Big Oil Wants Their Gal Heather Wilson Back In The NM-01 Congressional Race-- Will Darren White Step Aside?

Today when I was going over the Freedom's Watch targeting I saw that one of the Blue America candidates they are going after with their vicious campaign of lies is environmental innovator and former Albuquerque City Council President Martin Heinrich. The malicious and wildly distorted attack on Martin comes as the GOP tries easing his hapless opponent, extreme right wing Bush supporter, Darren White, out of the race to make way for Heather Wilson, a notorious Big Oil shill. Wilson is the incumbent and she just lost her Senate primary to far right nut-job and oil industry former exec Steve Pearce. She wants to run for "her" House seat again and GOP officials, seeing White's pathetic campaign so far, would like to push him out of the race.

White may even be cooperating. He claims to have fallen off his treadmill hurting his back badly enough to keep him off the campaign trail for "a few weeks." Wilson has been acting as a campaign surrogate for her pal McCain, running hither and thither and screaming about Obama not being experienced or "sophisticated" enough. Big Oil will spend whatever they can muster to distort Martin's responsible, environmental record and try to make it look like he's somehow responsible for decades of GOP politicians carrying water for Big Oil. Heather Wilson has taken $531,820 from Big Oil and has rubber stamped every single piece of legislation they have ever wanted. Their policies have led directly to high prices at the pump, no matter how Freedom's Watch and other Republican front organizations try to shift blame to progressive Democrats. The irony of this attack is that Martin is known in Albuquerque as a leader in trying to develop alternative sources of energy. Big Oil has already focused in on Darren White as a budding shill for their policies and has dumped over $13,000 into his campaign so far.

Now they're waiting to see if he actually runs or drops out before sending more money to him or to Wilson. In either case, Martin's going to need all the help he can get. Please take a look at his live blog session from March at Firedoglake and consider contributing to his campaign so he can defend himself from these Freedom's Watch slams.

Listen to the GOP/Freedom's Watch Attack ad against Martin:

What's Worse For Republicans-- The GOP Brand Or George W. Bush?

Today's Bush/McCain Albuquerque fundraiser for Darren White, another in a long line of really terrible Republican congressional candidate, has stirred up a great deal of speculation about how badly Bush hurts McCain and the GOP congressional hopefuls. McCain is doing all he can to limit TV cameras and photographers when he's anywhere near Bush. Most congressional candidates-- except non-serious ones who have no chance to win anyway-- have been asking Bush and Cheney to keep out of their districts for the rest of the year.

But on CNN today, the usually misinformed and fairly clueless far right propagandist Michael Medved thinks Bush will be a valuable commodity for GOP candidates come November. Let's hope they take his advice and invite Bush to campaign for them because this is just the beginning of what will be on voters' minds this fall. "[Bush's] support is going to be important to John McCain. One of the things that happens with every president ... [is] towards the end of your presidency, there tends to be sort of a wave of sympathy and support. And I think that's going to be true for President Bush, too."

Oh, sure-- and inflation spiraling out of control is sure to proven Medved's unfaltering brilliance. Of course Medved also claimed that his hero is no "John McSame" and his differences with Bush are "profound." McCain, who rarely bothers coming to the Senate, didn't oppose Bush on one single substantive issue when he did, in the last year. Of course today he did make a big fuss about breaking with Bush over... North Korea. He claims Bush is too much of a dove and he and his prospective Secretary of State, Holy Joe Lieberman, want to get tough with the nuclear-armed Koreans. And his pronounced record of dishonesty speaks for itself-- and loudly. Even a kook like Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn recognizes that the little game is over. Now Coburn recognizes that the GOP has an illness that's killing it and he's grappling with what to prescribe. Unfortunately, he's even sicker than the average GOP member of Congress and is mostly-- like 75%-- lost in his analysis:

As congressional Republicans contemplate the prospect of an electoral disaster this November, much is being written about the supposed soul-searching in the Republican Party. A more accurate description of our state is paralysis and denial.

