The Unresolved Congressional Contests

Blue Dog Nye beats rabid Republican Drake in VA-02

First some good news: rubber stamp and arch-reactionary Thelma Drake (VA-02) just conceded. The extremist imbecile who took over the southeast Virginia seat of Ed Schrock after he accidentally left his closet door open and then decided to resign from Congress so he could "spend more time with his family," is unlikely to ever be heard from again. The new congressman is Glenn Nye, a middle of the road Democrat.

Some of the other House races are more critical because they pit genuine progressives against right-wing extremists. And then there are still some Senate races not determined yet. This morning's CQPolitics went through them all.

Last night I was a guest on Air America, talking about these races. The very first question was about the "closeness" of the Merkley-Smith Senate contest in Oregon. But it really wasn't that close. Unlike in Minnesota, say, where, only 236 votes (of 2.8 ballots cast) separates Al Franken and Norm Coleman, "closeness" wasn't the issue in Oregon. It was just a matter of slow counting. With 91% of precincts now counted, Jeff Merkley took 816,276 (49%) votes and incumbent Gordon Smith only had 764,540 (46%)-- not a blowout, but not a worth a recount either, especially since the 9% of uncounted precincts are all Democratic-leaning. Smith conceded yesterday.

Now in Minnesota we really do need a complete and thorough recount. And, despite Coleman's silly huffing and puffing-- he leads by the 236 votes-- it is legally mandated. The recount starts after November 18, will take at least a week or two and that doesn't rule out further legal challenges, especially if a sore loser like Coleman doesn't get what he wants.

Georgia is more clear cut. No one got a 50% majority so there is a run-off on December 2. Incumbent wingnut Saxby Chambliss has 49.8% of the vote and Democrat Jim Martin has 46.8%.

Republicans contend that Chambliss would have the advantage in a runoff, arguing that Democrat Martin, who is white, would have difficulty generating the kind of huge turnout among the black constituency-- more than a quarter of the state’s population-- that came out in strength for Barack Obama. But the cash-rich Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has pledged to pour money into Georgia to back Martin if the race goes to a runoff, and Democratic strategists argue that Republican voters may be deflated by their party’s setbacks and are less likely to return to the polls in less than four weeks.

A lot may come down to whether or not President-elect Obama is willing to push hard for Martin. I'm guessing he won't and Martin will lose.

The Alaska Senate race may well have been fixed, as we discussed earlier, but there are still 55,000 votes to count. Convicted felon Ted Stevens-- who is also facing expulsion from both the Republican caucus and the Senate itself-- leads Mark Begich (according to what looks like the tainted results) by 3,300 votes of the 200,000 or so cast. If he's declared the winner and is then expelled, Alaska would then get a 90 day appointee courtesy of Sarah Palin, followed by a special election 90 days later-- unless we sell Alaska back to the Russians or rescind statehood.

And then there will be the interim appointments (2 years) to fill the Illinois and Delaware Senate seats being vacated by Obama and Biden-- both being made by Democratic governors.

Over on the House side, there are more undecided races. Last night we looked at the CA-44 (parts of Orange and Riverside Counties) where Ken Calvert insists he's the winner and says he doesn't care about any final vote count. Unfortunately for Calvert, most of the tens of thousands of uncounted votes are from Riverside County, the part of the district that supports Bill Hedrick, although there are plenty of hard right areas in Orange County with uncounted votes as well.

Way on the other end of the state, provisional and absentee ballots have to be counted in CA-04, where extremist maniac Tom McClintock leads Charlie Brown by 644 votes.

Louisiana's arcane election system will chose two House members-- one for LA-02 (New Orleans) and one for LA-04 (McCrery's old Shreveport-centered district in the northwest part of the state-- on December 6. Democratic incumbent, William Jefferson, still awaiting trial on corruption charges, and reactionary anti-choice so-called "Democratic" candidate Paul Carmouche are both favored. Nothing to look forward to in either case.

In Ohio's 15th CD (Columbus) there is a very tight contest to replace GOP rubber stamp Deborah Pryce, between Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy and Republican Steve Stivers. As of this morning Stivers seems to be ahead by 146 votes (out of 290,000 cast), although there are still plenty of votes to be counted next week.

Yet to be counted are provisional ballots, which won't be tallied for 10 days; the military and overseas absentee ballots postmarked by the time the polls closed Tuesday and received by Nov. 14; any domestic absentee ballots postmarked by Monday that are received by Nov. 14; as well as any of the estimated 5,000 absentee ballots with errors that voters correct by Nov. 14.

Kilroy's campaign predicted that those ballots would melt away Stivers' lead. Provisional ballots, often cast by younger voters and new residents, tend to skew Democratic.

"We are confident that when the Board of Elections completes their work that Mary Jo Kilroy will be declared the winner given the number of ballots that have yet to be counted in Franklin County," Kilroy spokesman Brad Bauman said in a written statement in the afternoon.

In Maryland's first CD right-wing loon Andy Harris trails Blue Dog Frank Kratovil by 1,882 votes. The state will count absentee and provisional ballots next week but the Blue Dog is expected to win won. Big whoop!

From the progressive perspective there are two other crucial House races outstanding: VA-05 where Tom Perriello is leading corrupt wingnut Virgil Goode and WA-08 where counting is extremely slow. In the Virginia race, all the ballots and counted and Tom is ahead by 648 votes but Goode refuses to concede and may have to be dragged out of his office in chains. In Washington there are still a quarter million votes to be counted, mostly in parts of the district that lean Democratic but it could take a week or even longer before the final results are in.

A Surprise Win In California For The Democrats-- Or Just Another Missed Opportunity?

Calvert & Bill Hedrick

Most political observers and activists-- DWT included-- missed an opportunity to oust one of the more heinous and corrupt right-wing Republicans in California. We've certainly talked about GOP pervert and pip-squeak Ken Calvert, who has been misrepresenting the portions of Orange County and Riverside that make up CA-44. With thousands of votes still to be counted, grassroots Democrat Bill Hedrick has come tantalizingly close-- in a district with a PVI of R+6!-- to taking out Duke Cunningham buddy Calvert.

Bill Hedrick 85,039 (48.6%)
Ken Calvert 89,679 (51.4%)

Yes, it's still too close to call at this point, even if the sleazy and reactionary Calvert in still ahead and likely to prevail.

Calvert's low vote tally in his home county is indicative of a shift in voter registration in favor of Democrats. The fast-growing area has seen increases in both parties in recent months, but the Democrats are growing at a faster clip than the GOP, voter registration figures show.

Republicans still hold a slight edge over Democrats in the Riverside County portion of the district, with roughly 5,000 more registered GOP voters than Democrats.

But Hedrick, perhaps aided by the excitement surrounding President-elect Barack Obama, was ahead by almost 6,000 votes in Riverside County, according to the Riverside County registrar of voters. In conservative south Orange County, where all of the precincts had reported, Calvert trounced Hedrick by more than 11,000 votes.

Meanwhile, the deep red GOP district that Democrats really did contest, CA-04 way in the northeastern part of the state, is even closer-- a real cliff-hanger. With over 40,000 votes uncounted only 451 votes separate Charlie Brown from far right extremist Tom McClintock (with 311,091 counted). McClintock is coming in with high power Republican lawyers who have experience stealing election (going way back to Florida, 2000). Charlie needs help and Blue America is encouraging people to donate whatever they can as soon as they can.

The Daily Blue America Report-- #8

They should all retire together

Finally some good news for Ted Stevens! On returning home from his trial in Washington Stevens was told that Alaska law permits felons to run for federal office. In fact, as long as he isn't sentenced before Tuesday, he can even vote for himself! And he'll need every vote he can muster. "Like most people, I'm not perfect," Stevens told a throng of adoring recipients of wealth from the Lower 48 spread around through Stevens' earmarks.

