Since I was complaining about bad/nonexistent national House race coverage, here’s a piece in the Seattle Times about the winner of the WA-3 contest, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. This was the R+5 seat occupied by Jaime Herrera Beutler, who lost the Republican primary to a nutcase named Kent because she voted to impeach Trump for 1/6. Read the whole thing, but here’s what stood out for me:
- A number of Democrats crossed over and voted for Kent in the primary. This sort of behavior is frowned upon by our betters in the political press, but it happens all the time, and so what? Herrera Beutler did one good thing with her impeachment vote, but let’s stop acting as if a Republican who did the very minimum she could do somehow deserves a pass.
- Gluesenkamp Perez runs a auto repair shop with her husband and stuck to a basic issues-oriented campaign. Kent wanted to overturn elections, ban abortions and prosecute Fauci for murder.
- Gluesenkamp Perez pledged not to vote for Nancy Pelosi for speaker, and she said she would vote to preserve gun rights. In CO-3, Frisch made the same pledge about Pelosi.
Just in case it isn’t clear, by a basic issues-oriented campaign, I mean one that did not shy away from talking about abortion, quite the contrary:
By the way, fuck those assholes who stand around in front of Planned Parenthood.
Anyway, If you have some stories on local races, please share them in the comments below. I’m still thinking about the failure here in New York and will have more to write about after the counting is done, but I’d rather focus on places where Democrats worked their asses off.
Baud
Just win, baby.
Besides, that pledge may be easier to meet this time around if Pelosi doesn’t run.
Matt McIrvin
The crossover vote is interesting, actually–my experience is that Democrats rarely cross over to vote for the worst Republican candidate as a ratfucking exercise; instead they cross over to vote for the one they hate the least because they really really hate that other guy.
eclare
Marie was interviewed on Morning Joe on Monday, nice to see a new face.
Spanky
@Baud: What prompts these pledges? Did she just blurt it out unprompted, or what?
Baud
@Spanky: The question always comes up in swing districts.
Jeffro
@Matt McIrvin: sort of a reverse-ratfucking, if you will
LOL
Alison Rose
As someone who used to be a clinic escort, I concur. And we didn’t even have that bad of a time of it where I was, but even still, they could be aggravating and disgusting and massive pains in the ass.
Nate Combs
I had my vasectomy at Planned Parenthood, because they were the cheapest (cash) even including my insurance. I had to walk through protestors, metal detectors, and a locking bulletproof booth to get into the waiting room. I tried to make myself look as meek and private as possible, so my presence wouldn’t bother the ladies in the waiting room with me. It’s horrible what we allow society to do to us.
Dangerman
Beutler? Beutler? Beutler?
/day off
Matt McIrvin
@Jeffro: My experience is with Massachusetts NPR-listener types, mind you, in campaigns where the Democratic race is uncontested (or not seriously contested). For instance I remember a lot of crossover votes for McCain in the 2000 primary.
dnfree
Here’s a race that will break your heart and infuriate you. It’s still making me sick to my stomach. Stephenson County, IL, northwestern Illinois, pretty heavily Republican. Longtime county clerk Vici Otte retiring. A very qualified employee in the office running on the Democratic ticket, with Vici’s endorsement.
Here’s the background of the Democrat.
Chandra Morris
Age: 43
Hometown: Freeport
Education: Graduated from Freeport High School in 1998, associate of science degree from Highland Community College, bachelor of science degree in computer information systems in 2005 from Columbia College, Freeport; master of business administration, human resource management in 2017 from Walden University, Minneapolis.
Profession: Chief recorder in the office of the Stephenson County Clerk and Recorder
Memberships and associations: F.A.C.C. Board Member; NAACP; Stephenson County Genealogical Society; Project Baseline
Political experience: None
Endorsements: Stephenson County Clerk and Recorder, Vici Otte, Stephenson County Finance Director, Adrienne Dewall, former Stephenson County Deputy Recorder, Lynette Williams and Citizens United for Rights, Respect and Equity.
This is who the Republicans nominated.
