WHO YOU GOING TO BELIEVE-- KARL ROVE OR DARCY BURNER?

I just finished interviewing Darcy Burner. She's going to be the Blue America guest this coming Saturday at Firedoglake (11am, PT) and I was asking her questions to help with the intro I need to write. When I asked her what the issues that resonate most strongly in her district-- the ones the voters bring up to her she wasn't sure which was #2 and which was #3 between safeguarding the environment and fixing the healthcare system. But she had no hesitation about which was #1-- Iraq. "Last year," she told me, "about a third of the voters I talked to opposed the Iraq occupation and about the same number supported it. The other third seemed unsure; they felt uncomfortable about the direction Bush was taking us but they were also convinced by the Republicans and the GOP media that all the Democrats could offer was surrender and defeat." That isn't what she's hearing now; not even close. "When I'm out talking with people in the district now, they've had enough and they want out."

No one fought harder to defeat Darcy last year than Rove, as we saw in the now infamous powerpoint presentation his office illegally gave at the GSA. The GOP dumped as much as $7,000,000 into a race they managed to win for the pathetic rubber stamp incumbent by just over 2,000 votes (out of over 120,000 cast). Saturday at FDL I'll try to explain why I think Darcy will swamp them next year. Today I just want to tell you how wrong Rove is about his latest pronouncement, namely that Iraq won't be a big issue next year. Rove will be as correct about that as he was about his absurd prediction that the GOP would keep control of both the House and the Senate last year.

I don't think I've spoken to a single candidate or incumbent who didn't tell me that his or her constituents felt that there was something that was a bigger and more important issue for them than Iraq. It sounds to me that Rove is just trying to prevent a stampede of Republican members of Congress, paralyzed with fear for their career mortality, for the exits.

Here's a clip of Darcy Burner and the phony-baloney, rubber stamp Republican hack she's running against debating Iraq. You can see why Karl Rove is so nervous: