About those CIA democrats running for congress

CIA Democrats call for aggression against Russia, run pro-war campaigns in 2018 congressional races

The Democratic Party is widely favored to win control of the House of Representatives in the US midterm elections November 6, with projections that it will gain 30 to 50 seats, or even more, well above the net gain of 23 required for a majority.

The last time the Democratic Party won control of the House from the Republicans was in 2006, when it captured 30 Republican seats on the basis of a limited appeal to the massive antiwar sentiment among working people after three years of disastrous and bloody warfare in Iraq, and five years after the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

In stark contrast, there is not a hint of an antiwar campaign by the Democratic challengers seeking Republican seats in the 2018 elections. On the contrary, the pronouncements of leading Democrats on foreign policy issues have been strongly pro-war, attacking the Trump administration from the right for its alleged softness on Russia and its hostility to traditional US-led alliances like NATO.

This is particularly true of the 30 Democratic congressional nominees in competitive races who come from a national-security background. These challengers, previously identified by the World Socialist Web Site as the CIA Democrats, constitute the largest single grouping among Democratic nominees in competitive seats, more than state and local officials, lawyers or those wealthy enough to finance their own campaigns.

The 30 national-security candidates include six actual CIA, FBI or military intelligence agents, six State Department or other civilian national security officials, 11 combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, all but one an officer, and seven other military veterans, including pilots, naval officers and military prosecutors (JAGs).

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All the other national-security candidates accept as a basic premise that the United States must maintain its dominant world position. The most detailed foreign policy doctrine appears on the website of Amy McGrath, who is now favored to win her contest against incumbent Republican incumbent Andy Barr in the Sixth Congressional District of Kentucky.

McGrath follows closely the line of the Obama administration and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, supporting the Iran nuclear deal that Trump tore up, embracing Israel, warning of North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons, and declaring it “critical that the US work with our allies and partners in the region to counter China’s advances” in the South China Sea and elsewhere in Asia.

But Russia is clearly the main target of US national-security efforts, in her view. She writes, “Our Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has testified that Russia is the greatest threat to American security. Russia poses an existential threat to the United States due to its nuclear weapons and its behavior in the past several years has been disturbing. Russia’s aggression in Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, and Syria has been alarming. It’s becoming more assertive in the Arctic, likely the most important geostrategic zone of competition in the coming decades. The US should consider providing defensive arms to Ukraine and exerting more pressure on Moscow using economic sanctions.”

She concludes by calling for an investigation modeled on the 9/11 Commission into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Here are some of the most odious candidates running.

Max Rose, a combat commander in Afghanistan now running in New York’s 11th Congressional District (Staten Island and Brooklyn), calls for “recognizing Russia as a hostile foreign power and holding the Kremlin accountable for its attempts to undermine the sovereignty and democratic values of other nations.” Rose is still in the military reserves, and took two weeks off from his campaign in August to participate in small-unit drills.

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Joseph Kopser, running in the 21st District of Texas, is another anti-Russian firebrand, writing on his website, “As a retired Army Ranger, I know first hand the importance of standing strong with your allies. Given Russia’s march toward a totalitarian state showing aggression around the region, as well as their extensive cyber and information warfare campaign directed at the U.S., England, and others, our Article 5 [NATO] commitment to our European allies and partners is more important than ever.” He concludes, “Since the mid-twentieth century, the United States has been a principal world leader—a standard that should never be changed.”

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Dan McCready, an Iraq war unit commander who claims to have been born again when he was baptized in water from the Euphrates River, calls for war to be waged only “with overwhelming firepower,” not “sporadically, with no strategy or end in sight, while our enemies like Iran, North Korea, Russia, and the terrorists outsmart and outlast us.” He is running in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District, adjacent to the huge military complex at Fort Bragg.

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One military-intelligence candidate cites immigration as a national-security issue, echoing the position of the Trump administration, which constantly peddles scare stories that terrorists are infiltrating the United States disguised as immigrants and refugees. That is Richard Ojeda, running in the Third Congressional District of West Virginia, who publicly boasts of having voted for Trump in 2016, in the same election in which he won a seat in the West Virginia state senate running as a Democrat.

