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Each nomination presents Democrats an opportunity to litigate arguments that have been at a boiling point throughout the election on a public stage, their first chance to stand up to a President that outgoing Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called "a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fueled his campaign with bigotry and hate" in a statement after his election.

Even if Trump won, Democrats can argue, his agenda is out of touch.

Anti-big bank Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday called Trump's Treasury secretary nominee, fundraiser and former Goldman Sachs partner Steven Mnuchin, the "Forrest Gump of the financial crisis."

Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the nomination of Georgia Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human Services signaled a "war on seniors" and pledged to "fight tooth and nail" for Medicare.

The eight Democrats on the Judiciary Committee sent a strong letter saying they want several days of hearings on attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, including testimony on issues such as violence against women, LGBT protections, civil rights and hate crimes.

Fighting Trump's agenda is pretty much the Democrats' only option when it comes to Cabinet picks.

Thanks to a rule changed pushed by Democrats during the Obama administration, all nominees except Supreme Court picks are only subject to a simple majority vote -- and Republicans have the majority. In addition, lawmakers have often given deference to a new president, saying he has the right to choose his Cabinet and advisers -- to a point.

Democrats will be under competing pressures once the new Congress begins in early January and hearings for the top-tier Cabinet posts begin.

On the one hand, the progressive base will be eagerly watching to see how aggressive Democratic senators are in going after Trump's emissaries. But Democrats will have to work in Trump's Washington moving forward -- including with the various Cabinet members they interview. And some moderate senators, like West Virginia's Joe Manchin, are also up for re-election in two years in states that Trump won.

Progressives will be watching how Democratic members handle the spotlight, said Symone Sanders, an activist and former press secretary for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign.

"The confirmation hearings are the first battle, the first test if you will, of Democrats in the Trump era," Sanders said. "And they have the potential to come out with flying colors."

"They have to demonstrate a show of force during these hearings and making sure they don't let the conversation get away from them," she added. "Because if it looks like Democrats are rolling over for Donald Trump and Republicans, it's not going to bode well for midterms."

Price has been one of the chief critics of Obamacare in Congress and a proponent of overhauling Medicare, both of great concern for Democrats. His hearing will give Democrats their first opportunity to fight to save as much as they can of President Barack Obama's signature health care law and entitlement programs.

Trump's pick for the CIA, Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, is sure to face questions from Intelligence Committee Democrats about his past statements in favor of expanding US surveillance and of Trump's own praise of torture techniques like waterboarding, especially with fierce surveillance opponent Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on the panel.

Mnuchin represents big banking to progressive Democrats like Warren and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who have built a massive grassroots following for their anti-Wall Street message. His involvement with troubled mortgage lender IndyMac will raise the specter of the housing crash.

And Commerce pick Wilbur Ross is a billionaire nicknamed the "king of bankruptcy" for buying up distressed companies for turn-arounds.

Each nominee goes before different committees with jurisdiction, spreading opportunities for Democrats to grill Trump's Cabinet.

All of them will likely get heavy scrutiny of their financial disclosure forms, says Stephanie Martz, a lobbyist with Monument Policy Group who spent years in the Senate with Schumer and worked for the Obama administration. That is especially true if Trump's own conflict of interest questions are not resolved cleanly enough for Democrats by that point.

She expects Democrats to take their opportunities to be tough.

"Everyone is going to take the opportunity to get real answers from nominees who have said or done things in the past that may raise questions, but also lay down markers about what they're going to be watching, because besides cloture, is very hard to block these nominees," Martz said.

But Martz also cautioned that nominees will help set the tone of hearings, and if they don't misstep, the tenor could remain calmer.

"Senators can be pretty vicious if they want to be," she said. "But I think it's harder than it might seem when there's a nominee sitting there facing you and their whole family and friends are arrayed behind them, it's hard to get truly personal and nasty with that person. Obviously, it can happen, especially if the nominee is not particularly friendly and is kind of combative in the way he or she answers questions, it can kind of go downhill."

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Democrats can't stop Trump nominees, but they can make ...

Democrats are in danger of moving from complacency to panic. Neither is particularly helpful.

