Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) Wins Chair of House Oversight Committee

Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), flanked by Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) Photo: Chip Somodevilla via Axios

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) will become the first woman to chair the House Oversight Committee, winning the important assignment by defeating Gerry Connolly (D-VA) with 133 votes against Connolly’s 86.

Maloney has been acting as the committee's chair since the Oct. 17 death of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Her gavel will immediately thrust the Congresswoman into the limelight, with the Oversight’s key role in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Rep. Jim Jordan, (R-OH) is known to be a particularly abrasive, heavy-hammer, take-no-prisoners Republican leader on the committee, prompting Connolly to run on the quiet platform that dealing with Jordan is a man’s job.

Given his uninformed, pure badgering performance in this week’s intelligence committee impeachment hearings, Maloney’s supporters dismissed the argument as sexist. Supporters insisted that it was key to have a female voice alongside the two other white men leading the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

Maloney secured endorsements from top Democrats like House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who is also the most powerful black member in Congress. Her promise to focus on important issues beyond investigating Trump was welcome news for moderates “squeezed by the ongoing impeachment furor”, writes Politico.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) Retires Under Sexual Harassment Claims, Endorses Son To Continue Political Dynasty

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) Retires Under Sexual Harassment Claims, Endorses Son To Continue Political Dynasty

Michigan's John Conyers, a Democrat from Michigan, civil rights icon, and longest serving member of the US House of Representatives, announced on Tuesday that he will be retiring “today” amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment and a report that he paid more than $27,000 to keep an accuser quiet. 

The effective date is at once and not at the end of Conyers' term. It comes with yet another charge levied against Conyers today. Elisa Grubbs, who said that she worked for Conyers from 2001-13, claims that in addition to his inappropriate conduct with her, she saw him touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Marion Brown, Grubbs' cousin, and other female employees working for the congressman on "multiple occasions."

“Rep. Conyers slid his hand up my skirt and rubbed my thighs while I was sitting next to him in the front row of a church,” Grubbs said. "When Rep. Conyers would inappropriately touched me like this, my eyes would pop out and I would be stunned in disbelief,” Grubbs wrote in an affidavit posted on Twitter by Brown’s attorney, Lisa Bloom.

EMILY'S LIST Will Target 50 Republicans For 2018, As The New Dem Boys Club Hugs Anti-Women Candidates

EMILY'S LIST Will Target 50 Republicans For 2018, As The New Dem Boys Club Hugs Anti-Women Candidates

EMILY's List is putting 50 House and Senate Republicans "On Notice" for 2018 in a new campaign. Hopefully, Emily's List will also take seriously the threat from Democratic leadership and develop -- in concert with Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other non-negotiable stalwarts of women's rights -- a strategy to deal with this self-defeating Democratic-leadership male stupidity. We can then contribute to special campaigns targeting anti-choice Democratic candidates wooed by the new Democrats Boys Club. They've got my money.

Maybe Hillary Can Help

Onward Together, the political action group formed earlier this year between Hillary Clinton and former Vermont governor and DNC chair Howard Dean, has hired Emmy Ruiz and Adam Parkhomenko, political operative veterans of her 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns, to BuzzFeed.