobs. Their employer changed ownership, no one chose to suddenly be working for a Catholic corporation which turned out to be Ascension Health (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_(company)) which is the largest hospital chain in the country with hospitals in 23 states a CEO that earns $17 million a year. Within a couple of years pretty much the only medical jobs within 100 miles are now with only one of these two companies. The largest Catholic hospital chain in the world, or the largest Bapist chain in the US. If you want to work in healthcare or get health care those are your two choices in Central Texas.
So now this massive Catholic health care chain has decided because the bishops are throwing a hissy fit that they have to cut contraceptive coverage for all of their employees, many of whom were working for those hosptals and clinics long before they were even acquired by Ascension. And because in this country we have decided to base health care coverage on employment there really isn’t a viable alternative for any of these employees. How did that affect us? I happen to have a young daughter who is not even sexually active and is in fact LGBT who needs birth control for other medical reasons. But some damn bishop someplace is deciding for us that she can’t? Or that we have to pay a ton of money out of pocket because birth control happens to be regulated as a prescription drug meaning that we have to go through a doctor to get it rather than over the counter? Fuck them all to hell.
Now that we are living back in the Pacific Northwest none of this is an issue anymore as state laws mandate coverage and there aren’t any fundies around to sniff around my daughter’s bedroom. She just orders it online through our provider’s pharmacy and it comes with no co-pay.
I’ve come around to thinking that the first damn thing a new Dem president should sign into law is a new national health care law that does away with all this fundie pandering and that also cements Roe v Wade into statute. No more messing around with the supreme court and a bazillion state laws. Just put Roe into Federal statute and supersede every damn state law that tries to regulate women’s health in any way. No more half measures. Just do it. And override the inevitable Senate veto to get it done. That would take abortion off the table for at least as long as Dems hold any of the branches of government.
rikyrah
They aren’t quitting because of morals, cause, well, they’re Republicans…so why did they quit????
POLITICO Florida (@politicofl) Tweeted:
Gov. Ron DeSantis has lost as many as seven top aides in the past 24 hours.
Everyone is wondering: What is going on over there? https://t.co/SDpjZ3V9XP https://twitter.com/politicofl/status/1136739627304411136?s=17
debbie
@Kent:
I can’t imagine that issues like this will guarantee he won’t be the nominee.
cain
I just thought I would put this in – https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/07/indiana-farmers-storms-trump-tariffs – money quote: ““I understand what the president is trying to do,” said Williams. “I support him, I just wish it didn’t affect us so personally.”
I face palmed so hard. Jeezus, farmers man… you don’t deserve to keep your land. Hope you know how to retrain yourself for the new economy. Here is a hint – learn cloud.
rikyrah
@Kent:
It the Intercept. .that said, he will have to answer for it.
trollhattan
Seth Bullock would like you hoopleheads to know he daggone best be invited to those debate thingies or there will be most inauspicious consequences, ya’hear?
Jay
“For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon – We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science! – Donald J. Trump tweet”
trollhattan
@cain:
Face meets leopard, chapter twenty-nine.
rikyrah
@cain:
Which is why I have no sympathy.
The thing is…
‘ He’s not hurting the right people’
Never forget that….that is their mindset ??
SenyorDave
@Jay: The head of NASA should tell Trump to his face that they are going to Uranus, and it will be easy, since Uranus is so huge.
eemom
Awhile back I was briefly acquainted on FB with an insufferable, self-proclaimedly former republican who took it upon himself as the world’s newest Democrat to loudly proclaim Moulton as the ONLY one who could save us from losing everything at the hands of the polarizing Pelosi….whose very existence, he explained, is why republicans win elections. Whereas with a solid white ex-military man as Speaker, their voters would come to Democratic Jesus in droves.
That kind of soured me on Moulton forever.
Wonder if that asshole is a Buttigieg fanboy now. Somehow I doubt it.
Aleta
My left-wing friends and fam. members (western and eastern MA respectively) mentioned his PAC donors (military industrial complex, Wall St). Two fam. members in Boston area working in medicine mentioned some sleazy health care/weight loss company he started (stomach stapling, gut removal) that ripped people off. I don’t know when or what specifically, only that esp. the leftists don’t like him.
Mike in NC
@Jay: So the moon is part of Mars? Why were all those scientists so wrong for so long? Stable genius strikes again.
guachi
As a (former) Montanan I think Montana Democrats have done a great job winning statewide. Bullock has a lot to offer and has done great work as Governor. He’s the only candidate running who has managed to win in a place that votes for Republicans.
But complaining is unseemly. He has no chance of winning (but could be a great VP). However, why doesn’t he run for Senate or House and give Democrats a real chance of winning a seat?