Stevens has been kicked to the curb by both friend and for. McCain, who has always hated his guts, called on him to resign before the last juror had a chance to nod. He then forced Palin do the same, breaking with the Alaska Republican Party, which is still urging the faithful to vote for Uncle Ted. Many of the crooked Republicans who have been taking bribes from Big Oil funneled through Stevens' PAC-- particularly Republican senators in jeopardy of losing their seats Tuesday, like Mitch McConnell R-KY), Norm Coleman (R-MN), who is having his own spiraling out-of-control ethics scandal, Gordon Smith (R-OR) and John Sununu (R-NH)-- have hypocritically demanded their old partner in crime resign... immediately. Who's name is missing from this list? Well, check out which members of the Senate got the really big pay-outs from Stevens' money-laundering operation, The Northern Lights PAC and you will find Maine's most corrupt political hack, Susan Collins ($10,000 this year and $10,000 last time she ran). Maine's other senator, the honest, moderate one, Olympia Snowe, has joined her colleagues urging Stevens to resign. But not Collins, whose own PAC funneled $10,000 to Stevens, a kind of semi-legalistic way for politicians to avoid campaign finance laws.

And while Susan Collins is pledging her undying fealty to convicted felon Ted Stevens, her opponent, Tom Allen, one of the finest-- and most tested and proven-- public servants running for the Senate from anywhere, is being supported by Bill Clinton. President Clinton and Congressman Allen are old friends from the days they were both Rhodes Scholars at Oxford. Tens of thousands of Mainers were surprised when they picked up their phones tonight-- praying it wouldn't be another hysterical robocall from another of the far right GOP front groups flooding the state with negativity on behalf of Collins-- to find President Clinton's comforting voice urging them to vote for Tom.

"Hello this is President Clinton and I'm calling to urge you to support Tom Allen for United States Senate.  Barack Obama needs Democrats like Tom Allen in Washington in order implement his agenda of change to turn this economy around.

"Congressman Tom Allen opposes Bush's failed economy policy and is fighting for change: a new economic policy that focuses on the middle class, creates jobs in Maine, and supports small businesses. For Real Change support Tom Allen for US Senate on November 4."

That was especially refreshing after a day of dire warnings from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party that they intend to control Obama's agenda and the Democratic Party after Tuesday.

Conservative Democrats who've been a thorn in the side of liberal party leaders could grow into a major obstacle to Barack Obama's agenda if he is elected president.

Majority Democrats are positioned for big gains in next week's congressional election. But many of the new faces would join a growing chorus of "Blue Dogs" who often part from the party base on big issues like taxes and increasing federal spending.

That could set up a roadblock for Obama, who has promised to broaden health insurance coverage, start a new round of public works projects and improve early childhood education, among other things-- all initiatives that would require substantial government spending at a time of soaring deficits.

Ironically, it was Obama's radio ad for one of the worst of the Blue Dogs, John Barrow, a nominal Democrat from Georgia, that saved him from being defeated in a primary by state Senator Regina Thomas, who is an exemplary progressive. On substantive matters, Barrow has voted with the GOP 65% of the time and with the Democrats 35% of the time. And Barrow is only one of 16 nominal Democrats who have voted with the Repugs more frequently than with their own party. The others, from bad to worse, are: Zach Space (OH), Baron Hill (IN), Gene Taylor (MS), Harry Mitchell (AZ), Jim Matheson (UT), Chris Carney (PA), Heath Shuler (NC), Jason Altmire (PA), Dan Boren (OK), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Travis Childers (MS), Don Cazayoux (LA), Joe Donnelly (IN), Jim Marshall (GA) and Nick Lampson (TX).

Lately we've been mentioning how the DCCC is spending far more money on Independent Expenditures for conservative and corporate candidates than for grassroots and progressive candidates. Today I saw quite a few weighty endorsements come over the transom-- mostly for conservatives. Many of the best candidates across the country-- the hope of the progressive movement, have been snubbed by the Establishment Democrats over and over, as though they actually hope they lose. Today conservative business shill Mark Warner warmly endorsed fellow conservative Glenn Nye, while ignoring progressive candidates Judy Feder and Tom Perriello. Simultaneously Jim Webb sent out a last minute plea for 4 Democratic candidates for the Senate-- pointedly leaving out progressives-- and pleading for cash from a right-wing corporate shill like Bruce Lunsford (KY) and for right-of-center bad-news-Dems Kay Hagan (NC) and Ronnie Musgrove (MS) plus moderate Jim Martin (GA). Not a word about struggling progressives like Jeff Merkley (OR), Rick Noriega (TX), Andrew Rice (OK), or Tom Allen (ME).

Connecticut-04- On the other hand, Jim Himes did get a little help that should go a long way in the form of a radio ad by Barack Obama.

New York-25- Yesterday's NY Times reported that the Republican Party has given up on all but two of the congressional races in New York State, the others being hopelessly out of their reach. Dan Maffei is sure to win a seat he just missed out on in 2006. The only Blue America candidate in New York now facing a challenge is Eric Massa, who is leading in a tight rematch with Bush rubber stamp Randy Kuhl.

National Republican officials have decided to withhold financial support from all but two closely contested Congressional races in New York, as the party braces for the possibility that it could lose several more House seats in the state.

The decision to abandon much of the state came after internal party polls showed Republican candidates in at least three once-promising races falling behind their Democratic opponents, a party official briefed on the internal deliberations said.

As a result, Republican leaders are diverting money to candidates in other races in which party officials believe they have a greater chance of success, the official said.

The decision by national Republicans to focus on a smaller group of races underscores the degree to which the party is on the defensive not only in New York but also in New Jersey, Connecticut and many other states. The national party is short on cash and is being forced into the difficult position of deciding where to continue to fight-- and where to effectively surrender-- as the election enters the final days of campaigning.

“Tough decisions have to be made,” said Representative Peter T. King, a Republican from Long Island, who conceded that the party was seeking to minimize its losses. “You have to decide who comes off life support and who gets a massive infusion.”

Two of the races effectively being written off in New York are in districts currently held by Republican incumbents who are retiring at the end of the year-- the 25th Congressional District in the Syracuse region, now held by James T. Walsh; and the 13th District on Staten Island, where Vito J. Fossella is stepping down. Representative Fossella was found guilty in a Virginia court this month on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol.

VIRGINIA-05- In a stunning and precedent-shattering move, the Danville Register & Bee has ended its career-long support for corrupt Bush rubber stamp Virgil Goode and urged voters to trade him in for Tom Perriello.

This newspaper hasn’t endorsed a Democrat for Congress since Virgil Goode was a Democrat. Since Goode’s first campaign for Congress in 1996, we have backed him in every election, defended him from what we thought was unfair criticism by challengers and wished for him a long career in Washington.

But today, the Danville Register & Bee endorses Tom Perriello for the 5th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

We haven’t left Virgil Goode. Virgil Goode has left us.

...We expect to receive great criticism for endorsing Perriello over Goode.

But our decision was born out of frustration with a career politician who has already told us he expects to be ineffective as Democrats gain more power in Congress. Just this year, Goode has voted against the tax rebate checks that people throughout the 5th District received this year and he voted against a financial rescue plan that even his own Republicans believed was necessary to stave off more serious economic problems.

If we send Goode back to Washington, how many more times will he vote against our interests? We can’t take that chance.

On Tuesday, it’s time to elect a young man of integrity, energy, faith and hard work. It’s time to send Tom Perriello to Congress.

