Blue America Welcomes Gordon Smith-- From North Carolina (Not Oregon)

A couple weeks ago western North Carolina activist and blogger Gordon Smith of Scrutiny Hooligans penned an expose about what went wrong with the highest ranking local Democratic elected official in his area, Blue Dog Congressman Health Shuler. Two weeks later-- yesterday, to be precise, Gordon officially announced his own campaign for city council in the biggest city in Shuler's district, Asheville (population 90,000/greater metro area is 370,000). Today we've asked Gordon to join us at Firedoglake to talk about his grassroots efforts in the district and about transitioning from blogger/activist to actually running for office.

He's 38, married to Rachel with whom he has two dogs, and makes a living as a child and family therapist. After he graduated from college he served in Belfast for two years with the Brethren Volunteer Service doing community reconciliation work with Protestants and Catholics. He started blogging in 2004 at DFA and co-founded Scrutiny Hooligans which evolved into a political blog and then BlogAshville. As the 2006 congressional race approached the Scrutiny Hooligans bloggers realized there wasn't anyone covering incumbent Republican Charles Taylor's corrupt dealings-- so they got serious and very busy and helped replace Taylor with Shuler. He's proud of helped get rid of Taylor even if he and his colleagues are having serious buyers' remorse over the replacement.

"I discovered that the more local I blogged and the smaller my focus got, the more traffic we got. So we started covering county and city affairs in Asheville and Buncombe County and suddenly we were a part of a regular go-to media for news in this area... Scrutiny Hooligans has become a destination for folks trying to catch up on what's going on locally."

When I asked him what made him decide to jump from blogging to running for office there were many factors he talked about but one of the most important is that "Asheville is facing an enormous budget deficit for a city of our size. And here in North Carolina we have what's called 'home rule,' which means that if you don't balance your budget, the state will come in and take over your city. When the budget deficits were announced the first things that came out of the city managers mouth was about cutting the things that make our community most resilient through recessions. He was talking about cutting money that was going to go towards an Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the construction of affordable housing, and cutting money for alternative transportation-- for buses, for bike lanes, for greenways... All the stuff that make this city more affordable, more liveable, more sustainable were the first things that were on the chopping block. So I'm running, first and foremost to be able to protect those priorities."

You'll get a good idea about the issues facing the voters in Asheville and what kinds of priorities Gordon is addressing at his campaign website, which is also someplace where you can donate or volunteer. The housing crisis in Asheville, though, was another important factor that spurred Gordon into deciding to run for city council.

We have one of the highest costs of living in the state of North Carolina and one of the lowest median incomes. What that means is that people have a hard time finding a place to live. This has been a very attractive vacation destination for a long time; we have a lot of people who have second homes here and that's really driven up property values in ways that no one has ever expected. There are a lot of people in this town who are working two and three jobs and who are having to either live substandard, share places, or live with family because they just can't afford a place to live. That's why it's so important to maintain the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which gives loans and helps developers who are creating affordable housing to get lines of credit.

Join us over at Firedoglake today at 2pm (EST) and meet Gordon to learn more about his campaign and about building progressive infrastructure through blogging.

North Carolina Democrats Have A Case Of Buyers Remorse Over Heath Shuler-- Guest Post From Gordon Smith

Gordon Smith interviewing Shuler during the 2006 campaign

If you know Gordon Smith it's probably because you've read his posts at Asheville, North Carolina's progressive blog, Scrutiny Hooligans. Gordon, a child and family therapist, is a candidate for Asheville City Council this year. In 2006 he was one of the western North Carolina activists eager to get rid of the corrupt fossil who represented their area, the bankster/congressman Charlie Taylor. Gordon worked to elect Heath Shuler. Like many progressives in North Carolina-- and beyond-- he's happier that Taylor is gone than he is that Shuler, one of the most reactionary of any House Democrat, has replaced him. Today's top story in Politico emphasizes the distrust Speaker Pelosi feels towards Heath Shuler. He's the only person on her bad boy list above second-ranked Rush Limbaugh!

No Democrat has done quite so much in so short a time to arouse Pelosi’s disdain as the failed-Redskins-quarterback-turned-ambitious-North-Carolina-congressman.

The conservative, anti-abortion Shuler would have made the list for voting against both bank bailout bills and the stimulus package, but the way he went about it didn’t help; Shuler told an audience back home that “House leadership and Senate leadership have really failed” on the $787 billion package.

The thing that riles Pelosi most, according to several House aides, is that she believes Shuler’s motives are as much political as they are ideological-- and that he’s picking a fight with her to position himself for a run against Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) next year.

Now that Shuler is working with Republicans to sabotage progressive values on a regular basis-- and looking towards running for the U.S. Senate-- I asked Gordon to give us a perspective from inside North Carolina's beautiful 11th congressional district. His report:

OUR REBOUND RELATIONSHIP WITH HEATH SHULER

by Gordon Smith

For sixteen long years, the citizens of North Carolina's mountainous 11th District were represented in Congress by Charles H. Taylor. No matter the clouds of corruption allegations swirling around him, conservative voters returned Taylor to the House cycle after cycle. He had his Russian bank ties, his Jack Abramoff ties, his Savings and Loan scandal, and a remarkable antipathy towards the press and his progressive constituents. It was like an ill-considered, abusive relationship, and NC-11 voters couldn't tear themselves away.

Then along came Heath Shuler. Big, handsome, and aw-shucks honest, he had pretty words about labor unions, education, and the environment. He looked like our dragon-slayer. We knew about his social conservatism and Tennessee Republican registration, but we looked past those differences, ready for him to free us from the muck pond of Charles Taylor's reign. Progressive and conservative Democrats across the district worked together to elect Shuler. I campaigned for him repeatedly and interviewed him for the YouTube crowd.

Despite being outspent 3-1, Heath Shuler defeated the embattled, embittered Charles Taylor 54 - 46 in this district that had gone 57 - 43 for President Bush only two years before. And there was much rejoicing.  Before long, however, those things we'd chosen to ignore during the campaign began cropping up. He voted against stem cell research. He argued against "amnesty" for immigrants. He voted against hate crimes legislation. He was praised by the Family Research Council, spoke at North carolina's version of CPAC, along with Rudy Giuliani and Liddy Dole, and voted against SCHIP. He voted twice against the stimulus package.

Like the abused constituency we'd become under Charles Taylor's tenure, we tried to focus on his votes to expand parks, the V.A., and energy efficiency. Though the knight in shining armor had lost his luster, we weren't ready to imagine anyone better might come along. We nodded our heads when people would say, "it's not like you'll get anymore further to the left of Heath Shuler elected in this district."

And then came the Obama campaign. North Carolina was suddenly a swing state, and Congressman Shuler was doing the superdelegate cha-cha-cha. Obama campaigners and local Democrats embarked on a massive voter registration drive, and when the dust settled in November, 2008, Barack Obama won two counties in Shuler country. Obama's margin in Buncombe County alone accounted for his margin of victory in newly-blue North Carolina.

It's been a real eye-opener for 11th district progressives. We don't have to settle for a representative who won't recognize equality or value stem cell science. We don't have to hang on the arm of a representative who votes so often against Democratic initiatives. Heath Shuler was our perfect rebound relationship after the pain of living with Charles Taylor, but now we're ready to move on, ready to look for a Congressional candidate who will respect women's rights and human rights while keeping our economic fortunes on the right track. With the rumor mill whirling over the possibility Shuler will run for Richard Burr's Senate seat, there may be an open seat for 11th District progressives to go after. That's a possibility that many had almost given up on and that Barack Obama's ascension has turned from an unimaginable dream into a realistic goal.

Progressives don't have to settle for Heath Shuler. We can recruit and support a Democrat who will reflect the change that's come to America.

-----------------

Watch Gordon interviewing Shuler in 2006. You can see the roots of what Shuler has become since being elected to Congress:

Jeff Merkley Ousts Bush Rubber Stamp Gordon Smith In Oregon

Earlier today some of my colleagues were arguing over whether or not a progressive congressmember from Illinois was progressive enough to be termed "Wellstone-like." I was uncertain but I am certain that the Senate candidate Blue America backed this year who is the most like Paul Wellstone is the former Speaker of Oregon's House, Jeff Merkley. After slow counting in heavily Democratic Multnomah and Lane counties finally came in Jeff won the seat and ousted Bush rubber stamp incumbent Gordon Smith, one of the Senate's least honorable members-- and in this Senate that is saying a lot!

