When Ro Khanna, a young, energetic intellectual property lawyer, ran for Congress against Tom Lantos, he was the candidate of the progressives. I liked Khanna, and appreciated his willingness to take on the almost unheard-of task of challenging a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary. At that point, in 2004, the big issues were the war and the PATRIOT Act, and Khanna was against both. Read more »

There's an interesting piece on Calitics talking about what California can teach the nation in terms of ending Republican obstructionism. Robert Cruickshank, as usual, is right on target -- and he points to the real problem in Washington. Republicans in the House no longer worry about losing their seats to Democrats; the GOP has been so good about gerrymandering that only maybe 30 or 40 seats in the entire nation are still competitive. Read more »

For a while there some of us thought that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who failed to win back a house majority for the Democrats, might decide her time was up and step down as minority leader (which would probably have meant retiring from Congress). That would have set off one of the hottest political battles in town; just about everyone knows that Pelosi's daughter is interested in the seat, but there's no way she was going to get it without a fight. Read more »

I never knew that the house minority leader had a hidden zombie estate up in Napa Valley where a bunch of poorly made-up zombies who don't even know how to be zombies try to kill Goldman Sachs, or maybe the Constitution, or maybe just a little lamb who looks kinda like a goat. They've got a pretty boss knife and they speak in Ancient Zombie or something; anyway, there are subtitles.

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There have been a lot of really stupid members of the esteemed House of Representatives and the United States Senate. I'm talking real morons here -- not just people who are dumb because they disagree with me and I'm always right. In fact, there are quite a few before Todd Akin who have promoted the Magical Vagina Power theory that says women who are raped can't get pregnant. Read more »

I opposed the measure that created California's new Redistricting Commission. As we noted in our endorsements at the time:Read more »

A substantial majority of Americans support ending the war in Afghanistan, decreasing the military budget, and redirecting that money to domestic needs, a position held even more strongly in liberal San Francisco. Read more »

... and even though Randy Shaw has become convinced that she is, I've never bought it, and I still don't. A progressive in Congress would never have privatized a national park. A progressive wouldn't have ducked same-sex marriage. But whatever -- here's my question for the day:

If Pelosi really believes in progressive causes, why doesn't she do anything about it at home?Read more »