Texas-10- Cook upgraded Larry Joe Doherty's chance of unseating Bush rubber stamp Michael McCaul... for the second time. McCaul, one of the least knowledgeable hacks in the whole Congress has refused to debate Doherty and over the past couple of months the district went from "safe Republican" to "likely Republican" to "leans Republican." McCaul has no get ground game and Doherty has been building one all year. The latest polling shows a virtual tie. A victory Tuesday for Larry Joe will be reason to celebrate-- for Texans and for all Americans. Watch him on local TV news yesterday explaining his ideas about bailing out big corporations.

California-04- Last night we talked about the soft-core porn robocalls Republican congressional candidate Zane Starkewolf has been using (illegally) in CA-01. Mike Thompson, the incumbent from that district was campaigning with Charlie Brown yesterday in CA-04. And Little Zane's buddy, Tom McClintock was also employing more illegal robocalls, which most people in Northern California refer to as nuisance calls. (McClintock, who lives in the L.A. suburbs doesn't know anything about northern California, so he isn't aware people don't like them-- or that they're illegal.) A couple weeks ago Charlie Brown called on McClintock to join him in swearing them off. "Robo-Dial phone calls are a nuisance and a deceptive campaign tactic typical of negative campaigns that would rather attack a person’s character than offer detailed solutions. I am calling on Tom McClintock to join me in a bi-partisan effort to conduct an above board campaign based on direct contact with voters-- not deceptive and annoying robo-calls." McClintock refused and instead launched another barrage of the calls, illegal because they violated laws requiring that they include a disclaimer identifying who paid for and authorized the campaign communication.

Another great SEIU TV spot-- this one on behalf of progressives in Ohio. Let's hope it rubs off on Vic Wulsin, the best candidate in the entire state and the one who is being pummeled the hardest by the GOP smear machine.



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The Daily Blue America Report-- #3

California-04- In a rational world it would not be especially remarkable that the Sacramento Bee endorsed Charlie Brown over Tom McClintock today. Of course in a rational world, we would never have accepted George Bush as president and elected a Congress dedicated to the impoverishment of working families on behalf of special interests. The editors of the very Republican Bee say it was a "clear choice" and urges their readers to "opt for pragmatism, not rigid ideology." Bingo! Charlie is a moderate and pragmatic well-respected, admired member of the community. McClintock is some kind of a far right extremist from hundreds of miles away looking-- as he always is-- for a plush job.

Democratic candidate Charlie Brown is a career U.S. Air Force officer, now retired. During the Vietnam War, he flew helicopter missions in southeast Asia. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his helicopter rescue in the Mayaguez incident of May 1975 and coordinated Air Force surveillance flights over Iraq in the 1990s.

Brown, a 17-year resident of Roseville who ran against Doolittle in 2006, has worked hard the last three years to build a relationship with voters in the district. In the end, he would be the more effective voice on issues that matter to the district and the region.

... McClintock has an "old economy" vision for the district, relying on increased timber production (which would require gutting environmental laws and hard-won compromises) and water. He sees an Auburn Dam as the "single most important project for the region."

Brown has met with wind and solar business owners and favors alternative energy tax credits and high-speed Internet access. He would fight for expansion of Interstate 80 and Highway 50, stream-bed restoration in Sierra Meadows, improvements to existing dams and Lake Tahoe restoration. He supports forest thinning to decrease fire hazards.

The most recent polling shows Charlie ahead 48-42 and with $2 million in air time reserved by the DCCC. The Republican Party has given up on McClintock as hopeless and too extreme. He's out of money. His is the race most observers see as the surest Democratic victory in California. The infamous NRCC "death list" from last week writes off CA-04 and is pessimistic about Brian Bilbray's chances for re-election. But several other California incumbents are in jeopardy: Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46), Mary Bono Mack (CA-45), Dan Lungren (CA-03) and David Dreier (CA-26).


California-26- Blue America just launched a special fundraising page with one object: defeating David Dreier, one of the last of the ultra reactionary extremists left in the Los Angeles congressional delegation (along with Dana Rohrabacher).

Dreier has certainly been a dependable Bush rubber stamp across the entire panoply of issues that have made Bush’s presidency the worst in modern American history. But it isn't even just his blind support for Bush that has made Dreier so odious. In these troubled economic times Dreier has been a shameless handmaiden for Big Business and special corporate interests over and above the interests of his own constituents. His record on health care is the worst of any California congressman and his record on veterans is just as disgraceful. Fortunately, there is a way to battle a deceitful and corrupt hack like Dreier on the issues—and that is what the Democrats are doing. We applaud them. But there’s is more to Dreier than just reactionary politics.

Dreier is a closeted gay man and a frightened hypocrite who votes against equality for gay families while prancing around the world to every gay hotspot there is-- at taxpayer expense-- with his overpaid lover. It’s time for him to shuffle back to Kansas City, where he still lives when he’s not in Washington, so CA-26 can have some real representation that makes sense for southern California.

Please help Blue America mail this information piece about Congressman Dreier out to some of the residents of the district, like himself, who are in favor of the homophobic Proposition 8. If they plan to vote against equality for gay people, maybe they need to find out about their own representative's extracurricular activities. You can donate here.



Virginia-10- Clear across the country in Northern Virginia-- the part Republicans claim isn't "real" Virginia-- a Democratic video tracker was politely asking Congressman Frank Wolf a question-- which Wolf rudely ignored-- when he was assaulted by Republican staffers and beaten with a cane. (Hey, Sarah-- is that what you meant by "Real Virginia?") Although Wolf did nothing to stop the attack, at least he didn't personally join in. RaisingKaine has the video and the whole sordid story.

Normally we reserve this space for Blue America candidates-- and let me remind you that you can contribute to Charlie Brown, Russ Warner and Judy Feder right here-- a Sam Bennett supporter in Montgomery County, PA sent DWT a beautiful and inspiring Obama video we want to share with you as we go into the most important week of the campaign:

Another Reason To Vote For Charlie Brown-- Tom McClintock Is A Pre-Existing Condition Dangerous To A Healthy Society

Charlie and Jan Brown

When I left my job as a divisional president at TimeWarner it wasn't exactly the same as just leaving any other job. I wasn't especially eager to hold on to any ties with the corporation and I was looking forward to move on with my life. Except in one area: healthcare. You've probably read about how great the health insurance is for members of Congress, right? The health insurance for corporate CEOs is at least as good. And, like many Americans of my age-- most?-- a pre-existing condition would make it very difficult for me to get decent and affordable health insurance outside of TimeWarner's system. So I stayed on, gratefully. But that isn't an option anyone below president gets. After a few months, you're on your own.

If you've been a reader of any of the Blue America blogs, you probably know we first endorsed Charlie Brown in 2006. When we've talked about why we're so enthusiastic about his race we've tended to talk more about the Iraq war and the extremism and corrupt practices of incumbent, John Doolittle, than about healthcare. But the federal charges against Doolittle and his wife, both of whom are likely to spend at least some years in prison, have made it impossible for Doolittle to run for re-election and he's passed his baton on to another right-wing extremist, carpetbagger Tom McClintock, who is also the candidate of the KKK.

McClintock doesn't talk about health care issues in his campaign. And how could he? He's received hundreds of thousands of dollars in "contributions" from Big Pharma and the insurance industry, has repeatedly voted against legislation aimed at prevention of disease and improving healthcare services to California women, children and seniors in the state legislature, and this year he authored legislation that would deny the legitimate health claims of millions of insured Californians. His record is an example of someone devoted to the special interests that fund him, not to the voters who have elected him to office. he's been against improving access to healthcare for low income children and their families (AB 1126, 9/12/97), against routine coverage for children with cancer (AB 591, 5/25/99), against requiring insurers to cover checkups and vaccinations for children (AB 424, 6/3/85), against requiring insurers to cover annual cervical cancer tests for women (CA Senate Vote 9/12/01), and against prescription drug coverage for seniors (AB 757, 6/4/99). And, yes, he even voted against giving patients the right to select their own doctors (AB 1124, 6/4/99); not what most voters are looking for in a new congressman.

