I live in the Hudson Valley and have gotten a ton of material$ in the last few years extolling the accomplishments (!) of Mike Lawler, while I haven't seen a sign of them (or ever been replied to about my concerns). This sends me straight to Conley's office to see how I can help. Thanks, Jen.
I looked up Mike Lawler on Progressive Punch. It's true — he's one of the most "progressive" members of the GOP caucus. But what does that mean? NOTHING!
The MOST "progressive" member of the caucus (Thomas Massie) has a score that does not break 15%. Lawler's score on critical issues in the current session is a pathetic 2.55%. (About the same percentage as the number of people in the neighborhood where I grew up on the south side of Chicago who voted for Trump!)
By comparison, the most progressive member of the House, Adelita Grijalva, has 100% scores in every metric, with Becca Balint, Maxine Dexter, Summer Lee, Monica McIver and Analilia Meija just behind her, sharing the #1 slot. It's interesting that 9 of the top 10 most progressive members of the house are women, with the incredible Maxwell Frost, who needs more attention especially from people constantly whining about lack of promising young people in our government, joining them. (Frost is 29, the youngest member of the House.)
Who are still voting for Mike Lawler in the Hudson Valley? I would like to hear their reasons. After two years, any chance of Conley run for presidency?
It occurs to me that Ms. Rubin could consider the words "dissembling" and "duplicitous" for one of her "words and phrases" pieces.
I seriously doubt most MAGA voters are familiar with those words, though they are frequently targets of them.
"Dissemble" means to conceal your true motives, feelings, or beliefs behind a false appearance. It is essentially a more formal or sophisticated way of saying you are pretending, acting hypocritically, or "putting on a mask" to deceive others.
"Duplicitous" is an adjective describing deliberate deceitfulness, double-dealing, or hypocrisy. It refers to actions or speech where someone intentionally misleads others, hiding their true feelings or agendas by presenting a false narrative.
Together, they describe the Trump administration in a nutshell!
It is totally unlikely that any MAGA would read Jennifer Rubin's words, so understanding of the terms would be unnecessary. The accurate definitions might still be helpful to some of our readers. Thanks for including them.
“It is totally unlikely that any MAGA would read” is all that you have to write. I know several, all nonreaders (like Dear Leader himself). Their loyalty is knee-jerk. They will vote for the candidates that Trump and/or fellow MAGAs in their social circle are supporting. Full stop. No critical thinking whatsoever.
Priceless…“Think of him as the Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) of the House — always concerned, but never courageous.” As an evening PBS NEWS regular, I will be glad to see the “milk-toast” gone.
Susie Concern does have a much higher progressive vote score than Lawler. However it is 60 points lower than the most conservative Democrat, a position recently claimed by John Fetterman whose voting record gets more and more conservative each time I check. It's been probably two months since he sunk below Hassan and Shaheen who are on the conservative end of Democrats to claim the last spot, almost 30 points lower than Liz Warren, the most progressive Democrat. I love the Massachusetts duo (ranked #1 and #2) because they are working for us, unlike my two clowns (R), one of whom has perfect zeroes across all metrics.
This is the kind of candidate the Democratic Party desperately needs. Young, educated, experienced in life. These are the ones that are electable, not the old guard who have backed the wrong candidate in pretty much every primary. I’m sure she will have a great answer to the DEI accusation against her West Point appointment
The old guard is that way because the Democratic big donors are that way. But money doesn’t buy enthusiasm, both parties are leaning this now. We have to support this woman, and others like her, with enough small donations to keep her running smoothly. She is what the Hudson Valley needs the way Mamdani is for NYC
This woman would be poison to the people who are now being trumpeted by an excited media as overturning the Democratic "establishment." "Old guard"? The two most progressive members of the Senate (the stellar Massachusetts Two) are both closer to 80 than 70. One is facing a primary challenge from an over ambitious but under accomplished and not terribly progressive congressman (ranked #158) who is under 50. Ed Markey may share an age with Donald Trump but he is one of our most progressive officeholders, and until someone can show me evidence of his being impaired, I know he's a WAY better choice than Seth Moulton.
The so-called "old guard" has NOT "backed the wrong candidate in pretty much every primary." In most cases, they've backed a winner. I know the mainstream media loves these overarching "trend" stories and they love stories about massive change, but what struck me about the recent NY elections was how different and individual each race was.