The complacency part is obvious: Until about 9 p.m. Eastern time on Nov.8, supporters of Hillary Clinton (myself included) were certain that Donald Trumps weaknesses among women, nonwhite voters and younger Americans would prevent him from becoming president.

This analysis was half-right: Trump lost the popular vote by more than 2million. But things went just wrong enough for Clinton in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to give Trump his electoral-college victory. His combined margin in the three states stands at about 100,000. Roughly 134 million votes have been counted nationwide.

[Stick a sterling silver fork in Trumps populism]

Is pointing to the limits of Trumps victory simply a way of evading the depth of the Democrats plight? After all, they also failed to take over the U.S. Senate in a year many Republican incumbents looked vulnerable. They picked up a paltry six seats in the House. Add to this the large-scale losses of governorships and state legislatures since the Democrats recent high point in 2008 and you have the makings of a party-wide nervous breakdown.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Nov. 30 was reelected as House minority leader, winning 134 votes against 63 votes for her challenger, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Note, however, that the party in the White House often fares badly in midterm elections, Democrats especially so because they lean on votes from the young, who are less inclined to go to the polls in off-years.

But unless Trumps first two years are wildly successful, 2018 offers Democrats opportunities to rebuild hollowed-out local parties. This is especially true in statehouses, as The Posts Greg Sargent pointed out. Ten states with Republican governors could plausibly turn blue (as could New Jersey in 2017).

Clintons popular-vote advantage speaks to other opportunities. It reflected a shift toward the Democrats in Sun Belt states with large minority populations that is likely to continue. In Texas, Clinton got some 560,000more votes than President Obama did in 2012, while Trump ran 4.6 percentage points behind Mitt Romneys showing. Trump also fell short of Romneys percentages in California, Arizona and Georgia.

[Bernie Sanders: Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump]

The Democrats big Sun Belt problem on election night was Florida. Both major-party candidates received more votes there than the 2012 nominees, but Trumps gains were significantly larger. If Democrats are looking for a state to fret about in their postmortems, Florida should be at the top of the list.

Trumps narrow wins in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania (unless theyre miraculously overturned in recounts), plus his larger victories in Ohio and Iowa, have the Democrats focused on the white working class and on whether its time for the end of identity liberalism, the headline of a recent New York Times opinion piece by Mark Lilla, a Columbia University political philosopher.

Lillas New York Times essay provoked a polemical tempest. Many advocates for African Americans, gay men and lesbians, immigrants and women fear Lillas suggestion would lead liberals to abandon beleaguered constituencies at the very moment when they most need defending.

In fact, Lilla is right that liberalism needs to root its devotion to inclusion in larger principles and should not allow itself to be cast (or parodied) as simply about the summing up of group claims. He is also dead on when he writes: If you are going to mention groups in America, you had better mention all of them. If you dont, those left out will notice and feel excluded. Democrats, who gave us the New Deal and empowered the labor movement, should be alarmed by the flight of the white working class.

[Mitt Romney is a sellout. So what?]

But Lillas critics are right about something, too: An effort to reach out to the white working class cannot be seen as a strategy for abandoning people of color, Muslims or immigrants, or for stepping back from commitments to gender equality, or for withdrawing support for long-excluded groups. Liberalisms very inclusiveness offers Democrats long-term advantages both in the Sun Belt and among younger voters who will own the future.

A panicky abandonment of their core commitments is the last thing Democrats need. Far better advice comes from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who urges the party to re-engage with rural and small-town voters. Also promising: the formation of a Blue Collar Caucus in the House announced this week by Reps. Brendan Boyle, an Irish Catholic from Philadelphia, and Marc Veasey, an African American from Fort Worth.

I mention the backgrounds of this pair of Democrats because their cross-racial partnership sends exactly the right message. Progressivisms embrace of social and economic justice is about lifting up the left-out across all of our dividing lines. Remembering this is the first step toward political recovery.

Read more from E.J. Dionnes archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

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Democrats, skip the civil war - The Washington Post

Democrats are channeling their post-election disappointment and pouring buckets of donor cash into a long-shot bid for the Louisiana Senate seat.