What caught my attention, however, was a bill McClinton wrote and introduced this year, SB 1669. Actually, he gets credit for writing it but it was obviously written by the insurance company lobbyists who have helped fund his political career. Had McClintock's bill passed it would have accomplished a dream insurance companies aspire to-- making it easier to deny the health claims on the basis of pre-existing conditions. One of the reasons they love McClintock and SB 1669 was because it would have extended the period that insurers could look back in your medical history from 12 months to... 10 years. That's Republican healthcare and that's what Tom Clintock is all about. Recent polling shows Charlie ahead of McClintock in this overwhelmingly Republican district (PVI- R+11). So how do they differ on healthcare?

Charlie, unlike McClintock, is a signatory to the Children’s Defense Council’s Pledge to fight for healthcare reform that ensures access to affordable healthcare coverage for every child and every pregnant woman in America. Over a million California children have no health insurance of any kind and the impact reverberates across society. Any teacher will tell you that healthy children perform far better in school and studies will tell you that one dollar spent on healthcare for children saves up to $16 in future healthcare costs. Charlie:

“Rising healthcare costs are hurting families and businesses across America. If we want to address the drain of growing healthcare costs on our economy and our family budgets, we have to focus on prevention. And we can do that by ensuring all children and pregnant women have access to affordable coverage which includes comprehensive benefits... Tom McClintock gets free healthcare, a free car, free gas, and tax free per diems he’s not entitled to, yet has voted to restrict the ability of Californians to see a doctor of their choice and fought against helping our most vulnerable citizens access meaningful healthcare coverage. His record of inaction has not only helped drive up the cost of healthcare for every Californian, it’s illustrative of a career politician hypocrite who would rather serve himself, than solve problems.”

Does that sum it up for you? It's a reflection of the basic difference in healthcare perspectives between Obama and McCain-- as well as between American working families and the insurance industry. But unless you or someone you love has come up against the solid wall called "pre-existing condition," you may not understand the danger of right wing ideologues like Tom McClintock determining healthcare policy for our country. Charlie Brown does understand. “Tom McClintock’s idea of healthcare reform is writing a law that says if you have a medical problem, you can’t get healthcare coverage,” Brown said. “This misguided bill could have literally cost millions of Californians who have battled and overcome ailments ranging from diabetes, to mild cardiac conditions or cancer their lives."
 
If you'd like to contribute to Charlie's campaign-- believe me, insurance companies will be giving all their donations to someone else-- he's on the Blue America ActBlue page. And, rest assured, there's no one on that page who agrees with Tom McClintock's views on healthcare. Nor, apprently, do the United Auto Workers. This ad isn't running in California, so CA-04 voters won't see it-- but they should:

Good News In Northern California

Dean Andal must have been in the men's room

If California Republicans were smarter they would have focussed all their energy and their meager resources to try to hold onto the seats of endangered rubber stamps like David Dreier, Dana Rohrabacher and Brian Bilbray. Instead, they foolishly blustered around northern California, as delusional as ever, thinking they could win back Pombo's old seat with a Pombo-clone and win the seat John Doolittle has so thoroughly disgraced with a Doolittle-clone. Wrong on both counts.

The GOP's hopes for recapturing CA-11 have been spiraling rapidly downward as Jerry McNerney and his constituents have gotten to know and like each other better and better. Even Republican-leaning media outlets that supported Pombo have to admit that McNerney has been providing the San Joaquin Valley district with the best representation its had in many, many years. The opponent the hapless Republicans have put up, right-wing extremist Dean Andal, is already rolling around in the mud of scandal-- even before the election! And then there's the little fundraising problem... Andal's got the stench of death all over him. No one wants to get too close.

A bit further north, is CA-04, a district specifically created for Republicans. But even a district like that can only take so much before they just say "no more." And, according to the latest polling, that's exactly what they're doing. Charlie Brown, already well known and well-liked across party lines, almost beat Doolittle in 2006, when Doolittle's massive corruption case was just a rumor. It's gone way beyond rumor and no one doubts that Mr-- and Mrs-- Doolittle will be spending some considerable time contemplating their crimes in federal prison. Doolittle announced he wouldn't be running again and the GOP let out a collective sign of relief... and then managed to find someone even worse! Tom McClintock is not merely a worse and more radical extremist than Doolittle, he's not even from the district! He's not even from near the district. He's an L.A. guy.

And for anyone whose attention span is so short that they can't remember much about the Republican Culture of Corruption that has so taken root in DC, Doolittle's crooked chief-of-staff, a close associate of Jack Abramoff's, was charged with "conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice for allegedly providing lawmakers and officials with gifts to win favors for lobbying clients." (That's a polite way of saying bribery.) He has the nerve to even buy Dixie Chicks tickets for some of these crooks! What happened to the right-wing boycott! Why not buy them tickets to see Ted Nugent?

People who want more of that can vote for John McCain and vote for Tom McClintock. The two members of Congress who look likely to wind up in prison with Ring are Ernest Istook, former Oklahoma Republican congressman, once voted the most homophobic asshole in the House, and, of course, Doolittle. It's great that Doolittle wants to fight this-- he still claims that everything is just circumstantial and a coincidence and that he-- and the crooked wife-- didn't do anything wrong. The longer and harder he fights, the more he'll drag McClintock and the GOP down the toilet with him. Go, Doolittle, Go!

CHARLIE BROWN WELCOMES SOME NEW REPUBLICANS TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Republicans have been frantically searching for a candidate to put up against Charlie Brown now that Doolittle has formally given up the ghost of whatever was left of his scandal-racked political career. Several Republicans who had gotten in, like Assemblyman Ted Gaines and former mayor of Auburn, Doug Thornell, have already withdrawn with their tails between their legs. The GOP's latest is to bring in a couple of clownish carpetbaggers, both pals of Doolittle. One is a retired (defeated) congressman, Doug Ose, from the neighboring 3rd CD-- although he moved out of there as soon as his constituents rejected him... and moved to the 5th CD, where he lives now. The other is a far right extremist state senator (and multimillionaire) named Rico Oller, widely considered one of the least effective and most radical members of the state legislature... just what the citizens of CA-04 do not need after the trauma of Doolittle and his bribery cases.

Meanwhile, despite being a pretty Republican district, carefully designed that way in a gerrymander, Charlie Brown has endeared himself to folks across the partisan divide. He and his wife and much admired members of the community. Today he welcomed the newcomers into the race.

We welcome Doug Ose and Rico Oller to this race, and to the 4th Congressional District.  We believe that once both move into the district, they will grow to understand that voters are not looking for more partisan attacks, but leadership that puts the interests of this district and our country first.  Ultimately, the values of the 4th District, and the challenges facing our great nation demand leaders willing to put patriotism before partisanship, and I am proud to have dedicated my career in public service-- for 26 years in the military, 8 years with the Roseville Police Department, as a parent, and now as a candidate for Congress-- to this singular cause.

RUN, DOOLITTLE, RUN!

According to this morning's Hill there is a growing chorus on the right urging one of California's most corrupt congressmen-- not as corrupt as Jerry Lewis, but more corrupt than Buck McKeon, maybe on a par with Duncan Hunter-- not to run for reelection.

