Congressional Campaign Craziness

Two of America's brightest hopes: Darcy Burner and Annette Taddeo

While I was without Internet access this week, a bunch of great story leads came in around congressional races. There's no thread here, so don't look for one. I'm almost afraid to read it but Glenn and I were sources in a Wall Street Journal and Pocono Record (my old hometown paper) story on congressional miscreant Chris Carney, Liberal Democrats Turn On One of Party's 'Blue Dogs'. There's no question in my mind that I explained to the writer that Blue America is not, not, not a Democratic Party political action committee but an independent, unaffiliated, progressive PAC. I think I even explained to him how the first politician I ever worked for was a liberal Republican, John Lindsey, who was running against a corrupt, reactionary Democrat, Abe Beame. (Lindsey won and later switched parties.) But all that didn't fit into the narrative he had decided on before he interviewed me. He did pull out the best line in our TV ad about Carney's FISA vote though: "the same un-American spying powers they have in Russia and Communist China." The story also notes that we've endorsed Independent candidate Steve Porter in another Pennsylvania district as well but I loved the vision of what it's all about that Carney-- who begged us for support in 2006-- put forward:

The first Democrat to represent his conservative-leaning district since 1961, the freshman representative has distanced himself from the 2006 support of liberal groups such as Blue America, MoveOn and the Brady gun-control campaign. Instead, he is courting prominent local Republican leaders and proudly pointing out that half of his staff is Republican.

The first two positions he emphasizes on his campaign Web site are a defense of Second Amendment gun rights and a crackdown on illegal immigration. Mr. Carney rejects amnesty for unregistered aliens and supports English as the official national language.

I've never watched The Office but the interns in Dennis Shulman's campaign office did a riotous and brilliant parody of that show based on Scott Garrett's tendency to take large sums of money from Big Oil and then vote enthusiastically for their agenda. It's really funny and you should take a look. And Garrett's love affair with Big Oil is not unrelated to the dismal ranking EnvironmentNewJersey gave him today. The New Jersey congressional delegation, as a whole did great-- even the Republicans. The average of Scott Garrett's 5 Republican colleagues was 80%. Garrett, on the other hand, scored a dismal 8%, more like what a typical Texas legislator scores on these kinds of examinations, which took into account votes on measures that would preserve open space, protect clean water, reduce pollution, end subsidies to Big Oil, and fund clean energy alternatives. Dennis Shulman:

"As with many other areas of his record, Scott Garrett's environmental record is simply shameful. With $69,000 in contributions from Big Oil, it's no wonder he votes to protect the special interests instead of looking for new energy alternatives. What I don't understand is Scott Garrett's problem with clean drinking water and smog-free air.

"From dealing with sinkholes and sludge to clean air and clean water, Garrett has proven time and time again he can't be bothered with the environmental safety of his constituents, and he can't be trusted with the energy concerns of this country. As illustrated by the admirable scores of Garrett's Republican colleagues, what matters is not whether an idea is Democratic or Republican, but whether it is good for the country. Scott Garrett's record reveals that he is part of the special interest culture of corruption in Washington that is endangering the safety and prosperity of our state and country."

After looking at Shulman's interns' video I found another one just as enjoyable, one my friend Susan sent me from Polk County, Florida. It's an incredibly informative clip about who the real Adam Putnam is-- way uglier than you thought-- and why he's like an asp at the bosom of Florida citizens. People in this district (FL-12), unlike Carney's but very much like Garrett's, do have a viable alternative: Doug Tudor.



Then there's more Cuba-related stuff to report, though not from the crazy right-wing extremists in Miami, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the reactionary Diaz-Balart Brothers, who are all entering the twilight hours of their political careers, as voters get more and more fed up with their sterile and pointless demagoguery on Cuba.

When Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) learned about a scheduled trip of 11- and 12-year-old kids from Vermont and New Hampshire to Havana, he suffered a near panic attack. He then demanded an emergency meeting with officials from the State Department and Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The obedient executive branch agency obeyed and scheduled the session.

Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who also represents a south Florida district filled with Cuban exiles, get their knickers in a twist whenever they learn of any event that might even slightly dent the harsh rules of embargo and travel ban that they along with the other members of the Hate-Castro industry. For the Diaz-Balart brothers, and their female counterpart from south Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL) limiting travel to Cuba ranks far higher on the priority scale than the banal issues facing constituents in their districts-- like unemployment, foreclosures, school drop outs and lack of health care.

Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers [along with the corrupt and treacherous Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who proves everyday that cash trumps party Inside the Beltway] help guide the small but influential Cuba Democracy Caucus on Capital Hill. On July 10, this bastion of Castro haters invited all Members to an "important" meeting with Bisa Williams, Coordinator for the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs, and Barbara Hammerle, Deputy Director of OFAC.

At the meeting, according to the invitation, Diaz-Balart planned "to discuss the very troubling granting of a Treasury/OFAC license to a little league team to travel to Cuba in August."

But it was some further removed Cubano kookiness from the GOP that came across than transom while I was looking for Internet cafes with WiFi this weekend. It was Cheney, long recognized by members of the reality-based community as the most... reliable Republican in Washington, who first made up the story about Cuba and China sucking all the oil out from under Florida. This was quickly parroted by two more always dependable sources, Roy Blunt: "Even China recognizes that oil and natural gas is readily available off our shores; thanks to Fidel Castro, they’ve been given a permit to drill for oil 45 miles from the Florida Keys" and John Boehner: "Right at this moment, some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Florida, China has the green light to drill for oil in order to lower energy costs in that country." All fake. But even when Florida's Republican Senator Mel Martinez called Cheney's, Blunt's and Boehner's lies "an urban legend," that didn't stop extremist crack pots like Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Tim Walberg (R-MI), and Mean Jean Schmidt-- the loophole queen of Ohio tax evaders-- from insisting it was true. Just when they finally died off, along comes Wisconsin bottom feeder, John Gard, resurrecting it for low-info voters. Even after Cheney disavowed his own lies, Gard has been running with it, first in fliers in late June and now on a lame TV ad trying to trick voters into thinking high gas prices are the fault of freshman Democrats Steve Kagen. Gard conveniently neglects to mention that he supports all of Big Oil's initiatives that have raised the price of gasoline and heating oil while he had accepted large donations (bribes in plain English) from... Big Oil ($42,550 in 2006 and another $6,750 so far this year). Same old Republican story: take the bribes, vote the special interests and then blame the Democrats.

Even more bizarre on the Cuba front though was a story in the Oregonian yesterday by Janie Har, Erickson explains Cuban trip was "one-third" humanitarian, in which hopeless Republican congressional candidate Mike Erickson defends a pleasure trip to Cuba as humanitarian. His trip included "dove shooting, cock fights, and Comandante Fidel Castro's Annual Gala Cigar Dinner and Auction." Gee I wonder what the Diaz-Balarts would say.

House races don't get polled much but I've got my ear to the ground and I'm hearing a lot of numbers that get thundered over by the daily Obama-McCain tracking polls. Look for a wipe-out for Alan Grayson next Tuesday in the Democratic primary in Orlando. Reactionary Democrat Bobby Bright is 10 points ahead of even more reactionary Republican Jay Love in the deep red Alabama second congressional district. Also in 'Bama (AL-05) Parker Griffith in way out ahead of Republican wing-nut Wayne Parker in the nation's only Parker v Parker contest. Meanwhile a Benenson Strategy Group reported that Charlie Brown is ahead of far right extremist ideologue Tom McClintock in northern California (CA 04). In CO-04 it looks like Marilyn Musgrave's about to finish out a shameful career in bigotry this November, polling just 36% again Betsy Markey's 43%.

The DCCC's two wretched hand-picked ex-Republicans in Florida, Suzanne Kosmas and Christine Jennings look like they are the two complete losers everyone but Rahm Emanuel and his posse sees. Kosmas is polling 23% and Jennings 37%. Let's see how much money Emanuel can waste on these two. And right-wing Dem and self-proclaimed Blue Dog Frank Kratovil isn't doing any better in Maryland's first CD-- polling just 28%. And speaking of the Kagen-Gard rematch in Wisconsin, the GOP-affiliated Public Opinion Strategies has Kagen at 46% and right-wing kook Gard at 42%.

Today we get closer to a real race when Darcy Burner faces off against Bush rubber stamp Dave Reichert in the Seattle 'burbs. It's more a beauty contest than anything else, but if Darcy wins, it is expected that Reichert's sources of campaign funds will dry up quickly. Whatever happens, we should all think about chipping in to help replenish Darcy's campaign chest.

Also, there are two right-wing maniacs in Wyoming, Mark Gordon and Cynthia Lummis vying for the opportunity to be beaten by Democrat Gary Trauner in November in the race to fill the at-large seat that has been disgraced by Barbara Cubin (R-KKK) and, before her, Dick Cheney. This primary is widely considered the ugliest Repug on Repug race in the country. The most recent polling data I saw on the Wyoming race-- by Research 2000-- shows that Trauner would beat Lummis 44-41%, pretty stark in a state where Kerry only managed 29% of the vote.