Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly has passed away following his battle with cancer. His death was announced this morning by his family, and it comes weeks after Connolly announced that he would not be seeking reelection. [00:00:16] Now we can do the typical obituary type, you know, commentary on this, but I find that generally boring. So I'm going to avoid that and instead talk about, you know, the backlash that Democrats have been getting for insisting [00:00:34] on elderly sitting members of Congress, even those who have been diagnosed with pretty serious things like cancer, basically refusing to resign, refusing to step down, refusing to make room for younger leadership. [00:00:50] And nothing made that clearer than Gerry Connolly knowing about his cancer diagnosis and insisting that he, you know, run for the House Oversight Committee, an incredibly important committee within the House. AOC wanted that position. [00:01:05] She wanted to be the chair, so she was fighting for it as well. But Connolly beat AOC in a vote of 181 to 84, and later, when his condition worsened, he decided to step down from that committee and said he wouldn't be seeking reelection. [00:01:22] And while I understand, like the urge or the knee jerk reaction to be very critical of his decision to do that, and to be sure, I have been in the past as well. You know, right now I've been thinking a lot about our own mortality and the lies [00:01:39] that we tell ourselves, the denial that we sometimes find ourselves in. And I don't think he did anything out of malice. I think that it could have been the case that he was just in denial about his own condition. Yeah, death is scary, and we like to be in denial about scary things. [00:01:56] Yeah. For sure. So look, nuanced opinion on this. So, you know, I read the standard obituaries of of Connolly and was reminded that he was known as like Congressman Pothole. [00:02:11] - But that's not a bad thing. - No, it sounds like a bad thing. But it's not like. So he got a metro extended to for his constituents. That's a good thing that you deliver for your constituents, right? He was in favor of fixing our I.T. Mess at the government level, like these nitty gritty things. [00:02:27] And you need somebody to do the nitty gritty, right? But the way that they painted him was like, oh, my God, what a hero. What an amazing guy that everybody loved, right? And they said, well, you know, he was a moderate Democrat, which means [00:02:43] very conservative pro-corporate Democrat. Right. And they're like, he was so good to the corporations in Northern Virginia. Okay, nice. And then they're like, he was pro-business. Pro-Growth. Look at how good the framing is for that. [00:02:59] Like when you do whatever the donors tell you to do, you're pro-growth and pro-business, and it makes it sound so lovely, right? So now the reality is he did do some good things, like I just told you and and even on foreign policy. But did he fight for the core Democratic issues? [00:03:18] Did he throw down and say, that's it, we're doing paid family leave, we've got to get higher minimum wage, etc.? No, he largely hid right from behind the scenes. He didn't. And to be fair to Conley, he's just like 90% of the Democrats and and certainly the Republicans. [00:03:34] Right. Where they basically go, I got my status, I got what I need, I do a little constituent services and I stay in this seat forever. So I'm not going to rock the boat. I'm not going to fight for you. Did Gerry Connolly really fight for you in the country if you're a Democratic voter? [00:03:49] Did he push any of these bills that we love? No he didn't. So let's keep it real. I don't hate the guy at all. There's, you know, he's just a normal Democrat. And then now to the fight that they had over the oversight committee. Look, I get it. He paid his dues, right? He was around for a long, long time. [00:04:05] He already got, leapfrogged by Raskin earlier. So he's like, what the hell, right? So I get his motivation. But it isn't about Gerry Connolly. It's about what's best for the Democratic Party. - It's the American people. - Exactly what's best for the country. And so, you know, whatever issues you have with AOC, was she going to do more, [00:04:24] better oversight, especially on television and drawing attention to things like corruption than Connolly was? Of course she was, because she's good at media and she's good at in those situations in the hearings. She's terrific. Right? Connolly has a long record of her own right. [00:04:42] - And he also had esophageal cancer. - I mean, come on guys. And so I don't know how much he knew about his cancer. But the problem isn't Connolly at all. The problem is that those corporate donors that the Washington Post and others were celebrating about Connolly's record, they like picking older, representatives. [00:04:59] Why? Good return on investment, guaranteed, less risk. We've given Connolly money for decades, and Connolly has always delivered for us. So we don't want AOC. That's risk. We want Connolly. He'll do exactly as he's ordered. Now, did you see that in any of the obituaries in mainstream media? [00:05:15] No, no, they never tell you the truth. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.