Republican operatives fear that if [Rep. John] Doolittle does not retire at the end of this Congress and survives what would be a bruising GOP primary, they will lose the nine-term lawmaker’s seat. Doolittle is under an ethics cloud, having had his Virginia house investigated by the FBI last year. Several prominent Republicans are seeking to defeat him in the primary.

According to three well-placed Republican sources, former Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.)-- who lost his seat amid ethics allegations-- has called on longtime friend Doolittle to not seek reelection in the interest of keeping the district a GOP stronghold. In the last Congress, Pombo was a panel chairman while Doolittle was a member of GOP leadership.

Doolittle's ethical lapses-- and obvious criminal behavior-- leave him with a serious problem: even Republican donors won't contribute to him, knowing full well that whatever they give him for "reelection" will go straight to attorneys' fees. His campaign fund has about $37,000 in the bank and owes about $34,000. He was forced off the lucrative House Appropriations Committee, from which he was able to solicit immense bribes in the past. His other problem has little to do with Doolittle himself; his Democratic opponent, Charlie Brown is wildly popular in the northern California district and likely to kick his ass. (Charlie, who has been reendorsed by Blue America, is closing in on a $400,000 war chest.)

Pombo's call for Doolittle to retire is an echo of sitting Congressman (and fellow far right extremist) John Campbell, who admits he's worried that the GOP will have virtually no chance of holding the seat if Doolittle is on the ballot. Of course, if every Republican member of Congress guilty of criminal behavior in the Culture of Corruption regime of Tom DeLay and Denny Hastert got the same attention, they'd lose at least a couple dozen incumbents.

IT'S OFFICIAL-- CHARLIE BROWN IS RUNNING AGAIN-- AND SO IS DOOLITTLE!!

Charlie Brown makes it official today: he's running against whoever the Republicans will pick to replace incumbent criminal John Doolittle when he's carted off to prison in handcuffs. Although CA-04 was specifically designed to be a safe haven for a Republican, residents flocked to Charlie's positive message of commonsense hopefulness in such great numbers last year that he came within 3% of beating Doolittle. Doolittle, who was still pulling the wool over the eyes of his constituents about his long record of criminal behavior and corruption, got less than 50% of the vote. Since then, his home was raided by the FBI and a Grand Jury has been questioning his staffers and associates. The latest poll shows that Charlie would beat Doolittle with a 20% margin.

Charlie was one of Blue America's most admired candidates in 2006 and he was one of the first candidates we re-endorsed this year. This year readers of this blog and our pals at Firedoglake and Crooks & Liars have raised over $5,000 so far in 2007. Charlie has been donating 5% of his donations to charities serving local veterans and victims of the recent Angora Fire in Lake Tahoe, something he plans to do for the rest of the campaign.

I spoke with Charlie on the phone yesterday and he is actively hammering out a blueprint for a new approach to political leadership, an approach that is about serving, not self-serving. Charlie's campaign is more a grassroots campaign than a partisan campaign. People of all political stripes like his sincere, commonsense approach, especially to solving the situation in Iraq. He is a national security "hawk" which has opposed Bush's agenda in Iraq. Two days ago Charlie-- himself a 26 year Air Force vet who retired as a Lt. Colonel, picked up his son at the airport, after completing his fourth rotation in Iraq.

Charlie told me his son is worried about the state of American equipment which is so run down that even planes that are being flown in missions have cracks. Both of them are also worried that the political establishment has never been straight forward with the troops about in defining a mission. "The Bush Regime," Charlie told me, "has plans to syphon money out of every pot of military funding to keep the war going rather than for the purposes it was approved for." He says money that was allocated for, example, running schools on bases could easily be used to hire mercenaries from Bush cronies Blackwater.

Charlie thinks Congress has let us down by not challenging Bush on his constitutional deprecations. He'd like to see a congressional court case on his signing statements. "Congress pass laws and the president enforces them-- not changes them with signing statements." His feeling is that Bush's refusal to comply with the intent of the law is nothing short of dishonorable. Unlike Doolittle, Charlie says he would have voted against Bush's FISA legislation that allows his regime to wiretap and eavesdrop on Americans. He says he would vote against any of Bush's supplemental financing bills that didn't include clearly-defined benchmarks.

The best thing that could happen to Charlie is if, by some miracle, he gets to run against Doolittle again. It isn't likely but at least Doolittle says he intends to run. "Rep. John Doolittle defiantly declared Friday that he will not retire from Congress despite increasing Republican concern that if he runs for a 10th term next year, the seat could fall to Democratic challenger Charlie Brown. 'I will not step aside,' Doolittle said in a telephone news conference. 'I am running again. Period.'"

Let's help put a period on Doolittle's disgraceful career over at Blue America.

ANOTHER REALLY BAD DAY FOR JOHN DOOLITTLE-- NO REALLY BAD

Short answer... yes

I seem to recall that the Democratic grassroots candidate who nearly beat him last year, Charlie Brown, is about to officially declare that he's running for Doolittle's northern California seat again. But that will be Doolittle's bad news in a few days. The fact that conservative Republican Assemblyman Ted Gaines says he's probably going to challenge Doolittle, a far right Republican widely thought to be one of the most corrupt men to have ever set foot in the U.S. Congress (and on the verge of indictment by a Grand Jury), was the bad news last week. Today's bad news in two-fold.

Today's Sacramento Bee reports that if the rematch between Doolittle and Charlie Brown were held today, it wouldn't be close. Charlie would kick his ass from the Oregon border to the Sacramento suburbs and beat him by 20% of the vote-- in one of the most Republican districts north of the Mason-Dixon line. In a seat that was designed to elect Republicans, polling results show that

In a one-on-one match up, if the election were held today, Democrat Charlie Brown gets 51% of the vote to Congressman Doolittle's 31%.

Those surveyed were also asked if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Doolittle. Respondents came back with 28% favorable and 56% unfavorable.

In the survey, GOP primary voters were asked whether Congressman Doolittle should run for another term. 33% of those asked said he should. A staggering 50% said that the Congressman should either resign or should not run again.

Don't think the news for Doolittle can't get worse. It just did. The Associated Press just reported that two of Doolittle's top aides were subpoenaed by the Grand Jury looking into his history of rampant criminality. They are nailing down the relationship between Doolittle and his moll wife with imprisoned Republican rainmakers Jack Abramoff. The subpoenas were read out on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives this morning when the Congress returned from their August break.

Oh, and by the way, whether Doolittle is serving time before the election or just busy in court, I'm guessing that instead of running against a well-known corrupt Republican, Charlie will have to run against an as yet unproven corrupt Republican. That means he's going to need all the financial help he can get. If you're feeling flush today, give Charlie a hand.


CHARLIE BROWN AND JIM HIMES

Jane Hamsher and John Amato are back in L.A. and they hatched this plan to rid the world of the odious Chris "Both Ways" Shays. So if you're diggin' deep for Charlie today, split it with Jim Himes, the Blue America candidate for the only congressional district in New England still help by a right-winger.

RATS DESERTING A SINKING SHIP: LUGAR, WARNER, VOINOVICH, DOMENICI... WHO'S NEXT? DOOLITTLE?

As a matter of fact... Doolittle suddenly decided he's with Sneaky Pete. I don't know if it's because he likes Domenici's nickname or because, like Domenici, he has supported every single Bush Cheney Iraq initiative. The House voted on Iraq-related legislation 49 times since the original 4 resolutions giving Bush the authority to use force. Doolittle was out swindling the public during two votes but of the 47 he voted on, he voted with Bush and Cheney 47 times-- a perfect rubber stamp record.

