ANOTHER REALLY BAD DAY FOR JOHN DOOLITTLE-- NO REALLY BAD

Short answer... yes

I seem to recall that the Democratic grassroots candidate who nearly beat him last year, Charlie Brown, is about to officially declare that he's running for Doolittle's northern California seat again. But that will be Doolittle's bad news in a few days. The fact that conservative Republican Assemblyman Ted Gaines says he's probably going to challenge Doolittle, a far right Republican widely thought to be one of the most corrupt men to have ever set foot in the U.S. Congress (and on the verge of indictment by a Grand Jury), was the bad news last week. Today's bad news in two-fold.

Today's Sacramento Bee reports that if the rematch between Doolittle and Charlie Brown were held today, it wouldn't be close. Charlie would kick his ass from the Oregon border to the Sacramento suburbs and beat him by 20% of the vote-- in one of the most Republican districts north of the Mason-Dixon line. In a seat that was designed to elect Republicans, polling results show that

In a one-on-one match up, if the election were held today, Democrat Charlie Brown gets 51% of the vote to Congressman Doolittle's 31%.

Those surveyed were also asked if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Doolittle. Respondents came back with 28% favorable and 56% unfavorable.

In the survey, GOP primary voters were asked whether Congressman Doolittle should run for another term. 33% of those asked said he should. A staggering 50% said that the Congressman should either resign or should not run again.

Don't think the news for Doolittle can't get worse. It just did. The Associated Press just reported that two of Doolittle's top aides were subpoenaed by the Grand Jury looking into his history of rampant criminality. They are nailing down the relationship between Doolittle and his moll wife with imprisoned Republican rainmakers Jack Abramoff. The subpoenas were read out on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this morning when the Congress returned from their August break.

Oh, and by the way, whether Doolittle is serving time before the election or just busy in court, I'm guessing that instead of running against a well-known corrupt Republican, Charlie will have to run against an as yet unproven corrupt Republican. That means he's going to need all the financial help he can get. If you're feeling flush today, give Charlie a hand.


CHARLIE BROWN AND JIM HIMES

Jane Hamsher and John Amato are back in L.A. and they hatched this plan to rid the world of the odious Chris "Both Ways" Shays. So if you're diggin' deep for Charlie today, split it with Jim Himes, the Blue America candidate for the only congressional district in New England still help by a right-winger.