Dem Compromisers Are Behind the Times

Stop listening to them, and stop supporting the candidates they push forward.  Doing so is an invitation to annihilation.

Erik Loomis at LGM:

When you are facing fascists, there is no room for compromise. But for Johnson–and for so many Clinton and Obama-era officials–this is not something that computes. For them, compromising with reasonable Republicans and shunning the left is always the right answer.

These are people are now behind the times. There is no room for old-school centrist Democrats in setting the policy agenda anymore. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. That doesn’t mean a primary challenge to Tammy Duckworth is in order or anything–she did her centrist party mission by dismissing AOC but she’s been a perfectly fine vote so far. She will learn in the next 5 years.

The only road ahead for the Democrats is as an anti-fascist party with a bold agenda that combines racial, economic, and gendered justice. For those who fret about that, understand that actual fascism is descending upon America, that the Supreme Court is in the first of a multi-year process that will likely repeal a century of progressive law, and that the future of democracy in this nation is in doubt. There is no room for mealy-mouthed DLC compromise any longer, if there ever really was. It makes about as much sense today as centrist politics did as the fascists took power in Europe.

In the immortal words of Jim Hightower, the only things in the middle of the road are yellow lines and dead armadillos

For the Zillionth Time, Stop Wasting Money on Repugs Who Will NEVER Vote Democratic

The DINO poobahs and consultants still selling the same old centrist bullshit that has failed for 20 years do not have Democratic best interests at heart.  The hand-wringers pleading for the compromise with people who Want. Us. Dead. are not on our side. The repug trolls who handed the election to the Pumpkin Traitor and now dare to dispense campaign advice cannot be trusted.

Listen to Zandar:

White evangelical Christians will never, ever, ever, ever leave Donald Trump, and Democrats need to stop wasting time, resources, manpower and money chasing after them, and I hope the Washington Post article on the members of a Southern Baptist church in Alabama makes this painfully clear.  They are lost.

SNIP

They are lost.  They thought Obama was going to "end racism" by absolving white America of slavery and Jim Crow and lynch mobs and history, and when Obama pointed out that racism still existed, they turned on him and the Democrats in frightening numbers.  And they are lost.  They aren't coming back.  Not when Trump's GOP is gladly the white supremacy party.

SNIP

They are lost, and they are done.  Trump's evil won't repel them, and appeals to economic populism will fall on deaf ears.  They believe their reward for fighting for Trump and for white Christianity lies in heaven.  They are a lost cause.  All Democrats are doing is ignoring their own base in order to try to shave a few off the margins in the suburbs and exurbs, and it's coming at the direct expense of black, Hispanic, and Asian voters.  It's a fool's trade.

SNIP

Their hearts are closed and their minds are made up.  We have fifteen weeks left from tomorrow.  If Dems do not regain control of the House at the minimum, we are done as a nation.  The damage by the time November 2020 rolls around will be incalculable if they still control the country. I understand the need to grow the Democratic party brand, but that means getting new voters out that we can reach, not chasing Obama-Trump voters who are not coming back this year and may never come back.

If we don't get our crap together now, we will be the ones who are lost.  If the events of this week where it became clear that Trump is compromised by Russia and no longer cares if the world knows about it didn't cause a crippling and obvious collapse in support for Trump, there is nothing that will, save Donald Trump becoming a Black Lives Matter fan on national TV.

It is time to move on.

DINO Ben Betrays Kentuckians; Will Help Bevin Steal Medicaid From Tens of Thousands

When I saw the headline at the Herald-Leader - Bevin announces partnership to implement Medicaid changes - I knew who it had to be.

Shame on you, Ben Chandler.  And how fucking stupid, aligning yourself with the trumpies just as the Resistance is notching its first victories.

Do you really hate Kentuckians that much for not electing you Governor in 2003? Do you really think the repugs will reward you for this betrayal?

Are you so desperate for money that you will take 30 pieces of silver from the Yankee carpetbagger who is systematically bulldozing the state your grandfather served as governor not once but twice?

What are you getting out of this, you motherfucking piece of shit?

