Posted on 12/18/2020 8:25:51 PM PST by SeekAndFind
There’s good and bad when a politician builds a reputation for bucking the system, breaking protocols, and doing essentially whatever they want. Party leadership usually doesn’t reward rabble-rousers, as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez learned today.
In her efforts to move up in party hierarchy and establish a platform through which to push her Green New Deal, the newly reelected Representative from New York applied to be on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. There were five open spots, four of which were directly assigned by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. But for the fifth spot, she left it up for grabs in a secret vote. It didn’t work out for AOC. According to Townhall:
Pelosi held a secret ballot vote to choose between two New York representatives interested in the job, Reps. Kathleen Rice and Ocasio-Cortez. Rice was the popular choice by far, winning in a lopsided vote of 46-13.
According to POLITICO, Rice and AOC have been fighting behind the scenes for weeks to nab a seat on the exclusive House Energy and Commerce Committee, which, according to its website, “has the broadest jurisdiction of any authorizing committee in Congress.” It would be a powerful position for the Democratic socialist to push her Green New Deal policies in the early days of a Biden-Harris administration.
Before the House voted to award the seat to Rice, several House Democrats aired grievances with Ocasio-Cortez and lobbied against her for the committee assignment.
Several Democrats took issue with AOC’s efforts to help liberal challengers take out incumbent Democrats as well as the congresswoman’s refusal to pay party campaign dues. Some Democrats privately voiced concerns that AOC landing the seat would cause headaches for Congress attempting to draft bipartisan legislation.
“I’m taking into account who works against other members in primaries and who doesn’t,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX said on the call, sources told POLITICO. Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Cuellar’s primary challenger, Jessica Cisneros.
Payback for bucking Democratic leadership is a lesson Rep. Rice, who was awarded the seat, also learned the hard way. Rice attempted to prevent Pelosi from leading House Democrats in the 116th Congress, only to then be denied her preferred seat on the House Judiciary Committee. Now, Rice has become a critical vote for Speaker Pelosi who must now contend with a smaller majority.
Axios attempted to blunt the blow against the radical progressive by noting, “Ocasio-Cortez lost the vote by the House Democratic Steering Committee because she didn’t personally ask for enough votes, and because some members fear she’ll support a primary against them from the left.”
The second part is correct, but our sources tell us AOC worked very hard to get the position and made a pitch to every member of the Steering Committee. Because it was a secret vote, nobody feared repercussions from the popular Democratic-Socialist. But Axios also notes that if the vote were public, fear of her wrath would have driven a win.
From the article:
One member told me Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “doesn’t have enough relationships. She needs to learn from this.”
Conscious of AOC’s power with progressives and online, the member said: “The vote would have been very different if it wasn’t secret.”
The trend of freshman or recently reelected members on Capitol Hill bucking party leadership started wholesale with the Tea Party’s attacks and primary runs against fellow Republicans during the Obama administration. And while there were some notable successes like Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Matt Gaetz, there have been many who were taken down such as former Congressman Tim Huelskamp and former Senator David Vitter.
But Ocasio-Cortez and “The Squad” have made it their entire brand to go against the Establishment. This has helped them achieve more notoriety than others in their class of 2018, but it came at a price. They have enemies, many of whom are scared of them.
This is a tug-of-war between the Democratic Establishment and Democratic-Socialists. And while this loss will hurt AOC a bit, her side has the momentum to take over the party in years, not decades.
They don’t fear her, they don’t need her anymore.
No Trump, no need for AOC and her leftist loony bins
The loons haven’t figured that out yet
It will be business as usual, wallstreet and the bankers will get what they want and the loons will still be protesting in the streets or flaming on Twitter or whatever.
It will be epic disappointment.
One thing Democrats never do, is what they promised.
That is a guarantee to the bank
Time of “Operation Stir Some Crap”. Let’s do our best to get them at each others throats. Any suggestions on tactics?
“One thing Democrats never do, is what they promised.”
Mostly true, but a couple of exceptions to that come to mind....
1. The Dems usually promise higher taxes, and they follow through when they have the ability to do so.
2. They promise to elevate pro-abort liberal judges, and, again, they usually follow through when they can.
Pretty easy to pick 3 from the 4 as here frienemies.
The lesson, which I hope AOC NEVER learns, is that “When you shoot at the Queen, don’t miss!”
“They have enemies, many of whom are scared of them.”
Cowards everywhere.
AOC appears to be the first loser and, as you say, Wall Street looks to be up in the struggle, after all, when we follow the money we should not be surprised.
However, other interests demanding their share of the spoils such as the African-American bloc will find that their interests run counter to Wall Street.
exactly what i was thinking- they likely loathe her- never liked her to begin with- and juts put up with her for awhile because her hysterics were semi useful to them
.
3) They promise gun control, which they always push through or try to push through.
Man, that actual quote from AOC, sounds like atypical rambling from 80 year old Pelosi, or Joe Biden.
Doesn’t surprise me at all. She’s been stepping on toes since she got there.
I tend to agree with your logic once I heard about this AOC subject as well as Bernie’s people being left out.
They will push gun control, but it will be bit by bit, piece by piece. Same with global warming bullshit.
However it remains to be seen just what will become of the massive voter fraud and how it affects the election in terms of what happens Jan 6th, if that DNI EO in acted upon, if there is massive rebellion due to the election fraud, and/or if Biden is actually inaugurated.
I personally have hope and faith Trump will get a second term, one way or another.
that's half the issue. One cannot expect the party machinery to work to re-elect a person or support their pet issues, if the grease of 1/4M for House,1M for Senate isn't raised each year. If a person cannot or will not raise money for the party's general fund that benefits all members as the rest are doing, they are of little practical use. Perhaps less on-line cooking-selfinflatingpropagandachat facebook time and a little more time on the phone dialing for dollars would have been advisable. Not that my heart is broken she didn't get the seat.
Maybe the Republicans should invite her and her “crew” to jump over to the “big tent” of the Republican Party. It would flip the House majority over to Republicans in return for a couple good committee assignments. After all, the RINOs would welcome them with open arms.
Hey AOC..... bring 15 with you and you can chair the committee.... lol
Dominion system used by Pelosi to tabulate the secret vote. It worked in the Presidential election, didn’t it?
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