Many Republicans are waiting for a consultant or party elder to come down from the mountain and, in Moses-like fashion, deliver an agenda and talking points on stone tablets. But the burning bush, so to speak, is delivering a blindingly simple message: Behave like Republicans.

Unfortunately, too many in our party are not yet ready to return to the path of limited government. Instead, we are being told our message must be deficient because, after all, we should be winning in certain areas just by being Republicans. Yet being a Republican isn't good enough anymore. Voters are tired of buying a GOP package and finding a big-government liberal agenda inside. What we need is not new advertising, but truth in advertising.

Becoming Republicans again will require us to come to grips with what has ailed our party – namely, the triumph of big-government Republicanism and failed experiments like the K Street Project and "compassionate conservatism." If the goal of the K Street Project was to earmark and fund raise our way to a filibuster-proof "governing" majority, the goal of "compassionate conservatism" was to spend our way to a governing majority.

The fruit of these efforts is not the hoped-for Republican governing majority, but the real prospect of a filibuster-proof Democrat majority in 2009. While the K Street Project decimated our brand as the party of reform and limited government, compassionate conservatism convinced the American people to elect the party that was truly skilled at activist government: the Democrats.

With Bush In Albuquerque We're Live-blogging With Martin Heinrich At Crooks & Liars

Wanna go to a party with these two losers?

A grotesque event just began in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A failed and disgraced lameduck is trying to perpetuate his toxic agenda by rallying a strange combination of bigots and greedy multimillionaires to the cause of one of the worst of all the candidates the ill-starred Republicans are putting up this year: ex-Bush-Cheney campaign chairman Darren White. You can get your picture taken with Bush at White's event for $5,000 (and for an extra $1.75 you can get it without White in the picture).

While most sane Republicans are running as fast and as far from Bush and his toxic policies as they can, White is running around town yelling "Four more years!" One respected Republican who worked for the Bush Regime in New Mexico, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias explained to the NY Times on Sunday why he considers himself a disallusioned Republican. A few days before, he explained on video why he feels Darren White is unfit for public office. I think there are a lot of disillusioned Republicans in New Mexico this year who will be voting for Martin Heinrich, Tom Udall and Bill McCamley.

Today Martin Heinrich will be a special Blue America guest at Crooks & Liars at 2pm (PT). As president of the Albuquerque City Council, Martin made his bones passing an historic minimum wage law for his city and by working with Governor Richardson on some of America's most forward-thinking conservationist policies. Blue America has endorsed Martin and we want to urge you to donate to his campaign at our ActBlue page, especially today when Bush is in Albuquerque scooping up Republican dollars for White. Today we're debuting Martin's latest video on which he explains his position on Bush's occupation of Iraq. Be sure to show up at the Crooks and Liars comment section and ask Martin anything you'd like about his campaign.



UPDATE: McCAIN'S DILEMMA

Although of late his "coattails" have proven to be toxic for every Republican he campaigns for, McCain is showing up at the fundraiser for White too; he feels like he couldn't avoid it. It will the "first time in nearly three months that the Republican presidential candidate will be seen beside the man he hopes to succeed."

With Mr. Bush's popularity at a record low, the McCain campaign has made sure that television footage of the two men together will be minimal. The maneuvering is the latest example of Sen. McCain's aggressive effort to separate himself from the White House, even as he embraces many of the policies that Mr. Bush has promoted throughout his presidency-- and even as he benefits from the money that the president remains adept at raising. With growing frequency, Sen. McCain goes out of his way to highlight his differences with Mr. Bush.

Some congressional Republicans are doing the same, as Republicans brace for what they fear will be a brutal election year. Party leaders now talk openly about the badly damaged "Republican brand," as does Sen. McCain.

"Large numbers of voters are clearly motivated to action because they dislike George Bush. That's a big problem for John McCain and a big problem for congressional Republicans," said former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber, who advised Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

A senior adviser to Sen. McCain said the campaign considered the risk of having the candidate appear with the president at all but concluded there was no way to avoid it given that the event was in Sen. McCain's home state. Mr. Bush will headline two fund-raisers this week in Utah that Sen. McCain doesn't plan to attend.