Ojeda writes on his web site, “We must also ensure that terrorists do not reach American soil by abusing our immigration process. We must keep an up to date terror watch list but provide better vetting for those that go onto the watch list.”

A career Army Airborne officer, Ojeda voices the full-blown militarism of this social layer. “If there is one thing I am confident in, it is the ability of our nation’s military,” he declares. “The best way to keep Americans safe is to let our military do their job without muddying up their responsibilities with our political agendas.”

He openly rejects control of the military by civilian policy-makers. “War is not a social experiment and I refuse to let politics play a role in my decision making when it comes to keeping you and your family safe,” he continues. “I will not take my marching orders from anyone else concerning national security.”

The rest of the CIA democrats have the same ideas when it comes to whether the country stays on the war path or if it's time that democrats become the fake anti war party again like they were before Obama got elected. Isn't it interesting that the people who were adamantly anti war during the Bush years decided that war wasn't so bad as long as a charming and charismatic person was president?

Will this get people to wake up and see what the purpose of Russia Gate has been? For them to give their permission for us to go to war with Russia? Or will they continue to ignore that they have been fed one of the biggest propaganda campaigns ever and they fell for it? And will they vet these candidates and see what they stand for or will they vote for them just because they have a D after their names?

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mhagle's picture

I went to hear MJ Hegar speak. Yes, she is a veteran, but a million miles better than her creepy republican opponent.

Are all of the veterans working for the CIA?

Maybe. But what choice do we have in Texas where the repubs are definitely for war and all of the other horrible policies?

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@mhagle It's so ironic that the people who most fervently insist (for very good reason, of course) on levying, paying, and raising taxes, and good old-fashioned civic responsibility, are precisely the people who SHOULD, under these bleak circumstances, be taking a leaf out of Atlas Shrugged.

I'm a big-government, tax-and-spend, New Deal guy, but what else is there left to do??? Most of our tax dollars go to the military-industrial complex and related Fourth-Reich industries, and the only within-the-system means of changing that are rigged to ensure that won't change. The CIA is nothing more and nothing less than the single most powerful gangster syndicate in the world today. If we are "with them", then we are "with The Terrorists". Starve the beast, secede, get into the whole "Sovereign Citizen" thing, get yourself an offshore tax haven if you're able, get serious about forming an "anti-state" that we can actually use to do the things we WANT done with our taxes.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

wendy davis's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

Whose Side is the CIA on?; dissidentvoice.org, by Douglas Valentine / September 27th, 2018

“Valentine is deeply knowledgeable of CIA modus operandi having interviewed many CIA officials in his time. In The CIA as Organized Crime, the author smashes the superficial view of the CIA as merely an intelligence agency. Valentine describes the CIA as “a war criminal, torturer, assassin, arms smuggler, drug smuggling kingpin, media network, business empire, and more. The CIA is steeped in capitalism, girded in racism, masterminds and carries out ‘regime change,’ … and has a deeply corruptive influence on foreign governments, the DEA, NSA, military, and Justice Department, as well as on US members of Congress.”1

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wendy davis's picture

@mhagle

in the first text box, you'll read more, but this:

"With the end the primary season, the Democratic Party leadership and their allies in the national security apparatus have completed the first stage of what might be termed a “friendly takeover” of the Democrats by candidates recruited from among military, CIA and civilian national security cadres.

The World Socialist Web Site first identified the phenomenon of the CIA Democrats in a series published in March. At the time we noted the large number of candidates drawn from the military-intelligence apparatus seeking Democratic nominations in competitive congressional districts. If the Democrats won the November election, we warned, such military-intelligence operatives would hold the balance of power in the new House of Representatives."

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@mhagle

I cannot believe how easy it is for the MIC to take over the dem party, when we have tried and tried for years and years to field anti-war candidates.

Only one election cycle is all it took for all those candidates to be fielded. Majorly fishy.

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dfarrah

wendy davis's picture

@dfarrah

how long have both Ds and Rs been 'war parties'? a hella long time. most all wars were started by democrat presidents, as far as i can recall.

who aids in the passage/s of massive military budgets; while squealing 'TINA!'?