Kentucky's Republican governor is partnering with a former Democratic congressman to help implement the nation's first work requirements for Medicaid.

Former official yes but mostly former Democrat.

On Wednesday, Gov. Matt Bevin announced a partnership with the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, a nonpartisan health policy research group run by Ben Chandler.

Once the new work requirements take effect later this year, state officials predict Medicaid will cover 95,000 fewer people in five years, leading critics to accuse Bevin of taking away people's health insurance. Chandler said the foundation's goal will be to help Kentuckians keep their coverage.

You don't help Kentuckians keep their coverage by partnering with Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You to force 95,000 of them off health coverage.

Shame on you, Ben.  I hope every real Democratic candidate in Kentucky stands up to condemn you, your new repug buddy and every inhuman policy the two of you now stand for.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article212164799.html#storylink=cpy

Beware the Rage of the Betrayed

Already spineless "Democrats" from Brent Yonts in Western Kentucky all the way up to Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama - SHAME on them! - are playing nice with the Orange Menace.

They'll get us all killed.

We're watching them.  We're taking names.  The tiny dictator is going down, and all the dems who failed to spit in his face are going to pay the price exacted by the voters.

As usual, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar nails it:

Yes, we’re all supposed to come together after an election, let bygones be bygones, and march forward unified as neither Democrats nor Republicans but patriotic Americans celebrating the triumph of the democratic process. But it’s difficult to link arms when the home of the free embraces the leadership of a racist.

Let the other groups denigrated and threatened by Trump speak for themselves. The women, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the LGBT community and others who now must walk through the streets of their country for the next four years in shame and fear, knowing that their value as human beings has been diminished by their neighbors. I only speak for myself as an African-American and I speak with the rage of betrayal.

Stop Wooing Repugs, Tim Kaine: You're Wasting Time and Pissing Off Real Democratic Voters

Yep, he's exactly the repug-lite motherfucker we thought he was. 

 

How anyone with the sense dog gave a goose could have lived through the last 20 years and imagine that there is a repug anywhere who will ever, EVER vote for a Democratic candidate is beyond me.

Not only will no repug vote Democratic, but all those pearl-clutching repugs disowning Donald Traitor are going to fall in line and vote for him come November.

Meanwhile, all the easily-discouraged Democratic voters that Hillary needs to turn out in November are watching Kaine and wondering what the fuck is the point, I've got better things to do than vote for repug-lite candidates with a D next to the name.

Well done, Clinton-Kaine.  Convention's not over and you've already lost the election.

KY Dems Oust House DINO While Saving Seat

Now come the hard part: preventing the repugs - who have candidates in 91 of 100 House seats - from netting three Democratic seats in November and turning the beautiful Bluegrass into an all-repug Haitian hellscape.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Two of the 11 state House incumbents facing party opposition Tuesday in Kentucky’s primary election went down to defeat.

Louisville lawmakers Tom Riner, a Democrat, and Ron Crimm, a Republican, lost their bids for re-election.

Riner, a Baptist pastor who has been in the House since 1982, was ousted by Attica Scott, a former member of the Louisville Metro Council, in the 41st House District. She has no opposition in the fall election.

Scott was helped by state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, and former state Rep. Eleanor Jordan, D-Louisville, who signed a direct-mail letter to voters in the district saying Riner didn’t share their values.

Riner has been criticized by some Democrats for not caucusing with House Democrats and for introducing Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis to the conservative Liberty Counsel group for legal advice in her battle against issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Riner also surprised his House colleagues in 2013 when, in a floor speech, he gave a forceful speech against sexual harassment shortly after two veteran employees filed complaints against a state lawmaker.

SNIP

Tuesday’s House elections to select party nominees set the stage for a contentious fight between Democrats and Republicans for control of the Kentucky House of Representatives in the Nov. 8 general election.

Republicans think they have a good chance of wresting control of the House from Democrats for the first time since 1921. They fielded candidates in 91 of the 100 House districts up for election this year.

Republicans now control the state Senate and the governor’s office. The Kentucky House is the last legislative chamber in the South with a majority of Democrats.