The odds are not good for Louisiana Democrat Foster Campbell, who is facing off against GOP state Treasurer John Kennedy in the runoff on Dec. 10. President-elect Donald Trump just carried the state by 20 percentage points in November, and Kennedy led Campbell 52 percent to 38 percent in a poll this week. And Trump's running mate, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, was scheduled to give Kennedy's base an energy boost by appearing at a rally with Kennedy in New Orleans on Saturday.

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But Campbell, a state public service commissioner, has raised $2.5 million over the past month, much of it in small-dollar donations from Democrats around the country looking for some way to strike back against Trump. Kennedy raised $1.6 million over the same time frame. Each man had about $1.4 million left in his campaign account.

Campbell brought in $43,000 from small donors from January to Oct. 20; since then, $1.7 million in small donations have poured in as Democrats like former Obama administration staffers Dan Pfeiffer and Jon Favreau, who recently had Campbell on their podcast hold up Campbells race as the final fight of the 2016 election and hope for an upset.

Based on demographics and whats going on in Louisiana, [Campbell] faces an uphill climb, said Trey Ourso, a Democratic consultant who ran a super PAC backing Gov. John Bel Edwards in his upset of Sen. David Vitter last year. But voters this year have shown they like to surprise us.

Campbells bid is, in many ways, a second go-round for the team that elected Edwards, who endorsed Campbell early. Mary-Patricia Wray, a top Edwards strategist, is playing the same role for Campbell. Edwards ad-maker, Jared Arsement, is making spots for Defend Louisiana, a pro-Campbell super PAC.

Recapturing that magic will be difficult. While Kennedy has his flaws the Campbell campaign and Republicans have regularly attacked him for flip-flopping hes not Vitter, who was dogged by a prostitution scandal. Campbell shares Edwards rural credentials and opposition to abortion rights, but he lacks the West Point background that helped the governor woo Louisiana conservatives in his stunning 2015 upset victory.

Kennedy, meanwhile, is tying himself closely to Trump. Ive been with our new president from day one, Kennedy says in a television ad. Because I believe we dont have time for political correctness anymore. And the swamp in Washington, D.C., has to be drained.

Still, Campbell has a history of winning over Republican-leaning voters, and his team insists the race is in the single digits. In 2014, he won 61 percent of the vote in his North Louisiana-based district even as former Sen. Mary Landrieu won just 41 percent of the vote in the same area. (Landrieu lost the statewide vote, 56 percent to 44 percent, to now-GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy.) And Campbell will need crossover votes, especially if the electorate skews away from his party, as it has in early voting so far. When Edwards pulled off his upset in 2015, defeating Vitter with 56 percent of the vote, 30 percent of early voters were black and 52 percent were Democratic. So far, the early runoff vote in 2016 has been just 21 percent black and 44 percent Democratic.

Campbell's allies have alighted on abortion in an attempt to deepen Campbell's conservative appeal. Defend Louisiana has started running an ad attacking Kennedy for supporting abortion rights when he was a Democrat. (2016 marks Kennedy's third bid for Senate; he ran as a Democrat in 2004 and as a Republican in 2008.)

Hes been a Democrat. Hes been a Republican. John Kennedys been everything but a Baptist preacher, Campbell said in a phone interview. John Kennedys been whats best for John Kennedy.

Kennedys team scoffs at such attacks, and notes that Pence will be campaigning with Kennedy to shore up the latters conservative credentials this weekend.

And a message blasting Kennedy for supporting abortion rights makes for an odd fit for Campbell, who has generated support from coastal liberals, attracted both to his populist and environmentalist standards and to their last chance in 2016 to get a win. White House economist Gene Sperling recently hosted a fundraiser for Campbell in Los Angeles, and other Democratic heavyweights like former White House communications director Pfeiffer have encouraged liberals to donate to his campaign. (Edwards, the governor, also hosted a Wednesday fundraiser for the Defend Louisiana PAC with Landrieu, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, and Rep. Cedric Richmond.)