She’ll do great hopefully! And defiance.org is going to help produce a documentary called” unfit II the hijacking of America for power and profit”! It’s supposed to be aired before the November election!
Since the only way of "cheating" is voter suppression and smear tactics, those can be fought if well strategized for. Here in Ohio, one of my GOP senators who is up for retention (he was appointed by the governor to JD Fancypants' seat) has decided that a winning tactic is running ads about a nonexistent trans woman who "exposed" her male genitals to children. This did not happen. He's got nothing. Go, Sherrod. (And Sherrod by the way is in his 70s. I don't give a shit. I see him around a lot and he's energetic and lucid. Jon Useless is 58 and useless at any age.)
We need 400 candidates who fit their districts and have the concerns of all constituents in mind. She'd probably be a poor fit for my district which is majority black, has a large Jewish population, and no Republican ever gets more than 25% of the vote.
Thank you for this short bio! With any of the candidates running for office, for me it's important to pay way more attention to any votes they've cast in the past, where they get their money, and most importantly-- their actions. How have they/do they live their life. People can literally say anything-- and we don't have to look any further than the current regime, and lemmings.
We need to be careful with the "where they get their money" thing. One thing that is on my last nerve right now is condemning candidates who "take" money from AIPAC (If you even mention AIPAC or Palestine you're probably not my candidate). Candidates do not "take" money from AIPAC because these are independent expenditures by an outside group who cannot legally coordinate with campaigns (although in some cases Republicans in particular have clandestinely broken this law.) They can't tell AIPAC to spend or not spend it. This issue came up in my district which has a large Jewish Orthodox population whose #1 issue is Israel. So I'm presuming AIPAC spent money here. I don't give a shit. Our congresswoman is one of the most progressive members of the House and doing a great job for us.
She’s undaunted because she has the intestinal fortitude to call out his lies and extremely poor judgement. Every interview I have ever seen him do is always so defensive. He’s one huge wimp. There’s no defense in defending the Big ugly bill.
This is a weakness on our side. The minute someone says or does a single thing we like or appears shiny enough, we immediately anoint them for president despite any relevant experience or indication they are qualified (and no, "better than Trump" isn't a qualification!). We infatuate easily.
I've seen people already touting Talarico for president, who at this point has never been elected to anything higher than state legislature; Pete Buttigieg, whose actual resume is even thinner, no matter what a smooth orator he is; and AOC, who is also a great speaker and self-promoter, but hasn't done much of note in the House. I remember people back in 2016 proposing Joe Kennedy III, a very young, newish member of the House who was OK, but whose main qualifications were his name and the fact that he LOOKS more like JFK than any member of his family. (Since giving up his seat to lose a primary to — of all people, Ed Markey — he has redeemed himself with his Groundwork Project, focused on funding activists in deep red states to turn out the blue vote there. He has also taken the lead in condemning his odious uncle.)
I wish we were a little more thoughtful — or maybe you're just being facetious? We have SO many great potential candidates, lots of governors with track records of effective administration (hat tip to my REAL governor, JB Pritzker!) and some outstanding senators such as Chris Murphy. We're so lucky. All they have is Little Marco Shoes-Too-Big and Couchfuck McGee.
She sounds like a great candidate! Hope NY voters will keep paying attention and vote for her. Lawler is exactly like my gop congressperson. We're trying to end his career this November.
Good luck. Lawler is a typical desperate dishrag trying to please all sides and losing everyone. Most congresscritters like him do as much hiding as possible. My friends in an adjacent district seldom see evidence that their R congressman is even alive. I saw my congresswoman (D) twice just last week.
Facts and good information are in short supply from legacy media these days. More substack entries like Heather Cox Richardson and Dan Rather are more informative, as is The Guardian, The Atlantic, and on the air, the BBC in spite of their internal difficulties. The same applies to PBS/NPR.
Well, if you want 5 tips to improve your gut health, the Washington Post is your go-to publication. I swear they seem more like "Your health Today" magazine than a news source.
When Jennifer Rubin, Anna Telanaes and the rest of the journalists left that Bezos rag, I abandoned it as well. I delivered the Washington Post when I lived there as a kid. I wouldn't bother today. We used to have three notable newspapers in D.C. - now none. Times have definitely changed.
