The Circular Firing Squad Begins Blasting Away... NRSC Blames McCain For Their Disaster

Will the GOP Senate leadership take responsibility-- or just blame McCain and Bush? One guess

Well, I guess John Ensign (R-NV) would be looking for a likely scapegoat to blame for what he knows is coming a week from today. After all, the arch-reactionary Nevada Republican is the chairman of the NRSC and it's his job to make sure all the Republican Senate incumbents get re-elected, make sure the retiring Republicans are replaced with new Republicans, and then see if he can pick up some Democratic seats. He's failing-- miserably-- on all three charges. Earlier today he was looking to shift some blame onto Ted Stevens' corruption-- calling the twilight of the Senate's longest serving Republican's career a "disgrace"-- but by late afternoon he went public with something he's been grousing about for months: the disaster of being saddled with McCain.

He said aloud what Republicans were loathe to even whisper 'til now, that the Democrats could win a filibuster-proof majority. Even if you count Lieberman as a Democrat [and on substantive matters in this session he's voted with the Democrats 69% of the time-- more than red state nominal Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party like Mark Pryor (AR), Evan Bayh (IN), Mary Landrieu (LA), Ben Nelson (NE) and Tim Johnson (SD)] the Democrats would need to hold all their own seats-- looks like that's no problem whatsoever-- and pick up 10 Republican seats; much harder.

There are two sure things: the open red seats in Virginia and New Mexico are going to conservative business-oriented Democrat Mark Warner and progressive, working family Democrat Tom Udall, respectively. Two moderate Democrats, Jeanne Shaheen (NH) and Mark Udall (CO) look like their races are pretty much wrapped up and are just waiting for the bows on Tuesday. Conservative Kay Hagan (NC) and refreshingly progressive Jeff Merkley (OR) also look like they're about to cross the home stretch with bug smiles on their faces. That's 6. Polls show Al Franken ahead of pathetic Bush rubber stamp Norm Coleman in Minnesota but it's a 3-way race so you never know what's going to happen and Mark Begich looks good to beat convicted GOP felon Ted Stevens up in Alaska. OK, that's 8. Democrats still need 2 (and then they'll still have a Lieberman problem, not to mention members like Johnson, Nelson, Bayh, et al. who are just as likely to vote with Republicans as they are to vote with Democrats. The most current polling predicts 3 shots-- without Divine intervention-- for Democrats: 2 very right-wing Democrats who are unlikely to be of any use whatsoever on progressive governance-- Ronnie Mussgrove of Mississippi and, worse, Bruce Lunsford of Kentucky-- plus a decent moderate in Georgia, Jim Martin. Beyond that there would have to be major turnarounds in Nebraska, Texas, Maine and Oklahoma, four really good candidates in four very red states. None are in the hopeless category, like Tennessee, the two Wyoming races or Alabama, but all are-- as we've been saying all year-- really tough.

OK, back to Ensign, who's about to preside over the loss of between 6 and 10 seats. "There's no question the top of the ticket is affecting our Senate races and it’s making it a lot more difficult,” Ensign said on MSNBC. “It’s a fairly toxic atmosphere out there with the financial crisis for Republicans.” He hopes the Lieberman will join the Republican caucus and calls him a "wild card."

Ensign is especially worried after looking at the record of McCain's coattails in special elections since he's become the nominee. In three consecutive races to replace retiring Republicans in red districts of Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi, McCain failed dismally, losing all three seats. Several Republican Senators have denounced McCain's viciously negative campaign tactics and even called on him to try running a more decent and honest campaign. Likely Oregon loser Gordon Smith resigned as McCain's state campaign chair, started running TV ads that made it look like he was on the Obama team and has done everything to distance himself from McCain short of comparing him and Palin to Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun. Very few Senate incumbents have asked McCain to campaign with them and even a crackpot extremist like James Inhofe has tried to distance himself from the stink of political death that is the McCain campaign.

Meanwhile McCain staffers are blaming their candidate's likely loss of solidly red states like Virginia and North Carolina on weak Republican candidates, respectively ex-governor James Gilmore and incumbent Senator Liddy Dole, who was trashed by McCain staffers last week as "road kill" and "hopeless." If I wanted to direct last minute money to Democrats where it could do some good, I would stick with probable winners Jeff Merkley and Mark Begich and long-shot hopefuls Andrew Rice, Rick Noriega and Tom Allen-- all right here. Anyone who donates to all 5 today will get a Blue America gift in return as a thank you. Watch the kind of negative and vicious smear campaign that Inhofe is running against Andrew Rice in Oklahoma, distracting people there from the real issues:

The Daily Blue America Report-- #2

Florida-08- Beneson released a new poll yesterday for the Orlando-centric district and it's more really bad news for incumbent rubber stamp Ric Keller. It's the third poll since the primary and the third showing him losing decisively to progressive truth-talker Alan Grayson. Grayson leads Keller by 11 points, 52-41%, up significantly since the September poll that stunned the DC Establishment by showing Grayson up 4 points over Keller. Keller's response has been a barrage of costly negative ads, paid for by the corporate interests he has steadfastly represented instead of central Florida voters. Keller has three times as much money in his campaign war chest as Grayson.

Florida-18- With Annette Taddeo's polling numbers steadily rising, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has been confronted with a question she's never had to face before. How far is she willing to go to win re-election? Clearly she won't move away from her extremist reactionary world view and she's not going to suddenly end her rubber stamp posture towards Bush and the GOP. Apparently though, she is willing to toss her dignity to the winds and... poll dance in a bar. Watch:



Another thing she won't do: debate her opponent. Her nasty, elitist argument is that she's been around a long time and if the voters don't know where she stands by now, it's too bad. She so shocked the NBC and ABC affiliates by flatly turning down an opportunity to debate Annette on the biggest broadcast outlets in Miami-Dade, that they each invited Annette to come on and discuss the issues facing south Florida voters tomorrow. At 9 AM Annette will be on with Nick Bogert (NBC 6) on Today in South Florida Sunday and at 11:30 AM she'll be on WPLG Local 10 with Michael Putney on This Week in South Florida.

Meanwhile, the two south Florida progressives, Joe Garcia (FL-25) and Annette, will be holding public a meeting with Congressman Silvestre Reyes, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to discuss veterans' issues on Monday morning at 10AM in Kendall. Very few members of Congress have such unambiguously anti-veteran voting records as Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Diaz-Balart participated in 22 roll calls regarding veterans issues since 2003-- and he voted against our vets all 22 times! The pole dancer has a slightly worse voting record-- 23 roll calls/23 votes against American veterans. These are two of the sleaziest and most contemptible members of Congress, each running around screeching that they support the troops. But when it comes to paying for armor for the troops, they're AWOL and when it comes to supporting our vets, no member of Congress is worse than Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen! No wonder Chairman Reyes is traveling all the way to Miami. After the Iraq and Afghan wars we will need members of Congress who support a fair deal for vets and their families, not slimy hacks like Diaz-Balart and the pole dancer.

And America's worst senator-- and Oklahoma's shame-- James Inhofe has joined the ranks of divisive extremist maniacs like Michele Bachmann, Robin Hayes, Scott Garrett and Sarah Palin. These shameless swine would rather divide Americans up and provoke animosity and hatred than talk about real issues facing the country. Garrett actually accused his opponent, Dennis Shulman, a blind rabbi of being in league with anti-Israeli terrorists! These people know no bounds. They follow pure Rovian constructs that advocate attacking political opponents with lies that go after their strongest points. Inhofe just came out with his newest TV smear campaign, a negative attack ad insinuating that Barack Obama and Andrew Rice are not "real Americans" and not like the rest of us.

Inhofe has been one of corporate America's most steadfast tools against the interests of American working families. Inhofe has accepted $1,356,302 in so-called "donations" from the finance, insurance and real estate industries, authors of the current economic misery that is plaguing this country's working people. And in return he has supported every single deregulation and every single tax break for them while offering regular Americans nothing but a pointy stick in the eye. Similarly, Big Oil has found a real partner in crime in James Inhofe. While his legislation drove their profits into the billions, while impoverishing working families, they lavished him with "donations." Big Oil has only given 4 current senators over a million dollars: shills John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn and James Inhofe. There isn't a single member of Congress more corrupt than James Inhofe-- more corrupt and less in touch with his own constituents' needs. That's why he'd rather run a smear campaign against Andrew Rice than debate the issues.

