Rep. John Campbell (R-CA) Is Retiring... Yawn?

CA-45 is entirely within Orange County... and not the more liberal part on the coast. The district goes from the Anaheim Hills, North Tustin and Irvine down to Mission Viejo and Lake Forest. The eastern part of the district beyond Silverado and Trabaco Canyon is uninhabitable. Last year Campbell won reelection against a credible Democrat, Sukee Kang, 59-41%. Campbell spent $1,421,706 and Kang spent $754,627. The DCCC completely ignored the race and spent zero, same as they did when Beth Krom ran in 2010 and when Steve Young ran in 2008 and 2006. They don't see this R+7 district as worth investing in. McCain bested Obama 51-47% and Romney won there 55-43%.

There doesn't appear to be a Democratic challenger yet, although someone will probably give it a try. So far, the action is all in Crazyville. Every Orange County GOP officeseeker who can walk upright and string a sentence together wants to run. The primary should be a joy to watch-- and it won't be the first time. In his new book, And Hell Followed With Her, about the Minutemen mayhem, Dave Neiwert recounted how ambitious extremist Jim Gilchrist ran for Congress against Campbell. (This was a year before Gilchrist told the Orange County Register that "I'm not going to promote insurrection, but if it happens, it will be on the conscience of the members of Congress who are doing this. I will not promote violence in resolving this, but I will not stop others who might pursue that." Bush appointed Wall Street shill and super-reactionary Congressman Christopher Cox to the chair of the SEC (which turned out to be an absolute catastrophe for America and helped trigger the Great Recession) and it created a rare open seat in Orange County.

The special election rules created a wide-open field in the primary in which ten Republicans and four Democrats vied for their parties’ respective nominations. Gilchrist ran instead as the sole candidate of the American Independent Party, which is the California affiliate of the Constitution Party. That organization, as it happens, is essentially the Patriot movement’s own party: in the 1990s, it was one of the original promoters of the militia concept among mainstream conservatives, and its politics and candidates have been in that same mold ever since.

Gilchrist got a brief scare when former congressman Robert Dornan-- an archconservative in the John Birch Society mold, notorious in his time for inflammatory and frequently bigoted remarks (his nickname was “B-1 Bob”), who had lost his seat in the 1996 election to Loretta Sanchez-- made brief waves by indicating he wanted to run for Cox’s old seat under the AIP banner. But party leaders, who saw Gilchrist as a potential rising political star, rebuffed his efforts.

After the primary, only an establishment Republican named John Campbell and a Democratic attorney named Steve Young remained on the ballot-- along with Gilchrist, who campaigned hard against Campbell on the basis of his supposedly “soft” stance on immigration. And when Election Day came around on December 5, it was a testament to Orange County’s deep-red conservatism that Campbell still won handily with 44 percent of the vote, while Young came in second with 27 percent, and Gilchrist finished a close third with 25 percent.

Afterward, Gilchrist declared victory anyway: “The time of the modern Minuteman, the Patriot, the time of the American people is here, and America WILL return to the rule of law-- whether the special interests, and the party label enforcers, and the open borders lobby-- and the mainstream media-- like it or not!”

Yes, 25% of the voters in this OC hellhole were willing to vote for a murderous neo-Nazi fanatic whose goal is to destroy America. What a place! And next year is already looking like another wild jungle primary in Crazytown. This week another Republican crackpot, State Sen. Mimi Walters, joined the fray. She's already been endorsed by 7 reactionary California congressmen-- Darrell Issa, Ed Royce, Kevin McCarthy, David Valadao, Doug LaMalfa, Jeff Denham, and Paul Cook-- which is very inconvenient for Rep. Gary Miller, who finds himself in a blue district and wants to run for the open seat in CA-45 to avoud political oblivion.

Walters is largely considered a wholly owned subsidiary of religionist lunatic Howard Ahmanson, Jr., who is no longer living in an insane asylum. Think Progress was first to point out the connection to Walters and the far right's attempt to overthrown democracy and replace it with a "Christian" version of Sharia law, what the lunatic fringe behind Walters calls "total integration of Biblical Law." Ahmanson funneled money into her failed campaign for state Treasurer through his shady Fieldstead operation.

Fieldstead & Co. is an incorporated private company which Ahmanson uses to distribute money to his favorite causes without having to disclose the donations publicly.

Most notorious among these was the Chalcedon Foundation. Ahmanson served for decades on the board of this radical Christian Reconstructionist organization and heavily funded its efforts. The group’s late founder, Rousas John Rushdoony advocated for American laws to literally follow those in the Book of Leviticus, including death by stoning for gay and lesbian people and similar execution for adulterers, juvenile delinquents, non-believers, and most other Americans. While Ahmanson has made clear he personally does not advocate “the stoning or execution of homosexuals,” he conceded to the Orange County Register in 1985: “My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives.”

Ahmanson is a major funder and director of the Discovery Institute, a group which promotes creationism and tries to obstruct science education. He was one of the largest contributors to the unconstitutional Proposition 8 campaign to take away the right of same-sex couples to marry in California, spent heavily in support of school vouchers efforts in Colorado and California, backed CareNet (a group that provides “crisis pregnancy centers,” which mislead women about abortion), and, reportedly, funded a $1 million smear campaign against the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop and efforts to split the worldwide Anglican Communion over LGBT inclusion. And, he was the second-largest donor to a 2006 California ballot initiative effort which would have required the government to compensate any property owners if land-use or zoning laws hurt the value of their property; Walters served as honorary chair for the unsuccessful effort and called the position her “proudest accomplishment.”

In her time in the California Assembly and Senate, Walters has accumulated a voting record that is very much in line with Ahmanson’s far-right views. She has consistently voted against LGBT equality, endorsing Prop. 8, protecting harmful “ex-gay” therapy, and opposing anti-discrimination laws. She opposes women’s reproductive rights. She also is a strong supporter of “school choice” and vouchers.

Walters has called herself a “proven conservative” and has drawn criticism for her anti-immigrant campaign ads. She voted against California’s same-day voter registration law and amassed an embarrassing 3 percent lifetime score from the California League of Conservation Voters.

In the past, even anti-LGBT conservatives like Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) and former Gov. Linda Lingle (R-HI) have returned campaign contributions from Ahmanson in light of his radical views and record (Full disclosure: in 2004, the author was president of an LGBT-rights group that successfully pushed Wolf to return a $1,000 contribution from Ahmanson). But Walters has accepted his money since her 2006 campaign.

Unemployment Benefits Finally Approved

DCCC begs us to keep shelling out cash so Walt Minnick can keep voting with the GOP on... everything!