"Only one election cycle is all it took for all those candidates to be fielded. Majorly fishy."

they're being fielded, but only in this cycle do we know it due to the hard investigative digging of the folks at wsws. no?

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jorogo's picture

@wendy davis
that wars have been started by both D & R Presidents, the history of investigative journalism is no recent development, though it has recently been most entirely driven out of the mainstream. This field of Democratic candidates is indeed unprecedented.

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"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh

arendt's picture

The latest neolefty sweetheart is Richard Ojeda, candidate for the 3rd Congressional District in West Virginia. The pro-coal xenophobic military recruiter is just the resistance we need, apparently. Oh, and this guy voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Ojeda said about his vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election: “If he does twenty percent of what he promises, he’ll be a decent President…and maybe he just will make America great again.” Did Ojeda change his mind because Donald is doing 100 percent of what he’d say he’d do?

Richard Ojeda’s infatuation with coal is as dangerous as it is archaic. Ojeda, to this day, credits Donald Trump’s policy on coal—which has featured EPA rollback after rollback. This week it was to stop an Obama-era regulation of mercury. No one could ever call Barack Obama a good person, but he wasn’t stupid. Coal is dying. And we are all dying faster...

Ojeda stuck around 24 years in the Army, rising to the title of major in the heartbreaking wars of Afghanistan and Iraq. He now teaches at the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC).

The Blue Wave Turns Orange

Its completely obvious that the Dems are the party of the MIC.

We used to praise civilian control of the military. Now we elevate lifer grunts with stone age ecological awareness to Congress. Now we have the military controlling the military.

We are not a democracy anymore. We are, as Paul Krugman put it, "a heavily armed pension plan". And right after the election Trump is coming for Social Security. So we will just be a heavily armed loose cannon.

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gulfgal98's picture

When we think about how the mainstream Democrats have transformed themselves into the "war" party and the deep state party, and now they are actually running bonafied deep staters under the Democratic banner. It is feaking insanity.

It has become a choice of which poison do we want to swallow our our method of suicide.

I used to think that the Republican party was the one where the wackos resided, but boy was I wrong.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Socialprogressive's picture

@gulfgal98
The Republican party is still full of wackos. I think the democrats have just decided that since they can't beat them, they might as well join them.

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When I offer to wash your back in the shower, all you have to say is yes or no.
Not all this "who are you, and how did you get in here?" nonsense.

Someone tell me again why we have to vote D and “defeat” Trump and the Republicans?

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

when I say that if the Ds retake congress America is doomed? The Rs are evil, but they are greedy evil, not a murder/suicide cult.

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On to Biden since 1973

@doh1304 The rhetoric against the Russian nation has reached where "war talk" has become the dominate theme in the media, democrats, and pro-war republicans. If the democratic candidate wins the Oval Office 2020, they will be driven to confront the Russians with some military action like invading Syria or invading Eastern Ukraine along with NATO forces. Other actions also maybe like shooting down jets over the Baltic.

What is strange about these CIA democrats and "vets" is how pro-war they are. On the surface, one would think that having all of their so-called experience with war that they would be circumspect on the use of military power rather than embracing it.

And of course the Europeans will go along forgetting the history of centuries of warfare that ravaged Europe.

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mimi's picture

@MrWebster @MrWebster
how come you are so sure that you are right? I am referring to your last sentence. I hope you are wrong.

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jorogo's picture

@MrWebster

one would think that having all of their so-called experience with war that they would be circumspect on the use of military power

If you scroll down in the WSWS article to check out Jared Golden, Maine 2nd CD, it explains that

He is the only rank-and-file soldier among the 30 military-intelligence Democrats

Leadership and grunts have quite disparate war experiences, and this field is decidedly tilted toward the former.

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"If I sit silently, I have sinned." - Mossadegh

Creosote.'s picture

@jorogo
that in Russia, the generals fight at the front not from a distance, because the need for accurate assessment of changes in battle is so irreplaceable.

A recent mailer from Council for a Livable World was promoting a whole group of "dem" candidates with military and intelligence backgrounds -- in offices, not at the front.

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@doh1304 They are both a murder suicide cult. The Republicans are driving us to nuclear armageddon FFS! You know... The Rapture!! And BB in Israel is loving the love and attention from the USA!

