TNR: In sabotaging Ocasio-Cortez’s bid for leadership of Oversight Committee, party elders have doubled down on a failed strategy

[Morrison71]

Pelosi Won. The Democratic Party Lost.

In sabotaging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s bid for leadership of the Oversight Committee, party elders have doubled down on a failed strategy.

newrepublic.com

Fresh off hip replacement surgery, Nancy Pelosi, 84, secured another victory. House Democrats on Tuesday afternoon decided that 74-year-old Gerry Connolly—who announced his throat cancer diagnosis in November—will serve as ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, besting 35-year-old Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a closed-door caucus vote. "Gerry's a young 74, cancer notwithstanding," said Virginia Democrat Don Beyer, a Connolly ally. Pelosi had opposed the 35-year-old's run for the role, "approaching colleagues urging them to back Connolly over Ocasio-Cortez," Axios reported last week.

Connolly will join fellow septuagenarians in top committee spots next year. Richard Neal, 75, will lead Democrats on Ways and Means while Frank Pallone, 73, will be the party's top representative on Energy and Commerce. Eighty-six-year-old Maxine Waters will be the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee, and Rose DeLauro, 81, will helm the Democrats' presence in Appropriations.

The elderly are not too old to govern. But they may, in this case, be too attached to a failed way of doing things. The job of the Oversight Committee, for instance, is to "ensure the efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies," including the Pentagon. Connolly this past cycle accepted $118,500 from political action committees linked to the defense sector. Ways and Means is the House's top tax-writing committee, with jurisdiction over the revenue-related aspects of Social Security and Medicare, among other programs. Neal is a top recipient of donations from the insurance industry, having accepted $412,000 from insurance industry PACs during the 2024 campaign cycle, plus generous six-figure donations from HMOs and pharmaceutical companies. Frank Pallone has gotten more than $1 million from electric utilities since joining Congress in 1998.

In other democracies, the leaderships of parties that have endured humiliating defeats like the one Democrats saw in November—or even just regular defeats—resign. That kicks off a process by which members determine a new, ideally more successful direction, represented by different people. But the Democratic Party isn't really a "party" of the sort that exists in other democracies, with memberships and official constituencies, like unions, who have some say over how it's governed. Members mostly make decisions based on their own interests rather than to drive some shared, democratically decided agenda forward.

But the Groundhog Day of it all adds a special layer of dread: Once again, Pelosi and AOC are fighting a proxy battle over the future of the Democratic Party. In 2020, Pelosi squashed AOC's bid to join Energy and Commerce over a perceived lack of loyalty. Now Pelosi has gotten her way again.

 

[Morrison71]

Jesus Christ Dino Dems, eff off.

 

[Here_4_a_Day]

Jesus Christ Dino Dems, eff off.

Suck it, commie! 🚮

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

Both parties are run by corporatists. There’s really no “winning” in that. The party isn’t going to start really winning until they stop being Republican Lite.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Even if it’s not AOC, it’s time for new blood across the board. Maxine Waters sucked 20 years ago. Now at 86? Gtfo

80 year olds have no business in Congress.

 

[joelbc1]

Both parties are run by corporatists. There’s really no “winning” in that. The party isn’t going to start really winning until they stop being Republican Lite.

Being “ bad” is being safe and both Party’s want to be safe, first. It’s a “chicken and egg” thingy here…The Republicans have no need to get “better” because the Dens are so poor but the Dems have no need to improve because the Republicans have proven themselves incapable of leadership because the Dems have shown themselves to be poor leaders because Republicans have proven themselves to be poor leaders…and so it goes….

 

[WDSMHAWK]

Both parties are run by corporatists. There’s really no “winning” in that. The party isn’t going to start really winning until they stop being Republican Lite.

Status quo is good for corporate interests but clearly isn't working for the average person. One party recognized that and one party didn't.

Of course Republicans have no real interest in helping the average person but when the other side pretends there's no problem it forces people's hands.

 

[HawkeyeShawn]

Is this a thread where it’s ok to both sides an issue?

 

[seminole97]

"Gerry's a young 74, cancer notwithstanding,"


The gaslighting never gets old.
Just tell me he’s sharp as tack, and focused.

 

[HawkeyeHitman]

Both parties are run by corporatists. There’s really no “winning” in that. The party isn’t going to start really winning until they stop being Republican Lite.