SNIP

Democrats now outnumber Republicans in the state House 53-47 after winning three of four special elections in March.

The Real Price of Louisiana's Medicaid Expansion Is Thousands of Women Dead From Illegal Abortions

Yeah, Louisiana has a Democratic governor who expanded Medicaid for a quarter-million people.  But it's never white men who pay the price.

As Digby has so often written, when DINO Dems prevail, women always suffer.  Because whenever dems think they have to give up something in negotiation, somehow it's always women's reproductive rights.  Because who cares about those.

Raw Story:

The Louisiana legislature on Wednesday passed a bill requiring women to wait three days before receiving an abortion, tripling the state’s existing waiting time in one of the most stringent regulations of its kind nationally.

Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has said he plans to sign the bill championed by anti-abortion groups. It passed with wide support from the Republican-controlled legislature.

The bill requires a woman to wait at least 72 hours after a state-mandated ultrasound for the procedure. The current waiting time is 24 hours, the same as in most states with waiting periods.

Only five other states require 72-hour waiting periods: Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah.

The measures are among a wave of laws being adopted by states as conservatives seek to chip away at the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion.

SNIP 

Opponents of the legislation see it as the latest attempt to block women’s access to abortions.

“Politicians in Louisiana have made it their mission to restrict access to safe and legal health care — with women in the state left to pay the price,” Amanda Allen, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement, urging the governor to veto the measure.

Louisiana also requires women to make two separate visits to a clinic to obtain an abortion, seen as an additional burden on women forced to take extra time off work and away from families, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health policy.

Bevin Hands Gov Race Conway, Who Will Piss It Away

Conway has already come out in favor of the get-out-of-having-to-do-your-job bill for county clerks; no way he'll attack Bevin for supporting one of them, even if it's Conway's only ticket to victory.

Zandar:

With two months to go before the election for governor here in Kentucky, Republican Matt Bevin has just thrown in his lot with Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and the wrong side of history.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Bevin rushed to defend Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis after she again refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday morning. 

Bevin also scolded Democratic opponent, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, for failing to stand by the religious liberties of county clerks who oppose the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. 

“Jack Conway has failed to do his job as attorney general by refusing to defend Kentucky’s marriage amendment, and he is failing to defend the religious freedom of our Kentucky clerks,” Bevin said in a statement. 

The comments come amid an intense standoff at Davis's office where a gay couple sought to obtain a marriage license after the High Court rejected her last-ditch effort for a stay Monday. After a heated exchange between Davis and the couple, their attorneys filed a motion to find Davis in contempt of court for refusing to issue them a marriage license. 

In response, the Bevin campaign sought to tie Conway — who refused to appeal the initial federal ruling against the state's same-sex marriage ban last year — to the controversy in a series of Tweets. Bevin's campaign said the Democrat is refusing to defend the First Amendment rights of county clerks. 

"As attorney general, it's Jack Conway's job to defend the Constitutional rights of all Kentuckians, including county clerks," Bevin's Twitter account said.

I swear, for a while there I was afraid Matt Bevin wasn't this much of a moron.  He might actually find a way to lose this thing now.  If he had just said that this was a matter "for the courts" or "for the legislature" to deal with he could have gotten away with it.  It wouldn't be up to Bevin anyway to impeach and remove Davis from her office, and he doesn't make federal court decisions.

But by coming out squarely in the defense of an anti-gay bigot, Bevin has nowhere to hide now.  As Governor he'd be a national embarrassment to the Commonwealth, as it is we Kentuckians look like backwater hicks most of the time.

If Jack Conway can't find a way to bloody Bevin's nose over this and severely damage his campaign, then he's too incompetent for the job in Frankfort anyway.

The Tribble-Toupeed "Libertarian" thinks Davis is just the thing, too.

