Dear Patrick Caldwell,
While I would much prefer to see Senator Warren run for president, she would be best placed to replace Harry Reid, and she would set the progressive tone voters want and keep her fellow Democrats in line.
The neoliberal influence over the top leadership of the Democratic party has reached crisis proportion. The party’s losses in the 2014 midterm should have been treated as an indictment of the takeover of neoliberals, and not the perfect pretext to further cement their hold on it. When such losses occur, the top leadership resigns. The exact opposite happened and the neoliberal wing not only remained, but immediately proceeded to solidify its hold on the party.
You contend that Senator Patti Murray is the right choice for more progressive leadership. May I remind you that in 2013, Patti Murray is the senator who, in closed door negotiations with Paul Ryan, negotiated the budget deal that kicked at least 3 million long-term unemployed to the curb, under the false promise, at the time, that the issue would be taken up upon Congress’ return from winter break. It never happened. Your own coverage of the lopsidedness of the budget deal included zero mention of the unemployed.
Shame! While I may not always agree, I expect the truth from Mother Jones.
US News: A Glaring Omission from the Budget Deal
Lawmakers are making a huge mistake by not extending emergency unemployment benefits.
By Chad Stone
This week’s budget agreement between Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was a small one, but it met important criteria for a budget deal. But, in a glaring omission, it doesn’t renew federal emergency unemployment insurance benefits that will expire just after Christmas.
They shouldn’t, but apparently lawmakers will go home for Christmas without fixing the problem. Certainly they should fix it retroactively when they return in January.
**Curated from Failing to Extend Unemployment Benefits Is Lose-Lose for Workers and the Economy – US News
Forget Elizabeth Warren. Another Female Senator Has a Shot to Fill the Senate’s New Power Vacuum.
In the nanoseconds after Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid announced Friday morning that he will give up his leadership post and retire in 2016, liberal groups raced to promote their go-to solution for almost any political problem: Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Much like the movement to draft Warren for president, the idea of putting her in charge of the Democratic caucus was more dream than reality. Warren’s office has already said she won’t run, and as Vox’s Dylan Matthews explains, putting Warren in charge of the Democratic caucus would prevent her from holding her colleagues accountable when they stray too far from progressive ideals.
Instead, Reid’s likely replacement is New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who already has endorsements from Reid and Dick Durbin, the outgoing minority leader’s No. 2. But lefties have long been wary of Schumer, who, thanks to his home base in New York City, is far more sympathetic to Wall Street than the rest of his caucus. And lost in the Warren hype is another female senator: Washington’s Patty Murray.
Curated from www.motherjones.com