Impeach Them All

I am not referring to anyone in the White House.  I am referring to the 6 corrupt and partisan Supreme Court Justices who just authorized Donald Trump's plan to meddle in mail-in voting in the upcoming election.

The US supreme court sided with Donald Trump on Monday in his effort to crack down on mail-in voting, though it remains unclear if his administration can take action ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Justices on the court voted 6-3 along ideological lines to lift an injunction from June that a judge in Massachusetts placed on an executive order issued by the president. But a second injunction remains in place and the ruling leaves room for legal challenges.

“The Court’s disposition of this application does not mean that any measure taken by the Government to implement the Order will necessarily be lawful,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order. “On that score, time will tell.”

The three liberal justices dissented. In a blistering dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections”.

Justice Brown Jackson, injecting, "Chaos and ncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections," is a feature, not a bug.

To be fair the conservatives on the court did take a principled stance, it's just that the principle was, "N%$#@!*s should not vote." 

 

Vote Blue No Matter Who My Ass

The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) has decided to abandon the very competitive race in Michigan, because the wrong sort of candidate won.

The people who gave us Senators like Krysten Sinema have decided that having a real progressive in the Senate with an Arab name is a bridge too far.

Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary has complicated Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s plans to help Democrats retake the Senate in November, tying his party’s fortunes to a candidate some Democrats in Michigan say they cannot support — even if it means costing Democrats the Senate majority. 

Michigan is crucial for Democrats. The party’s path to a Senate majority relies on holding the state and all of its other current seats, as well as flipping four Republican-held seats — including at least two seats in states that Donald Trump won by double-digit margins in 2024. If El-Sayed loses in Michigan, which Trump carried by less than two points in 2024, Democrats would need to flip a fifth Republican seat in deep-red territory. 

Schumer backed Rep. Haley Stevens over El-Sayed in the primary, saying he thought she had a better chance of winning in November. The New York Democrat endorsed El-Sayed after the primary, and the two men have spoken about working together to hold the seat — but they have pronounced differences about Israel.

………

El-Sayed’s challenges run deep enough that three Democratic donors in Michigan are hosting a fundraiser for his Republican opponent, former congressman Mike Rogers, on Tuesday evening, according to an invitation obtained by The Washington Post. One of them, Brian Hermelin, wrote in an email to potential donors last week that El-Sayed’s rhetoric on Israel and toward Jews meant he could not support him.

………

The race has put Schumer in a tough position. On one hand, he has called out those on the left who are “too complacent or forgiving about those who exhibit antisemitism within their ranks.” On the other, he often describes Democrats as having a big-tent party, capacious enough to include Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) — an ardent defender of Israel — as well as the country’s critics. 

El-Sayed’s public criticism of Schumer — whom he suggested during the primary that he did not want to see remain as the Democratic leader in the Senate — has not made it easier. “If you’re Chuck Schumer, I’m pretty damn dangerous,” El-Sayed said last month.

That fundraising?  It would not have happened without the tacit approval of Schumer.

The whole, "Vote Blue no matter who," thing?  F%$# that.

I'm not suggesting voting Republican if you have another Synema or her ilk running, I voted Republican once and felt dirty afterword, ⃰  but you can always go with the couch, aka JD Vance's girlfriend, instead of the ballot booth. 

The Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) needs to be aggressively educated about the importance of actually listening to the base.

^*I voted for Bill Weld as Massachusetts Governor in 1990, because his Democratic opponent John Silber was literally insane.

Funny, Innit?

After getting outed for having large investments in AI companies, Michigan Republican US Senate candidate Mike Rogers has changed his views on a data center moratorium.

I wonder why that would be? 

Days after The Lever revealed that Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers held millions of dollars in stock that could benefit from his support for artificial intelligence-related development, he reversed his position and backed a statewide moratorium on new data center construction.