A Shut Down Is Preferable

The government-killing repugs in the House got everything they wanted in the Cromnibus.  And given that they did it with 54 votes from scum-sucking DINOs, the chance the "Democratic" Senate can fix it are slim and none.,

Digby:

Dday has an important piece today about the CRomnibus  in which he illustrates just how much of the battle over the vote last night was actually a bit of misdirection. The disputed provisions in the bill (to roll back derivative regulations and campaign finance reform measures) were terrible, of course. But they were the tip of the iceberg:

But there’s so much more to the CRomnibus than just those two riders. Under the bill, trustees would be enabled to cut pension benefits to current retirees, reversing a 40-year bond with workers who earned their retirement packages. Voters in the District of Columbia who approved legalized marijuana will see their initiative vaporized, with local government prohibited from taxing or regulating the drug’s sale. Trucking companies can make roads less safe by giving their employees 82-hour work weeks without sufficient rest breaks. Pell grants for college students will be cut, with the money diverted to private student loan contractors who have actively harmed borrowers. Government financiers of overseas projects will be prevented from stopping funding for coal-fired power plants. Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be allowed to count “quality improvement” measures toward their mandatory health spending under Obamacare’s “medical loss ratio” provision, a windfall saving them millions of dollars.

I’m not done. The bill eliminates a bipartisan measure to end “backdoor” searches by the NSA of Americans’ private communications. It blocks the EPA from regulating certain water sources for farmers. It adds an exception to allow the U.S. to continue to fund Egypt’s military leadership. In a giveaway to potato growers, it reduces nutrition standards in school lunches and the Women, Infant and Children food aid program. It halts the listing of new endangered species. It stops the regulation of lead in hunting ammunition or fishing equipment. It limits contributions to the Green Climate Fund to compensate poor countries ravaged by climate change. I could go on. And even if the offending measures on derivatives and campaign finance were removed, all of that dreck would remain.

He goes on to make the important point that this is going to be the new normal. I think that's right. The progressive Democrats will now be free to make losing stand after losing stand --- which is a nice bit of theatre that excites people like me without having to disrupt business as usual --- while the Democratic centrists and the Republicans make "deals" for the benefit of their benefactors and trade off cuts to various benefits and regulations like they were baseball cards.  If any consensus exists in the US Congress it's that we need to protect the most vulnerable among us: rich people.

How the Repugs and Centrists Have Left Democrats and Minorities Powerless

Short version: Racism.  That's what has powered conservatives for 200 years, and looks to be powering conservatives for another 200.

Enabled by fake centrists and cowardly dems whose repeated solution to electoral defeat is to run to the right.

Where Democrats find only more defeat, and more excuses to run further to the right.

It's political suicide.  It has been political suicide for 40 years, but dems never learn.

Martin Longman @ Political Animal has the details:

There’s no point in sugar-coating this. In the Deep South, the Democratic Party is now the non-white party, and minority politicians don’t have the white partners they need to exercise any but the most local political power. While the problem is less severe in the border states, it has clearly made advances there. You can look at pretty much the whole Scots-Irish migration from the Virginias to Oklahoma and see that the Democrats were trounced last Tuesday. They badly lost Senate elections in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Arkansas, and they actually lost two Senate elections each in South Carolina and Oklahoma. Their seat in Virginia was only (just barely) saved by the DC suburbs in the northeastern part of the state.

This isn’t just a problem for the Democratic Party. It’s a big problem for blacks, too.

This situation is so deleterious for African-Americans in the Deep South because, unlike in Congress, where black Democrats have many white Democratic colleagues—not to mention a Democrat in the White House—in these Southern states, black Democratic state legislators (and, by extension, their black constituents) are completely at the mercy of Republican legislative majorities and Republican governors. What’s more, unlike in Washington, where control of the White House—and at least the Senate —swings back and forth between both parties, the Republican control of Southern state houses seems here to stay for a long, long time.

This loss of power is not what progressives or the black community envisioned when the first black president was elected, but the fury of the blowback is now undeniable. Both the party and its African-American base share a self-interest in doing something to combat the impression and (in these parts of the country) the increasing reality that the Democrats are not a party for white people.

