Senate Democrats have enlisted progressive firebrand Elizabeth Warren to be a member of their leadership team, giving a major platform to a liberal icon just a week after Democrats took a beating at the polls and lost control of the Senate.
Harry Reid, the incoming Senate minority leader, had engaged in private talks with the Massachusetts freshman to create a special leadership post for the former Harvard professor, and the leadership elections Thursday solidified the new Democratic team.
The title will be strategic policy adviser to the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee — a specially created position that puts Warren into a much more prominent position in the Senate hierarchy.
In the new position, Warren is expected to serve as a go-between to liberal groups to ensure their voice is part of the leadership’s private deliberations. She would be part of the messaging and policy team.
Some see this appointment by Reid is a move away from bipartisanship, but let's face it the Republicans are not really ever going to work with the Democrats anyhow. Unless of course the Democrats agree to acquiesce to every one of their demands.
However Warren's take no shit personality scares the bejeezus out of the Republicans, and that endears her to the liberal base which is only growing bigger everyday.
I think this might just be Harry Reid's way of sticking his thumb in the eye of the conservatives.
But do you know what would send them right over the edge?
Having Warren's name appear on the ballot alongside Hillary's in 2016.
Oh, that would be glorious.
"Having Warren's name appear on the ballot alongside Hillary's in 2016. "
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If only! That would be the most amazing thing ever!
DeleteHey there my friends. I've been gone since the elections-maybe licking my wounds (probably drinking beer in bed, drooling, and watching the home and garden network). But, Im back now...kinda...heart broken, for sure. I wish that more young people would vote in things besides the Presidential elections! Love you all from Georgia, USA...sadly, still red.
ReplyDeleteHey, Beth...this too shall pass
Delete"Having Warren's name appear on the ballot alongside Hillary's in 2016."
ReplyDeleteYes, as Presidential candidate w/Biden.
Frankly, I don't think Hillary is going to make it.
Too much $$ baggage and not enough spirit, youth and health.
DRAFT Warren!!
She'll have had 2 years experience, just like Obama, and has much higher profile than O. The millenniums aren't going to vote for Hillary, but will for Warren.
I agree about Hillary, she's not going to make it. But I don't think Biden will either and he's no spring chicken either! Warren has integrity and drive and she's promised the people of Mass. that she's their Senator for the long run. And Hillary is only 2 years older that Warren. Some deep thinking and strategy needs to occur over the next several months. But at least the Democrats have some intelligent, educated and savvy people to consider
DeleteNone of the above. Progressives need to find someone else.
DeleteYeah, don't fall into the "Hillary is too old bs".... This is HER time to shine. Not Bill, Her. And if she has Liz Warren that would be awesome and yes, the R's would lose their shit...big time. She will be a FORCE! The R's are scrambling, they have no one and they know it. Except cheating. Rove did it in 2000-2004 and 2014, He tried to do it in 2012 he was prevented from flipping the servers.
ReplyDeleteEveryone should email their congress on election reform. I don't care if he/she is a R either. Good make the fuckers work. Tweet out.
I don't think Hillary (or Bill) will let that "flip" happen and if it did they would not let SCOTUS determine the outcome....
G just watched the 1st Newroom and it was Excellent!
Is Will, supposed to be Keith O?
Anyway first rate show, why are they going off, after this season?
Warren could end up being the person I have advocated for, for the longest time, and that is a "Truth Watchdog". What this individual would do would simply be the one to hold up a mirror to each and every one of thye Rethuglikan Party's lies, if and when proffered. I've thought Howard Dean to be another good candidate for this job, but Warren currently in office, would be even better.
ReplyDeleteThis is not Hillary's time to shine. That was in 2004, she could have waltzed into the White House but whether out of fear (W was riding high for a while in late 2003) or an agreement between the Clintons and Bushes, she chickened out of running. She doesn't deserve another shot. It's someone else's time, just like it was in 2008.
ReplyDeleteI think she knows it. She doesn't have fire in her belly -- like Warren does, who is on a Mission to change the 1% v. 99%.
ReplyDeleteWhat is Hillary doing? or saying? that has such vision? She is to busy tying up Wall Street money for her campaign (coronation? in her view?).
I don't agree that the Liberal base of the Democratic party is growing larger every day, Gryph. We've been here all along, lingering in an induced coma since the beginning of the Clinton era when the party deliberately brushed us aside, and has kept us brushed aside. Trying to get the Dem leadership to listen to our ideas has been as futile as trying to get you to approve comments critical of Obama. What you're seeing happen around Warren is what could have happened in 2008 had Obama been a liberal or a populist (but sadly he's neither). We finally have an emerging leader, one who has gone against the party leadership and stood her ground on principles and with an irrepressible intellect, (the very things people loved in Robert Kennedy, if you remember). If the party tries to attach her to a Clinton presidential ticket hoping that her popularity would help Clinton - a woman who couldn't be more antithetical to populism - while at the same time providing the means to stifle Warren's populist voice, you'll see Warren decline and the "Elizabeth Warren Wing of the Democratic Party" pull completely away from the hubris of Clinton and finally tell the Democratic leadership that the time they could treat us like pawns is over.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, party leadership is smarter than that, but I can assure you, after working with Dem volunteers here in Tucson (mostly in Raul Grijalva's Leg. District 6, a very progressive district), that part of the lethargy among Dems is brought on by Clinton's nomination looming on the horizon. It's already depressing people - people who won't do the GOTV thing again until there's a candidate running for whom they feel a genuine desire to support - and whom they can trust. Obama is another part of the problem, and why many are disenchanted with Dem politics. He kicked many, many of the people who worked their asses off to get him elected straight to the curb before he was even sworn in. Twice. There are a lot of Dem supporters fed up with the Dem leadership's commitment to the status quo, and it goes all the way back to the days of the DLC 25 years ago when the party deliberately silenced the silly populist voices. Elizabeth Warren is already the catalyst for dynamic changes within the party by providing the promise of real leadership - the kind of leadership people believe in.
What's going on here is the Clinton-run party bringing Warren into the fold so it can keep an eye on her and control her.
DeleteOregon Democrats ran on the administration's and their own accomplishments. Not only did they win big, they took over seats from Republicans. Oregon is bluer than it was before the election. All over the country Democrats ran away from their own agenda as well as their own president. What is wrong with those people?
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