Yesterday the House voted one last time-- so that their bill and the one the Senate finally passed this week would be identical and Obama could sign it, retroactively sending missed insurance compensation checks to over 2.6 million Americans thrown out of work by the very policies put forward by the conservatives who voted against unemployment insurance! The final vote in the House yesterday was 272-152, 10 worthless conservative Democrats joining Boehner to form a coalition against working families and 31 Republicans crossing the aisle in the other direction, mostly too scared to vote against their own constituents.

The treacherous Democrats-- exactly the types the DCCC is sure to give the most support in the upcoming midterms-- are retiring Washington shithead Brian Baird, Marion Berry (Blue Dog-AR), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Baron Hill (Blue Dog-IN), Betsy Markey (Blue Dog-CO), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC), Walt Minnick (Blue Dog-ID), Glenn Nye (Blue Dog-VA), Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)... oh, an angry, retiring mentally unbalanced guy and 9 reactionary Blue Dogs. What a shock!

Speaker Pelosi was quick to blame Republicans responsible for causing this mess-- and rightly so-- but it strikes me as a little hypocritical that she rails against them and doesn't say a word about conservative Democrats who did the same-- and who are getting millions of dollars in DCCC re-election funds from a DCCC that she controls.

This emergency legislation will extend unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to millions of Americans families, which Republicans have held up for more than 7 weeks causing an estimated 2.5 million families to lose their lifeline that they have earned through their work... This is urgently needed after weeks of Senate Republicans’ ongoing obstruction of job creating legislation that extended critical unemployment benefits to help Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own make ends meet as they look for a new job. We will not abandon these families.

Note: without the connivance of conservative Democrat Ben Nelson, the bill would have passed weeks ago and averted the tragedy for hundreds of thousands of American families. That said, most conservatives-- and especially most conservative sociopaths without consciences are Republicans. John Campbell, a far right California congressman from Orange County, voted against the unemployment extension once again yesterday. His opponent, former Irvine Mayor Beth Krom, currently on that city's Council, has been endorsed by Blue America-- and, of course, ignored by the DCCC. We called her after the vote yesterday and she told us she was disappointed-- but not surprised-- that Campbell wasn't among the nearly three dozen Republicans who put aside their partisan agenda for a moment to do something for average Americans in a tough spot. “Once again," she said, "as Congress in a rare show of bipartisan support voted to extend jobless benefits for 2.5 million unemployed Americans, John Campbell decided partisanship was more important than leadership. While Mr. Campbell makes excuses that he can’t support something if he doesn’t know exactly where the money is coming from, he conveniently forgets voting to support two wars as well as the bailout of Wall Street and the auto industry without ever concerning himself with how it would be paid for. The truth is, a lot of those 2.5 million unemployed Americans have people like John Campbell to thank for supporting policies that undermined our national economy.”

Just down the road a ways Blue America has another progressive candidate, Bill Hedrick, running against another reactionary shill, corrupt sleazebag Ken Calvert, who also refused to join in the bipartisan support to help the unemployed workers. "While I'm glad Congress finally passed extending unemployment benefits," said Hedrick, "it's sad to see local families being held hostage by the partisan political games Republicans like Ken Calvert are playing in Washington. Congressman Calvert should be ashamed of himself for using local families as pawns to score political points and for turning his back on his constituents when they needed his support the most."

Interestingly, every single Republican the Blue America candidates are running against voted in opposition to the extension: Michele Bachmann, John Boehner, Calvert, Campbell, and, of course, North Carolina crackpot Virginia Foxx. Ah... yes, crackpot Virginia Foxx... I called Billy Kennedy what the folks in western North Carolina think about Foxx's anti-family antics. He told me that around 9,300 of her constituents "have lost their jobs due to outsourcing to cheaper labor in China."

Her reasoning is that the government cannot possibly be expected to help those who are desperate to find jobs because it will add to the deficit.

But Virginia Foxx, the richest House member from North Carolina, doesn't worry about her personal tax cuts breaking the bank. She supports huge tax breaks that are extended to the richest Americans, even if the government has to borrow money to pay for it.

The unemployment benefits extension cost $34 billion. Virginia Foxx opposes it. The tax breaks for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans cost more than one trillion dollars, all of which is borrowed money. Virginia Foxx supports them.

The big tax break windfall Virginia Foxx supports didn't go to most Americans. It didn't go to Americans who work hard days and long hours. It went to the bankers, big oil executives, crooked Wall Street traders, and... Virginia Foxx.

The way I see it, we just can't afford Virginia Foxx's tax break. And we can't afford Rep. Foxx any more either.

Too few jobs have been created in the past 10 years, and good people looking for jobs can't find them. But why should Virginia Foxx care? She's got hers. And you're paying for it.

I'm calling Virginia Foxx out on this hypocrisy. It's clear that she's out of touch, and it's time she took a peek outside those thick walls of Washington and came home to struggle to make ends meet like the rest of us.

Today's Worst Person: John Campbell (R-CA)

If you happen on the official congressional website of California Congressman John Campbell-- the one the taxpayers pay for-- you're notice he doesn't really keep it up. Under his "voting record," the last update was December 16, 2009. And there's a frontpage claim that the propaganda-oriented website, much mostly talks about how he's against everything, from healthcare to energy and environmental legislation, won a Bronze Mouse Award. “I have long made it a priority that my staff and I perform at the highest level of constituent service and outreach," bragged Campbell.  "My website serves as a vital conduit for this effort, and I, along with my staff will continue to work on improving it and other avenues of communication.” So why no update on the voting record since 2009?

Perhaps, and I'm only speculating, it's because he's embarrassed that someone representing a moderate, mainstream California district is voting so far to the right and that his 3.94 (out of 100) Progressive Punch score would be more suitable to some crackpot district in Texas or Mississippi than in the highly educated and culturally diverse Orange County suburbs.

Tuesday evening, for example, the House passed the Homebuyer Assistance and Improvement Act in order to extend the homebuyer tax credit for the purchase of a principal residence before October 1. It passed overwhelmingly with a bipartisan vote, 409-5. Even the GOP leadership, which usually obstructs just about everything, urged Republicans to vote YES. And 165 did, including some of the worst of the extremists like Michele Bachmann, Darrell Issa, Eric Cantor, even Joe Barton, the Texas crook who apologized to BP last week and was then caught laundering Big Oil cash into the campaigns of dozens of Republican candidates through his sleazy Texas Freedom Fund. (And, yes, Campbell took $2,500 from the Texas Freedom Fund and adamantly refuses to return it or donate it to an oil spill cleanup fund.) But 5 radicals dug in their heels and voted no-- and one was John Campbell.

Speaker Pelosi explained why the legislation is so important to helping to revitalize the American economy. “As a part of our efforts to strengthen America’s housing market, Democrats created the successful first-time homebuyer tax credit. With the help of this credit, more than 4 million families have been able to achieve the dream of homeownership, and in doing so, given a boost to our economy. 

