GOP Chances For Taking Back The Senate Dying With Romney's Campaign?

Yesterday Ed Gillespie sighed that "the map is shrinking." He was talking about Romney's diminishing chances to win any of the swing states. New polling continues to paint an ever dimmer picture for him. Oh, he'll win the Deep South and the Mormon states but it doesn't look like he can count on much else. But it's what the recent turn of events is doing for Republican prospects to win the Senate and make Miss McConnell Majority Leader that is freaking out Republicans this week. As i was writing this yesterday a fresh batch of polls came across the transom from NBC/ Wall Street Journal/Marist showing that among likely voters Colorado was shaping up to give Obama 50% and Romney 45%; Iowa Obama 50% and Romney 42%;  and Wisconsin, home of Paul Ryan, Obama 50%, Romney 45%. That's what Gillespie meant by a shrinking map. And that same Marist poll confirms what other polls have shown this week, that Tammy Baldwin has pulled ahead of Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin as well.

Thompson's campaign is getting ugly and looking desperate. They've already descended into schoolyard name-calling and now they're claiming he's losing because of Romney. And he changed his mind about the polling firm. He hates them too.

August 19, 2012

Tommy Thompson Said He Would Help Carry Wisconsin for Mitt Romney And That The Marquette University Poll Was The “Gold Standard”

Thompson Said He Would Help Romney In Wisconsin. In an interview with Mike Gousha on August 19, Thompson said: “I am an individual that is going to be able to be helpful to that ticket. “ [Up Front with Mike Gousha, 8/19/2012]

Thompson Called The Marquette Poll The “Gold Standard.” In an interview in August 2012, Thompson said: “I think the Marquette poll which is considered pretty much the golden rule or the gold standard, came out and says I was 8 points up.  So, I feel very good about going in, and I sincerely believe the momentum is with me and I feel very comfortable about the election.”  [WKOW, Capital City Sunday, 8/12/2012]

September 19, 2012

Tommy Thompson Blamed Romney For Sagging Poll Numbers and Attacked Marquette University Poll

Thompson Blames Romney for Sagging Poll Numbers. WKOW reported that “Thompson hopes Romney's sagging numbers don't bring him down as well. ‘The Presidential thing is bound to have an impact on every election.  Whether you're a Democrat or Republican.  If you're a standard-bearer for the Presidency is not doing well, it’s gonna reflect on the down ballot,’ said Thompson.” [WKOW, 9/19/2012]

Thompson dismissed the MU results. Thompson's spokeswoman, Lisa Boothe, attempted to discredit the Marquette poll. "We do not think it reflects the opinions of Wisconsin voters," Boothe said. But on Tuesday at a Milwaukee manufacturing plant, the former governor expressed confidence in the accuracy of Marquette's survey work. [Associated Press, Mount Pleasant Patch and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 9/19/2012]

The NY Times' political statistician, Nate Silver, dealt with Thompson's unraveling campaign as well... and how other Republican campaigns are on the rocks as well. "Polls," he writes, "show key races shifting decisively toward the Democrats, with the Republican position deteriorating almost by the day. The Senate races in Wisconsin and Virginia are especially in bad shape.

It would be only a modest exaggeration to say that it’s been hard to find any strong Senate polls for Republicans in the past two or three weeks. Wednesday also brought bad news for Republicans in Massachusetts, where a fourth consecutive poll showed the Democrat Elizabeth Warren ahead of Senator Scott Brown; in Connecticut, where a poll gave the Democrat Chris Murphy a slight advantage over their candidate, Linda McMahon; and in Florida, where a Fox News poll gave the Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson a 14-point lead. ...[O]ver the past two weeks of the Republicans’ position in Virginia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Florida and Ohio, all of which have broken sharply to the Democrats.

The Democrats’ chances of controlling the Senate have increased to 79 percent in the forecast, up from 70 percent on Tuesday.

Had we run the model a month ago, based on polls through Aug. 19, the Democrats’ chances of maintaining Senate control would have been listed at just 39 percent.