Me too. I still get their daily newsletter just to laugh at it. It's packed with fluff and right-slanted stories. I subscribe to the Meidas Report, Aaron Parnas and the Contrarian for news, Jeff Tiedrich and Andy Borowitz for a much-needed humorous take on the news, The Rooster for Ohio state news, and Block Club Chicago for news from back home.
Where I live, the primary is in August. Dems have little chance statewide, and FL has just been reengineered by DeSantis. Miami Dade has 3 MAGA Cuban Americans who represent majority Dem districts. But the no 1 priority is Cuba, Secondarry are Cuba and Cuba.
IMHO the keys are Ohio and Iowa. Our money is better spent there.
Alaska is promising too. North Carolina is probably in the bag but help is probably worthwhile. Sherrod Brown is running a so-so campaign but is in the lead, and the incumbent (Senator Jon Useless aka Husted) is so out of touch he'd relying on lies about trans people again. And then there's Texas — I know we've gotten our hopes up before, but there is a genuine shot here. I love what Beto O'Rourke's group Powered by People is doing to focus on turnout. They're analyzed what they need to do to get those 215,000 votes for Talarico that Beto fell short of defeating Cruz by (Remember, he came close)
She's the perfect candidate and the superior choice, a shining example of what we're seeing all over the country. A new breed of Democrats has been recruited—even in statewide elections—to finally show people that there's a party that cares about their needs and a party that cares only about the needs of big companies and the ultra rich. I'm certainly not glad Trump was "elected" to a second term—God forbid—but that was the final wakeup call people needed. Trump has ruined and exposed the GOP, as the bootlicking political chameleon Lindsey Graham predicted before he gulped down Trump's Kool-Aid.
I live in the Hudson Valley and have gotten a ton of material$ in the last few years extolling the accomplishments (!) of Mike Lawler, while I haven't seen a sign of them (or ever been replied to about my concerns). This sends me straight to Conley's office to see how I can help. Thanks, Jen.
I looked up Mike Lawler on Progressive Punch. It's true — he's one of the most "progressive" members of the GOP caucus. But what does that mean? NOTHING!
The MOST "progressive" member of the caucus (Thomas Massie) has a score that does not break 15%. Lawler's score on critical issues in the current session is a pathetic 2.55%. (About the same percentage as the number of people in the neighborhood where I grew up on the south side of Chicago who voted for Trump!)
By comparison, the most progressive member of the House, Adelita Grijalva, has 100% scores in every metric, with Becca Balint, Maxine Dexter, Summer Lee, Monica McIver and Analilia Meija just behind her, sharing the #1 slot. It's interesting that 9 of the top 10 most progressive members of the house are women, with the incredible Maxwell Frost, who needs more attention especially from people constantly whining about lack of promising young people in our government, joining them. (Frost is 29, the youngest member of the House.)
Who are still voting for Mike Lawler in the Hudson Valley? I would like to hear their reasons. After two years, any chance of Conley run for presidency?
Excellent column, as usual.
It occurs to me that Ms. Rubin could consider the words "dissembling" and "duplicitous" for one of her "words and phrases" pieces.
I seriously doubt most MAGA voters are familiar with those words, though they are frequently targets of them.
"Dissemble" means to conceal your true motives, feelings, or beliefs behind a false appearance. It is essentially a more formal or sophisticated way of saying you are pretending, acting hypocritically, or "putting on a mask" to deceive others.
"Duplicitous" is an adjective describing deliberate deceitfulness, double-dealing, or hypocrisy. It refers to actions or speech where someone intentionally misleads others, hiding their true feelings or agendas by presenting a false narrative.
Together, they describe the Trump administration in a nutshell!
It is totally unlikely that any MAGA would read Jennifer Rubin's words, so understanding of the terms would be unnecessary. The accurate definitions might still be helpful to some of our readers. Thanks for including them.
“It is totally unlikely that any MAGA would read” is all that you have to write. I know several, all nonreaders (like Dear Leader himself). Their loyalty is knee-jerk. They will vote for the candidates that Trump and/or fellow MAGAs in their social circle are supporting. Full stop. No critical thinking whatsoever.