This can’t be done by any simple tweaks to the party platform, and there’s a broader cultural element at play here that implicates more than race. Attitudes about religion and human sexuality are also major factors in what has happened, as the country has galloped ahead at breakneck speed to destigmatize homosexuality, for example, while Republican legislatures have furiously sought to restrict women’s rights.

Asking how the party can get white Democrats elected in these regions again isn’t something that blacks or progressive whites are eager to discuss, particularly when the answers may not be to their liking. But their power is at stake, as well as many of the values that they’ve fought for and thought, perhaps erroneously, that they had secured. At stake are basic civil rights (including voting rights), women’s reproductive health, and even the president’s landmark health care law. The black community’s political power is at stake, too, in a major and urgent way.

These problems will require fresh thinking, by which I mean that reconstructing the Blue Dog Coalition is probably not the answer. It’s not the local Chambers of Commerce we need to court, but the economically pressed white voter who must be cleaved from the plutocratic coalition that has enchanted him.

The Third Way led us here. It does not provide the route out of this maze.

QOTD

Digby on the real primary race liberal Zephyr Teachout gave DINO and Wall Street Shill Andrew Cuomo in New York:

We must forge ahead. Liberals in this country have the same right to representation as conservatives do. And all Americans deserve a debate about the great issues of our time. Hopefully this is the start of something big.

Alison's Repug-Lite Campaign Has Her Four Points Down

In endorsing Zephyr Teachout for New York Governor, the Nation editors wrote something Alison would be smart to consider for the remaining two months of her campaign:

... she understands that the Democratic Party must move toward progressive populism in order to become more than a tepid alternative to Republican extremism.

Joseph Gerth at the Courier:

Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell has put a little more distance between him and his Democratic opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, but the race remains within the margin of error, according to the latest Bluegrass Poll.

The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA for The Courier-Journal and three other news outlets, found that McConnell holds a 46 percent to 42 percent lead among likely voters over Grimes. Libertarian David Patterson gets 5 percent of the vote, and 8 percent remain undecided.

It's the third consecutive Bluegrass Poll that has found McConnell improving his chances for re-election in November. Before that, the poll found Grimes ahead by 4 points in a survey conducted in January and February.

If Grimes doesn't give Democratic voters a reason to vote for her better than "I'm not Mitch," and do it fast, she's losing by double digits to a wounded opponent a strong progressive could beat.

The Real Reason Dems Can't Take Back the House: The Self-Sabotaging DCCC

Bad enough that state legislative Dems allowed repugs to gerrymander congressional districts such that nothing less than 100 percent Democratic voter turnout can elect a Democrat.

But to hand over to repugs without a fight the few swing districts in which real Democratic candidates could win is nothing less than betrayal.

If repugs picked someone to destroy any chance of actual Democratic winning congressional races, they could not have done better than Steve Israel.

Down with Tyranny:

A good red-to-blue program would have strong, progressive candidates running against Republicans in blue-leaning districts. Instead, Israel's personal agenda had him out-right protecting Republicans in many of these districts. These are all districts Democrats should be able to win but that Israel has screwed up-- as he chases impossible districts with revolting Blue Dogs and New Dems in deep red territory.

• NY-02- Peter King (R+1)
• MI-06- Fred Upton (R+1)
• WA-08- Dave Reichert (R+1)
• FL-13- Dave Jolly (R+1)
• FL-27- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R+2)
• WI-08- Reid Ribble (R+2)
• WI-07- Sean Duffy (R+2)
• MN-03- Erik Paulsen (R+2)
• PA-07- Patrick Meehan (R+2)
• PA-15- Charlie Dent (R+2)
• MI-08- Mike Rogers (retiring) (R+2)
• WA-03- Jaime Herrera Beutler (R+2)
• NY-22- Richard Hanna (R+3)
• CA-25- Buck McKeon (retiring) (R+3)
• WI-01- Paul Ryan (R+3)
• OH-10- Michael Turner (R+3)

In each of these winnable districts Israel has either screwed up the recruiting or refused to back the Democratic candidate-- when there is one. Unless the Democrats win these seats they cannot take back the House. Steve Israel isn't even competing in any of them. His reappointment by Nancy Pelosi after his catastrophic loss in 2012 (while Obama and the Senate Dems slaughtered the Republicans), must have been reason for the Republicans to be popping corks on cartons full of Dom Pérignon.

