Month: May 2008

Sure, Tom Cole may be somber, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t delusional:

“Clearly, we have got problems that are deep and serious in terms of how we are going to do in the fall elections,” Cole said.  “Having said that… we haven’t lost as a party because of the ideological agenda on the other side. The obvious challenge we face is we had somebody running as a Republican, pro-life, pro-gun, who wants to cut taxes, wants to control spending. That’s not particularly in step with where the Democratic majority is. So, that is going to create some opportunities for us. I think those issues clarify and reinforce [our agenda].”

Roy Blunt joins in on the insanity:

GOP Whip Roy Blunt downplayed the GOP’s problems, saying that “six months ago, Rudy Giuliani was the front runner in the Republican contest and Barack Obama did not have a chance.”

Blunt said that Democrats won in Mississippi and Louisiana by running “on what the GOP is for.”

“So we know now that the message works,” he said. “So we have to be sure that nationally, we connect the message with the Republican Party, rather than the other party.”

I understand the art of spin, but did these clowns not watch the election that just unfolded?  Sure, Childers embraced conservative social values that made him a good fit with his Northern Mississippi district.  But he also ran as an unabashed economic populist, and launched scathing attacks against Greg Davis for yukking it up with Dick Cheney.

On oil:

“We need to strip away the subsidies from ExxonMobil and Big Oil,” Childers said to a question about high gasoline prices. “They’re not going to get a lot of sympathy from me.”

On healthcare:

Travis Childers will fight to improve the quality of healthcare, while lowering costs for working families.  He supports expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which will provide affordable healthcare to tens of thousands of middle-income children in Mississippi.

On the economy and corporate trade deals:

Our leaders should have been thinking of the economic problems we face today when they passed unfair trade deals that sent our jobs overseas, gave billions in subsidies to big oil companies, ignored the home mortgage crisis, and kept spending as the deficit and national debt hit all time highs.

On Iraq, Childers was the only candidate who favored withdrawal:

He was the only one of five candidates — three Republicans, two Democrats — at a campaign stop in Nesbit last week who said point-blank that U.S. troops don’t belong in Iraq. […]

Childers said he favors coming up with a plan to withdraw troops over 12 to 18 months and leave the Iraqis to fight among themselves, as they have for thousands of years.

He said he’s amazed more people on the campaign trail haven’t asked about a national debt of more than $9 trillion.

“We’re spending our money, folks, in Iraq. We need to be spending our money in America.

If all that is what morons like Tom Cole and Roy Blunt consider a “Republican platform”, then maybe their party isn’t doomed to the electoral dustbin after all.

However, we all know that that is pretty damn far from the truth.

Keep dreaming, GOP.

Trent Thompson encounters Dick Cheney on the campaign trail in Mississippi:

As David articulated last night, the “every man for himself” attitude that is crippling the House GOP conference will only grow stronger in the weeks and months ahead now that the NRCC is left with no excuses for losing a safe seat in Mississippi.

Already, they’re tripping over themselves to lay the blame at someone’s feet:

Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, defended the campaign chairman during the closed-door session, saying “the problem was not Cole, but the Republican brand” and the lack of well-formulated policy planks articulated by the party.

But other members did point fingers; Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn complained that newly-appointed GOP Sen. Roger Wicker did not do enough to help Republican Greg Davis retain his seat, members in attendance said afterward. Blackburn also explained that an ongoing feud between Republican Sen. Thad Cochran and the state’s recently retired GOP Sen. Trent Lott also played a part in the loss.

How bad is it?  Rumors are raging that Cole might be sacked in favor of retiring Rep. Tom Davis:

The finger-pointing wasn’t just limited to the conference room in the Capitol basement where members met; former NRCC Chairman Tom Davis, who has become a pointed critic of his party and President Bush since announcing his retirement earlier this year, gave members a 20-page memo he typed up over the weekend about what the party needs to do to improve its brand nationally, the Virginia Republican told reporters after the meeting.

“This is the floor,” Davis said, stopping his foot on the concrete. “We’re underneath it.”

Davis, however, dowmplayed a rumor that he would be elevated to replace Cole, and the current job holder said no major changes were in the works at the committee “yet.”

It’s no surprise that a lot of House GOPers would want to sack Cole’s sorry ass, but they may not have a chance with only six months to go until election day.

The Hill sums up the situation in the starkest of terms:

The sky is falling on House Republicans and there is no sign of it letting up.