Jazmin L. Wingert
Age: 22
Family: Single
Hometown: Kent, Illinois, and currently resides in Freeport.
Education: Bachelor degree in agricultural business, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, summa cum laude
Profession: Sales development representative for Zendesk, a publicly traded company.
Memberships and associations:Pearl City FFA Alumni, Pearl City American Legion Auxiliary, Stephenson County Farm Bureau, Greater Freeport Partnership, Simply Free Church, and Zion Community Church.
Oh, and did I mention that the Democrat is black and the Republican is a young blonde? Guess who won, handily, despite being a young thing with no experience whatever that would qualify her for what is a very demanding position. The vote was around 7500 for Morris, 9000 for Wingert. A combination of Republicans voting Republican, and racists voting racist.
Qrop Non Sequitur
@Matt McIrvin: My Republican but registered as unenrolled Dad did a mix. He took a D ballot, voted for Ds he deemed acceptable but in a race where he didn’t like either, he went for what he perceived as more extreme.
eclare
@Nate Combs: That sounds awful.
Steeplejack
How it’s going—NBC News:
Nelson Muntz “Ha-ha!”
eclare
@Steeplejack: Hehehe…
raven
@dnfree: The Freeport Pretzels!
J
@Baud:
Not necessarily saying she necessarily should not have pledged not to vote for NP, but it’s strange that the question always comes up in swing districts as you say. Is it because of the right’s successful effort to demonize Nancy Pelosi (god bless her)? If so, I fault the interviewers who pose the question for internalizing wingnut framing.
Baud
@J: I believe a lot of GOP campaign ads demonize Pelosi and attempt to tie the candidate to her. I honestly can’t really fault a journalist for asking our candidates where they stand on House leadership, even if it’s only an issue because the GOP makes it one.
dnfree
@raven: yes, indeed! And I did not check detailed results, but I would bet that Morris carried the city of Freeport, which has about half the population of the county, and little miss agriculture carried the rural areas.
Old School
@dnfree:
There was also the story about the tax collector in a North Carolina county where the experienced Democrat lost to a Republican college student.
Betty Cracker
Michelle Goldberg had a column in the NYT here about Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s upset win. The takeaway for me is, as always, align with your district. Perez wouldn’t win in Ayanna Pressley’s district, and Pressley wouldn’t win in Perez’s. But since Dems in general need to do better in red-leaning districts, Perez’s victory could provide a blueprint for those areas, maybe.
dnfree
@Old School: From your article, this is going to be true for both of these winning candidates.
————————
When Cothran takes office, he will become the boss of a staff who all know more about the job than he does. From basic principles of collections to financial procedures to state property tax laws, someone will have to teach Cothran how to do the job he was elected for.
“It is going to be a learning curve,” Cothran admitted. “It would be for anybody doing the job.”
dnfree
Duplicate.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
That makes intuitive sense to me, but we traditionally have also been concerned about the harm to “branding” caused by Dems who align with their districts too much (see Manchin, for example).
cain
@Spanky: You know it’s some local media outlet asking – because they love to make Dem squirm. GOP has no shame so the only thing that makes them squirm is if you have a fat wallet and they want to get their hands on it.
Aziz, light!
Oregon District 5 would still be a Democratic seat had primary voters had not booted longtime incumbent Kurt Schrader. (I live in the blue northern end of the district but the remainder is reddish to red.) Not that Kurt deserves much respect (none, actually, after he refused to endorse Jaime McLeod-Skinner) but he was a good fit for the district as a whole. There are times when nose-holding is the smartest option.
Baud
@Aziz, light!:
Schrader sounds like a piece of work. Hopefully, getting rid of him will be a net benefit after 2024.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Agree it’s a fine line. I’ve accepted that we’ll never match Repubs on brand strength because they’re pitching to a homogeneous base and we’re not.
