Tag: Democratic Party

Kerrey: Webb Would Have an ‘Uphill Fight’ Against Clinton for Dem Nomination

Buck Banks

It would be an uphill fight, almost like climbing a wall. He would be running against someone who simultaneously has two television shows based on her. She is a political figure with such remarkable strength ahead of the campaign, unlike anything I’ve seen in my lifetime.

— Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), quoted by the Washington Post, on the possibility of former Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) challenging Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Lauren Bacall, Actress and Liberal Icon, 1924-2014

Jon Ponder
March on Washington: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart lead a contingent of actors, writers and directors from Hollywood to a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947

Lauren Bacall, who died yesterday just a month shy of her 90th birthday, will rightly be remembered for her A-list acting career and her marriage to movie legend Humphrey Bogart. But Bacall also had a record as a stalwart liberal. As she put it, “I’m a total Democrat. I’m anti-Republican.”

“Being a liberal is the best thing on earth you can be. You are welcoming to everyone when you’re a liberal. You do not have a small mind.”
– Lauren Bacall

Her performance with Bogart in “To Have and Have Not” catapulted her to stardom overnight in 1944. A few months after the film came out, she made her political debut at an event for World War II service members in Washington, D.C., when she was boosted atop an upright piano and photographed lounging there as then-Vice Pres. Harry Truman played for the crowd.

After the war, Bacall, Bogart, director John Huston and others formed the Committee for the First Amendment in opposition to the Republican Party’s anti-communist witch hunts, which were championed by Hollywood figures like Ronald Reagan, Walt Disney and Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson. In 1947, Bacall and Bogart led a contingent of the organization’s members to Washington in protest of the right-wing pogrom and in support of Hollywood witnesses called by the committee who had refused to testify.

That was just the beginning of Lauren Bacall’s decades-long political activity and support for the Democratic Party. Michael Tomasky pays tribute to Bacall as “deeply liberal and deeply anti-communist” in a eulogy at the Daily Beast:

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Voters Evenly Split Over Whether They Would Vote for a Democrat or Republican in Their Congressional District

Buck Banks

39% to 39%

Voters are evenly divided on whether they would vote for a Democrat or a Republican in their congressional district, a new Quinnipiac poll finds. Democrats held a nine-point edge in early October. Voters still disapprove of Republicans in Congress, 73% to 20%, more than they disapprove of Democrats, 62% to 30%.

Liberal Dems Have Reached a ‘Turning Point’

Buck Banks

We reached a turning point, and we have to speak for our base that isn’t being heard any more. There isn’t unanimity anymore; you can’t deliver a bloc…. Blind loyalty — I don’t think that’s an option anymore. People are going assert what they think is best for their base, their district, and more importantly, how the Democrats are going to look going into 2014.

— Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), quoted by National Journal, on liberal Democrats starting to take on President Obama.

Maybe There Is a Democratic Backlash Against Dems Who Voted Against Gun Control

Buck Banks

So I’ll have some advice for my friends in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles: Just say no to the Democrats who said no on background checks.

— Former Obama White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley (D), writing in the Washington Post, about how Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) “betrayed me on gun control.”

CA State Controller Threatens to Dock Legislators’ Pay If They Miss Budget Deadline

Jon Ponder

John Chang
John Chang
It’s true. And this is not partisan. The controller is a Democrat and Dems control the Legislature:

California lawmakers will start losing their pay in two weeks if they don’t make further progress in balancing the budget, says state Controller John Chiang.

Chiang, the state’s chief accountant, is citing a ballot measure voters approved in November in justifying his plan to dock legislators of their pay absent a balanced budget. His interpretation of the measure differs from that of legislative lawyers, who had previously opined that a budget bill lawmakers passed in March — which still left the state with a multibillion-dollar shortfall — met the conditions set by voters needed to keep salaries flowing once the Legislature’s June 15 deadline for passing the budget arrives…

“In passing Proposition 25 last November, voters clearly stated they expect their representatives to make the difficult decisions needed to resolve any budget shortfalls by the mandatory deadline, or be penalized,” Chiang said in a statement. “I will enforce the voters’ demand.”

Chang has the support of Gov. Jerry Brown, who is also a Democrat:

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Best Day of New Jacksonville Mayor’s Campaign Was the Day Gov. Scott Showed Up to Campaign for His Opponent

Jon Ponder

Jacksonville is a Republican stronghold, but even with that relatively conservative electorate polls show Barack Obama more popular than Rick Scott. That election in Florida’s largest city was not about Obama or Scott, but there’s no question that Scott’s talk about draconian cuts to school budgets and other services helped elect a Democrat arguing that cuts need to be targeted and strategic. One of the best days for Democrat Alvin Brown came when Rick Scott came to Jacksonville to campaign for the Republican mayoral nominee at a Tea Party rally.

– Adam Smith, political editor for the St. Petersburg Times