If a coward and bootlick like Doolittle is abandoning Bush, believe me, it is all over. Doolittle, who knows he will have to depend on a president to pardon him when he gets sentenced to a long prison term next year probably feels he has a better shot with Hillary than with the current occupant of the White House. And if someone as far to the right as Doolittle is moving away from Bush-- after his unblemished record of complete and total support for the occupation-- it can only mean the damn is about to break.

At a town hall meeting in Rocklin and then in a meeting with the editorial board of the Sacramento Bee he questioned whether the conflict was worth the loss of more American lives. He said U.S. troops should be pulled back from the front lines "as soon as possible" and the fighting turned over to Iraqi forces.

A longtime supporter of the war, Doolittle called the situation in Iraq a "quagmire" on Thursday. "We've got to get off the front lines as soon as possible," Doolittle said at Rocklin City Hall, the Bee reported. "And in my mind that means something like the end of the year. We just can't continue to tolerate these kinds of losses."

Wow! What's next? Mean Jean Schmidt? Marilyn Musgrave? And by the way, if you want to show Doolittle what you think of a phony and a rat, may I suggest a contribution to the campaign of his congressional replacement, Charlie Brown?


UPDATE: CHARLIE BROWN SAYS WORDS AREN'T ENOUGH

I had a feeling Charlie might have something to say about this. Here's what he just sent me"

For more than four years, John Doolittle has offered lockstep support for a disastrous Iraq policy that has neglected our troops, compromised America’s security, and emboldened our enemies.
 
Nearly 3600 Americans have been killed and more than 25,000 wounded. And while I have consistently offered a plan which honors their sacrifice and matches realities on the ground-- to include a more limited mission, timetables for re-deployment and enforceable political benchmarks-- John Doolittle has consistently voted to stay the course. 
 
Now that he is facing the prospect of criminal indictment, Doolittle is grasping at straws. He’s gone from a position of blind allegiance to a President who ignores the will of the American people, his top military commanders, Congress, and the Iraq Study Group, to one that is grounded in political desperation. 
 
It’s time for John Doolittle to offer our troops, our country, and his constituents something more than just empty words.

Doolittle is half a decade behind Charlie Brown in dealing with Iraq. While Doolittle continues to play politics with this crucial threat to our national security, here's the actual plan that retired Lt. Colonel Charlie Brown has come up with the try to do something about Iraq. Like I mentioned yesterday, you want to trade in one of the half dozen worst congressmen in the entire United States for someone who will be a real leaders? You'd be surprised what $5 or $10 will do to help.

WILL DOOLITTLE GET A HARSHER SENTENCE THAN CUNNINGHAM?

Republican John Doolittle was up to his eyeballs in the worst corruption scandal since Teapot Dome-- all the while proclaiming his innocence and hiding behind his Mormonism. His involvement in taking gigantic bribes for his support of schemes to set up forced prostitution and slave labor industry in the Northern Marianas Islands is far, far worse than anything fellow crooked Republican Randy "Duke" Cunningham ever did. Many decent people in Doolittle's low-info northern California red, red district wondered if he would ever be brought to Justice.

The Associated Press has a story out on the wires today that bodes ill for Doolittle, very ill. Many have suspected that Abramoff has been supplying federal investigators with information about his former congressional crony Doolittle. And the involvement in the case of the Abramoff-Doolittle go-between, another GOP criminal, Kevin Ring, seemed to seal the fates of both Doolittle and his moll/wife, Julie. Their home and offices were raided by the FBI and evidence was hauled away.

But today's news involves yet another top Doolittle staffer, David Lopez, turning on his former boss. Lopez is cooperating with the FBI as they build a devastating case against Doolittle. Lopez was Doolittle's chief of staff until 2005-- and then his campaign consultant until last year when the roof began collapsing-- and according to his attorney, he has provided the FBI with "several hundred pages of campaign finance records... under subpoena."

Although the Republican Party has no intention of backing a re-election effort by Doolittle next year, they are hoping he won't be indicted and forced to resign before then. Last year, as details of Doolittle's corruption just started emerging, Democrat Charlie Brown held him to under 50% of the vote-- in a district where Bush had taken 61%-- and it is inconceivable that he could win another election. A score of similarly far right GOP extremists just like Doolittle have lined up to jump in once he officially bows out. Charlie Brown has continued to work with his neighbors in the district to help them understand the connection between the Republican philosophy of government and the kinds of corruption that has swept up not just their own congressmen but other crooks from Cunningham, Ney and Abramoff to Tom DeLay, Rick Renzi and Jerry Lewis. You can contribute to Charlie's campaign here at the Blue America ActBlue page.

MICHAEL WRAY IS READY TO RUMBLE IN CA-50

I ran into an old friend at the California state Democratic convention yesterday. He had just been talking with Charlie Brown. "Don't give me any 'I told you so's' but I'm coming around on Charlie Brown, he said sheepishly." He and I had been arguing for months about Charlie's electibility. When he looked at Charlie it was all numbers and theory. CA-04 has an R +11 Cook Partisan Voting Index rank. Bush beat Kerry 61% to 37%. The district is almost 84% white. Since 1994 the incumbent Republican, John Doolittle, had always won by better than 60%, culminating at 65% in 2004. I looked at it differently.

Charlie Brown and his family are the very best of CA-04, people every descent man and woman could easily relate to and identify with. The incumbent and his wife are mired in outrageous and horrifying scandals, from bribes, influence peddling and money laundering to direct complicity in a Marianas Islands scheme cooked up by Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff and involving sexual slavery, forced abortions, and inhumanity incomparable to anywhere else in territory ruled by the United States-- and all in the name of the Republican Party's vision for a future union-free America. I look at that race and I see one that in 2006 was incredibly close, with even Republicans sickened by Doolittle's excesses, a race where the incumbent tumbled from 65% to 49% and where an incumbent who had just spent barely $900,000 on re-election in 2004 had been forced to spend nearly two-and-a-half million dollars in 2006.

And, if you've been reading DWT in the last few weeks, you've seen the steady drip, drip, drip of scandal drowning Doolittle and his corrupt wife, Julie, and their circle of crooked business associates.

My friend, after meeting Charlie and Jan Brown, has come around. Irwing had never met him before either. Down in San Diego he got to meet plenty of elected officials and candidates. Afterwards, I asked him who impressed him most. He didn't hesitate for a moment: "Charlie Brown and Michael Wray." That's the other guy I wanted to mention today. Michael wants to run for congress in another "hopelessly"-- albeit far less hopelessly-- red district: CA-50. This was the northern San Diego district that was formerly home to Randy "Duke" Cunningham, currently a resident of the federal penal system. The voters replaced Cunningham with his crony, Brian Bilbray, another corrupt, right-wing extremist, an ex-lobbyist, no less!

CA-50 is only half as red as CA-04. Bush beat Kerry 55% to 44% and Cunningham hadn't been able to muster 60% in 2004. His opponent, moderate ex-Republican Francine Busby, took 36% of the vote that year. Two years later-- after Cunningham's guilty plea and incarceration-- she won 43% of the vote against the Cunningham clone, Bilbray. She wasn't able to close the deal with the voters. Michael Wray, a former Busby campaign worker, feels he can do better. For one thing, he isn't an ex-Republican; and his perspective is never apologetic or tentative. He's a thoughtful and proud progressive Democrat with a vision for how to win in CA-50 and how to keep winning.

Michael is a rocket scientist-- a real one. When we were chatting before the formal interview I did with him on film, he mentioned a different perspective on the Iraq war I hadn't thought about. He had been working with other scientists on a fusion project funded by the U.S. Navy. Like hundreds of other important scientific projects, it was scrapped by the Bush Regime so more resources could be poured into the futile occupation of Iraq. In the world of science, you're either moving forward or you're falling behind. This is another legacy of George Bush, his venal Regime and Rove's desperate tactic of making this dunce a "war president."

