THE BRAINS, A COOL BAND FROM GEORGIA, ONCE DID A SONG CALLED "MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING." THEY SURE HAD THAT RIGHT!

Going into the November midterm elections, the burning question is whether or not Rove and Diebold can overcome a daunting and growing 12% preference among American voters for Democrats in congressional races. No one knows the answer, of course, but "experts" always say to follow the money.

I've been pretty pissed off to see Rahm Emanuel and the DCCC systematically putting contributions from rank and file Democratic contributors into primary races to smother grassroots, anti-war and progressive candidates. And in some cases, he's even recruited Republicans, who change their registation and make believe they are Democrats so they can knock out the progressive candidates Emanuel abhors and fears, clearing the way for the re-election of the corrupt, corporate Republicans this sack of sleaze feels so cozy and comfortable with.

Studying the just-released cash-on-hand figures in congressional raises paints a very mixed picture. Entrenched incumbents, even ones on the verge of indictment like Jerry Lewis (R-CA), or ones with questionable ties to DeLay and his whole operation, like David Dreier (R-CA), Henry Bonilla (R-TX), and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), have sucked up millions of dollars in dubious contributions from... well, let's be honest here-- from businesspeople looking for favors and willing to bribe sleazy officials to get our tax dollars into their pockets. Dreier, for example, who was the only California incumbent to come close to losing his seat in 2004, has amassed a war chest of over $3,000,000 to duke it out with local businessman Russ Warner in their suburban L.A. district. (Dreier has to fight so hard, not because it has become known that he is another Republican homophobic closet queen but because it has become known that he and his boyfriend/chief of "staff"-- who is the highest paid staffer of any congressman-- have been taking lovely vacations all over the world at the taxpayers' expense, LOTS of them. Oh, and because the policies he pushes are atrocious and at varience to the wishes of his district-- although they are popular in Texas, which explains why David Dreir has voted with Tom DeLay a whopping 96% of the time, an astounding figure for a congressman claiming to represent a moderate suburban district in California!)

It is also hard to believe that Jerry Lewis will get to serve out his next term-- since he will probably be serving a prison sentence for bribery and corruption. A close look at his sleazy operation is proving that his junior partner Randy "Duke" Cunningham was just a piker in comparison. Yet Lewis has sucked in over a million and a half dollars for his campaign-- in a district that is considered to be among the dozen safest Republican areas in the whole U.S.! (A report on this district is being thoroughly researched as we speak.)

Mark Foley, another Republican closet queen who is addicted to voting against human rights for gay people has more in common with Dreier than... well, you know. Both are in the top 5 among incumbents in the entire House of Representatives when it comes to fund-raising for November's election. The execrable Foley has thus far managed to squirrel away almost two and a half million dollars and, believe me, this money is not coming to him from local Florida admirers in $20 and $50 checks. This key ally of indicted Republican crime boss Tom DeLay gets over 90% of his PAC money from business groups who want "special treatment." Other crooks with inordinately large campaign warchests on hand (all around a million and a half or more each) include Tom DeLay, of course, Clay Shaw (R-FL), Tom Davis III (VA), Joe Barton (TX), Nancy Johnson (CT), Don Young (AK)... This is pretty prohibitive for challengers and goes a long way towards explaining why incumbency is the best predictor of electoral victory.

One challenger, though, who is far from daunted by this is former Congressman Nick Lampson, who has gotten the most contributions of anyone callenging a sitting congressman anywhere in America, over $1 million. That's because Nick is running against the GOP Mafia's Capo de Tutti Capi himself, DeLay. The only other challenger with over a million dollars on hand is a DCCC-backed state senator in Florida, Ron Klein, who is taking on the ethically-challenged Clay Shaw. Klein is being pushed big time by the Inside-the-Beltway Dems. Aside from these two there are only 10 Democratic challengers (not counting open seats) who have even a quarter million dollars in cash on hand at this point-- and several of them are facing tough primary fights with grassroots and anti-war activists (and one of these Democrats, Juan Vargas, is actually challenging a solid progressive hero, Bob Filner, in a intra-party contest that seems to be based only on ethnicity and on Vargas' personal ambitions!)

The 3 Democrats running in Connecticut, (Diane Farrell v Shays, Joseph Courtney v Simmons, and Chris Murphy v Johnson) are all doing pretty well in the money department, as are Lois Murphy in Pennsylvania, Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth in Indiana, Patricia Madrid in New Mexico, Francine Busby in California, and the DCCC-recruited Heath Shuler in North Carolina.

You look at the massive corruption scandals in the Republican-controlled congress, the abuse of power in the Bush Regime and with their legislative allies, the polling results showing how soured people are on the Republicans and how little trusted they are, and you have to think November is going to be a great election for Democrats, maybe even a tsunami. But with a horribly corrupt DCCC Chairman, too many weak candidates, poor funding, too many seats with no challengers, and far too many Democrats who have no grasp of the burning issues of the day and are just sitting around with their thumbs up their asses waiting for the Republicans to self-destruct, there is no reason for unbridled optimism. (Kos, though, does have a more upbeat read today. He sees "a great early picture for Democrats in the battle for the House. We have more challengers, better-financed candidates in open seats, and better-financed candidates in marginal seats." I sure hope he's right and I'm wrong.)