Kent
@rikyrah: Well OK. The intercept is crap. But the actual article links to Bloomberg and ABC news sources that confirm the same thing so it’s not like they made it up, they are just bringing it back up. https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/policy-and-politics-of-contraception-rule-fiercely-debated-within-white-house/#.TzR5kgDpy50.twitter
Barbara
@Kent: Amen! Maybe you will be glad to hear that the escalating changes to “site neutral” reimbursement are going to hit hospitals that made these kinds of physician practice acquisitions especially hard.
Barbara
@cain: Who the fuck else is it supposed to affect personally? Seriously, I am a compassionate person but if a person won’t change his vote when the president throws him an anvil when he’s drowning, then I certainly am not going to do his work for him. And I seriously resent the implication that it wouldn’t matter AT ALL if someone ELSE is personally affected. Just go bankrupt and stop mewling about it.
Baud
We should have had a coronation.
Baud
@Barbara:
No kidding. And don’t anyone even think about Farm Aid in 2019 or 2020.
debbie
@Barbara:
Libruls, browns, etc. Any and everyone but them. I cracked up at “I understand what he’s trying to do…” No, you don’t because Trump doesn’t either.
Aleta
M31
A quote from the Trump/Ingraham interview is truly sweeping in its grandeur.
Baud
@Aleta:
Word.
Tony Jay
@Jay:
I saw that. Had I a bag of leprechaun gold handy I’d bet all of it on the ‘clarification’ being that of course Don De La Sleeze didn’t mean the Moon was part of Mars, nah, he was just riffing off the pretty well-known idea of any manned mission to Mars piggy-backing off a pre-established Luna Base to save on fuel because of, you know, gravity wells and shit.
Yeah, that’ll be it. The MSM will gobble that up like Bishops at a Choir audition.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s good to mention. We all ought to be wary of labels applied to our candidates where we aren’t really familiar with them. We – being human – know how a candidate we like gets labeled and how it’s often unfounded and unfair. We should assume the same happens to the people we don’t know.
debbie
@M31:
A great comment to that tweet:
trollhattan
Based on the latest news from the local dining scene I’m staying the hell home from now on.
Nope
PST
That flyover quote from Bullock’s guy annoys me with its implication that the party disrespects the heartland. It isn’t true and it doesn’t help. South Bend is a flyover city. So is El Paso and so is Minneapolis. Those candidates will meet the threshold easily.
Omnes Omnibus
@joel hanes: I get that he burn through a lot of good will by coming at Pelosi, but what I am missing is how people are coming up with AL’s judgment.
@Anne Laurie:
I am sorry, but to me that makes about as much sense as saying Roy Moore is, by training & inclination, very much one of that nearly extinct breed, the Southern Segregationist Democrat. .
Baud
@PST:
Yep. Truly a statement of privilege.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I suspect that Moulton let himself get carried away by his ego during the failed rebellion against Nancy Pelosi. It doesn’t mean that he’s a terrible guy forevermore, but it does sound like his ego needs to be checked.
His presidential campaign’s failure to launch may be doing that for him right now based on the quotes here and hopefully he’ll go back to being a decent guy and a good public servant sooner rather than later. Setting his sights on becoming governor or senator may be a better goal for now.
rikyrah
Thread ????
brindaspencer (@brindaaspencerr) Tweeted:
Thread of how my day went yesterday; I saw this cute puppy running around a parking lot, he looked hot and tired so I put him in my car & waited for owners to come looking.. they never came https://t.co/kbNcjUtYsm https://twitter.com/brindaaspencerr/status/1137070516790018054?s=17
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hm. Still disagree with you, I think. To me, a New England Liberal Republican was a guy who was socially liberal (voted for civil rights and supported Roe v Wade) and leaned business-friendly but not libertarian “kill all regulations!”
Everyone of that ilk has gone Democrat at this point, but there were quite a few of them out there until Reagan.
feebog
If Seth Moulten doesn’t think the debates are going to be an essential part of the primary process, he is even dumber than I thought. Millions of Democrats are going to watch the first back-to-back debates, and many of them are going to form impressions that will endure throughout the campaign. So sure Seth, whistle past the graveyard, it will be your funeral after all.
Citizen Alan
@Barbara:
I concluded years ago that, in this country, there are poor people and there are peasants. The difference between the two is that poor people are just people with the misfortune of not having much money. Peasants, OTOH, are poor people who are irrationally proud of their poverty. Who literally worship the people responsible for that poverty. And who snap angrily at the hand of anyone who tries to help them out of poverty.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I know they once existed, but, like you said, they’ve all become Democrats. And the old Dixiecrats have joined the GOP. .
Jay
The Daily Irritant has a lovely post up on the White Pride Parade:
http://wwwirritant.blogspot.com/2019/06/i-love-parade.html?m=1
Cacti
@Kent:
The Intercept?
Try harder, comrade.
Starfish
Since I know you are interested in Republican-light candidates, the local NPR station was talking about how Michael Bennet may have made the debate by getting 2% of the votes in a nationally recognized survey from people who do not know who Michael Bennet is. Those of us who know who he is like other candidates better.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
We may be getting closer to the future of the movie “Demolition Man,” where the only remaining restaurant is Taco Bell.
