ALSO SEE: Senate Democrats' New Plan: Listen to Elizabeth Warren

Warren to the Rescue

By Seung Min Kim and John Bresnahan, Politico

14 November 14

Democrats are reeling. So they're calling on their biggest star.

t didn’t matter whether it was a liberal stronghold like Minnesota or a red state like Kentucky — when Harry Reid got reports from the campaign trail, it was all about Elizabeth Warren.

It didn’t take long for Reid to take a cue from the grassroots — shortly after Democrats lost control of the Senate, Reid began talking with Warren about joining the inner circle of Senate Democratic leadership. The move would surely send a signal that Senate Democrats were ready to shake things up — by injecting Warren’s populist brand of politics and unapologetic, anti-big business rhetoric into the leadership ranks.

Warren, who already has a cult following among liberals — especially in the anti-Hillary Clinton movement on the left — was introduced Thursday as the “strategic policy adviser to the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.” It’s a mouthful of a title but it has a simple mission: Help come up with a way to sell voters on the Democratic message — ASAP.

And in her first comments in the newly elevated role, Warren left no question who she was going after.

“I believe in what the Democrats are fighting for,” Warren said. “Wall Street is doing very well, CEOs are bringing in millions more and families all across the country are struggling. We have to make this government work for the American people, and that’s what we’re here to fight for.”

The back story of Warren’s rise began last Thursday, when the Massachusetts senator initially reached out to top Democratic officials about the possibility of joining the leadership team.

Reid has long been a fan of Warren – he tapped the former Harvard Law School professor to lead the panel tasked with overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program and recruited her to run for the Senate against then-Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), whom she defeated in 2012. Throughout the 2014 campaign, Reid had heard about how well Warren’s populist message was received, even in red states like Kentucky where Democrats lost the Senate elections.

Last Thursday night, Warren and Reid discussed a potential leadership role, but it wasn’t clear what the job would be. Reid ran the idea by one of his top deputies, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) – who backed the idea of giving Warren a bigger Senate platform with a leadership slot.

After those initial discussions, Reid raised the prospect with his staff last Friday. And as he traveled to the White House for a congressional leadership meeting with President Barack Obama that same day, Reid took a phone call from one senator, who made a “thoughtful case” for changes in the Senate Democrats’ messaging operation, the senior Democratic official said.

That was a plea conveyed by several rank-and-file Senate Democrats, who acknowledged that the party’s message had largely failed to resonate and attract white, working-class voters on Nov. 4.

“I think that’s been a failure over the last two years, is that we have just not connected the things that we’re fighting for on the Senate floor to families that are truly hurting out there,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Thursday. “There’s nobody better than Elizabeth at talking to people and feeling the sense of their real economic disenchantment.”

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) added: “I think we knew that we didn’t get our message out as effectively as we had hoped for the last couple of years. Elizabeth’s an extraordinary communicator.”

The message that Senate Democrats wanted to highlight was one that Warren laid out in a recent Washington Post op-ed – which Reid circulated at a meeting with his staff on Sunday.

Reid formally proposed the job to Warren in his office on Wednesday, and the two senators met later that night to outline Warren’s role in the leadership ranks — a strongly liberal voice with a role on policy and message. Warren and Schumer met as well to discuss her new role.

Despite her soaring reputation among progressives, Warren has chosen to keep a low profile on Capitol Hill. She shuns the congressional press corps in the hallways – on Thursday, aides sternly replied “not right now” as reporters tried to question her about her new position – and only makes headlines if she chooses to do so, like during a Banking committee hearing or debate on student loans.

But it’s that razor-sharp focus against Wall Street that has earned Warren the love from liberals, many who clamor for her to run for president against Clinton, despite her repeated refusals.

“I think Senator Warren — as much, if not more, than any other senator – drives Wall Street crazy,” Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said Thursday. “She is smart, she is effective, she knows how to deliver a message that really resonates with working families.”

But as much as Warren’s elevation to Senate leadership represented a rise of the left in the Democratic ranks, it also showcases the decimation of the moderates in the shrunken caucus – as Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas were wiped out from their seats.

When Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the most moderate members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, was asked whether Warren’s message resonates, he responded: “Not in West Virginia.”

“I agree with her 100 percent on the financial issues,” Manchin told reporters. “But as far as on some other issues, you know she’s going to be a little bit further left.”

Schumer stressed Thursday that all viewpoints in the Democratic Party were still well represented.

“I’ve always believed in and built two strong wings to the Democratic Party: A strong liberal wing, and a strong moderate wing,” said Schumer, pointing to both Warren’s elevation and Montana Sen. Jon Tester’s appointment to lead the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “It’s good to have both wings of the party’s input strongly represented. And that’s what we’re doing here.”

“Somebody asked me on the way in here – Elizabeth Warren is going to be part of your leadership, what do you expect her to do?” Reid asked reporters, rhetorically. “I expect her to be Elizabeth Warren.”

Mary Landrieu v. Planet Earth

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

14 November 14

he drama playing out in Louisiana and Washington DC speaks to the heart of government inaction on climate change. It’s everything you need to know about what happens when corporations own the political process.

In the balance are the Keystone XL Pipeline, Mary Landrieu’s Senate career, and although the mainstream press will not say it, the ecological wellbeing of North America and the planet.

Somehow, some Democrats have concluded that the best way to save Mary Landrieu’s Senate seat is to embrace the Keystone Pipeline. It’s a notion that is so mind-boggling on so many levels that the sheer enormity of the folly, in a perverse way, makes it difficult to grasp.

Among Democrats nationally, the Keystone Pipeline has little or no support. To sign off on the pipeline – for any reason – would essentially put the Democratic party in conflict with its base. But to sign off on the pipeline to save the seat of a Democratic senator who for all intents and purposes votes like a Republican Corporatist is to guarantee massive alienation of rank and file Democrats across the country.

There is a perception on the part of Congressional Democrats that acting like Republicans and bowing to corporate interests will somehow save seats. It won’t do that, but it will quash voter enthusiasm for years to come.

All of which misses the bigger point that Global Warming is quite real and quite serious. From the UN to the Pentagon, and every qualified scientist in between, the word is clear: ‘Immediate action on climate change necessary.’ Scientists call climate change catastrophic for the environment, economists call it a game-changing reality, and the Pentagon calls it an “immediate risk to national security.”

The notion that saving Senator Mary Landrieu’s Senate seat is somehow worth compromising the North American ecosystem, the American economy, and U.S. national security is fundamentally, categorically corrupt to its core. It illustrates how utterly out of touch the Democratic Party is with those who identify themselves as Democrats.

A Senate seat is an important thing for the Democrats to have at this juncture. But far more important for the party is an identity, a clearly defined sense of purpose. Not just for advertising purposes but for motivating millions to get on board.

As a U.S. senator, Mary Landrieu’s day is as done as the fossil fuels she is shilling to hold onto power. The Democratic Party can either follow her into oblivion or follow millions of rank and file Democrats to a politically vital future.

Sure, that could mean that the Democratic Party might be the opposition party for a while. It’s a noble calling, and one that will ultimately get voters to the polls and the party back in the majority.

Marc Ash is the founder and former Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.