Citizen Alan
@dnfree: You know, I’m just blase about this. Week before last, I had to attend a CLE and the last panel was a “Meet the New Mississippi Federal Judges” Q&A. All three were Trump appointees from 2020, and the two district court judges were both 38, with no prior judicial experience. And they were both confirmed in mid-December 2020, 5 weeks after Shitgibbon lost the election and 3 weeks before 1/6. I hate this fucking state. (Pray for me, btw; interview for a job in Pittsburgh on Thursday.)
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
We are unified on a lot of important foundational issues though. The last two years proved that.
eclare
@Citizen Alan: Good luck with the interview!
The Moar You Know
@dnfree: Neither. It’s exactly what I’d expect from a heavily Republican district no matter how qualified the Dem candidate is. I personally would vote for a rookie Dem who knows nothing about the job (and just did for the Assessor’s office) over a Republican candidate with experience, because I don’t fucking vote for Republicans no matter what.
Ohio Mom
@Citizen Alan: I am not a praying person but I will cross fingers and toes for you.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I think Glusenkamp Perez would win a general election in Ayanna Pressley’s district. She might not win the primary, though.
Now, Henry Cuellar probably would not win a general election in Pressley’s district. I bet Sharice Davids or Colin Allred would.
And so would Mary Peltola. Everybody’s Pro-Fish!
catothedog
The US Catholic Bishops today elected a Republican, Pope-Francis hater, gay-basher, vaccine-hater gay-priests-caused-child-abuse nutcase as their president to lead them for the next 3 years. (got 138/237 votes)
It would be an open fight with Biden, Pelosi and Democrats vs Catholic Bishops – no holds barred. The 2024 election will be lit.
These fuck3rs never learn. They are going to double down on the extremism.
dnfree
@The Moar You Know: A lot of my blame goes to the Republican Party for nominating unqualified people, but I’m sure there are places where Democrats do the same.
This county has/had 22 county board districts for a population of around 47,000, i.e. too many districts to find qualified candidates in. A few years ago the young daughter of one far-right member was elected from a different district. Her only function on the board was to vote with her dad. Turned out she didn’t even live in the district she was elected to represent.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Nice article about Hillary Scholten, who won in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District – the first time a Democrat has represented the district since 1977 (45 years!). She won despite being an immigration lawyer in an election cycle where “the border” was supposed to be a major motivating issue and won a lot of crossover Republican support.
Mathguy
Nebraska-2 was a great example of gerrymandering swinging the race. The shitheads of the Nebraska Republican Party managed to take out an urban chunk of Sarpy county that went 42% D, and probably would have gone higher for Vargas, and add Saunders county (a rural county) that went 24% D. Vargas won Douglas county (basically Omaha) over Bacon, but the rural areas swung it to Bacon.
I can’t wait to leave this state, but need to wait for a few years to retirement
trollhattan
@dnfree: With the name Wingert, was the outcome preordained? Like Sydnee Trumper.
22? For a job with no overlapping skills and education requirements the winner possesses? But, TWO churches, so it’s all good.
Hitchhiker
Perez is about as good a D candidate as I’ve seen in a long time, and she just won a district that went for Trump two years ago by 4 points, without help from the national party apparatus. Let her be the face of the Democratic party to people who haven’t had a Democrat in office since 2010.
Perez is 35, the daughter of a Mexican immigrant, the mother of a toddler, and owner (with her husband) of an auto repair shop. She holds a degree in economics from Reed College, and she’s been active in local politics since 2016.
I’m not a fan of her comment that she wouldn’t vote for Pelosi without naming the person she *would* vote for, but I’m still ecstatic that she took this seat away from the crazies who were ready to vote for Joe Kent.
Alison Rose
@Geminid:
I’m a vegetarian–that means something different to me than to others :P
TS
@Baud:
The media seems to only have issues that the GOP decides should be issues. The most obvious issue that the GOP wanted disappeared was abortion & suddenly the media had it way down the list as to what mattered in the election.
Given I have access to the Washington Post because of a crazy cheap subscription years ago which they accept every year – I read them as my MSM news site. Today these were the political headlines
McCarthy survives leadership challenge; Scott to challenge McConnell in Senate
They rallied in D.C. on Jan. 6. Now they’ll join Congress.
