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Young Black Democrats, Eager to Lead From the Left, Eye Runs in 2018 New York Times In states from Massachusetts to Florida, a phalanx of young black leaders in the Democratic Party is striding into some of the biggest elections of 2018, staking early claims on governorships and channeling the outcry of rank-and-file Democrats who ... and more »

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Young Black Democrats, Eager to Lead From the Left, Eye Runs in 2018 - New York Times

Senator Bernie Sanders and DNC Chair Tom Perez during their Come Together and Fight Back tour in Miami.

Next month Im returning to Marthas Vineyard. Its a lovely place and, for progressives, the ultimate safe space. It sometimes seems that Republicans need a green card just to visit, and that the island only issues 10 per year.

But this creates a problem: What passes for political wisdom can become, shall we say, insular. As a journalistic eminence murmured after enduring a dinner party where, in his view, progressive piety strangled reality by the throat: As Marthas Vineyard goes, so goes Cambridge, Berkeley, and the upper West Side of Manhattan.

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Which puts me in mind of certain Democratic liberals and lemmings.

Hold the outrage, please. I like to think Im as progressive as the next guy, including ardent support for voting rights, LGBT rights, reproductive rights, racial justice, and preventing dangerous people from slaughtering innocents with guns. Over the years, Ive devoted considerable energy to these issues. But, for me, the current ideological fratricide among Democrats evokes the mythic rodents who commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs.

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This years contest for DNC chair in essence, a tiresome rerun of the fight between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders featured lemmings galore. Among them were the raucous activists who booed the liberal Tom Perez for beating the even more liberal, and more controversial, Keith Ellison, perpetuating the ongoing divide between the merely progressive and the truly pure.

Demography as much as geography has determined the Democrats defeat, despite a decided popular vote victory in the presidential election.

Inescapably, this spectacle raised questions. What slice of the populace do these folks represent? At this critical juncture, were Perez and Ellison the best choices Democrats had? What about Pete Buttigieg, the young and appealing mayor of South Bend, Ind. who, having succeeded in a red state, emphasized expanding the partys appeal in middle America? And what does all this fractiousness portend for the Democrats ability to reverse their electoral fortunes?

Nothing good. To heal the wounds, Perez and Sanders launched a unity tour. Quickly, it foundered on their support of the Democratic candidate for mayor of Omaha, Neb., Heath Mello who, it transpired, had taken antiabortion positions as a state legislator. Quickly, abortion-rights groups pounced, asserting that the partys support for Mello was unacceptable.

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Progressives like Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended the right of a local candidate to hold views at odds with theirs, sensibly distinguishing between a would-be mayor of Omaha and, say, a Supreme Court nominee. But the head of NARAL denounced this as politically stupid. Swiftly, Perez capitulated, asserting that Democrats commitment to abortion rights is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.

Leadership this is not.

Lets be clear. The Democratic Party firmly embraces reproductive rights and should. And, yes, the antiabortion movement is tainted with misogyny, patriarchy, and fundamentalism. But, unavoidably, the debate over abortion includes a genuine ethical issue regarding how we define life. And, as a practical matter, a significant minority of Democrats oppose abortion; some are women who support maternal leave, better child-care policies, and wage equity.

Abortion rights should not, in itself, be a litmus test of decency or of who gets to be a Democrat in Nebraska.

But doctrinal purity is contagious. Shortly, Sanders stumbled, when asked if Jon Ossoff a Democrat opposing an antiabortion GOP zealot in a bright-red Georgia congressional district was a progressive. I dont know, Sanders flatly stated. Really? When did Georgia become Vermont? And when did progressive orthodoxy become so rigid and exclusionary?

But among Democrats, this ideological Stalinism is all too common. A few years ago, a friend and leader in the gun-control movement refused to support the incumbent Democratic senator from Arkansas, deeming him too compromised on guns. He lost to a Republican who opposes everything my friend cares about. Now Republicans control the Senate, and Neil Gorsuch sits on the Supreme Court.