We expect Jeff to be one of the Senate's most tenacious and effective fighters for working families-- just like he was in Oregon. This is the best news in the Senate races this year-- although Tom Udall (D-NM) is also an outstanding new member.

Merkley will join Oregon's senior senator, Ron Wyden, giving Oregon a two-Democrat team for the first time in four decades. Democratic senatorial leaders, who threw millions of dollars into the effort to defeat Smith, were hoping to boost their ranks to 60, which would effectively give them unfettered sway over Congress.

...Merkley said he feels especially satisfied given how hard it is to unseat an incumbent in modern politics. It has been more than 40 years since an Oregon Democrat knocked out a sitting Republican senator, he said.

"It takes an enormous sense by citizens that things are way off track and that it's necessary to intervene to change the course," he said. He said he hopes to bring to the Senate the same skills he used as Oregon House speaker during the 2007 legislative session, which has been praised as one of the most productive in years.

UPDATE: SMITH GOES BACK TO FREEZING HIS PEAS

Gordon Smith has finally conceded the defeat he earned. Let's hope we never hear from that hack again.

The Daily Blue America Report-- #4

McCaul- to the right of Cheney, about to get some Texas Justice

Lots of great news today. Since we've covered the fortunate news from Alaska, let's go right to some awesome tidings from Oregon. KATU, via SUSA, is reporting that Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from the Wellstone wing of the party, "is pulling away from Gordon Smith in the race for Senate."

Jeff Berkley 49%
Bush rubber stamp Gordon Smith 42%
Dave Brownlow (Constitution Party) 5%
Undecided 4%

Looks like Brownlow is killing Smith's re-election chances. It's fitting Smith leave government at the same time as Bush. But Brownlow isn't the only independent running who has been helpful to a Blue America candidate. David Krikorian, the right-wing xenophobe running in southwest Ohio against Mean Jean Schmidt and Vic Wulsin has been eating into Schmidt's base. That's about to get worse. Another far right zealot, Tom Brinkman (anti-choice, anti-taxes, anti-sanity) just endorsed Krikoran. Polls that include Krikorian are showing a neck and neck race between Vic and Mean. (By the way, if you're thinking about donating to Vic's campaign, today is an especially good day to do it: her birthday. She was born in 1953 and the campaign suggested people send in $19.53.)

Let's skip down to... oops, I'm sworn to secrecy on where this bit came from. But it's a good one. In 2006 the Republican rubber stamp incumbent, a slug of a human being (there's a hint), beat his opponent, a conservative Democrat by 9% in early polling. This year early polling has been far more substantial and the slug is not up by 9%. He's down by 20%-- against a progressive Democrat and a real kick ass fighter. With all those hints, how could any regular DWT reader not figure out who we're talkin' about here?

Let's head north now to the district of one of our favorite incumbents, Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01), who has been targeted by GOP front groups and hate organizations like Freedoms Watch. They are flooding her district with the slimiest ad campaign anywhere in the country. But with her polling numbers holding up nicely, that isn't enough. They do not want a fighter for working families in that seat; they want it back in the hands of a corporate shill, Jeb Bradley. And they given Jeb Bradley the cash he needs to hire the criminals who stole the 2002 New Hampshire Senate race that illicitly put John Sununu in office. Bradley has funneled over $90,000 into convicted felon-- now released from prison-- Chuck McGee's election stealing operation.

The huge Texas congressional delegation is a hotbed of the most reactionary vision of America anywhere on Capitol Hill. This year Blue America found only one Texas House race we wanted to get involved with-- Michale McCaul's bid for re-election in a gerrymandered masterpiece that sprawls from a piece of Austin to the suburbs of Houston, designed especially to disenfranchise Austin voters (by splitting the blue city into pieces where their votes could be diluted by red surroundings). But McCaul, whose father-in-law, the chairman of Clear Channel, bought him the seat, has been such a disaster as a congressman that even a red district like TX-10 seems to have had enough of him. His progressive opponent, Larry Joe Doherty has virtually caught up with him in the polling, with 4 points, less than the margin of error, separating them.

Today's Austin Statesman agrees that a defeat for McCaul, a rotten piece of "low hanging fruit," is Texas' best shot at turning a red district blue.

[W]ith the national mood turned fiercely against Republicans, some Democratic operatives believe they can win a seat that they haven't seriously contested since it was drawn in 2003.

The outcome of the 10th Congressional District race will also offer a glimpse of just how Republican Texas still is. Though Democrats have been making gains in the Legislature, Republicans have dominated races for statewide office for 12 years. A Doherty win would show that his party's resurgence, while far from complete, is further along than many would have guessed a few elections ago.

Whether Doherty can win will depend on how well he personally connects with voters, whether McCaul can distinguish himself from President Bush and whether Democrats in the Travis County part of the district can outmuscle Republicans closer to Houston.

..."Republicans are losing on the generic ballot, and polling for right track/wrong direction has never been worse," Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a memo Thursday.

Democratic enthusiasm is up, and that enthusiasm was fueled by unexpectedly high turnout in the party's March presidential primary.

About 109,000 10th District residents voted in the Democratic primary. Of those, almost 63,000 appear not to have voted in either party's primary in the past 16 years, said Democratic consultant Harold Cook, who offers occasional advice to Doherty's team.

"Never before have we been able to identify such a rich target full of low-hanging fruit," Cook said. "We know that they've already voted for Democrats, so they'll consider it again, and probably lean toward it again."

And we'll leave you with this to ponder: tomorrow morning at 6AM we'll be announcing a major endorsement for one of our East Coast candidates. Wanna take a guess? Hint: think someone with extremely clear vision for American working families.

Let me leave you with an ad from our pals at VoteVets. It's a TV spot that targets one of the worst members of the Senate, Georgia rubber stamp wingnut Saxby Chambliss, who looks like he may lose his seat to Jim Martin next week. It's not a Blue America race but we've got our fingers crossed that a decent Democrat will replace an absolutely odious Republican.

Can McCain Steal The Election?

God knows they're trying-- primarily by disqualifying hundreds of thousands of voters. What does that say about a political party? That their strategy is not to persuade voters that their positions are best for the country, but to disenfranchise them in as many places as they can. Right now, Republicans are doing all they can to prevent as many people from voting in swing states like Colorado, Virginia, New Mexico, and, of course, Ohio. Just as Diageo comes out with a devastating new national poll showing McCain losing more and more ground the more negative his campaign goes, the Supreme Court, in a 9-6 ruling, may have handed McCain's campaign its death blow by throwing out Republican Party attempts to prevent newly registered voters from voting. What a party! The ScotusBlog has the full story:

The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a federal judge’s order that would have required Ohio election officials to set up new procedures to verify voter registration across the state in the weeks before the Nov. 4 balloting.  The unsigned (”Per Curiam”) order is here.  The order blunts an effort by the Ohio Republican Party to gain access to registration data that would enable it to challenge voters’ eligibility at polling places.

The state GOP had complained that the Ohio Secretary of State had violated her duty, under federal election procedures law, to share with county election boards the lists of voters whose names in a voter registration database do not match data in the state’s drivers’ license files.  The GOP argued that the secretary of state had put a stop to required efforts to pass along the non-matching data so that local election officials could deal with it. Lack of matches could be the basis for challenges.

They won't give up. Cheating is all they have left and this is their livelihood at stake. They will fight and fight and fight and even after they're whipped, they're keep fighting. We must do the same. And we need to keep calling them on their lies and smears and on their hypocrisy. And there is no Republican goon more hypocritical than Gordon Smith (R-OR)-- and I love the way the DSCC highlighted it today:

Jeff Merkley Wins First Senate Debate In Oregon

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



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

Oregon Political Heroes Want You To Vote For Jeff Merkley In The Blue America Contest

Two of the most beloved political figures in Oregon, former Governor Barbara Roberts and progressive icon Earl Blumenauer each wrote to Blue America this week asking us to pass along their messages of support for Jeff Merkley in our Blue America Pick-A-Senator Competition, in which you vote and we donate $5,000 to the winner. Jeff had been leading all week until yesterday when an incredible number of Texans came flooding onto the contest page and donated over $10,000 to Rick Noriega's campaign. Jeff had some great news today from Survey USA which shows him beating Gordon Smith by 2 points and he is still in the #2 slot in our competition. He can use all the help he can get and Rep. Blumenauer wants to make sure he gets some:

"I'm Congressman Earl Blumenauer from Oregon and I wanted to take a moment to tell you about our race for U.S. Senate. Jeff Merkley might not be as funny as Al Franken or a member of the Udall family, but he's been a real progressive leader in Oregon and has the record to show he will be in the U.S. Senate. I've known Jeff for over two decades and watching him in the subsequent years, I know what kind of leader he will be. As Oregon's Speaker of the House, Jeff led one of the most effective, efficient and progressive legislative sessions in Oregon's history. He will continue the fight to end the war, pass universal health care and combat climate change in the U.S. Senate. Even more pressing is that Jeff has a real chance to defeat a Senator who supports the same people and policies that have gotten our country so far off course. Gordon Smith has done everything he can to hide and confuse the public about his record and recently has taken part in one of the most despicable attack ads I have ever seen in my 35 years in public service. Please help us put an end to failed policies and the politics of obfuscation and help send Jeff Merkley, a real progressive, to the U.S. Senate by casting your vote today!”