The velocity of the change is unusual. Although Senate races in different parts of the country can sometimes move in the same direction, there was never quite this rapid a shift in our Senate forecasts in 2008 or 2010.

The forecast model is not doing anything particularly fancy; it’s just that an overwhelming number of Senate polls recently have shown the Democratic candidates’ standing improving.

Republicans could also have some reason to be concerned about Nevada, which has not been polled recently but where their candidate, the appointed Senator Dean Heller, maintains a slight advantage over the Democratic Representative Shelley Berkeley. Mr. Heller is a fairly strong candidate, but if there is some sort of national tide against Republicans, he could become the underdog in that race as well.

...I can think of two major theories to explain why the shift is occurring, one focused on Mitt Romney, and another on the overall positioning of the Republican brand.

Theory No. 1: Is Romney a Downballot Drag?

Polls show that Mr. Romney has middling personal favorability ratings but that many voters will choose him anyway because of the deteriorating economy.

Senate races, however, are less dictated by national economic conditions. Instead, they often turn more on the strengths and weaknesses of the individual candidates, and then by their stances on fiscal and social policy.

Mr. Romney has not dictated much in the way of detailed programs in these areas, and some of the policy stances that he has articulated are unpopular.

Mr. Romney has also been less able to campaign effectively against an unpopular Democratic initiative, the Democrats’ health care bill, because he passed a similar bill as governor of Massachusetts.

Finally, some voters who disapprove of Mr. Obama, but who also have lukewarm feelings toward Mr. Romney, might lean toward voting Democrat for Senate in effort to ensure divided government, especially since Republicans also have control of the House.

Theory No. 2: G.O.P. Conservatism Is Hurting

An alternative hypothesis is that the shift has to do with overall perceptions of the Republican platform.

Our research has shown that statistical measures of candidate ideology are a reasonably powerful predictor of the outcome of Senate races, with candidates who are rated as holding “extreme” views performing poorly.

But in practice, ideology is in large part perceptual for voters, and may depend on which issues seem most salient at any given time.

August, at which point the shift toward Democrats in Senate races appeared to begin, was dominated by two major news items: Mr. Romney’s selection of Representative Paul D. Ryan as his running mate, who has very conservative views on fiscal policy, and by the comments about rape made by the Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, Todd Akin, which may have reinforced the idea that Republicans hold very conservative positions on social issues.

These factors may have made it harder for Republicans to position themselves toward the ideological center. And in several states, including Missouri, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, Republicans nominated sub-optimally conservative candidates.

More moderate Republican candidates, like Mr. Brown of Massachusetts and Mrs. McMahon of Connecticut, have increasingly sought to distance themselves from the national Republican brand, and sometimes also from the Republican presidential ticket.

It doesn't seem to be working for either Brown or McMahon; both are currently losing to their Democratic opponents. And, most shocking of all, so is Rep. Jeff Flake in Arizona. The open Jon Kyl seat is very competitive at this point and voters are leaning towards Democrat Richard Carmona. A few weeks ago a poll showed Flake up by one point but KTVK-Channel 3 in Phoenix reports that a new poll shows him pulling away.

The results of a surprising new poll in the U.S. Senate race were released Wednesday showing Democrat Richard Carmona beating his Republican rival. 

The survey, which was conducted by a GOP-friendly firm, shows Carmona holding a 5-point edge over Jeff Flake. 

Heading into the race, Flake was considered the heavy favorite to win in a state where Republicans hold a comfortable registration advantage over Democrats. 

Officials with Flake's campaign declined to comment on the poll. But Flake's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said, "We've always known this race is going to be a close one. That's why Jeff Flake is working hard to gain the trust of voters." 

But a spokesman for Carmona's camp said they were pleased. 

"We don't put too much weight in any poll, but this confirms what our campaign has been saying all along," said spokesman Andy Barr. "Dr. Carmona is a unique candidate with a background that appeals to Independents, Republicans, and Democrats." 