Inside Kari Lake’s war room, where Republicans are grappling with defeat
Trump campaign will be leaner for 2024 White House bid, sources say
frosty
@Citizen Alan: Fingers crossed and best wishes from me! Pittsburgh is a great town; my son lives there and my mom grew up there so I’ve visited a lot. Meetup with Suzanne, geg6 and others if you make it!!
ETA Except for the Pirates (beat my Orioles in ’79) and the Steelers (just because)
Mousebumples
@Matt McIrvin: Yup. I voted for Cruz in 2020 GOP Primary – in attempt to keep Trump from winning.
Didn’t work, on two levels. Trump won the Wisconsin primary and the election.
ETA – Don’t forget about our postcarding/music thread later tonight at about 7pm central (8pm blog time).
I’ll be writing GOTV postcards for Senator Warnock, and I hope you’ll join me!
zhena gogolia
Has anybody analyzed the effect of the Jan 6 hearings on the elections?
dnfree
@trollhattan: actually, I think so in the rural areas of the county, even without the “wing”. Seems like her family ran a real estate or insurance agency, something along those lines.
Geminid
@Alison Rose: You don’t have to eat fish to be pro-fish!
Baud
@TS:
That I agree with. The media should be asking Republican candidates about the issues we raise in our campaigns.
Ruckus
@catothedog:
Their views are as shitty as they are so when their view don’t sell, they double down with more shitty. And their shitty supporters like that because they are so very similar.
It takes all kinds to be humans, even if it’s not even close to their best interests. They were taught by/exposed to shitty humans early or they hated the good humans that tried to give them a reasonable outlook, and they became shitty. And often they live near other shitty humans so they accept that all humans are shitty.
eclare
@Alison Rose: Oh my!
Leslie
@Citizen Alan: Good luck on the interview! I hope you get it.
Ned F.
@Betty Cracker: Read that this morning. I believe she mentioned the National Dem Party did not sypport her, gave her no money. PA lost the senate seat 6 years ago because they would not back Admiral Sestak and put up a candidate nobody had heard of, who bombed really bad.
different-church-lady
Oh, here’s a fun WaPo headline:
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia:
Why on earth would anyone do that when we already know INFLATION!!!!! was the only thing that mattered?
Leslie
Trains:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/magazine/ukraine-trains.html
Baud
@Geminid:
I would think not eating fish would be more pro-fish than eating fish.
C Stars
@Ruckus: Not to rain on your shit parade, but one thing that has given me a bit of hope is how many people were raised in shitty places by shitty people with shitty views, but then when Trump came to town said no thanks. Like, he was too shitty for even a lot of the ones who were set up to be shitty. And yes I am speaking about my in-laws right now, who used to vote R and now, bizarrely, are Pelosi fanboys.
Am I making sense? I’m delirious with covid…
Geminid
@Baud: As I said a few nights ago, I have given my award for best campaign slogan in the 2022 midterms to Mary Peltola: “Pro Fish, Pro Family, Pro Freedom.”
Baud
@C Stars:
That is unusual. Good for them.
Baud
@Geminid:
In that order!
topclimber
@Alison Rose: Faux-fish, Family, Freedom for you then.
C Stars
@Baud: right, how do you go from loving Ronald Reagan to quoting Michelle Obama on the regular in one lifetime? They are people who were raised in a very republican place/way, but have a strong sense of decency and Trump bumped them right out of the party
ETA maybe it helps that their many children are all vocal Democrats
Cameron
Should be an entertaining meltdown in Mar-a-Lago tonight.
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/you-lost-again-donald-plane-trolls-mar-a-lago-with-pro-desantis-banner-hours-ahead-of-trump-announcement/
Gin & Tonic
@Leslie: Paywalled.
Roger Moore
@dnfree:
I wish we had that many county board districts. For some insane reason, Los Angeles County has 5 county supervisors for a population just north of 10,000,000. We really, really need to fix that. We could really do with a much larger board of supervisors.
