BLUE AMERICA WELCOMES GREG FISCHER, THE DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR THE KENTUCKY SENATE SEAT

It would be hard to imagine anything more politically satisfying than seeing Bush's #1 Senate obstructionist, Mitch McConnell defeated in his re-election bid this November. Back in February we had a little Blue America session with a man claiming he wanted to run against McConnell, Andrew Horne. It was the only candidate chat we've ever had where we didn't endorse the candidate or put him on our Blue America page. Horne seemed ok but... there was something that wasn't quite right. And, sure enough, a few days after our session, he pulled out of the race under odd circumstances and 2 days ago he endorsed the man he had denigrated and castigated right here. I hope he was rewarded handsomely enough to sleep at night. Fortunately there is a progressive Democrat running against McConnell-- Greg Fischer, who I've been talking with on the phone and corresponding with for a couple of months. And Greg has won Blue America's endorsement and is on our Blue America page (which I hope you'll visit and make use of to help defeat LunsfordMcConnell).

Before Greg can get to McConnell, he has to take on one of McConnell's long-time allies, a fake Democrat many of us will remember from when he tried defeating first Ben Chandler and then, last year, Steve Beshear in gubernatorial primaries in which Kentucky voters, smelling a Republican in Democrat's clothing, firmly rebuffed him both times-- although not until he had spent $14 million. Don't cry for him; he's stinkin' rich. Which is why he has a powerful ally this time, a senator who has a nose for the smell of money as acute as McConnell's; yep, the Kentucky version of Zeller Miller/Joe Lieberman is being pushed by... Chuck Schumer.

It's hard to imagine that there's anyone who reads any of the Blue America blogs who doesn't understand why Mitch McConnell is one of the worst members of the U.S. Senate. But for anyone who's just accidentally wandered in here looking for Barack Obama's bowling score, here are some key points to remember from now until November:

On the Economy:
     • McConnell voted NO on repealing the tax subsidy for companies that move U.S. Jobs offshore.
     • Voted against the Temporary Relief Act of 2007 would have provided 23 million middle-class families with more than $50 billion in tax relief by protecting them from paying the Alternative Minimum Tax.
     • Voted NO on increasing tax deductions for college tuition.
     • Voted to block the Foreclosure Prevention Act in February and yesterday caved into pressure and voted to negotiate with the Senate Democrats on compromise legislation.
     • Has a lifetime 11% rating from the AFL-CIO

On Health Care:
     • McConnell voted NO on expanding SCHIP eligibility.
     • He voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices just as the Veterans Administration presently does.
     • Supports President Bush's health care policy of personal Health Saving Accounts.

On Iraq:
      • Last July he led an all-night filibuster in favor of an open-ended commitment in Iraq.
       • Last September he blocked the proposal, introduced by Senator Webb (D-VA), that would have added time between deployments, forced the withdrawal of troops on a substantially swifter timeline and protected troops from serving protracted and debilitating deployments.
       • Has continued to block legislation to withdrawal our troops from Iraq.

That's why Greg is running for office. I'm going to let Greg, who-- like Lunsford-- hasn't held elective office, speak for himself on the issues. He fits the Blue America requirements of advocating a safe and speedly withdrawal from Iraq, favoring privacy and choice, favoring equality for all Americans, and favoring real campaign finance reform. His positions on health care come out of his business experience. And it was his business experience that attracted me to his candidacy, since it was something I was able to assess in terms of my own experience. Like Greg, I founded a small company. Each of us also ran large companies. I learned early on that the most successful way to run a business is to run it for the long term, not just to squeeze out short term profits. A business run with employees, customers, share holders and the community in mind, is a business to be proud of and it is the kind of business that succeeds. It's the way I ran my company and it's the way Greg runs his. Lunsford's business history is a nightmare of lawsuits, Medicare fraud, government raids and bankruptcies. Lunsford has a record of ethics questions to rival McConnell's own. And as Lunsford's newest supporter, Andrew Horne, told us, "We can't beat McConnell with McConnell-lite."

Please take a look at this video of Greg talking about why he's running when you get a chance. And please consider even a small contribution to his campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page.