No Men-- Especially No Men In Public Office-- Should Ever Think They Are "Untouchable" When It Comes To Workplace Sexual Harassment

-by Valley Girl

I wrote an email to Howie a few days back saying in part "I totally agreed with your tweet. This is what leadership should be about. It seems that they are not willing to name names because it will hurt their own careers. Howie, you have a lot of connections. Is there any way you could winkle this information out of someone? Get them to name even a few names? My gut feeling is that once even a few names are mentioned, then the floodgates will open."

Howie asked me to do a guest post. I’ve been working on that. Getting into the weeds, as I usually do. I started checking out Barbara Comstock (R-VA), who I didn’t know anything about before, but who now seems to have little record of bravery of any sort. I’ve compiled quite a dossier on her.

And, reminding myself of the details of Jackie Speirs’ history-- 1978 including when she went, as a congressional aide to Leo Ryan, to Jonestown, Guyana. By the end of the trip, Ryan was dead-- the first and only congressman to be assassinated in office-- along with three journalists and one cult defector. Speier and nine others had been shot and left for dead at a remote airstrip; they waited 22 hours for help to arrive.

Yes, she does have a solid history of bravery, courage, and public service. Watch this for context as to what Howie was talking about-- a House hearing:



Also note that this video above leaves out something: via CNN: During the hearing to review the House's sexual harassment policies, Comstock said it was "important that we name names."... exactly what Howie challenged her to do in his tweet.

And, also from the same CNN link, note this, if you follow the link-- "Speier, a Democrat who has gone public with her own allegations of sexual assault while she served as a Hill aide decades ago, testified before the panel Tuesday that two currently sitting members of Congress-- one Democrat, one Republican-- have 'engaged in sexual harassment' but have not yet been reviewed." NO, CNN is wrong on this quote. Speier actually says: two members… one Democrat, one Republican, who have been subject to review, or not have been subject to review, who have engaged in sexual harassment.

Fast forward with the post I’ve been working one-- I’m on EST, so I missed this news by several hours, until I woke up this morning. And ended up ditching most of what I’d already written. Note again Speier’s actual comment above.

The Buzz Feed story blows the lid off one of these two-- John Conyers. Title and subtitle: She Said A Powerful Congressman Harassed Her. Here’s Why You Didn’t Hear Her Story. "When you make private settlements, it doesn’t warn the next woman or the next person going into that situation."

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat and the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who alleged she was fired because she would not “succumb to [his] sexual advances.”

Documents from the complaint obtained by BuzzFeed News include four signed affidavits, three of which are notarized, from former staff members who allege that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly made sexual advances to female staff that included requests for sexual favors, contacting and transporting other women with whom they believed Conyers was having affairs, caressing their hands sexually, and rubbing their legs and backs in public. Four people involved with the case verified the documents are authentic.

And the documents also reveal the secret mechanism by which Congress has kept an unknown number of sexual harassment allegations secret: a grinding, closely held process that left the alleged victim feeling, she told BuzzFeed News, that she had no option other than to stay quiet and accept a settlement offered to her.

“I was basically blackballed. There was nowhere I could go,” she said in a phone interview. BuzzFeed News is withholding the woman’s name at her request because she said she fears retribution.

The woman who settled with Conyers launched the complaint with the Office of Compliance in 2014, alleging she was fired for refusing his sexual advances, and ended up facing a daunting process that ended with a confidentiality agreement in exchange for a settlement of more than $27,000. Her settlement, however, came from Conyers’ office budget rather than the designated fund for settlements.

In this case, one of Conyers’ former employees was offered a settlement, in exchange for her silence, that would be paid out of Conyers’ taxpayer-funded office budget. His office would “rehire” the woman as a “temporary employee” despite her being directed not to come into the office or do any actual work, according to the document. The complainant would receive a total payment of $27,111.75 over the three months, after which point she would be removed from the payroll, according to the document.

The process was “disgusting,” said Matthew Peterson, who worked as a law clerk representing the complainant, and who listed as a signatory to some of the documents.

“It is a designed cover-up,” said Peterson, who declined to discuss details of the case but agreed to characterize it in general terms. “You feel like they were betrayed by their government just for coming forward. It’s like being abused twice.”

Two staffers alleged in their signed affidavits that Conyers used congressional resources to fly in women they believed he was having affairs with. Another said she was tasked with driving women to and from Conyers’ apartment and hotel rooms.

In her complaint, the former employee said Conyers repeatedly asked her for sexual favors and often asked her to join him in a hotel room. On one occasion, she alleges that Conyers asked her to work out of his room for the evening, but when she arrived the congressman started talking about his sexual desires. She alleged he then told her she needed to “touch it,” in reference to his penis, or find him a woman who would meet his sexual demands.

She alleged Conyers made her work nights, evenings, and holidays to keep him company.

In another incident, the former employee alleged the congressman insisted she stay in his room while they traveled together for a fundraising event. When she told him that she would not stay with him, she alleged he told her to “just cuddle up with me and caress me before you go.”

“Rep. Conyers strongly postulated that the performing of personal service or favors would be looked upon favorably and lead to salary increases or promotions,” the former employee said in the documents.

Three other staff members provided affidavits submitted to the Office Of Compliance that outlined a pattern of behavior from Conyers that included touching the woman in a sexual manner and growing angry when she brought her husband around.

One affidavit from a former female employee states that she was tasked with flying in women for the congressman. “One of my duties while working for Rep. Conyers was to keep a list of women that I assumed he was having affairs with and call them at his request and, if necessary, have them flown in using Congressional resources,” said her affidavit. (A second staffer alleged in an interview that Conyers used taxpayer resources to fly women to him.)

The employee said in her affidavit that Conyers also made sexual advances toward her: “I was driving the Congressman in my personal car and was resting my hand on the stick shift. Rep. Conyers reached over and began to caress my hand in a sexual manner.”

The woman said she told Conyers she was married and not interested in pursuing a sexual relationship, according to the affidavit. She said she was told many times by constituents that it was well-known that Conyers had sexual relationships with his staff, and said she and other female staffers felt this undermined their credibility.

“I am personally aware of several women who have experienced the same or similar sexual advances made towards them by Rep[.] John Conyers,” she said in her affidavit.

A male employee wrote that he witnessed Rep. Conyers rub the legs and other body parts of the complainant “in what appeared to be a sexual manner” and saw the congressman rub and touch other women “in an inappropriate manner.” The employee said he confronted Conyers about this behavior.