I hope this story is a sign that we can beat T…p at his own game of duplicitousness.
Priceless…“Think of him as the Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) of the House — always concerned, but never courageous.” As an evening PBS NEWS regular, I will be glad to see the “milk-toast” gone.
Susie Concern does have a much higher progressive vote score than Lawler. However it is 60 points lower than the most conservative Democrat, a position recently claimed by John Fetterman whose voting record gets more and more conservative each time I check. It's been probably two months since he sunk below Hassan and Shaheen who are on the conservative end of Democrats to claim the last spot, almost 30 points lower than Liz Warren, the most progressive Democrat. I love the Massachusetts duo (ranked #1 and #2) because they are working for us, unlike my two clowns (R), one of whom has perfect zeroes across all metrics.
This is the kind of candidate the Democratic Party desperately needs. Young, educated, experienced in life. These are the ones that are electable, not the old guard who have backed the wrong candidate in pretty much every primary. I’m sure she will have a great answer to the DEI accusation against her West Point appointment
The old guard is that way because the Democratic big donors are that way. But money doesn’t buy enthusiasm, both parties are leaning this now. We have to support this woman, and others like her, with enough small donations to keep her running smoothly. She is what the Hudson Valley needs the way Mamdani is for NYC
This woman would be poison to the people who are now being trumpeted by an excited media as overturning the Democratic "establishment." "Old guard"? The two most progressive members of the Senate (the stellar Massachusetts Two) are both closer to 80 than 70. One is facing a primary challenge from an over ambitious but under accomplished and not terribly progressive congressman (ranked #158) who is under 50. Ed Markey may share an age with Donald Trump but he is one of our most progressive officeholders, and until someone can show me evidence of his being impaired, I know he's a WAY better choice than Seth Moulton.
The so-called "old guard" has NOT "backed the wrong candidate in pretty much every primary." In most cases, they've backed a winner. I know the mainstream media loves these overarching "trend" stories and they love stories about massive change, but what struck me about the recent NY elections was how different and individual each race was.
She’ll do great hopefully! And defiance.org is going to help produce a documentary called” unfit II the hijacking of America for power and profit”! It’s supposed to be aired before the November election!
All of this makes her a great candidate. Let's just hope Trump and his minions, don't cheat to win again in New York..
Since the only way of "cheating" is voter suppression and smear tactics, those can be fought if well strategized for. Here in Ohio, one of my GOP senators who is up for retention (he was appointed by the governor to JD Fancypants' seat) has decided that a winning tactic is running ads about a nonexistent trans woman who "exposed" her male genitals to children. This did not happen. He's got nothing. Go, Sherrod. (And Sherrod by the way is in his 70s. I don't give a shit. I see him around a lot and he's energetic and lucid. Jon Useless is 58 and useless at any age.)
Sure hope she wins….we need 400 more like her!
We need 400 candidates who fit their districts and have the concerns of all constituents in mind. She'd probably be a poor fit for my district which is majority black, has a large Jewish population, and no Republican ever gets more than 25% of the vote.
Thank you for this short bio! With any of the candidates running for office, for me it's important to pay way more attention to any votes they've cast in the past, where they get their money, and most importantly-- their actions. How have they/do they live their life. People can literally say anything-- and we don't have to look any further than the current regime, and lemmings.
In short, watch what candidates do rather than what they say.
We need to be careful with the "where they get their money" thing. One thing that is on my last nerve right now is condemning candidates who "take" money from AIPAC (If you even mention AIPAC or Palestine you're probably not my candidate). Candidates do not "take" money from AIPAC because these are independent expenditures by an outside group who cannot legally coordinate with campaigns (although in some cases Republicans in particular have clandestinely broken this law.) They can't tell AIPAC to spend or not spend it. This issue came up in my district which has a large Jewish Orthodox population whose #1 issue is Israel. So I'm presuming AIPAC spent money here. I don't give a shit. Our congresswoman is one of the most progressive members of the House and doing a great job for us.
She’s undaunted because she has the intestinal fortitude to call out his lies and extremely poor judgement. Every interview I have ever seen him do is always so defensive. He’s one huge wimp. There’s no defense in defending the Big ugly bill.
We need her voice (and her values) at the national level.