Rogers, a former FBI agent, congressman, and adviser to a venture capital firm, now supports a one-year moratorium on new data center developments, declaring in a statement on Thursday that “Michigan needs stronger guardrails to protect community control, prevent utility price hikes, protect our water, and stop pay-to-play schemes.”

Rogers added that he does not support a full federal ban on data centers, as some lawmakers have called for. Instead, he noted that a pause should be instituted “until we establish a fair, transparent approval process” for the projects. He told The Detroit News at a press conference Thursday that the policy would help “make sure that we’re answering all of the questions that people have.”

Rogers’ new position comes just days after The Lever that he and his wife, former lobbyist Kristi Clemens Rogers, hold between $1.7 million and $2.6 million in companies that could benefit from AI-friendly policies and streamlined permitting for AI-related infrastructure. 

Will wonders never cease.

I Don't Care About Natalie Harp

I am amused about the Republican meltdown about the Trump aide, but beyond schadenfreude, I cannot bring myself to care.

I don't care if Trump is f%$#ing here.  I care that Trump is f%$#ing the entire world.

Until now, Natalie Harp was known only to Washington insiders and people weird enough to read insidery books about the administration. But Harp has officially escaped containment.

She is about to be a full-fledged character in the dramedy of the Trump White House, discussed in the news and recognized by ordinary people. And while the White House and its allies are pretending to be outraged about that fact, it’s completely appropriate and long overdue. There is literally no single person who spends as much time at the side of the president of the United States as her; the idea that it should somehow be off-limits to discuss her role is bonkers. So let’s review what got us here.

Thank Jon Ossoff for putting a spotlight on her

At a campaign speech on Sunday, Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned Harp in a single sentence, as part of a criticism of the president for being distracted by unimportant things. “He doesn’t want to do the job,” Ossoff said. “He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”

And then their heads exploded. Heh.

Primaries Tonight

First, Angie Nixon defeated Alexander Vindman in the Florida Senate primary.

This is despite the fact that Vindman outraised and outspent her by almost 17:1.

In an upset for the Democratic establishment, progressive Angie Nixon won the party’s US Senate primary in Florida, beating former army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman.

Nixon, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had significantly less funding going into the primary – with $975,000 to Vindman’s $16.3m at the end of July, according to Florida Politics.

Vindman served on the national security council in Donald Trump’s first term and became a well-known whistleblower and witness in the president’s first impeachment, centered on Trump pressuring Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, to investigate Joe Biden.

………

Nixon, who was born in Jacksonville, has aggressively opposed DeSantis’s policies, including with a sit-in at the governor’s office this spring to protest Republican redistricting, the Miami Herald reported. That demonstration resulted in her facing misdemeanor charges of trespassing and resisting, which she is fighting in court.

Vindman’s campaign had been focused on Moody, not his primary opponent, and he did not agree to debate Nixon, despite her public calls for him to take the stage with her.

Also in Florida, the state's most reprehensible Democrat, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, succeeded in her effort to Bigfoot her way into a predominantly black district, because competitive elections are for suckers.

But establishment Democrats prevailed in other Florida races this week, in the first election in the state after redistricting. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an 11-term congresswoman and former chair of the Democratic National Committee, defeated Elijah Manley, a 27-year-old substitute teacher who was endorsed by a progressive group. Wasserman Schultz had faced criticisms for running in a district that has a plurality of Black voters and has long been represented by a Black Democrat.

Wasserman Schultz’s previous district was broken up by Republicans’ gerrymandered congressional maps, and she chose not to run in the district where she lives, but in a newly drawn one that was solidly blue.

Nothing else of particular note so far.

Election Live Updates: Florida Chooses Donalds and Jolly as Nominees to Replace DeSantis as Governor - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/08/18/us/elections/results-florida-us-senate-special-primary-august-18.html 

The Second Most Relieved Man in Britain Tonight

That would be professional bigot Nigel Farage, who defeated parody candidate Count Binface by 63% to 26%.