As Karina Henderson from Rice's campaign wrote about the road trip to 30 Oklahoma communities he and his wife did last week, "The Oklahomans they meet aren't afraid of Andrew Rice, or of Barack Obama-- they're afraid of losing their jobs, being bankrupted by a health problem, watching their retirement savings disappear, and losing their home.  They're afraid of the very problems Jim Inhofe helped create because he thought the financial industry was 'overregulated.'"

You can donate to Andrew Rice, Joe Garcia, Annette Taddeo, Dennis Shulman and Alan Grayson all on the same page.

The Daily Blue America Report

Superb Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter

Texas-10- Early voting, increased Democratic voter registration, a lack of enthusiasm for McCain and for Republicans in general looks like it is turning one of Tom Delay's gerrymandered districts-- a big swatch of eastern and central Texas from Austin to the Houston suburbs-- blue. Larry Joe Doherty is doing an incredible job and Bush rubber stamp Michael McCaul' is suddenly waking up to realize he may soon be working for his father-in-law directly. Today's Austin Statesman seems to have detected a bit of the old gloom and doom setting in at McCaul campaign headquarters.

After looking at the early voting turnout-- two to one, Democrat over Repug-- McCaul campaign manager Jack Ladd sent out an e-mail alert to right-wing activists: “This is very bad news. If you think your friends are volunteering, they are not. I know I’m not going to sit down and die, and I know you will not either. There are only 12 days left, and this is not a lifelong commitment, we are asking you just give part of a day or days and help keep CD10 Republican.”

Between the Rick Noriega, Barack Obama and SEIU ground campaigns-- not to mention Larry Joe's own-- McCaul would probably be better off spending the next 12 days in one of the snake-handling churches that support him begging for some of that sky-god intervention Palin is counting on.

New Hampshire-01- None of the freshmen elected in 2006 has been more forthright in battling the special interests and always keeping the interests of working families front and center than Carol Shea-Porter. Unfortunately, Jeb Bradley, the rubber stamp reactionary the voters in eastern New Hampshire decided to replace in 2006, is trying to get his old job back. And there's nothing he won't stoop to to get back to Washington. Right now he's using a poor distraught Gold Star mother to distort Carol's support for the troops and principled opposition to the war. Carol has received the endorsement of the VFW's PAC, and an A+ rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. What Bradley is trying to do to her is despicable. 

Carol is a military spouse and has been one of the best friends our fighting men and women have in Congress but Bradley is callously manipulating this woman-- apparently driven insane and filled with partisan rage and hatred-- as an attack dog against Carol.

Bradley's corporately funded campaign includes the most vicious and deceitful ads being run by anyone from either party in New England. His ads are entirely based on distortion and outright lies-- like this ugliness. Fortunately New Hampshire is not Alabama and most of the voters there seem to see right through Bradley's slimefest. The two most recent polls-- both in October-- show Carol ahead of him by an average of 7 points. The problem is that Bradley was a 100% corporate shill before Carol banished him from Congress and K Street wants him back-- and right-wing front groups and hate organizations like Freedom's Watch are flooding the district with ads. Carol can really use our help-- and she's earned it.

Pennsylvania-03- The only independent who Blue America has endorsed this year, Dr. Steven Porter, is running against an anti-choice fanatic/pathetic Democratic hack from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Kathy Dahlkemper and against one of the most useless and personally corrupt GOP shills in Congress, Phil English. Predictably, the two superficial and unqualified major party candidates have conspired to keep Steven out of the debates. When Edinboro University announced recently that they are including him in a debate next Tuesday, the petrified and tongue-tied Dahlkemper immediately backed out. English isn't saying whether or not he will participate.

"Dahlkemper’s refusal," Steve told us, "is evidence of a fatal flaw in the character of a legislator:  the lack of courage. When the choice before the electorate is limited to one between clever thieves and shallow puppets, the only results possible are disastrous. We are experiencing those kinds of results now in our land and across our planet. And still, things can get worse. Recessions can collapse into depressions. Terrorist conflagrations can escalate into nuclear war. The greed of international business can result in ecological holocaust. To stave off such calamities, legislative leaders around the world will need the courage to speak the truth and act accordingly. The cowardice of Mrs. Dahlkemper (and a very corrupt political system which supports her) in both driving independent voices off the ballot and refusing to face them in open debate signals her complete unpreparedness for the office which she seeks. It is a warning sign of unmistakable dimensions."

And English, as usual, has problems of his own. One of the misguided labor unions that has backed him preciously, AFSCME, has finally woken up and seen the light, launching a half million dollar campaign against him for his consistent support of Bush's anti-working family economic agenda. The AFSCME campaign may not be enough to defeat English. Steve has virtually no money to mount a campaign and Dahlkemper is such an abysmal candidate that no self-respecting progressive could possibly vote for her. On top of the corporate pals who English has sold his soul to are coming through for him with last minute mega-donations, especially mutual fund firms, mortgage bankers and other authors of the economic collapse he has helped preside over. Needless to say Big Oil and every big corporation that opposes labor unions, especially Wal-Mart, is donating to English.

Tonight's last item: in a move that surprised most people, Oklahoma's fourth largest newspaper, the Muskogee Phoenix endorsed one of the best candidates running for Senate anywhere, Andrew Rice.

There is no doubt that Inhofe maintains a conservative attitude that reflects the position of his constituent base, but the extremist statements he has made throughout his career on many subjects hurts his credibility and the state's image despite whatever positive contributions he has made while in Congress. And extremism, whether to the right or left, does not promote good government policies or government that benefits everyone.

That is why Andrew Rice is a better candidate in the U.S. Senate race.

Rice has a more even-handed and rational approach to the issues and problems we are experiencing. He has gained a experiential world view as a missionary, working with rural development projects in Asia, that would serve him well in the Senate.

And another great Blue America candidate for Senate, Jeff Merkley, had a pretty special endorsement today too:



Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone to be sure to wander over and check out Digby's Blue America fundraiser.

Will Obama's Coattails Bring Home A Filibuster-Proof Senate?

I guess all those rabble-rousing Colorado appearances by Sarah Palin have paid off big time-- for Barack Obama, just like McCain's smear campaign of negative advertising did. Palin has made some of her ugliest and most negative speeches on behalf of McCain in Colorado and over the weekend Public Policy Polling announced startling new numbers for that state-- double digits for Obama.

Barack Obama 52%
John McCain 42%

Among Hispanics Obama's lead has increased from 57-36% three weeks ago to a whopping 71-21% this week. You'd be surprised how attuned minority groups, like Hispanics, are to appeals to Nativism and bigotry. That may also account for the surge in Obama's polling numbers in Florida and New Mexico as well. Obama is up over McCain in all 4 Florida polls done this month (by and average of 5%) and in the last half dozen polls in New Mexico, Obama is up by an average of 7.3%.

There is cautious talk of the L word in some circles, while distraught wingnuts are starting to ask themselves if it'll be a rout. Lunatic fringe reactionary, blaming "the media":

[T]he McCain brand has been damaged, with the assistance of the MSM, by Obama’s relentless attacks. In addition, Obama has done a pretty good job of conning voters into believing that he is, precisely, a generic Democrat.

Accordingly, the possibility that Obama will win by 10 points or more cannot be ruled out.

And even if Obama fades under last minute scrutiny to the point that the race becomes close, the Democrats’ generic advantage might well produce a rout in the Senate. For example, Elizabeth Dole and Norm Coleman are both in trouble.

More realistic rightists admit to themselves that McCain's defeat has been self-inflicted and are already sifting through the ruins of his campaign and writing his political obituary. Their stance, of course, is that McCain is losing because he isn't reactionary enough. They want a real fascist, someone even further to the right than McCain. Hopefully in 2012 they'll have the clout to run Palin and we'll see what excuses they make when she wins secessionist-leaning Alaska, Idaho and Utah... and nothing else.