This illustrates the complex relationship between moral urgency and political actuality. The civil rights movement was not driven by political exigency, but by the uncompromising commitment of brave men and women who transformed our national conscience. But translating civil rights into law required a Democratic president working through a Democratic Congress.

Too many activists fail to grasp this or that their desire to thwart Donald Trump exceeds their partys ability to do so. Thus some on the left threaten primary challenges against Democrats they perceive as insufficiently militant.

This is political self-immolation. The Democrats are defending Senate seats in red or purple states like Montana, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Pennsylvania all of which Trump carried. Do these petulant purists really think that a Warren-style Democrat could win in Montana? Or care that they risk losing the last bastion of legislative resistance to Trump even, perhaps, the filibuster?

Already, Democrats are ceding most of America with alarming celerity. Since 2006, the party has lost 10 percent of its seats in the Senate, 19 percent in the House, 20 percent in state legislatures, and 36 percent of governorships. The 16 percent of counties won by Hillary Clinton resemble, demographically, a cocktail party on Marthas Vineyard urban, affluent, well-educated, and, increasingly, politically homogenous and sociologically isolated. In such circumstances, political antennae rust, litmus tests flourish, and a vision of deplorables sets in that mirrors the intolerance of the right.

No surprise, then, that many middle-class and blue-collar Americans including former Obama voters feel that national Democrats favor the wealthy. Programmatically, this simply isnt so. No doubt this misperception owes much to the GOPs rank dishonesty. But ideological rigidity and cultural condescension surely do not help nor, frankly, do enormous speaking fees from Wall Street.

So what should Democrats do? Some think the party should focus on turning out its core demographic well-educated whites, women, young people, and minorities; others on winning back some of the voters it lost to Trump. But this is a false choice. Nor is it sufficient for Democrats to define themselves merely by opposing Trump. Instead, the party needs to prioritize engaging voters rather than excluding them.

This requires what went missing in 2016: a compelling and unifying vision of how Democratic policies improve the lives of more Americans, helping unleash the potential of every person wherever and whoever they are to lift themselves and their country. This message of inclusion and economic opportunity transcends geography and demographics and, as well, any single issue or constituent group no matter how important. It says, rather, that every American is not merely worthwhile, but valuable.

That is what a national party looks like.

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The Democrats' liberal lemmings - The Boston Globe

Many top Democrats are furious that Bernie Sanders appears to be running for president again, or at least planning to drag out his decision long enough to freeze the race around him.

Hes frustrating alumni of his 2016 campaign, some of whom would like him to run again, by showing no interest in raising early money or locking down lower level staff moves they say would indicate he recognizes the need for a different kind of campaign operation in 2020. Outside of his tighter-than-ever inner circle, friends and staffers whod be happy to back him again say they rarely, if ever, speak to Sanders these days.

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Sanders hasnt made any decision, and he tends to dismiss the discussion about 2020 as dumb. He hasn't even fully committed to running for re-election to the Senate next year.

Weighing on him throughout it all and clouding his outlook, people close to him say, is the toll on his family from the ongoing FBI investigation into potential bank fraud at the small Vermont college where his wife was the president.

But the senator, wholl be 79 the next time the New Hampshire primary rolls around, is continuing to put himself at the center of the conversation. Hes introduced a Medicare-for-all bill this week that he hopes will force others to sign on. Hes joining Ohio Gov. John Kasich for a CNN town hall tonight thats being held on the evening of the Center for American Progress forward-looking Ideas Conference an event Sanders wasnt invited to. Some of his moves, like collecting names and email addresses via RSVPs to his unity tour with new Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez for his Friends of Bernie Sanders group a mailing list the DNC itself wont have any access to have alienated his allies on the left.

