Two Democrats Set Aside Years of Friendship to Destroy One Another

On the menu today: What would it take to get you to publicly denounce and demonize a friend and colleague of 30 years? Up in New York City, a pair of geriatric Democratic leaders in Congress, Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, are demonstrating that all it takes is the prospect of not returning to the House for another term. It’s hilarious and depressing, watching two colleagues who once called each other friends now paint each other as cowardly, lazy, gullible, and entitled.

What a Nasty Democratic Primary among Friends Teaches Us

Ask the typical American outside of New York City to lay out the differences between Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, and they’ll probably respond, “Who and who?” The two longtime New York Democrats are competing against each other in a congressional primary on Tuesday because of a court-mandated redistricting plan.

Even if the person you ask follows politics, that person will probably be hard-pressed to list differences between the two, other than that one’s a man and one’s a woman. Both are congressional Democrats who were first elected in 1992. Both have chaired key committees during their tenure; Maloney currently chairs the House Oversight Committee, and Nadler chairs the House Judiciary Committee.