After advertising that the Phoenix event would be at the local convention center, the campaign changed course and opted to hold the event at a private home; Bush fund-raisers held at public places typically are open to the press.

Now McCain is fretting about what to do with Bush-- and, worse, Cheney-- during the Republican Convention. And this morning CNN has been asking how badly Bush will hurt McCain's slim chances.

DAVID IGLESIAS ISN'T SAYING WHO HE'S VOTING FOR, BUT HE'S CLEAR WHO HE ISN'T VOTING FOR: CROOKED REPUBLICANS HEATHER WILSON AND DARREN WHITE

Thursday we posted a startling video of fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias discussing Bush Regime interference in the Justice Department and how hack Republican politicians like Darren White "put loyalty to their party at a higher level than their loyalty to the Constitution." Iglesias still considers himself a Republican-- "a disillusioned Republican," in his words. He's featured in a Q&A today's NY Times Magazine

Republican or not, one gets the impression from the interview that he'll be voting for Barack Obama for president and, certainly from the video, for Martin Heinrich for Congress. Deborah Solomon:

Q: In 2001, you were tapped by President Bush for your dream job-- U.S. attorney for New Mexico-- only to end up as one of the eight federal prosecutors whose firing five years later set off an outcry. With your book "In Justice" about to come out, have you heard anything from President Bush? No, not even a little note of thanks. If somebody served honorably, you at least have your staff member send a form letter or something: thanks for your service.

Are you still a Republican? Yes, a disillusioned Republican. I can't blame the Democrats for this mess. It was fellow conservatives, people who thought and acted and dressed like me, who threw away their moral compass.

Just last month, the Senate Ethics Committee officially admonished Pete Domenici, the longtime New Mexico senator, for making an improper phone call to you. I thought their public rebuke was a roughly fair result.

He pressured you into indicting Democrats before the 2006 election? He attempted to get me to hurry, and he was unsuccessful. He called me at home on a weekend and asked me for some very sensitive information, which was: Is this going to get filed before November?

After serving as senator for 36 years, he has said he won't be seeking re-election this year because of his health, in particular degenerative brain disease. He would have found a way to work around his illness. I think he's stepping down in part because his legacy was tarnished.

And Heather Wilson, the U.S. congresswoman who also called you about that same case, is now running for his Senate seat. Do you think she can win? No. She's damaged goods.

Why is Domenici so loyal to her? She is his protégée.

But so are you. I was. I'm the fallen protégé.

The primary for the U.S. Senate seat in New Mexico is coming up on June 3. Whom will you vote for? I'll tell you who I am not voting for. I am not voting for Heather Wilson.

What makes all of this so startling is that you're practically a poster boy for a new kind of Karl Rove-style Republican. I'm a military veteran, I'm Hispanic and I'm an evangelical Christian. Those are three enormous pillars of the Republican base.

This week we're going to have Martin back for a chat-- this time over at Crooks & Liars-- while his opponent, the same Darren White who David Iglesias accuses of putting the GOP before the Constitution, hosts George Bush at a fundraiser in Albuquerque. White is one of Bush's posterboys for pushing warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity. Fellow-Republican Iglesias tells us he doesn't care about the Constitution. Is it an enormous jump to imagine Darren White going along with-- leading the charge for-- a police state?

Martin has made FISA and the defeat of Bush's unconstitutional powergrab an important aspect of his campaign. His election is one of the highest priorities for progressives in 2008. Take a look at his latest campaign ad, running on TV in New Mexico now, and please think about donating to his campaign (but only if you believe in the rule of law). Donate here.

CONGRESS SUBPOENAS KARL ROVE!

Yesterday I watched a video of former U.S. Attorney, David Iglesias, a Republican, speaking about GOP election fraud. He was targeted by Senator Pete Domenici, Rep. Heather Wilson, and lame congressional wannabe Darren White and then ordered fired by Karl Rove, an order ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was happy to carry out. It was one of many orders Happy Alberto carried out in a purge of honest men from the Justice Department. If someone works in the upper echelons of the Justice Department today, it is because they were willing to pervert and subvert Justice at the behest of criminals like Rove and Cheney. Take a look at the video:



David Iglesias: "I've been very disappointed in Darren [White]. He doesn't understand his duties as a Sheriff. He put, and, this is what I'm very critical of Gonzales (as well), they put loyalty to their party at a higher level than their loyalty to the Constitution. Darren did the same thing."

