Joaquin Castro can shave his beard now

Too bad.  It was  a better race with him in it.  He made them talk about immigration, povery and homelessness.

Hopefully he continues to be heard on larger stages.

Interesting interview with presidential candidate Julián Castro

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Democratic debate first night in a nutshell

And it stayed that way.

Sit down, Corey

He wants Mueller to testify and "we should continue this investigation."  Corey, that's what an impeachment proceeding would do.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Friday called for the House to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, wading into a topic that other 2020 White House hopefuls have so far been wary of discussing.

[...]

"Mueller put the next step in the hands of Congress: 'Congress has authority to prohibit a President's corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.' The correct process for exercising that authority is impeachment," she said in an email announcing her position.

[...]

Democratic presidential contenders have so far been reluctant to address the question of whether Congress should initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump, fearing that doing so could energize the president’s supporters and isolate many of the moderate and independent-minded voters that Democrats are hoping to win over in 2020.

  The Hill

A terrible excuse for shirking their responsibility to the country

Elizabeth Warren: The Massachusetts senator was the first 2020 presidential candidate to call for impeachment, writing that not holding such proceedings “would suggest that both the current and future presidents would be free to abuse their power in similar ways”.

“The severity of this misconduct demands that elected officials in both parties set aside political considerations and do their constitutional duty,” she tweeted. “That means the House should initiate impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States.”

Julián Castro: The former housing secretary and hopeful for the Democratic nomination said he would support Congress opening impeachment proceedings, telling CNN “it would be perfectly reasonable for Congress” to do so.

[...]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: On Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez said she would sign-on to Tlaib’s resolution, in the wake of the Mueller report. “Many know I take no pleasure in discussions of impeachment. I didn’t campaign on it, and rarely discuss it unprompted,” the New York representative and progressive star tweeted. “We all prefer working on our priorities: pushing Medicare for All, tackling student loans, and a Green New Deal. But the report squarely puts this on our doorstep.”

Maxine Waters: The Californian who chairs the House finance committee – and who has been attacked by Trump – backed impeachment on Thursday. “Congress’s failure to impeach is complacency in the face of the erosion of our democracy and constitutional norms,” she said. “Congress’s failure to impeach would set a dangerous precedent and imperil the nation as it would vest too much power in the executive branch and embolden future officeholders to further debase the US presidency, if that’s even possible.”

Al Green: The Texas representative has pushed for impeachment since Trump fired the FBI director James Comey in May 2017, forcing two unsuccessful votes on the articles of impeachment. He continues to push on. “I call for the impeachment of the president of the United States of America,” Green said in a press conference streamed on Facebook. “This rests solely now on the shoulders of the Congress of the United States of America.”

[...]

Nancy Pelosi: The speaker of the House [...] “Let me assure you that whatever the issue and challenge we face, the Congress of the United States will honor its oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States to protect our democracy,” she told reporters this week. “We believe that the first article – Article I, the legislative branch – has the responsibility of oversight of our democracy, and we will exercise that.”

  The Guardian

Deftly managing not to mentione the word impeach.

Hakeem Jeffries: The New York representative who chairs the House Democratic caucus said voters were much more interested in issues beyond impeachment. “The avenue is not impeachment,” he said this week. “The avenue is further disclosure to the American people.”

Angus King: The independent senator from Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, said the decision to keep Trump as president – or not – should be taken by voters. “In my view, there’s an even better political process coming right down the road on almost the same time frame and that’s the elections of 2020,” King told CNN on Friday. “For Congress to go through an impeachment process would be, it would take probably 18 months, which would lead right up to the election. And it would be divisive.”

Refusing to do something so close to the election is how we ended up in this situation. And you think we're NOT devided already?

Pete Buttigieg: The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, another 2020 hopeful who has surged in the polls, said there was “evidence that this president deserves to be impeached”. But he also said it was up to Congress to decide whether to proceed, prompting debate over his true meaning.

Sounds pretty clear to me. Trump deserves to be impeached. It's up to Congress whether to proceed. Both are true. Both statements are clear. Where's the debate?

