ET: WASHINGTON—Serious questions are being raised about the staffing arrangements and organizational structure of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), the largest ideological affinity group in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The 97-member CPC’s co-Chairs are Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Virtually every prominent liberal Democrat in the House is a CPC member, including rising left-wing stars Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
The CPC also counts as members House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is a CPC member, as are House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and House Committee on Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
The CPC added a political action committee (PAC) in 2011, and a tax-exempt 501(c)(3), the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center, in 2018.
At the center of this growing complex, as executive director of the caucus, is Michael Darner, an attorney and veteran Democratic congressional aide who began as a legislative assistant to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) in 2008 and took the reins of the caucus in 2014.
As executive director of the CPC, Darner is a shared employee who was paid $124,000 in 2018, in regular installments collected each pay period from the official office staffing budgets of caucus members, according to LegiStorm.
Darner also lists himself on his LinkedIn profile as manager of the CPC PAC, and that’s where many of the most serious ethical questions begin, because federal laws and House rules strictly govern what congressional staffers can do in terms of outside activities and compensation.
Neither Darner nor CPC Communications Director Emma Lydon responded to multiple requests from The Epoch Times for comment for this story.
As a result, how many weekly hours Darner devotes to his duties as the CPC PAC manager or where he performs those duties couldn’t be learned. more
Oops there goes another. . .
Oops there goes another. . .
Whoops, there goes another tax-exempt 501(c)(3)
High Hopes:
Next time you’re found, with your chin on the ground
There a lot to be learned, so look around
Just what makes that little old ant
Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can’t
Move a rubber tree plant
But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes
He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes
So any time you’re gettin’ low
‘stead of lettin’ go
Just remember that ant
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant
When troubles call, and your back’s to the wall
There a lot to be learned, that wall could fall
Once there was a silly old ram
Thought he’d punch a hole in a dam
No one could make that ram, scram
He kept buttin’ that dam
Cause he had high hopes, he had high hopes
He had high apple pie, in the sky hopes
So any time you’re feelin’ bad
‘stead of feelin’ sad
Just remember that ram
Oops there goes a billion kilowatt dam
All problems just a toy balloon
They’ll be bursted soon
They’re just bound to go pop
Oops there goes another problem kerplop
All the Way by Frank Sinatra
1. All the Way
2. High Hopes
3. Talk To Me
4. French Foreign Legion
5. To Love And Be Loved
6. River, Stay ‘Way From My Door
7. Witchcraft
8. It’s Over, It’s Over, It’s Over
9. Ol ‘MacDonald
10. This Was My Love
11. All My Tomorrows
12. Sleep Warm
“Progressive” and “ethics” are mutually exclusive terms…
Wow, that Congressional Progressive Caucus lineup looks like a virtual brain trust. I’ll bet the average IQ is in the high double digits,
Republicans/conservatives personally choose their staff after they win an election. Progressives are organized from top-down. Staff are picked from a pool of “organizers” in advance before the candidates are chosen. When a candidate wins “organizers” are assigned. These are the type of “jobs” that are highly sought after by college graduates with various “social justice” bullshit degrees.
Ethics rules are for the little people.
Granny Nan, in her most guttural Spanish accent: “Ethics? We done’ need no stinkin’ ethics!”