Baud
@C Stars:
Haha. Sounds like it won’t be long before they start commenting here.
kindness
Conservatives go after their successful opponents. Nancy raises ungodly sums of money for the Democrats, she’s Speaker of the House, she can count, and she keeps her troops in line. Nancy is the most successful Democrat in the House or the Senate. Of course Republicans are going to paint devil horns on her every chance they get. That’s what they do.
Geminid
Jaime Herrera Butler was one of four Republican Impeachers to lose their primary. The other three were Peter Meijer (MI), Liz Cheney (WY), and Tom Rice (SC).
Two older ones- John Katko (NY) and Fred Upton (MI) retired, along with the relatively young Anthony Gonzales (OH) and Adam Kinzinger (IL).
Dan Newhouse (WA) and David Valadeo (CA) are the last Impeachers standing, although Valadeo’s race has yet to be called, I think.
Chief Oshkosh
@Old School: That kid’ll be in prison for embezzlement within 5 years.
zhena gogolia
Deleted. I don’t know how to do gift links.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
Sure, but even the fishers want the fishes to prosper. After all, if the fish are doing well, there are more of them to catch.
As I understand it, the “pro-fish” thing is about the proposed Pebble Mine. It would be a huge gold mine in sensitive salmon-spawning habitat. There may be fights in Alaska between natives and commercial fishers about who gets to catch the salmon, but neither side wants a gold mine contaminating the fishes’ spawning habitat. The only people who like the mine are ones who expect to profit from it personally.
Alison Rose
@Leslie: “russian warship, go [expletive] yourself”
Oh, NYT. You’re all gonna get carpal tunnel if you keep clutching those pearls so hard.
ETA gift link for those who need it: Ukraine’s 15,000-Mile Lifeline – How the country’s vast rail system has helped it withstand an invasion.
suzanne
@Citizen Alan:
Best of luck!
Advice: skip Primanti’s, head to Oak Hill Post.
dexwood
@Citizen Alan: I don’t pray, but I sacrificed a green chile cheeseburger to the gods on your behalf. Tasty.
Geminid
@Geminid: I consider all of our House members to be valuable, more or less. I tend to value those who have flipped Republican seats the most, though.
Mary Peltola impresses me far beyond the fact that she won a seat that was in Republican hands for decades. Her experience, talent, and temperament will add a lot of value to the Democratic Caucus. And before long, the entire caucus will be Pro Fish!
dnfree
@Ruckus: Many years ago there was a story in the Reader’s Digest about a man walking into an old-time Maine general store. Another customer came in, was rude, and left. The first customer said to the shopkeeper, “Well, I guess it takes all kinds.” The shopkeeper replied, “It don’t TAKE all kinds. We just GOT all kinds.”
Baud
@Geminid:
And shorter thereafter, pro-family and pro-freedom. Go Mary!
H.E.Wolf
Here’s the “Fish” portion of Rep. Mary Peltola’s platform:
”
“Fighting for our fish is critical to preserving our Alaska way of life.
“That means reauthorizing the Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
“That means fighting against the factory trawler operations that are dumping millions of metric tons of fish every year.
“That means giving more representation and attention to subsistence communities–and making sure they have seats at the table when we are making decisions. “
eclare
@H.E.Wolf: I was really happy to see that photo of Mary and Marie together in DC.
Geminid
@Roger Moore: The Pebble Mine is certainly a big issue for Alaskans. But I think Peltola’s slogan goes beyond that issue. Its a shrewd, pragmatic appeal to Alaskans’ environmentalism.
And much of Mary Peltola’s professional life has involved Alaska’s fisheries, so she really knows what she’s talking about.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … Gov.PL:
[eta:] It looks to be about 5 miles from the border – not close in professional military terms, but this is VVP’s vatniks we’re dealing with here…
Grr…,
Scott.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Mary Peltola is Pro Fish, and she’s not Koi about it either!
Dan B
@Geminid: A professional colleague of mine did the environmental review of the watershed the Pebble Mine would impact. I got to see it before publication.
