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Tag: challenge
Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy Is Taking Revenge -- On House Republicans

From primary challenges to getting blackballed from House Republicans caucuses, the eight Republicans who ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are feeling the blowback. His allies—and he has many of them—are making sure of that.

The Republican Main Street Caucus and Republican Governance Group have quietly booted Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, whose attention-getting stunts seem to be wearing thin with her colleagues. “She really wants to be a caucus of one. So we obliged her,” one House Republican told CNN.

Mace is facing a serious primary challenger, as is Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, the new chair of the Freedom Caucus and one of the anti-McCarthy eight. “A well-connected GOP outside spending group is planning to play in the [primary] races,” CNN reports, and McCarthy is likely to be directly involved on behalf of the challengers as well.

Where the real hammer is falling on this eight is in their fundraising. Others, including Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Eli Crane, acknowledge that the big donors aren’t taking their calls anymore. Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju that he “absolutely” had seen his donations dry up. “Some very wealthy folks, and they’ve been very kind to me in the past,” Burchett said of donors who had dropped him. “And I hope that we can mend the fences,” he added. Good luck to him on that one.

Crane of Arizona told Raju he was feeling a fundraising hit. “Yeah, that’s definitely a reality,” he said. “And I think anybody that participated in that knew that going forward.”

He’s right. They knew what they were doing, and they asked for this. Booting McCarthy meant ousting their most effective fundraiser. Ousting him meant pissing off all those big donors he’s been cultivating all these years. They’re friends of Kev, and they are happy to help him get his revenge.

Speaking of revenge, that’s what the ouster was all about. The spearhead of the chaos, Rep. Matt Gaetz, admitted it to a colleague in private correspondence obtained by The Daily Beast. According to the outlet, “Gaetz indicated to a friend that his effort to undercut, isolate, and ultimately remove McCarthy was, indeed, payback for the ethics probe.” That would be the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz for alleged sex crimes, drug use, and campaign finance violations, to name a few.

Do any of Gaetz’s pals blame him for putting them in this position? Of course not. “I’m too busy working for the Lowcountry and helping elect President Trump to worry about Kevin McCarthy’s puppet,” Mace told CNN. “The DC swamp doesn’t want me back—too bad. I don’t work for them, I work for the people of the First Congressional District and no one else.”

The rest of the GOP conference loves to see McCarthy’s revenge. “If I’m those folks, one of the things that would scare the crap out of me more than anything else is an unhinged McCarthy,” a Republican lawmaker told CNN. “The guy’s the most prolific fundraiser, you’ve got a massive group of donors across the country that are pissed off about what’s happening, and you’ve got these boneheads that have caused it.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Elizabeth Warren’s Candidacy Generates Excitement, But Will It Be Enough?

The entry of Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard-professor-turned-consumer-advocate, into the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts has created a stir among Democratic activists and donors, but she faces a difficult challenge in unseating Republican Sen. Scott Brown. While she has never previously run for office, her high profile as a regulator and tough critic of the financial industry has progressives buzzing that she could retake the seat held for four decades by the late liberal lion Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Warren is a darling of the anti-corporate progressives who are disenchanted with the Democratic Party’s close ties to Wall Street. A law professor at Harvard, she served as the special advisor for the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and was the first chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Most politicians claim they are dedicated to the middle class, but her record adds rare substance to this promise. As she greeted commuters at a Boston subway station to launch her campaign Wednesday, she said,

“There’s been a lot of very powerful interests who have tried to shut me down, squeeze me, push me sideways, and so far it just hasn’t worked. I’m willing to throw my body in front of a bus to try to stop bad ideas that are going to be harmful to the middle class.”

But now, in an already-crowded Democratic pool, Warren might have to appeal to those same powerful interests in order to compete with other Senate hopefuls. If she does make it through the primary, she has to square off with the popular Sen. Brown, who already has more than $10 million in his campaign account. Much of Brown’s campaign donations come from the financial sector — his top contributors include Goldman Sachs and the Boston-based financial company FMR Corp. If Warren accepted similar donations — although it is highly unlikely such interests would consider supporting her, given her record — she would be opening herself up to claims of hypocrisy. Instead, she will most likely rely on smaller contributions from progressive organizations, unions, and voters who are excited about her campaign.

“I think it’s pretty clear she’s going to run the classic, grassroots campaign here in Massachusetts,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a longtime Democratic operative in the state. “That means she’s going to rely on folks here to give low-dollar donations here a number of times.”

Given the amount of enthusiasm surrounding her candidacy, jilted progressives might be willing to give her the necessary money and support. People on the left are excited at the prospect of having a dedicated consumer advocate in Washington, hoping that she would stand up to the corporate interests that dominate much of policy-making. As John Nichols of The Nationwrites,

It’s not just that a Warren candidacy could provide Democrats with a needed pick-up of a currently Republican-held seat — although that’s a big deal for the party, which faces a dismal electoral map in 2012. If the chief advocate for real banking reform and the development of a federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau runs and defeats U.S. Scott Brown, R-Massachusetts, she will instantly become an essential spokesperson for progressive values in national economic, regulatory, and fiscal policy debates.

The calculus extends even further with Warren, however. Her ability to grab the spotlight and use it to push the discourse to the left on economic issues that the media so frequently neglects makes the prospect of her candidacy and Senate service potentially transformative for movements and a party that will — no matter what the 2012 presidential election result — begin pondering sometime next year the challenge of identifying leaders of the post-Obama era.

There’s something to be said for this level of optimism and excitement surrounding a Democratic candidate, particularly at a time when liberals are facing a tough electoral climate. Warren could reinvigorate a disillusioned progressive movement; but is it possible to win an election in 2012 without appealing to the financial sector for hefty donations?

If Warren secures the Democratic nomination, the Senate race could turn into a battle between Wall Street and progressives. But at the end of the day, relying on a wholly grassroots fundraising scheme might not be enough against the wallets of the big banks.

Turkey To Challenge Gaza Blockade

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is preparing to challenge Israel’s blockade on Gaza at the International Court of Justice, the foreign minister said Saturday, ratcheting up tensions between the once close allies.

Ahmet Davutoglu’s comments came a day after Turkey expelled the Israel’s ambassador and severed military ties with the country, angered over its refusal to apologize for last year’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.

In an interview with Turkey’s state-run TRT television, Davutoglu dismissed a U.N. report into the raid that said Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza was a legal security measure. Davutoglu said the report — prepared by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and presented to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon — was not endorsed by the United Nations and was therefore not binding.

“What is binding is the International Court of Justice,” Davutoglu said. “This is what we are saying: let the International Court of Justice decide.”

“We are starting the necessary legal procedures this coming week,” he said.

But Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said his country has nothing to apologize for and that it has done all it could to avoid a crisis with Turkey. He said the Turks apparently intended to raise tensions with Israel for its own reasons.

“The problem here is on the Turkish side. … They were not ready for a compromise and kept raising the threshold,” Ayalon said on Israeli TV Saturday. “I think we need to say to the Turks: as far as we are concerned, this saga is behind us. Now we need to cooperate. Lack of cooperation harms not only us, but Turkey as well.”

Davutoglu said the U.N. report released Friday contradicted an earlier report on the Gaza flotilla incident which found that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided the flotilla. That report was prepared in September by three human rights experts appointed by the U.N.’s top human rights body.

He also warned Israel that it risks alienation among Arab nations by resisting an apology.

“If Israel persists with its current position, the Arab spring will give rise to a strong Israel opposition as well as the debate on the authoritarian regimes,” Davutoglu said.

On Friday, Turkey downgraded its diplomatic ties with Israel to the level of second secretary and gave the ambassador and other high-level diplomats until Wednesday to leave the country. In other measures against Israel, Turkey suspended military agreements, promised to back legal actions against Israel by the raid victims’ families, and vowed to take steps to ensure freedom to navigate in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkish officials refused to elaborate on their government’s latest move, but some analysts suggested Turkey could send navy vessels to escort aid ships in the future.

Turkey’s main opposition party on Friday warned that such a step could lead to confrontation between Turkish and Israeli forces. “The probability that (Turkey’s ruling) party has carried Turkey to the brink of a hot conflict is saddening and unacceptable,” said Faruk Logoglu, a deputy chairman of the opposition Republican People’s Party.

On Saturday, Ban urged Turkey and Israel to mend ties for the good of the Middle East peace process. “I sincerely hope that Israel and Turkey will improve their relationship,” Ban told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“Both countries are very important countries in the region and their improved relationship — normal relationship — will be very important in addressing all the situations in the Middle East, including the Middle East peace process,” he said, referring to a negotiated Palestinian-Israeli peace pact.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said the U.N. committee’s report concluded that Israel had acted within its rights and said he hoped it would help “put the relationship between Jerusalem and Ankara back on the right track.”

“The U.N. commission clearly states that Israel acted legally in imposing the naval blockade to protect our people from the smuggling of rockets and weapons that are fired at our civilians,” the spokesman, Mark Regev, said.

The U.N. report released Friday called the May 31, 2010 Israeli raid “excessive and unreasonable.” The U.N. panel also blamed Turkey and flotilla organizers for contributing to the deaths.

Israel insists its forces acted in self-defense and says there will be no apology. Israeli officials pointed out that the report does not demand an apology. Rather, it says “an appropriate statement of regret should be made by Israel in respect of the incident in light of its consequences.”

(This version CORRECTS the spelling of “ratcheting.”)