Do the Nadler Shuffle

The extinguished chairman is more like it. Nancy just keeps going. This is fine.

The Queens Machine is suffering from AOC derangement syndrome

NY Post

 If the Queens Democratic establishment was badly rattled by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning victory against incumbent and kingmaker Joe Crowley last year, then a largely ignored civil court race this summer shook the city’s most powerful political machine to its core.

During primary elections in June, a Hispanic woman from the Bronx routed the candidate hand-picked by the Queens County Democratic Party for a seat on the county’s Civil Court — a race that had not been contested in nearly four decades.

“It was an incredible moment, and it was as important as AOC’s victory,” said a political strategist active in Queens and the Bronx. “Suddenly, people smelled blood.”

Insurgent candidate and lawyer Lumarie Maldonado Cruz, 47, beat Wyatt Gibbons, 56, with nearly 62% of the vote compared to 38% for Gibbons, a Queens attorney.

“AOC’s victory reminded me of my obligations to stand up for what is right,” Maldonado Cruz said when she entered the race earlier this year.

Still reeling from the victory of Ocasio-Cortez over Crowley, a 10-term Congressman and longtime Queens party boss who was also chair of the House Democratic Caucus, the party was again caught “asleep at the wheel” with no discernible strategy during the June primaries, said the strategist. He, like many of the political consultants and elected officials interviewed by The Post, did not want to be identified for fear of antagonizing the Queens party or AOC.



In addition to the judicial race, the party nearly lost the election for Queens district attorney. Party-backed candidate Queens Borough President Melinda Katz should have trounced little-known, late-to-the-race progressive Tiffany Caban, but instead squeaked by, after a month-long series of recounts, by 60 votes.

“They hate AOC,” said Baruch College political scientist Doug Muzzio, referring to the leaders of the Queens County Democrats. “She killed their meal ticket.”

But as they battle for relevancy against a progressive wave, the moderate Democrats in the Queens party are still mired in the past, observers say.  The party is still controlled by Crowley’s old backers — “the three white men in the room” who have controlled Queens politics for more than three decades and reaped the benefits.

Michael Reich is the longtime executive director of the political party, and Frank Bolz is the law chairman. Gerard Sweeney has held his appointment as counsel to the Queens public administrator since 1992. In that capacity, he has raked in tens of millions of dollars for the law firm, administering estates of those who die without wills in Surrogate’s Court.

In March, party delegates elected a scandal-scarred lawmaker as the new kingmaker. But observers told The Post that Rep. Gregory Meeks, an 11-term Congressman from southeast Queens, is a lightweight.

“Meeks is essentially a backbencher in Congress, who lacks Crowley’s gravitas,” Muzzio told The Post. “He’s their puppet.”

The true political powerhouse in Queens is obvious.

AOC has national stature, demanding the attention of the House Speaker and the president. She has more than 5 million Twitter followers.

The impeachment of President Trump has begun

New York Times

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that the House would initiate a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump, charging him with betraying his oath of office and the nation’s security by seeking to enlist a foreign power to tarnish a rival for his own political gain.

Ms. Pelosi’s declaration, after months of reticence by Democrats who had feared the political consequences of impeaching a president many of them long ago concluded was unfit for office, was a stunning turn that set the stage for a history-making and exceedingly bitter confrontation between the Democrat-led House and a defiant president who has thumbed his nose at institutional norms.

“The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution,” Ms. Pelosi said in a brief speech invoking the nation’s founding principles. Mr. Trump, she added, “must be held accountable — no one is above the law.”
She said the president’s conduct revealed his “betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”

Ms. Pelosi’s decision to push forward with the most severe action that Congress can take against a sitting president could usher in a remarkable new chapter in American life, touching off a constitutional and political showdown with the potential to cleave an already divided nation, reshape 

Mr. Trump’s presidency and the country’s politics, and carry heavy risks both for him and for the Democrats who have decided to weigh his removal. 

CBS News

This is the complaint sent by a whistleblower in the intelligence community to the community's inspector general, about an "urgent concern" that "the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. The interference, the whistleblower wrote, includes "pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals." 

The complaint is central to the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats.