The GOP loss in Mississippi’s special election Tuesday is the strongest sign yet that the Republican Party is in shambles. And while some Republicans see a light at the end of the tunnel, that light more likely represents the Democratic train that is primed to mow down more Republicans in November.

Get ready to rock this November.  Republicans can run, but they can’t hide.

Update: Blackburn has taken issue with the characterization of her remarks:

Blackburn referred to her former House colleague, but did not criticize him for a lack of effort. She was referring to a rift that emerged during the primary between rival regions in the district, a member present said.

There has been some speculation that state Sen. Diane Savino would be an unlikely candidate for the seat held by Vito Fossella due to her friendship with NYC Councilman Domenic Recchia.  But Savino says that won’t have any bearing on her decision to enter the race, nor will any deference to ’06 nominee Steve Harrison be a factor:

“In life and politics, nothing is fair,” Savino said. “I’m not one of those people who believe, ‘Oh, it’s my turn.’ There’s no such thing as your turn. If you’re willing to put yourself out there and expose every aspect of your life, and devote all your efforts and time to talking to people…then it’s your turn. That’s what it takes to win.”

…Steve’s biggest problem is not that people don’t think it’s his turn,” Savino continued. “Him and Domenic, and I’ve told them this, their biggest problem is they don’t live on Staten Island. Eighty percent of this district is in Staten Island.

One thing about Staten Islanders, they will vote for anybody on any line if they’re from Staten Island versus someone who’s not.”

Savino won’t give a timeline for her decision, but says that she will make an announcement in “due course”.  The New York Daily News‘ Elizabeth Benjamin notes that “petitions start circulating June 3, so at that point everyone’s intentions will be out in the open.”

Jonah in NYC had an excellent diary yesterday on the potential Democratic candidates for this seat.

My name is Dan Seals and as many of you may know, I am running for Congress in Illinois’ 10th district. I wanted to take this opportunity to first thank all of you for the outpouring of support I received through Blue Majority but also to introduce myself as a candidate for Congress.

Like many of you, my decision to get politically involved was borne out of frustration. It was a decision borne out of frustration with President Bush’s re-election in 2004, frustration with our open-ended engagement in Iraq, and frustration with the record budget deficits that have saddled my three little girls with unimaginable debt.  

But it was also a decision borne out of optimism for a better future. That is why I am here today: I believe and know that we can do better. My grandparents and parents raised me with the knowledge that I was growing up in a better America than the America of their youth. Like them, I want to leave our country better off for my children, and that is why I am running for Congress.

Right now, due to wasteful federal spending on the part of the Republican Party and my opponent, Mark Kirk, each of my three daughters is over $30,000 in debt. That is over $30,000 in debt before any of them have reached the age of 10, much less gone to college or owned a home. I can’t imagine anything more un-American than saddling our children with this kind of debt.

This debt didn’t appear overnight. In fact, it is the result of seven-plus years of conscious, wasteful spending on the part of the President and the national Republican Party- from tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to hundreds of billions of dollars shipped overseas to Iraq.

My opponent, Mark Kirk, has been a part of this problem in Washington. From supporting tax cuts for billionaires and corporations who move offshore, to rubberstamping the Bush administration’s failed policies in Iraq, to giving away billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives to big oil, he has shown where his priorities lie.

Over the next several months, I look forward to talking not only with voters in the 10th district, but also with you. I look forward to putting an end to the myth that Republicans own the mantle of fiscal responsibility. But most importantly, I look forward to being a part of a Congress that understands that we have no greater duty than leaving our nation better off for our children and grandchildren.

To learn more about my campaign, please visit my website at www.dansealsforcongress.com.

Cross-posted at Open Left and Daily Kos.

One key race that hasn’t been getting a great deal of attention is Ed Fallon’s progressive challenge to Blue Dog Democratic Congressman Leonard Boswell in IA-03. The primary is June 3rd, and Fallon is poised to retire the six-term conservative.

Boswell hasn’t got a lot to show for his 12 years in Congress. He has introduced two bills that became law — a good one on helping prevent suicide among veterans and changing the name of the federal building in Des Moines. He is pushing hard for a third bill to cap his career — getting a zip code for a Des Moines suburb. The negative side of his legacy, however, is more impressive.

