Nancy Pelosi

While Larry Summers did not become Treasury Secretary, it doesn't feel like a victory given the enormous power he has been granted anyway:

President-elect Barack Obama will name former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers the director of his National Economic Council, placing the Harvard University economist he passed over for Treasury secretary inside the White House as his closest economic adviser, Democratic officials said Saturday night.

The move came as the president-elect prepares Monday to introduce his new Treasury secretary nominee, Timothy Geithner, and the rest of his economic team at an event in Chicago Monday.

Among those on stage will be Mr.

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First, we discovered that more Better Democrats won seats in the U.S. House than did Blue Dogs. Next, we learned that Rahm Emanuel's departure from the House resulted in more progressive legislators taking over caucus leadership positions. Then, earlier today, Henry Waxman defeated John Dingell for the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce committee.  read more »

This is really great news:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday named their three members of a five-person oversight panel that will monitor Treasury's Wall Street rescue plan and regularly report back to Congress...Reid appointed Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School. And the two leaders jointly appointed Damon Silvers, AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel.

Warren is one of the true heroes of the progressive movement, especially on financial oversight issues that are so often forgotten.  read more »

While I was wondering about Gary Trauner’s disappearance after the Nov. 4 election, Wyofile’s Charles Pelkey and Reese Jenniges were actually talking to the Democratic Party’s candidate for the state’s lone U.S. House seat. Gary was as gracious in defeat as he was during the campaign. He kept his cool even when faced with TV and radio ads from the Republican Slime Machine.
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I don't like Rahm Emanuel becoming Obama's chief of staff, but I also don't think it would have mattered if he chose someone else. If Obama wanted Rahm as Chief of Staff, but Rahm had declined or been denied the slot via outside pressure, then you can be sure Obama would have simply sought someone else who was virtually identical to Rahm in terms of demeanor, tactics, and ideology. The options were basically either Rahm or some variation on Rahm. In this case, I view him as simply the vehicle or the weapon, not the person driving or pulling the trigger.

More of my thoughts on what Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff says about an Obama administration in the extended entry.  read more »

During these final days of the 2008 election, Republicans are pushing ads that portray Wyoming as a reliably conservative state and one that distrusts East Coast Liberals. If you are a born and bred Wyomingite with conservative creds, you are good and trustworthy. If you were born somewhere else -- especially any East Coast state north of Virginia or (worse) California -- and you're a Democrat, you are bad, untrustworthy and probably a Socialist.
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David's been tearing things up lately with a series of posts on how Versailles is freaking out over the fear that Obama just might keep a campaign promise or two.  Well, no, it actually goes a bit deeper than that.  But not much.

The reality here is something I wrote about in a diary series last February, "Three Waves And A Wall: 2008 And The American Future", and now that the election is upon us, with early voting well underway, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit that series and some of what it had to say.  I started things off in a more down-to-earth way with "The House Vote and the Shape of Things To Come".  read more »

Update: The spreadsheet is ready. Thanks to everyone who volunteered! Look for more on this early tomorrow afternoon.  read more »

Americans appear ready to sweep a lot of Democrats into office on November 4. Not only does Barack Obama maintain a solid lead in the popular vote and electoral vote estimates, several Senate races that appeared safe Republican holds a few months ago are now considered tossups.

Polling is harder to come by in House races, but here too there is scattered evidence of a coming Democratic tsunami. Having already lost three special Congressional elections in red districts this year, House Republicans are now scrambling to defend many entrenched incumbents.

In this diary, I hope to convince you of three things:

1. Some Republicans who never saw it coming are going to be out of a job in two weeks.

On a related note,

2.  read more »

Here are your answers to the survey I set up a few days ago.

Do you support this bailout?
69% 295 No
31% 131 Yes

Do you think the Democrats pushed hard enough for concessions?
40% 172 No, and shame on them for not getting more.
48% 206 No, they had more leverage than they used.
12% 50 Yes, ultimately, this legislation just had to go through.

Do you think that Congresspeople who voted for this bailout deserve primary challengers?
20% 87 Yes, this was a total betrayal.
40% 173 Coupled with other bad votes, yes
6% 25 No, this was a good vote.
34% 144 Not really, it was a tough call.

Do you approval of the job that Nancy Pelosi is doing as Speaker of the House?
68% 289 No
9% 39 No Opinion
23% 99 Yes

Do you trust Barack Obama?

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I just launched this pledge with a group of people, some of whom can be publicly identified right now and some of whom can't.  It's a pledge that we will push Democrats to be bold progressives going forward and push aside the corroded insiders who run our party right now.  Please take it and forward it to your friends.

This week, Democrats helped George W. Bush and Republicans loot the federal treasury and hand billions over to Wall Street.

For some reason, we can never find money for kids' health care, clean energy, or other progressive priorities. But when it comes to right-wing priorities like war and giveaways to failed Wall Street executives, Republicans always find the money and Democrats go along.

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Photo from Bartcop

So McCain will have no more mail, TV, or staff in Michigan, though the Republican independent expenditures arm will still be running a campaign on his behalf.  Larry Kissell is leading by 11 points in his North Carolina district, just one more data point this crisis has been great for Democrats (something  Lieberman echoes in lauding the passage of the bailout as good for McCain).  read more »

Today is OpenLeft's push to get Better Democrats some extra juice for the final 35 days of the election.  Leadership is costly, and each of these people has chosen to exercise it by running aggressive campaigns and rejecting big money interests to favor progressive stances that benefit the country.  These people will make history, since whatever crisis has been unleashed will continue to roil our country for years.  These people will write the rules of a new America we are building.  read more »

The American people are constantly told by both Democrats and Republicans, and by both Barack Obama and John McCain, that one of the main cause of our problems is a lack of bi-partisanship. Even though no examples are ever given on what problems are actually caused by Democrats and Republicans failing to compromise with one another, we are told that partisan bickering is the source of our problems.  read more »

Things are obviously moving very quickly, and I'm not sure what the shape of the final bill will look like.  I'm hearing rumors that at least three or four moderately progressive House members are wavering on voting for the bailout unless it includes provisions for a revision of parts of the bankruptcy code, specifically to allow judges to include primary mortgages in bankruptcy settlements.  Progressives have eaten a lot of shit for this bailout, and they are near the breaking point.  Most Republicans won't go for it unless the bill is 'clean' (Paulson's original demand), which means that if enough members band together to stop this train, progressives might end up as a swing bloc and put the brakes on it.

Nancy Pelosi apparently met with 40-50 moderate to conservative Democrats today or last night, and one bone of contention is the bankruptcy provision.  read more »