Specifically, the numbers show Carmona with 44 percent and Flake with 39. But 16 percent of those questioned said they were undecided.

If Carmona wins in Arizona, still far from a certainty, the Democrats would be in position to win a filibuster-proof Senate in 2014-- or if one of the living corpses like Chuck Grassley or Richard Shelby is called home to their Maker... or if Orrin Hatch goes off to Kolob prematurely.

Blue America has endorsed only 3 candidates for Senate this year. We're being very strict about demonstrable commitment to progressive values. If you can, please help elect the only three who have met our almost-impossible standards.

Is Arizona Ready To Elect A Democrat-- And Its First Latino Senator? Carmona Vs Flake

It was pretty shocking Tuesday when a poll showed mainstream Democrat Richard Carmona neck-and-neck with quirky right-wing extremist and former lobbyist Jeff Flake for the Arizona Senate seat being given up by arch-obstructionist Jon Kyl.

The U.S. Senate race in Arizona just got a lot more interesting after a new poll shows Democrat Richard Carmona neck-and-neck with Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, a six-term congressman.

If Carmona pulls an upset, he could become the first Latino Senator in Arizona history.

A poll released Tuesday by the Public Policy Polling, a North Carolina-based Democratic firm, showed Flake with a thin 44 percent to 43 percent lead over Carmona. This is the first publicly released poll of the U.S. Senate race since Flake was the victor in a heated GOP primary battle against multimillionaire Wil Cardon.

...For some Arizonans, the poll results were not a surprise. That is because Carmona-- a former U.S. Surgeon General under George W. Bush-- has proven to be a competitive candidate who has a diverse background and appeals to a broad group of voters.

The Democratic candidate was born and raised in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood to Puerto Rican parents who had drug and alcohol problems. After dropping out of high school, he enlisted in the Army. He went on to become a decorated military veteran, a trained surgeon, a medical professor and a deputy sheriff.

In 2002, President Bush nominated Carmona to be U.S. Surgeon General. Carmona served for four years, during which time he was advised by several politicians to run for office as a Republican.

Carmona was a registered independent until last November when he decided to run as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Shortly before his announcement, he got a call from Obama who personally urged him to run for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, a Republican who served three terms.

Political analyst Mike O’Neil described Carmona as a “Democratic dream candidate” who just might be the first Democratic senator from Arizona since 1995. Not only that, Carmona could also be the first Hispanic senator in the state’s 100-year history.

Although Latino groups are registering people like mad, there are 180,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in Arizona and if voters stick to party-line voting, Carmona won't have much of a chance. But he's a moderate who has quite a bit of appeal to mainstream Republicans and Flake is a crackpot. Easy to throw the word crackpot around, right? Sure... but that doesn't make Flake less of one. Just as the poll was coming out on Tuesday, the House was voting on a very uncontroversial bill, H.R. 4262, Judy Biggert's FHA Emergency Fiscal Solvency Act, which strengthens the National Housing Act by allowing them to avoid or recoup losses for loans originated or underwritten by a mortgage lender which did not comply with FHA guidelines, as well as expand HUD’s ability to terminate the authority of poorly performing lenders to participate in FHA programs. The bill passed 402-7 and will probably save the taxpayers millions of dollars. Every Democrat and every Republican-- but one-- from Arizona voted for it. The one, of course, was Flake. He-- along with a couple of other crackpot ideologues-- had some incoherent reasons for voting against it. And that's Flake; that's always Flake. He doesn't know how to work together in a collegial manner to solver problems. He's always all about show-boating his off-the-beaten-path ideological "purity." Half the time the other Republicans in the House don't know what he's talking about.

Carmona isn't the kind of hard-core progressive Blue America raises money for, but he's so much better than Flake-- and has a well-deserved reputation as a non-political problem-solver-- that we've been tempted. If we reach $100,000 each for Elizabeth, Tammy and Bernie, we'll revisit helping Carmona raise some money to beat Flake.