The acknowledgment of reality is not a panic. And the attempt of some Republicans to encourage miracle comeback fantasies serves only to distract conservatives from the task ahead.

It was McCain's outspoken support for the unpopular bailout-- a big-government intervention incompatible with conservative economic philosophy-- that handed the election to Obama. The bailout failed as politics and, as evidenced by Monday's selloff on Wall Street, it also failed as policy.

Democrats are already rushing to promote Obama's coming victory as a mandate for their "progressive" agenda. Conservatives need to begin telling the true story of McCain's defeat, which must be admitted before it can be explained.

Too close for comfort? That's NORTH DAKOTA!

Hysterical Republicans, who have already said kaddish over McCain's rotting, bloated political corpse, only have one goal in mind now: saving the ability to obstruct progressive legislation through the filibuster. Panic has set in as Democrats approach the magic 60 seats they need to pass Obama's agenda for change. "Obama at 56 seats makes life hard, but a lot more bearable than Obama at 60 seats. The death of the filibuster would be like losing the White House all over again."

Because of Lieberman Democrats actually need 11 seats not 10. Can they make it? Well... it doesn't look easy. But it isn't as impossible as it seemed last month. There are no Democratic seats in jeopardy and two open Republican seats-- New Mexico and Virginia-- are safely in the bag. The open Republican seat in Colorado and the stolen Republican seat in New Hampshire seem very likely to switch as well. Every recent poll shows Hagan beating Dole in North Carolina and Jeff Merkley and Mark Begich are looking like decent bets to defeat reactionary and corrupt incumbents in Oregon and Alaska. Al Franken has been gaining on Norm Coleman and that would make 8 seats-- still 3 shy of the magic Lieberman-free filibuster-proof majority. Democrats need to win 3 of these uphill races:

Mississippi- Ronnie Musgrove v Roger Wicker
Texas- Rick Noriega v John Cornyn
Oklahoma- Andrew Rice v James Inhofe
Maine- Tom Allen v Susan Collins
Georgia- Jim Martin v Saxby Chambliss
Nebraska- Scott Kleeb v Mike Johanns
Idaho- Larry LaRocco v Jim Risch
Kentucky- Bruce Lunsford (not a reliable Democrat) v Mitch McConnell

This late in the game donations for Senate candidates would do the most good for Andrew Rice, Rick Noriega, Tom Allen, Jeff Merkley and Al Franken. You can donate to Al's campaign at Red to Blue MN and the other 4 are at the Blue America special Senate page. Anyone who donates to all 4 of these Senate candidates (Rice, Noriega, Allen and Merkley)-- any amount-- will get a brand new copy of journalist Marty Beckerman's incredible book, Dumbocracy. Marty spent four years with political extremists of all stripes and delivers a searing, hilarious indictment of the radical True Believer mentality, exposing their tactics-- and their never-ending hypocrisies-- with comical, over-the-top glee worthy of South Park orThe Daily Show. You'll be rolling on the floor laughing-- and you'll know you contributed to putting 4 exceptionally good senators in office to replace 4 of the very worst in America. Imagine no more James Inhofe to obstruct sound environmental policies, no more John Cornyn to coddle Wall Street and Big Oil, no more Joe Lieberman in drag Susan Collins to rubber stamp everything that comes her way while claiming to be "independent," and no more Gordon Smith, the Senate's very worst hypocrite and most dishonest member. Right here.

You want to see why I keep bringing this up? Please watch this three minute section of debate between James Inhofe and Andrew Rice:




UPDATE: HOW LONG BEFORE UTAH AND IDAHO BECOME BATTLEGROUND STATES?

The latest polling shows McCain's confused campaign and vile smear tactics have even repulsed Missouri voters!

Obama 51%
McCain 43%

And some late-breaking news in Oregon. A brand new SUSA/KATU poll shows Merkley beating Smith decisively, 46%- 41%. WOW!!!!

Jeff Merkley Wins First Senate Debate In Oregon

Last night Oregon's Bush rubber stamp, Gordon Smith, was so completely and utterly mauled by progressive Democrat Jeff Merkley that he confused Arnold Schwarzenegger with Sarah Palin in his small, narrow mind. Thirty second clip:



It's amazing how badly veteran Republican senators have been doing this week against Democratic challengers in debates. Wednesday in Tulsa Andrew Rice wiped the floor with clueless reactionary James Inhofe and last night Rick Noriega so flustered John Cornyn that Cornyn actually admitted that he stands for the status quo! At least he didn't lie. John Cornyn is the embodiment of what Bush wants in a U.S. Senator, someone who has rubber stamped every single misguided, catastrophic, half-assed proposal he made. The Senate-- and the country-- would be far better off without the likes of Gordon Smith, James Inhofe and John Cornyn. Do something about all three... here. (And if you're in Dallas Tuesday, be sure to go to Bill Clinton's rally for Rick Noriega. He and Hillary have been stepping up to the plate for Rick big time.)

You Want Four More Years Of Lies And Divisiveness?

All week the Blue America candidates have been telling me that their opponents have been going increasingly negative. From coast to coast the Republican Party has decided to follow John McCain into the gutter... or he's decided to follow them into the gutter-- or, more likely, they're all just going along with Karl Rove who knows better than most that when you have nothing positive to run on, you just better make stuff up. You could see the controlled outrage in Oklahoma Senate candidate Andrew Rice's face yesterday when he addressed the overflowing sewer of lies that James Inhofe has opened up against him with a series of viciously negative ads.

Mean Jean Schmidt didn't get her nickname because anyone thought she was one of the good guys, so no one was expecting her to change her ways in this campaign. But a friend in Blue Ash, Ohio was still shocked by a mailer he got from her campaign accusing Dr. Victoria Wulsin, who has dedicated her entire life to health care and public policy regarding health care, especially for children, of experimenting-- "grotesque medical experiments"-- on human beings. Even the Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Malia Rulon, a quarter inch shy of being part of the Schmidt campaign, points out that Schmidt's mailer was filled with lies; I think she called it "stretching the truth."

In Minnesota brand new polls show that both Obama and Franken have leaped significantly ahead of McCain and Coleman. And the Star Tribune, the biggest paper in the state, attributes it to Minnesotans disgusted reaction to the Republican negativity.

For Coleman, there is little good news in the poll. The number of voters who view him unfavorably continues to grow, the number who see him favorably is falling, and his job-approval rating has slipped to 38 percent-- his lowest ever in the Minnesota Poll.

...The new poll suggests that one reason for Franken’s gain is voters’ reaction to the abrasive advertising in the campaign.

The survey shows that 56 percent of poll respondents consider ads criticizing Franken to be “mostly unfair personal attacks.” Only 42 percent said the same about ads criticizing Coleman.

Some of the ads by the Coleman campaign and national Republicans show Franken when he was an entertainer, cursing and ranting on political subjects. Others stress the tax and accounting mistakes of his private corporation when he was living in New York.

McCain and the Republicans have decided to spend the rest of the campaign going negative-- no, I mean really negative... negative like you've never seen before. If they can't get people to vote for them, they hope to get voters to just stay away from the polls altogether, since the uber-motivated Greed and Selfishness voters always vote and, of course, mostly vote for the Party of Greed and Selfishness. Take a look, for example at this column by a McCain campaign official in Virginia. This is what we'll be seeing, especially in the battleground states from now until November. This is the racist trash we warned would be coming last night in McCain Unleashes The Republican Smear Machine. He accuses Obama of wanting to paint the White House black, supporting reparations, changing the national anthem to the "black national anthem," teaching "black liberation theology in all churches," and replacing the flag with a "star and crescent logo."

Yesterday Michael Shear warned Washington Post readers that McCain plans a 24/7 Rovian type smear campaign against Obama. Today Frank Rich writes that McCain's vicious little pitbull with lipstick is doing more to hurt him than help him. Palin, unable to talk intelligently about any issues, domestic or international, has found her ultimate role in the McCain campaign-- everything dishonorable and filthy. The trashy crooked hack from Alaska is now on auto-repeat wherever she goes, warning voters that Obama is palling around with terrorists. It's good that they found something worthy of her character to do between now and November when she returns to her view of Russia in disgrace.