So anyway, the same new believer in Charlie Brown was also skeptical about a Democrat running in CA-50. "Only someone who's already been elected to a local office would have a chance," he said. Do I ever disagree with that! What about someone who's never even run for anything but who conducts a grassroots, common sense campaign? My friend snorted in disdain-- like he used to do when we'd talk about Charlie. DWT is going to follow Michael Wray as he makes his choices and as his campaign unfolds. I hope you'll stick around and watch it with us. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with one thought: this is his uncle:

DWT HEADS OFF TO THE CALFORNIA DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION IN SAN DIEGO

I'm late already and I just cut out the first stop on my excursion, a private listening session for the highly embargoed Linkin Park album, Minutes To Midnight. You probably are already in love with "What I've Done," right? But some of my old buds are Warner Bros tell me there are even better songs on the album, including a couple of anti-Bush Regime anthems. It comes out May 15 and one pal told me that "Hands Held High" isn't what Team Bush wants to hear on the radio. So that's why I had scheduled a stop in Burbank on the drive from L.A. to San Diego. But I'm late so later for Linkin Park. (I'll just listen to "What I've Done" a thousand times on the drive and have something to look forward to Monday.)


Like I explained a few days ago, I'm not into conventions, especially not political conventions but I'm schlepping down to this so I can support Jerry McNerney and Charlie Brown. Tonight at 8:30 or 9 we're having a Blue House At the Brew House Benefit for them. Irwing and I will be live vlogging it. Just hit the DWT World Headquarters icon on the right (the lifeguard station) and it will bring you to a live vlog page at 8:30 or so. This is an experiment. If it works, we'll do lots of them. In fact, if it works, tomorrow, we'll do some more, including one with the next Democratic candidate for the 50th CD. And if we run into anyone interesting, we'll live vlog them too-- so click the station every now and then and see if anything's cooking. Oh, and the direct link to the vlog page is VlogNetwork.TV

Tomorrow I'll be over at Firedoglake for a session with Congressman John Hall (D-NY) at 2pm, EST (11am here in California)... oh the wonders of all this modern stuff!

That picture up top is an example of what you can expect, except moving and talking. Irwing took it at a fundraiser at Lucy's El Adobe a few days ago. It's me, Governor Richardson and the legendary Lucy. I wasn't explaining to the Governor what he needed to do with the Koreans; I was explaining the reasons Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (R-NM) should spend the rest of his miserable days in prison. Richardson didn't agree.

ANOTHER SAGA COMING TO AN END: JOHN DOOLITTLE, REPUBLICAN CRIMINAL FROM ROSEVILLE, CALIFORNIA

Earlier today, I mentioned in an update to a story on another crooked Republican congressman, extortionist Rick Renzi (R-AZ), that it's hard to blame the "librul media" when the charges against you are on page one of the Wall Street Journal. There's an even more damaging place for charges against a rightist than that-- the WSJ's editorial page, the most ideologically far right spot anywhere short of the Rush Limbaugh show. And today, the editors of the Journal took a closer look at John Doolittle... and threw up. John Fund wielded the scalpel and his first words are absolutely devastating: "It's sad when someone you've known for decades gets in trouble and you're not surprised."

No one who's been reading DWT for the last couple of years could be surprised either. John Doolittle, who plays the part of an upright Mormon, has been one of the 3 or 4 most unethical and corrupt members of Congress. He-- and his wife-- are destined for prison.

After the FBI raided the home of California's Rep. John Doolittle this month in search of records from the fundraising company run by his wife, Julie, Republican House leaders didn't wait even a day before they pressured him to step down from his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Everyone knows that such a raid only occurs after a judge has issued a search warrant in response to government claims that there is probable cause a crime has been committed.

In Mr. Doolittle's case, it appears the FBI is exploring allegations that Mrs. Doolittle received thousands of dollars from lobbyist turned felon Jack Abramoff for phantom work in exchange for favors Mr. Doolittle might have performed for Abramoff clients.

Fund recites kaddish over the corpse of Doolittle's reprehensible political career. "...his congressional career is over. Last year, publicity about his ties to Mr. Abramoff caused his popularity to plummet. He won re-election by only 3% in a district President Bush carried by 24% in 2004. Now he is almost certain to face a primary challenge from a local GOP state legislator, as Republicans scramble to make sure the seat stays in their hands."

As many bloggers have been doing for weeks now, Fund drew the glaring comparisons between ex-congressman Bob Ney, another DeLay/Abramoff crook who is now in prison, and his pal Doolittle.

Mr. Ney was brought down in large part because Neil Volz, his former chief of staff who later went to work for Mr. Abramoff, cooperated with prosecutors in building their case. The Sacramento Bee reports that Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide who also later worked in Mr. Abramoff's office, also "sought help from the congressman on behalf of [Abramoff] clients and now is believed to be talking to federal prosecutors." Mr. Ring resigned from his position at a Washington law firm on the very day Mr. Doolittle's home was raided by the FBI.

The funniest part of Fund's piece though is how he's trying to distance the Right from one of their mot stalwart members. Doolittle has been a complete Bush rubber stamp with one of the most reactionary and extremist voting records in the entire Congress-- to the right of Atilla the Hun. Yet Fund wants to talk about him cooperating with Maxine Waters and make out like "shoveling pork" wasn't an integral part of the GOP Culture of Corruption. 

At least Fund acknowledges that "Mr. Doolittle's fall from grace will no doubt be used as evidence for how the Republican Congress lost its way during its 12 years in power. And it's true that the onetime reformer has morphed into a symbol of much of what he used to fight against... A couple of his House colleagues think so too. One said that the former term-limits opponent had himself 'become a walking advertisement for them.' Another remarked on the changes he had seen in the man. 'John isn't the ideological conservative he used to be. He talks more and more like a lawyer making the best case for whatever he's doing right now.' Sadly, regarding Mr. Doolittle's efforts to remain in Congress I fear he has a weak case and a bad client."

Whether Doolittle manages to hand on 'til November '08-- unlikely-- or if there's a Special Election to fill his seat between now and then, Charlie Brown is going to need all the help he can get against the Forces of Darkness and Repression. If you oppose Darkness and Oppression, try this. Thanks.

JOIN JERRY McNERNEY, CHARLIE BROWN, DWT, & THE CALIFORNIA BLOGGING COMMUNITY AT THE STATE DEM CONVENTION NEXT WEEKEND

Our pals over at Calitics are sponsoring a very special event at the California Democratic State Convention next weekend-- the Blue House at the Brew House Blograiser to benefit the campaigns of Representative Jerry McNerney (CA-11) and Lt. Col. Charlie Brown (CA-04). If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and meet Jerry and Charlie and the California blogging community in person. There's going to be great food, delicious San Diego microbrews, and you can help us take a big step towards making California even more Blue! This will be going down at the Karl Strauss Brewing Company downtown at 8:30pm, Friday, April 27. The address is: 1157 Columbia Street, San Diego, CA 92101.


Donate $20 to Jerry McNerney's campaign and $20 to Charlie Brown's campaign ($40 in total) via Blue America's ActBlue Page and your name will be at the door AND you'll be registered for a drawing for the 6 prizes. There are 5 autographed copies of The Bush Diaries by California author (and blogger) Peter Clothier, each paired with a rare, collectible CD, a promo-only copy of the Blue America campaign song from 2006, "Have You Had Enough," sung by Rickie Lee Jones and our two ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher. The grand prize is even rarer, an official Australian Record Industry Association platinum and gold award for two records by one of Congressman McNerney's best known constituents, Chris Isaak (a born and raised Stockton native). The double platinum award was for the album Forever Blue and the gold single award is for "Somebody's Crying." The unique award was given to the former president of Chris' label and he (errr... me) donated it for this event. Calitics will be picking the winner from a hat on Friday night. The good news is that you don't even have to be there to win. If you donate the $20 + $20 minimum online, your name gets thrown into the hat too and we'll mail you the book and CD or the platinum record award if you win.