Israel has been tricking grassroots Democratic donors into sending money to the grotesquely corrupt DCCC in the hope that it would somehow prevent the GOP from impeaching President Obama. Pretty disgusting tactic to use against low-info but sincere Democrats who don't know what a scumbag Israel is! Instead of helping with impeachment, the money is being wasted on the horrible Red to Blue candidates with no chance to win. Tell me which of these districts is as good a bet as the districts Israel is aggressively ignoring up top:

• NE-02- Brad Ashford (R+4)
• MI-01- Jerry Cannon (R+5)
• IN-02- Joe Bock (R+6)
• MT-AL- John Lewis (R+7)
• AR-02- Patrick Henry Hays (R+8)
• OH-06- Jennifer Garrison (R+8)
• KY-06- Elisabeth Jensen (R+9)
• ND-AL- George Sinner (R+10)
• WV-02- Nick Casey (R+11)
• AR-01- Jackie McPherson (R+14)
• WV-01- Glen Gainer (R+14)
• AR-04- James Lee Witt (R+15)

And these are basically a bunch of garden variety conservatives with not an ounce of courageousness between them. It's a stretch to even call most of these candidates "Democrats." Many are anti-Choice, pro-NRA and anti-LGBT and the whole bunch of them are corporate shills who would be-- were they to win (none of them will)-- on the wrong side of the battle lines between the 1% and normal American families.

So, yes, Israel has been on track to having the worst batting average of any DCCC chairman in history. That makes perfect sense, since he clearly is the worst DCCC chairman in history. But to be able to argue otherwise after the debacle in November, he's slipped in a few ringers. Ringers? Yes, these are Democrats running in blue districts replacing Democrats who are leaving Congress. I'm saying they don't deserve support (Pat Murphy running to replace Bruce Braley certainly does), but that they have nothing to do with Red-to-Blue except to make the decrepit program look better when most of Israel's wretched actual Red-to-Blue recruits are defeated in November.

• IA-01- Bruce Braley (D+5)
• ME-02- Mike Michaud (D+2)
• NY-04- Carolyn McCarthy (D+3)

And this is a good place to mention CA-31, the D+5 Inland Empire district that Israel screwed up in 2012 and handed to a Republican, Gary Miller, who knew he could never be reelected so decided to retire this year. Israel's pick for the race is a shady conservative ex-bank lobbyist, Pete Aguilar, who not only is a disguised Republican but has already endorsed a right-wing Republican against a Democrat in the neighboring district. Another great Steve Israel recruit (for John Boehner).

Stabbing Your Fellow Democrats in the Back for Fun and Profit

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has long since proven himself the worst kind of Wall-Street-cocksucking DINO, using lefty positions on social issues like gay marriage to distract his stealing wealth from the working class to enrich the obscenely wealthy.

But now he's gone wholly over to the Reichwing, actually sabotaging Democratic candidates to protect his repug buddies.

Digby:

I don't think I've ever seen a more perfect example of the "dysfunction" of the Democratic Party elite. It's bad enough that a leader with presidential ambitions even thinks this way. But to go so far as to publicly stab his own party in the back so that he can enact a conservative economic agenda says everything you need to know about where the center of the Democratic Party is today.

Andrew Cuomo is a shoo-in to win no matter who the Republicans nominate. And he has come right out and said that he doesn't want to have to run against a real social conservative because a campaign around gay rights or abortion might make Democrats vote for other Democrats than just him. And that would mean he wouldn't have all those nice Republicans to help him cut "deals" to screw Democrats.

And there's every reason to believe that he is not the only one ...

 This is why you don't trust "conservative" Democrats like Alison Lundergan Grimes.  They will fuck you over ever single time.

If Wendy Davis Can Say This in Texas, Alison Grimes Can Say It in Kentucky

But she won't.  Because unlike true-blue Democratic candidate Davis, Grimes is a repug-lite fake dem with fear and greed where her values should be.

