At virtually the same moment that I was being born in a New Jersey hospital, Lanny Davis was meeting Hillary Clinton for the first time at Yale Law School. So, their relationship is almost exactly as old as I am. I get that their friendship runs deep. But, please, for the love of God, make Lanny shut up, go away, and crawl under a rock for the duration of this campaign. I swear, I cannot abide that man. Every time he opens his mouth, I want to dedicate my life to defeating all his friends and allies.
He is not at advocate you want to have.
Too bad that wasn’t a recent article. There needs to be one.
Is he actually defending Kane or is he just her HR person concerning the possible indictment?
Lanny Davis, Robert Rubin, Rahm Emanuel, Larry Summers, Ron Brown, Bill Daley, Andrew Cuomo, Leon Panetta, Mickey Kantor, George Tenet, Laura Tyson. Do we want these people back in power? Go ahead vote for the party no matter what Corporocrat is running.
And Mark Penn. And Harold Ford. And the entire Clinton-Industrial-Parasitic complex.
For all the complaining about Chicago cronies, there’s been less of a personal, influence-driven mafia in eight years of Obama than with any other president since at least Eisenhower. In that respect Hillary is very much the bad old days.
Ron Brown is deceased, so he won’t be “back in power” in this life. I’d be pretty happy with Larry Summers back in government since he has clearly learned from his (not too numerous) mistakes, and he has significantly updated his policy views based on new evidence. He’s no Paul Krugman, but he’s one of the good guys now. I’m quite neutral with respect to Tyson — she could go either way were she to return to government.
Keep in mind Bill Clinton also put Robert Reich in the cabinet, and I don’t think it’s possible to have a better Labor Secretary from a policy point of view at least. Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren are also reportedly very friendly and agreeable, and there doesn’t seem to be anything forced or artificial about that. (I think it would be brilliant if Clinton selects Warren as her running mate, assuming Clinton wins the Democratic nomination. It would be a very Clintonian selection.
20 years ago, a different era when the conservatives in both parties were in the ascendancy and the Left was balkanized and ineffectual.
Still, it wasn’t all DLCers and corporaDems. Clinton did surround himself with liberals and good people such as: VP Al Gore, Bruce Babbitt, Henry Cisneros, Bill Richardson, John Pedesta, Harold Ickes, Sid Blumenthal, Ann Lewis, Geo Steph, Carol Browner.
He nominated about as many women and minorities to important policy and legal posts as the political situation could bear, among them RBG to Scotus along with Stephen Breyer. He had initially wanted liberal Mario Cuomo, who would have been a forceful liberal advocate on the Ct, but was turned down.
A mixed bag overall — BC seemed to feel he needed to paddle a little to the left and a little to the right to keep moving forward downstream.
Clinton did surround himself with liberals and good people such as: VP Al Gore, Bruce Babbitt, Henry Cisneros, Bill Richardson, John Pedesta, Harold Ickes, Sid Blumenthal, Ann Lewis, Geo Steph, Carol Browner.
Gore used to be DLC, before the loss to Bush made him see the light. I prefer Sid’s kid to Sid himself. George Snuffleupagus? No thanks!! He’s awful.
Gore: He would be more in my “good guy” category. A good backup and adviser to Bill, strong on the environment then (and later, but not in 2000) and on nuke proliferation. Certainly better than most, and I’d argue less hawkish an influence then than Biden today. And I doubt Joe goes as deeply liberal on as many issues as Al did then, even in his latter DLC years.
Sid B: Wrote a good book called (iirc) The Clinton Wars about all the pseudo scandals and VRWC against Bill. Honest and loyal during difficult times. Not much I recall to dislike of the 90s guy. I like the kid too.
GSteph: Only recalling the 93-4 liberal guy, not the later MSM sellout and (briefly) kinda turncoat with the tell-all book that probably eased his way to MSM megabucks.
Clinton became DLC chairman in 1990 and Al Gore has long been listed as one of the early members.
Yes, Babbitt won’t pass a political purity test. But he never struck me as a true believer of that organization, and was a fairly strong protector of the environment under Clinton. I considered him politically flexible in the direction of trying new ideas, some of them progressive, but he had to govern Arizona, not Vermont, and during a conservative era.
iirc, Goldwater was an environmentalist in his time.
I’m well aware the died and under suspicious circumstances. His name is an example of who the Clinton’s put into day to day power.
If I may paraphrase Booman from a few years back, it’s not merely the Clintons; it’s the whole team that comes with them. That’s why they must be defeated.
what do you think about O’Malley?
He looks promising on the surface, but I won’t know how serious he is until I see some fundraising numbers. Right now I’m open to ABC, and O’Malley’s on that list.
I find them infinitely preferable to the team of any Republican who could possibly survive the primary process.
If Team Clinton makes it to the general election then they will benefit from my straight-ticket vote, but every other Democrat thinking about running would be preferable to Team Clinton…
I regard them as the same, just a different party label.
Yep, that’s why Al Gore would have invaded airaq too…
Or Obama invading Afghanistan.
ot:
For Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church, shooting is another painful chapter in long history
By Sarah Kaplan June 18 at 5:03 AM
When a gunman opened fire on Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church Wednesday, spraying bullets into a group of worshippers gathered for a mid-week prayer meeting, it was as though history repeated itself.
This historic congregation, the oldest of its kind in the South, had already seen more than its fair share of tumult and hate. It was founded by worshippers fleeing racism and burned to the ground for its connection with a thwarted slave revolt. For years its meetings were conducted in secret to evade laws that banned all-black services. It was jolted by an earthquake in 1886. Civil rights luminaries spoke from its pulpit and lead marches from its steps. For nearly two hundred years it had been the site of struggle, resistance and change.
On Wednesday, the church was a crime scene — the street outside aglow with the flashing red lights of police cars and echoing with the screech of sirens. Nine people had been killed there, reportedly including the church’s pastor, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, though police had not confirmed his death.
“I do believe this was a hate crime,” Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said at a press conference early Thursday morning.
To those watching in Charleston and from afar, it was devastating.
“It’s not just a church. It’s also a symbol … of black freedom,” said Robert Greene, who studies the 20th century South at the University of South Carolina. “That’s why so many folks are so upset tonight, because it’s a church that represents so much about the rich history and tradition of African Americans in Charleston.”
In Charleston, the church is affectionately known as “Mother Emanuel,” a nod to its age and its eminence in the community. It is a place people take pride in, said Rev. Stephen Singleton, who was pastor there from 2006 to 2010 — all soaring ceilings and fine pinewood floors, with an antique pipe organ that had been shipped from Europe more than a century ago.
“They’re just God-fearing people,” Singleton said of his former congregation. “People who lived in modesty in light of the history of the congregation they called home.”
That history is a long and storied one. The congregation was founded in the era of slavery by Morris Brown, a founding pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1816, frustrated with the racism he encountered in Charleston’s segregated churches, Brown decided to form a Church of his own. About 4,000 parishioners followed him — more than 75 percent of city’s black community, according to a history published by the College of Charleston.
From the beginning, the congregation was a focal point of community organizing and anti-slavery activism — provoking fears and intense distrust among the city’s white population. According to a PBS documentary, white Charlestonians constantly monitored the church, sometimes disrupting services and arresting worshipers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/06/18/for-charlestons-emanuel-a-m-e-church-on
e-of-the-oldest-in-america-shooting-is-another-painful-chapter-in-long-history/?postshare=1991434621
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