The fact that Tom Perez has given Sanders a platform without Sanders genuinely agreeing to work toward unity has made a mockery of the whole process and literally divided the party more than it was before the tour began. It has been a disaster, said Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the influential liberal Daily Kos site. Yes, Perez and company are clearly afraid of Sanders and his followers, but letting Sanders make a mockery of the party doesnt exactly help it build in the long haul.

"He's a constant reminder. He allows the healing that needs to take place to not take place, said one longtime senior party official, who like others, remains too worried about appearing to oppose Sanders to speak on the record.

Former DNC chair Donna Brazile warned party leaders against relying on Sanders, unless theyre willing to give in on opening the party to more independents like he wants.

"He's not someone who we should go to, to build or rebuild or expand our party unless he's willing," she said.

Sanders, who has re-registered as an independent and made a point of asserting that independence while he was on tour with Perez, is nonetheless the most popular Democrat and the most popular active politician in the country. Hes savoring it, whether in the stops hes planning to make this weekend in Montana for Democratic House candidate Rob Quist, or his trip to Iowa, home of the caucuses he nearly won, on July 15 for the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement's "action convention.

Jeff Weaver, Sanders 2016 campaign manager and now the president of his Our Revolution group, still speaks with the senator all the time. He dismissed any speculation about 2020 as ridiculously early, but added that the door is wide open, and said those who worry about how he might tilt the party need to wake up.

What is their goal, some kind of defense of the Democratic Partys newfound centrism? If thats what theyre looking to do, I guess that they would consider it a disaster. If they want to win the White House, I think it would be a good thing, Weaver said.

That's a similar message to the one Weaver delivered to a private caucus meeting of Senate Democrats early this year, when he warned those up for re-election in 2018 against centrism, raising eyebrows in the room, according to Democrats present for the presentation.

But at a time other and far less famous potential 2020 contenders are speaking with operatives about what their campaigns might look like and gathering allies by raising money for colleagues, Sanders' push is far more oriented toward defining Democrats' message in public.

In Congress, a number of up-and-comers say theyre glad to see Sanders pushing the party toward an economic focus, and away from the social issues of Hillary Clintons failed Stronger Together. Those voices, and the people who show up by the thousands still at Sanders stops around the country, are the ones the gripers should be focused on, his supporters say not nursing old grudges or complaining that Sanders would torpedo their chances.

Starting with healthcare-focused rallies in January that he encouraged Senate Democratic leaders to do more widely, Sanders continues traveling the country. Hes also using his newfound celebrity to elevate local-level fights like a unionization drive in Mississippi and the candidacy of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello, whose effort is being managed by one of his former top staffers.

Touring the country with Perez, Sanders sought to stamp his economic populism on the head of the DNC. But people familiar with the arrangement said he also spent much of the time traveling with the party chair on their private Gulfstream jet getting to learn about Perezs personal history, which he hadn't bothered to read up on earlier.

For years, our fellow activists on the left have said we need an antidote to the tea party. This is what an antidote to the tea party looks like, said former NAACP President Ben Jealous an Our Revolution board member at the groups meeting in Maryland last month.

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Sanders loyalists say theyre eager to stir up the internal fight that they say the party needs to have. To Sanders, its the natural next step in his pursuit of the 40-year-old goal of upending the established political system, which they see millions of voters having supported last year. And each passing day of the Trump administration, along with the Democrats resistance, has vindicated his belief that substantive change can come when masses rise up.

Our party is divided into various wings, and Bernie clearly represents one of those wings. It is a progressive, activist, economic populist wing to the party, said Mark Longabaugh, one of the top strategists for the 2016 campaign, who said hes among those whod be ready to sign up again. The rest of the party still hasnt wrapped its mind around it.

Longabaugh, who very early into Sanders last run drew up the plan that mapped a path through New Hampshire, Minnesota, a surprise Michigan win and overpowering Clinton in the caucus states, said he hasnt written anything yet for 2020.