You’re not going to amount to anything in life until you stop supporting people like Che Guevara.

 

[Dr. Phil Seuss]

AOC is a moron and is just as terrifying as the worst republicans. She’s truly a dipshit.

But hilarious that the democrats continue to go back to their geriatric walking memes.

The elderly are not too old to govern.

Actually, I think they are. Old people don’t have a damn clue and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Sure there are sharp old people, but most of these people are well past their cognitive prime

 

[HawkeyeHitman]

Status quo is good for corporate interests but clearly isn't working for the average person. One party recognized that and one party didn't.

Of course Republicans have no real interest in helping the average person but when the other side pretends there's no problem it forces people's hands.

You’re not working period. Nobody is coming to save you.

 

[JMNSHO]

When you have infallible dogma and inflexible ideology, who needs judgment and critical thinking in leadership?

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

Status quo is good for corporate interests but clearly isn't working for the average person. One party recognized that and one party didn't.

Of course Republicans have no real interest in helping the average person but when the other side pretends there's no problem it forces people's hands.

THIS!

AOC is a moron and is just as terrifying as the worst republicans. She’s truly a dipshit.

But hilarious that the democrats continue to go back to their geriatric walking memes.


Actually, I think they are. Old people don’t have a damn clue and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Sure there are sharp old people, but most of these people are well past their cognitive prime

It’s hilarious the people here that think they’re smarter than AOC. LOL!

 

[TC Nole OX]

Both parties are run by corporatists. There’s really no “winning” in that. The party isn’t going to start really winning until they stop being Republican Lite.

100% this

 

[Dr. Phil Seuss]

THIS!

It’s hilarious the people here that think they’re smarter than AOC. LOL!

you probably got a little four inch fear boner when she asked Jamie Dimon about the kids in the cages at the border!

AOCs biggest accomplishment in the private sector is being a bartender and doing dead end work before slithering into identity politics.

 

[goldmom]

Jesus Christ Dino Dems, eff off.

Jesus Christ Dummy Dems, grow up and nominate people with a brain!

 

[goldmom]

Being “ bad” is being safe and both Party’s want to be safe, first. It’s a “chicken and egg” thingy here…The Republicans have no need to get “better” because the Dens are so poor but the Dems have no need to improve because the Republicans have proven themselves incapable of leadership because the Dems have shown themselves to be poor leaders because Republicans have proven themselves to be poor leaders…and so it goes….

Parties. Not Party’s.
Exhibit A old farts.

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

you probably got a little four inch fear boner when she asked Jamie Dimon about the kids in the cages at the border!

AOCs biggest accomplishment in the private sector is being a bartender and doing dead end work before slithering into identity politics.

Why would I get excited about that question? She and Dimon were on the same side of the issue:

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/06/19...n-us-immigration-policy-child-seperation.html

Weird how you left out her publishing company that earned her a Young Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year Award?:

The Surprising Entrepreneurial Roots of the Democrats' Rising Star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The congressional candidate founded a literature-publishing house in 2011, and even advocated for a bill that would decrease local taxes for small businesses. Here's how that actually aligns with her Democratic Socialist platform.

www.inc.com

Or the fact that she won one of the most prestigious teen science fairs in the country before becoming the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a science-fair prize for research involving free radicals

In 2007, she entered a project on Caenorhabditis elegan (C. elegan) lifespan extension to the ISEF, with her findings indicating that "antioxidants could potentially help prevent degenerative illnesses induced by oxidative stress."

qz.com

Do you denigrate and demean the accomplishments of all women or just the brown ones?

 

[goldmom]

Why would I get excited about that question? She and Dimon were on the same side of the issue:

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/06/19...n-us-immigration-policy-child-seperation.html

Weird how you left out her publishing company that earned her a Young Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year Award?:

The Surprising Entrepreneurial Roots of the Democrats' Rising Star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The congressional candidate founded a literature-publishing house in 2011, and even advocated for a bill that would decrease local taxes for small businesses. Here's how that actually aligns with her Democratic Socialist platform.

www.inc.com

Or the fact that she won one of the most prestigious teen science fairs in the country?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a science-fair prize for research involving free radicals

In 2007, she entered a project on Caenorhabditis elegan (C. elegan) lifespan extension to the ISEF, with her findings indicating that "antioxidants could potentially help prevent degenerative illnesses induced by oxidative stress."

qz.com

Do you denigrate and demean the accomplishments of all women or just the brown ones?