Even Rove, the mastermind behind the faltering McCain campaign, admits if the election were held today, Obama would be elected president, having clinched all the electoral votes he needs. Rove, McCain, Palin, and the whole menagerie of slimy Republican candidates for Congress, plan to create as much filth and negativity as they can to change that. But Rove's negative strategy, especially in the hands of an imbecile like Palin, may well backfire on McCain.

'Our opponent... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country,'' Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

''This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,'' she said. ''We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism.''

...Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee ''palling around'' with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as ''not like us'' is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

...[T]hough she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

If the poll in Minnesota is any indication, and if the Republican attacks on Democrats using Obama's association with Rev Wright earlier in the year-- in three red district races where favored Republican congressional candidates backed by McCain were defeated-- are any indication, it isn't only something McCain will come to regret but something the entire Bush-McCain Party will come to regret. Today's polls from Ohio, an absolute must win state for McCain, show it slipping irretrievably out of his grasp. As McCain said himself, if all you do is run a bunch of attack ads, it shows you have no vision for the future. John McCain, more than any candidate I have ever seen in my life, has no vision for the future. I like the way Obama is answering back:

McCain Unleashes The Republican Smear Machine-- Obama Talks Health Care For Working Families

The media strategist responsible for Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, Mark McCinnon, isn't exactly shy about negative advertising. And his media campaign for Bush is fondly remembered by Republican partisans as one of the dirtiest, most shameful and nastiest anyone had ever seen. Needless to say, McCain hired him immediately. But after working with McCain for a while-- and after taking a look at the game plan of personal destruction McCain had mapped out for Obama-- McClinton warned that he would resign if Obama was the candidate. And in May, when Obama won the nomination, McKinnon did quit. Mark McKinnon knew that McCain, the sleaziest man to ever run for the presidency, had every intention of running a perverted and racist campaign against Obama and the details started leaking out last spring.

The end will be McCain's claims-- through his arm's length surrogates and the lower end of the GOP media chain (the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Reillys, Coulters... that kind of garbage-- that Obama is the antichrist. Today's Washington Post reported that McCain's Operation 24/7 Smear, Smear, Smear is going into effect now. Meanwhile, though, he has that wretched piece of pathetic white trash from Alaska shoveling the shit.

The issues that Americans face are all stacked against McCain and his decades of voting wrong on everything has led to dismal poll results that just keep getting worse and worse by the day. Nothing is working out for him and he's falling back on the one thing he knows he can count on: I'M WHITE-- DON'T VOTE FOR THE NIGGER. That, and Sarah Palin, will be John McCain's political legacy.

With just a month to go until Election Day, McCain's team has decided that its emphasis on the senator's biography as a war hero, experienced lawmaker and straight-talking maverick is insufficient to close a growing gap with Obama. The Arizonan's campaign is also eager to move the conversation away from the economy, an issue that strongly favors Obama and has helped him to a lead in many recent polls.

"We're going to get a little tougher," a senior Republican operative said, indicating that a fresh batch of television ads is coming. "We've got to question this guy's associations. Very soon. There's no question that we have to change the subject here," said the operative, who was not authorized to discuss strategy and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Associations? Like this one?



Sometimes I wish Obama would hit back when McCain and his surrogates and the GOP-owned media lets loose with their smears and lies. But the voters seem to appreciate Obama's calm, solid, decisive campaign and his commitment to sticking with the real issues-- you know, the ones Americans care about and McCain runs from. Today one of Obama's spokespersons addressed McCain's threat to drag the campaign into the gutter:

"On a day after we learned that America lost three-quarters of a million jobs this year and a week after our financial system teetered on the brink of collapse, John McCain and his campaign have announced that they want to 'turn the page' on the economic crisis facing working families and spend the last month of this election launching dishonest, dishonorable character attacks against Barack Obama. We understand that it's not easy for John McCain to defend the worst economic record of our lifetime, but he will have to explain to the people struggling to pay their bills and stay in their homes why he would rather spend his time tearing down Barack Obama than laying out a plan to build up our economy."

So today when McCain's brother Joe (along with rubber stamp Republican Congressman Frank Wolf were rushing around Virginia, accusing people in Arlington and Alexandria of being communists, presumably because polls there show that they have turned away from McCain's reactionary campaign of hatred, bigotry and failure, Obama was talking about the issues that are important to Americans, like health care:

With just a month to go until election day, I know you've all been hearing a lot about politics out here in Virginia. I know you've been seeing a lot of ads, and getting a lot of calls, and reading a lot about this election in the newspaper. But being here today to talk with you about health care-- this isn't about politics for me. This is personal. 
 
I'm thinking today about my mother. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 53. She fought valiantly, and endured the pain and chemotherapy with grace and good humor. But I'll never forget how she spent the final months of her life. At a time when she should have been focused on getting well, at a time when she should have been taking stock of her life and taking comfort in her family, she was lying in a hospital bed, fighting with her insurance company because they didn't want to cover her treatment. They claimed that her cancer was a pre-existing condition. 
 
So I know something about the heartbreak caused by our health care system. 
 
I know something about the anxiety of families hanging on by a thread as premiums have doubled these past eight years, and they're going into debt, and more than half-– half-- of all personal bankruptcies are caused in part by medical bills. 
 
I know about the frustration of the nearly 40% of small business owners who can no longer afford to insure their employees-- folks who work day and night, but have to lay people off, or shut their doors for good, because of rising health care costs.
 
I know the outrage we all feel about the 45 million Americans who don't have health insurance-- kids who can't see a doctor when they're sick; parents cutting their pills in half and praying for the best; folks who wind up in the emergency room in the middle of the night because they've got nowhere else to turn. 
 
But I also know that this is not who we are.  
 
We are not a country where a young woman I met should have to work the night shift after a full day of college and still not be able to pay the medical bills for her sister who's ill. That's not right-- and it's not who we are.
 
We are not a country where a man I met should have to file for bankruptcy after he had a stroke, because he faced nearly $200,000 in medical costs that he couldn't afford and his insurance company didn't cover. That's not right-- and it's not who we are. 
 
We are not a country that rewards hard work and perseverance with debt and worry. We've never been a country that lets major challenges go unsolved and unaddressed. And we are tired of watching as year after year, candidates offer up detailed health care plans with great fanfare and promise, only to see them crushed under the weight of Washington politics and drug and insurance lobbying once the campaign is over. 
 
That is not who we are. And that is not who we have to be. 
 
We know change is possible. We've seen it across this country as governors and legislatures move ahead of Washington to pass bold health care initiatives on their own. We see people across the spectrum-- doctors and patients, unions and businesses, Democrats and Republicans-- coming together around this issue, because at a time when rising costs have put too many families and businesses on a collision course with financial ruin and left too many without coverage at all, they know that bandaids and half-measures just won't do. 
 
Now I know that at this moment, when we stand in the midst of a serious economic crisis, some might ask how we can afford to focus on health care. Well, let's be clear: the rescue package we just passed in Congress isn't the end of what we need to do to fix our economy-- it's just the beginning.  Because the fundamentals of our economy are still not strong-- contrary to what Senator McCain says. And we've got to address those fundamentals-- and address them right now. 
 
In other words, the question isn't how we can afford to focus on health care-- but how we can afford not to. Because in order to fix our economic crisis, and rebuild our middle class, we need to fix our health care system too. Let's not forget, it's not just small businesses and families who are struggling. Some of the largest corporations in America-- including major American auto manufacturers-- are struggling to compete in the global marketplace because of high health care costs. They're watching their foreign competitors prosper-- unburdened by these costs-- as they struggle to create the good jobs we need to get our economy back on track. 
 
So it's clear that the time has come-- right now-- to solve this problem: to cut health care costs for families and businesses, and provide affordable, accessible health insurance for every American. 
 
And you'd think that anyone running for president would understand this. You'd think any candidate for the highest office in the land would have a plan to achieve these critically important goals. Well, if you think that, you haven't met my opponent, Senator John McCain.
 
Now, it's not that he doesn't care about what people are going through. I just think he doesn't know.  That's the only reason I can think of that he'd propose a health care plan that is so radical, so out of touch with what you're facing, and so out of line with our basic values.
 
Senator McCain has been eager to share some details of his plan-- but not all.
 
He tells you that he'll give you a tax credit of $2,500 per person-- $5,000 per family-- to help you pay for your insurance and health care costs. But like those ads for prescription drugs, you have to read the fine print to learn the rest of the story. 
 
You see, Senator McCain would pay for his plan, in part, by taxing your health care benefits for the first time in history. And this tax would come out of your paycheck. But the new tax credit he's proposing? That wouldn't go to you. It would go directly to your insurance company-- not your bank account. 
 
So when you read the fine print, it's clear that John McCain is pulling an old Washington bait and switch. It's a shell game. He gives you a tax credit with one hand-- but raises your taxes with the other. And recently, after some forceful questioning on TV, he finally admitted that for some Americans-- those with the very best plans-- his tax increase will be higher than his tax credit, and they'll come out behind. 
 
John McCain calls these plans "Cadillac plans." In some cases, it may be that a corporate CEO is getting too good a deal. But what if you're a line worker making a good American car like Cadillac who's given up wage increases in exchange for better health care? Well, Senator McCain believes you should pay higher taxes too. The bottom line: the better your health care plan-- the harder you've fought for good benefits--the higher the taxes you'll pay under John McCain's plan. 
 
And here's something else Senator McCain won't tell you. When he taxes people's benefits, many younger, healthier workers will decide that it's a better deal to opt out of the insurance they get at work-- and instead, go out into the individual market, where they can buy a cheaper plan. Many employers will be left with an older, sicker pool of workers who they can't afford to cover. As a result, many employers will drop their health care plans altogether. And study after study has shown, that under the McCain plan, at least 20 million Americans will lose the insurance they rely on from their workplace. 
 
It's the same approach George W. Bush floated a few years ago. It was dead on arrival in Congress.  But if Senator McCain were to succeed where George Bush failed, it very well could be the beginning of the end of our employer-based health care system. In fact, some experts have said that that's exactly the point of John McCain's plan-- to drive you out of the insurance you have through your employer-- and out into the marketplace, where your family will be given that $5,000 tax credit and told to buy insurance on your own. 
 
A $5,000 tax credit. That sounds pretty good. But what Senator McCain doesn't tell you is that the average cost of a family health care plan these days is more than twice that much-- $12,680. So where would that leave you?  
 
Senator McCain also doesn't tell you that insurance in the individual market isn't just more expensive than insurance you get through work-- it also includes fewer benefits. For example, many of these plans don't cover prescription drugs or pre-natal care. Many don't cover giving birth, so you'd have to pay out of pocket for that-- roughly $6,000. So when you're out there fending for yourself against the insurance companies, you pay more and get less. 
 
Here's another thing Senator McCain doesn't tell you-- his plan won't do a thing to stop insurance companies from discriminating against you if you have a pre-existing condition like hypertension, asthma, diabetes or cancer… the kind of conditions that 65 million working age Americans suffer from-- people from all backgrounds and walks of life all across this country. Employers don't charge you higher premiums for these conditions, but insurers do-- much higher. So the sicker you've been, the more you'll have to pay, and the harder it'll be to get the care you need. 
 
Finally, what John McCain doesn't tell you is that his plan calls for massive deregulation of the insurance industry that would leave families without the basic protections you rely on. You may have heard about how, in the current issue of a magazine, Senator McCain wrote that we need to open up health care to-- and I quote-- "more vigorous nationwide competition as we have done over the last decade in banking." That's right, he wants to deregulate the insurance industry just like he fought to deregulate the banking industry. And we've all seen how well that worked out.
 
It would be equally catastrophic for your health care. Right now, different states have different rules about what insurance companies have to cover. Senator McCain's plan would create a deregulated national market where companies can cherry pick the state where they're based-- and sell plans anywhere in America. 
 
It's the starting gun for a race to the bottom. Insurance companies will rush to set up shop in states with the fewest protections for patients. States where they don't have to cover things like mammograms and other cancer screenings, vaccinations, maternity care, and mental health care.  States where you don't have a right to appeal when your HMO refuses to cover the treatment you need. These are commonsense protections to make sure that you and your doctor-- not insurance company bureaucrats-- are making decisions about your health. And John McCain wants to give insurance companies free reign to avoid them. 
 
And believe it or not, just to top it all off, Senator McCain plans to give the top ten largest insurance companies $2 billion in new tax cuts. 
 
So, anyone want to guess who's running and funding John McCain's campaign? I'll give you a hint. Remember when we tried to fix health care back in the 1990s, and the insurance companies spent millions running misleading ads to scare people into opposing reform? That's right, John McCain has lobbyists for 69 insurance and drug companies and trade groups advising his campaign, writing his policies, and raising his money. Three of them are his top advisors. 
 
And if you think that Washington lobbyists who are working day and night to elect him are doing it to put themselves out of business, well, I've got a bridge in Alaska to sell you.
 
So here's John McCain's radical plan in a nutshell: he taxes health care benefits for the first time in history; millions lose the health care they have; millions pay more for the health care they get; drug and insurance companies continue to profit; and middle class families watch the system they rely on begin to unravel before their eyes. Well, I don't think that's right. I don't think we should settle for health care that works better for drug and insurance companies than it does for hard working Americans. I don't think that's the change we need. We can do better than that.
 
In the end, it's not surprising that Senator McCain's plan isn't a vast improvement on the same failed policies of these past eight years.Remember, Senator McCain voted against expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program-- a program that provides health care for millions of children in need. He voted against protecting Medicare 40 times over the course of his career. And he supported a massive cut in Medicare that would have raised premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for seniors while weakening the care they depend on.
 
In other words, Senator McCain's plan reflects the same bankrupt philosophy he's subscribed to for the past three decades in Washington: take care of the healthy and wealthy, and good luck to everyone else. They call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is-- you're on your own. Your job doesn't give you health care? The market will fix it. Pre-existing condition? Tough luck. Insurance company won't pay for your treatment? Too bad, you're on your own.
 
This approach hasn't worked these past eight years, it won't work now, and it's time to turn the page.
 
Let me be clear – I don't think government can solve all our problems. But I reject the radical idea that government has no role to play in protecting ordinary Americans. I reject the thinking that says preserving our free market means letting corporations and special interests do as they please. 
 
I know that nothing is more important than the health and well-being of the people you love. And if you work hard and do everything right, you shouldn't live in fear of losing everything because of a fluke of genetics, or a bad diagnosis, or a stroke of bad luck.
 
That's why I believe that every single American has the right to affordable, accessible health care-- a right that should never be subject to Washington politics or industry profiteering, and that should never be purchased with tax increases on middle class families, because that is the last thing we need in an economy like this.
 
I know we can do this. I know what we can accomplish when we come together. I saw it in Illinois, when as a state senator, I brought Republicans and Democrats together to pass legislation that has expanded coverage to more than 150,000 people, including 70,000 children. I helped expand coverage for routine mammograms for women on Medicaid. And we created hospital report cards, so that every consumer could see things like the ratio of nurses to patients, the number of annual medical errors, and the quality of care they could expect at each hospital. 
 
So I reject the tired old debate that says we have to choose between two extremes: government-run health care with higher taxes… or insurance companies without rules denying people coverage.  That's a false choice. It's the same distracting rhetoric that's kept us gridlocked for decades. And we know that neither of these approaches is the answer to this problem. 
 
The real solution is to take on drug and insurance companies; modernize our health care system for the twenty-first century; reduce costs for families and businesses; and finally provide affordable, accessible health care for every American. And that's what I intend to do as President of the United States.
 
Of course, it's easy to have good ideas and make big promises. You've all heard plenty of that these past 20 months. The hard part is coming up with a concrete, detailed plan, and translating that plan into action. So today, I want to take a few minutes to tell you exactly what I plan to do, how I'll get it done, and how I'm going to pay for it. 
 