Jerrold Nadler: The chairman of the House judiciary committee said his panel would hold “major hearings” with prominent people featured in the Mueller report. The New York representative, who has subpoenaed the unredacted report, has discussed impeachment repeatedly as it would originate with his committee. This week he remained noncommittal.

“The idea is not whether to debate articles of impeachment,” Nadler said. “The idea is to find out exactly what went on, who did what, what institutional safeguards were gotten around and how they were gotten around, and then decide what to do about it.”

That takes care of Russian interference, but what about obstruction of justice?

Kamala Harris: “I think that there is definitely a conversation to be had on that subject,” the California senator and presidential hopeful told MSNBC on Thursday, “but first I want to hear from Bob Mueller and really understand what exactly is the evidence that supports the summary that we have been given today.”

Read the report.

Bernie Sanders: At a South Carolina campaign stop on Friday, the Vermont senator ignored questions from reporters about impeachment. Instead he tweeted: “While we have more detail from today’s report than before, Congress must continue its investigation into Trump’s conduct and any foreign attempts to influence our election.”

Fortunately, Bernie, there's a specific group in the House who can walk and chew gum whose duty it is to investigate Trump's conduct - and impeachment proceedings are oone Constitutional avenue to do that.

Beto O’Rourke: The 2020 contender and former Texas representative said he believed voters cared more about policy discussions than impeachment, telling reporters on Thursday: “I don’t know that impeachment and those proceedings in the House and potential trial in the Senate is going to answer those questions for people.”

See response to Bernie Sanders above, Beto.

Why is anyone acting like impeachment proceedings are a zero sum venture? If they conduct impeachment proceedings, they can't do anything else?

Elijah Cummings: The House oversight committee chairman told MSNBC on Friday the Mueller report revealed actions that were “at least 100 times worse” than those that led to Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. “We’ve got to go against this, we’ve got to expose it. A lot of people keep asking about the question of impeachment,” Cummings said. “But right now, let’s make sure we understand what Mueller was doing, understand what Barr was doing, and see the report in an unredacted form, and all of the underlying documents.”

Impeachment proceedings would cover all those things.

Eric Swalwell: The California representative, also running for president, told MSNBC on Friday impeachment was “a conversation we have to have as far as holding this president accountable” but stopped short of saying whether he supported impeachment proceedings. “I’m for bringing Bob Mueller in and see what the evidence is,” he said.

Steny Hoyer: The House majority leader, from Maryland, said the Mueller report was “a damning recitation of lies, misinformation, and malfeasance” that clearly sets a basis for “probable cause that crimes were, in fact, committed”. But he did not mention impeachment.

What a bunch of bold and courageous people, our Democratic Congressfolk are.

Kudos to Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, Al Green, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Julián Castro, and any others who are ready, willing and able to carry out their Constitutional duties and responsibilities to the American people.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Just say no to AIPAC

The liberal group MoveOn is calling on Democratic presidential candidates to skip this year’s AIPAC policy conference, citing the pro-Israel group’s links to the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu and charging that AIPAC has flirted with Islamophobia.

The move underscores a growing willingness on the left to criticize Israel and its staunchest Washington supporters, particularly since freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) bashed supporters of Israel in terms widely condemned as anti-Semitic.

“It’s no secret that that AIPAC has worked to hinder diplomatic efforts like the Iran deal, is undermining Palestinian self-determination, and inviting figures actively involved in human rights violations to its stage,” Iram Ali, campaign director at MoveOn Political Action, said in a statement provided first to Politico. Ali said the move should “give a clear insight to 2020 candidates on where their base stands instead of prioritizing lobbying groups and policy people who rarely step outside of D.C.”

MoveOn’s move may be largely symbolic, as there is no evidence candidates planned to attend this year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, which begins Sunday. In past political cycles, presidential candidates have tended to appear at the annual conference during election years rather than off years.

  Politico

But their declaration not to attend does carry consequences with voters. Any bets on Booker and Gillibrand?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.