Governor Roberts:

Hello Blue America! My name is Barbara Roberts and I’m the former Governor of the great state of Oregon. I’m here today to ask you to join me and show your support for Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. House Speaker Jeff Merkley has always fought for Oregon families and has never backed down to the powerful special interests. I’ve seen him take on the drug companies and the insurance companies and win. That’s the kind of leader he’s been in Oregon and that’s the kind of leader he’ll be in Washington. Here in Oregon, we’ve been lucky to have a great Senator in Ron Wyden, but we have a problem. That problem is Republican Gordon Smith! Gordon Smith has supported every failed, disastrous policy of the Bush Administration. Smith supports the Iraq War, tax breaks for big oil, warrantless wiretapping, and voted to confirm extreme rightwing judges. It’s time for Bush rubberstamp Republican Gordon Smith to be sent packing and you can help make that happen by casting your vote for Jeff Merkley today!

Here's Jeff explaining the Bush Regime's bailout/corporate giveaway to Oregon voters:



UPDATE FROM OREGON REP. CHIP SHIELDS

Rep. Chip Shields is one of the most tech-savvy legislators anywhere in America. He happens to be the Assistant Majority Leader of the Oregon House, representing northern Portland. We asked Chip to give us his assessment of Jeff Merkley since they've worked together in Salem and because we knew that Chip was excited about the Blue America Senate contest. He starts with some advice for Gordon Smith. Here's his guest post:

Sen. Smith, if you want to know how to get Oregon and the U.S. back on solid ground, listen to people like Bill Black, not to the financial lobbyists. Good legislators find a pool of honest brokers well outside the world of lobbyists to advise them on complex legislative issues critical to the public interest like banking and finance.

One of those on my experts list was William K. Black who fought for the public interest as Director of Litigation for the Federal Home Loan Bank Board during the S & L crisis and Keating Five scandals of the 1980s.

So what does Bill say about the shape we're intoday? Here’s a clip from what he wrote in December of last year for Dollars and Sense.

"Over two decades of intense merger and acquisition activity has left a far smaller number of banks, with assets far more concentrated in the largest ones… At the same time, nonbank businesses that lend, save, and invest money have proliferated, as have the products they sell: a vast array of new kinds of loans and exotic savings and investment vehicles. And the lines have blurred between all of the different players in the industry-- between banks and thrifts (e.g., savings and loans), between commercial banks and investment banks.
 
These changes were made possible by the deregulation of the industry. Bit by bit, beginning in the 1970s, the banking regulations put into place in the wake of the Great Depression were repealed, culminating in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999, which removed the remaining legal barriers to combining commercial banking, investment banking, and insurance under one corporate roof."

It’s no surprise that Sen. Smith voted for the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. He voted for it when it passed through the Senate when every senate Democrat voted against it. He voted for it a second time after it went to conference committee.

Sen. Smith justifies his vote by saying that others too thought it was a good idea, which sounds a lot like his justification for voting for war in Iraq. Sen. Smith wants to play the blame game and won’t even take responsibility for his own mistakes. Sen. Smith’s support for Gramm-Leach-Bliley showed poor judgment and his inability to take responsibility for his bad votes show a serious lack of leadership. 

Smith owes voters a real explanation, but whatever his reasons, the fact is we need to elect Jeff Merkley to get us out of the mess that Sen. Smith helped create.

Would Merkley have voted for Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. No way.

I served as one of Merkley’s lieutenants when he took the Oregon House in a fundamentally new direction when we regained a Democratic majority in 2006-- a direction based on the public interest. In previous jobs, Jeff was a Director of Habitat for Humanity and a housing manager for the nonprofit Human Solutions. As the new House Speaker, I saw that he understood housing finance and he knew how hard-working people were being conned by bad actors in the mortgage industry, bad actors in the banking industry and bad actors in the various shadow banking systems that made up the rest of the United Financial Lobby (they actually call themselves that-- the United Financial Lobby-- and they have a solidarity about them that those of us in the labor movement could only hope for).

It's not that the people that work at these places are bad people. The institutional framework provided by Sen. Smith and others was just all wrong and provided some incredibly perverse and potentially criminal incentives.

And Jeff knows bullshit when he sees it. Can smell it a mile away.

And I can tell you this: the United Financial Lobby hates Merkley. Hates him. Merkley drove predatory pay-day lenders out of Oregon. He beat the odds to pass a mortgage-lending reform bill through the House in the 2008 supplemental session that unfortunately died in the senate. But Merkley clearly has a history for standing up for everyday people. I've seen it firsthand.

There is no better time than NOW to get rid of Republican Gordon Smith and elect a true progressive to the U.S. Senate. That’s why I’m here today asking the Blue America community to give to just one dollar and cast your vote for Jeff Merkley.

Progressives Starting To Demand An Alternative To Paulson's Boneheaded Proposal & Corporate Giveaways

Although he has a somewhat different approach than the good folks at BuyMyShitPile.com, Paul Krugman has an eye-opening column in today's NY Times called Cash For Trash. He gives voice to the uncomfortable notion floating around the zeitgeist that calls "the proposed legislation the Authorization for Use of Financial Force, after the Authorization for Use of Military Force, the infamous bill that gave the Bush administration the green light to invade Iraq."

Paulson is demanding extraordinary power for himself-- and for his successor-- to deploy taxpayers’ money on behalf of a plan that, as far as I can see, doesn’t make sense.

Some are saying that we should simply trust Mr. Paulson, because he’s a smart guy who knows what he’s doing. But that’s only half true: he is a smart guy, but what, exactly, in the experience of the past year and a half-- a period during which Mr. Paulson repeatedly declared the financial crisis “contained,” and then offered a series of unsuccessful fixes-- justifies the belief that he knows what he’s doing? He’s making it up as he goes along, just like the rest of us.

So let’s try to think this through for ourselves. I have a four-step view of the financial crisis:

1. The bursting of the housing bubble has led to a surge in defaults and foreclosures, which in turn has led to a plunge in the prices of mortgage-backed securities-- assets whose value ultimately comes from mortgage payments.

2. These financial losses have left many financial institutions with too little capital-- too few assets compared with their debt. This problem is especially severe because everyone took on so much debt during the bubble years.

3. Because financial institutions have too little capital relative to their debt, they haven’t been able or willing to provide the credit the economy needs.

4. Financial institutions have been trying to pay down their debt by selling assets, including those mortgage-backed securities, but this drives asset prices down and makes their financial position even worse. This vicious circle is what some call the “paradox of deleveraging.”

...Paulson insists that he wants a “clean” plan. “Clean,” in this context, means a taxpayer-financed bailout with no strings attached-- no quid pro quo on the part of those being bailed out. Why is that a good thing? Add to this the fact that Mr. Paulson is also demanding dictatorial authority, plus immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency,” and this adds up to an unacceptable proposal.

I’m aware that Congress is under enormous pressure to agree to the Paulson plan in the next few days, with at most a few modifications that make it slightly less bad. Basically, after having spent a year and a half telling everyone that things were under control, the Bush administration says that the sky is falling, and that to save the world we have to do exactly what it says now now now.

But I’d urge Congress to pause for a minute, take a deep breath, and try to seriously rework the structure of the plan, making it a plan that addresses the real problem. Don’t let yourself be railroaded-- if this plan goes through in anything like its current form, we’ll all be very sorry in the not-too-distant future.