“Rep. Conyers said he needed to be ‘more careful’ because bad publicity would not be helpful as he runs for re-election. He ended the conversation with me by saying he would ‘work on’ his behavior,” the male staffer said in his affidavit.

The male employee said that in 2011 Conyers complained a female staffer was “too old” and said he wanted to let her go. The employee said he set up a meeting in December 2011 to discuss “mistreatment of staff and his misuse of federal resources.” The affidavit says that Conyers “agreed that he would work on making improvements as long as I worked directly with him and stopped writing memos and emails about concerns.”

Another female employee also attested that she witnessed Conyer’s advances, and said she was asked to transport women to him. “I was asked on multiple occasions to pick up women and bring them to Mr. Conyers['] apartment, hotel rooms, etc.”

“I don’t think any allegations should be buried... and that’s for anyone, not just for this particular office, because it doesn’t really allow other people to see who these individuals are,” said the former staffer. “When you make private settlements, it doesn’t warn the next woman or the next person going into that situation.”

Another staffer said Conyers’ reputation made people fearful to speak out against him. Aside from being the longest-serving House member and the ranking member of a powerful committee, Conyers is a civil rights icon. He was lauded by Martin Luther King Jr. and is a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“Your story won’t do shit to him,” said the staffer. “He’s untouchable.”

Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is the second most senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee after Conyers. This was his statement yesterday: "The allegations against Ranking Member Conyers are extremely serious and deeply troubling. Obviously, these allegations must be investigated promptly by the Ethics Committee. There can be no tolerance for behavior that subjects women to the kind of conduct alleged. We also must support efforts to reform the way the House of Representatives handles these matters to make the process easier and more supportive of victims, as well as more transparent."

I'll leave this post with a brief mention of the salience of "political correctness" in the societal explosion we're going through now. I borrowed it from an essay by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic: "Political correctness is a vague term, perhaps best defined by the conservative scholar Samuel Goldman. 'What Trump and others seem to mean by political correctness is an extremely dramatic and rapidly changing set of discursive and social laws that, virtually overnight, people are expected to understand, to which they are expected to adhere.' From a different vantage point, what Trump’s supporters refer to as political correctness is largely the result of marginalized communities gaining sufficient political power to project their prerogatives onto society at large. What a society finds offensive is not a function of fact or truth, but of power. It is why unpunished murders of black Americans by agents of the state draw less outrage than black football players’ kneeling for the National Anthem in protest against them. It is no coincidence that Trump himself frequently uses the term to belittle what he sees as unnecessary restrictions on state force."

Is The DCCC Trying To Bum Rush Their Candidate Into The Nomination In VA-10 By Getting Rid Of The Primary?

VA-10 is one of the most flippable congressional districts anywhere. The district's PVI last cycle was R+2. This cycle the PVI is D+1. Obama beat McCain 51-48%, Romney beat Obama 50-49% and then Trump lost to Hillary by ten full points-- 52.2% to 42.2%. The DCCC contested the district last cycle with one of their unelectable garbage candidates, LuAnn Bennett, who was beaten by Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock, 210,791 (52.7%) to 187,712 (46.9%). Comstock spent $5,291,182 to Bennett's $2,821,082. Outside spending was gigantic-- $6,309,347 from the DCCC and Pelosi's SuperPAC and $7,547,250 from the NRCC and Ryan's SuperPAC.

There are at least 9 Democrats vying for the nomination for 2018-- Alison Friedman, Daniel Helmer, Dave Hanson, Deep Sran, Julien Modica, Kimberly Adams, Lindsey Davis Stover, Michael Pomerleano and the DCCC candidate, Jennifer Wexton. This evening, Politico reporter Kevin Robillard broke the story that there may not be a primary to pick the Democratic nominee. Robillard reported tonight that VA-10 "Democratic officials... are considering picking their nominee through a convention rather than a primary, a step opposed by all but one of the leading candidates: Virginia state Sen. Jennifer Wexton." The DCCC is nervous because the progressives in the race, Alison Friedman and Lindsey Davis Stover, plus Daniel Helmer, all outraised their conservative pick, Jennifer Wexton.

The Democratic committee in Virginia’s 10th District met on Sunday to discuss how to pick their nominee to challenge Comstock in 2018. Politico obtained an audio recording of a lengthy debate between committee members over whether to hold a regular state-run primary, a more limited “firehouse primary,” a caucus or a convention.

“We haven’t ruled anything out,” said Zach Prukowski, the chair of the 10th District Democrats, who said he was still meeting with candidates and activists to determine the best approach. The committee will make its final decision at a meeting in November.

Virginia law enables parties to pick their nominating processes, but Democrats have almost always held primaries in recent years.

...Wexton’s campaign was the only one of four contacted by Politico that didn’t explicitly favor a primary.

“The members of the 10th are political veterans of Northern Virginia and I'm sure they'll make the choice that's in the best interest of the district,” Wexton spokesman Ray Rieling wrote in an email. “Senator Wexton is looking forward to competing in whatever nominating method they choose. The number one priority here should be Democrats working together to beat Barbara Comstock so the district has real representation that doesn't hide in Washington.”

The three other top contenders all wanted to compete in a primary.

"Every voice deserves to be heard when choosing a nominee. Alison Friedman strongly supports allowing voters' voices to be heard in a primary election, where voters across the district can easily participate,” campaign manager Peter Dougherty said.

“We cannot be the party of the future if we stand for the politics of the past,” Stover said. “This is clear, we either trust the voters or we don't-- I do.”

“Anyone who’s afraid of a primary shouldn’t be running,” Helmer said in a brief phone interview. “Any candidate who’s running to represent Democrats should live up to our ideals and want a free and open primary.”

Several people are whispering that the DCCC is behind the move which is not likely to go over well with activists and will probably guarantee low turn-out and reelection for Comstock. One member of the committee said that "we’re Democrats, we want to make this more democratic, and less rigged. The way you do that is to go with the most participation you can possibly get. Which would be, in my vote, the state-run primary.”

Lindsey Davis Stover's campaign released a statement this evening calling for Wexton "to reverse her position and support a full and fair state-run primary to determine the Democratic nominee who will run against Barbara Comstock in 2018 " and launching petition website calling for a primary. “We cannot be the party of the future if we stand for the politics of the past. It is simple, we either trust the voters or we don't-- I do. If we can’t stand up for the basic notion that voters should have the right to vote, then we forfeit our right to lead on any other issue. Today I’m calling on Jennifer Wexton to put trust in the voters and reverse her stance. In this election, we have an opportunity to encourage record levels of participation that will help us defeat Barbara Comstock. The Democratic nomination should be earned, not anointed."

Are You Going To Remember Who Tried To Help The Refugees In November, 2018?

The last time I drank a Coke (or Pepsi) I was barely 20; it was in 1970. There was no social media then (aside from postcards) and international telephone calls were way too expensive for someone like me. So, while I was making my way by land across the world I depended on letters from home for news. If you read the comments here at DWT, you've no doubt run across someone calling herself "Hone." She was a friend of mine in college and she sent me a letter-- to poste restante (I think in Kabul) which came to me months after the massacre at Kent State. Although she doesn't remember it today, her letter included a call to arms: American students would topple Coca Coca and Pepsi, two iconic American brands, as a response to the murders of the peaceful protestors. Foolishly I had been depending on Coke for hydration because the water was so dangerous to drink in countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in those days. The U.S. consulates in Iran and Afghanistan would warn American travelers to boil water for several minutes, let it cool down and then boil it again before drinking it. So it was a great sacrifice for me to give up consuming soft drinks. But I did and never touched one again. Yesterday I deleted my Uber app and I'll never get in another Uber. It'll be taxis and Lyft for me from now on.

OK, how about a few words from Pope Francis? This is what he told a group of Catholic and Lutheran pilgrims yesterday: "[T]he sickness or, you can say the sin, that Jesus condemns most is hypocrisy... You cannot be a Christian without living like a Christian. You cannot be a Christian without practicing the Beatitudes. You cannot be a Christian without doing what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 25," a reference to Christ’s injunction to help the needy by such works of mercy as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and welcoming the stranger. It’s hypocrisy to call yourself a Christian and chase away a refugee or someone seeking help, someone who is hungry or thirsty, toss out someone who is in need of my help. If I say I am Christian, but do these things, I’m a hypocrite.

Randian fake-Christian Paul Ryan, who can be eliminated, politically, in 2018, is still pissing off God by swearing that Trump's executive order is not a Muslim ban. He's lying. And most of the Republicans in Congress are right there with him. The relatively new congressman from Staten Island, Dan Donovan said the same thing a;most all the GOP members are saying, namely that "President Trump's decision is in America's best interest." Even the Republicans criticizing Trump-- so far Senators Susan Collins (ME), Jeff Flake (AZ), Lindsey Graham (SC), Lamar Alexander (TN) and Ben Sasse (NE) plus House members Mike Coffman (CO), Carlos Curbelo (FL), Elise Stefanik (NY), Will Hurd (TX), Mike Fitzpatrick (PA), Charlie Dent (PA), Justin Amash (MI), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) and Barbara Comstock (Va), all from blue-leaning or swing districts-- are bing very circumspect. Barbara Comstock, for example, one of the most electorally vulnerable Republicans in Congress, issued a tepid statement saying, "As I consistently have said, I don't believe it is constitutional to ban people from our country on the basis pf religion. However, I do support-- and the House of Representatives has supported on a bipartisan basis-- increased vetting based on national security concerns. The president’s executive order yesterday went beyond the increased vetting actions that Congress has supported on a bipartisan basis and inexplicably applied to Green Card holders, people who are legally within our country who have followed the rules. Green Card holders go through a detailed legal process and are vetted. They are required to register with the selective service-- many serve in the military. They pay taxes. I find it hard to believe that green card holders-- legal permanent residents-- were intended to be included in this Executive Order. This should be addressed and corrected expeditiously."

It was addressed expeditiously, thought not corrected. When Department of Homeland Security officials asked the White House for a clarification, the neo-Nazi who Trump has put in charge of this whole mess, psychopathic right-wing blogger Steve Bannon, said Green Card holders were very much meant to be included. No comment on that report from Ryan or Comstock or any of the other Republicanos enabling Trump and Bannon. The only Republican who seems sincere and principled in his opposition to Trump's unconstitutional mayhem is Justin Amash, noting Trump's executive order "overreaches and undermines our constitutional system... The president's denial of entry to lawful permanent residents of the United States (green card holders) is particularly troubling. Green card holders live in the United States as our neighbors and serve in our Armed Forces. They deserve better... Ultimately, the executive order appears to be more about politics than safety. If the concern is radicalism and terrorism, then what about Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and others? Finally, we can't effectively fight homegrown Islamic radicalism by perpetuating the 'us vs. them' mindset that terrorists use to recruit. We must ensure that the United States remains dedicated to the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and liberty."

Politically, Democrats better follow the lead of resisters like Ted Lieu and Jerry Nadler and let their own base know they are fighting-- and for real-- and not let the story become a false narrative about a few"brave Republicans" standing unto Trump. But what Comstock and other Republicans are talking about when they refer to "bipartisan support" is the 289-137 approval of an ugly, bigoted anti-refugee bill by Texas' Michael McCaul. 47 Democrats-- mostly from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- joined forces with 242 Republicans to pass it. 135 Democrats and just 2 Republicans voted against it-- and one of the Republicans, Iowa extremist Steve King, voted NO because he didn't feel the bill was draconian enough. Over the weekend into today many of the 47 Democrats who voted with the Republicans are trying desperately to distance themselves from their own votes.

Take right-wing Blue Dog Jim Cooper, who represents (badly) a safe blue seat in Nashville. Yesterday he was trying to hide his bigotry with a tweet. Steve Israel, one of the leaders of the move to get Democrats to vote with the GOP against refugees, was practically rending his clothing today in sympathy for the immigrants. Here's a list of the worst of the traitors who are still in Congress:

• Pete Aguilar (New Dem-CA)
• Ami Bera (New Dem-CA)
• Sanford Bishop (Blue Dog-GA)
• Julia Brownley (worthless coward-CA)
• Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL)
• Gerry Connolly (New Dem-VA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)

• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• John Delaney (New Dem-MD)
• Tulsi Gabbard (LOL-HI)
• Jim Himes (New Dem-CT)
• Steve Israel (Blue Dog-NY)
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
• Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH)
• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
• Sean Patrick Maloney (New Dem-NY)
• Donald Norcross (Corrupt-NJ)
• Scott Peters (New Dem-CA)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)
• Tim Ryan (Would-be Leader-OH)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
• David Scott (Blue Dog-GA)
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
• Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ)
• Filemon Vela (Blue Dog-TX)

There's only one group that has been working consistently to drive Blue Dogs and New Dems out of Congress for over a decade-- Blue America. No one else has dared. Want to help? You can here.

Since Mike decided to delete this tweet over the weekend, we decided to decorate it for him

He's A Mutt?

Far right extremist Martha Roby represents a blood red (R+17) hellhole-- ethnically cleansed-- in southeast Alabama. Romney beat Obama there 63-36%. No Democrat will ever win her district; the DCCC doesn't even run candidates there. This morning she woke up-- perhaps having slept badly because of yesterday's Trump revelations-- and withdrew her ill-advised Trumpy-the-Clown endorsement. "Trump's behavior," she said, "makes him unacceptable as a candidate… and I won't vote for him." GOP crackpot Barbara Comstock, who represents a very swingy (R+2) northern Virginia district Hillary is going to win handily, didn't need to sleep on it. She denounced Trump and called for him to step down from the ticket last night as the media began pounding the "pussy" revelations nonstop. Unlike Roby, she's in a very tough reelection campaign with the DCCC heavily backing reprehensible Blue Dog LuAnn Bennett for the seat. By the June 30 FEC reporting deadline Comstock had already spent $2,256,613 (and Bennett had spent $871,830). The NRCC had spent $1,189,109 to hold the seat-- $431,582 just last week! "This is disgusting, vile, and disqualifying," she said minutes before Trump's carefully crafted non-apology apology was issued. "No woman should ever be subjected to this type of obscene behavior and it is unbecoming of anybody seeking high office. In light of these comments, Donald Trump should step aside and allow our party to replace him with Mike Pence or another appropriate nominee from the Republican Party. I cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump and I would never vote for Hillary Clinton."

On the other hand, Tony Perkins, head of the neo-fascist (but Christianist neo-fascist) Family Research Council-- which claims in its mission statement that its goal is to "make a lasting difference for timeless values across our land"-- says he's sticking with Trump. "My personal support for Donald Trump," he admitted this morning, "has never been based upon shared values." Oh. So is Dr. Ben.

This morning John Harwood speculated that Trump "has brought the Republican Party to its nightmare scenario... Trump, trailing Clinton by several percentage points nationally and in most battleground states, was on track to lose the election before disclosure of the tape. Republican confidence that he can close that gap and win has vanished as Trump approaches Sunday night's second debate with Clinton in a severely-weakened position. The principal question now is how many other Republicans go down with him. Democrats need to gain at least four seats to win back a Senate majority; their odds are good. It remains unlikely that Democrats can achieve the 30 seat gain they need to win back the House. But the moves Friday night by jittery Republican members suggest that they are alarmed by the possibility. The theme of the next month will be the scramble of Republican politicians to protect themselves."

This is starting to smell like when Rahm sprang the trap on Mark Foley in late September, 2006... one day after it was too late to get his name off the ballot. The Democrats had the best of all worlds: Foley withdrew from the race but his now-toxic name remained on the ballot as the GOP nominee. The question, of course, is how badly it will hurt down-ballot Republicans... like Peter King on Long Island, Pat Meehan in the Philly suburbs, John Faso in upstate New York, Cresent Harding in North Las Vegas (a Mormon who, after defending every Trumpist outrage for the last year, finally pulled his support for the sociopathic billionaire this morning), Mario Diaz-Balart in Miami-Dade, Darrell Issa in San Diego and Orange counties, Fred Upton in Kalamazoo, Frank Guinta in New Hampshire, Sean Duffy in northern Wisconsin, Lamar Smith in Bexar and Travis counties. Is this-- and Trump's reaction over the next couple of days-- going be enough to wipe the GOP out? Please help that along here. Damn shame that doddering Pelosi doesn't have an even remotely competent DCCC in place to take advantage of this!




A short time ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Reince Priebus told party officials today to start redirecting funds away from Trump and to down-ballot candidates.

The speed and breadth of the abandonment of Mr. Trump’s candidacy shocked some long-time party members and exposed a shattered party without a clear path forward.

“Our party is in its deepest crisis since Watergate in 1974,” said Ron Nehring, former chairman of the California Republican Party, referring to the mid-term election when the resignation of then-President Richard M. Nixon led to a Democratic landslide. “It’s compounded by the fact that it doesn’t matter whether Donald Trump were to bow out. It’s too late to change the candidate on the ballot."

The immediate consequence of the RNC’s decision on allocating resources is a halt to the party’s mail program so it can be redirected toward a new universe of voters, the official said. News of the mail program stopping was first reported by Politico. Mr. Priebus and top party strategist Sean Spicer didn’t respond to requests for comment.

...Trump’s latest imbroglio is also widening a chasm between the party’s old guard and the legions of voters drawn to his anti-establishment message.

Those divisions surfaced on Saturday when House Speaker Paul Ryan appeared at a rally in his Wisconsin district after disinviting Mr. Trump from that event and denouncing his crude comments. Mr. Ryan’s own welcome was mixed with boos and pro-Trump hecklers in the crowd.

Can Virginia Democrat John Foust Survive The Steve Israel Effect?

If Comstock wins in November, Sean Hannity and Steve Israel deserve the credit

Last week the NRCC put $605,144 into ads against John Foust, the Democrat running in the open northern Virginia seat from which mainstream conservative Frank Wolf is retiring. The Republican candidate to replace Foust is anything but a mainstream anything. It’s notorious right-wing sociopath Barbara Comstock. The $605,144 last week was just a part of the $1,218,367 budget the NRCC has allocated for the race. Steve Israel took one look at the amount and backed out immediately, withdrawing the ads he had scheduled and blaming it on weak conservative New Dem Ami Bera in California (CA-07), who has an uninspiring voting record and needs a big infusion of cash to persuade his constituents he’s worth reelecting (which he isn’t). Meanwhile, despite a poll commissioned last week by the DCCC showing a neck and neck 41-39% race in VA-10, Israel is in full-on abandonment mode nation-wide, taking money from good candidates like Foust to fund really bad ones like Pete Aguilar (CA) and reactionary Blue Dog Brad Ashford (NE).

VA-10— which stretches from McLean, the Dulles Airport corridor and Chantilly in the east out to Manassas, Leesburg, and Winchester in the west— is a swing district. Obama beat McCain by around 9,000 votes (51-48%) and then lost to Romney by around 4,000 votes (50-49%) in 2012. Wolf’s retirement looked like the perfect opportunity to pick up the seat, especially considering the calibre of the fringe nut the GOP nominated.