I can’t even wrap my head around the idea of ax throwing being a thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan:
Sounds like an ordinary Tuesday in Hurley, WI.
rikyrah
@Kent:
They are bringing this up because they want to find the silver bullet to take Biden out, and I don’t think there is one. Might be a combination of things, but it won’t be one thing.
Someone is going to have to take the ‘ Dolt45 is NOT an anomaly, but the representative of the ENTIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY’ stance against Biden.
Someone is going to have to go out on that rail, and I think that person will become the anti-Biden in this race.
eemom
@Citizen Alan:
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”
John Steinbeck
#americandream
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, yes. Both types are deader than the proverbial doornail. I think AL is speculating that that’s what Moulton would have been in an earlier generation.
Kent
@Cacti: Forget the intercept. The same thing was reported in ABC and Bloomberg. Point is, when the issue is standing up for women’s health vs sucking up to Catholic Bishops, Biden’s first instinct is always to “compromise” on women’s health by which I mean betray women’s health. Time and time again he is fighting on the wrong side. I see that it wasn’t until yesterday that he finally came out against the Hyde Amendment. He finally had a change of heart at age 76?
That won’t be a deal breaker for him against Trump. Obviously. But it should be in a Democratic primary.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
Especially in politics.
Makes him sound like a third grader.
It’s completely presidential.
In his mind.
Kent
@rikyrah:
I agree. Frankly I don’t think there are any silver bullets for anyone. Just a lot of little issues and perceptions and styles that will eventually lean people one direction or another. I don’t think the “I’m more anti-Trump and anti-Republican than you” stance is going to work against Biden either. What’s more likely to work is the Sanders attack against Clinton, that he is to in the pocket of corporations and big banks and so forth. All the fundraising he is doing with corporate CEOs is not going to help that perception.
What I think will eventually cause him to fade is simply if he consistently appears low energy and tired and out of touch compared to the younger and more energetic field. He’s running a pretty lightweight low energy and sheltered campaign so far. I don’t think that is going to work once people start paying more attention.
Tazj
Good grief Chris Hayes could there be a moratorium on people from Reason magazine being on your show until the country is out of danger of becoming a fascist state? I admire Michelle Goldberg for keeping her cool.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Shmoos were a Really Big Thing.
Don’t understand why they were mentioned in the context above either.
FelonyGovt
@Kent: I was at the CA Democratic Convention, and everyone was kind of surprised that Biden didn’t appear. It was rumored that he would, but he never did. All the other major candidates did.
rikyrah
@Kent:
I disagree with you. Biden is out here peddling that Dolt45 is the problem, and that without him, there would be some Republicans that you can work with. I believe that is complete and utter bullshyt. The GOP is a cesspool. someone is going to have to smash that ridiculous notion to pieces.
Jay
“Many of the candidates seem to want to avoid talking about Brexit much at all and as for the front-runner, Boris Johnson, almost nothing is heard from him – reportedly he is “being kept under virtual house arrest” (£) because his campaign team fear that any public statement may cause embarrassment. That may well be an astute decision on their part but it is hardly a ringing endorsement of a man who would be Prime Minister.
Reheated rubbish
Meanwhile, there is plenty of noise from the foot soldiers of the no-deal Brexit cause. Yet another ERG report was wheeled out this week – this one entitled A Clean Managed Brexit – reheating all the same old half-truths, fantasies, misunderstandings and falsehoods. It was instantly taken apart by the combined expertise of trade expert David Henig and EU Law expert Steve Peers. As Henig pithily concluded, it exhibited “a total refusal to face up to the real world”, whilst Peter Foster, the Daily Telegraph’s Europe Editor, pronounced it “completely ludicrous”.
http://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-fog-of-war.html?m=1
p.a.
What is the Redshirt reference in the title? We had a redshirt commenter here, Mainer I believe, who disappeared right after the ’16 election IIRC.
NotMax
@p.a.
The term originated from the original Star Trek series.
Kent
@rikyrah:
We are in 100% agreement that this is the approach Biden is taking and that if we learned anything from 2008-2016 it is that this is ridiculously wrong.
I am only disagreeing with your notion that this is somehow going to be the kryptonite that brings Biden down in the primary. I just don’t think most voters are that focused on this sort of inside baseball stuff. People are issue voters more than process voters that that sort of thing is more process.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Wow, that rang a vague bell. I had to look it up, but it’s all coming back to me now.
Just don’t get started on Ed Gein.
japa21
@zhena gogolia: I have a lovely lamp shade to sell you.
randy khan
It seems to me that if you can’t hit either of the two criteria for getting into the debate, the American people are doing a pretty good job deciding about you already.
opiejeanne
@M31: What a silver-tongued devil.