“The legislation passed by the House today will extend the deadline for Americans already in the process of buying a home, but facing delays that would mean they no longer qualify for the credit. Up to 180,000 homebuyers will now receive the tax credit they deserve, and our housing market will be strengthened as a result.

“We will continue to work to strengthen our nation’s economy: creating good American jobs, providing the lowest taxes in 60 years for the middle class and small businesses, and closing tax loopholes that send jobs overseas.”

Makes sense, even to kooks like Mean Jean Schmidt, Virginia Foxx and Steve King. But not to John Campbell. No wonder he doesn't want anyone to see his current voting record on his "award-winning" website!

Blue America has endorsed City Councilmember and former Irvine Mayor Beth Krom and we reached her this morning. She pointed out that "Once again, John Campbell has voted against the interests of his own district by opposing the homebuyer tax credit."

Given that he and his family live in an exclusive gated estate community that overlooks a vast swath of open space, you would think he could muster a little sympathy for the thousands of people in his own district who stand to benefit from this tax credit. He doesn’t mind corporate welfare, but when it comes to the needs of working people in America, he couldn’t care less. He’s not just opposed to helping homebuyers, though. In a recent post on the Town Hall blog, he recommends eliminating funding for Amtrak, Community Development Block Grants, Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, Energy Star and Title X Family Planning programs-- just to name a few. Compared to this guy, Marie Antoinette looks like a friend of the people. I don’t want to live in the kind of America that John Campbell represents. Corporations are not more important than people in our society. If we lose our ability to aspire for a better life, including the opportunity to own a home and realize the American dream, our future as a nation will look far worse than it does today.

Today's the last day of the campaign fundraising quarter and if you're thinking of donating to a campaign, let us suggestion you think about Beth's race against Campbell (who is, after all, awash in oily special interests money).

Blue America Welcomes Beth Krom (D-CA)

This year the DCCC has decided to spend virtually all of its resources playing defense. They're not spending money on replacing out-of-step, obstructionist Republicans-- not even vulnerable ones like John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Thaddeus McCotter and John Campbell-- but on saving the worthless hides of the mistrusted Blue Dogs who vote most frequently with the GOP and who have opposed most of the president's Change Agenda-- reflexive reactionaries like Travis Childers (MS), Bobby Bright (AL) and Walt Minnick (ID). So once again, its up to grassroots and netroots organizations like ours-- who helped find and support progressives the DCCC ignored, like Alan Grayson, Donna Edwards, John Hall, and Carol Shea-Porter-- to work toward making Congress a more receptive place for progressive values and ideas that put ordinary working people before wealthy corporate interests. And today we want to introduce you to one of those candidates, Orange County activist Beth Krom. She'll be joining us live at Crooks and Liars at 11am, PT-- 2pm, ET, in case anyone from the DCCC wants to see what they're missing.

Beth is a proven, intrepid, can-do progressive-- a former mayor of Irvine and current City Council member of that city-- who is running for the Orange County seat, CA-48, currently help by one of the most ridiculous of all California Republicans, "Birther Amendment" author John Campbell. The district used to be solidly red but has been changing-- and rapidly. Old style pundits and prognosticators may not have noticed-- they're better at reporting what happened than predicting what's happening-- but districts like Beth's have undergone profound demographic changes. In 2008, in fact, Obama narrowly won the 48th, which helped him run up a 67-31% statewide vote against John McCain.

A dedicated environmental activist, she first ran for City Council in 2000 to stop an international airport from being built at Orange County’s former El Toro Marine Base. Within the first two years she served, a countywide initiative was drafted and passed that rezoned El Toro for park and open space use. Today, where the airport was proposed, the Orange County Great Park is being developed. The park is the missing link in, what will be, once restored, the longest urban wilderness corridor in America, extending from the ocean at Crystal Cove to the Mexican border. When we talked with Beth about the importance of smart growth, open space preservation and balanced planning, she pointed out that "buildings don’t make communities; people make communities."

Beth is exactly the kind of candidate we would like to see replacing a careerist clown and partisan hack like Campbell. Profoundly anti-environmental-- yet representing one of the most beautiful stretches of seacoast in America-- Campbell is every irresponsible developer's fondest dream. Beth has a very different vision for Orange County and for America.

As we experience the “shock and awe” that has gripped the nation in the wake of the worst offshore oil spill in human history, it’s important to consider that our thirst for oil has led to policies that place our entire ecosystem at risk.

When everything is out of balance, we feel the effects on a daily basis. An economy out of balance, a healthcare system out of balance and a planet out of balance, reflect public policies that are out of balance. There are no perfect solutions, but ignoring our problems will only lead to greater challenges in the future.

Politics is not about the black and white, it’s about the thousand shades of gray. It takes smart, courageous politicians to advance the kind of policies that will inspire change and help to move our country forward.

We think Beth can win and we think she'll bring a tremendous improvement to Congress and to Orange County is she does. If you can, please consider giving her a hand at the Blue America ActBlue page.

Notes From The Grassroots- Guest Post From Lori Vandermeir

In politics, it’s not always our enemies who keep us up at night. Sometimes it’s our friends.

That’s one of the tough lessons I learned working on the Bill Hedrick (CA 44) race against Ken Calvert in 2008. We came within 2 points of winning that race. Amazing, considering the district was considered a "safe" Republican seat with a 16 year incumbent and a large registration disadvantage. The Democratic candidate who ran two years earlier lost by 23%.

On paper, that district looked impossible to win, even with an incumbent being investigated for shady land deals and questionable earmarks. As a result, Bill got few endorsements and no support from the national players.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. I spent hours on the phone, trying to convince the Democratic leadership that Bill was the perfect candidate for that solid blue collar district. He was a family man-- a father of five with two sons serving in Iraq-- and an educator and elected school board member with strong credibility and great name recognition. Unemployment in the Riverside portion of the district (which accounted for almost 80% of the vote) was the second highest rate in the nation. Foreclosures were staggering, and the incumbent had voted for everything that had gotten us into this economic mess. The incumbent was vulnerable. It was the perfect storm.
 
Bill raised only $190,000 in that race. But we had an aggressive field campaign, knocking on doors of both Democrats and Republicans. With another $50,000 we could have secured the votes to win. There’s no doubt that Bill’s race in 2008 was seen as “the one that got away.” Hindsight doesn’t help much in politics. That’s why foresight is so important.

Bill is running again, and I hope he wins. [Blue America has endorsed him and is helping him raise funds; the DCCC is still taking a wait-and-see approach.] Unfortunately, Calvert has been awakened to his vulnerability and will not be complacent this time around. An opportunity was missed in 2008 and whatever lessons were learned, there is no way to apply them retroactively.