Brachiator
@Citizen Alan:
Good luck with your upcoming interview.
Percysowner
@Baud:
Well if we don’t keep the house Gluesenkamp Perez can keep her word and vote for Nancy for Minority Leader, or she can not vote for her and it may not make a difference. The only way this would be a big deal is if we only had a one seat lead and G/P could tank the speakership. Basically, it’s not a bid deal, IMHO.
Geoduck
Here in the capital of Washington state, we were stuck with a cartoonishly corrupt county sheriff; a few years back he randomly plowed into a civilian’s car, seriously injuring the man, and managed to get his cronies in the local government to slow walk and hide the resulting court case. This year, he got voted out of office, so one more piece of good news.
Geminid
@Dan B: Which one? I think they’ve had several environmental reviews, before, during and after the Trump administration. I may be confusing reviews by different agencies, though.
I noticed that the owners of the project started calling it a Copper and Gold mine. I guess they wanted to make it sound more utilitarian and less greedy.
Leslie
Deleted because there’s a nice tidy gift link at 72. Thanks, Alison!
CaseyL
@Citizen Alan: Wishing you the very best of luck with your interview! Let us know how it goes!
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan: fingers crossed for you. May you be Senator John Fetterman’s constituent. And soon.
Moar snow and cold. But, a vibrant urban center. Good food. Driving distance to go annoy John Cole. And: Democrats!
Starfish
@Citizen Alan: Good luck on your interview!
Layer8Problem
@Citizen Alan: All the best luck on the interview!!
TriassicSands
Ordinarily, when Democratic candidates seek to distance themselves from the party, I respond very negatively. Yes, candidates have to acknowledge their local environment, but pretending to be (or actually being, Democratlite or even a DINO is not laudable in my mind.
Perez proclaiming she will vote against Pelosi for party leader, however, really didn’t matter to me. Why? First, it was likely the Democrats were going to lose control of the House, so Pelosi wouldn’t be speaker anyway. And while Pelosi has been a superb leader up until now, it really is time for the party to begin to transition to younger leadership. The other day Cole posted a list of the senators up for re-election in 2024 and I spent a little time looking up the ages of the Democratic senators. What I found was appalling. Yes, people are living longer and individuals age very differently, but as a party we have to depend increasingly on younger voters and asking them to vote for people who could conceivably be their great-grandparents. is not a great idea.
My own senator, Patty Murray, just won re-election at age 72. That means she’ll be nearing 80 when her next term is up. That is simply too old. I voted for her and donated to her campaign, because the alternative, the odious Tiffany Smiley was sickening (as would be the election of any Republican). But I also sent a message to Murray , asking her to step down in a couple of years. That would let Governor Inslee appoint her successor and give that person four years in office before running for re-election with the advantage of incumbency. Murray has been a fine senator, I’ve voted for her five times since moving to Washington. However, a lot can happen to people cognitively and physically after the age of 70 (or even younger). Diane Feinstein, never a great Democratic senator is now an embarrassment. Hanging on too long can have even worse consequences. Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a great SCOTUS justice, misjudged the future and that resulted in the complete takeover of the court by extremists. Breyer, who could have continued to serve, made the right decision, and we now have an African American justice who can serve, one hopes, for years to come.
The replacement of Pelosi as Speaker with the thorougly inept Kevin McCarthy, gives the Democrats a good opportunity to groom a skilled, experienced replacement for Pelosi. For continuity’s sake it should be someone in a safe district. I don’t care if it’s a woman or a man, as long as the person will be able to guide House Democrats successfully. (An experienced cat-herder would be ideal.) It’s unrealistic to expect Pelosi’s replacement to be as skillful as she has been, but far better to have the transition proceed smoothly than to have her suddenly become incapacitated and force the party to go into emergency replacement mode.
TriassicSands
@Citizen Alan:
Good luck with your interview.
TriassicSands
It’s pandering, but in this case, pretty meaningless. Her vote will not change the leadership and it is time for the party to transition to younger leaders. If it helped get her get elected, which is questionable, great. Rest assured her opponent wouldn’t have voted for Pelosi either.