From Wonkette:

Wonkette hero and perpetual state legislature lady-crush Wendy Davis once again set our hearts fluttering:

“I believe that all Texans who love one another and are committed to spending their lives together should be allowed to marry,” Davis said in a statement.

And while we're on the subject, how about a Kentucky Democratic Party Chair who actually "loves being a Democrat"?

QOTD

While Alison Lundergan Grimes tells LGBT Kentuckians to fuck off and die because the courts - their only hope of achieving civil rights in the Commonwealth - need to "butt out" of Kentucky banning marriage equality, more disappointed Democratic voters are sinking back into their chairs and making plans to watch West Wing marathons on Election Day.

Digby nails it:

Being a Democrat means never having to say you're sorry --- as long as you act like a Republican. It's pathetic.

Why I Don't Contribute to "Centrist" Democrats and You Should Not, Either

Because they are cowardly losers whose cowardly losses lead directly to the avoidable deaths of women.

Not that they give a flying fuck.

Digby:

The Democrats listened and followed that advice. They hemmed and hawed and droned on about "safe,legal and rare" and a "culture of life" --- and it didn't buy one, single vote. In fact, a strong stand in favor of women's rights is credited with energizing the Democratic voters in 2012. Imagine that.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Where fighting this might have at least resulted in an awareness of what was happening, years of Democrats chasing votes that were never going to come their way resulted in zealots quietly passing laws at the state level making abortion more and more difficult to obtain.  I guess that's what the anti-choice minority in the Democratic Party calls "winning." They must be so pleased.

How a Real Democratic Candidate Campaigns in a Red State

Is there a substantive issue on which Alison Lundergan Grimes disagrees with Mitch McConnell? Any reason at all to think she would vote with the Democratic caucus any more than he does? Anything she's ever said to inspire a discouraged Democratic voter to get up off her ass and vote?

Down with Tyranny:

Not long after Jay announced his candidacy for Graham's Senate seat, he had a talk with Jaime Harrison, the newly elected Chairman of the state Democratic Party. Harrison was curious about Jay's candidacy and they talked amicably for about half an hour. At the time, Jay told me that Harrison had said, “I’m glad you’re running" and he seemed quite buoyed by the conversation and more determined than ever to take the fight to Lindsey Graham, expecting the help of the state party.

Blue America endorsed Jay and, as the months went by his campaign grew and Harrison remained friendly. Just last month, Jay and his wife even co-hosted a state Democratic Party event with Harrison, his wife and actress Phylicia Rashad in attendance.

"But," Jay told me this morning, "I had begun taking stands on controversial issues. I was adamantly pro-choice and I announced my support for marriage equality. As my profile on these issues increased, I began getting negative feedback from party insiders; the party was concerned that my candidacy (in particular my progressive stances on controversial issues) had the potential to highlight Vincent Sheheen’s opposition to both marriage equality and choice. The last thing that the state party wants is anything to distract from Sheheen’s campaign, which it deems the best chance in years to capture the governorship. My candidacy had become a distraction."

Yesterday, on his campaign website, Jay posted a message, I Won't Back Down:

As many of you know, I recently came out in favor of marriage equality. I knew it was politically risky in a state like South Carolina, but I also knew it was the right thing to do.

Several days after my announcement, a state party official summoned me to his office. To my disbelief he tried to persuade me to drop out of the race. I said no thanks.

Apparently, certain well-connected “party elders” believe that my candidacy is a distraction that will only hurt Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen by highlighting his opposition to marriage equality and women’s reproductive rights.

Now, my campaign is meeting resistance from the last place I expected: from within the state party establishment.

I’m proud to be a Democrat. But the party is more than just a handful of well-connected insiders sitting in an office building. It’s you, it’s me, it’s millions of “ordinary” people across the country who believe in equal rights and equal opportunity for all. I’m not going to drop out. I’m not going to back down. And I need your support.