We'll start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family-- and we'll do it by taking the following five steps to lower costs throughout our health care system.  
           
First, we'll take on the drug and insurance companies and hold them accountable for the prices they charge and the harm they cause. 
 
We'll start by increasing competition in the insurance industry, and outlawing insurance company discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. Insurance companies spend $50 billion a year on elaborate efforts to cherry pick the healthiest patients and avoid covering everyone else. I intend to save them a whole lot of time and money by putting an end to this practice once and for all. 
 
And we'll tell the pharmaceutical companies, thanks, but no thanks for the overpriced drugs – drugs that cost twice as much here as they do in Europe and Canada. We'll let Medicare negotiate for lower-prices; we'll stop drug companies from blocking generic drugs that are just as effective, and far less expensive; and we'll allow the safe re-importation of low-cost drugs from countries like Canada.
 
Second, we'll focus on prevention-- on promoting wellness rather than just managing sickness.  Today, we spend less than four cents of every health care dollar on prevention and public health, even though 80 percent of risk factors involved in the leading causes of death are behavior-related-- and thus, preventable. Under my plan, we'll make sure insurance companies cover evidence-based, preventive care services-- weight loss programs, smoking-cessation programs, and other efforts to help people avoid costly, debilitating health problems in the first place.
 
Third, we'll reduce waste and inefficiency by moving from a 20th century health care system based on pen and paper to a 21st century system based on the latest technology. According to one study, just by transferring medical records from yellowing pages in file cabinets to electronic records in computers, we can save $77 billion a year. And we can save lives too by reducing deadly medical errors and ensuring that doctors and nurses spend less time with paperwork and more time with patients.
 
Fourth, we'll reduce the cost of our care by improving the quality of our care. It's estimated that poor quality care-- from medical errors that cause complications to poor hygiene practices that cause infections-- costs up to $100 billion a year. So we'll provide you with information about your hospitals' and providers' quality of care. We'll track which drugs and procedures work best. And we'll reward providers not just for the quantity of services they provide, but for the quality of outcomes for their patients. So you'll get better care, and we'll all save money in the long run.
 
Fifth, we'll reduce costs for businesses and their workers by picking up the tab for some of the most expensive illnesses. Right now, the five percent of patients with the most serious illnesses like cancer and heart disease account for nearly fifty percent of health care costs. Insurance companies devote the lion's share of their expenses to these patients, and then pass the cost on to the rest of us in the form of higher premiums. Under my plan, the federal government will pay for part of these catastrophic cases, which means that your premiums will go down.
 
So that's how we'll cut costs. But that's not enough. Because today, in the year 2008, 45 million Americans still don't have any health insurance at all. This is one of the great moral crises of our time. And it's creating a vicious cycle that affects every last one of us. As premiums rise, more people become uninsured. And every time those uninsured folks walk into an emergency room because it's their only option, insurance companies raise premiums to cover the cost-- a hidden tax of $922 per family. That extra cost means even more people can't afford insurance, so the problem just gets worse. We cannot go on like this. This is not who we are, and this is not who we have to be. 
 
That's why my plan will cover all Americans. And unlike Senator McCain, I'll do it by building on and strengthening-- rather than dismantling-- our current, workplace-based system. So if you have insurance you like, you keep that insurance. If you have a doctor you like, you keep that doctor. The only thing that changes for you is that your health care costs will go down. 
 
But if you don't have insurance, or don't like your insurance, you'll be able to choose from the same type of quality private plans as every federal employee-- from a postal worker here in Colorado to a Congressman in Washington. All of these plans will cover essential medical services including prevention, maternity, disease management and mental health care. No one will be turned away because of a pre-existing condition or illness. If you have children, they will be covered too. If you change jobs, this insurance will go with you. And if you can't afford this insurance, you'll receive a tax credit to help pay for it.   
 
...I know that if we come together, and work together, we can do this.  So many people are counting on us.

McCain's response? More vicious smears and lies. The Post: "Moments after the House of Representatives approved a bailout package for Wall Street on Friday afternoon, the McCain campaign released a television ad that challenges Obama's honesty and asks, 'Who is Barack Obama?' The ad alleges that 'Senator Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes. Ninety-four times. He's not truthful on taxes.' The charge that Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes has been called misleading by independent fact-checkers, who have noted that the majority of those votes were on nonbinding budget resolutions."

A senior campaign official called the ad "just the beginning" of commercials that will "strike the new tone" in the campaign's final days. The official said the "aggressive tone" will center on the question of "whether this guy is ready to be president."

McCain's only positive commercial, called "Original Mavericks," has largely been taken off the air, according to Evan Tracey of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's performance at Thursday night's debate embodied the new approach, as she used every opportunity to question Obama's honesty and fitness to serve as president. At one point she said, "Barack Obama voted against funding troops [in Iraq] after promising that he would not do so."

Palin kept up the attack yesterday, saying in an interview on Fox News that Obama is "reckless" and that some of what he has said, "in my world, disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief."

McCain hinted Thursday that a change is imminent, perhaps as soon as next week's debate. Asked at a Colorado town hall, "When are you going to take the gloves off?" the candidate grinned and replied, "How about Tuesday night?"

Today, the editors of the NY Times fretted that Palin's idea of a role model is Dick Cheney but they should have thought of what kind of a man-- and what kind of a voting record and what kind of character and what kind of judgment he had-- before they endorsed him earlier this year. For the last two weeks, all the Blue America candidates have been telling me their Republican incumbents are turning even more nasty and negative than usual. It isn't just McCain. His whole party would rather wreck the country than give up power. McCain may be the worst, but James Inhofe's vile campaign of lies against state Senator Andrew Rice has been pretty putrid. Rice has tried to stick to the issues and let Inhofe play in the mud by himself. Today Rice answered him back-- and very effectively:

Stock Painting And Financial Manipulation For Insiders

Andrew Rice, standing up for working families

You've probably seen-- and probably dismissed-- some of that "string 'em up" talk, right? But lynching isn't what I mean when I talk about harsh punishment for the selfish greedballs who are bankrupting the nation. I firmly believe in fair trials first. If you don't live in Seattle it isn't likely you saw this Times story this morning about the relationship between Darcy Burner and the netroots. Inspired by Reichert, the journalist was trying to prove that "liberal bloggers" from outside the district are more of a threat to the residents of WA-08 than Reichert's special interest corporate donors. The writer, Emily Heffter, kept trying to get me to "admit" I'm a liberal, even though I told her I'm not and explained, patiently, why that kind of labeling is a distraction. I told her I had won a scholarship for writing an essay defending the death penalty and that-- at least in theory-- I still believe in it. Does that make me a liberal? A conservative?

Yesterday's NY Times has a wonky business section story by Floyd Norris about stock market manipulations which demonstrates-- clearly for me-- why economic predators, and the politicians who, for fat bribes, enable them, should be tried and punished, not given golden parachutes and bonuses at the public's expense. Keep in mind this was going on in the midst of the Bush Regime's Shock Doctrine approach to the economic and financial mess they have so deftly guided the country into:

The last five minutes of trading on the last day of the quarter were very good to a significant number of stocks on Tuesday, including battered financial shares.

Tuesday’s closing prices were particularly important to money managers who report their performance based on quarterly figures, and suspicions of “painting the tape”-- buying shares at the end of the day to drive up the price-- have been common during the final minutes of a quarter.

This year, with traders no longer allowed to short financial stocks, sharp rises in share prices in the final minute could not be offset by short-sale orders from investors who suspected tape-painting.

Part of the answer as to whether tape-painting occurred may come Wednesday morning when shares with the largest moves reopen for trading. Over all, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index registered 7 percent of the day’s gain in the final five minutes, while the index of financial stocks in the group produced 11 percent of the day’s gain in the time period.

For many stocks, the final move was striking. Sallie Mae, formally known as SLM, for example, rose 10 percent during those minutes, accounting for more than half the day’s rise. The brokerage firm Charles Schwab and the KeyCorp, a banking company, each leaped 7 percent in the final minutes, moves that accounted for more than one-third of their gains for the day.