In this campaign cycle, I am working for Beth Krom who is challenging incumbent John Campbell (CA 48), co-sponsor of the “Birther Bill.” Beth has won five consecutive elections in Irvine-- the largest city in the district-- including two terms as Irvine’s directly elected Mayor. Beth is bright, articulate, engaging, thoughtful, and has a proven track record for winning tough elections. She knows the district better than the incumbent and has built an amazing network across many platforms. [Beth is Blue America's most recently endorsed candidate.]

Beth understands how to connect the dots, she is solution oriented and demonstrates the kind of passion and courage that is desperately needed in Congress today. Unlike Campbell who is rarely seen in the district and who hates the retail side of politics, Beth Krom is seen as both accessible and effective. She is energetic and focused, and respected by almost everyone-- even those who may disagree with her on certain issues.

Consider this: of the more than $400,000 she has raised to date, more than 20% has come from Republicans! THAT has never happened in an Orange County race where a Democrat was challenging a Republican incumbent before. And no district in America has seen registration shift as much over the past decade as CA 48. What was once considered a rock solid Republican district, is now dominated by Democrats and Decline-to-State voters, with Republicans holding only 44% of the vote. People are still amazed to learn that Barack Obama won the district!

Is this a viable race? You bet!

Yet, even with key endorsements from Labor, NEA, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood and others, the DCCC remains on the sidelines-- at least for the time being. They say that people who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

Scott Brown had a 3 to 1 registration deficit when he pulled off his upset in Massachusetts. Charlie Brown ran twice in California and nearly won both times-- despite a 15% registration disadvantage. Through both of these races, as well as Bill Hedrick’s, runs a common thread. The presumed winner was out of touch with constituents, treated public office as an entitlement and upset voters so much that they were willing to vote for a person rather than a party.

The same dynamics are at play in Beth Krom’s race against John Campbell. She points out that, during her term as Mayor, he didn’t once visit City Hall, attend a public event, inquire about the city’s priorities or even send a letter of congratulations when Irvine was named “Safest Big City in America” four years in a row. And despite the fact that CA 48 is one of the “Top 10” districts when it comes to sending tax dollars to Washington, Campbell-- who defines EVERY appropriation as an earmark-- works every day to make sure not one penny comes back.

That pissed off residents in Newport Beach who sought funding to dredge the Back Bay as part of their coastal preservation efforts, not to mention UC Irvine-- a major research university-- which loses out of federal grants because Campbell won’t advocate for them. Throughout the district, local leaders cite occasions when they reached out to Campbell for assistance, only to be rebuffed.

When Beth wins this race-- and I believe she will-- I hope it is with the full support of the DCCC, Emily’s List and other key players. Most of Beth’s current donors have never given to a federal candidate before. That’s impressive. But those who are accustomed to writing checks to national candidates, need the Democratic leadership and the base to openly endorse and urge support for this the winnable race in their own backyard.
 
The “Mrs. Krom Goes to Washington” campaign recognizes that people are still the greatest source of power in our democracy. This will be a game-changing election for Orange County and for America. There are no magic wands or crystal balls, but with a great candidate, active support, an aggressive field campaign and an “anti-incumbent” sentiment growing throughout our country...this is an opportunity we can’t afford to miss.



UPDATE: A Little Note From Howie

I hear testimony from idealistic grassroots activists like Lori-- from all over the country-- constantly. They are frustrated with the Insider game national politicians, and the special interests who finance them, play. This isn't just about corrupted Republicans; it's also about a corrupted Democratic Establishment. The DCCC is no friend of progressives, of grassroots activists, or of ordinary working families. Candidates like Beth Krom and Bill Hedrick are. I'd like to acknowledge Lori's activism today by offering to give away a box of 25 brand new CDs, all genres of music included. Everyone who donates any amount to both Beth Krom and Bill Hedrick (here, at the Blue America page) in the next 24 hours will have their name entered for a Blue America drawing and one winner will be randomly chosen to get the box of CDs.

Who's Worse So Far This Week, John Boehner Or John Campbell?

Boehner must have been high from something in the tanning salon but he twittering away merrily today a letter to the editor Mike Pence wrote and managed to get the Indianapolis Star to print for him. Big surprise: Mike Pence opposes bailouts. He actually does. Pence was the only member of the Republican House leadership, in fact, who voted against the September 29 and October 3 no-strings-attached Wall Street bailouts that Bush shoved down their throats. And the biggest irony of all is that Boehner, of all people, is sucking up to Pence when it was Boehner who not only voted for the heinous bill twice but who strong-armed reluctant Republicans into going along with it and then delivering two dozen Republicans on October 3 to pass the bill after it had been defeated just a week earlier. Boehner certainly earned the $3,533,714 he's accepted from the Financial Sector-- as did his #1 Deputy Dog Eric Cantor ($4,030,235) and other crooked members of the House Republican leadership, like Roy Blunt ($3,573,427), Pete Sessions ($3,002,107), Spencer Bachus ($4,287,174), David Dreier ($2,234,838), and Paul Ryan ($1,787,215). Boehner, whose entire political career has been-- and continues to be-- financed by special interests lobbyists, led them all into the calamitous TARP bailout which the Bush economic team had carefully put together to rip off American taxpayers on behalf of the most avaricious and venal banking interests in the world. And now he's desperately trying to make out like he hates bailouts. Since the political demise of Tom DeLay Boehner has been widely considered the most corrupt man in Washington, a favorite of the most insidious lobbyists and a bagman for corporate special interests eager to funnel legalistic bribes to Republican members of Congress willing to do their bidding, regardless of how badly it impacts their own constituents.

A regular on the cocktail and fundraising circuit, Boehner has long been friendly with a number of corporate and contract lobbyists-- a network that he is increasingly relying on now as he eyes the Speakership. Altria’s Gates, along with his wife, Joyce Gates, who once served as Boehner’s chief of staff, and Quinn Gillespie’s Lampkin are considered key members of Boehner’s inner circle, as are Gary Andres of Dutko Worldwide, Terry Holt, a former Boehner aide who is now with the Republican lobbying firm HDMK, and John Fish, an in-house lobbyist with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Ohio native Steve Clark of Clark, Lytle & Geduldig, his partner Sam Geduldig, who was Boehner’s political director, and Glover Park Group’s Brian Gaston, another one-time Boehner staffer, are also tight with the top House Republican.

“I think that he has an excellent relationship with a lot of people on K Street,” Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) said. “He raises a lot of money through the Freedom Project, and of course, he transfers a lot of money to the team, to the [National Republican Congressional Committee] and to Members.”

Justin Coussoule, the fiscally responsible Democrat opposing Boehner for re-election doesn't want to see him get away with the perfidy unchallenged. "To those millions who are rightfully angered by the bail out of Wall Street banks and financial institutions who violated our trust and created an economic disaster for American families," said Coussoule, "they should be reminded that the bail out was George Bush's and John Boehner twisted arms to pass the bill for his friends on Wall Street.