Last Night's Primary Results In Arizona-- Say Bye-By To Quayle's Son

Ben Quayle, last night's biggest loser

“If you know Middle Easterners, a lot of them, they look Mexican or they look, you know, like a lot of people in South America: dark skin, dark hair, brown eyes. And they mix. They mix in. And those people, their only, their only goal in life is to, to cause harm to the United States. So why do we want them here, either legally or illegally?...They have found prayer rugs. They have found copies of the Koran. So that tells you this is not just poor illegals that are trying to come to this country and find work. It's bigger than that."

-Tea Party Republican AZ-03 nominee Gabriela Saucedo Mercer

Arizona had some late primaries yesterday. The most anticipated race was between very wealthy right-wing crackpot Wil Cardon (who spent $6,699,078 on the primary, $6,185,768 from his personal bank account) and right-wing crackpot Jeff Flake (biggest donor this year was Club For Growth- $598,334) to see who would go up against former Bush Surgeon General Richard Carmona (D) for Jon Kyl's open Senate seat. As expected, Flake, a Mormon from Snowflake, won-- but he won way bigger than most people anticipated, just crushing Cardon, 69-21%. Flake had to spend $4,334,556 battling off the annoying Cardon and is left with $1,705,361 (as of August 8). Carmona has $1,754,794 on hand. And neo-Nazi Russell Pierce's political comback was thwarted when he lost the race for a state senate seat (25th district) to Bob Worsley, 56-44%. Hopefully, we won't be hearing from him again.

The House races worth mentioning:

AZ-01- pitted DCCC corporate hack Ann Kirkpatrick against progressive champion Wenona Benally Baldenegro. Undermined by the DCCC and the local Democratic Party, Baldenegro was grievously outspent by Kirkpatrick $626,950 to $101,038. Baldenegro managed to still get 36% of the vote.

AZ-02- ConservaDem Ron Barber, who was elected to full the remainder of Gabby Giffords term a few weeks ago, was given the Democratic nomination, despite having voted with the Republicans to gut a full package of environmental laws... and Eric Holder. He beat state Rep. Matt Heinz, 82-18%, which is what polls suggested. After the votes were counted last night Heinz had a great attitude going forward: “Tonight does not mark the end of my lifelong commitment to public service. I will find ways to continue to stay active in Tucson, and we will return for the 2014 congressional race. We must continue to laying the ground work.”

AZ-03- Corporate interests put up a couple of shills to run against Raúl Grijalva. One, Amanda Aguirre had her campaign directed by a former McCain dirty tricks operative. Raúl beat them both, with two-thirds of the vote. He'll now go up against racist sociopath Gabriela Saucedo Mercer, quoted at the top of this post. When shown the quote Raúl seemed taken aback: "This is reckless hate speech, and I call on everyone who has endorsed Gabriela Mercer to withdraw their support immediately. This is not a he-said/she-said question of interpretation. Her comments are reprehensible and deserve condemnation from every quarter. Anyone who continues to support her campaign should be asked whether they want someone with her views in Congress." Fellow over-the-top racists Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett are sticking with their whack-a-doodle candidate... of course.

AZ-05- In the GOP primary, mainstream conservative, Matt Salmon, beat the far right kook, Kirk Adams, who Sarah Palin has been howling about all week-- 54-46%.

AZ-06- In the incumbent vs incumbent contest pitting Boehner/Cantor kiss ass Ben Quayle against teabagger David Schweikert, the Establishment lost out to the grassroots freak as pathetic ex-pornographer Quayle saw his pretensions of a political career end, 53-47%. Quayle spent $1,537,407 and Schweikert spent $1,289,381. Maybe it was because he was one of the drunk congressmen swimming naked in Lake Tiberias but he had endorsements from almost every GOP hack imaginable-- both McCain and Kyl, Huckabee and cloddish freshmen Sean Duffy (a former soap opera star) and Tim Giffin, a Rove protégé.

AZ-09- In this new blue-leaning district three Democrats faced off, New Dem Andrei Cherny and two progressive state senators, Kyrsten Sinema and David Schapira. Progressives generally supported Schapira but Sinema had a big push from EMILY's List (which put $100,507 into the race) and the Victory Fund. Sinema spent $592,909. Cherny spent $572,889 and Schapira spent $223,826. Each of the progressive candidates topped Cherny, despite the help he got from Bill Clinton. In the end it was Sinema- 42%, Schapira- 31% and Cherny- 27%.

There was also a runoff for the Oklahoma Blue Dog seat (OK-02), which pitted a right-wing Blue Dog, Rob Wallace, against a crazed religious fanatic, Wayne Herriman. Rob Wallace won, 25,073 (57%) to 18,901 (43%) and is likely to be a contender for Dan Boren's record as the most reactionary, pro-GOP Democrat in the House. Let's see how fast "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel puts him on Red-to-Blue.

UPDATE: So, Can Carmona Win The Arizona Senate Seat?

The DSCC sure says they think so. They were out this morning with a memo outlining exactly why:

Now Congressman Flake faces a much stronger foe – a decorated Special Forces combat veteran who was homeless as a child, went to college and medical school on the GI Bill, and became a trauma surgeon, a deputy sheriff and eventually the Surgeon General of the United States. The most recent public poll showed that the race is tied at 38 percent each.

The primary forced Congressman Flake to spend heavily and exposed his long history as a lobbyist turned career politician.

• Carmona now leads Flake in the money race. Flake spent heavily in the primary and has lost what was once a significant cash advantage. Now Carmona holds a slight cash advantage over Flake-- $1.75 million to $1.71 million.

• Flake was badly damaged by Wil Cardon’s personal attacks. Cardon spent over $9 million in the primary, the majority of which was spent on TV ads attacking Jeff Flake for being an insider and career politician. Polls show the attacks worked and drove up Flake’s negatives significantly. While a PPP survey from May showed Flake with a net favorable rating of +6 (33-27), a July PPP survey showed him with a negative net favorable rating of -7 (30-37). The July survey also showed that despite Carmona’s low name ID, the general election contest was tied at 38.

• To win the primary, Flake staked out policy positions far out of the mainstream. Flake’s foolish calls to repeal the 17th amendment and eliminate the Department of Education will be liabilities in the general election. These positions underscore the extreme nature of Jeff Flake’s views which will turn off independent voters.

Moving forward, this election will be about three key issues-– seniors, women, and veterans-– and the choice could not be any clearer.

• Congressman Flake’s positions on Medicare and Social Security will hurt him with seniors. Flake’s anti-Medicare and anti-Social Security views are well documented. Carmona’s internal polling shows that voters overwhelmingly oppose a candidate who “supported privatizing Medicare” by a large margin-– 50-29. The Republican attacks on Medicare and the looming threat they pose are only amplified with Paul Ryan on the ticket. In 2008, exit polling showed voters over the age of 50 made up 45% of the electorate.

• Congressman Flake has an extreme, anti-woman record that will surprise people. Jeff Flake wants to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, allow employers to deny women contraception coverage from their healthcare plans, and opposes a pay equity law that helps ensure employers pay women the same as men for equal work. When voters learn of Flake’s extreme record 49% of voters are “much less” likely to support him.

• Congressman Flake has repeatedly voted against veterans benefits even while America was fighting two wars. Flake voted for budgets that cut billions from health, education and job training for veterans-- and even voted against bonuses for American soldiers. He even voted against the new post-9/11 GI Bill and opposed job training for veterans. A majority of voters polled (52%) say they are “much less” likely to support Flake once they learn he consistently voted to cut veterans’ benefits.

These are devastating vulnerabilities for any candidate. But Congressman Flake does not face any Democratic candidate; he faces an American hero.

Richard Carmona’s life story sets up an extremely favorable matchup with a career politician and former lobbyist like Congressman Flake. With polling already showing the race tied, the dynamics of this toss-up race clearly favor Rich Carmona heading into the general election.