First of all, you have to confess were not together. You can have a unity tour until the cows come home, but theres a divide in the party, said former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner, another Our Revolution board member.

Sanders sees everything hes doing as maximizing his sway in the Senate, using the speculation to build his center of gravity. To the extent he has thought about 2020, he hasnt gotten into how different the race would likely be if its a packed field, rather than the binary choice of 2016.

If he were to run again, he would almost certainly be by far the most famous entrant, dominating the left and sucking up far more television coverage than he did before. But he would also have four years' worth of new baggage to contend with, including barbs from Clinton allies who still quietly blame him for her loss.

Staffers and aides are willing to give him time, for now. But they worry that Sanders wont decide until too late for many of them to be able to go to other campaigns if he sits 2020 out, and that frustrates them. They worry that he hasnt processed what really running again would entail, and is convinced it would be lightning in a bottle again.

From the senior leadership on down, one of the biggest problems we faced was not enough middle management who knew that and now he has a real opportunity to lock those people down now, whether through Our Revolution or his Senate campaign, and there doesnt appear to be any effort to do that, said one member of his 2016 campaign.

If he doesnt run, progressives are hoping he doesnt turn the Democratic primary race into a two-year long audition for his seal of approval.

Having that dangling question out there can be a little frustrating, said one Democratic Senate staffer. If hes not going to wind up doing it, is there an issue of an heir apparent, or is it just, This is my thing, Ive built this, I take it with me. Thats kind of disrespectful to the cause that rallied around him.

Every once in a while you realize that he is in fact an independent, with the good and the bad that comes with it, the staffer added.

I would quote Robert Frost, said Larry Cohen, the chairman of Our Revolutions board and one of the DNC Unity Commission leaders, referring to Sanders' attempt to remake the party in his image. We have miles to go before we sleep.

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Democrats divide on Bernie's 2020 plans - Politico

Emerging from a meeting on the first floor of the Capitol Monday night, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told reporters they are attempting to work with Democrats to see if there is a way forward to fix the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"We had 10 or 11 senators who came tonight. I think that's significant," Collins told reporters after a meeting. "What we're trying to do is to get away from the partisanship that has made it very difficult to come up with solution and we're trying to get away from semantics, we're trying to get away from people being locked into a party position and instead raise fundamental questions about how can we move forward."

Collins and Cassidy are authors of their own legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare, but said that their legislation wasn't necessarily the starting point for any negotiation.

"This was really a meeting to look at all sorts of ideas," Collins said.

The moderate Republican senators stressed that the talks are still preliminary, with just a handful of Democrats involved. They estimated there were three or four Democrats in the meeting and a few more interested who couldn't attend Monday night. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia -- both red-state Democrats facing re-election in 2018 -- were spotted coming out of the meeting room.

Also spotted at the meeting were Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.

When asked if any progress had been made in the meeting, Manchin told reporters, "no, not really."

"There's no way I can vote for a repeal," Manchin said.

Manchin said there were "some good ideas thrown out and talked about."

"It was mostly to see is there a way forward without repealing. Is there a way forward without throwing the baby out with the bathwater?" Manchin said.

The meeting happened as Republican senators charge ahead with their own working group of 13 members who have been tasked with finding a GOP path forward to repeal and replace Obamacare. Collins and Cassidy said their party's leadership, however, was made aware of their bipartisan effort.

CNN's Phil Mattingly contributed to this report.

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Republicans and Democrats try to launch bipartisan effort on health care - CNN

While Democrats may trot out any number of demands or maneuvers to influence the selection of the next director of the FBI, here's a reality check: Republican President Donald Trump fired James Comey, and he and his party will decide who's next.

And they're not wasting time. Trump said Monday the selection process for a nominee for FBI director was "moving rapidly."