The most relieved man in Britain tonight is, of course, Count Binface, who would have had to serve as an MP had he won the by-election. (Count Binface is the bloke making the v sign with his finfers).

The fact that Binface lost by only 37% has to be an embarrassment for Farage.

Good. 

Nigel Farage has seen off Count Binface to win the Clacton byelection in a contest boycotted by every other major political party.

The Reform UK leader in July triggered the byelection in an attempt to shake off a deepening scandal over a £5m gift he received from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

After a campaign in which a record-breaking 34 candidates vied for the coastal seat, Farage held on to Clacton, with 22,239 votes (63.34%) of the vote.

His nearest competitor, Count Binface, a parody candidate dressed as an intergalactic rubbish bin, won 9,455 votes (26.93%). The turnout was 44%.

Farage had been widely expected to win. A poll from Survation on Monday put Farage on 75% of the vote, with Binface on 20%. Farage declared himself the winner while the votes were still being counted.

I did not expect Binface to win, but I was hoping that he would win.

Damn

Francesca Hong narrowly lost the Wisconsin primary to David Crowley last night.

Given the current political environment, I don't think that the Republican has much of a chance of winning this election cycle, unless, the race becomes a debate about data centers, an issue where his opponent Tom Tiffany appears to be running to the left of Crowley.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Worse than a Crime, It Is a Mistake

There are reports that Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, who is facing a close race again, will be picking a Republican as her Lieutenant Governor.

The Republican in question, former Mesa Mayor John Giles is allegedly a, "Moderate," but it is a stupid move, on par with Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney.

This does not look like being reasonable of reaching across the aisle.  

Instead, it looks like craven and unprincipled posturing for electoral advantage.

The worst part is that it won't work.  (One only has to look at Harris' shambolic campaign)

Gov. Katie Hobbs of Arizona, a vulnerable Democrat running for re-election, plans to tap a longtime Republican and former mayor of a Phoenix suburb to serve as her running mate, according to two people familiar with the decision.

John Giles, a former mayor of Mesa, Ariz., is expected to be announced in the coming days as Ms. Hobbs’s lieutenant governor nominee. Neither Ms. Hobbs nor her campaign would confirm the choice, and nothing is final until an announcement.

But the apparent pick is a nod to bipartisanship in a campaign that will pit Ms. Hobbs, a low-key Democrat, against Representative Andy Biggs, a fiercely partisan Republican with President Trump’s endorsement.

Ms. Hobbs’s narrow victory four years ago was secured with the backing of moderate Republicans and independent voters who have recoiled against hard-line Republican nominees in each of the last two election cycles.

Biggs is a f%$#ing nut-job.  You need to call him a nut-job.

Playing nice and bipartisan against Attila the Hun just ends with your severed head on a sharp stake.

This is Literally Beyond Parody

So, the paper run by the Amazon sociopath just published an OP/ED titled, "Will Maine uproot Susan Collins? I went to a potato festival to find out."

The rest of the article is even worse. 

That's the hed printed at the top.  The title you would see on a news search would be, "Susan Collins faces a populist test in Maine Senate race," which is what the title tag is set to.probably to avoid widespread mockery.

No link, they don't deserve even the meager traffic that my sh%$#y little blog would send them.

Yeah, the author is a MAGAt, and yes, the Washington Post OP/ED page has gotten even worse than the travesty it was under the mismanagement of the late (and unlamented) Fred Hiatt. 

Brazil Tells Trump to F%$# Off

There has been no small amount of tension between Brazil's Lula da Silva and Trump, but I never imagined that Brazil would simply refuse entry to US officials.

In this case, said officials were sent to create a false narrative about the upcoming Brazilian elections, so the denial is justified, but still this is unprecedented, at least as directed toward the US.

