MD-SEN 2024: Cardin retiring, Hogan IN

[brucejoel99]

The more I read about them, the more I come away with the impression that Trone and Alsobrooks would both make good Senators.  I think I’d probably prefer Alsobrooks, but I’d be happy either way.  Raskin probably shouldn’t run though.  We’ve got a decent shot at flipping the House which would make him Chair of a major committee and there are already two solid mainstream progressives running, one of whom shares Raskin’s Montgomery County base.  

Jawano said he'd drop out and run for the House if Raskin runs

I was referring to Trone, not Jawano.  I don’t think Jawano has a path to victory in the Senate primary.  Trone and Alsobrooks both seem like solid mainstream progressives.  I’d be happy with either at this point, although I’d probably vote for Alsobrooks if I lived in Maryland.

Trone "progressive"!? That's a laugh.

[brucejoel99]

The more I read about them, the more I come away with the impression that Trone and Alsobrooks would both make good Senators.  I think I’d probably prefer Alsobrooks, but I’d be happy either way.  Raskin probably shouldn’t run though.  We’ve got a decent shot at flipping the House which would make him Chair of a major committee and there are already two solid mainstream progressives running, one of whom shares Raskin’s Montgomery County base.  

Jawano said he'd drop out and run for the House if Raskin runs

I was referring to Trone, not Jawano.  I don’t think Jawano has a path to victory in the Senate primary.  Trone and Alsobrooks both seem like solid mainstream progressives.  I’d be happy with either at this point, although I’d probably vote for Alsobrooks if I lived in Maryland.

Trone "progressive"!? That's a laugh.

On what major issues isn’t he a mainstream progressive?  Please cite with examples of specific policy positions.

Israel, (interest-conflicted) regulation, & no less an entity than socialism itself. What "mainstream progressive" is also a New Dem Problem Solver who not only hired a veteran Capitol Hill staffer with a specific reputation for serving moderate-leaning Blue Dog congressmen to be his Chief of Staff, but whose own website can literally be publicly quoted as follows?:

Steve Scully (0:14) - Let me begin with what the new Congress will look like, you will be now in the minority but a very narrow minority for the Democrats, the Republicans only, what a four-seat majority in 2023. So how’s that going to affect the leadership? If he becomes speaker? Kevin McCarthy. And where does that put moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans like you?

David Trone (0:36) - Well, I think it puts, if Kevin McCarthy can get the votes needed, 218 requisite votes needed, which, as we all know, he’s certainly struggling right now with some Freedom Caucus members who are not cooperating. But once he does that, and I think he will, I think the moderates are going to clearly be in a good spot, Republican moderates, Democrat moderates, we’re gonna have a chance to work together, with a agenda that can actually get accomplished. And sometimes in the past, we’ve overreached in our party, and that’s come back to bite us.

[...]

David Trone (2:43) - Well, as I might have noticed, like most folks have noticed, the January 6 Committee, we invited Republicans to be on. They made it crystal clear they didn’t want to be on. And we have two Republicans, both Kinzinger and Liz Cheney on the committee. And it’s been I think, believe, very, very balanced. I’m a moderate, and I’m looking for balance. We’re not looking to score political points. We want to put people over politics every day. And we need oversight. But we don’t need politics, American people are just sick and tired of it.

[brucejoel99]

The more I read about them, the more I come away with the impression that Trone and Alsobrooks would both make good Senators.  I think I’d probably prefer Alsobrooks, but I’d be happy either way.  Raskin probably shouldn’t run though.  We’ve got a decent shot at flipping the House which would make him Chair of a major committee and there are already two solid mainstream progressives running, one of whom shares Raskin’s Montgomery County base.  

Jawano said he'd drop out and run for the House if Raskin runs

I was referring to Trone, not Jawano.  I don’t think Jawano has a path to victory in the Senate primary.  Trone and Alsobrooks both seem like solid mainstream progressives.  I’d be happy with either at this point, although I’d probably vote for Alsobrooks if I lived in Maryland.

Trone "progressive"!? That's a laugh.

On what major issues isn’t he a mainstream progressive?  Please cite with examples of specific policy positions.