West Coast liberals think they can buy this election for Foster Campbell, Kennedy spokesman Lionel Rainey said. John Kennedy has received the support of donors from across Louisiana who understand he is the only conservative in this race who supports our values. Foster Campbell represents the views of Democrats from California.

Even with Campbells strong fundraising Kennedy still hasnt released his own fundraising report Republicans are still outspending Democrats on television in the state. With Kennedy's own funds, the Ending Spending Action super PAC and a coordinated buy between Kennedy and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Republican groups spent about $524,000 on TV last week. Campbell and his allies have spent just $307,000.

And the NRSCs independent expenditure arm is spending about $10,000 on radio advertisements in the state starting on Monday, according to a media-buying source.

One thing that appears unlikely: any help from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which declined to comment for this story.

But Campbell thinks he can pull off a solo upset. Asked whether he needed the DSCCs help, Campbell had a simple response: Nope.

Original post:
Democrats channel disappointment into Louisiana Senate race

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I will also be vigilant and vow to hold Trump accountable, while demanding the same of our congressional representatives. Dissent is a fundamentally patriotic act. I intend to exercise my constitutional right to stand against Trump when and if he sanctions something that conflicts with the values that truly make America great.

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After this polarizing election, there is considerable tension among Americans. In families, neighborhoods, the workplace and even between friends. It doesn't have to be this way.

Read the rest here:
Democratic Party: Pictures, Videos, Breaking News

The Posts Abby Phillip explores some of the questions Democrats are facing after Hillary Clintons defeat against Donald Trump in the presidential election. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

Democrats are shifting to a more aggressive stance against the incoming Donald Trump administration in Washington, vowing to fight what they say are alarming signs that the president-elect will carry over the most divisive aspects of his campaign into the White House.

A growing chorus of Democrats is seeking to rally those within the party to unite around a common goal of resisting Trump, while pressuring moderate Republicans to reject the most controversial appointments to Trumps administration.

Immediately after Hillary Clintons surprise loss to Trump a week ago, some suggested that they might aim to work with Trump on shared policy goals. But Democrats have taken the appointment of former Breitbart News head Stephen K. Bannon as chief White House strategist and the emergence of Wall Street figures and lobbyists as candidates for top jobs as a strong indication of Trumps plans to veer sharply right and stray from the economic populist message that he championed as a candidate.

Congressional Democrats say they have not ruled out working with Trump on areas of common ground, especially on infrastructure and populist economic policies, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss party strategy. But they plan to train their attention on the immediate challenge of contesting Trumps appointments to key roles, especially those that require Senate confirmation.

[Obama warns against a crude sort of nationalism taking root in the U.S.]

Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Senator-elect Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) denounce the acts of hatred that have arose since Donald Trumps election, and urge Trump to rescind Stephen Bannon's appointment. (Reuters)

There is not a lot of leverage there, the aide said, acknowledging that the party holds no authority to halt the hiring of aides such as Bannon who do not require Senate confirmation and has limited power to stop those appointments that do. The rub on a lot of the appointments will probably be those more moderate Republicans.

Organized labor leaders, who represent a key constituency of Democrats, have long said that their members agree with Trump on some economic issues, especially their shared opposition to free trade agreements that they say hurt American workers. But according to one senior labor official who spoke on the condition anonymity to talk candidly, the ascension of such figures as Bannon must be addressed before cooperation is put on the table. Critics say Bannon is a supporter of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynist views.

We cant do business with this guy as long as hes in the business of hate, the official said. Why is that? Because were Americans.

Nearly a week after extending an olive branch to the president-elect, suggesting that he and Democrats might find common ground on economic issues, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday significantly escalated her criticism of Trumps plans for his presidency.

This just keeps going back to, what is Donald Trump going to do? Warren, a leading liberal voice within the party, said at a Wall Street Journal CEO Council event. And hes now giving us at least the first tangible sign of his vision of how to run a Trump presidency and a big part of that are lobbyists and Washington insiders and the other part of it is to bring someone who is a white supremacist into the White House to be a senior strategist.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), the outgoing minority leader, denounced Trumps decision to name Bannon to a senior role, citing his ties to the alt-right movement, which is associated with white nationalism.