Brazil has denied visas to two senior State Department officials whom the Trump administration planned to dispatch on a mission to cast doubt on the fairness and integrity of the country’s electoral system before millions of Brazilians vote in a presidential election on Oct. 4, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

A U.S. State Department delegation, including Trump political appointees Riley M. Barnes, an assistant secretary, and Samuel Samson, a deputy assistant secretary, had planned to depart for Brasília, the capital, in coming days, according to a senior State Department official and three Brazilian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

But Brazilian officials, apprised of the plans, denied the Americans permission to travel, the Foreign Ministry said. The U.S. officials applied for visas through the Brazilian consulate in Washington, saying they planned to hold “meetings with authorities involved in the electoral process,” Brazilian officials said.

………

Two senior Brazilian officials told The Washington Post on Thursday that they had recently learned of what they described as the American “ploy” and had vowed to block the U.S. officials from entering the country.

“It is a ploy that is completely incompatible with Brazilian democracy,” said one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. This official said the Brazilian government would move to “protect our voting system.”

The Brazilian officials said they suspected that the Americans’ goal was to meet with electoral skeptics and produce a report that could be used to delegitimize the nation’s electronic voting system. Samson in the past has produced department reports that critics say brought a partisan lens to human rights issues.

Trump was attempting a ret-f%$#ing, and Brazil was having none of this.

Jackson in Maine

I do not know the specifics of his platform in detail, but the selection of Troy Jackson as the new Democratic Party nominee for US Senate appears to be a continuation of the Platner narrative.

I'm not sure how this all will shake out. 

Maine Democrats chose Troy Jackson, a progressive former state legislator, to replace Graham Platner as their Senate candidate at a convention on Saturday that followed weeks of internal turmoil in a key battleground state.

Mr. Jackson’s victory, a vote of 566 to 5, came on the first ballot of a pop-up state convention the Maine Democratic Party organized in the 17 days since Mr. Platner, who faced a rape accusation he denies, dropped out of the race.

………

Mr. Jackson, 58, carries much of the progressive politics that powered the movement that lifted Mr. Platner from political obscurity. A former logger who entered politics in the late 1990s organizing against Canadian workers crossing the border to work for lower wages than Americans, Mr. Jackson now faces perhaps the biggest challenge of his political career.

He is up against Ms. Collins, a moderate Republican seeking a sixth term in office. The race, seen as a central battleground in the fight for control of the Senate, features two longtime politicians who grew up in the same county in northern Maine.

Trust the New York Times to bury the lede, because in the very last paragraph, after extensive coverage of Collins talking points, they note this: 

………

Mr. Jackson said in that interview that he would not support Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, to remain in his post. Mr. Jackson also expressed reservations about receiving financial or other assistance from Mr. Schumer, whose allies oversee the super PAC devoted to electing Senate Democrats.

Running against Chuck Schumer is a winner.  

If he beats Collins, I hope that he sticks to this promise.

From a purely pragmatic perspective, disrupting things in the Senate would make Jackson's tenure in the Senate much more difficult. 

Wut?

There is insane, there is toxic narcissist, there is senile, and then there is Trump's endorsing Mike Lindell for Minnesota Governor.

This is literally beyond my capability to mock.

It’s been 11 years since Donald Trump burst onto the national political scene and began his takeover of the Republican Party. But his influence in Minnesota has rarely been tested.

Trump has never weighed in on a competitive primary for statewide office in Minnesota, choosing instead to make an endorsement when the dust had settled.

No longer. Trump waded into a three-way race for Minnesota governor on Wednesday and sided with his longtime friend Mike Lindell, boosting a political ally who has spread Trump’s false theory of a rigged 2020 election just as the president gears up to deliver a primetime address this week on the topic.

Yeah.  Whatever.

BTW, I am not watching Trump speak tonight.

There is not enough alcohol for that.

Make it So

In a bipartisan vote, The Wisconsin Elections Commission has referred Apartheid Era Emerald Heir Pedo Guy™ to the Brown County District Attorney for potential criminal prosecution for his vote buying efforts during the Wisconsin Supreme Court elections.

