Thursday morning the House of Representatives did an good thing, albeit a futile one. They passed a minimum wage increase from the current poverty level of $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. It will go nowhere, however, because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the occupier of the Oval Office have pre-emptively vetoed it. Six Democrats voted against the increase, but just as bad are the 14 who voted for a Republican poison pill motion to recommit, narrowing its defeat to 210-218. That motion would have cut out millions of workers employed by small businesses.
So here's the big problem for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: She continues to insist that the House cannot be distracted by what Trump is doing, or by the prospect of the House doing its constitutional duty of opening in impeachment inquiry into the myriad unlawful Trump actions. On Wednesday, in fact, she dismissed impeachment talk. Referring to the 2018 election, she said, "Throughout the whole campaign I said to them, 'Candidates, don't even mention his name. Everybody knows who he is. You don't have to describe him to anybody. Let's just talk about what we are going to do.'" And then she launched into the "For the People" messaging agenda which included today's vote.
Fine. Pelosi wants the next year-and-a-half to revolve around messaging for the future, and not messaging about holding Trump accountable right now for what he's done as a candidate and as a president. We know the Senate, under McConnell’s control, would never impeach. Fine. The Senate under McConnell would also never allow the agenda you're using for your message now to be enacted in the future, and it seems kind of risky to count on his losing either his seat or the majority in 2020.
If it has to be about that message, then ALL of the House Democrats have to at least agree on it, and that includes the Blue Dogs and the moderates. A Democrat should never vote on a Republican poison pill motion to recommit, ever. Every single one of those motions is designed to embarrass Democrats, and nothing else. These votes have never counted for anything else. They've NEVER inoculated a Democrat from Republican attacks. When there are bills that have no hope of advancing anywhere or becoming law, these MTR votes are even more stupid.
Besides that, look at this message! It's the minimum wage! It's for people who need you to stick up for them and. Stop. Voting. For. GOP. Poison. Pills. It's time for Pelosi to start knocking some damn heads among the Blue Dogs. There is absolutely no excuse for this to keep happening. If the next year-and-a-half is only going to be about messaging, the goddamned messengers need to be on board.