And Iglesias was far from the only example of how Rove and the Bush Regime wrecked the American Justice system for their own purposes. Ken and I have been writing a lot about former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, who was also targeted for political extinction by Rove-- and then dragged off and imprisoned. Today we are one small step closer to restoring the rule of law in our country with the subpoena served on Karl Rove by the House Judiciary Committee. Chairman John Conyers:

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Rove has failed to cooperate with our requests. Although he does not seem the least bit hesitant to discuss these very issues weekly on cable television and in the print news media, Mr. Rove and his attorney have apparently concluded that a public hearing room would not be appropriate. Unfortunately, I have no choice today but to compel his testimony on these very important matters.”

Here's the full text of Conyers letter to Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney:

Mr. Robert D. Luskin
Patton Boggs LLP
2550 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037-1350

Dear Mr. Luskin:

We were disappointed to receive your May 21 letter, which fails to explain why Mr. Rove is willing to answer questions in writing for the House Judiciary Committee, and has spoken on the record to the media, but continues to refuse to testify voluntarily before the Committee on the politicization of the Department of Justice, including allegations regarding the prosecution of former Governor Don Siegelman. Because of that continuing refusal, we enclose with this letter a subpoena for Mr. Rove's appearance before the Committee's Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee at 10:00 a.m. on July 10, 2008.

In light of specific statements in your letter, we want to clarify several points. Your letter is incorrect in suggesting that the enclosed subpoena will raise the same issues as the Senate Judiciary Committee's subpoena to Mr. Rove and the pending lawsuit concerning our Committee's subpoena to Harriet Miers. Both these matters focus on the firing of U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and efforts to mislead Congress and the public on that subject. Here, as we have made clear from the outset, the Siegelman case is a principal focus of our request for Mr. Rove to testify. In addition, unlike Harriet Miers, Mr. Rove has made a number of on-the-record comments to the media about the Siegelman case and the U.S. Attorney firings, extending far beyond "general denials of wrongdoing." There is no question that both the prior subpoenas to Mr. Rove and Ms. Miers should have been complied with. But it is even more clear that Mr. Rove should testify as we have now directed.

We would also dispute your contention that we are "provoking a gratuitous confrontation while the issues raised by the Committee's request are being litigated in U.S. District Court or why the Committee refuses to consider a reasonable accommodation." There are a variety of mechanisms for resolution of any dispute between us, and we need not wait for resolution of separate and ongoing litigation to attempt to employ or consider those other mechanisms. We have also previously noted that we do not believe your proposal to respond in writing to written questions is reasonable or consistent with the precedents of this Committee.

Your letter also suggests that Mr. Rove is not a "free agent" and would follow the requests of the White House with respect to his testimony. Particularly in light of the factors discussed above, we hope that the White House will not take the position that Mr. Rove should not testify. Other former White House officials, including Sara Taylor and Scott Jennings who worked with Mr. Rove in the White House's political office, have in fact testified in response to congressional subpoenas, and dealt with questions of privilege on a question-by-question basis. Mr. Rove should follow the same course.

We should make clear, however, that Mr. Rove, as a private party not employed by the government, is himself responsible for the decision on how to respond to the enclosed subpoena, which is a legally binding directive that he appear before the Committee on July 10. In an analogous situation in the 1970s, when the White House attempted to instruct a private party, AT&T, not to comply with a House Subcommittee subpoena, AT&T "felt obligated to disregard those instructions and to comply with the subpoena," resulting in a lawsuit by the Administration seeking to enjoin such compliance.1 We very much hope that will not be necessary in this case, but we also hope that you will understand that Mr. Rove's obligation, as a private party, is to seek to comply with the enclosed subpoena. Indeed, you appeared to recognize this yourself when you responded to an earlier media inquiry as to whether Mr. Rove would comply with such a subpoena by e-mailing "sure."

Finally, we want to make clear that we are very willing to meet with you and your client to discuss this matter. Please direct any questions or communications to the Judiciary Committee office, 2138 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 (tel: 202-225-3951; fax: 202-225-7680).

Sincerely,

John Conyers, Jr.
Chairman

BLUE AMERICA WELCOMES BACK MARTIN HEINRICH-- MAKING BUSH THE FUNDRAISER EVEN MORE TOXIC FOR THE RIGHT WING

Martin with Senator Jeff Bingaman

We first met Martin Heinrich over at FDL in March right after he routed the competition at the New Mexico pre-primary convention. We decided to ask Martin to come back today for two reasons. (He'll be joining us for a 2 hour live blog session at Firedoglake at noon Mountain Time.) First of all, he's one of the few Democrats running proactively against warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity and it looks like the Bush/Steny Hoyer FISA bill is rearing its ugly head again. While shady GOP front groups have tried to use the security ploy against Democrats, Martin has turned the tables on them and run a model campaign that has them on the run.

Instead of fudging the issue the way many Blue Dogs and other cowering Vichy Dems do, Martin goes right after it. When White questioned Martin's patriotism, Martin slammed right back at him and sent him reeling: "I stand with the American people who say fear mongering is not acceptable. Not acceptable from George Bush, not acceptable from Karl Rove and not acceptable from Darren White. I agree with Bill Richardson that we can keep our country safe without resorting to unconstitutional, warrantless wiretaps. I support a strong FISA that authorizes our intelligence community to intercept the communications of foreign terrorists, not American citizens minding their own business."

The second reason we invited him today is for quasi-selfish reasons. We want to blunt Bush's effectiveness as a Republican fundraiser. At a time when most rational Republicans are wary of being seen as too close to him, Bush is traveling to Albuquerque a week from Tuesday (May 27) to raise money from wealthy New Mexico Republicans for Darren White, Martin's extreme right wing, somewhat loopy opponent. And according to Jonathan Martin at the Politico, Bush will travel around to far right hot beds and raise money for McCain without McCain having to be there. We were very successful in countering Bush's attempt to raise funds for Dave Reichert, the rubber stamp running against Darcy Burner. White is asking for $5,000 to get a photo taken with Chimpy. White was the 2004 Bernalillo County Campaign Chair for the Bush-Cheney campaign so they want to repay him. It would be great to rain on their parade-- and make Bush more toxic for his own party at the same time.

A few days ago White's primary opponent, raised a very touchy question for the self-professed "law and order" candidate. While he was vice president of the New Mexico Police Association his high-handed, dictatorial and incompetent manner of doing business caused 89% of the members to vote "no confidence" in his leadership.

Please consider donating to Martin's campaign today at our Blue America ActBlue page. This is a district (PVI: D +2) we should be able to take back from the Republicans-- and use it to help New Mexico come in for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton and for Tom Udall's race to win the senate seat. Please take a look at a brand new video that Martin's campaign released this morning:

BLUE AMERICA WELCOMES MARTIN HEINRICH, OUR FIRST CANDIDATE FROM NEW MEXICO

I had hoped to introduce Martin Heinrich as our newest Blue America candidate last Saturday but, fortunately, he was busy winning the New Mexico Democratic Pre-Primary convention. Among the five hopefuls running for the seat (NM-01) being abandoned by corrupt Bush rubber stamp Heather Wilson, Martin got 56.4% of the vote. His closest competitor wound up with 11.2%.

Martin will be facing off against a Bush surrogate, Darren White, the 2004 Campaign Chairman for Bush-Cheney in Bernalillo County (basically, Albuquerque). White is a lockstep and eager rubber stamp for the entire array of Bush's toxic and disastrous agenda. And he has some problems of his own too boot-- like running a sheriff's department that was notorious for racial profiling. But even if Martin wasn't facing an especially bad opponent, he would still be one of the most outstanding potential leaders we could hope to elect to Congress in November.