Old Republic International, an insurance company; XL Capital, another insurance firm; and Janus Capital, a money management firm, all jumped more than 5 percent in the final minutes, moves that accounted for at least 30 percent of their gains for the day.

So who have they gotten to so far, to sell out their constituents and change their voters in favor of the predators and manipulators? Earlier today we exposed Arizona's most crooked House member (now that Rick Renzi is headed to prison), John Shadegg. But Shadegg, who has accepted legalized bribes from the Finance, Insurance, Real Estate Sector totaling $1,065,296, is by no means the only sleazebag listening to Wall Street's siren song. Tennessee Republican hack Zack Wamp led the way towards betraying working families and was joined by Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO). They're all abandoning principle and abandoning their constituents for the comforts Wall Street can offer them.

So while the same wacko fake religionist hate-mongers who blamed 9/11 and Katrina on gay people also blame the Wall Street meltdown on gays more rational observers have a slightly different analysis. Oklahoma's radical right Senator James Inhofe has accepted $1,349,302 in so-called "donations" from the culprits in the Wall Street meltdown. It surprised no one that the Republican leadership thought it would be wise for him to vote against Paulson's bailout plan, since a YES vote would have ended his already shaky career on the spot. His Democratic opponent, Andrew Rice, however, isn't letting him off the hook so easily:

"I've said from the very beginning that something needs to be done, but the bill that passed the Senate tonight is not strong enough. It gives too much away to Wall Street without guaranteeing that a crisis like this won't happen again, and it allows executives to get most or all of their multi-million dollar benefits packages without any punitive consequences.

"Rather than being an active participant at the negotiation table and ensuring Oklahomans have a voice in this important decision, Jim Inhofe removed himself from the equation, offered no alternative solutions, and abdicated his responsibilities as a U.S. Senator."

The Solution: Better Democrats-- Lots Of Them

Better Democrats: Darcy Burner and Annette Taddeo

Earlier today we highlighted Rep. Hilda Solis' reasons for voting against Paulson's bailout/giveaway. We've heard from many of our Blue America candidates explaining why they also opposed the bill. Annette Taddeo (D-FL), for example, explained to voters in Miami-Dade why she was against the bill:

“We must protect homeowners and taxpayers. This bill fails to address the collapsing housing market, the root cause of the crisis. I do not support spending $700 billion in taxpayer money on a flawed bill. I call on Democrats in Congress and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to draft legislation that protects the people and families of South Florida."
 
"While the proposed bill is a start, it is not complete until homeowners and taxpayers are protected, and there are mechanisms in place to assure proper oversight so this does not happen again."
 
“As a small-businesswoman and Past-Chair of the Coalition of Greater Miami-Dade Chambers of Commerce, I know what our economy needs to right itself. Congress should send President Bush a bill that includes real protections for homeowners and taxpayers.”

Now what's important is that Congress makes the bill better-- much better-- so progressives can support it. My fear is that there will be tremendous pressure to make the bill even worse so as to capture votes from the 133 reactionary Republicans who voted no. Andrew Rice, the Blue America-endorsed candidate for the Oklahoma Senate seat held by the most extreme right-wing fringe lunatic in Congress, James Inhofe, has some suggestions for how Congress should re-address the failed bill. Basically, what Andrew said is that he would only support a plan that includes: meaningful oversight; a stake for taxpayers; and hard limits on executive compensation. He looks at it as a bill that didn't do nearly to fix the broken system that allowed abusive and reckless loans, an explosion of risky investments and poorly understood financial instruments, and other excesses. Andrew:

"This bill gives too much away to the people who created these problems without guaranteeing that it won't happen again. Any bill would need to require much tougher consequences for Wall Street in order to earn my support."

"Taxpayer dollars should not be used to line the pockets of the corporate executives who helped create these problems. A message must be sent to Wall Street that reckless speculation and greed will no longer be rewarded."

I'd like to urge you to consider donating to the Blue America PAC to allow us to help elect progressive Democrats to Congress in November. This is the BETTER DEMOCRATS strategy, not the More Democrats strategy. We need Democrats like Hilda Solis, Donna Edwards and Carol Shea-Porter, who voted against Bush's bailout today-- Democratic challengers like Darcy Burner, Gary Peters, Mark Schauer, Larry Joe Doherty, and Annette Taddeo who are demanding a much better bill.

Most of our candidates echo what Mark Schauer had to say today:

"For years, Michigan has been struggling-- and there's been no bailout for us. No bailout for the Michigan homeowners who were losing their homes to foreclosure, no bailout for the Michigan workers whose jobs were being shipped overseas, no bailout for the middle class that kept getting hurt by George Bush and Tim Walberg's failed economic policies. More than that, Tim Walberg and his cronies in Washington have turned their back on us. This plan did not provide enough accountability, nor did it do enough to keep people in their homes, help small business, or bring jobs and economic development to our communities."

By all means, keep donating to the candidates on our list, but also please consider donating to our PAC so we can focus some last minute energy on the races that need them most-- and for the candidates who will be the real progressive leaders.

Meanwhile, join us over at Crooks & Liars at 3pm, PT for a chat with Texas Senate candidate Rick Noriega about this bill.

How Do You Fix A Problem If You Don't Recognize It Is A Problem? Ask James Inhofe

Courtesy of PhotoTune

Do you remember when someone asked Bush about the price of gas being up around $4 a gallon-- where it had been, at least in Los Angeles, for a couple months-- and he looked and sounded absolutely stunned? Many people understood at that moment that if Bush didn't even know that the price of gasoline, largely due to his own policies, was spiraling out of control, there was absolutely no chance he would be working on a solution. Many people just gave up on the Republicans at that moment and Bush's approval rating started their own downward spiral. Yes, overall, his approval rate is still 19% but notice that on his handling of the economy, only 17% of Americans approve of Bush-- and zero % of Americans think the economy is getting better. (I never saw a zero percent on any poll on anything anywhere... not even in a snakehandling "church" in Lynchburg.

Anyway, I hope you've already heard about James Inhofe, the single most reactionary extremist in the U.S. Senate. If you have heard of him it's probably because he has refused to recognize that Global Warming has anything to do with human activity and has used every ounce of strength he could muster to defeat alternative energy proposals in Congress-- at the same time taking more money from Big Oil, along with John Cornyn, than any non-presidential candidate in either house of Congress (over one million dollars; you think they've been buying influence?). But Global Warming isn't the only thing the stubborn Inhofe refuses to recognize-- that the economy is "not really a problem."

No one is that thick? Ahhh... so you don't really know James Inhofe. Listen to him on KTOK today:



Ironically, Inhofe's November opponent, state Senator Andrew Rice, is as excellent a candidate as Inhofe is abysmal. His campaign issued an instant rebuttal to Inhofe's bizarre denial of economic problems-- even Bush realizes there's a problem- this morning:

While other members of Oklahoma's congressional delegation are working to find solutions to our current economic crisis, Jim Inhofe has decided to pretend this problem he helped create doesn't exist. Inhofe said the following on KTOK talk radio Wednesday night: "I happened to be talking to the Oklahoma Community Bankers last Friday… and they agreed with me that this is not really a problem."

Inhofe's comments are startling and in stark contrast to what other prominent officials in his own party are saying. 
 
Senator Jim Inhofe: "This is not really a problem".
 
President George Bush: "Our entire economy is in danger".
 
Senator John McCain: "America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system."
 
Senator Tom Coburn: "We've got to do what's right … and we should not leave here until this is solved."
 
Senator Andrew Rice, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, has called for a bipartisan solution to the economic crisis and said he would support a bailout plan that included the following three provisions to protect Oklahomans: meaningful oversight, protection for taxpayers and limits on executive compensation.
 
"I am outraged that Jim Inhofe, who helped get us in this mess in the first place, is now sitting on his hands," Rice said. 
 
"Unfortunately, Oklahomans will be sharing the cost of other people's mistakes on Wall Street because Jim Inhofe was asleep at the wheel while investment bankers operated without fear of oversight to put billions of dollars in assets at risk.
 
"Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Tuesday that no sector of the American economy will escape the effects of this financial crisis," Rice said. "Jim Inhofe has placed Oklahoma's economic good fortune at risk." 
 
Oklahomans wanting to understand how the current crisis began should start by looking at the record of Jim Inhofe, who has repeatedly fought oversight of Wall Street during his 22 years in Washington. 
 
Last week, the Washington Post reported that by eroding government oversight of Wall Street, the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 "helped pave the way for companies such as AIG and Lehman Brothers to become behemoths laden with bad loans and investments."  Those who have followed Jim Inhofe's 22 years in Washington will not be surprised that Inhofe voted for the bill, which eliminated regulations and controls on the financial industry that had been established after the Great Depression.
 
The 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. The Glass-Steagall Act had been crafted in response to over-speculation from banks in the 1920s that contributed to 1929's stock market crash.

The entire Republican Party-- with not one single exception-- supported the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the handiwork of John McCain's chief economic advisor, Phil Gramm, and the single most important factor in the current Wall Street meltdown. Would Andrew Rice have voted to have repealed Glass-Steagall? Not a chance. As a member of the state Senate, Andrew has helped the state of Oklahoma weather these tough economic times better than almost any other state, but the forecast is by no means rosy and by no means does it merit representation in Washington that doesn't even see there's a problem.

Andrew is participating in this week's Blue America competition. A vote for him-- or for any of the candidates-- will result in a $5,000 check to their campaign from Blue America. Please vote at the link; you can leverage $1 or $20 into $5,000 for your favorite candidate. (Maybe Andrew supporters can slip in there while Texas and Oregon are slugging it out!)


UPDATE: MAY I RECOMMEND THAT SENATOR INHOFE READ THIS QUOTE FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON?

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency [think mortgages], first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."

-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin

It Really Is Up To Us To Deliver A 60 Vote Senate

A few weeks ago we did a Blue America contest to award $5,000 to a congressional candidate. Our winner, Annette Taddeo (D-FL) wound up with over $36,000 (including matching funds from Chris Van Hollen and some other DCCC leaders). This week we started a week-long contest to pick a Senate candidate to give the same $5,000 check too. A donation of $1-- or $1,000-- counts as a vote and you can vote here. Since we started on Saturday afternoon, there have been over 300 votes and more than $9,000. Right now Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is ahead although both Andrew Rice (D-OK) and Rick Noriega (D-TX) are starting to catch up.

Like we explained on Saturday, these are the tough races-- not the low hanging fruit-- but the races that will determine whether or not McConnell, McCain and the rest of McLunatic Fringe will be able to filibuster and obstruct Obama's program for change. But, believe me, we're not the only ones who have figured this out. yesterday's Roll Call is calling attention to the fact that right wing GOP front groups are dumping millions and millions of dollars into the Senate races now, panicked that the reactionaries could lose their ability to obstruct progressive legislation. And they are heavily outspending independent progressive groups-- $23 million to $3.3 million.

The misnamed neo-fascist billionaires club, Freedom's Watch, has been on the warpath as have other ring wing advocacy groups like the national. Chamber of Commerce, Associated Builders and Contractors Free Enterprise, America’s Future Fund, Employee Freedom Action Committee and the Club for Growth. Freedom's Watch is spending heavily to save rubber stamp Republican Gordon Smith in Oregon and the Club For Growth is pouring money into Alaska to save the most corrupt member of the Senate, Ted Stevens.

Of course the good news is that this right-wing cash isn't going to McCain's campaign. The bad news is that our Senate candidates need help. Andrew Rice for example, is being viciously attacked by a corporate sleazeball incumbent who has millions of dollars in corporate cash flooding into his campaign coffers for a ceaseless barrage of negative attack ads. You may feel good-- and you should-- that grassroots activists have helped raise nearly $1.5 million dollars for Andrew Rice's campaign. But Inhofe has already spent twice that total and has $2.5 million on hand. This year he's the second biggest recipient among non-presidentail candidates of legalized bribes from Big Oil ($351,750). He's taken over $150,000 from lobbyists, over $180,000 from the kinds of bankers and investment firms he's been voting to deregulate over the years, nearly $100,000 from the Real Estate Industry, over $50,000 from the Insurance Industry... all the folks who he's been serving instead of the citizens of Oklahoma. Almost every cent of the contributions Andrew has gotten has come from small individual donors looking not for special favors but for decent representation for Oklahoma and a fair shot for working families for a change. Donating to Andrew's campaign will help him keep ads like this one-- debunking Inhofe's lies and distortions-- on the air:



Don't forget to vote-- in a contest with all excellent choices.


UPDATE: ANDREW RICE TAKES IT TO THE VOTERS

Yesterday Andrew held a press conference in Oklahoma City aimed more at regular citizens than at members of the media. He explained that he had called people together because "it's apparent that American taxpayers are going to be saddled with $700 billion worth of irresponsible investments by Wall Street, I'm alarmed by our Senior Senator Jim Inhofe's reaction. He said he'll 'be keeping an eye on the fallout.'" 

I think he should be working for a solution, so that we taxpayers are not forced to bail out unregulated schemers and millionaires again. 

Our other senator, Tom Coburn, reacted strongly, saying, "Congress has known about these problems for years, but did nothing because [they] were so obsessed with short-term politics...to do the hard work of oversight and reform that was necessary to avert this mess."   

I couldn't agree more with Senator Coburn. And we should all be asking ourselves, what has Jim Inhofe, who's been in Washington 22 years, done to avert this crisis? Absolutely nothing.   

In fact, it's ironic that for all these years Jim Inhofe has tried to tell us that big government is the enemy. He wants to privatize everything. Social Security, Medicare, health care, education.  

Yet, while he was keeping his eye on the fallout of the recent crisis on Wall Street, it fell to the taxpayers and government to bail out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and A.I.G., and pump tons of liquidity into the banking system. If government had not come to the rescue, our economic crisis would be catastrophic. 

Jim Inhofe helped give George Bush everything he asked for in terms of economic policy. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Deregulation. Limited Oversight. Look where it's gotten us today. 

Oklahomans are paying record prices for fuel and food. Credit markets are shrinking for consumer products like washing machines and other household items. U.S. banks are afraid to lend money to each other. America is now a more risky proposition for important foreign investors. 

I want to see Jim Inhofe take responsibility. He should be accountable for his misguided economic policies and pitch in this week with other bipartisan Congressional leaders to ensure that this $700 billion bailout is the last one.  

This is the largest price tag on any piece of legislation in our country's history; more even than we're paying for the Iraq War-- to bail out financial institutions that acted for the last several years without fear of government oversight .

I'm standing here not only as a nominee for Senate, but as a concerned taxpayer who is asking Jim Inhofe, for once, to put his ideology aside and ask the tough questions. Show some transparency, Jim Inhofe. Tell us what you've done, whom you've met with, which actions you've taken to challenge those corporations who will now benefit from this bailout. It's time to act and push for solutions. We don't have the luxury of waiting to see how things shake out.

I'm calling on Jim Inhofe to roll up his sleeves and get to work on solving this mess he's gotten us into. We need a plan that... 

• Ensures this $700 billion check is not a blank check. Taxpayers deserve accountability on the part of the Bush Administration in exercising this unprecedented authority;

• Ensures the investors and CEOs who put us in this mess don't get off scot-free;

• Includes help for everyday Oklahomans on Main Street;

• Includes more responsible regulators who will hold investment bankers accountable and not look the other way while the fox invades the hen house.

We sent Jim Inhofe to Washington 22 years ago to look out for Oklahoma. Unfortunately for us, he was asleep at the switch. And it's clear now that we can no longer afford Jim Inhofe's see no evil, hear no evil approach.

I want to remind you again, whether you decide to kick down even one dollar or more, to vote in the Blue America Senate contest. Andrew would make a great U.S. Senator-- as would Tom Allen, Jeff Berkley, Mark Begich and Rick Noriega. The one who gets the most "votes" in our poll (at the link) gets a $5,000 check from Blue America.