Democrats irate over Comey's abrupt ouster, and concerned by the inclusion of politicians on the list of possible replacements, are demanding Trump not select a partisan leader. Although they're likely to mount considerable pressure before and during the confirmation process, they don't control enough votes to influence the outcome becauseRepublicans hold a 52-seat majority in the Senate.

"If they can keep all 52 together, then it won't matter," said Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. If Republicans "start to lose a couple, or two or three look like they're not on board, that could create more pressure on the majority leader and the president to perhaps do something other than what they were planning on doing."

The next director will immediately be confronted with oversight of an FBI investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, an inquiry the bureau's acting head, Andrew McCabe, has called "highly significant."

The person also will have to win the support of rank-and-file agents angered by the ouster of Comey, who was broadly supported within the FBI. And the new director will almost certainly have to work to maintain the bureau's credibility by asserting political independence in the face of a president known for demanding loyalty from the people he appoints.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein interviewed eight candidates Saturday, including some who were not among the names distributed a day earlier by the White House. The list includes current and former FBI and Justice Department leaders, federal judges and Republicans who have served in Congress.

Among those interviewed was McCabe, though it's not clear how seriously he's being considered.

It'd be unusual for the White House to elevate an FBI agent to the role of director, and McCabe during a Senate hearing last week broke with the White House's explanations for Comey's firing and its dismissive characterization of the Russia investigation.

FBI directors have predominantly been drawn from the ranks of prosecutors and judges. Comey, for instance, was a former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan before being appointed deputy attorney general by George W. Bush. His predecessor, Robert Mueller, was a U.S. attorney in San Francisco.

One contender who could prove politically palatable is Michael Garcia, a former U.S. attorney in Manhattan with significant experience in terrorism and public corruption investigations. He was appointed by FIFA in 2012 to investigate World Cup bidding contests. He later resigned after he said the global soccer organization had mischaracterized a lengthy investigative report he had produced.

The FBI Agents Association has endorsed former Republican congressman Mike Rogers, an ex-FBI agent and former chair of the House intelligence committee who had collegial relationships with his Democratic counterparts.

Senate Democrats have insisted that Trump should not pick a politician as the next FBI director. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that the choice should be "certainly somebody not of a partisan background, certainly somebody of great experience and certainly somebody of courage."

One Republican whose name had been mentioned as a possible candidate, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, said Monday that he had taken himself out of the running.

Given the partisan uproar over Comey's firing, Democrats seem unlikely to support any FBI candidate put forward by Trump. But the nominee will require only a simple majority vote in the 100-member Senate, meaning Republicans can use their 52-48 majority to confirm the next director without needing Democratic votes.

Democrats are demanding appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Russia's involvement in the 2016 election and ties to Trump's campaign, and have discussed trying to slow down the confirmation process or other business of the Senate as a way of drawing attention to the demand.

Senate rules requiring unanimous consent or 60-vote thresholds on various procedural or legislative steps give Democrats the ability to slow the Senate to a crawl and delay committee hearings.

Given the Republicans' narrow Senate majority, the larger consideration for the White House is that some GOP senators also insist on a non-partisan choice as the next FBI director.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on "Meet the Press" that Trump has is obligated "to pick somebody beyond reproach outside the political lane." Graham said under the circumstances he wouldn't be able to support his colleague Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, who is under consideration.

Some House Republicans, who technically have no role in the pick, have spoken out about the need for non-partisanship and independence.

"The FBI is America's pre-eminent law enforcement agency. As such, it needs to be led by a person of unquestioned character and completely divorced from partisan politics," GOP Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma wrote in an opinion column circulated Monday.

House Democrats are weighing their own steps related to the firing. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is asking House Speaker Paul Ryan to join in a call for Rosenstein to brief House members, as he will do for senators Thursday. Democrats will also try to use a procedural maneuver to force a vote on legislation calling for an independent commission to investigate Russian election interference, although they're unlikely to prevail.

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Trump, GOP control FBI chief pick despite Democrats' calls - Chicago Tribune