This weekend Democrats Blue America backs strongly, Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) and candidate Annette Taddeo (D-FL), both big supporters of small businesses and working families, have been campaigning together in Miami-Dade and talking with voters about the bailout. Hilda is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and she has been instrumental in making sure Annette understands exactly where the congressional debate has been going and why a progressive alternative to Paulson's proposals is needed. Annette:

“We are in a state of crisis. Taxpayers will have to spend $700 billion or more to pay for the refusal of President Bush and rubberstamps like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to conduct oversight or accountability. We need to protect American families and small businesses. For too long, George Bush and Ros-Lehtinen have sided with the special interests, and the American people are left paying the bill.”

She is an advocate of cutting taxes for small businesses and the middle class and bringing the power balance between corporate America and the rest of us back into pre-Bush Regime equilibrium. “We must cut taxes for the middle class so that they have real relief. We must expand health care for children, so that parents who are increasingly being squeezed don’t have to choose between paying the rent and buying medicines. We must end the war in, Iraq where we are spending over $400 million a day. We must have real oversight over Wall Street so that this does not happen again. And since this crisis began with too many unsustainable mortgages, any resolution must include a plan to ease pressure on homeowners.”

Hilda is one of the good guys in Congress who we will be counting on to stand up against the corporate shills like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel and Melissa Bean who are pressuring Democrats to sign on to the Bush Regime proposals, like they did when he wanted to invade Iraq and just like they did when he decided to shred the Constitution with his FISA bill. In her joint statement with Annette, Hilda reminded Floridians that "Three years ago, President Bush and rubberstamps in Congress like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen fought hard to privatize Social Security. From the floor of Congress, Ros-Lehtinen said that she “applauded the President for his strong leadership and vision” and that she wanted to “reform Social Security to include private accounts. Had George W. Bush and rubberstamps in Congress had their way, today’s financial crisis would be a full-blown emergency. Tens of millions of seniors around the country, including hundreds of thousands here in South Florida, would have lost their pensions overnight.”

Annette followed up with a statement going right to the heart of the Bush Regime's flawed approach.

We will not be forced into acting on a $700 billion bill without even examining what the bill does. The American people need protection so that this emergency does not turn into a boondogive-away to corporate insiders. Congress should send President Bush a bill that includes transaction standards, independent oversight, protections for homeowners, and constraints on excessive executive compensation.

The bill is inadequate because while doing nothing for homeowners, it gives the Treasury Department a blank check for Wall Street-– it authorizes purchases “on such terms and conditions as determined by the [Administration].” There would be no guidelines, no standards, no conditions. The Treasury would be permitted to purchase assets at any price it wanted, even if it provided a huge profit to the same corporate entities that got us into this mess in the first place, entities like commercial banks, investment banking firms-– even hedge funds-- that have acted recklessly or worse.

I oppose, and call on Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to oppose-- the Bush Administration’s proposed legislation giving the Treasury the power to spend up to $700 billion to buy “mortgage-related assets” from U.S.-based financial institutions, until the proposed bill is strengthened to protect homeowners, and to protect the American taxpayer from sweetheart deals, cronyism and outright waste.

Finally, if the bailout is to be expanded to cover foreign-headquartered companies, then our allies must share the burden. Unfortunately, after seven and a half years of Cowboy diplomacy and a war in Iraq based on lies, we have little if any leverage left with our allies. They have no desire and little incentive to help us in our moment of need. It is time for a new beginning.

Debbie Cook is another Blue America-endorsed candidate who Hilda has been helping-- this time to beat Bush rubber stamp and lunatic fringe extremist Dana Rohrabacher here in southern California. Debbie, who is the mayor of Huntington Beach and very much in touch with the mundane problems the Bush Economic Miracle have brought into the lives of real people, was the very first Democratic candidate to e-mail us on Friday night when Paulson's proposal started leaking out:

"We must take action to keep our whole economy from collapsing. But if the plan by the Treasury which has leaked out today is genuine, then it's unclear if the plan will work at all.

"Add in a massive transfer of authority to the executive branch, with no congressional oversight or judicial review, and this plan should be dead on arrival. 

"Handing over taxpayer money to the government with no oversight is always a bad idea and it's especially rotten given the current administration's track record."

.
Meanwhile, up in Oregon, Speaker of the House and Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is demanding that Gordon Smith represent Oregon citizens for a change-- and not his corporate backers who have financed his political career in return for his constant help with their special interests. He is insisting that Smith reject Paulson's proposal. This morning he demanded that Smith reject the blank check proposal that needs to be fixed so it includes "protections for homeowners, limits on executive compensation and market reforms to prevent a future crisis. " As Jeff points out, Smith's lockstep support for deregulation-- the 1999 Phil Gramm legislation that removed restrictions on the activities of banks, investment firms and insurance companies and allowed the proliferation of new and unregulated banking practices was instrumental in causing this crisis.

"Republicans in Washington are demanding a blank check to fix the mess they created and that is completely unacceptable. Real families are hurting in this economy and George Bush is only concerned about CEOs on Wall Street. Gordon Smith rubber-stamped the Bush policies that led to this mess, and I urge him to reject any blank check that puts special interests on Wall Street ahead of families on Main Street.... Gordon Smith says, 'don't play the blame game'-- what he really means is 'don't hold me accountable'.  Oregonians need new leadership in Washington and that starts with rejecting the failed policies and philosophies of Gordon Smith and the Republican party in November. In the meantime, Smith must stop giving blank checks to the Bush Administration-- he did it with the Iraq war, and he shouldn't do it now."

Why Are So Many Republican Incumbents Afraid To Debate This Year? Just Look At Their Voting Records

Ric Keller lost some weight-- and his sense of dignity and honor

Republican incumbents don't seem to want to debate. They want to wave air tire gauges over their heads and yell "Drill here now." When it comes to health care, ending the war in Iraq, getting relief for overburdened working families, real solutions to energy problems... they have nothing they want to say-- at least nothing they feel comfortable with the public hearing.

Last night I spoke with Alan Grayson, the Democrat running for Congress in Orlando. He was telling me how he went to a southern regional hotel workers union meeting a couple of days ago and that he strongly advocated for universal health care and paid vacations like they have in so many other industrialized nations. I remember that the ultra reactionary editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel had opposed him in the Democratic primary-- which he won so handily-- and that they opposed him basically because they oppose paid vacations (for others, not themselves). I asked Alan if his Republican opponent, Ric Keller, a slimy hypocrite better known for sleazy personal attacks than for ever debating issues, would challenge him on that. He only hopes he will so lucky, since how does someone asking for voters to support them explain why they oppose paid vacations and health care?

Fact of the matter, Keller's record on health care, if it gets out to low-info voters, will destroy his already slim chances to be re-elected. Already vulnerable on many issues, his consistent opposition to health care for needy children and for military veterans puts him on very shaky grounds. Keller, though, will in all likelihood agree to at least two somewhat low key debates with Alan. Many other Republicans have been ducking or minimizing getting up before the voters and going at it mano a mano.

Take Oregon's desperate Bush rubber stamp Gordon Smith for example. With his re-elect numbers sinking into oblivion and his chances of re-election nearly nonexistent he has taken to running millions of dollars of the worst negative ads anywhere in the country against Jeff Merkley, all the time refusing to commit to debates. Smith is so busy turning his corporate bribes into ads that attempt to tie Jeff to rapists that he is doing everything he can to avoid appearing with Jeff in front of audiences to discuss the issues. Jeff has agreed to a series of eight debates across the state, most of them from non-partisan civic organizations and media outfits.

