might want to hold off on that coronation (remember how that last one turned out?):
How Cory Booker went from progressive hero to traitor in under 2 days
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was trying to walk to the men’s bathroom Tuesday afternoon when about 30 immigration activists surrounded him to offer their thanks. Booker had just vowed to testify against Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, a longtime immigration hard-liner, at the attorney general nominee’s confirmation hearing — something no senator had ever done to a colleague.
Progressives cheered the decision. When Booker followed through the next day and denounced Sessions’s record on race, many left-leaning voices were ecstatic:
But by Thursday, the story about Booker had flipped. The New Jersey senator and 12 other Senate Democrats had joined the bulk of the Republican caucus to kill a proposal aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. What made Booker’s vote all the more anguishing for the left is that the proposal won the backing of 13 Republican senators, and had a real chance of passing.
The recriminations came quickly.“This is classic Booker — stand out front on feel-good social issues, regardless of his past positions, and align with big money everywhere else,” wrote
Walter Bragman at Paste Magazine.
Booker has long faced criticism on the left for cultivating the elite financial ties that much of the Bernie Sanders wing despises. And while it’s true that his vote may have had more to do with the concentration of the pharmaceutical industry in his home state, it’s also only served to confirm some progressives’ suspicions that he’s too closely allied with corporate interests in the Democratic Party.
[snip]
The backlash to Booker, building for a long time
Thirteen Democrats broke ranks with their party to defeat the Sanders-Klobuchar amendment. But the ensuing outcry from the left has been particularly concentrated on Booker, a national media star widely seen as a possible 2020 presidential candidate.
The Huffington Post
accused Booker and the other defecting Democrats of “doing the industry’s bidding.” Jezebel noted that he had “completely disregarded overwhelming national sentiment” and that he was setting up Democrats “for a massive failure.” After asking why Booker would vote for an uncontroversial proposal, Slate’s Helaine Olen more or less
settles on the conclusion that it must have been the campaign contributions.
Jezebel reported that Booker received $267,338 from pharmaceutical companies, which led some on the left to say that this money explained his vote.
“[Booker’s] decision to violate Senate norms is admirable,”
wrote Sarah Jones at the New Republic of his speech against Sessions. “But his rejection of the Sanders-Klobuchar proposal is the latest entry in a legislative record that should worry progressives.”
Indeed, as Jones notes, no senator
has raised more money from Wall Street than Booker. In 2012, then mayor of Newark, Booker
memorably criticized President Obama for going after Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital — calling the attacks on private equity “ridiculous” and “nauseating.” He’s worked closely with
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and education reformer Michelle Rhee on improving Newark’s schools — a decision that’s been criticized by some for allowing private industry to influence public schools.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/14/14262732/cory-booker-senate-democrats
Cory Booker And A Bunch Of Democrats Prove Trump Right On Big Pharma
13 Democrats did the industry's bidding last night.
huffingtonpost.com