---

UNCLASSIFIED

August 12, 2019 
The Honorable Richard Burr
Chairman
Select Committee on Intelligence
United States Senate 
The Honorable Adam Schiff
Chairman
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
United States House of Representatives

Dear Chairman Burr and Chairman Schiff: 
I am reporting an "urgent concern" in accordance with the procedures outlined in 50 U.S.C. §3033(k)(5)(A). This letter is UNCLASSIFIED when separated from the attachment. 
In the course of my official duties, I have received information from multiple U.S. Government officials that the President of the United States is using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election. This interference includes, among other things, pressuring a foreign country to investigate one of the President's main domestic political rivals. The President's personal lawyer, Mr. Rudolph Giuliani, is a central figure in this effort. Attorney General Barr appears to be involved as well. 

• Over the past four months, more than half a dozen U.S. officials have informed me of various facts related to this effort. The information provided herein was relayed to me in the course of official interagency business. It is routine for U.S. officials with responsibility for a particular regional or functional portfolio to share such information with one another in order to inform policymaking and analysis.
• I was not a direct witness to most of the events described. However, I found my colleagues' accounts of these events to be credible because, in almost all cases, multiple officials recounted fact patterns that were consistent with one another. In addition, a variety of information consistent with these private accounts has been reported publicly. 

I am deeply concerned that the actions described below constitute "a serious or flagrant problem, abuse, or violation of law or Executive Order" that "does not include differences of opinions concerning public policy matters," consistent with the definition of an "urgent concern" in 50 U.S.C. §3033(k)(5)(G). I am therefore fulfilling my duty to report this information, through proper legal channels, to the relevant authorities.  

Impunity City

Like Trump likes to say, I am not a fan of this president. But this "whistleblower"'s account is basically based on gossip.

 Being that this a CIA agent they are relying on for impeachment, this guy is less a whistleblower and more like a whistlemole.

Is it time for Joe to go?

From Roll Call:

Pelosi has been in power so long that only 58 House Democrats seeking re-election this fall have known another floor leader. In the interim, a long line of lawmakers viewed as potential future speakers have taken themselves out of the running. First, Rahm Emanuel left to be White House chief of staff and then mayor of Chicago. Then, Chris Van Hollen opted for a Maryland Senate seat, Xavier Becerra opted to be California attorney general, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida was fatally sidetracked by her national party chairmanship.

Crowley remains the only member mentioned among that group who’s still got a shot.

To take it will require him to win an 11th term, of course, which is proving more work than usual. The district, which covers northwest Queens and a slice of the Bronx, is lopsidedly Democratic, but in June he faces his first contested primary in 14 years against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old political operative and community organizer running an impassioned grass-roots campaign to his left.

“We have basically, on one side, a multimillion-dollar machine candidate that was never elected, who does not live in the district — he lives in Virginia, his children go to public school in Virginia,” she told the Queens Courier. “It’s really kind of the pinnacle of someone who is a little out of touch but very influential.”

Her reference is to the old-school way Crowley cruised into Congress after a dozen years in the state Assembly: His mentor Thomas Manton, who was both the Queens Democratic chairman as well as a congressman, announced his retirement from the House so late in the 1998 campaign that it was effectively up to him as the party boss to pick a replacement nominee. (Crowley has been county chairman himself since Manton died in 2006.)

Now, he portrays his blue-collar sensibilities as just right for leading his party in combating a president “born on the other side of the tracks” — meaning the Long Island Expressway, which separates Crowley’s Elmhurst from Donald Trump’s Jamaica Estates.

Like the president, Crowley said early in the Trump administration, he’s ready to use colorful language to express outrage and frustration and aims to “talk turkey and talk straight” to workers. “Part of my strength is that I come from the same borough,” he added. “Maybe I sound a little bit like him. But my life could not be more divergent.”

Weiner update

Ok, so the latest on the Weiner saga is that he also took photos of his naked self grabbing his crotch in the congressional gym.

Anthony has left the scene to go get "treatment" while Nancy Pelosi and other top Dems are now calling for his resignation. CD9 constituents held a protest yesterday in front of his office with a collection of signs that were a doozy. All this has Weiner finally contemplating resignation.
He also apparently has not had a registered vehicle since 2006.