Oh FFS.

 

[Dr. Phil Seuss]

Why would I get excited about that question? She and Dimon were on the same side of the issue:

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/06/19...n-us-immigration-policy-child-seperation.html

Weird how you left out her publishing company that earned her a Young Hispanic Entrepreneur of the Year Award?:

The Surprising Entrepreneurial Roots of the Democrats' Rising Star, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The congressional candidate founded a literature-publishing house in 2011, and even advocated for a bill that would decrease local taxes for small businesses. Here's how that actually aligns with her Democratic Socialist platform.

www.inc.com

Or the fact that she won one of the most prestigious teen science fairs in the country before becoming the youngest woman ever elected to the US Congress?

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won a science-fair prize for research involving free radicals

In 2007, she entered a project on Caenorhabditis elegan (C. elegan) lifespan extension to the ISEF, with her findings indicating that "antioxidants could potentially help prevent degenerative illnesses induced by oxidative stress."

qz.com

Do you denigrate and demean the accomplishments of all women or just the brown ones?

She won a science fair and started a non profit to live out of!

Do you make every conversation about race or just the ones here?

 

[Here_4_a_Day]

THIS!

It’s hilarious the people here that think they’re smarter than AOC. LOL!

Yup, there's no way I could whip up a good Shirly Temple or Tom Collins!! 🤡

 

[Menace Sockeyes]

She won a science fair and started a non profit to live out of!

Do you make every conversation about race or just the ones here?

You claimed she was a "dipshit" and a "moron" and that her biggest accomplishment was being a bartender. Did you win one of the most prestigious science fairs in the nation as a HS Senior for your research in microbiology? Did you start a successful publishing company that won you a young entrepreneur of the year award before running for US Congress and winning without corporate backing? Just checking in on your superior intellect.

 

[Dr. Phil Seuss]

You claimed she was a "dipshit" and a "moron" and that her biggest accomplishment was being a bartender. Did you win one of the most prestigious science fairs in the nation as a HS Senior for your research in microbiology? Did you start a successful publishing company that won you a young entrepreneur of the year award before running for US Congress and winning without corporate backing? Just checking in on your superior intellect.

She is a dipshit in politics. Her ideas are bad and polarizing—an extreme socialist and proud of it. Her whole game is shock value, kill whitey, praise the brown man, make the rich pay for the poor. It’s a meme at this point.

She would be terrible to lead a committee to get shit done across the aisle.

 

[pjhawk]

AOCs biggest accomplishment in the private sector is being a bartender and doing dead end work before slithering into identity politics.

If a member of the actual working class makes it to Congress than of course they're denigrated for being dead end losers. And AOC isn't even really a member of the real working class, she was just a middle class kid slumming in her 20's like many/most kids have done for the last 40 plus years (I certainly did) until she found the thing and settled down.

AOC has been the shining star as far as the new generation of Democratic Congress People go, she does her homework and actually asks relevant questions instead of making the usual boring and pointless long-winded self-serving speeches in hearings.

Of course the rightwing slime machine has turned its cannons on and tried to destroy her, they see her as a real threat to their bullshit narratives of the way the world works. Connolly is just more of the same, represents no threat at all to the MAGA radicals.

Dems will probably take back the House in 26 just by doing nothing but it sucks that the next generation of leaders like AOC are getting held back by the old losers like Pelosi who need to just go away. Your way failed Nancy, and now the fascists control everything. Go away.

 

[pjhawk]

She is a dipshit in politics. Her ideas are bad and polarizing—an extreme socialist and proud of it. Her whole game is shock value, kill whitey, praise the brown man, make the rich pay for the poor. It’s a meme at this point.

She would be terrible to lead a committee to get shit done across the aisle.

LOL's. Not even close. Not even close. She's an actual substantive hard-working member of the Congress, and Dems have made a huge mistake in not elevating her to head oversight. Things need to change for the Dems to win big and elevating her would have been a big step in that direction.

She will actually do the effing job, the current gerontocracy just wants to get along, no matter what, they're pathetic. Starting with Nancy Pelosi. She should have had a vote on impeachment the day after 1/6, instead the Democrats dilly dallied like they do about everything.