It's even worse in House races which aren't as high profile as Senate races like Jeff's. Along New York's Southern Tier Eric Massa has been attempting to get another rubber stamp Bush Republican, Randy Kuhl, to participate in a series of debates they have both been invited to. Eric has agreed to all. Kuhl would rather run around doing cheap stunts for his friends at Big Oil-- who, so far, have paid him $37,600 for his services-- than accept invitations from to speak in front of his constituents at any of these forums:

1. WXXI Forum
Proposed date: Monday September 22, 2008
 
2. Alfred University Political Science Club
Proposed dates: Wednesday October 1, 2008 or Wednesday October 8, 2008
 
3. League of Women Voters
Proposed date: Thursday October 2, 2008
 
4. St. John's Meadows Political Forum
Proposed date: Monday October 6, 2008
 
5. WETM Debate at Elmira College
Proposed date: Tuesday October 21, 2008
 
6. League of Women Voters Elmira, NY
Proposed date: Sunday October 26, 2008
 
7. GRAPE Candidates' Forum
Proposed date: Friday October 3, 2008
 
8. 13 WHAM Candidates' Forum
Date open
 
9. R News at St Bonaventure University in Olean
Date open
 
10. R News in Rochester
Date Open

Kuhl, like so many other bought-off Big Oil shills in the Republican House caucus, claims he has no time to debate his opponent because he has to spend all his time trying to pass "Drill, Baby, Drill." But his career record on energy is one of the very worst of any member of Congress. "I think it's more important to debate this energy bill on the floor of the house and solve the problem than it is to worry about a political debate with somebody in some remote section of the district," is what he's telling the media. But what he's not telling that media is about the sickening voting record that has led directly to massive profits for Big Oil and massive debt for consumers who are being ripped off at the pump-- and will soon have to face winter hearing bills. Do you think Kuhl tells anyone he voted to oppose legislation that would have provided stricter penalties for gasoline price gouging, while outlawing market manipulation and empowering state attorneys general to enforce the law? Do you think he wants to explain his votes against expanding tax breaks for renewable energy, hybrid cars, energy efficient buildings and appliances and paying for it by reducing current tax benefits for oil and gas companies? How about his votes against extending and creating tax incentives for energy conservation and renewable energy production and paying for it by eliminating or reducing the manufacturing tax deduction for oil and gas companies? That's the real Randy Kuhl energy record-- that plus taking "contributions" from Big Oil. And that's the real reason Randy Kuhl is reusing to debate Eric Massa.

You have to feel sorry for some of these self important incumbent dullards who are petrified to face up to Democrats who will publicly cite their voting records. And when you get one as pathetic as Randy Forbes in southern Virginia, you find another factor-- a brilliant and articulate opponent running against him. How is an uninformed rubber stamp like Forbes ever going to be able to face up to someone like Andrea Miller? He's scared to death and he's doing everything he can to avoid her. In fact, when her campaign manager showed up at a public picnic yesterday to hand deliver an invitation to him to a TV debate, Forbes called the security guards to have him escorted off the property!

Forbes has taken in $531,519 so far this year, much of it from defense contractors, commercial banks, lobbyists, and other special interests while Andrea has been given $31,583, almost entirely from small grassroots donations. As long as Forbes refuses to debate her on TV he can just keep running his negative ads and distortions and never have to face up to a truly disgraceful voting record. With that in mind, DWT has just started an ActBlue page for Andrea. Anyone who donates today will be entered in a drawing to win one of six Georgie Is Out Of Here Party-in-a-Box kits. Just donate here through ActBlue.

Employee Free Choice Act-- Why It Matters

Republican front groups-- the virulently anti-working families ones which demand open borders and a flood of cheap labor-- have gone on a jihad against Democratic candidates for Congress. They are the real soul of the Republican Party and they are spending millions of dollars blanketing television and radio with misleading advertisements about the Employee Free Choice Act and why unions and Democrats support it. The shady lobbyists behind these groups remind me of a pride of ravenous lions voicing concern over the well-being of gazelles learning to run faster-- I mean, after all, it could be too much stress on the poor gazelles' hearts.

Two of the worst of these groups are the deceptively misnamed Employee Freedom Action Committee, run by radical right union-bashing GOP lobbyist Rick Berman, and the Wal-Mart funded Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, both frantic to stop a law that will make it easier for employees to form and/or join unions. They are running their TV spots to benefit shameless anti-working families Republicans like anti-labor scumbags Norm Coleman (R-MN), John Sununu (R-NH), Gordon Smith (R-OR, an arch hypocrite and a real bucket of puke, whose shady frozen food company, Smith Frozen Food, was just exposed as an exploiter of illegal immigrants), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Susan Collins (R-ME).

Today Meg White at BuzzFlash continued their expose on how the Republican Party wages a vicious class war against working people. "For Republicans," she writes, "waging war on the working class is not hard. The tricky part is making said war invisible. In order to keep on top economically, Republicans still have to win elections (or at least appear to do so). Now that the economy is at the top of most voters' issue lists, that is becoming harder and harder for them to pull off."

Only lies and deceptions can distract working Americans from the fact that the GOP is pickpocketing them, so the GOP runs elections by using personality politics, image, wedge issues, and brazen lies.

Because Republicans know they can't win elections on the economy, so they turn to appealing to socially conservative values-voters, as one example. Up until the recent economic downturn, abortion, gun rights, school prayer, gay marriage and other socio-religious pseudo-political issues were a bigger deal than economic problems. They set up liberals as the enemy responsible for all the problems facing working class voters, when it is the GOP oligarchy that disdains America's embattled middle class; and it is the Republicans who have caused the redistribution of wealth from the middle and bottom classes to the upper, upper class. It's quite a shell game.

...The highest profile and most applicable example of this is the battle raging over the Employee Free Choice Act. The act makes it possible for unions to more easily organize, free of intimidating and often illegal employer pressure. The act also requires arbitration in disputed cases, making collective bargaining agreements easier to accomplish and strikes less frequent.  The Employee Free Choice Act is the number one goal of virtually every union, regardless of the current split in the union movement based on other issues.

The law is far from perfect in advancing the right of collective bargaining, but with union membership at its lowest in recent history, it's better than nothing. The only way Republicans have been able to successfully oppose the act is to twist the facts to try to make it look like they are on the workers' sides. They say (falsely) that the act will get rid of the secret ballot.

Will Gordon Smith's Next Stunt Be To Just Leave The Republican Party?

Gordon Smith (R-OR), on the right... as usual

We've been talking about how almost all of the Senate Republicans running for re-election this year are avoiding the St. Paul HateFest. From Susan Collins (R-ME) to Pat Roberts (R-KS) to Ted Stevens (R-AK), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and John Sununu (R-NH), they all want to play down their identity as Republicans and as incumbents. And no one has been more diligent at this than Oregon rubber stamp supremo Gordon Smith. Smith has now run two TV ads touting Barack Obama. Just look at this one; it almost makes you feel sorry for McCain. What are Oregon Republicans thinking when they see that? Well, I think Oregon Republicans aren't surprised. Smith was the first Republican Senator to bail from McCain's doomed campaign, demanding they remove his name from their website that claimed he was the chairman of their re-election committee. He also announced he had no intention of helping right-wing Republican congressional candidate Mike Erickson in his campaign for the vacant northern district centered on Salem. Oh-- and Smith was the first sitting Senator to tell the RNC that he wasn't coming to their convention.

Today Jeff Merkley's campaign, wrote a short speech for Smith, just in case he changes his mind and decides to show up after all or, if like George Bush, he wants to send them a video-message. Every single word in this speech comes from remarks Smith has made previously during his time in the Senate.

Thank you all so very much.[1] I'm very proud of you for being here. And I'm very grateful that you're here, because this event gives us a chance to come together.[2]

It's very meaningful to have African-Americans support me because I view them as God's children, too.[3]

The Democratic Party is not my constituency. These are people that believe in socialism. I don't.[4]

My campaign people will kill me for saying this but[5], President Bush has set our country on the course of recovery at home and strength abroad. We are safer today because this president has had the backbone to follow terrorism where terrorists are and go after them, and they have failed to strike us again on our own shores since 9-11.[6]

I believe when President Bush stood in front of "mission accomplished'' on an aircraft carrier that, in purely military terms, the mission was accomplished.[7]

And I for one am thankful that we have a military as capable as this, and a commander in chief that had the courage not to listen to Hollywood, or the New York Times, or the French.[8]

It's not John Kerry's fault that he looks French.[9]

George Bush understands what creates opportunity in America.[10]

President Bush represents economic recovery and American leadership.[11]

And[12] I'm for John McCain. I'm in his kitchen cabinet. I'm one of six senators on his advisory committee.[13]

Thank you.[14]

[1] Oregon Leadership Summit, 12/3/07
[2] Oregon Leadership Summit, 12/3/07
[3] Fox News Network, 4/1/02
[4] The Oregonian, 8/22/06
[5] Center for American Progress remarks, 6/11/08
[6] Oregon Daily Emerald via U-Wire, 5/19/04
[7] Senate Floor Speech, 12/08/06
[8] Senate Republican Conference, "Great American Moment", 4/9/03
[9] Los Angeles Times, 8/13/04
[10] Oregon Daily Emerald via U-Wire, 5/19/04
[11] Oregon Daily Emerald via U-Wire, 5/19/04
[12] Oregon Convention Center Press Conference, 10/26/07
[13] PolitickerOR, 8/20/08
[14] Oregon Leadership Summit: Dec. 3, 2007

Jeff is one of the most promising Senate candidates on the Blue America recommended list. We think he'll be one of the finest senators in America and the idea of him replacing a hack rubber stamp like Gordon Smith is incredible. Please consider giving him some help against the massive corporate donations Smith is sucking up from the Big Business interests he's been representing in the Senate since 1996. If you want to be persuaded, watch this 30 second spot about the dangers of "free" trade that Jeff's campaign just started running in Oregon today:



UPDATE

It looks like all of Smith's $5,331,860 in expenditures so far have backfired-- badly. His approval rating is so low (38%) that it is virtually impossible for him to win re-election. Since he started spending money on TV ads undermining Oregon Republicans, by trying to cling on to Obama, he picked up no Democrats and he picked up no independents; instead, he lost support among Republicans. This guy is toast.

