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AOC's Brain
[Spectator] Nancy Pelosi is obviously having difficulty controlling the increasingly acrimonious infighting between factions of the House Democratic caucus. Most observers assume that the primary cause of this discord is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the cadre of far-left first-termers collectively known as "the Squad." But its actual source is Saikat Chakrabarti, the prime mover behind a Tennessee-based PAC called the "Justice Democrats," whose support was largely responsible for getting Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ro Khanna, and Pramila Jayapal elected last November. Chakrabarti has now set up shop in the House, ostensibly as AOC's chief of staff. Chakrabarti's previous HQ was a Knoxville address out of which the Justice Democrats and another PAC operated side by side with a dozen congressional campaign committees. This arrangement flouted a variety of campaign finance laws and prompted several Federal Election Commission complaints, including one alleging that Chakrabarti set up a $1 million slush fund. ... Predictably, this presumptuous tweet drew a number of angry responses from various Democrats who had voted for the measure, whereupon Chakrabarti once again betook himself to Twitter and proceeded to accuse his critics of racism: Instead of "fiscally conservative but socially liberal," let's call the New Democrats and Blue Dog Caucus the "New Southern Democrats." They certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s. Chakrabarti later deleted that tweet, but not before it had clearly signaled who actually calls the shots in AOC's office. There isn't the slightest possibility that a 33-year-old staffer in the office of a first-term U.S. congresswoman would even consider publicly criticizing the Democratic colleagues of his putative boss ‐ much less the leadership of her caucus ‐ if he feared any serious consequences. Can you imagine what would happen to a staffer in GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw's office who had posted a tweet insulting the freshman congressman's Republican colleagues? The staffer would be lucky to escape with his life, much less his job. The best he could hope for would be the cardboard box treatment. But that's not what happened to Chakrabarti. He not only remained on the job, but he was also encouraged by AOC in a series of typically incoherent tweets. A week after the above-quoted tweets Chakrabarti took to Twitter yet again and openly admonished Nancy Pelosi ‐ who was first elected to Congress when he was still in diapers and also happens to be the Speaker of the House ‐ for her eminently sensible reluctance to pursue a politically suicidal impeachment inquiry into President Trump's fictitious crimes. In another tweet posted the same day, he ridicules Pelosi's legislative acumen and compares her supposed deficiencies to the "strategic smarts" of the weird sisters of the Squad: All these articles want to claim what a legislative mastermind Pelosi is, but I'm seeing way more strategic smarts from freshman members like @AOC, @IlhanMN, @RashidaTlai and @AyannaPressley. Pelosi is just mad that she got outmaneuvered (again) by Republicans. Chakrabarti doesn't see himself as a mere staffer in some congresswoman's office. He sees AOC as someone who provides him with a headquarters from which he can "fundamentally change" the Democratic Party. As the magazine's profile phrases it, "Saikat Chakrabarti isn't just running her office. He's guiding a movement." What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez think about all this? It isn't her job to think. That's Chakrabarti's function. Her job is to provide him with a platform to carry out his grandiose political schemes. Whenever you hear AOC say something outrageous, remember that Saikat Chakrabarti is behind the curtain, furiously pushing buttons, spinning dials, and pumping the smoke machine. Posted by: Lex 2019-07-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=545700 |