Boswell broke with the majority of House Democrats repeatedly to support the Bush agenda. Some of these minority voted include: the vote to go to war in Iraq, five years of funding for the war without timetables for withdrawal, the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, the Military Commissions Act that suspended habeas corpus and gave Bush the authority to determine what counts as “torture”, the so-called “Bankruptcy reform” of 2005 that made it harder for middle class folks to get debt relief, giving the president “fast-track” authority to push trade deals through Congress, three so-called “free trade” agreements and permanent trade relations with China, many votes unfriendly to the environment (that have given him a lifetime voting score of 57% from the League of Conservation Voters), etc. He was also the deciding vote in support of the Bush version of a prescription drug plan for seniors. Boswell helped it pass 216-215, even though House Democrats opposed it 195-9.

The list goes on and on.

Ed Fallon, on the other hand, is a progressive Democrat who is running on a platform of global climate change (he supports the Safe Climate Act), universal health care (he supports the Medicare for All Act), campaign finance reform (he supports voluntary public financing of elections), budget reform (including the abolition of earmarks), fair trade, and reducing poverty.

Fallon won the IA-03 when he was in a three-way race for the Democratic gubernatorial race in 2006. He was the first candidate this year to sign on to all four pledges of Larry Lessig’s Change Congress movement and has been endorsed in this race by Democracy for America, Progressive Democrats of America, Blue America, eQuality Giving, the Progressive Coalition of Central Iowa, and the Stop the Arms Race PAC.

Fallon has never taken money from PACs or paid lobbyists, whereas Boswell got 74% of his contributions last year from PACs, the highest percentage of which came from corporate PACs.

The only independent poll gave the race to Boswell last month, but this was the same polling outfit that underestimated Fallon’s performance in the gubernatorial race by half. Polk County, which includes Des Moines, includes the district Fallon represented in the Iowa General Assembly and usually constitutes over 70% of the primary vote. Fallon won the county in the three-way race by a ten point margin over his closest opponent. The conventional wisdom is that the primary is the election, as only token GOP opposition is expected in the November general.

Information on Fallon is available at his website: www.fallonforcongress.com.

In a post last week, OH-16: State Senator John Boccieri: AG Dann should resign immediately State Senator John Boccieri expressed his “outrage” over the the behavior of Attorney General Marc Dann. On May 6, 2008, Senator Boccieri stated:

“I am outraged that the Attorney General of the state of Ohio has neglected the duty and honor of public service,” Senator Boccieri said. “The cronyism and lack of attentiveness to protocol and detail in Attorney General Dann’s hiring practices has led us to this tragic moment in Ohio’s history. I feel for his wife Alyssa and his children, who must endure the embarrassment he has caused to them, and the people of the state of Ohio.

“We support the ongoing investigation to determine whether any criminal lines have been crossed. However, after combing through the sordid details of the investigation transcripts, it is clear that ethical and moral lines have been disregarded. For this reason, I call upon Marc Dann to resign immediately.”

I was proud of Senator Boccieri for being thorough, reading the transcripts, and getting the facts straight before jumping to any conclusions. After he was sure of the facts, he made his initial call for Dann to resign immediately. Over the course of the week, Dann has tried every play in the book to avoid resignation, even while knowing the “dirt” would continue to pile up on the entire office and staff. Boccieri was chided for being slow to jump on the “Dann Bandwagon”, but was simply applying a reasonable fact checking methodology.

Today, May 13, 2008, just one week later, State Senator John Boccieri, candidate in Ohio’s 16th Congressional District, issued the following statement from his Senate office today:

“I fully support the actions taken by both the Ohio House and Senate today. As I have said before, Marc Dann cannot continue as Attorney General of the State of Ohio. It was my hope last week that he would recognize that reality, resign the office, and bring this shameful ordeal to an end. Because that has not yet happened, members of the Ohio House today brought articles of impeachment against Marc Dann, an action with which I agree completely.

“Also today, a motion was introduced to initiate an Inspector General’s investigation of the Attorney General’s office. I support that move also, and I would urge the Inspector General’s office to be swift and judicious in their work. A lengthy investigation will benefit no one – least of all the citizens of this state.

“As I have previously stated, I am outraged and disappointed by Marc Dann’s behavior. I am dismayed that he has refused thus far to resign his office and accept the findings of an Inspector General’s investigation. Marc Dann has again chosen to do the wrong thing and is attempting to negotiate the details of his departure. Marc Dann should be given absolutely no latitude to negotiate a more favorable exit from office on the heels of his admitted wrongdoing.