"Although a response while our nation stood at the edge of economic collapse may have been necessary, a bail out without transparency, accountability and safeguards for American families was inexcusable. But 'Bail Out Boehner' chose to protect his friends on Wall Street and stiff working families, leaving them to pick up the tab."

Yesterday-- like almost every day when he's not out on the links, Boehner was running around making a lot of negative noises, a substitute, at least in his mind, for doing substantive work to clean up some of the mess he has helped create over the past two decades. Yesterday what he was huffing and puffing about was his and Cantor's silly new pet project-- yet another tax-payer funded gimmicky boondoggle for Republicans-- YouCut.

He yells and carries on so much about how long it's taking for Obama to fix the economy-- that he was so integral in wrecking-- that he never seems to notice when any of the progress the legislation he always routinely opposes seems to be working. Yesterday the nonpartisan CBO gave credit to the Recovery Act-- which Boehner claimed would lead to the end of the world-- with having already created or saved nearly 3 million jobs in the first quarter of 2010-- something that Boehner fears could have an adverse effect on his ability to hang on to his own job!

While more must be done to create and save jobs, this is even better than earlier CBO estimates for this time period. Looking ahead, CBO projects up to 3.7 million American jobs could be attributed to the Recovery Act by the end of the September.

In January 2009, before Congress enacted the Recovery Act, Americans lost 779,000 jobs in just one month. A year later, job losses have turned to jobs gains of 290,000 in April-- the largest gain in four years and a 1 million job swing from the end of the Bush Administration. This marks the fourth month of job growth with 573,000 American jobs added since December-- 84% in private sector. This is a sharp reversal from the job losses and deep economic crisis President Bush left behind. If job growth continues at this pace, the Obama Administration will create more jobs in 2010, than the Bush Administration created in eight years:

But when it came time to vote, Boehner was reluctant, this close to election time, to be as blatantly obstructionist as usual. So Monday night he led most of his caucus-- not counting 4 lunatic fringe nutcases who got all carried away with the Limbaugh rhetoric about the government failing and collapsing, 4 with drool dripping from their chins-- to vote "yes" on Hank Johnson's and John Conyers' legislation to amend the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement and Reform Act of 2004. The 4 were the usual anti-U.S. suspects: Paul Broun (R-GA), Michael Burgess (R-TX), Tom McClintock (R-CA) and, needless to say Rand's loony papa Ron Paul (R-TX).

Then yesterday another bill came up that Boehner decided was too dangerous to obstruct: Jerry McNerney's H.R. 5145, Assuring Quality Care for Veterans Act. In fact that one passed 413-2. 2? Who would oppose quality care for the men and women who fought to protect our country? Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and John Campbell (R-CA).

Flake has a mind of his own but Campbell usually always goes along with Boehner on everything. He was certainly an avid Bush bankster bailout supporter-- and no one had to twist his arms. One of the most egregiously corrupt members of Congress, Campbell is always sniffing around for bankster PAC money and he voted for the bailout on September 29, when most members of Congress opposed it and it failed, and again, when it passed, on October 3, 2008. A couple of weeks ago the Irregular Times featured a story about Campbell wearing that "Join The Resistance" tee-shirt you see him modeling above.

That sounds hip. It sounds independent. It sounds countercultural.

Is it? Just what sort of resistance is Representative Campbell advocating?

It seems that Campbell’s resistance is heavily funded by corporations and their lobbyists. According to the Federal Election Commission, among the biggest contributors to Campbell’s 2010 re-election campaign are the following political action committees:

- AFLAC PAC

- American Bankers Association PAC

- American Financial Services Association PAC

- American Insurance Association PAC

- Ameriprise Financial Inc. PAC

- Bank of America Corporation Federal PAC

- Blue Shield of California PAC

- Charles Schwab Corporation PAC

- Citigroup Inc. PAC

- Commercial Real Estate Financial Council PAC

- Credit Suisse Securities PAC

- Ernst and Young PAC

- Exxon Mobil Corporation PAC

- Financial Services Rountable PAC

- International Council of Shopping Centers Inc. PAC

- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company PAC

- Microsoft Corporation PAC

- Mortgage Bankers Association PAC

- New York Life Insurance Company PAC

- Pricewaterhousecoopers PAC

- Raytheon Company PAC

- Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association PAC

The only resistance I can imagine all these powerful corporations would participate in would be a resistance to control of the political process by individual constituents. Why would we want to join that kind of resistance?

Campbell has never opposed a special interests bill that any of his big campaign donors has hired lobbyists to push. He's just that kind of guy. Not even when we're trying to help veterans-- and just as Memorial Day approaches.

Beth Krom is the newest candidate to be endorsed by Blue America. A former mayor and current city council member of Irvine, she's a progressive Democrat taking on the odious Campbell. She noticed his bizarre vote yesterday as well and sent us a comment on it last night. She pointed that "despite the endorsement of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Paralyzed Veterans of America, Congressman John Campbell (CA 48) voted NO today on H.R. 5145, the Assuring Quality Care for Veterans Act. With our nation poised to honor the service and sacrifice of military personnel in observance of Memorial Day next week, it is astounding that Campbell would be one of only two Congressmen opposing this bill-- which enjoyed strong bipartisan support and passed with 413 votes."

She looked into the bill closely to try to understand why her district's congressman broken with the rest of Congress, including his own party leaders, to vote against this bill which most people in Orange County would be very support of and find very patriotic. The 48th district, which has a strong military history and a large veteran community, was home to the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro and the Tustin Lighter Than Air Base. Camp Pendleton, an active Marine Base, lies just beyond the district boundaries. "The legislation, which encourages VA medical professionals to participate in continuing education courses in their field of practice, will help ensure that our nations veterans get the best possible care from medical professionals by supporting up-to-date training. H.R. 5145 allows the VA to offer reimbursements for continuing professional education to nurses, psychologists, physical therapists and other medical providers, as well as physicians and dentists. The reimbursement rate will be increased from $1000 to $1600-- the first increase since 1991." Obviously all the other Southern California members of Congress-- both parties-- voted for it.

“John Campbell had no trouble supporting Cash for Clunkers, but when it comes to investing in the education and training of the people in whose care we place our injured and ailing military veterans, he just says NO! Apparently Campbell cares more about cars than the quality of care provided to our veterans... Given the increase in traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases related to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the need for enhanced training has never been greater."

We're just getting going with fundraising for Beth's campaign. Please consider helping out at the Blue America ActBlue page.

Will Voters Bail Out Republicans Like John Boehner, Paul Ryan & John Campbell Who Engineered The Wall Street Bailout & Are Fighting Against Reform?