Here is hoping that he gets his flabby white ass nailed to the wall.

Elon Musk escaped consequences in 2024 after he handed out $1 million checks to swing state voters in highly publicized events intended to sway the presidential election. The richest person on Earth got away with the galling attempts at bribery after Pennsylvania dropped its case against him. But there’s still a chance Musk’s attempt at swinging a state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin with the same tactic could result in criminal charges.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has referred two complaints to the Brown County District Attorney’s office after it found Musk may have violated the law when he cut $1 million checks to voters in Wisconsin in 2025, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

The commission made the referrals during a session on July 10 that was not open to the public, according to the Journal-Sentinel, with a final vote of 5-1. The referrals allege that there’s probable cause Musk violated state law “by making a social media post that offered one million dollars to individuals who voted in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election in order to induce them to vote in that election,” according to a copy of the motion seen by the newspaper.

Zero tolerance for vote fraud.  Send him to Gitmo and then deport him.

 

The French Freddy Krueger Returns

I am referring, of course to Marine Le Pen who was cleared by a French appellate court to run for President of France in the next election.

It appears that French voters will have the opportunity to see the front-runner of the Presidential race wearing an ankle monitor.

As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know."

For a long time, Marine Le Pen believed she was untouchable. So certain was she of her political immortality that she had turned it into a worn-out joke: Nothing would ever stop her from running for office, "unless a truck runs over me." But since March 31, 2025, she was no longer laughing.

On that day, a court had set in motion the inexorable countdown of her political career. Convicted of embezzlement, heavily sentenced, and left disqualified from standing in elections, Le Pen caught a glimpse, for the first time, of her political "death." And while the "miracle" she was hoping for from the Paris Court of Appeal did not quite materialize on Tuesday, July 7, she decided to take her resurrection into her own hands. 

Convicted again for misappropriation of public funds, Le Pen benefited from greater leniency from the appellate judges – with her election ban reduced to the bare minimum – and confirmed that evening she would be running in the 2027 presidential election. No matter if her new appeal to the highest court is uncertain. Now, any potential setbacks will only serve to reinforce her narrative of a political "sacrifice." On her first campaign poster, celebrating a "renaissance," she poses with her arms outstretched, Christ-like.

More details on the electronic monitoring here.

It's fairly clear that she will make it to the runoff.  The only question is how many of Frances polity will support her if her opponent is someone like the left wing Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

I expect that there are quite a lot of potential Franz von Papen's out there., 

And He is Out

Graham Platner has officially suspended his Senate campaign.

The, "Suspended," rather than, "Ended," is an artifact of campaign finance law.

He ain't coming back.

It appears that the DSCC types are already flocking to Maine in an attempt to ensure that whoever replaces him will be a focus group tested non-entity.

U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, the political upstart who overwhelmingly secured the Democratic nomination just one month ago, has ended his candidacy. His withdrawal from the race now sets up a frantic scramble to replace him on the November ballot. 

Platner announced Wednesday that he's quitting the race in a defiant video statement that blamed the political establishment for his downfall, saying that it conspired against him.

"We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be me," he said. "And for that reason we are suspending campaign operations."

He also framed his plight as one shared with his base of supporters.

"We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is built structurally so that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed they can be crushed," he said. "What we have accomplished here you made possible ... and I have all the faith in the world that we could win if we continue to harness that. But the brutal political reality is that they're going to take everything away from us."

The moves followed a report by POLITICO that detailed allegations that he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend five years ago. The oysterman and combat veteran strongly denied the report, but it quickly led to a cratering of support from national and local Democrats who had endorsed him. That included leaders in the Maine Democratic Party who will now decide who will replace him on the November ballot to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

They need to select a replacement before July 27, so less than 3 weeks. They are planning a state Party convention.

