I’m not sure what to make of this. Sandoval’s dismissive response to Terkel indicates that this wasn’t an “oops” moment, and that OFA believes this is a sound political strategy.

Atrios says, “politicians gotta do what they gotta do and if attacking the Jane Hamshers Of The Left and KRGTHULU is the way to get money, love, and votes, then more power to them….If.”

I totally agree, if they’re doing this because they think it’s a good campaign strategy, do what you have to do. The qualifier, of course, is the if.

There is now a deal, and Speaker Boehner needs Democratic votes to pass it because of his unruly and recalcitrant TeaParty membership, members of the Progressive Caucus must stop the deal. By stopping the deal at the last minute, the House Progressive Caucus forces President Obama to use his constitutional authority to ignore an illegal law that questions America’s public debt: the debt ceiling.

Kill the deal. Fourteen-four or Bust!

Yesterday Grijalva was perfectly willing to hand over his Congressional authority to a new Catfood II Super Congress to slash Social Security and Medicare when he vote for the all-cuts Reid bill.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus has responded to President Barack Obama, who said progressives would have to be “sold” on deficit reduction. Specifically, he claimed that “if you are a progressive, you should be concerned about debt and deficit just as much as if you’re a conservative.”

The negotiation table is like the poker table: you don’t get a seat unless you have the chips to play. By failing to prove she actually has the will and/or the power to say no, Pelosi has shown the President she has no leverage.

Predictably, the budget framework that Barack Obama outlined quickly became used as the leftward pole in the debate. After all, Obama gave a partisan speech! He criticized Paul Ryan! So with the Obama plan on the left and the Ryan plan on the right, the range of debate had been narrowed artificially.

President Obama is holding a press conference in moments, amid signs that his deal with Republicans on the Bush tax cuts is falling apart. Joe Biden visited the Hill to try and save the policy, but Democrats and allies from across the political spectrum are opposed. Mary Landrieu, of all people, called the deal “almost morally corrupt” and termed it “the Obama-McConnell plan.” The Congressional Progressive Caucus want a “no strings attached” policy with UI and the tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income extended.

We deserve to see precisely which ConservaDems think that maintaining the tax rates from the last 10 years, a time of the worst wage and employment growth in postwar history, represents good economic sense. At least the leadership would then be seen as putting up a fight. I agree that you can sometimes win by losing by standing on principle and using that as the basis to make your case.

I’m not pouting today! I’m happy because the mean Tea Party people lost most of their elections. I saw this article yesterday morning that told me less than a third of them won.

Democrats picked up three seats from Republicans, making good on some prior anomalies and realigning correctly. Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01), Cedric Richmond (LA-02) and John Carney (DE-AL) all won. Of those, I would say Hanabusa and Richmond will join the Progressive Caucus. In AL-07, Terri Sewell replaced Artur Davis. She’s a lot more progressive than he ever was, and she will likely join the caucus. David Cicilline (RI-01), the replacement for Patrick Kennedy and another openly gay member of Congress, is likely to join (Patrick Kennedy never did). The race that a progressive lost in a primary, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (MI-13), was over ethical issues, and she’ll be replaced by Hansen Clarke, likely to join the caucus.

What’s likely, then, is an increase in the ranks of the Progressive Caucus numbers. Even if they opened the floodgates on the Blue Dog Caucus, which they limit, they won’t increase their numbers.