"Jamaal Bowman was a Democratic Trump. Now he’s gone. It’s an encouraging sign that there is a critical mass on the left who can say: Stop."

That's the headline at WaPo... for a column by Dana Milbank.

This is the story of two New York demagogues. Both men have a history of bigotry, bullying, law breaking, promoting bogus conspiracy theories, engaging in obscene public rants and playing the martyr.

One, embraced by the Republican Party, became president and may well become president again. The other, kept at arm’s length by the Democratic Party, was dumped by Democratic voters in a congressional primary Tuesday night.

Obscene? Milbank notes that Trump has been saying "bullshit," "shitty," "scum," and "son of a bitch," whereas Bowman just had a rally where he said "We are going to show fucking AIPAC the power of the motherfucking South Bronx! … We’re going to show them who the fuck we are!"

ADDED: I would think the biggest problem with "We are going to show fucking AIPAC the power of the motherfucking South Bronx" is that Bowman's district is the north Bronx (along with the southern half of Westchester County).

"For decades, Democrats in New York and across the country have succeeded when they hold together a coalition of Black, Latino and Jewish voters, young people and..."

"... the ideologically liberal of all stripes. The race between ['Squad' member Jamaal] Bowman and [George] Latimer showed how badly that coalition has cracked — by race, class and age — and just how much work President Biden will need to do ahead of November.... Mr. Bowman, who is Black, openly campaigned as the candidate of the working class, progressives and people of color. He called Mr. Latimer, who is white, a candidate for the wealthy suburban class. And he alienated many Jewish voters with harsh criticism of Israel and comments like one suggesting 'the Jews' in his district had intentionally chosen to live apart from other people. Mr. Latimer, in turn, portrayed the incumbent as a sideshow, preoccupied with making his name and playing an 'ethnic game.' He repeatedly made racially coded comments that fed Mr. Bowman’s case, including by suggesting that the congressman did not care about voters 'who are not Black or brown.'"

I'm reading "5 Takeaways From Jamaal Bowman’s Loss/The congressman, who lost to George Latimer, was the first 'squad' member to fall, in a painful defeat for the Democratic left" (NYT)(free access link, so you can see the other 4 takeaways, one of which is about that "haunt[ing]" fire alarm).

The phrase that caught my attention is "how much work President Biden will need to do ahead of November." Biden is supposed to bring these diverse groups together after so many decades of using them as separate blocs and expecting them to vote the same way in the end? Biden can barely do a minimal job of appearing to be a candidate for reelection. How could he perform this magical task in the last 4 months?

"Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?"

From yesterday's argument in Fischer v. United States, the case about charging January 6th defendants with violating a federal statute that arose out of the Enron scandal and was aimed at the destruction of documents.

What fits the statute under the government's interpretation?

JUSTICE GORSUCH: Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify? Would a heckler in today's audience qualify, or at the state of the union address? Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify for 20 years in federal prison?

The fire alarm scenario must allude to the Jamaal Bowman incident, but of course, the Solicitor General proceeds smoothly and professionally, and calls it a "hypothetical":

GENERAL PRELOGAR: There are multiple elements of the statute that I think might not be satisfied by those hypotheticals, and it relates to the point I was going to make to the Chief Justice about the breadth of this statute. The -- the kind of built-in limitations or the things that I think would potentially suggest that many of those things wouldn't be something the government could charge or prove

"Jamaal Bowman Charged With Setting Off False Fire Alarm/The congressman from New York set off the alarm in the Cannon House Office Building last month as Democrats were stalling for time to read a spending bill."

The NYT reports.

Mr. Bowman will plead guilty to the single false fire alarm charge, and has agreed to pay the maximum fine of $1,000.... Mr. Bowman was accused of intentionally pulling the alarm to cause a delay, but he claimed it was accidental.... 

“I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused,” Mr. Bowman said at the time. “But I want to be very clear: This was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite — I was trying urgently to get to a vote.”

I see the blog has a theme today: transparent lying.  

"The left has always attracted certain people who relish the struggle against oppression primarily for the way it licenses their own cruelty..."

"... they are one reason movements on the left so reliably produce embittered apostates. Plenty of leftists have long fetishized revolutionary violence in poor countries, perhaps as a way of coping with their own ineffectuality. Che Guevara didn’t become a dorm room icon only for his motorcycle and rakish beret."

 
Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "The Massacre in Israel and the Need for a Decent Left" (NYT).

We also shouldn’t underestimate the role of antisemitism in warping people’s moral sentiments.

Jamaal Bowman.

I haven't said "Jamaal Bowman" yet. Everyone else has said "Jamaal Bowman" before I did, so I feel listless and unhelpful. And yet the pressure of not saying "Jamaal Bowman" is too much to bear.

"Meet the Lonely New York Progressive Defending TikTok/Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York says the drive to ban TikTok stems from anti-China 'hysteria.'"

NYT reports.