Israel, (interest-conflicted) regulation, & no less an entity than socialism itself. What "mainstream progressive" is also a New Dem Problem Solver who not only hired a veteran Capitol Hill staffer with a specific reputation for serving moderate-leaning Blue Dog congressmen to be his Chief of Staff, but whose own website can literally be publicly quoted as follows?:

Steve Scully (0:14) - Let me begin with what the new Congress will look like, you will be now in the minority but a very narrow minority for the Democrats, the Republicans only, what a four-seat majority in 2023. So how’s that going to affect the leadership? If he becomes speaker? Kevin McCarthy. And where does that put moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans like you?

David Trone (0:36) - Well, I think it puts, if Kevin McCarthy can get the votes needed, 218 requisite votes needed, which, as we all know, he’s certainly struggling right now with some Freedom Caucus members who are not cooperating. But once he does that, and I think he will, I think the moderates are going to clearly be in a good spot, Republican moderates, Democrat moderates, we’re gonna have a chance to work together, with a agenda that can actually get accomplished. And sometimes in the past, we’ve overreached in our party, and that’s come back to bite us.

[...]

David Trone (2:43) - Well, as I might have noticed, like most folks have noticed, the January 6 Committee, we invited Republicans to be on. They made it crystal clear they didn’t want to be on. And we have two Republicans, both Kinzinger and Liz Cheney on the committee. And it’s been I think, believe, very, very balanced. I’m a moderate, and I’m looking for balance. We’re not looking to score political points. We want to put people over politics every day. And we need oversight. But we don’t need politics, American people are just sick and tired of it.

1) Opposing anti-Semitic hate groups like BDS =/= not being progressive
2) The Intercept is about as credible a source as Newsmax.  That said, the prohibition thing is obviously moronic if it’s actually true and not fake news.
3) Performative virtue signaling votes are not major issues
4) Unaware of the quote on the website.  Don’t love that (to put it mildly), but still not an actual major issue where he’s actually voted against progressive policies.

1. Tell that to no less of a mainstream progressive organization than the ACLU. BDS &, y'know, Israel & Palestine are pretty complicated topics; just flat-out ruling it anti-Semitic hate like you've just done isn't exactly progressive nor is it, incidentally, particularly Jewish (we're literally religiously taught to be critical & to not accept something blindly for the sake thereof), & I say those things as both a center-leftist &, y'know, as a Jew (who's thus not exactly crazy about anti-Semites!). FWIW, my take is that BDS is pretty clearly not inherently anti-Semitic as a concept for the same reason that not all criticism of the Israeli gov't. is inherently anti-Semitic (or else you & I have some *Conversations* to start having about Bibi), esp. if the endgame like that of some center left-to-leftist 2-staters such as myself's would be is just hopefully crossing fingers for outta-nowhere Sharon-style unilateral disengagement a-la de Klerk reversing Botha, but can & has definitely been used as a cover for anti-Semitism in exactly the same way that criticisms of the Israeli gov't. has been.

2. See for yourself (fun fact: the case is literally the only article listed under "See also" on the Trone-owned Total Wine & More's wiki page; incidentally, it's a great store with a great selection & I love shopping there, lol, Trone's still a mod tho)

3. "Performative virtue signaling votes" is literally AZ's Senior Senator rn, pretty major issue! (Getting ahead of you here, that was just a quip; no, Trone isn't Sinema 2.0, but that's not the progressive bar.)

4. To say nothing of the CoS also being something not to love, too, but thankfully it's not like the Senate has recently experienced a high-profile saga involving a CoS purportedly serving as a shadow Senator...


EDIT:

Ted Lieu and Ruben Gallego voted for the anti-socialism resolution too, I guess that means they’re DINOs too

Yes, all 263 Democrats in Washington should be chad Lizzie Fletcher clones, except for the Maryland delegation, which should just be alternating clones of Raskin, Mfume, freakin' Sarbanes, & God (formerly known as Steny Hoyer)

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/pwoodreporter/status/1778908752789323956

https://twitter.com/NickTagliaferro/status/1778911385520656424