With Bush In Albuquerque We're Live-blogging With Martin Heinrich At Crooks & Liars

Wanna go to a party with these two losers?

A grotesque event just began in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A failed and disgraced lameduck is trying to perpetuate his toxic agenda by rallying a strange combination of bigots and greedy multimillionaires to the cause of one of the worst of all the candidates the ill-starred Republicans are putting up this year: ex-Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Darren White. You can get your picture taken with Bush at White's event for $5,000 (and for an extra $1.75 you can get it without White in the picture).

While most sane Republicans are running as fast and as far from Bush and his toxic policies as they can, White is running around town yelling "Four more years!" One respected Republican who worked for the Bush Regime in New Mexico, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias explained to the NY Times on Sunday why he considers himself a disallusioned Republican. A few days before, he explained on video why he feels Darren White is unfit for public office. I think there are a lot of disillusioned Republicans in New Mexico this year who will be voting for Martin Heinrich, Tom Udall and Bill McCamley.

Today Martin Heinrich will be a special Blue America guest at Crooks & Liars at 2pm (PT). As president of the Albuquerque City Council, Martin made his bones passing an historic minimum wage law for his city and by working with Governor Richardson on some of America's most forward-thinking conservationist policies. Blue America has endorsed Martin and we want to urge you to donate to his campaign at our ActBlue page, especially today when Bush is in Albuquerque scooping up Republican dollars for White. Today we're debuting Martin's latest video on which he explains his position on Bush's occupation of Iraq. Be sure to show up at the Crooks and Liars comment section and ask Martin anything you'd like about his campaign.



UPDATE: McCAIN'S DILEMMA

Although of late his "coattails" have proven to be toxic for every Republican he campaigns for, McCain is showing up at the fundraiser for White too; he feels like he couldn't avoid it. It will the "first time in nearly three months that the Republican presidential candidate will be seen beside the man he hopes to succeed."

With Mr. Bush's popularity at a record low, the McCain campaign has made sure that television footage of the two men together will be minimal. The maneuvering is the latest example of Sen. McCain's aggressive effort to separate himself from the White House, even as he embraces many of the policies that Mr. Bush has promoted throughout his presidency-- and even as he benefits from the money that the president remains adept at raising. With growing frequency, Sen. McCain goes out of his way to highlight his differences with Mr. Bush.

Some congressional Republicans are doing the same, as Republicans brace for what they fear will be a brutal election year. Party leaders now talk openly about the badly damaged "Republican brand," as does Sen. McCain.

"Large numbers of voters are clearly motivated to action because they dislike George Bush. That's a big problem for John McCain and a big problem for congressional Republicans," said former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber, who advised Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

A senior adviser to Sen. McCain said the campaign considered the risk of having the candidate appear with the president at all but concluded there was no way to avoid it given that the event was in Sen. McCain's home state. Mr. Bush will headline two fund-raisers this week in Utah that Sen. McCain doesn't plan to attend.

After advertising that the Phoenix event would be at the local convention center, the campaign changed course and opted to hold the event at a private home; Bush fund-raisers held at public places typically are open to the press.

Now McCain is fretting about what to do with Bush-- and, worse, Cheney-- during the Republican Convention. And this morning CNN has been asking how badly Bush will hurt McCain's slim chances.