He was a member of the Albuquerque City Council for 4 years and his colleagues elected him to the presidency of that body. That's because he gets an "A" in works and plays well with others and because they knew him as someone who likes to get real things accomplished for real people. Governor Bill Richardson appointed him to head the Office of the Natural Resources Trustee for similar reasons.

At 36, Martin is filled with positive energy and a can-do spirit. He has a unique perspective, for a politician, on the world. After getting a mechanical engineering degree in college, he decided to devote himself to energy issues. "I started working on it in the early 90s when some fellow engineering students and I got together and designed and built a solar car and raced it across the United States. Ever since then I've realized that there's this sense in this country that energy independence is pie in the sky and we just need more oil, more gas, more domestic drilling, more foreign supply... and it's this self fulfilling prophesy that has nothing to do with the technological challenge of changing how we deal with energy. It's the reason why we've fallen behind Denmark and Germany and Japan so dramatically. In my own home is we get our electricity primarily from photovoltaics-- and we buy the rest from wind generation. I've been involved with that long enough to know that we really can completely change how this country deals with energy." Yes, we can; we just need new leaders who embrace science and progress, leaders like Martin.

He's known in Albuquerque as a down to earth guy who is interested in results. He was one of the leaders of the successful fight to raise the city's minimum wage to $7.50 making Albuquerque the fourth city in the country to have a minimum wage that is higher than the state and federal level, something he's very proud of. It harkens back to his childhood memories of his parents' situation.

I grew up in a blue collar household. My dad was an IBW lineman during the week; on the weekends we all worked to keep the ranch afloat. My mom was a garment worker and then she worked for one of the only non-union auto supply plants in the Midwest and that experience is part of the reason why I've been such a strong labor advocate. I really saw first hand, because of my mom's job, what it means to have no contract, no collective bargaining, no access to a union. I saw how completely different my parents were treated by their employers. That appreciation led me to fight for a minimum wage bill when I was on the City Council.

When I asked Martin what he's hearing about from the voters in Albuquerque most frequently, it was no surprise: the economy and Iraq. "And they're not unrelated. People see Iraq and the economy as very connected now. And they see the opportunity cost of all the money that we're spending in Iraq versus what that could mean to a faltering economy here in the U.S." I asked him if folks are buying into the Bush-McCain propaganda barrage that their surge is a glorious success.

Even the folks who say violence is down, are asking if that means we need to stay there for 100 years. Most of the people I meet in the district say 'absolutely not. It's time to start bringing our men and women home to their families.' Even though there may be reductions in violence, people want to see an end to it. Whether or not the surge is working depends on which goal posts you measure by. If you measure by the goal posts that the administration created for itself, its absolutely not working. It was supposed to give breathing room to the political side so they could pull the disparate ethnic communities together and unify an approach to government and those goal posts certainly haven't been met.

Last month Martin did a guest post at DWT about FISA and retroactive immunity. I asked him a few days ago on the phone if the issues he raises in that discussion are gaining any traction in the district or if they're too abstract and too far removed from people's day to day lives. "Here in the West," he told me, "people have a healthy distrust of government. More and more conservatives, independents, Republicans who see the potential for the overreach of government to be on the other foot. What happens when it's a Democrat in the Oval Office ignoring the Constitution? What I tell a lot of my more conservative friends, especially the ones who are passionate defenders of the Second Amendment, is that if Darren White's not going to protect your 4th Amendment rights what makes you think he's going to protect your 2nd Amendment rights? That gets people thinking-- in a hurry. It's an issue that has the potential to really resonate with people here. There's a healthy distrust of Big Brother; that issue doesn't tend to be so much a Democrat vs. Republican issue. (I just noticed he even talks about the importance of this issue in his campaign ad.)

Martin's going to be with us at Firedoglake for two hours, starting at noon, Mountain Time-- 11AM in L.A. and 2PM in Nueva York. Please feel free to ask him whatever you'd like about his campaign and his qualifications. And please consider joining me in giving his campaign a boost at the Blue America ActBlue page.