Good News For Scott Kleeb (D-NE) And Jeff Merkley (D-OR)

Scott Kleeb-- with Darcy Burner and Charlie Brown behind him

Early yesterday someone told me that former Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns, who served as Bush's Agriculture Secretary, was finally so embarrassed by the bribe money he had taken from Alaska's crooked (and indicted) Senator Ted Stevens, that he felt compelled to return all the money from Stevens' Northern Lights PAC, a Republican Party money laundering operation that took in hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribery from corporations and then distributed it to incumbents and challengers. Johanns was one of the last recipients to agree to disgorge his share.

Then yesterday he announced-- again, only more loudly than the last time he announced it-- that he won't be going to the Republican Convention in St Paul. He's vying with progressive Democrat Scott Kleeb for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Chuck Hagel. Yesterday announced that he's made plans to be out of the country when his party tries for four more years of shame and destruction. Neighboring Kansas' Senator Pat Roberts, who's in a tight re-election battle, is also not all that eager to identify with a political party detested by most Americans and he won't be at the convention either. In fact, quite a few Republican senators hoping to be re-elected are staying away: Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Ted Stevens (R-AK), whether he's in prison or not, Susan Collins (R-ME), Roger Wicker (R-MS), John Sununu (R-NH)... Then there's Larry Craig (R-ID), who has been asked to stay away since he was arrested in a St Paul men's room trying to fellate a handsome young police officer.

But the funniest Republican sad sack of them all is Gordon Smith. A few days ago he ran his second TV ad trying to glom on to Barack Obama and make believe he wasn't part of the catastrophic Republican agenda for the past 12 years. But he was and all he's managed to do is get Republicans angry and make everyone else laugh at him. He resigned as McCain's Oregon campaign chairman and he's refused to campaign with the right-wing extremists running for Congress on the GOP line. Today he released his third and most pathetic ad yet. I wonder what McCain thinks of this guy who said he wouldn't go to the Republican Convention, wouldn't work to elect McCain and is now giving free TV time to Obama! Watch this clown... and imagine what you would think if you were a Republican:

Anatomy Of A Deceptive Election Ad: Meet Republican Rubber Stamp Gordon Smith

A few days ago when we looked at Chris Shays' deceitful TV ad attempting to tie himself to Barack Obama's popularity in Connecticut, we also noted how Shays' had taken a cue from Oregon rubber stamp Gordon Smith who had already done a similar TV ad and subsequently quit as McCain's Oregon campaign chairman. Rasmussen's most recent August polling shows Obama beating McCain by 10 points.

Smith is desperate to do eveything he can to appear to distance himself from the Republican Party and from the party's radical right agenda. He's keeping away from the GOP HateFest in St Paul, hoping Oregon voters will forget he's part of the much-loathed Republican Party. But he still refuses-- as does Shays-- to give back the thousands and thousands of dollars he has received from reactionary swiftboat financier, one of the earth's worst polluters and most corrupt men, billionaire Harold Simmons of Dallas. Simmons will give whatever it takes to keep Smith in office-- even as he spends millions on smearing Barack Obama, the same way he did in 2004 to John Kerry. But forget for a moment that Harold Simmons has been buying Gordon Smith's votes for years and let's just look at Smith's voting record on Iraq, the subject of his new ad (below).

Smith wants Oregon voters to know he doesn't support Bush and the radical Neocon agenda on Iraq. Yet he still claims to support McCain for president, whose entire rason d'etre for being in the race is to fulfill that agenda and stay the course. McCain says Smith is still part of his "kitchen cabinet" and in the past-- before he saw the polling on how much Oregionians disagree with McCain's ideas about continuing the occupation of Iraq, he said. "President Bush has set our country on the course of recovery at home and strength abroad. We are safer today because this president has had the backbone to follow terrorism where terrorists are and go after them, and they have failed to strike us again on our own shores since 9-11… President Bush represents economic recovery and American leadership."

When we asked Jeff Merkley, the progressive, anti-war Democrat who's taking Smith on this year, why Smith was trying to portray himself as a moderate and independent and make believe he opposed the war, he had an interesting perspective: "Smith had a responsibility to investigate the Iraq threat and failed. Then he criticized people like me who opposed the war from the beginning. Smith says he read a book in July of 2006 that made him change his mind about the war. But after changing his mind Smith did nothing about it. Imagine, a U.S. Senator decided the Iraq war was wrong and did nothing about it for seven months. Not until six of his Republican colleagues lost reelection in 2006 did Smith decide to speak out and, even then, refused to take a tough stance to bring our sons and daughters home. America needs leaders who believe in what they fight for and will fight for what they believe in. Some times that is politically inconvenient, but that is what real leadership is all about."

That's why Blue America has been so enthusiastic in its endorsement of Jeff. Please consider donating what you can to his campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page.

Smith has participated in 49 roll call votes regarding Iraq since he enthusiastically supported the Bsh-Cheney position of the use of force 6 times on October 10 and 11, 2002. He was a 100% war hawk at the time. He claims he's changed. Has he? Well, he rubber stamped every single Bush-Cheney initiative in Iraq (19 roll calls) until he finally found something non-binding and innocuous to oppose in June, 2004. And then it was back to the good ole Smith rubber stamp shuffle for another year when another innocuous procedural vote came up that he could safely "support"-- along with even far right Republican kooks and warmongers like George Allen (R-VA), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Norm Coleman (R-MN), John Sununu (R-NH), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)... even his pal McCain... so not exactly a profile in courage. For the rest of 2005, all of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, when he started remembering he would soon have to face Oregon voters again, he never wavered from his rubber stamp support for the Bush Cheney Iraq agenda-- he was 100% in the bag. In March, 2007 there was a non-binding resolution and some assbackwards Neocon joke that he voted with the Democrats on, neirther being anything more than symbolic. And then the opinion polls of Oregon voters started coming in and Smith noticed his job approval rating was predicting a defeat in 2008. (October, 2007 and May, 2008) At that point he started flip flopping around, voting with Bush-Cheney-McCain and the radical right on some issues and against Bush-Cheney-McCain on other issues. Still, when the tough, hardcore votes come up-- the ones that would actually end the war, like Russ Feingold's amendment to redeploy U.S. forces in September, 2007, Smith's "no" vote cancelled out Wyden's "yes" vote. And on July 9, 2008, Smith lined up with the right-wing of his party to oppose Arlen Spector (R-PA) who offered an amendment to the FISA bill that would not have permitted retroactive immunity for criminal telecom executives (many of whom had "donated" to Smith's career), again cancelling out Wyden's vote. It might be worth noting that when you discount senators running for president , Gordon Smith was the 6th biggest recipient of "donations" from those telecom giants he voted to grant retroactive immunity. If that isn't out and out bribery, I don't know what is. They've lavished $169,710 on him in his political career.) Anyway, watch his deceptive ad and then think about it... does a senator who rubber stamps Bush for 5 years, then changes his positions a little after seeing some polls showing voters are angry merit re-eelection?

Chris Shays Tries Glomming On To Obama

Few of the rubber stamp Republican senators are as likely to be defeated in November as Oregon's Gordon Smith, someone who just spent 5 years voting for every single item on the Bush-Cheney agenda followed by 6 months of trying to convince Oregon voters that he's a "moderate," an "independent voice," and-- unbelievably-- kinda almost a Democrat. Back in June he was laughed off the air with a short lived ad that attempted to cash in on Barack Obama's huge popularity in his state. There's no Republican in the House who has tried this exact same tactic more forcefully than Chris Shays of Connecticut. Shays is the last Republican member of the House from the 6-state New Hampshire region and his Connecticut congressional district has a PVI of D+5, the bluest district in America represented by a Republican.