Carmona Not Glue, Part II-- Saving Americans' Bones From Osteoporosis

Back in July of 2007 I never imagined there was going to be a Part II of Carmona Not Glue... or that DWT would be dealing with the root causes of bone loss in senior citizens. Please click the link above and read about one member of the George W. Bush team whose goals were about actually doing a job or Americans, not for Karl Rove warped vision of right-wing jihad tat drove nearly the entire Bush Regime. Admiral Richard Carmona was Bush's Surgeon General from August 2002 until July 2006. Although he's an unapologetic Republican, Carmona is probably best known-- as much as he's known at all-- for having been highly critical of the Bush Administration once he left office. He was outraged that Rove's strategies led to the systematic interfering with and suppressing scientific findings which conflicted with the Regime's deranged ideological agenda.

An NYC Puerto Rican high school dropout, Carmona enlisted in the army, where he became a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran and began his career in medicine as a Special Forces medic going from registered nurse to physician, hospital CEO and Surgeon General. He's the guy who, much to the chagrin of John Boehner and the lobbyists in Boehnerland GOP, dealt the death knell to tobacco by issuing the definitive report on the toxicity of secondhand smoke which underlined the unacceptable risks and encouraged indoor smoking bans: "The debate is over. The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard." Rove and Boehner and their cronies worked hard to undermine Carmona and in 2007 he accused the Bush Administration of preventing him from speaking out on a wide range of public health issues from embryonic stem cell research, global climate change and emergency contraception, to the idiocy of abstinence-only sex education, where Rove's political calculations conflicted with scientific and medical opinion. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried."

Bush and Rove weren't especially concerned about osteoporosis and didn't interfere, as far as I know, with Carmona when he released his groundbreaking 2004 Bone Health Report. But the media, all caught up in the electoral battle between Bush and Kerry-- and with the first Boston Red Sox World Series win since 1918-- ignored it completely. The corporate food industry was satisfied and it didn't even cost them anything to bury a document that could have/should have caused them endless trouble.

Carmona, singled out as one of the "health legends" in Jordan Rubin's newest book, The Raw Truth, warned that if we don’t change our lifestyle habits by 2020, half of American citizens older than 50 years of age would be at risk of fractures from osteoporosis. We're almost there and we haven't changed our eating habits and lifestyle, certainly not in the way Dr. Carmona was advocating.

We tend to think of bone health as it relates to the elderly, but bone health-- and more appropriately bone mineral loss-- should be a concern at all ages of life. So, if you are over 30, the age that is associated with the end of the “bone growth” stage of life and the onset of normal age-related bone mineral loss, then the Surgeon General’s report should be particularly alarming to you. Thankfully, Dr. Carmona and his team of medical experts laid out a three-part plan to address the alarming trends described in this report.

The plan includes improved diet, exercise and health literacy. Particular attention was paid to calcium and vitamin D. The FDA concurs evidenced by its approved health claim that adequate calcium and vitamin D intake, when combined with physical activity and a healthful diet, may reduce the risk of osteoporosis later in life.

Of course, many people looking to boost their bone health choose to supplement their diets. It is in this area that one of the most common myths associated with bone health is found.

If you want healthy bones, all you need is calcium, right? That is the sum total of many people’s knowledge on bone health nutrition. Thousands of manufacturers of calcium supplements would happily have you believe that first statement. That alone should make you wary. When thousands of companies profit from a single widely-held belief, it’s probably time to question that belief.

Here is the truth.

No calcium supplement, taken in the absence of other vitamins and minerals and without proper diet and exercise, has ever been proven in clinical studies to help you strengthen bones. The best that can be said is that calcium supplementation helps slow down or stop bone loss. While slowing bone loss is a great goal, it’s a far cry from making them stronger and healthier by increasing bone mineral density.
As you will learn, there are several factors that go into actually building bone mineral density or growing bone. The source of your calcium is a key factor. Did you know that most calcium supplements are ground-up rocks or oyster shells? Of equal importance to the source of calcium are a host of other vitamins, minerals and trace elements that help calcium achieve its ultimate goal in the body.

