Democratic Leadership Elections

[IceSpear]

It is the height of hypocrisy for Pelosi's opponents to blame her for losses then not credit her for wins. Sure, make the argument that the leadership needs fresh blood and new ideas or whatever, but the disingenuousness of their earlier cries post Ossoff is striking. Back then the argument was "Muh Pelosi ads will destroy us just like they destroyed Ossoff unless we dump her!1!!!"

[IceSpear]

People who mess with Pelosi have zero idea what they've gotten themselves into. This lady is a master at finagling, arm twisting, and parliamentary tactics. They're just completely outclassed here. She's playing chess while they're playing checkers.

Not everyone is as incompetent, ineffectual, and feckless as John Boehner.

[IceSpear]

Spanberger also doesn't appear to be budging either after meeting Pelosi, she's a hard no vote on the floor.

Spanberger strikes me as someone who could potentially become speaker in the distant future.

The Speaker should never be from a district that is remotely competitive. They're bound to become unpopular both in their districts and nationwide. Same for the Senate leader. Even if her district was shored up in redistricting, it could easily still fall in the next red wave. Any leader should be guaranteed to win by at least 20 points even in the most unfavorable political environment imaginable. Electoral concerns shouldn't even be on their radar at any point.

[IceSpear]

Again. Pelosi is a master at this. She might even be better than McConnell. Too bad Dems had deadweight Harry Reid dragging them down in 2009-2010.

[IceSpear]

Moulton is simply challenging the status quoa I appreciate him stepping up because it's ridiculous all of leadership is pushing 80. This is necessary because it sends Pelosi and others a message that she can't be speaker for another decade or however long she wants.

It's not like she'd be able to be speaker for a decade anyway. The pendulum is going to swing back eventually.

[IceSpear]

Again. Pelosi is a master at this. She might even be better than McConnell. Too bad Dems had deadweight Harry Reid dragging them down in 2009-2010.

I agree with the first part, but Reid wasn't a deadweight (if nothing else, he deserves credit for building a first-class political machine in Nevada).  The existence of the filibuster meant that Reid had a much harder job than Pelosi; I do think Schumer's an improvement though since he managed to get McCain to vote against the Obamacare repeal (IIRC Schumer was the one who convinced McCain to switch from an "aye" to a "nay" on that).  Blocking the Obamacare repeal bill was a pretty big coup for Senate Democrats.  That said, Pelosi is far more effective than Reid or Schumer.

Reid got tougher later on when he got wise to the Republican dirty tricks, but by then Dems already lost the House and it was too little too late. He and Obama squandered much of the trifecta with their "bipartisanship" fetish and assuming the Republicans were acting in good faith (literally took a year to write healthcare reform to try to get the votes of Republican Senators who were never going to support it under any circumstances even though it was basically their own plan from the 90s) while Pelosi was the one kicking ass and taking names. McConnell ran circles around Obama and Reid even when he should've been a powerless minority. It was pretty sad to watch.

[IceSpear]

Did anyone else see Pelosi's victory speech on election night? It was so incoherent and nonsensical, I loved it. "Let's hear it for pre existing medical conditions!" LMAO.

Luckily what she lacks in rhetorical ability she more than makes up for in legislative prowess.

[IceSpear]

https://twitter.com/rachaelmbade/status/1067879305160654848

Strange that nobody in this "new generation of leaders" we keep hearing about that allegedly wants to step up decided to step up and challenge Hoyer.

I guess either there isn't a "new generation of leaders," or for some reason they don't want to step up.

I guess that is the new leadership for you - leading by not stepping up. It is an interesting approach to leadership.

[IceSpear]

Didn't know where else to put this but lol

Moulton calls out Ocasio-Cortez's tweet defending Pelosi as 'offensive'

lmao what a sad sack

I'm not surprised. Crying sexism whenever a female ally is criticized is a key part of the Moulton playbook. Exploiting misogyny isn't beneath them. Just look at how his project candidate wound up saying the opposition to her carpetbagging was because she was a woman.

You know, just like how the sexist voters of New Hampshire elected Jim Shaheen over Sandra Brown because they couldn't tolerate a strong woman challenger with Senatorial experience.

The Democratic party is all about hiding your ideas behind some woman or minority so that you can cry sexism or racism if someone criticizes them.

Careful jfern, you're starting to sound like a...

[IceSpear]

I wouldn't really group MN-01 and IL-13 in the same category. I could see IL-13 flipping if 2020 is a great year for Dems. MN-01 is obviously safe R. If you seriously believe that Dems can beat a Republican incumbent in a Trump +15 heavily R trending district while Trump is on the ballot when they just failed to win it as an open seat in a D+9 environment while benefitting from Walz at the top of the ticket, you're beyond delusional.