If Trump is serious about seeking unity, the first thing he should do is rescind his appointment of Steve Bannon, Reid said. Rescind it, dont do it.

As long as a proponent of racial division a step away from the Oval Office, it will be impossible to take Trumps efforts to heal the nation seriously.

But there is little appetite among Democrats to launch a campaign of total resistance against Trump, especially on some issues where he may need Democratic support to overcome Republican opposition to proposals such as infrastructure.

If hes going to be deporting millions of people, if hes going to continue sexist decisions that take away a womans right to choose or, you know, support racist programs, I will do everything I can to make sure those policies are defeated, said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). On the other hand, if he brings forward an infrastructure program, which is something Ive advocated for years, along with many others it creates millions of jobs will I be supportive? Yeah.

The politics of total resistance is also viewed by some Democrats as a political miscalculation made by Republicans that they are unwilling to repeat.

We have to do what we think is right depending on what issue hes pushing, said former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is one of several candidates running for chair of the Democratic National Committee. If its a decent bipartisan tax bill, thats great.

Should we resist the way Republicans resisted Obama? Of course not, he added. Its not good for the country.

The emerging strategy comes as forces within the party are vying for influence over who will lead Democrats both in Congress and outside it.

A group of more recently elected congressional Democrats and those who represent Midwestern districts won a major victory on Tuesday when they successfully postponed the election of the House minority leader, a position that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is seeking to hold onto. Those Democrats are clamoring for change, urging the party to make its leadership more representative of the partys younger and racially diverse coalition.

Rank-and-file members also blame the Democratic leadership for failing to respond to the concerns of their constituents in parts of the country, such as the industrial Midwest, where Trump won surprise victories or beat expectations.

There is broad angst in the Democratic caucus, Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), who supported the decision to delay the elections, told reporters. To stick with the same message over four bad election cycles is a mistake. I think part of it is that the messengers have to change.

A leading contender to challenge Pelosi is Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), an eastern Ohio lawmaker who would give voice to a desire for greater attention to job creation and working-class issues.

Dean, who has previously served as DNC chair, is on a growing list of figures in the party seeking the DNC chairmanship. The Chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, Jaime Harrison, has also put his name in the running and others, including former Maryland governor Martin OMalley and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, are considering runs.

Another top candidate, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) also announced his candidacy this week. Some Democrats quietly worry that Ellison, a prominent black and Muslim lawmaker, would signal that the party is doubling down on social and cultural issues over addressing economic anxiety. Democrats such as Dean have also argued that the DNC job should go to a candidate who can commit to it full-time.

Yet Ellison, who has been endorsed for the DNC job by several top congressional Democrats, was also an early supporter of Sanders in his primary run against Clinton and has focused on jobs and economic populism in his pitch for the job.

My view is that progressives need to have a stronger sharper message on the economic anxiety that all people are facing, not just white working class voters, but all working-class voters, said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. But I also think there was a sharp anti-Washington message and that is something we need a political reform agenda to address as well.

Anguished Democrats are taking stock of the depth of their losses and trying to identify slivers of political openings in the Trump era. Debate about the best way forward consumed a group of top donors, such as billionaire investor George Soros, who gathered for a three-day meeting this week at a luxury hotel in Washington.

Soros told fellow liberal donors on Tuesday that he believes Trump is a would-be dictator, adding that he was confident that Americas institutions would serve as a check on the new presidents power as long as a vigorous opposition is in place to push back against his policies, according to someone familiar with his remarks.

In a question-and-answer session with Democracy Alliance President Gara LaMarche, the billionaire investor ticked off a list of urgent priorities for the left, including protecting Muslims and refugees who could be targeted by the new administration and strengthening groups that could challenge Trump on constitutional issues.

I think once people see the agenda that they looked past in action abortion rights under threat, the cost to communities of deportations, the embodiment of bigotry and rise of hate crimes I think there will be buyers remorse, perhaps even by Inauguration Day, that will give us an opportunity for a hearing, LaMarche said in an interview.

Wagner reported from New York. Matea Gold, Paul Kane and Kelsey Snell in Washington contributed to this report.

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Democrats move to more aggressive stance against Trump ...