I expect extensive rat-f%$#ery in the process.  Hopefully this will be both sides, and not just exclusively from the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).

The progressives need to play the same hardball that the Schumer wing of the party does. 

Platner

This appears to be catastrophic.

Whether he stays in or drops out it's a clusterf%$#.

If he stays in, he's a crippled candidate, and if he is replaced by one of the usual suspects by the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) it will demoralize a significant portion of potential Democratic voters.

One of the biggest challenges in the November elections is that voters will choose the couch (aka JD Vance's girlfriend) over the voting booth, and I do not see how this won't make this more likely regardless of final outcome. 

If he drops out, and he is replaced with Janet Mills or someone of her ilk, that would just make a bad situation much worse, but this won't stop the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) from doing just that.

It's the Iron Law of Institutions, "The people who control institutions care first and foremost about their power within the institution rather than the power of the institution itself. Thus, they would rather the institution "fail" while they remain in power within the institution than for the institution to "succeed" if that requires them to lose power within the institution." (Not my idea or term, this term was coined by Jon Schwarz) 

Primary in Colorado Tonight

While I am a bit bummed about pro-business stooge and current Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper winning the Senate primary, I am heartened that centrist empty suit Michael Bennett lost to Colorado AG Phil Weisner in the Gubernatorial primary, and that DSA candidate Melat Kiros defeated 15-term Congresswoman Diana DeGette.

DeGette is problematic for a number of reasons:

• 30 years is enough.
• She is deeply enmeshed in the Democratic Party Congressional leadership, having being Chief Deputy Whip for 6 years. The out of touch Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) gerontocracy in the US Congress needs to be removed.
• AIPAC was stealth funding a number of anti-Kiros PACs. 

That last point does not mean that I am no longer a Zionist.  It means that I consider AIPAC to the the 2nd greatest threat to the State of Israel in the world today after Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Primary in New York Tonight

The candidates backed by Zorhan Mamdani all won, and given the nature of the districts, their elections in the general are almost certain.

Progressive allies of Zohran Mamdani swept through New York’s primaries Tuesday, handing defeats to mainstream Democrats in deep-blue congressional districts and boosting the New York City mayor’s standing as a kingmaker in the party.

Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander ousted incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in a race that centered on Israel and the war in Gaza. State Assemblywoman Claire Valdez and community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, members of the Democratic Socialists of America, defeated Democratic candidates endorsed by establishment leaders.

The victories of Lander, Avila Chevalier and Valdez—all endorsed by Mamdani—highlight the mayor’s expanding influence within the Democratic Party and demonstrate how the DSA has leveraged his popularity to help elect more of its candidates. The victories will likely add to Mamdani’s list of allies inside the New York delegation to Washington. In the predominantly blue city, the winners in the Democratic primaries are heavily favored in the November general elections.

In another closely watched race, New York Assemblyman Micah Lasher, 44 years old, won the primary to succeed retiring Rep. Jerrold Nadler in one of New York’s wealthiest districts, representing parts of Manhattan. Lasher beat out a crowded field of challengers for the 12th Congressional District, including fellow state Assemblyman Alex Bores; Jack Schlossberg, a grandson of President John F. Kennedy; and George Conway, the ex-husband of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who ran as the most vocal advocate of impeaching the president. Mamdani, who lives in the district and didn’t endorse a candidate in this race, declined to say who he voted for.

Glad that Schlossberg's Kennedy electoral tourism did not work out, and even happier that George Conway lost.  (The man is a Republican)

Headline of the Day

DEMOCRATS SHOULD TRY LANDING THE FIRST PUNCH

—No More Mister Nice Blog: No More Mister Nice Blog, saying that Democrats lose because when they engage in outreach to former Republican voters, they apologize instead of telling the truth about Republicans.

He is completely right.

I do not know why they do this, but it is like the bite of a dog into a stone, a stupidity. 