“It is my sincere hope that either through resignation or impeachment, this sordid episode will be concluded quickly, allowing us to move forward with the important business of the state. There is too much work to be done in Ohio for us to be distracted by such scandals. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the legislature and our statewide elected officials as we move forward with the people’s business.”

At every turn, State Senator John Boccieri has shown the deliberate pragmatism of true leadership through thorough examination of the available facts and his strong desire to do the bidding of his constituency even in the face of adversity. State Senator John Boccieri shows the thoughtful leadership skills the electorate of Ohio’s 16th Congressional District deserve to have represent them in the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. Our District is fortunate to have State Senator Major John Boccieri offer his service at the next higher level of representation.  

Cross-posted from OH-16: John Boccieri for U.S. Congress

We’ve had a great response from our friends and supporters so far, but tomorrow is the last to vote in Russ Feingold’s Progressive Patriots Fund’s “Pick A Patriot”.Major Boccieri is one of only ten Congressional candidates selected for the Pick a Patriot competition. So, please, if you haven’t already, take a minute to vote for John on the Progressive Patriots Fund’s “Pick a Progressive Patriot” site.

If you voted earlier this week, send a note to your friends and family – ask them to cast their vote too. The Progressive Patriots Fund is the leadership committee set-up by Senator Russ Feingold to promote a progressive reform agenda, and to support Democratic candidates across the country.

Thanks again for supporting Major Boccieri in the Progressive Patriot competition. These are the latest RESULTS!





I want to thank Butch, Brian, and Diane for all pulling together on my Birthday Wish for Bo! C’mon OH-16 get “The Boots on the Ground”!

This is it, folks. The one. The final piece of straw set atop the shambling camel of the GOP, the one which clove its dessicated humps in two.

Only it’s more like a ton of bricks crushing the Republican roach.

Let’s take stock of this race to see what I mean:

• This district has a PVI of R+10. It voted for Bush 62-37 in the last election. Only seven Democrats sit in comparably red seats – and not a single Republican sits in a seat as blue as this one is red. And almost every major prognosticator (at least at the start) treated this as a safe seat.
• The GOP had a perfectly serviceable candidate in Greg Davis – a standard wingnut with none of the baggage of Woody Jenkins in LA-06 or Jim Oberweis in IL-14.
• The NRCC spent $1.3 million on this race. Freedom’s Crotch spent at least $400K more – and used illegal tactics to boot. And of course Davis himself raised over a million.
• They sent in Mike Huckabee, Thad Cochran, Trent Lott, Haley Barbour, and Roger Wicker.
• And when that wasn’t enough, Darth Cheney came to town, to stump and raise money.
• The GOP played up Obama/Pelosi/”librul” fear-mongering to the hilt. They were shameless in exploiting whatever racial angle they thought would work.

And yet what happened? Despite all this, Travis Childers just became the newest member of the Democratic Caucus with a resounding 54-46 win. It’s utterly unspinnable. Even Tom Cole knew not to try.

But a sober press release only sees him through until tomorrow morning. Then he has to face the same vast universe of problems he had before him today, except they will loom much larger and much more sharply. Almost every potentially contestable Republican seat is in play now. The “every man for himself” mentality that has taken hold amongst the GOP will become even more firmly entrenched, dooming already-weak NRCC fundraising. In Congress, discipline will likely suffer as vulnerable members (ie, much of the caucus) are tempted to side with the Dems. And we may even see some more retirements. Things are going to get much, much worse before they ever get better for the GOP – if they do at all.

For a lot of reasons, this to me is the sweetest of our three recent special election victories. But to the GOP, seldom has more bitter medicine passed their lips. Glib commentators will say that the Republican brand is tarnished. The fact is, it is the Republican Party which itself is broken.

And this election is what helped break it.

For once, John Boehner is not spinning tonight’s result. As a matter of fact, he has issued a warning to fellow House Republcans.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) tonight responded to the MS-01 special election results with this cautionary statement:

“The results in MS-01 should serve as a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide. As I’ve said before, this is a change election, and if we want Americans to vote for us we have to convince them that we can fix Washington. Our presidential nominee, Senator McCain, is an agent of change; candidates who hope to succeed must show that they’re willing and able to join McCain in a leading movement for reform. We need to stop wasteful Washington spending, fight and win the war on terror, and stop the largest tax increase in history. That is truly the change the American people deserve — and that is a message on which we can succeed.”

My question of them is whether they are regretting that rally with George Bush.