Beer, boofing, and devil’s triangle: Kavanaugh offers explanation to RI senator
“I like beer,” said Supreme Court hopeful Brett Kavanaugh when Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked if his high school “ralph club” referred to alcohol-induced vomiting. “Do you like beer, Senator?” the potential justice then shot back at Whitehouse. “What do you like to drink?” It wasn’t the only time Kavanaugh, visibly angry throughout the […]
Flanders, Whitehouse now agree on Kavanaugh accusation
The accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh tried to rape a 15-year-old girl as a drunken high school student has captured the beltway’s and the nation’s attention. Here in Rhode Island, it’s also shed some light on the campaign between Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat, and Bob Flanders, a Republican and himself a […]
Breakfast with Sheldon Whitehouse
You wouldn’t know it by watching him work the crowd waiting for a breakfast table in Newport, but Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s junior senator who is facing re-election this year, says he’s uncomfortable in the public spotlight. “In the world of people in politics, way shyer than average,” is how he described himself over breakfast […]
Pat Fontes wants a world without war, so she’s challenging Sheldon Whitehouse
Pat Fontes, a stalwart of the local antiwar movement, used to support Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. “I did not vote for Obama but I voted for Sheldon Whitehouse,” she told me in a recent interview. Now the 81-year-old peace activist is making her first-ever run for elected office by challenging Rhode Island’s junior senator in this […]
Flanders spams public sector employees seeking campaign cash
When Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bob Flanders was the state-appointed receiver for cash-strapped Central Falls in 2012, the affluent East Greenwich resident infamously offered municipal employees a haircut or a beheading in balancing the city’s budget. As such, public sector workers probably won’t prove to be a major source of support for Flanders, a small […]
Bob Flanders doesn’t think community college is college
Republican Bob Flanders had some nice things to say about Bobby Nardolillo yesterday, his now-former opponent in the GOP primary for a U.S. Senate seat who dropped out of the race yesterday. “He is a dedicated public servant with a bright future,” Flanders said of Nardolillo in a tweeted statement. Before Nardolillo dropped out, Flanders […]
Stage set for progressives to take over Rhode Island
As the deadline to run for elected office came and went Wednesday afternoon, there are more than a few political newcomers—many young, and many centered around social justice—that could constitute the makings of a progressive wave in Rhode Island. Governor Most notable might be the governor’s race, where Matt Brown promises to give incumbent Governor […]
Cicilline describes life inside, and politics behind, tender age detention centers
“It’s horrific,” said Congressman David Cicilline. “It’s barbaric.” The Rhode Island Democrat was describing what he saw after visiting immigration detention centers on the Texas/Mexico border this weekend where President Donald Trump’s family separation policy is playing out as a moral and political crisis before America’s and the world’s eyes. “It is horrifying to see […]
Linc Chafee might primary Sheldon Whitehouse
Lincoln Chafee doesn’t want to be governor again after all. Instead, he wants his old Senate seat back. To get it, the Republican-turned-independent-turned Democrat will have to best in a primary Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the incumbent Democrat who knocked him out of the Senate seat back in 2006 when Chafee was still a Republican. “I […]
Environmental groups join Sen. Whitehouse to spotlight plastic pollution
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse was joined by local environmental groups at a press conference Monday morning in Middletown to discuss the crisis of plastic pollution in our oceans and highlight federal legislation and local actions being taken to address the threat. Dave McLaughlin, executive director of Clean Ocean Access, hosted the event at their headquarters. “Earth […]
Trump makes America Koch again
President Donald Trump claimed to be an ally to the working class, deriding the so-called swamp and corporate control of politicians during the campaign. But the billionaire real estate developer has governed as an ally to his fellow well-connected business tycoons – cutting corporate taxes, gutting Obamacare, and abandoning the Paris Accord. To this end, […]
Reed, Whitehouse support Saudi war on Yemen
Senators Sheldon Whitehouse’s and Jack Reed’s vote on March 20th to allow the continuation of war in Yemen without Congressional oversight is both outrageous and heartbreaking. Senator Bernie Sanders had a strong resolution to counter the dangerous warmongering and unbridled power of Trump and his Masters of War in Yemen. The bill was to simply […]
Cicilline holds the line for Dreamers, rest of RI delegation supports budget deal
Congressman David Cicilline held the line for Dreamers, voting – in contrast to the rest of the Rhode Island delegation – against the bill to fund, and effectively re-open, the government today. “We should be staying here and working around the clock to get this work done, rather than kicking the can down the road […]
Jack Reed, Jim Langevin and the defense industry
A couple months back, I was emailed by South County activist Jonathan Daly-LaBelle, who wanted to know if I’d seen Rep. Jim Langevin’s press release announcing the rationale behind his recent yes vote on a nearly $700-billion Pentagon budget. It “is really quite disturbing,” Daly-LaBelle wrote. No argument from me on this one. Langevin has […]
Does Langevin really support a single-payer healthcare system?
I was skeptical last September when I heard word that Congressman Jim Langevin, Democrat of Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District, had decided to cosponsor the House single-payer health insurance bill, H.R.676 – the Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act. I’d been in contact with the congressman’s office on the issue earlier in the year […]
RI delegation denounces Trump’s tax plan
Rhode Island’s all-Democratic Congressional delegation is none-too-pleased with Trump’s tax plan that seems poised to reach his desk today or tomorrow. “Republicans just pulled off one of the biggest cons in the history of American politics,” said Congressman David Cicilline. Senator Jack Reed went almost as far, saying, “It is an historic transfer of wealth […]
How the GOP tax plan would hurt Rhode Island
The Republican tax proposals would ill-serve Rhode Island in a variety of ways, said federal, state, and local officials who have been busy studying the copious and potentially crippling ramifications either the House or Senate bill could have on life in the Ocean State. The effects range from increased economic inequality, cuts to the social […]
Cienki, Corrigan, Dykeman are big donors to Flanders’ Senate campaign
As Bob Flanders was considering running for the Senate, he was also talking up his friend and former colleague Gayle Corrigan to East Greenwich Town Council President Sue Cienki. “Gayle was someone we did talk about, yes,” Flanders told me in June. “We talked about her skill set and what she can bring to the […]
Flanders announces in Central Falls, Dems say he profited off the struggling city
Bob Flanders announced his campaign for a US Senate seat today in Central Falls, where he was once the court-appointed receiver as the city went through bankruptcy. The Rhode Island Democratic Party responded by pointing out how much money Flanders made in that role. “There’s no question that the million dollars Robert Flanders and his deputies collected […]
Nancy Pelosi dodges on Donna Brazile book but dis’ed superdelegates
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to talk about Donna Brazile’s new book. “Today we are very close to one year from last year’s election and one year from next year’s election,” said Pelosi, who was in Rhode Island for a Jamestown fundraiser on Sunday and then a stop at the Community College of […]
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