As it is, she kept a horrible Republican from going to D.C,
I recently listened to some audio of Mark Kelly running away from the president and the party. That certainly didn’t improve my opinion of Kelly, but since it was him or Masters…
HumboldtBlue
Dan Froomkin reads Balloon-Juice.
Ruckus
@C Stars:
Actually you are making sense. We in CA may be more democratic but there is still a large contingent of red here. Some counties go red every election. Now they are usually the small population counties but still, we have the red tide here. There are liberals living in red states and SFB cohorts/supporters living in liberal states. Hell we’ve sent a couple of real shitheads to the WH. How’d you enjoy Ronnie?
I hope that your covid goes away soon.
Geminid
@TriassicSands: I expect Speaker Pelosi has already made up her mind to step back from leadership. She’ll make her announcement either way before many more days have passed.
As for grooming a successor, I believe that has already been done. It will almost certainly be Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, a very talented and hard working man.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
I tend to agree with you pretty much. I’m 73 and yesterday had my bi-annual neuro appointment. Actually improved in a number of areas. So I expect that I may actually live quite a few more years. Could I do a reasonable job in congress? I think I could. Would/will I be that competent in 7-8 yrs? I have no idea but I doubt that I would be competent enough. Now here’s the issue. Congress is seemingly not all that tough a job if your head is screwed on reasonably and the hours are not horrible and the pay is actually good. But your point about Diane Feinstein is well made.
This brings me to my thoughts on political office holders. We tend to continue to reelect people who do what we consider a good job. And someone must be voting for Ted Cruz, although I can not fathom why in the world would anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together ever vote for that. Or actually any number of national office holders. I’m a geezer and I’d like to see younger people in congress, hell any office. I think there should be maximum term limits for each and every federal political office and for the Supreme Court. It may make for a worse government, it may make for a much better government. And some of our governments I’ve seen in my lifetime should have been replaced and Bozo the clown would have been better.
James E Powell
@Hitchhiker:
I’m with you on this. I go back & forth on Democrats who disparage Democratic presidents & party leaders to pander to right-wingers. First, one reason Biden or Pelosi or whoever might be less popular is because members of their own party won’t defend them. Second, I don’t think it does as much good as they think. People who hate Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden are not very likely to vote for Democrats. So, while I will never like it, she won so I guess I have to put up with it.
James E Powell
@TS:
Right now the headline on the online WaPo is:
Republican infighting roils Congress as midterms fallout continues.
Can you dig it?
NotMax
@Geminid
May be trickier than it ought, as then the leader in both chambers would be from NY. Not in any way verboten, but potentially geographically awkward.
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: I always remind myself that California, the state as a whole, was a red state in presidential elections until 1992. Between
FDRTruman and Clinton, the only one where they went Democratic was LBJ’s landslide in 1964.Geminid
@NotMax: That stuff does not matter like it used to. Hakeem Jeffries has been spoken of as Soeaker Pelosi’s successor ever since he was elected Caucus Chairman four years ago. Some people raised this objection early on, but they don’t even bother any more. The Caucus will pick the best member for the job and will not let such an abstract problem stand in the way. Just watch them.
Kosh III
@Roger Moore: Here in Nashville with a population of 700,000 we have 40 Metro Council members. It’s nice to have a councilmember reply to your emails, which most do. Too bad we’re stuck in the middle of stupid ratfraking Talibangelist Republicans.
Kosh III
In Tennessee the GOP legislature gerrymandered the 5th cong. district so that Repubs could win. A good candidate for the D was Heidi Campbell, former mayor and current State Senator. She raised a ton of money with NO HELP from the national D. Despite running against a duplicitious idiot who said “all taxes are evil” she lost 53-45. Now we have 9 House seats and only one D. Hardly representative but some states are just not important to the national D party.
Our theocratic governor ran a sad lie-filled campaign yet still easily won against a ER doctor who ran a great campaign but did not have enough funds to buy tv time. How much support did the national party give? NONE.