I've said this before, but Donald Trump could pull out a gun and blow John Robert's head off seconds after getting inaugurated again January 20 (and there's probably a not zero chance that could happen) and the old Pelosi Dems would want to do polls and focus groups before they gave any kind of response.

The current Democratic leadership are totally reactive and scared of their own shadows, making an AOC the ranking member on Oversight (at least Jamie Raskin is now the top Dem on Judiciary) would again be a big step towards hopefully changing that.

 

[Here_4_a_Day]

You claimed she was a "dipshit" and a "moron" and that her biggest accomplishment was being a bartender. Did you win one of the most prestigious science fairs in the nation as a HS Senior for your research in microbiology? Did you start a successful publishing company that won you a young entrepreneur of the year award before running for US Congress and winning without corporate backing? Just checking in on your superior intellect.

Of course she was good at science....she cooks meth! 🤡

 

[Dr. Phil Seuss]

I agree she works hard. She’s a huge bitch, I’d love to have sex with her as a result.

She’s a populist. And she has openly said she doesn’t have any of my interests in mind.

 

[Here_4_a_Day]

I agree she works hard. She’s a huge bitch, I’d love to have sex with her as a result.

She’s a populist. And she has openly said she doesn’t have any of my interests in mind.

Those teeth though....her BJs would be like banging a circular saw.....

 

[hawkjt]

I respect AOC as a firebrand for progressive values.
She represents her district well as she reflects her constituency appropriately.
That said her district is pretty liberal.
I simply do not see her stances selling so well in the Des Moines suburbs or Dubuque/ CR.

The dems have won popular vote 6 times in last 8 elections for president.
Not sure that screams blow it all up and move from center- left to straight left.
The GOP did their autopsy after 2012 and concluded they needed to become more inclusive to counter the Obama coalition.

They dug in instead..obstructing Obama at every turn.
In hindsight it worked as it turned out that Obama was simply a rock star one off similar to Bill Clinton.

Now the dems are dealing with the same syndrome with the Trump coalition that is loyal to one man.

Jeffries is the face of new dem Congress delegation, not AOC.

Overreacting to the November election is not the only path to future dem success.
The GOP will over each ...just obstruct when it makes sense and watch the trumpets destroy themselves.
Meanwhile, find the next Obama rock star...clearly celebrity works.
Clooney?

 

[artradley]

AOC is a moron and is just as terrifying as the worst republicans. She’s truly a dipshit.

But hilarious that the democrats continue to go back to their geriatric walking memes.


Actually, I think they are. Old people don’t have a damn clue and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. Sure there are sharp old people, but most of these people are well past their cognitive prime

AOC is a bright, hardworking, self-made woman. You have to be either lazy, stupid, or deeply insecure to believe otherwise.

 

[hawkifann]

I’m just thankful every day that we continue to find ways to ensure that 70 and 80 yos continue to stay in power.

 

[10kHawk]

Having to chose between AOC or a cancer ridden geriatric is why I am an independent

 

[joelbc1]

Parties. Not Party’s.
Exhibit A old farts.

And I thought my mom past 16 years ago….

 

[seminole97]

AOC is a bright, hardworking, self-made woman. You have to be either lazy, stupid, or deeply insecure to believe otherwise.

She fell for MMT. Intellectually, that's bottom tier shit.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

AOC is a bright, hardworking, self-made woman. You have to be either lazy, stupid, or deeply insecure to believe otherwise.

I don’t agree with some of her positions, and like any new(ish) representative she has made mistakes, but she has impressed me with her increasing maturity and seriousness and also her insightful comments at hearings. Definitely not a dumb barista as the right like to characterize her.

As long as the GOP has dopes like Boebert, MTG, Luna, Gosar, etc. they shouldn’t throw a single stone.

 

[soonerinlOUisiana]

Suck it, commie! 🚮

☝🏻I don’t really have a dog in this fight, but, this.

 

[95Hawk]

I agree she works hard. She’s a huge bitch, I’d love to have sex with her as a result.

She’s a populist. And she has openly said she doesn’t have any of my interests in mind.

Nice.

Disagree with her politics all you want. But you’ve invalidated all your previous hot takes about her with the use 4 words.