On September 29, 2008, the Bush economic team acted as though it was hysterical about the banking system melting down. The House had just defeated H.R.3997, a vehicle for the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, better known as the Wall Street bank bailout, and the Bush team demanded Congress change its mind or the financial system would collapse. It had failed 205-228, although Republican House Leader John Boehner managed to drag himself off the golf course to vote for it, as did GOP heavyweights Spencer Bachus (R-AL, top Republican on the Financial Services Committee), Paul Ryan (R-WI, top Republican on the Budget Committee and the Ways and Means Committee), Eric Cantor (R-VA, number-two Republican in the House) Roy Blunt (R-MO, ex-number-two Republican in the House), Pete Sessions (R-TX, head of the NRCC), Jerry Lewis (R-CA, top Republican on the Appropriations Committee), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), and David Dreier (R-CA, top Republican on the Rules Committee).

Among the Republicans who voted for the bailout (either on September 20 or October 3 or on both days) and have been financed politically by the Wall Street bankers and are now running for higher office are Mike Castle (who wants to be a Delaware senator), John Boozman (who wants to be an Arkansas senator), Mark Kirk (who wants to be an Illinois senator), Adam Putnam (who wants to be the Florida Agriculture Commissioner, a step toward the governor's mansion), Roy Blunt (who wants to be a Missouri senator), Pete Hoekstra (who wants to be governor of Michigan), Mary Fallin (who wants to be governor of Oklahoma), Zach Zamp (who wants to be governor of Tennessee), and Gresham Barrett (who wants to be governor of South Carolina). Ryan, of course, is being touted by his powerful financial backers as a presidential or vice presidential contender, something daily being pushed out by the right-wing media. In all, 65 Republicans voted yes.

But then Bush's team, along with Boehner, Ryan and Cantor, got busy twisting arms and threatening and bribing members over the weekend. The "conservative" experts on Bush's team, threatening doom and gloom, finally got the horrible bailout they were demanding, more than two dozen Republicans changing their votes from nay to aye. Over the course of the last year I've been speaking with a top Republican staffer for one of the members who switched votes. Insisting on anonymity for his boss's sake, he told me that the member was brutally double-teamed by Boehner and Ryan and forced to switch votes under all kinds of threats. My source said:

If anyone thought this kind of thuggish behavior had ended with Tom DeLay leaving Congress, they got a rude awakening. Bush seemed very detached from the whole thing, like he didn't understand what was happening and couldn't have cared less. But Boehner and Ryan were real assholes and just wouldn't let up. Boehner told [the member] that changing the vote wasn't going to hurt, and that not changing the vote was going to hurt really badly. We took it as a direct threat. Ryan was even more of a nasty prick, and we could practically see the Wall Street money hanging out of his pockets.

Today the tables may have turned on Boehner, and perhaps his votes for the bailout and his arm-twisting on its behalf will hurt John Boehner, just the way it has hurt thousands of families across Ohio and across America. For the first time since being elected in 1990-- in a special primary election against a Republican child molester-- Boehner is facing a serious challenge. He has not only GOP primary opponents (two) and general election Tea Party opponents (two again), but also a focused and energetic Democratic candidate, Justin Coussoule.

Justin is offering Ohio voters a real choice for a change, and if the mood in the country really is as anti-incumbent as we're being told, no one is as vulnerable as Boehner. This morning we contacted Justin, and he told us:

Boehner's arm-twisting mechanics over the bailout bill were nothing new. It was reminiscent of the day he passed out checks from tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the House minutes before a key vote on a tobacco subsidy.  What is most outrageous about Boehner's behavior over the bailout, though, is that he is now arm-twisting again in an attempt to block any effort at reregulation of the very banks he fought so hard to bail out.  Just this weekend he managed to harass Senate Republicans in an effort to stop any bipartisan deal on badly needed reform.  I'm running hard against Boehner to give voters here a real choice and an opportunity to reject this checkbook representation in which Boehner only serves the interests with the biggest checkbooks.

Today at least a dozen Republican members of Congress are fighting for political survival because they voted with Wall Street and against their constituents. Most likely to lose their seats are Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), John Campbell (R-CA), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Bob Inglis (R-SC), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Mark Souder (R-IN), Lee Terry (R-NE) and Frank Wolf (R-VA).

This morning we spoke with Irvine city councilmember and two-time mayor Beth Krom, the popular Democratic candidate running for the Orange County seat occupied by Campbell. She was very much aware of Campbell's two votes in favor of Bush's no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout. She told us:

When John Campbell supported the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in October 2008, he put a post on his website that asserted that the bill was "basically a cost-free plan to stabilize financial markets and save every American’s savings and investments, not a bailout." He also suggested, "This bill may wind up costing less than one year’s worth of earmarks."

True to form, his enthusiasm for bailing out the banks may have been more about self-interest than the public interest. Not only was he worried about his own hefty portfolio of personal investments, he had a debt to pay to all the financial folks who have bankrolled his campaigns with hundreds of thousands of dollars in PAC contributions.

So while Campbell-- who regards every appropriation as an earmark-- refuses to bring tax dollars back to the communities he represents, he has no problem recycling them into his own investment accounts and campaign coffers.

Not All Earmarks Are A Bridge To Nowhere And Not All Earmarks Are Meant To Line Congressional Pockets

Fox News exposes Republican crook Ken Calvert

There are earmarks and... then there are earmarks. Not every earmark goes to line the pockets of corrupt congressional earmarkers and their cronies the way characters like Duke Cunningham, Don and Bill Young (R-AK & FL), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), and Ken Calvert (R-CA) have worked it. There are also the kinds of earmarks that are exactly what members of Congress are supposed to be doing for their constituents. This is what the L.A. Times had to say about one of southern California's most corrupt congressmen in history, Ken Calvert. (Take a look at what the Fox News report has to say about his shady dealings in the video below.)

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) is an experienced investor in Riverside County's booming real estate market, so he's used to seeing prices change quickly. Last year, he and a partner paid $550,000 for a dusty four-acre parcel just south of March Air Reserve Base. Less than a year later, without even cutting the weeds or carting off old septic tank parts that littered the ground, they sold the land for almost $1 million.

Even for a speculator like Calvert, it was an unusually good deal.

During the time he owned the land, Calvert used the legislative process known as earmarking to secure $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles from the property, and an additional $1.5 million to support commercial development of the area around the airfield.

A map of Calvert's recent real estate holdings and those of his partner shows many of them near the transportation projects he has supported with federal appropriations. And improvements to the transportation infrastructure have contributed to the area's explosive growth, according to development experts.

That's the bad kind of earmarks-- the kind Republicans know the most about and engage in as a matter of course. But there's another kind of earmark, the kind not meant to enrich oneself but to benefit the constituents of your district. Pinpointing federal tax dollars to assist their districts is actually a core Constitutional responsibility of elected Representatives. Sure, the vast majority of Republicans as well as some other bad apples have used the earmarking process to benefit themselves, their families and contributors and lobbyists and corporations that will kick back money to them, but that shouldn't lead to a wholesale negation of the benefits of the process. Since the GOP was voted out of power the whole earmarking process has been reformed so that it's now all out in the open and much less likely to be used the way Republicans use it. So, of course, now the GOP is opposing it. All but three of them, Anh Cao, Don Young and Ron Paul, have opted out of the Republican Party drama queen stunt of condemning all earmarks (until they can get back into power and change the rules back towards the corruption they thrive on). Meanwhile, they're threatening Cao, Young and Paul with being thrown off their committee seats. Cao and Paul do not make earmarks to benefit themselves, only for their constituents. Young, of course, is as corrupt as your garden variety Republican and sees the earmark process as a kind of piggy bank for himself and his campaign donors.

Keep in mind that in the Senate the two most prodigious earmarkers are Mississippi Republicans Thad Cochran ($470,857,775) and Roger Wicker ($390,993,300). And David "Diapers" Vitter ($249,182,063) is not far behind. Yesterday we talked with Orange County Democrat Beth Krom, an Irvine City Council member and former mayor running for Congress against one of the more cynical members of Congress, John Campbell, who always puts his extremist ideology before the needs of his constituents.

[H]e’s signed an “anti-earmark” pledge, and considers any appropriation an earmark. So when Newport Beach needed federal funds to dredge out the Back Bay-- one of the few wetlands remaining in Orange County-- Campbell said NO. And when UC Irvine competes for federal grants to advance biomedical research or new technologies, Campbell won’t lift a finger to help. It doesn’t matter how meritorious the request, Campbell will not go to bat for his constituents.

Bottom line: we send billions of dollars to Washington in taxes every year, and he works every day to make sure not one penny comes back. If that’s not “taxation without representation, “ I don’t know what is.

Just a few districts over from Campbell's another far right extremist, Trent Franks, is also angering municipal officials-- including Republicans-- by throwing their cities under the bus. The very right-wing Arizona Republic, the biggest newspaper in Franks' western Arizona congressional district, reports some very disappointing news for his constituents.

Congressman Trent Franks, R-Arizona, pulled a $10 million earmark that would have helped build an interchange at Bell Road and Grand Avenue, said Michael Celaya, intergovernmental relations director, at Thursday's City Council work session.

Celaya visited the nation's capital in early March with council members Sharon Wolcott and Richard Alton to meet with several members of the Arizona congressional delegation.

The earmark for the interchange, submitted during fiscal 2009-10, was nearly guaranteed to the city, Celaya said, but "they (lawmakers) pulled from everybody."

Another blow: Franks, who represents Surprise in Congress, declined to submit an appropriation request for the expansion of Litchfield Road. That was a priority in the city's fiscal 2011 legislative agenda.

The good news: Congressman Ed Pastor, D-Arizona, known as Surprise's "silent champion," is submitting a $713,000 appropriation request to fund technology upgrades at the Surprise Police Department. The Surprise team turned to Pastor after Franks declined to submit the proposal.

John Thrasher is the Democrat running against Franks and he was as angry as everyone else in the area. "As your congressman, you can rest assured your fair share of tax dollars sent to Washington will come home to fund projects the current Congressman has deemed unnecessary" John told residents of Surprise, just northwest of Phoenix. "Like public safety... In pulling the funding to fix this dangerous intersection, Franks said no to public safety, no to job creation, and once again takes Arizona further down the wrong track."

The rapidly growing city of around 110,000 is pretty affluent-- median income for a family was $47,899 in 2000-- and a part of the district which has supported Franks' career. One Republican City Councilmember, on the condition of anonymity, told us today that several of them "would work behind the scenes for Franks' defeat... He doesn't care about the people in this district; he's never cared about anything but Trent Franks. I've never voted for a Democrat in my entire life, not for anything, but I'll be voting for Thrasher in November and so will lots of other people as angry as I am over this... This kind of game-playing is what turns people off to Washington, except it isn't Barack Obama; it's Trent Franks and John McCain. Ed Pastor didn't have to do what he did for us but it was the Christian thing to do. We won't forget him either."

Last week we met Ed Potosnak, the refreshing and brainy Democrat running in central New Jersey against corrupt Wall Street puppet Leonard Lance. Lance, of course, signed on to the GOP moratorium stunt and I called Ed to ask him how that would go over in Somerset, Union and Hunterdon counties, all of which already pay a higher share of taxes to support red state laggards in less advanced parts of the country.

Out of 435 Congressional Districts we pay the 13th highest amount in Federal taxes, and we only see a fraction of those dollars come from home.

My opponent, Leonard Lance, is pulling another political stunt at the expense of the taxpayers in our District, passing up tens of millions of dollars that could have funded critical priorities in our neighborhoods. These so-called “savings” will not go to deficit reduction; he is just aiming to score political points instead of working to improve our communities.

The families in the 7th Congressional District deserve to see the benefits of their tax dollars at home. Maybe its time that, we the citizens, have more of say in how we spend our money. Leonard used to place the interests of his constituents ahead of the politics of partisanship, but all you hear from him these days is national Republican talking points. Leonard has changed; he is not the Leonard we knew.

When I am in Congress I will fight to ensure the Federal government invests in projects across the 7th District to create jobs and strengthen our economy, increase our safety and security, and improve business opportunities and education.

Meet Beth Krom, Democratic Candidate For Congress From The Heart Of Orange County

You know, California's Orange County ain't what it used to be. What it used to be was a white-bread, cookie-cutter, well-manicured suburban hellhole that was as right-wing and Republican as the suburbs of Deep South and Texan cities. That's all changed. The Bavaria of Republican politics which spawned the political careers of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan helped elect Barack Obama.

In 2008 Obama made huge strides in every part of O.C., beating Kerry's and Gore's vote totals by as much as 10 points in even the most reactionary backwaters. In the 47th CD, which Bush won twice, Obama took 60%. He also won the 44th CD-- another district where Bush had beaten Gore and Kerry-- and, though it was close, Obama even won in the heart of the county, the 48th. While the iconic place names (Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Newport Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano) remain, while no one was looking the 48th CD has been changing steadily. GOP registration is down to 44%, and the district, still one of California's most affluent and best-educated, is also culturally diverse, with large Chinese, Korean, Persian and Indian communities. There are mosques and synagogues in an area once known only for mega-churches.

When Bush appointed longtime conservative knucklehead Chris Cox to a disastrous and career-ending term as chair of the SEC, right-wing apparatchik John Campbell won his seat with 60% of the vote. Two years later he beat the same Democrat, Steve Young, with 55%. This year Young has endorsed Beth Krom's race to take on Campbell, who has emerged as one of the worst of the Washington lockstep obstructionists-- a sponsor of both an English-only constitutional amendment and a teabagger favorite with his nonsensical Birther legislation. Much to the dismay of his constituents, Campbell has abandoned them entirely as he sought a national spotlight for extreme ideological purity divorced from responsible governance of any kind. Instead of lending a hand in cleaning up the mess his party made over the past eight years, he's crouching on the sidelines hurling stones at anyone who wants to move forward.