Cait Conley for president!
Oh come oooooooonnnnn.
This is a weakness on our side. The minute someone says or does a single thing we like or appears shiny enough, we immediately anoint them for president despite any relevant experience or indication they are qualified (and no, "better than Trump" isn't a qualification!). We infatuate easily.
I've seen people already touting Talarico for president, who at this point has never been elected to anything higher than state legislature; Pete Buttigieg, whose actual resume is even thinner, no matter what a smooth orator he is; and AOC, who is also a great speaker and self-promoter, but hasn't done much of note in the House. I remember people back in 2016 proposing Joe Kennedy III, a very young, newish member of the House who was OK, but whose main qualifications were his name and the fact that he LOOKS more like JFK than any member of his family. (Since giving up his seat to lose a primary to — of all people, Ed Markey — he has redeemed himself with his Groundwork Project, focused on funding activists in deep red states to turn out the blue vote there. He has also taken the lead in condemning his odious uncle.)
I wish we were a little more thoughtful — or maybe you're just being facetious? We have SO many great potential candidates, lots of governors with track records of effective administration (hat tip to my REAL governor, JB Pritzker!) and some outstanding senators such as Chris Murphy. We're so lucky. All they have is Little Marco Shoes-Too-Big and Couchfuck McGee.
She sounds like a great candidate! Hope NY voters will keep paying attention and vote for her. Lawler is exactly like my gop congressperson. We're trying to end his career this November.
Good luck. Lawler is a typical desperate dishrag trying to please all sides and losing everyone. Most congresscritters like him do as much hiding as possible. My friends in an adjacent district seldom see evidence that their R congressman is even alive. I saw my congresswoman (D) twice just last week.
Thank you for doing an article on a candidate. Information is better than opinions.
I don't know what I would do without Jennifer Rubin. Where would I get facts and information?
Facts and good information are in short supply from legacy media these days. More substack entries like Heather Cox Richardson and Dan Rather are more informative, as is The Guardian, The Atlantic, and on the air, the BBC in spite of their internal difficulties. The same applies to PBS/NPR.
Well, if you want 5 tips to improve your gut health, the Washington Post is your go-to publication. I swear they seem more like "Your health Today" magazine than a news source.
When Jennifer Rubin, Anna Telanaes and the rest of the journalists left that Bezos rag, I abandoned it as well. I delivered the Washington Post when I lived there as a kid. I wouldn't bother today. We used to have three notable newspapers in D.C. - now none. Times have definitely changed.
Me too. I still get their daily newsletter just to laugh at it. It's packed with fluff and right-slanted stories. I subscribe to the Meidas Report, Aaron Parnas and the Contrarian for news, Jeff Tiedrich and Andy Borowitz for a much-needed humorous take on the news, The Rooster for Ohio state news, and Block Club Chicago for news from back home.
I hope there are a lot of us that regret the fact that we can't vote in NY!!!
Where I live, the primary is in August. Dems have little chance statewide, and FL has just been reengineered by DeSantis. Miami Dade has 3 MAGA Cuban Americans who represent majority Dem districts. But the no 1 priority is Cuba, Secondarry are Cuba and Cuba.
IMHO the keys are Ohio and Iowa. Our money is better spent there.
Alaska is promising too. North Carolina is probably in the bag but help is probably worthwhile. Sherrod Brown is running a so-so campaign but is in the lead, and the incumbent (Senator Jon Useless aka Husted) is so out of touch he'd relying on lies about trans people again. And then there's Texas — I know we've gotten our hopes up before, but there is a genuine shot here. I love what Beto O'Rourke's group Powered by People is doing to focus on turnout. They're analyzed what they need to do to get those 215,000 votes for Talarico that Beto fell short of defeating Cruz by (Remember, he came close)
She's the perfect candidate and the superior choice, a shining example of what we're seeing all over the country. A new breed of Democrats has been recruited—even in statewide elections—to finally show people that there's a party that cares about their needs and a party that cares only about the needs of big companies and the ultra rich. I'm certainly not glad Trump was "elected" to a second term—God forbid—but that was the final wakeup call people needed. Trump has ruined and exposed the GOP, as the bootlicking political chameleon Lindsey Graham predicted before he gulped down Trump's Kool-Aid.