...Sun-drenched and teeming with life, our bodies thrive on the nutrition that plants provide. The same will never be said of rocks. Additionally, and of particular importance for bone health, when you take a plant-form calcium supplement, you’re getting far more than just calcium.

The consumption of bone-building co-factor minerals such as magnesium, silica, boron, vanadium and strontium have all been linked to healthy bones. And all of them are naturally occurring in the RAW Calcium algas calcareas.sp.

...Be sure to also eat a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, and chances are that by 2020, no matter what your age, you’ll be more likely to have strong, healthy bones.

Would you like a free copy? Help save Chicago

Yesterday Paul Krugman was ruminating about soaring food prices and potentially disastrous shortfalls. Americans who don't have to worry about there not being enough food, have to worry about what kind of food they're eating. Coke and Pepsi aren't food; they're poisonous substances that cause disease. And, regardless of Ronnie RayGun's 100th birthday, ketchup still isn't a vegetable. But making and distributing them are very profitable. Alas, this isn't the kind of stuff our public officials are interested in. At least most of them aren't. There are always exceptions-- like Jared Polis in Colorado. And the woman who's running for Mayor of Chicago, former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun, against Wall Street's candidate (Satan), actually runs an organic food company in real life. Carol is going to be a live Blue America guest at Crooks and Liars on Wednesday afternoon and we're going to be talking with her about health as well as politics. I hope you'll come over and meet her. Meanwhile, the first 10 people who donate at least $25 to her campaign fund at ActBlue will get a free copy of Rubin's book, Raw Truth as a healthy thank you gift from Blue America.

CARMONA NOT GLUE

You probably have gotten the idea that most of us at DWT have rushed out to see SiCKO and rushed back greatly moved and bubbling over with enthusiasm for Moore's important, even crucial, work. Every American ought to see this movie, although I kind of wish foreigners wouldn't. I suspect that an awful lot of the kinds of Republicans who get all their ideas talking points from the Hannitys and Coulters and O'Reillys and Limbaughs won't believe any of it. It just doesn't fit with the Corporate America propaganda we've been fed all our lives. I wonder if they'll believe Admiral Richard H. Carmona though.

Admiral Carmona, better known as U.S. Surgeon General Carmona, is talking about health care too. He's not a lot like Michael Moore, but he seems headed for the same place. This morning's NY Times points out one thing he and Moore certainly have in common: that the Bush Regime is a very grave threat to the health and welfare of Americans.

Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.

Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.

And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.

That would be the Kennedys, the family of the former U.S. president who is admired by roughly 4 times as many Americans as the current occupant of the White House. “I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?’ ” Dr. Carmona said. Dr. Carmona is just one of what the Times says is "a growing list" of present and former voices from inside the secretive Regime "to charge that politics often trumped science within what had previously been largely nonpartisan government health and scientific agencies." Carmona's six immediate predecessors, both Democrats and Republicans, agree that he faced far more political interference than any of them had. "On issue after issue, Dr. Carmona said, the administration made decisions about important public health issues based solely on political considerations, not scientific ones."

Earlier today Noah talked about how CNN tried to bury Michael Moore's movie by manipulating statistics to falsely claim that the film was "fudged." This morning when I woke up, CNN had some hack from the Bush Regime undercutting Dr. Carmona's testimony yesterday by claiming it was all "sour grapes." How wedded is CNN to the dying Regime? And when we finally get to bury Bush, Cheney and the rest of this wart on the ass of American history, do we get to bury CNN with them? Not likely.


UPDATE: WAXMAN TO THE RESCUE

Under a normal presidency this would never have to happen-- and, in fact, it never has happened-- but under these circumstances, someone had to do something! Ergo: Henry Waxman's Surgeon General's Independence Act. I wonder if the GOP will obstruct this too. After all, if it's good for normal Americans, they're against it.