DWT regulars already know who Jerry McNerney and Charlie Brown are and what they stand for. If you just stumbled across this post, please check out our most recent conversation with Jerry on March 31 and with Charlie on February 3. Keep in mind that Karl Rove has targeted Jerry for defeat and has helped to recruit a far right loon to campaign against him.

Charlie's best bet will be to face the severely corrupt incumbent, John Doolittle again-- and Doolittle claims to be running for re-election-- but it is very possible that Doolittle will be living out of the district-- in a federal penitentiary by November '08. As you probably know, his office was raided last week by the FBI and the House Republican leader John Boehner forced him to resign from his Appropriations Committee seat (since it was his membership on that committee, after all, facilitated his ability to take in so much money in bribes).

According to today's CongressDaily "Doolittle's northern California 4th District, which President Bush won in 2004 by a 61-37 percent margin, would ordinarily be among the safest seats in the House. But Doolittle barely won a ninth term last year by defeating Democratic nominee Charlie Brown 49-46 percent... National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma said he has not had time to assess the political ramifications of the FBI investigation. 'Too soon to talk about it,' Cole said. 'It's all happening fast.' (But not too soon for some: In fact, there are plenty of right wing loons lining up to grab that Doolittle seat. Hopefully, they'll all be in a special election, 5 or 6 hard right Republican kooks against one upstanding, well-respected Democrat. He'd need 50% + one vote and he'd be the congressman to make CA-04 proud after the recent disgrace.) A Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman said the district has seen significant growth, including new residents from the generally Democratic San Francisco Bay area. 'A lot of these new people moving into the district don't know anything about John Doolittle other than he is under an ethical black cloud,' the DCCC spokesman said.

One more thing-- you know the little video area that comes up when you click the lifeguard station on the right? Right now all that you can see there is an interview with me. But we hope that this Friday we'll have a LIVE VLOG of the event in San Diego. It's an experimental new technology but we're going to try. So come back Friday and click the lifeguard station at 8:30pm (Pacific Times) and see if we have it together. Or, better yet, come join us in person down in San Diego.

FBI RAIDS CHEZ DOOLITTLE. HE HASN'T BEEN ARRESTED YET

I don't think the FBI needed to read our Doolittle story on Monday to figure out they needed to raid John Doolittle's Oakton, Virginia house. They should have done it long ago, in fact, before he and his moll had a chance to destroy evidence. Most people are guessing that Kevin Ring, a Doolittle bagman who worked for Abramoff and with Julie, has turned state's evidence to save his own worthless neck.

The Hill is reporting that the FBI actually searched the Doolittle's lair Friday. It looks like Doolittle was trying to keep it secret, not even telling Boehner.

The search took place on the same day that his former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, abruptly resigned from his lobbying firm. Ring left Doolittle’s office to work for Abramoff at the law firm Greenberg Traurig and may have played a role in Abramoff’s decision to hire Julie Doolittle’s consulting firm. After the Abramoff scandal broke, Ring went to work for the lobbying firm, Barnes and Thornburg.

Doolittle came within three percentage points of losing his election in November after facing months of scrutiny over his relationship with Abramoff, who is in jail for an array of fraud, bribery and money-laundering charges. The lawmaker has denied any wrongdoing.

Throughout his campaign, Doolittle refused to return an estimated $50,000 he received from Abramoff clients, mostly tribes, between 1999 and 2004. Abramoff also personally donated $14,000 between 1999 and 2004 to Doolittle’s congressional campaigns.

Doolittle used Abramoff’s luxury sports box for a fundraiser without initially reporting it to the Federal Election Commission.

Doolittle also has been under fire for paying his wife’s company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a 15 percent commission on all contributions that the company raised for Doolittle’s campaign committee and leadership PAC. Her only other clients were Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig; Abramoff’s former restaurant Signatures; and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), created.

The Justice Department previously subpoenaed Julie Doolittle’s files.

Doolittle also received contributions from indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his associates, and investigators are probing whether those contributions are linked to any official action Doolittle took to help Wilkes’ company obtain millions of dollars in government earmarks.

Wilkes recently was indicted in connection with his investigation stemming from former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s (R-Calif.) bribery conviction and jailing.

Charlie Brown, who nearly beat Doolittle last year and is well positioned to win the seat next year, issued a statement: "This is a sad day for the people of the 4th District, for our Congress, and our country.  It is my sincere hope that the ongoing investigation will bring the era of corruption and scandal ridden politics to a close, so that we can move forward on addressing the real priorities of the American people:  like ending the war in Iraq, winning the war against Terrorism, securing our borders, keeping faith with our veterans, expanding economic opportunity, and achieving energy independence." Charlie's one of the most upstanding and all-American guys I ever met. Please join me in helping to make sure he has enough money to go into battle against Doolittle-- or whatever Doolittle-clone the GOP finds if the original model is in prison he has to fight-- right here


UPDATE: FBI RAID HITS THE WIRES


The Associated Press newswire is reporting that the search "the search last Friday focused on records of Doolittle's wife's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions." That company was one of the ways Doolittle was laundering bribes into his personal account from crooks like Ring and Abramoff. Doolittle slyly tried to insinuate to the press that the whole thing is about his wife and not about him!

"My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future," Doolittle said. "I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail."

Yeah, me too. But meanwhile... there's John Doolittle, the video homage to corruption and wingnuttery.

AND IF MEAN JEAN HAD BAD NEWS-- THAT'S NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO JOHN DOOLITTLE (R-CA)

One of the most crooked congressmen still unindicted and still holding onto his seat-- though just barely in this case-- is northern California Culture of Corruption kingpin John Doolittle. Doolittle, who will again be facing a relentless Charlie Brown when he's next in front of voters, has had some bad fundraising news lately-- Brown with around $125,000 cash-on-hand while Doolittle with a negative balance of $80,000 in his campaign account (much of that having been skimmed off the top by Doolittle himself via his "consultant" wife). But that bad news was just how he started today. It got worse.

Abramoff had a bagman whose primary job was to handle criminal activities between Abramoff's GOP operations and Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle. That man is Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle staffer who went to work for Abramoff's crime syndicate and refused to answer questions put to him by John McCain's Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 on the grounds that his answers might incriminate him. The feds who are investigating Doolittle are more interested in Ring incriminating him And that looks exactly what is happening.

Like a top aide for former Republican Congressman Bob Ney (currently serving time in the federal pen in Morgantown, WV), Neil Volz, Ring abruptly resigned from a very shady Republican law firm, Barnes & Thornburg. The next step is likely to be Ring turning state's evidence on Doolittle who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Abramoff in return for assistance to Abramoff's clients. Like Doolittle, part of DC's powerful and ultra corrupt "Mormon Mafia," Ring is a far right extremist with an extraordinarily shallow understanding of morality.

Before going to work for Barnes & Thornburg, Ring was fired by Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's former front company. Previously-- at the height of the Tom DeLay Republican Culture of Corruption Regime-- Ring had been named "Top Rainmaker" by The Hill. He also wrote an embarrassingly ass-kissing book on Antonin Scalia published, of course, by the far right vanity press, Regnery.

Unless Doolittle winds up in prison before the election-- which is not far-fetched-- Charlie Brown is going to have a tough and expensive campaign. Blue America is channeling donations directly into his campaign. Even a $5.00 donation is helpful. And here's the place.