If you'd like to help Jay win against bigotry, you can do so here. - See more at: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/#sthash.izpzrkp2.dpuf

The mere fact that the Kentucky Democratic Republican Party luuuurrrrrvvves Grimes and the repug-incument-protection racket known as the DCCC backs her to the hilt should tell you everything you need to know about the kind of Senator Grimes would be.

Alison Lundergan Grimes Wants to Kill the Affordable Care Act

Yes, she does.

From The Hill:

The Democratic challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said she's in favor of delaying ObamaCare's individual mandate until the enrollment website is fixed.

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes came out for delaying the mandate and extending ObamaCare's enrollment period until HealthCare.gov, the law's troubled online portal, is fully functional.

That, you repug-lite little bitch, is far more lethal to the Affordable Care Act - the one that is saving the health and lives of 640,000 Kentuckians - than any number of "repeal" votes in Congress or anything Mitch McConnell has done in three and a half years of trying to kill it.

Charlie Pierce on the same trick being tried by another DINO:

Here's the thing, and it cannot be repeated enough -- without the individual mandate, the Affordable Care Act cannot work. This is a principle accepted by, among other critters, the Romneybot 1.0 when it was taking the same plan around its original test track, the Commonwealth Of Massachusetts (God save it!). Any attempt to eliminate, delay, disrupt or generally foozle around with the individual mandate is to cripple the law to one degree or another. If that's what you're aiming to do -- Hey, Marco! -- then you're OK with that. If that's what Joe Manchin is up to here, and the odds are pretty good that it is, then he needs to get slapped down, hard, by the Senate leadership. (Hell, he ought to be slapped down hard merely for broaching this cockamamie plan on Bill O'Reilly's Big Funhouse Of Megalomania.) The connection between the glitches and the individual mandate are tenuous at best. (The whole IRS-gonna-gitcha argument about the ACA was a wingnut bogeyman story in the first place, and it's even less believable now.) If Manchin wants to delay the mandate because he doesn't like it, he should say so, and he should admit hat he doesn't like the law, period, because, otherwise, he's saying he likes the law, but not the parts that make it work, and that would be a really dumb thing to argue. Then he should get the hell out of the way.

You ain't foolin' nobody, Alison. Not the Mitch supporters laughing their ass off at you doing their work for them, not ACA national champion (and leader of your state and your party, BTW) Governor Steve Beshear (who must be pulling out his hair and cursing your name at your betrayal) and most certainly not the Kentucky Democratic voters who have already written in their 2014 calendars to on no account bother to show up at the polls in November to vote, because there won't be a Democratic candidate running for U.S. Senate.

Unless we draft Steve Beshear.  Filing deadline is January 30.  

How Long Will It Take Grimes to Deny She's a Democrat?

The proper response from a Democratic elected official "accused" of supporting her party's own President and Miinority Leader of the House of Representatives is as follows:

"You bet your ass I do. Thanks for the compliment!"

Alison Lundergan Grimes' response to Mitch McConnell's latest ad salvo* is more likely to be along the lines of:

"Nuh-UNH! Am NOT!"

From the Herald:

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes remains undecided about challenging U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell next year, but a pro-McConnell group is running newspaper ads linking her with President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

OH MAH GAWD WHARS MAH SMELLIN' SALTS.  "Linked" to the President of the United States!  The infamy! 

C'mon, Alison, just judo this one back on him. Here's the perfect chance to stand tall for real Democratic values, to call out McConnell for obstructing Democratic bills that would create millions of jobs and lift millions of Kentuckians out of poverty.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/05/2667051/pro-mcconnell-group-runs-ads-linking.html#storylink=cpy

But no:

Grimes' political adviser, Jonathan Hurst, called the ads "false attacks that show just how scared Mitch McConnell and his supporters are."

Sigh. "False attacks." Saying an elected Democratic official supports a Democratic President is a "false attack."

Fuck you, Alison Lundergan Grimes, you worthless piece of conservatard shit.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/05/2667051/pro-mcconnell-group-runs-ads-linking.html#storylink=cpy

* Yes of course it's from McConnell. In the no-holds-barred post-Citizens-United era, there's is no such thing as an "independent" PAC.  They are all candidate-controlled.