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- No Room for Rebel Hearts
I called this a couple of months ago, and it’s not because I’m some kind of political genius:
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett withdrew from the race to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Oversight Committee, marking the Dallas Democrat’s second defeat in her attempt to climb the ranks of congressional leadership.
Crockett confirmed her decision to bow out of the race in a text to The Texas Tribune early Tuesday.
House Democrats picked Rep. Robert Garcia as their ranking member on the 47-person panel later Tuesday morning. The California Democrat defeated his remaining rival in the race, Rep. Stephen Lynch, after winning the support of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee.
Lynch is a ginormous asshole, so even though the venerated seniority system would make him next in line, it’s not super-surprising that he didn’t get the job. I like Garcia quite a bit, but I’ll note that he has exactly the same seniority as Crockett (both are in their second terms). So why him instead of her?
I think the reason is something similar to the Wickler vs Martin contest at the DNC: Wickler was the fan favorite, but Martin was pretty good and probably more malleable. So we get Martin, who’s shitting the bed.
The sad fact is that my trust in Democratic leadership has fallen so low that Garcia is immediately suspect since he was elevated over Crockett. Garcia is in the California delegation, which makes me think that Pelosi had a hand in it, since I think she’s still wielding a lot of power behind the scenes. She actively lobbied against AOC heading oversight, and instead Gerry Connolly was elevated to the post and held it until he died of throat cancer. Connolly’s appointment was sort of a reductio ad absurdum of the seniority system, so leadership had to do something. To me, Garcia’s appointment says, “See, you wanted us to ignore seniority and elevate youth, so here’s a young, new member.” No, we wanted AOC, and if we couldn’t have AOC, Jasmine Crockett would be great. Garcia is third choice at best.
Jasmine Crockett makes some mistakes. She might rub some people the wrong way. But we all know that she has what it takes, I’ll call it a rebel heart, you call it whatever you want. AOC has it. Maxwell Frost has it. When Kat Abugazaleh flips off protesters at a drag queen story hour, she shows that she has it. And it’s not tolerated.
By the way, Rebel Heart is a reference to this song by First Aid Kit, two young sisters from Sweden who sound like they grew up in Tennessee singing country music. One of their songs is called Emmylou — it’s about Emmylou Harris and Graham Parson’s relationship. When they were 25 and 22, they sang it for Emmylou Harris and left her in tears. Open thread.
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