My only hope is the Millenials. I love 'em. We'll see.

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mhagle's picture

@p cook

That is so frickin dangerous. That is the thing IMO that puts republican crazies above dem crazy.

The repug right is trying to bring on the rapture. Started with George W and his crew. Maybe Reagan, but I don't think rabid rapturism was quite that steeped into the fundie mindset yet. Maybe though. Pat Robertson has always floated that boat.

It's a vicious circle that really good people are being sucked into by their preachers (whom they are never supposed to disagree with).

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Bisbonian's picture

@mhagle

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

mhagle's picture

@p cook

That is so frickin dangerous. That is the thing IMO that puts republican crazies above dem crazy.

The repug right is trying to bring on the rapture. Started with George W and his crew. Maybe Reagan, but I don't think rabid rapturism was quite that steeped into the fundie mindset yet. Maybe though. Pat Robertson has always floated that boat.

It's a vicious circle that really good people are being sucked into by their preachers (whom they are never supposed to disagree with).

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

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divineorder's picture

If you got there, do read the comments as well.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

mhagle's picture

@divineorder

Clearly, those commenting . . . many did not. I have darling family members who are in the military and I doubt they are working for the CIA. It was just a good job for them.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

Bisbonian's picture

@mhagle , long before I figured out what was going on.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

moneysmith's picture

When did this country turn into a bunch of sadistic racists? Or was it always this way and -- now that there's a deranged howler monkey in the white house -- they feel safe coming out from under their rocks?

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Hell is empty and all the devils are here. William Shakespeare

Big Al's picture

I mean really. I always go back to some past quotes from the likes of Smedley Butler, Eugene Debs and W.E.B. Dubois (although you could go back to Aristotle if you want) about the duopoly, the two political parties representing the ruling class. It's always been this way with the democratic party, I think people just weren't looking closely enough, or maybe fell a little too hard for the lies and propaganda.

The logical assumption is that's not going to change, therefore the only choice is to oppose both parties.

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Roy Blakeley's picture

let's remember that Tulsi Gabbard is a vet as was George McGovern and many progressive congresspersons and senators. Combat vets often see the utter futility and idiocy of war. CIA and FBI people--not so much. Also the fact that they were recruited by the Dem leadership probably means they are pretty bad.

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ggersh's picture

@Roy Blakeley wasn't it pretty much mandatory that one needed
a military background to ascend in politics.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

arendt's picture

@ggersh

but it was more like you did your service young, then went back to civilian life, where you built a reputation in business and/or government.

The new political resume is to be a military lifer like Ojeda, who has zero experience in business or government. What makes 24 years of walking around in a war zone, then conning teenage suckers from the poor side of town into making the same mistake (i.e., teaching ROTC), into qualifications for being in Congress? This guy seems like an underachiever. He was in the military for 24 years and never got above major? His new career is teaching ROTC - which was a cliche of unstable loser-dom in every copycat "Animal House" movie ever made.

Does this guy know squat about the law? about the legislative process? How much does he even know about today's US after 24 years overseas? His major issue is bringing back coal?

At this point I wouldn't vote for any Dem. They all support this takeover of the party by the CIA/MIC. They're picking people like Ojeda over committed progressives. They can go f*** themselves.

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snoopydawg's picture

@arendt

The pro-coal xenophobic military recruiter is just the resistance we need, apparently. Oh, and this guy voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Ojeda said about his vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election: “If he does twenty percent of what he promises, he’ll be a decent President…and maybe he just will make America great again.”

He sounds more like a republican than a democrat, but most democrats today would have been republicans a few decades ago. I wonder what their domestic policies are like? Doesn't matter because they would never get passed until the military budget is cut. MFA is a smokescreen.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

ggersh's picture

@arendt especially this in spadeson roids

They can go f*** themselves

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@Roy Blakeley

and she lost both her legs and part of an arm and yet she has no problem sending others to war even though she knows that they have nothing to do with defending the country or our freedoms. This boggles my mind to no end.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

dervish's picture

@snoopydawg that she was maimed for nothing.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Daenerys's picture

We have exactly one Green party candidate running anywhere in MN, for senate. Our choices for congress in my district are Collin Peterson (Barf!) and another repub. Ballot won't count if I don't vote for one of them of course. Peterson has been there for 28 years. Baaaaaaarrrrrf!!! At least none of the candidates here are CIA, that I could see.