John Foust seems like an excellent candidate, a proven vote-getter as a Fairfax County Supervisor whose values and vision pretty much mirror the moderate district’s voters— not as liberal as Blue America prefers and not as conservative as Steve Israel prefers— but a moderate in the positive sense of the word. As of the June 30 FEC deadline he had out-raised Comstock $1,480,910 to $1,372,152. He had $1,125,718 cash on hand to her $575,891. The one wrinkle is that the NRCC and its allies started pouring huge amounts of cash into the race. Aside from the NRCC’s $1,218,367, the Chamber of Commerce kicked in $330,414 and other fringe right-wing operations like the NRA put just over another $50,000. The DCCC and it’s House Majority PAC put up $172,452 and big red flashing signs started going off. A late addition to the enfeebled Red-to-Blue program, Foust was being defined by all those negative ads the NRCC was putting on the air, ads that went unanswered by the DCCC, although one of the Beltway professional pundits who is only ever right about anything the day after election day. wrote that “Democrats have zeroed in on a quartet of competitive Republican open seats including… Virginia’s 10th District… where they believe the GOP nominees are either fatally flawed or extremely weak.”

In the last week or so NARAL singled out 10 Men For Choice. Of the 10, only 3 are challengers going up against crazy anti-Choice women— Gary Peters for the Michigan Senate seat (Terri Lynn Land), Bruce Braley for the Iowa Senate seat (Joni Ernst) and Foust. Similarly, Cosmopolitan, which has primarily endorsed progressive women candidates, also singled out Foust for a fulsome endorsement : “The candidates running for a congressional seat in Virginia's 10th district could not be more different: One is pro-choice; the other thinks Roe v. Wade should be overturned and supported legislation requiring women seeking abortions— even rape and incest victims— to undergo trans-vaginal ultrasounds. One candidate supports same sex marriage; one voted for a bill that would allow private adoption agencies to refuse same sex couples for religious reasons. In this tight Virginia congressional race, we support John Foust.”

The week before, an editorial in the Washington Post, entitled A sheep in Wolf’s clothing, makes it clear that Comstock is nothing but a doctrinaire ideologue, less interested in solving northern Virginia’s problems than playing up to delusional Confederates who want to fight the Civil War over again.

When the Foust campaign contacted Blue America it was a tough one for us. Comstock is one of the worst and most dangerous Republican extremists on the ballot anywhere. And Foust seemed like a very nice guy and a sincere person who would be solid on most progressive issues. In the end, though, we decided he didn’t really need our help as much as other candidates because he so heavily prioritized by the DCCC and they had reserved almost $3 million in TV and radio time for him. We decided to put our efforts behind more progressive candidates that the DCCC was ignoring, like Mike Obermueller (MN-02), Paul Clements (MI-06), Kelly Westlund (WI-07), Rob Zerban (WI-01), and, most recently, Jason Ritchie (WA-08).

So, with election day less than a month away, we were mortified that Israel decided to pull the plug on Foust, cancelling the crucial TV advertising that surely were part of the Foust path to victory calculus— a shocking $2.8 million worth! What is Nancy Pelosi thinking keeping Steve Israel in place for even one more day. A blindfolded janitor at 430 S. Capitol St. SE would do a more credible job.

Virginia Republicans Nominated A Congressional Candidate Beyond Execrable-- Meet Barbara Comstock

Barbara Comstock always pretends she's normal. She isn't

When I first started the DWT Book Store, David Brock's story about his journey out of political darkness, Blinded By The Right, was one of the very first selections. The 2002 bestseller exposed, first-hand, the hypocrisy among the blue chip and craven Beltway wing nuts with whom he had been associating. One such crackpot, Barbara Comstock, just won the GOP nomination for the Congressional seat Frank Wolf is leaving, VA-10, a Northern Virginia suburban swing district (PVI- R+2) that Obama won in 2008 (51-48%) and lost in 2012 (50-49%). The latest gerrymander-- jettisoning some blue parts of Fairfax County around Herndon and McLean-- has made it slightly redder. The Republican Establishment was firmly behind Comstock-- Scooter Libby gave her a contribution-- and her long list of big name endorsements included Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, George Allen and Sean Hannity. "Barbara Comstock," said Hannity, "is a solid and reliable conservative. I’ve known her for many years. She’d make a great member of Congress. I am happy to join other conservatives and proudly endorse her candidacy." Exactly what you might expect, having read what Brock had to say about his old friend Comstock in the book:

One night in the winter of 1995, as the scandal over the firings of workers in the White house travel office reached a crescendo on the Hill I received a late night telephone call from one of Ted's colleagues on an investigative committee, Barbara Comstock. Around the committee, the two Barbaras [Comstock and Olsen] were known as "the Barbarellas," a reference to the 1968 movie starring Jane Fonda as a space-age vixen whose cosmic adventures take her to bizarre planets via rocket ships. Late night calls from Barbara Comstock were not unusual. She often telephoned with the latest tidbit she had dig up in the thousands of pages of administration records she pored through frantically, as if she were looking for a winning lottery ticket she had somehow mislaid. A plain woman with tousled reddish brown hair, she once dropped by my house to watch the rerun of a dreadfully dull Whitewater hearing she had sat through all day. Comstock sat on the edge of her chair shaking, screaming over and over again, "Liars!" As Comstock's leads failed to pan out and she was unable to catch anyone in a lie, the Republican aide confided that the Clinton scandals were driving her to distraction, to the unfortunate point that she was ignoring the needs of her own family. A very smart lawyer by training and the main breadwinner for her charismatic, happy-go-lucky husband and kids, Comstock remarked that maybe she couldn't get Hillary's sins off her brain "because Hillary reminds me of me. I am Hillary." In this admission a vivid illustration of a much wider "Hillary" phenomenon can be seen. Comstock knew nothing about Hillary Clinton. Comstock's "Hillary" was imaginary, a construction composed entirely of the negative points in her own life.

Comstock invited me to go along on an expedition to the Washington home of senior White House aide David Watkins, the central figure in the travel scandal Olson and Comstock were probing. A short time later, Republican lawyers Comstock, Olson, and other congressional investigators, including David Bossie, and Whitewater investigator Christopher Bartomolucci, pulled up outside my house in an SUV. Though I wasn't sure what the group hoped to accomplish-- they were visibly frustrated with their inability so far to incriminate Watkins-- I went along for the ride. Olson explained that Congressman Sonny Bono had cleared us into the private, gated community where both Bono and Watkins lived, in the northwest section of Georgetown. When we arrived at our destination, Olsen giddily leapt from the truck, trespassed onto Watkins's property, and hopped down a steep cliff that abutted his home. Barbara peered into Watkins's window where she observed him-- watching television. No crime there. (Blinded by The Right by David Brock, p 208, 209.)

In 2007, Digby helped break the news nationally that Comstock was acting as the GOP's #1 oppo character assassin. She's been in the middle of every Republican dirty trick for 2 decades-- from Scooter Libby, Monica Goodling, Dan Burton, the Florida 2000 vote theft, John Ashcroft, and Tom DeLay. And her list of big time right-wing donors reads like a list of all the worst in American politics-- from Ted Olson, Eric Cantor, Bill Bennett, Michael Chertoff and Jay Sekulow to Borks and Ledeens, Matalins, Maleks, Toensings, Townsends and even a Scalia! More recently, the Washington Post editorial board warned that Comstock hadn't improved over the years.

Comstock is among the most conservative lawmakers in Richmond. A lawyer and prolific fundraiser, she represents thousands of commuters in a traffic-clogged district badly in need of road improvements; nonetheless, last year she voted against the first bill in more than a quarter century to provide fresh money for the state’s crumbling highways, even though it was backed by her own party’s top leaders.

Ms. Comstock also supported legislation that would have required women seeking abortions to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds. She backed a measure intended to outlaw abortion by granting individual rights to an embryo from the moment of conception. She voted to repeal a law limiting handgun purchases to one per month. And she opposes expanding Medicaid, which would provide health coverage for up to 400,000 uninsured Virginians… [B]y jockeying to appeal to the most extreme fringe of the electorate, Republicans run the risk of alienating centrist, level-headed and educated voters in the 10th District.

The definitive post on Comstock, though, the one every voter in the district needs to read is Tim Murphy's piece for Mother Jones last Friday, Can This Oppo Research Guru Survive the Mudslinging in Her GOP Primary? "Comstock," he wrote, "earned her stripes as the consummate Washington political operative by digging up dirt on the Clinton White House. She would later go on to hang out a shingle as a hired PR gun and lobbyist for some of DC's most controversial figures, including ex-Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby and Blackwater's Erik Prince."

Comstock's political ascent began after she attended Georgetown Law, when she returned home to Fairfax County to raise her three kids and take a job with Wolf, her local congressman. She soon moved up the ladder, to a spot on the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, working under Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.)-- a Clinton antagonist so devoted to the cause he once shot a pumpkin to prove that White House chief of staff Vince Foster had been murdered.

From a windowless first-floor office, where she changed the locks to keep out even the cleaning staff, Comstock would hold all-night vigils to keep watch over boxes of subpoenaed Clinton administration documents she feared would be stolen by Democrats. Her fixation was the White House travel office, where employees who were considered disloyal were replaced with Clinton allies. It was the administration's first major scandal (although the president was absolved of wrongdoing), and it was in no small part driven by Comstock's marathon workdays.

…When the Clinton years came to an end, Comstock jumped to the Republican National Committee's war room, where she ran the party's opposition research operation against Vice President Al Gore. Comstock called her unit "Chicks With Attitude"-- a dig at the Gore campaign, whose dark arts department had branded itself as the "Men of Zeal"-- and crafted a narrative, adopted by the press, of the vice president as a serial exaggerator. "She has a wonderfully devious mind," one reporter told the New York Post. The Washington Post called her a "one-woman wrecking crew." After Election Day ended in deadlock, Comstock moved to Tallahassee to monitor the recounts.

After a stint as a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice in the early days of the Bush administration, Comstock cashed in. She started a crisis public relations firm, Corallo-Comstock, and marketed it toward the Bush administration's most beleaguered allies. Along with repping Scooter Libby and Erik Prince, she was also retained by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) when he was indicted on charges of illegally laundering campaign contributions.

Comstock also lobbied for a collection of high-powered clients including the Recording Industry Association of America, Comcast, Koch Industries, Chiquita bananas, and the private-prison company GEO Group—which at the time was pushing her former employers in the Department of Justice for a new contract. "She has made extensive use of the revolving door both for self-enrichment and for the profits of her clients," says Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the government watchdog, Public Citizen.

In November she'll be up against a relative light-weight, John Foust, a not overly courageous DCCC Red-to-Blue candidate who serves on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors representing Dranesville. He's been endorsed by some good people and his progressive instincts haven't allowed his campaign website to follow the Steve Israel-mandated "mystery meat" approach. Unlike many of the Red-to-Blue candidates, he's quite clear about where he stands on some tough issues: "John is pro-choice. He believes a woman should have the right to make her own health care decisions in consultation with her doctor. He will fight against efforts to dictate personal medical choices and attempts to place limitations on a woman’s health care options… John will work to ensure that our laws reflect a society that rejects discrimination in any form. He will work to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work and that all workers are protected against discrimination. He supports marriage equality and is pleased with the progress our country is making on that cause… Over the past twenty years, insurance companies hiked health insurance premiums and gouged consumers. The cost of health care outpaced the ability of many to afford it. Forty million Americans went uninsured. Insurance companies denied care to those with preexisting conditions, charged women more than men, and refused coverage to those who needed it most when lifetime limits were reached. This was not sustainable and something had to be done. Though less than perfect, John believes the Affordable Care Act begins to address these and other challenges with our health care system. We cannot go back to the days when insurance companies could arbitrarily increase rates and deny coverage."

Should be a very interesting race to watch. And we shall. One thing is sure… she'll fit right in with right-wing extremist Eric Cantor, who's supporting her, of course. THIS Eric Cantor:

Wondering Who The Republican Party's Next Todd Akin Will Be? There Are So Many To Choose From

Get used to seeing pictures of New Jersey teabagger Steve Lonegan yelling

Steve Stockman's deranged "John Cornyn-is-a-liberal" campaign really is something to behold. Stockman, a former vagrant strung out out on and dealing a wide varietis drugs, is making a lot of ambient noise on twitter and producing amusing infographics like these:

In December, when he announced he would be abandoning his House seat to primary Cornyn, he asserted that "Liberal John Cornyn wakes up every morning and works to make the Senate a more liberal place. That’s why I am running for the United States Senate. I have a 100% pro-gun, pro-life, conservative voting record in Congress." One top staffer for a conservative Republican in the House told me that Stockman is widely viewed as "crackpot… He's toxic… No one wants to get anywhere bear him. He's probably the least effective member of our caucus… It must have been a very frustrating year for him. None of our members pay the crazy things he's always saying any attention at all. And attention is what this poor man is craving… I don't think even the most extreme groups like Club for Growth and FreedomWorks will back him. I wouldn't be too worried if I were Big John."

But with polls showing Cornyn crushing the hyperbolic Stockman-- 50-6% according to Republican Party polling outfit Wilson Perkins Allen Research-- Cornyn's strategy is to just pretty much ignore Stockman and hope he burns himself out-- or ODs.

The NRCC wishes they could ignore some of the crackpot fringe characters the Tea Party is putting up to run in important seats aound the country. Over the weekend, The Hill's Cameron Joseph reported on the GOP's primary problem. And some of these races are not the long shots the Texas Senate primary is. He's warning of more than one potential "Todd Akin problem" for the Republicans.

After a rash of recent retirements by entrenched incumbents, Republicans are unexpectedly defending a number of seats in tossup or GOP-leaning districts. And to the national party’s chagrin, many of those controversial candidates are already running or planning to-- and if they emerge as the nominee, it could endanger the GOP’s hold on the critical seats.

Crowded, expensive primaries that produce flawed candidates are nothing new for Republicans. But the epidemic has been most problematic on the Senate side, where gaffe-prone candidates like Akin in Missouri, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware cost them winnable seats the last two cycles. Now, it’s threatening to bleed into congressional races, too.

“The House landscape is littered with land-mine candidates in certain seats and districts,” said Cook Political Report House Editor David Wasserman. “That doesn't mean the nomination of those candidates will doom Republican chances in those district, but it'd force Republicans to spend more money and effort than they'd like to and give Democrats hope in some of the districts they need to win.”

As Democrats have gleefully welcomed newfound opportunities in swing districts due to recent retirements from Reps. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Tom Latham (R-Iowa) and Rep. Bill Young’s (R-Fla.) death, they’ve salivated at some of the candidates who have already announced.

…Here are a few of the pivotal races giving Republicans heartburn:

New Jersey’s 3rd District-- Retiring Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.)

The former NFL lineman’s decision to retire has opened up a seat President Obama carried in both 2008 and 2012. Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan (R), a Tea Party-affiliated former Senate candidate, is running and starts the race with early advantages in organization and name identification.

Lonegan made a number of controversial comments during the special election last year against now-Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.). Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed him at a large rally in the state, and he embraced a number of conservative social stances.

Republicans are hopeful another strong candidate can emerge, but fear Lonegan will be hard to beat in a primary and would be all but unelectable in the general election.

“The Lonegan thing is not helpful, for sure,” said one national GOP strategist.

Meanwhile, Democrats are all too happy to welcome Lonegan back into politics, as they hope to regain the seat they lost in 2010.

“In a perfect world, he runs every year for something,” laughed one state operative.

Virginia’s 10th District-- Retiring Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)

Controversial state Sen. Dick Black (R) announced his bid for Wolf’s slightly GOP-leaning Northern Virginia House seat earlier this week. Black, a staunch social conservative, has compared abortion clinics to Auschwitz and handed out plastic fetuses ahead of a legislative vote on abortion.

In fact, national Republicans say they might not even spend money on the district if Black is the nominee.

“He's like a ticking time bomb,” said one GOP strategist.

Many establishment Republicans are hopeful Virginia Del. Barbara Comstock (R) can unite the GOP field win the nomination, and she’s received early endorsements from both wings of the party-- conservative talk radio host Mark Levin and former presidential nominee Mitt Romney are both backing her.

But the biggest variable will be how the nomination ends up being decided. Local Republicans will meet on January 23 to decide whether to choose an open primary or a closed party convention, which are usually dominated by very conservative activists. A half-dozen other Republicans are seriously weighing bids for the seat, so no matter what type of nominating process the GOP chooses, there is a high level of uncertainty over who will emerge from the crowded field.

Iowa’s 3rd District-- Retiring Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa)

Numerous candidates are lining up to run for Latham’s seat, which Obama won twice.

A crowded field primary field could hurt the GOP, especially since candidates need to win 35 percent of the vote to clinch the nomination. If no candidate reaches that mark, a local convention of typically-conservative delegates will select the nominee. And such a scenario is Republicans heartburn.

“If there end up being five of these guys running, I'm concerned about it going to a convention,” said former Iowa Republican Party Political Director Craig Robinson.

Republicans also worry about Robert Cramer (R), who has close ties with the state’s powerful religious conservative activists and is likely to run. Cramer is a member of the Family Leader, a group of vocal socially conservative activists in the state, and his appointment to a state board was blocked by Democrats because of his views.

Pennsylvania’s 6th District-- Retiring Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.)

The suburban and exurban district outside of Philadelphia's district leans slightly Republican-- Mitt Romney won it by a narrow margin in 2012, though President Obama carried it in 2008-- and is likely to be competitive now that Gerlach is retiring.

No one yet to launch a bid for Gerlach’s seat after his announcement last Monday, but local observers say former gubernatorial and Senate candidate Sam Rohrer (R) is likely to throw his hat in the ring.

Rohrer has deep ties with both the Tea Party and religious conservatives and would be formidable in a primary, but too conservative for the swing district.

“He gives us heartburn,” said GOP strategist.

A number of more establishment Republicans are looking at running, but they could split the more centrist primary vote and give Rohrer a boost if he runs.

“This is a ripe district for an establishment-versus-Tea Party primary,” said Keegan Gibson of the Pennsylvania political website PoliticsPA.

It's a mark of how extreme the GOP has become that they're hoping a sociopath like Barbara Comstock is the solution to someone they deem as too far right! In case you've forgotten her, let me remind you of what then-Republican operative David Brock had to say about her in Blinded By The Right. Page 208-9:

One night in the winter of 1995, as the scandal over the firings of workers in the White house travel office reached a crescendo on the Hill I received a late night telephone call from one of Ted's colleagues on an investigative committee, Barbara Comstock. Around the committee, the two Barbaras [Comstock and Olsen] were known as "the Barbarellas," a reference to the 1968 movie starring Jane Fonda as a space-age vixen whose cosmic adventures take her to bizarre planets via rocket ships. Late night calls from Barbara Comstock were not unusual. She often telephoned with the latest tidbit she had dig up in the thousands of pages of administration records she pored through frantically, as if she were looking for a winning lottery ticket she had somehow mislaid. A plain woman with tousled reddish brown hair, she once dropped by my house to watch the rerun of a dreadfully dull Whitewater hearing she had sat through all day. Comstock sat on the edge of her chair shaking, screaming over and over again, "Liars!" As Comstock's leads failed to pan out and she was unable to catch anyone in a lie, the Republican aide confided that the Clinton scandals were driving her to distraction, to the unfortunate point that she was ignoring the needs of her own family. A very smart lawyer by training and the main breadwinner for her charismatic, happy-go-lucky husband and kids, Comstock remarked that maybe she couldn't get Hillary's sins off her brain "because Hillary reminds me of me. I am Hillary." In this admission a vivid illustration of a much wider "Hillary" phenomenon can be seen. Comstock knew nothing about Hillary Clinton. Comstock's "Hillary" was imaginary, a construction composed entirely of the negative points in her own life.