Pelosi to Weiner: Time to go!

From the NY Post:

Democratic leaders are now calling on Rep. Anthony Weiner to resign after the New York lawmaker embroiled in a Twitter scandal admitted he had online contact with a Delaware teenager.

National party chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says Weiner's behavior is "indefensible" and his role in Congress is "untenable."

The Florida congresswoman says "this sordid affair has become an unacceptable distraction" for everyone.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California says Weiner "needs help" and he should get some "without the pressures of being a member of Congress."

Further investigation of "Honest Joe" Crowley

From the NY Post:

House ethics investigators yesterday recommended a full-blown probe of whether influential Queens Rep. Joe Crowley improperly solicited donations from corporate executives just before voting on legislation overhauling Wall Street.

The independent Office of Congressional Ethics urged the House ethics panel to investigate the actions of Crowley, along with GOP Reps. Tom Price of Georgia and John Campbell of California.

At the same time, five other lawmakers were cleared of wrongdoing.

Crowley, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, also is chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, and a close adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The scrutiny centers on a series of fund-raisers -- including one Crowley attended last Dec. 10, at which he collected thousands of dollars from financial power brokers before returning to the Capitol to vote against a series of amendments that would have imposed tougher restrictions on Wall Street.

Crowley was reported to have received at least $23,500 before the vote.

Crowley denied wrongdoing.

"Congressman Crowley has always complied with the letter and spirit of all rules regarding fundraising and standards of conduct," a spokeswoman said.

Crowley has been a staunch defender of Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel, who is charged with 13 ethics violations. Crowley co-hosted Rangel's 80th-birthday fund-raiser at The Plaza hotel last month.

Crowley actually in a competitive race for once!

From the NY Post:

The race is on between Democrat Reps. Joe Crowley and Steve Israel to be the next chairman of the House Democrats' campaign arm -- testing the longtime friendship of the two ambitious New York politicians.

"They are both looking to move up," a Democratic insider on Capitol Hill said. "They are both very well connected over there" at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Crowley (D-Queens/Bronx) and Israel (D-LI) are angling for the job in the usual way: showing off their fund-raising prowess.

As vice chairman for finance, Crowley has raked in $7.3 million for the committee so far in the 2010 election cycle, according to a recent DCCC report.

The only members to collect more campaign cash for the committee are House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with $27 million, and the current DCCC chairman, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), with $9.4 million. Israel, who heads up the committee's recruitment drive, raised $1.6 million.

Israel -- outranked and out-fund-raised by Crowley -- has built a reputation for aggressive fund-raising inside members' districts. And he has showered about $85,000 from his personal campaign account on a host of Democratic candidates.

He also has an ace in the hole: The top staff position at the DCCC, executive director, is held by John Vogel, who early in his political career served as Israel's campaign finance director.

Of course, Crowley didn't get to be one of four DCCC vice chairmen without getting close to Pelosi and Van Hollen. As one Crowley ally put it: "He talks to the speaker often."

Unlike other leadership posts, which are filled by caucus votes, the next DCCC chairman will be handpicked by the speaker.

Charlie says he's not going anywhere

From the NY Post:

New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel said Friday he won’t step down as chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee despite being admonished for violating rules by letting corporations pay for his Caribbean trips.

Rangel asserted that that the ethics report “exonerates” him because it says there is no evidence that he knew the trips were sponsored by corporations. The report said his staff knew who paid for the trips.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sidestepped a question on the New York Democrat’s fate while noting that Rangel remains under investigation on various other alleged ethics lapses. “We’ll just see what happens next,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.

Rangel said he truly doesn’t understand why the committee admonished him.

Asked by reporters if he planned to stay on as committee chairman in light of the ethics report, Rangel responded: “Why don’t you ask me am I’m going to stay chairman of the committee in light of the fact that we’re expecting heavy snow in New York?” He said that would be just as relevant.

Still looming is a much larger ethics investigation that focuses in part on Rangel’s use of official stationery to raise money for a college center in his name and also his belated financial disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unreported assets.