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This shit is bananas.

@Daenerys so many get past the primary process??

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dfarrah

TheOtherMaven's picture

@dfarrah @dfarrah

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven $$ accounts for it all, because underfunded candidates have been able to overcome well-funded candidates.

I guess the dem party has people all over to knee-cap any different candidates - just like Denver.

I would bet that none (or most) of these candidates were party activists - they probably just helicoptered in.

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dfarrah

Amanda Matthews's picture

as FUBAR as it’s always been..,

Events Leading up the 1968 Convention Riots

The primary cause of the demonstrations and the subsequent riots during the 1968 Chicago convention was opposition to the Vietnam War. Young peace activists had met at a camp in Lake Villa, Illinois on March 23 to plan a protest march at the convention. Anti-war leaders including David Dellinger (editor of Liberation magazine and chairman of the National Mobilization Committee to End War in Vietnam) Rennie Davis, head of the Center for Radical Research and a leader of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Vernon Grizzard, a draft resistance leader, and Tom Hayden (also a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society) coordinated efforts with over 100 anti-war groups.

Groups related to this effort also planned events. Jerry Rubin (a former associate of Dellinger) and Abbie Hoffman (both leaders of the Youth International Party (YIPPIES) planned a Youth Festival with the goal of bringing 100,000 young adults to Chicago. They tried to get a permit from Chicago to hold a YIPPIE convention. The permit was denied, but the YIPPIES still came.

On March 31, President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election. Johnson's favorability ratings were in the mid-30% range and polls showed even less support for his Vietnam War policies (about 23%.) The announcement created uncertainty in the anti-war groups' convention plans. Many anti-war activists also became involved in the presidential campaigns of war opponents such as Sen. Robert Kennedy (D-NY), Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-WI) and Sen. George McGovern (D-SD).

However, by early April there was much talk of Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's Vice President, running for the presidency. Humphrey officially entered the race on April 27th. Because of his close identity with the Johnson administration, the plans for demonstrations were not cancelled.

Other events preceding the 1968 Democratic convention contributed to the tense national mood. On April 4, civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated and riots broke out throughout the country. (This included Chicago, where Mayor Daley reportedly gave a "shoot to kill" instruction to police.) On June 3, artist and cultural icon Andy Warhol was shot. Finally, on June 5th, presidential candidate Robert Kennedy (President John Kennedy's brother) was shot in the head after winning the California primary. He died the next day. There also were countless protests against the Vietnam war at this time. Student protesters effectively shut down Columbia University in April.

*

Mayor Daley, who wanted Ted Kennedy to run for President, caucused his delegation of 118 the weekend before the convention and decided to remain "uncommitted." Humphrey also was at risk from the growing anti-war wing of the Democratic party. After vascillating between the pro-war policies of the Johnson administration and the anti-war policies of his opponents, Humphrey made it clear on CBS's Face The Nation the weekend before the convention he supported President Johnson's Vietnam policies.

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/chicago68/...

I don’t really understand why anyone would ever think that the Dims were/are anti-war.

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Unabashed Liberal's picture

to think how many unsuspecting voters will pull the lever for these folks next month--in many cases, knowing no more about them, but that they're women. Whew!

Under pressure this evening to get a lot done (due to storm), but, eventually, I'll post a couple blurbs about two of the candidates' stances on healthcare. (Amy McGrath & Elissa Slotkin) They're definitely not 'liberals.' Nor, do they support MFA.

Also, if I have the extra time (next week), I'll see if I can ferret out the views/policies of some of the other Military/CIA/State Department/National Security conservadems, regarding social insurance/welfare programs.

Blue Onyx

"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

Postscript: For the next couple months, I'll be posting this blurb and photo about O's "Grand Bargain" as my signature line. As a reminder! Biggrin

'O' - WaPo Editorial Board - Grand Bargain.JPG

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.