Comstock invited me to go along on an expedition to the Washington home of senior White House aide David Watkins, the central figure in the travel scandal Olson and Comstock were probing. A short time later, Republican lawyers Comstock, Olson, and other congressional investigators, including David Bossie, and Whitewater investigator Christopher Bartomolucci, pulled up outside my house in an SUV. Though I wasn't sure what the group hoped to accomplish-- they were visibly frustrated with their inability so far to incriminate Watkins-- I went along for the ride. Olson explained that Congressman Sonny Bono had cleared us into the private, gated community where both Bono and Watkins lived, in the northwest section of Georgetown. When we arrived at our destination, Olsen giddily leapt from the truck, trespassed onto Watkins's property, and hopped down a steep cliff that abutted his home. Barbara peered into Watkins's window where she observed him-- watching television. No crime there.

Still, better than "the ticking time-bomb," Dick Black. Jesus! And The Hill completely missed the bloody primary battle already gearing up to replace Buck McKeon as he crosses over to K Street. CA-25-- Antelope Valley, Santa Clarita Valley and Simi Valley-- are seeing the seams of the GOP split apart as McKeon's handpicked successor, carpetbagger Tony Strickland, being challenged by the single most right-wing member of the California state legislature, extremist whack job Steve Knight. Afraid to face Democrat Lee Rogers again, McKeon hopes Strickland can hold the Los Angeles area seat for the GOP, despite demographic shifts away from what Republicans need to hold districts. And Knight has built his political career on hatred against and bigotry towards Hispanic voters who have come into their own right in his own backyard.

California's 25th District-- Retiring Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA)

Steve Israel is blind to this key race but Knight's voting record would be considered ultra-conservative even for a backward district in Alabama or Mississippi. In suburban L.A., it's just bizarre and a throwback to another century. Widely considered a shill for the NRA and an automaton for the most extreme right-wing proposals that ever come up in Sacramento, Knight was one of only 11 senators who voted against increasing the minimum wage and, despite representing a district with a huge Hispanic population, he was one of only 8 senators who voted against drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. When the Governor decided to expand Medicaid in line with the Affordable Care Act, only 7 die-hard right-wingers opposed it, Knight being one of them, of course. He was also one of only 8 senators to fully back unregulated fracking in California earthquake zones. He is vehemently anti-Choice and anti-gay and voted against every piece of legislation promoting equality that has ever come before him. For example, last May he was one of only 9 senators to vote against a bipartisan bill that prohibits tax-exempt status for organizations that discriminate against the LGBT community and he was also one one of only seven sociopaths who opposed an anti-bullying bill that passed the Senate with huge bipartisan support. One legislator told me that Knight isn't a bad guy on a personal level but that he's "an inflexible ideologue… probably the single least effective member of the state legislature… Sure, Strickland is no prize but Knight makes even him look almost good!" Key word: "almost."

What Happened Last Night? Short Answer: Mixed Bag

Last night's biggest losers

Although younger voters and African-Americans didn't bother voting yesterday-- and Republicans did well in Virginia and New Jersey-- the most recent polls show that Obama is still as popular today as he was when he was elected. 54% of Americans approve of his job performance, one percent higher than his winning total a year ago. And even Southerners agree he's been doing a better job than Bush did. (True that is an exceedingly low bar... but still... Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee...)

With GOP factions arming themselves for a bloody civil war, and N.Y. Republican Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava talking about how all the hyperbolic right-wing hate and lies wore her down, the Republicans are celebrating their expected victory in Virginia and their surprise one in New Jersey. Democrats who went for that whole Hope and Change thing a year ago just didn't feel all that inspired and didn't bother turning out. Deeds basically lost the Virginia governor's race when he declared in a debate that if he was elected, he would opt out of the public option. But Republicans already had a candidate they liked; all Deeds did was give Democrats a reason to stay home; a good one. And the results were disastrous-- not just for Deeds who deserved to lose, but for the whole ticket. Most tragic of all, progressive Delegate Margi Vanderhye was defeated by lunatic fringe GOP nutjob Barbara Comstock. Margi lost by about 300 votes, thanks to Deeds' stupidly-run, conservative campaign.

An even bigger disappointment came in Maine where bigots took away the right of marriage equality for gays and lesbians, 53-47%. It was close all night but what I just couldn't understand is how medical marijuana legalization won in Maine while same sex marriage lost. Stoners voted against gay marriage? And although Maine passed its medical marijuana referendum by a hefty vote (59-41%), in Breckenridge, Colorado it was a 3 to 1 landslide, not for medical marijuana but for full on pot decriminalization. Only 27% of voters opposed de facto legalization.

"This vote demonstrates that Breckenridge citizens overwhelmingly believe that adults should not be punished for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol," said Sean McAllister, a Breckenridge attorney who proposed the ordinance.

The measure's victory is considered symbolic because it conflicts with state and federal laws. However, supporters of the measure say it inches the whole state closer to full legalization.

And at least the pro-gay ordinances won in Kalamazoo, Michigan and in Washington state. And openly gay Mark Kleinschmidt won the mayoral race in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Detroit elected an openly gay City Council president, Charles Pugh.

California Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher was a socially liberal, fiscally conservative Democrat is suburbs north of San Francisco, in a district that was Republican just over a decade ago. She often voted with them on crucial issues like bankruptcy and other bills that empowered banksters and Wall Street thugs. She was appointed to a minor job in the State Department and last night she was replaced in Congress by John Garamendi, a hard working progressive. He beat Republican David Harmer 56-40%.

But the big race, of course-- the one the media had hyped beyond recognition-- was in NY-23, where Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Darrell Issa, Jim DeMint, Tim Pawlenty and the teabaggers slimed the mainstream Republican candidate so badly that she withdrew, leaving a confused Republican Party in complete disarray. They switched en masse to the teabagger third party candidate, Doug Hoffman, who then proceeded to lose to conservative barely-Democrat Bill Owens, 49-45%. It was the night's biggest shocker-- or at least one that was tied with Corzine's loss in New Jersey and Bloomberg's near loss in NYC (after dumping $100 million of his own money into the race against someone who no one has ever heard of). The biggest losers were Palin and Beck-- and the GOP has so much egg on its face that it'll never figure out how to clean itself off. Does this mean Marco Rubio should throw in the tea-towel down in Florida?

I'll be on the radio this afternoon (1-2pm, PT) with Nicole Sandler, who's sitting in for Randy Rhodes, and we'll be talking about the election results and about how screwed up the GOP is with their deadly teabagger problem. The call in number is 866-87-RANDI.