Mediaboss Marketing

Clyburns answer is both condescending and revealing. Ever since Politico reported that the Supreme Court was on the verge of overturning Roe, Democrats have responded with a single message: If you want to protect abortion access, you must vote for Democrats who will vote to codify the right to an abortion by law and add to their current ranks so that such a measure might pass both houses of Congress and survive a GOP filibuster along the way. That urgent project doesnt square with lining up to save the bacon of the Democratic Partys sole anti-choice member. This isnt so much a mixed message as it is a pured one. As Liza Featherstone wrote in Jacobin, House leaderships decision to back Cuellar suggests that it doesnt understand the urgency of the abortion fightnor any of the other pressing issues of our time, for that matter.

Cuellars out-of-step position on abortion isnt his only problem. The FBI raid on Cuellars home and campaign office reportedly focused on the congressmans business deals in Azerbaijan, involving Azeri kleptocrats and a range of Texas-based companies linked directly to his wife, Imelda Cuellar. The congressmans lawyers have insisted that Cuellar is not the focus of the investigation and that he has been fully cooperative. Nevertheless, that raid could haunt him should he secure the nomination. Its not as if the Democratic Party doesnt have very recent experience with FBI inquiries disrupting political campaigns!

Additionally, Cuellar opposed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and has been labeled Big Oils favorite Democrat. Being a big-tent party is one thingbeing an anti-union, pro-oil, anti-abortion Democrat whos increasingly out of step with the partys priorities and may be connected to illicit goings-on with Eastern European oligarchs is another matter entirely. Besides, Democrats have a choice: They can back Jessica Cisneros, who is plainly an improvement on the status quo and who is close enough to a victory that just having the backing of party elites should wrap this election up with a bow.

Follow this link:
House Democrats Are Backing Abortion Foe Henry Cuellar at the Worst Possible Moment - The New Republic