………

Waldman notes that this appears to be an ideal moment for Democrats to try to win over Americans who've been voting Republican but now think the country is going in the wrong direction. But Waldman doesn't agree with the approach recommended by centrist Democrats:

The professional centrists in the Democratic Party look at a moment like this one and say “Now those moderate voters will finally be open to our apology! We can go to them and say ‘We know you think we suck, and you’re right, we do suck, but we’re going to try to do better.’”

He's right. That's a terrible message. In broad outline, I agree with what Waldman recommends instead:

... Democrats have been lectured endlessly about how they need to apologize and listen to Trump voters so that they might make them feel more warmly toward Democrats, while barely anyone acknowledges how absolutely vital it is that they work to change how these voters feel about Republicans.

As Harry S Truman once said, "I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell."

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment) in general, and the consultants in particular, want to run milquetoast campaigns that are driven by fund raising, because they get a cut of the media buy.

Revealing Herself

Faced with a winnable race in the newly redistricted Florida, Debbie Wasserman Schultz decided instead to carpet-bag on the sole remaining majority minority district in the state, because, I guess, actually campaigning is too much of a chore.

Not long ago, it seemed like 2026 might be an epic comeback year for the Florida Democratic Party. Barely two months into President Trump’s second term, they gained ten points on their 2024 numbers in two North Florida special elections. Then Miami voted in a Democratic mayor for the first time in 30 years. And this March, the state House seat containing Mar-a-Lago and Jeffrey Epstein’s pedo palace down the street flipped blue, after Republicans had previously won the seat by nearly 20 points.

Trump’s approval ratings in the state hover in the low to mid-40s, as the DeSantis brand has gone into wind-down mode alongside the massive torture cage known as Alligator Alcatraz, into which the Trump and DeSantis administrations jointly disappeared thousands of migrants before authorities quietly decided $1.2 million a day was too costly, even for President Ballroom. A state that hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since Lawton Chiles won his fifth statewide race in 1994 has a gubernatorial candidate in former Republican congressman David Jolly, who has explicitly modeled his campaign after the publicity stunt that put Chiles on the map, in which the U.S. Senate candidate walked 1,000 miles from Pensacola to Key West in 1970, shaking hands and giving speeches about the problems and aspirations of the people he met along the way.

But then Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced she would be running for Congress to represent Florida’s 20th Congressional District, a dense parcel of central Broward County directly north of the district she currently represents. Gov. DeSantis’s last-minute gerrymandering gambit had divided her current district, the 25th, into the far corners of four new districts, none of which were the 20th, but the appeal to a political insider was obvious: The 20th contains the largest concentration of Democratic voters in the state.

The disincentive to run was equally obvious: The district was explicitly drawn back in 1991 to be a majority-Black district, in accordance with a provision of the Voting Rights Act that was just largely scrapped by the Supreme Court in a decision met with the universal condemnation of Democrats, mostly because it represented the latest gambit in a long campaign to gut the VRA and suppress the votes of low-income minorities. Ironically but predictably, the 20th survived the gerrymander demographically intact; as currently constructed, roughly half of its population is Black, a quarter is white, and about 65 percent are registered Democrats.

What on earth would possess lily-white Wasserman Schultz, who was warning about the Supreme Court plot to gut the VRA long before it was cool, to parachute into a race alongside four viable Black candidates, less than four months before the primary?

……… 

The real mystery, [Former Broward Mayor and candidate in the same district Dale] Holness claims, is why Wasserman Schultz would choose not to run in the district in which she actually lives, the new 22nd District, which voted for Trump by about nine points in 2024 but by even higher margins in favor of a ballot initiative enshrining the right to an abortion, and swung to Biden by three points in 2020. 

Because, even though running in her own district is safe, she feels entitled to a massively Gerrymandered seat so she will not have to break a sweat.

It's all about the self-entitlement that comes with being a senior member of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).

It's just careerist selfishness.