Like his close ally, Joe Lieberman, Shays has managed to stay in office by persuading Democrats that he isn't really that Republican. His voting record, however, paints a very different picture. When Bush and the Republicans needed his vote-- no matter what the harebrained scheme they were pushing, he was always there for them. Take Iraq, for example. "Mr. Moderate"  participated in 63 roll calls regarding Iraq since he voted 4 times on October 10, 2002 to authorize the use of force there. And "Mr. Moderate" voted against the Bush-Cheney agenda in Iraq exactly... 3 times, once to require competitive bidding on oil contracts when Cheney was caught trying to steal all of Iraq's oil, as did more than 4 dozen other Republicans, once to turn an Iraqi reconstruction grant into a loan (which was supported by 84 Republicans), and once on an inconsequential and unsubstantive budgetary matter. This week Shays, who is co-chairman of McCain's pointless Connecticut operation (he is polling just 36% against Obama) released an ad, very much like Gordon Smith's, trying to capitalize on Obama's immense popularity in Connecticut. Take a look-- and then consider donating to Blue America endorsee Jim Himes' campaign to replace him.



And Senator Obama's response? "In this race, the good people of Connecticut should know that Barack Obama supports Jim Himes and believes Himes is the candidate who will bring the change American families need to Washington."

You Don't Have To Guess What Sort Of Judges McSame Would Burden Us With If He Had The Chance

If you wonder what kinds of judges McCain would pick were he to be elected president, you can do more than just check his Senate voting record on judicial confirmations. You can also take a look at his kowtowing to extreme right elements in his own Party who have ordered him to stop considering moderates for the VP slot. Right-wing religionists have told him, for example, that someone like Lieberman would be approved for Secretary of this or that but not as Attorney General or VP. They also crossed Tom Ridge off his list. Fox News is reporting that "Several sources at the RNC told FOX News that in the last 36 hours, senior McCain advisers and aides have told RNC officials that McCain 'got the message' last week that choosing a running mate who supports abortion rights would not be helpful." They even rejected McCain's proffered deal that he be allowed to pick a moderate on abortion as long as he is anti-gay. McCain wants to tell them to go suck a lemon-- he hates them as much as they hate him, maybe more-- but his ambition is so overwhelming that he would ask his wife to show her tits to a bunch of bikers if it meant he would get 50 more votes in South Dakota. The only thing that will keep him from picking Meg Whitman is his fear that the religious right will sit out the election. Is John McCain a coward? He always has been, although his carefully crafted image has been one of courageousness and independence. And that bring us to the voting record.

Don't worry, we're not going to go through all his decades in Washington. But let's look at the controversial Bush nominations and where McCain was on each. I looked over 40 votes starting in 2002 when the Bush Regime got serious about stuffing the federal judiciary with extremist ideologues. The trick for the Regime was to make sure all the corporatists they wanted on the bench-- and that has always been the only real criteria for them, that the nominee be a tool of Big Business who would never think twice about the "nation of whiners" (basically, workers and consumers) and always rule in favor of corporate interests-- were also social Neanderthals who could be counted on to be anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-whatever else was being scapegoated by the GOP at any given moment.

The short version of this story is that there have been 40 votes-- confirmations and clotures-- for federal judges. McCain-- Mr. Moderate, Mr. Maverick-- voted with Bush all 40 times. Yes, he voted 100% of the time with Bush, just like the worst lock step extremists-- the ones who don't take on airs and try painting themselves as something they're not, the crazy old reactionaries like Jim Inhofe (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The contentious battles kicked off with D. Brooks Smith of Pennsylvania, who Bush nominated to for the lifetime position of Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The nomination was strongly opposed by environmental groups and groups defending women's rights, civil rights and the rights of people with disabilities, not just because he was a sure vote against all they are advocating but because of his shady ethics and shaky judgment.

At the time the Democrats held a slim majority in the Senate, but there was an effective conservative majority, with every single Republican-- including McCain, of course-- committed to supporting all of Bush's nominations, regardless of how horrendous any may have been, joined by a handful of right-wing corporate-oriented Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. By the time Smith's nomination came before the Senate, they had already approved all the mainstream conservatives-- more than 70 of them-- that Bush had sent their way. Smith was the first of the crackpot zealots to get a vote. The Republicans were joined by Evan Bayh (IN), Joe Biden (DE), John Breaux (LA), Robert Byrd (WV), Jean Carnahan (MO), Tom Carper (DE), Byron Dorgan (ND), John Edwards (NC), Bob Graham (FL), Ernest Hollings (SC), Herb Kohl (WI), Mary Landrieu (LA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Zell Miller (GA), Ben Nelson (NE), and Bill Nelson (FL).

The day of the Smith confirmation vote the Washington Post and the L.A. Times editorialized that he was a bad choice, pointing out that "Smith has been a federal district judge since 1988. His record raises questions about his suitability for this important seat. In 1997, Smith refused initially to recuse himself from hearing a bank fraud case even though the claims implicated another bank where his wife was a vice president and where the couple had substantial financial assets. Instead, in violation of federal judicial ethics, Smith issued a number of rulings in the case, including several favorable to the banks, before finally recusing himself. Smith long remained a member of a club that barred women even though by 1992 the federal code of judicial ethics specifically prohibited such membership. Only in late 1999, when the circuit court seat to which he has now been named first became vacant, did Smith obey the rules and resign." The NY Times had come to the same conclusion of Smith's unfitness

A few days after Smith's confirmation, Schumer wrote an OpEd in the NY Times arguing that ideology should be considered as one factor in the confirmation of federal judges.

"The not-so-dirty little secret of the Senate is that we do consider ideology, but privately... If the President uses ideology in deciding whom to nominate to the bench, the Senate, as part of its responsibility to advise and consent, should do the same in deciding whom to confirm. Pretending that ideology doesn't matter-- or, even worse, doesn't exist-- is exactly the opposite of what the Senate should do."

The battle got really intense, though with the Miguel Estrada nomination-- and the seven cloture votes that followed from March, 2003 until July 2003. Not being a judge, the neo-fascist Estrada, perhaps the most radical right of any of Bush's worst nominations, had no paper trail. McCain and the rest of the Republicans all voted to shut down debate on this one but--even with the help of DLC type conservative Democrats like John Breaux, Zell Miller, and the Nelson twins-- they never managed to force a vote and in September Estrada finally skulked away. At the time the Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Times joined many editorial boards breathing a sigh of relief.

The Bush administration did everything in its power - and a few things beyond its legitimate power-- to secure a federal appeals court judgeship for Miguel Estrada. And, now that Estrada has withdrawn his name from nomination, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, claims Estrada is the victim of "a political hate crime," while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., grumbles about "obstruction" and Bush complains that "the treatment of this fine man is an unfortunate chapter in the Senate's history."

What a crock!

Estrada was forced to withdraw from consideration for a place on the influential Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the Senate was not going to approve him and the American people were fine with that. In other words, the process worked. Bush, Frist and DeLay are just mad because they did not succeed in adding another judicial activist to the federal bench.

A favorite of extreme right-wingers, Estrada's track record and his actions during the confirmation process suggested that he would use the judgeship to advance his views-- rather than interpret the law honesty. That made a lot of senators, including some Republicans, concerned, and created the space that allowed a Democratic filibuster to prevent a Senate vote on the nomination.

In judicial nomination fights, filibusters ought to be employed judiciously. But Estrada's refusal to cooperate with the confirmation process made it entirely appropriate to block his confirmation.

Well aware that his views on legal matters placed him well outside the judicial mainstream, Estrada refused to respond to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee. And the Bush Justice Department refused to release memos Estrada had written while serving in the office of the solicitor general in the administration of Bush's father.

None of this phased John McCain in the least. He voted for cloture (to shut down debate) on this godawful nominee 7 times. He also voted for cloture and/or for confirmation for two right-wing Supreme Court judges, Sam Alito and John Roberts, as well as for Janice Brown, Brett Cavanaugh, Carolyn Kuhl (failed), Charles Pickering (failed), David McKeague, Jeffrey Sutton, Jerome Holmes, Leslie Southwick, Deborah Cook, Henry Saad (failed), Priscilla Owen, Thomas Griffith, William Myers (failed), and William Pryor.