I contacted Beth and asked her to introduce herself to DWT readers, so we'd get an idea of who is running against one of the weakest of the Republican incumbents up for re-election in November. Below is that intro. You can find more information at her website, and if you'd like to contribute to her campaign, you can do it here, through ActBlue.

My name is Beth Krom. I have served since 2000 on the Irvine City Council, including four years as directly elected mayor. I am now a candidate for Congress in California’s 48th district.

I am often asked whether I always wanted to run for office. The truth is, I never really thought about it until our city was threatened with the prospect of a closed military base on our borders being converted into an international airport. After attending some city council meetings, it was clear that while there was plenty of talk, there was no real plan. Frustrated, I filed to run for city council four days before the filing deadline, won and was able to help stop the airport.

I can trace the roots of my political interest to my childhood. My father was a local anchorman in Buffalo, NY, from the early 1960s. I tell people that when I was growing up, if I wanted to see my father, I had to watch the news. Every night at dinner we would watch the news. Civil rights, Vietnam, the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. It seemed that everything had political implications and undertones.

My mother was active in the League of Women Voters, and often took me to Common Council meetings. I remember canvassing with her for George McGovern. From my father I got the bigger view of the world. From my mother I got respect for civic activism and advocacy. From the times I grew up in, I got an appreciation for the impact that political events and decisions can have on a society.

I was fortunate to be raised by parents who encouraged us to think for ourselves and remain open to new ideas. I remember when serving in public office was considered honorable. When to win office you had to engage people directly. It wasn’t about slick marketing and the politics of personal attack. Candidates sparred with ideas.  

It is frustrating to see how much political discourse has degenerated in America. Only in this line of work can people who have no respect for government win election to the institution. Can you imagine what it would it be like if schools were populated with teachers who hated education or courtrooms were filled with lawyers who hated the concept of justice? Yet an increasing number of elected officials at the federal level feel completely comfortable denigrating the institution in which they serve. Worse, their steadfast opposition to everything is designed to ensure the failure of government, thus validating their theory.

Such is the case with my opponent, John Campbell, whose campaign slogan is “Join the Resistance.” He represents an educated district with four coastal cities, most of the preserved open space remaining in Orange County, a major university, seven public school districts, an innovative business sector and one of the most culturally diverse and thoroughly integrated populations in America, yet he consistently votes against environmental initiatives, education funding, research and development and consumer protections.

Worse still, he’s signed an “anti-earmark” pledge, and considers any appropriation an earmark. So when Newport Beach needed federal funds to dredge out the Back Bay-- one of the few wetlands remaining in Orange County-- Campbell said NO. And when UC Irvine competes for federal grants to advance biomedical research or new technologies, Campbell won’t lift a finger to help. It doesn’t matter how meritorious the request, Campbell will not go to bat for his constituents.

Bottom line: we send billions of dollars to Washington in taxes every year, and he works every day to make sure not one penny comes back. If that’s not “taxation without representation, “ I don’t know what is.

During my four years as the directly elected mayor of Irvine, Mr. Campbell didn’t once come to City Hall, contact me about our city priorities, attend a public event or even send a letter of congratulations when Irvine was named “Safest Big City in America” four years in a row.

This is an educated district. As a co-sponsor of the “Birther Bill” challenging the legitimacy of the President’s birth certificate, Campbell is out of step with the people he represents. It’s time we had a real voice in our nation’s capital-- someone who understands how the decisions made in Washington directly affect our local communities. To win this race, we are building a broad coalition of support across all political, cultural and social spectrums.

When we win, we will prove that people and ideas are still more powerful than special interests and influence peddling in our democracy.

Not Even One Single Republican House Member-- Not Even Nutcase John Campbell-- Backed Lou Dobbs' Psychotic Insistence That Obama Wasn't Born In The US

Birther John Campbell hid under his desk rather than vote today

Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie introduced H.R. 593 "recognizing and celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the entry of Hawaii into the Union as the 50th State," and proudly proclaiming that Barack Obama was born there. Although emarrassing birther fanatic Michele Bachmann tried a parliamentary maneuver to delay a vote on an issue that is helping many Americans understand the toxicity and wholesale derangement of the Republican Party, in the end every single Republican in the House joined all the Democrats to pass it 378-0. Even Bachmann voted yes.

One birther kook-- and only one-- fled from the Chamber to avoid voting: John Bayard Taylor Campbell III, a lunatic fringe wingnut from Thousand Oaks (quite far from his Orange County district). Campbell was one of the sponsors of the "Birthright Citizenship Act," which would require presidential candidates to disclose birth certificates. He avoided voting on the Hawaiian legislation at 6:56PM but managed to vote for the Waco Mammoth National Monument Establishment Act at 7:03PM. It must have been difficult for these Republicans to leave CNN's in house racist Lou Dobbs out to dry. But they are fully aware that there case has no legs whatsoever. It's just part of the partisan game they play and more definitive proof that the rightists would rather see America fail than Obama succeed.

Campbell, a former used car salesman and a member of the House Financial Services Committee, is widely considered one of the most corrupt of the younger members of Congress. Lobbyists and corporate CEOs have reason to believe that Campbell will vote for any special interest that will pay him enough money. He's been a 100% in the pocket supporter of the worst of the banksters and Wall Street crooks and in return he's pocketed $863,386 (in just two terms!)

These interviews with Republican loons were done before they all voted for the Hawaii resolution asserting that Obama was born in Hawaii. (The imbecile hiding and making believe he was looking at pens for 20 minutes to avoid the interviewer is Pennsylvania freak Tim Murphy.)

WHEN THEY THINK NO ONE IS LOOKIN', WHAT DO REPUBLICANS REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR FIGHTING MEN AND WOMEN? LET'S ASK JOHN "MACACA" CAMPBELL

Steve Young is running for Congress in one of the most hopelessly red districts in California. CA-48 is a pretty white, very affluent, very Republican district in the heart of Orange County. When right wing extremist John Campbell ran to replace Christopher Cox last year, Steve managed to take 37% of the vote. Since then, Campbell has made quite a record for himself as one of the furthest right members of Congress. He rubber-stamped Bush on every single Iraq vote (10 roll calls) that has come up since he took office. But just as disturbing was how he voted on matters relating to the well-being of our military personnel. Campbell never tires of bloviating about supporting the troops. Well, he had seven chances to do that since going to Congress. And he voted against the troops all seven times.

Three veterans listened to Campbell talking about why he has voted to cut veterans benefits and helped Steve with a little campaign video I hope you'll take the 30 seconds to watch. (Steve has a diary up today at DKos.)