Progressive Breakfast: Senator Warren Persists, We Persist

MORNING MESSAGE

Dave Johnson
Senator Warren Persists, We Persist
Trump’s attacks on the judiciary are also on that slippery slope toward autocracy. How do we fight this? The lesson for us is that we must keep up the resistance. Like Warren, we must persist. The people are on our side.

SESSIONS CONFIRMED, PRICE NExT

USA Today previews “5 big issues where Sessions may have an immediate impact”: “Trump won’t need to worry about having to coax his new attorney general into enforcing his immigration ban … Civil rights advocates have expressed doubts that Sessions will make [voting rights] cases a priority … Sessions will take over the Justice Department’s lawsuit against North Carolina’s [law] limiting protections for transgender people … the Justice Department is expected to take a much less aggressive approach to police reform…”
Confirmation vote for Tom Price cued up for Friday. The Hill: “Senators voted 51-48 to pass a procedural step in Price’s nomination, setting up a final confirmation vote for Friday morning … One GOP lawmaker said Price’s nomination was more important than those for other Cabinet posts — such as the secretary of Education — because it will allow their healthcare reform plans to move ahead.”

PUZDER HEARING SCHEDULED

Puzder files paperwork, hearing scheduled. Reuters: “The U.S. Senate panel tasked with vetting labor secretary nominee and fast-food executive Andrew Puzder will hold his confirmation hearing on Feb.16, now that his ethics paperwork has been submitted … Tentative plans for Puzder’s hearing have been repeatedly postponed amid delays with a review by the Office of Government Ethics. Those stem from the complexities surrounding how Puzder will divest himself from CKE Restaurants…”
Bloomberg explores the worldview of Andy Puzder: “A former senior manager and a franchisee, both of whom left the company with agreements not to speak publicly, describe [Carl’s Jr.] culture as patriarchal, and Puzder as someone who tends to view the women around him as ‘the help.’ … Puzder’s business experience has been largely in a low-wage, low-margin industry built on a franchise model that tends to shift profits upward and responsibility downward … Like Trump, Puzder promotes a nostalgic vision that occludes the reality of the American permanent low-wage workforce while enjoying the profits of the complex globalized world.”
Puzder faced with new lawsuit. LAT: “According to the lawsuit, the Carpinteria-based company uses ‘no-hire’ agreements in an effort to keep workers from seeking raises by threatening to go to another franchisee.”

SCHUMER PREDICTS REsISTANCE

Sen. Schumer signals more resistance in Time interview: “I’ll certainly talk to [Trump] and if there’s a need, I’ll call him, but right now, it looks like I’m going to be spending more time opposed …. He’s moving to the hard-right on issue after issue after issue … What he’s doing now is not what the American people voted for.”
House Dems to work on economic message at retreat. W. Post: “Pelosi met this week with a large group of those Democrats who have been agitating for agenda items that appeal beyond the liberal base. Their goal is an economic message that can appeal to the more than 40 percent of voters in union households who voted for Trump … kicking off the retreat, Pelosi cited several economic issues that came out of her meeting with the group of mostly Rust Belt Democrats, including Trump’s campaign pledges to promote a massive infrastructure bill and to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement…”
Third Way addresses Dem retreat. W. Post: “…they’ll hear ‘Perspectives’ from the vice president of Third Way, a prominent centrist think tank … ‘For House Democrats to seek advice from a Wall Street-funded think tank that preaches timidity, that shows them learning the exactly wrong lesson in the Trump era,’ said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee … [Third Way’s Jim Kessler] will make the case that the Democratic Party needs to grow geographically, demographically and ideologically — not move decisively to the left — to regain power.”

DEMS QUESTION OBAMA'S MOVEMENT BUILDING

Dems debate failure of movement building during Obama. Politico: “…now that Obama and the political operation that succeeded his campaign, Organizing For Action, have expressed interest in playing a role in the task of rebuilding, it’s sparking pitched debates over how much blame he deserves for the gradual hollowing out of a party that now has less control of state elected positions than at any other time in nearly a century … the wariness — expressed by nearly three dozen Democrats in interviews — also threatens to create a divide between Obama’s loyalists and the rest of the party.”
Micah Sifry delves into the lost promise of OFA in The New Republic: “Instead of mobilizing his unprecedented grassroots machine to pressure obstructionist lawmakers, support state and local candidates who shared his vision, and counter the Tea Party, Obama mothballed his campaign operation, bottling it up inside the Democratic National Committee. It was the seminal mistake of his presidency…”

BREAKFAST SIDES

Conservatives believe Trump can be convinced to cut retirement security. The Hill: “Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said Democratic efforts to tie Trump to campaign comments about preserving entitlement programs miss the mark, and that his talks with Trump show the president is prepared to back entitlement reform so long as current beneficiaries don’t see their benefits cut.”
Dakota Access Pipeline opponents fight on. ABC: “The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said it will ‘challenge any easement decision’ on the grounds that the Environmental Impact Statement was ‘wrongfully terminated.’ The tribe said it will also ‘demand a fair, accurate and lawful Environmental Impact Statement to identify true risks to its treaty rights, including its water supply and sacred places.’ If the Dakota Access Pipeline is successfully completed and begins operating, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe said it will ‘seek to shut the pipeline operations down.’ The tribe also announced a ‘Native Nations March on Washington’ scheduled for March 10…”

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