McCain's 100% lockstep votes in favor of anti-environmental, anti-regulatory, anti-worker, anti-minority, anti-consumer hack judges should give anyone who cares to ponder it a look at what kinds of judges we would be likely to see nominated from a McCain administration. And with rubber stamp Republican senators that think advice and consent means agreeing with everything, the American public could look forward to scores, if not hundreds, of judges eager to serve corporate interests and further screw ordinary Americans.

When I heard Pastor Rick ask Obama, a constitutional scholar, which Supreme Court judges he would not have nominated, I knew what the answer should have been. Obama certainly would never have nominated any of the atrocious ideologues put on the bench by Reagan or either of the Bushes. But his answer was nonconfrontational and mild, going right to the Court's weakest and most pathetic link, Clarence Thomas. A couple weeks ago I heard Jeff Merkley speak at a small rally. He's challenging one of these rubber stamp senators in Oregon, Gordon Smith. Like McCain, Smith has never run across a Bush nomination he wasn't enthusiastic about. He voted for every one of them. That's a definition of a rubber stamp. Merkley made it clear when he spoke that he would have voted against the extremists Bush had nominated for the courts. "Time and time again," he said, "Republicans like Gordon Smith have voted to stack the courts with extreme right-wing judges who favor corporate special interests over ordinary Americans. Oregon deserves a Senator who will put the people and their rights first and is not afraid to stand up to the divisive politics of the Republican party." Yeah, so does America, lots of them.

Why Are Republican Incumbents Afraid To Debate In Their Home Districts?

After seeing what an incredibly effective speaker Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is, I was interested in knowing if he would be debating Bush's rubber stamp mouthpiece Gordon Smith. So I asked. His campaign has proposed a series of 8 debates. Merkley has committed to five specific debates around the state with different Oregon television stations and nonpartisan public service groups. So far Gordon Smith hasn't committed to any. But let's be fair, if you had a record like his-- in a state like Oregon-- would you want to defend it in public? But they I started seeing a surprising pattern: Republican incumbents all over the country are avoiding or minimizing the number of debates they're willing to have with Democrats.

Yesterday, almost in passing, we saw how Bush rubber stamp Charlie Dent refuses to debate Sam Bennett about energy policy. “Congressman Dent is so deep in the pocket of Big Oil companies and special interest groups he’s refusing to publicly defend his record and have an open debate about the issue,” said Kathryn Seck, Sam Bennett’s campaign manager. “He should explain why he’s taken $75,000 from Big Oil and given them billions in tax breaks while middle class Pennsylvanians are struggling to afford high gas prices.  Voters deserve an open dialogue on the issues and Congressman Dent is ducking the issue.” Then this morning I got a press release from Iowa's 4th CD (the north central part of the state, centered in Ames). And sure, enough, the Bush rubber stamp incumbent, Tom Latham, is refusing to debate the Democratic candidate Becky Greenwald.

Tom Latham refused this week to debate Becky Greenwald while he is home on the August recess. The Greenwald campaign accepted a debate with Latham at the Iowa Farmer’s Union Convention, an event that Latham is attending. Latham refused to debate.
 
“We are disappointed that Tom Latham refused to debate Becky Greenwald at the Iowa Farmer’s Union Convention. We tried to work with his schedule and find a venue for a debate at an event Latham would already be attending,” said Campaign Manager Robert Brennan. “Iowans deserve to hear from Tom Latham why after 14 years in Congress, he has done nothing to address the energy crisis, lack of care for our veterans and the high cost of healthcare.”
 
Last week, the Greenwald campaign sent a letter to the Latham campaign asking to hold four debates over the August recess. The Latham campaign refused the debates saying their schedule was full. The Iowa Farmers Union tried to accommodate with his schedule and arrange for a debate at their convention in Marshalltown, IA on Saturday August 23rd, an event that Latham will be attending. The Latham campaign refused to debate.

Was I looking at a pattern? I reached out to a few of the campaigns I speak to regularly. Gary Peters (D-MI) has accepted invitations from the Troy Chamber of Commerce-- and even from the Troy Republican Party Club, as well as from other groups who have been trying to set up debates. Joe Knollenberg-- a Big Oil shill who has accepted $66,250 in "donations" from Big Oil and owns over $90,000 in oil company stocks that increase in value as gasoline prices rise-- is petrified to stand up in front of an audience of voters and defend his energy voters.

Annette Taddeo debates empty chair in Miami

In May the AFL-CIO, which had endorsed Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart in 2006, invited their 3 candidates plus Democratic challengers Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia and Raul Martinez to a debate. The three Republicans, panicking at the last moment, ducked the debate. Each blamed scheduling conflicts. The AFL-CIO went on with the debate-- Annette told me she debated Ros-Lehtinen's empty chair-- and then endorsed the debate winners, the three Democrats.

South Florida congressional Republicans backed out of next week's debates. Their opponents say they're hiding.

Miami's three Cuban-American Republicans in Congress have scrapped plans to participate in a series of debates with their Democratic challengers.

The South Florida AFL-CIO, which in recent years has hosted debates for mayoral and gubernatorial races, planned three debates next week for the nationally watched contests. But the Republicans said this week that they're not going, throwing the bipartisan nature of the event into doubt.

The union-- which endorsed the three incumbents in 2006-- says the events will go on next week as scheduled. All three Democrats, who represent the first significant challenge to the incumbents, said they plan to attend and suggested the Republicans were reluctant to spar face to face.

"We just want to give our working families a chance to talk to the candidates,'' said union president Fred Frost, who met late Wednesday with representatives from two of the Republican campaigns in a bid to revive the events. "I think they'd be squandering what I'd consider a great opportunity."

In New Jersey Dennis Shulman has been trying to get incumbent Scott Garrett to debate him in front of voters. Apparently Garrett-- like fellow extremist loon and Big Oil shill John Kline in Minnesota-- just doesn't think he has to do debates. Kline's spokesperson said his record speaks for itself. It does-- and if voters were actually reading it Kline wouldn't get 30% of the vote.

Last year Darcy Burner was eager to debate incumbent Bush rubber stamp Dave Reichert everywhere in the district. His staff, wary of putting him into unscripted settings because he has a tendency to either put his foot in his mouth or reveal his lack of policy depth, allowed him to do one debate, which was sponsored by the Seattle Times. The Times debate for 2008 is scheduled for October 8 and Reichert is going to do it. Meanwhile, though, there have been debates proposed by KCTS-9 and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as well as by TV station KING 5 and radio stations KUOW and KIRO 710. Darcy wants debates. Reichert wants to hide. Similarly, Bob Lord has challenged John Shadegg who refuses to talk, only waves his toy air pressure gauge over his head and mutters incoherently about running for the Senate. Shadegg won't say yes or no about debates. Last year Vic Wulsin was able, after embarrassingly her repeatedly, to get Mean Jean Schmidt, one of the House's most woefully ignorant members, to do one debate. Vic would like to do a series of debates across the district to talk about how to help solve the economic conditions of Ohio families hit hard by recession, the housing crisis, gasoline prices, unemployment, the health care crisis and inflation but Mean Jean isn't answering. The Ohio News Network has asked both candidates to debate in October but it looks like Vic may have the stage to herself.

Most of the Senate races have at least one debate scheduled. But Gordon Smith isn't the only senatorial coward hiding from his Democratic opponent. John Cornyn (R-TX) doesn't feel comfortable unless he's speaking at places like the Petroleum Club in Fort Worth. Big Oil has given him more money this year ($480,100) than any other member of Congress (other than the million plus they gave to ExxonJohn McCain) and he's backed them all the way, which is precisely why you're paying around $4/gallon at the pump. But when it comes to debating Rick Noriega about his votes, Cornyn is full of... petroleum. Plenty of TV and radio stations, as well as civic organizations throughout Texas, have reached out to the two campaigns for debates. Noriega keeps accepting invitation. Cornyn claims he's negotiating. But he isn't even doing that-- unless he's negotiating with himself.

Just as I was about to publish this, I got an e-mail from Andrea Miller, the powerfully articulate and knowledgeable Democratic candidate running against dull rubber stamp Randy Forbes in southern Virginia. Her experience is almost identical to at least half, perhaps three-quarters of Democratic challengers:

Randy Forbes is avoiding me big time. There have been at least 3 requests (2 from radio and 1 from TV). Additionally, there has also been a debate request from a group that simply wants to schedule a public forum.
 
What is he afraid of? I have an energy policy and he has energy questions. I have solutions to our education challenges and he doesn't even know there is a problem.

My guess: he's just afraid of Andrea Miller and getting his ass kicked publicly in front of the electorate when she exposes his indefensible voting record.