Will New Mexico Voters Make The GOP The #3 Party?

How many candidates want to pose for a photo with Trump?

When former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson-- then a Republican, now a Libertarian-- jumped into the state's Senate race last week, Ed Kilgore called him a cranky professional spoiler in New York Magazine. And a "a lovable goofball with serious ideas." Kilgore noted that "It’s unclear what sort of resources Johnson can bring to the race, and what he will choose to say about the current president of the United States, which will help determine which pool of major-party voters he is likely to dip into most effectively. At the time of his interview with Weigel, he was saying Trump’s presidency 'could be the end of the republic as we know it.' It’s also worth knowing that most analyses of the 2016 vote concluded that Johnson drew more voters from Clinton than from Trump (though many Johnson voters would have just stayed home had the Libertarian option not been available to them)."

In 2016, Debbie Wasserman Schultz had fixed it so that Hillary took home 27 New Mexico convention delegates to Bernie's 16, even though the 2 campaigns ran neck-and-neck in the primary, another example of how the Democratic establishment turns off voters. Bernalillo County, setting of Breaking Bad, is, by far the biggest country in the state and includes Albuquerque, the only big city in the state. It was very close but Bernie won it by around a point, a little over 38,000 votes to Hillary's 36,000 votes. Trump won the Republican primary there, but with just over 21,000 votes. Bernie beat the 6 Republican candidates combined!

Martin Heinrich has been a decent U.S. senator. ProgressivePunch rates his record an "A," not as strongly as Tom Udall's, but close enough. He was first elected in 2012, running for an open seat when Jeff Bingaman retired. The GOP put up their strongest candidate, ex-Congresswoman Heather Wilson. Despite being outspent Heinrich beat her 395,717 (51.01%) to 351,295 (45.28%). This cycle Heinrich is going up against Republican Mick Rich, a wealthy contractor. Neither was challenged in their June 5 primaries but Heinrich drew 152,145 votes and Rich drew 67,502 votes. But then the Libertarian candidate dropped out and the party named Johnson as their candidate.

Monday, Emerson released a poll showing that Johnson may wipe out the GOP altogether. Even though Johnson and Rich combined don't do as well as Heinrich, Republicans are split, with 27% voting for Johnson and 25% for Rich. Among Independents, Heinrich polls 32%, Johnson 25%, and Rich just at 7%.


Rich is scratching his head in wonder. "What a crazy, wacky world we live in. [Johnson is] more in sync with Bernie Sanders than he is with Republicans." Maybe the two establishment parties in Washington should spend some time thinking about that.

Is Covfefe Just Another Distraction?

Friday's daily tracking poll from Gallup on how Americans view Señor Trumpanzee's performance as president: 39% approve, 55% disapprove, approval headed downward and disapproval continuing to grow. You probably sensed that already even without seeing it in a graph like the one just below. I keep hearing a lot of people saying-- or see them tweeting-- to stop paying attention to distractions (like his Climate Change speech Thursday) and just focus on Russia. And at least as many people say the exact opposite-- let Putin-Gate take care of itself and just focus on what his Regime is doing to the country now. Worst of all, most people seem to have concluded, is wasting energy and outrage on nonsense about his horrid family of grifters and their hideous and banal little reality show.

Trouble with the "don't pay attention to that distraction, look at this," is that more often than not all the ugliness comes together as another example of the entire reason d etre of Trumpism: corruption. Kushner-in-law, Putin's Russian Mafia "banker," sanctions and the big oil deal, for example. Chris Hayes' take:



Lawrence O'Donnell's take:



This is no distraction. Democrats in the Joint Economic Committee think we all need to know how much economic damage Señor Trumpanzee's corruption is doing to the country. They say that Trump is "likely doing economic harm" by "flaunting the laws and conventions of good governance that made the United States a cornerstone of the global economy" in a staff report.

The report, called “The Costs of Corruption to the American Economy,” includes as specific examples the president implementing policies that specifically help his business interests (such as rolling back Clean Water Act protections), regularly visiting his commercial real estate properties and clubs in ways that give them publicity and thus increase their revenue and being awarded Chinese trademarks at the same time that he began to honor the “One China” policy.

...“Congress must be vigilant against the potential for President Trump to enrich himself and his family at the expense of the average American,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D- N.M. “The president and his family’s conflicts of interests are inexcusable and unacceptable, and could depress economic output by over $1,000 per person just in one year. Not only are these practices dangerous, but harmful to the economic security of American families across the country.”

...Just how much damage would a corrupt economy do? The report compared the U.S. to Italy in the 1990s, and postulated that the GDP would have grown at 2.1 percentage points less every year if corruption levels were the same. As of 2016, this would have resulted in each person losing an average of $1,170.

An L.A. Times editorial Thursday asserted that Trump's decision to pull the country out of the Paris Climate Accord is the clearest evidence yet that Trump is turning the U.S. into a force for bad in the world. "Our petulant president has put the world on a path-- potentially, but increasingly inevitably-- to irreversible catastrophe. The decision fulfills Donald J. Trump’s misguided campaign promise to withdraw from the pact under which nearly 200 nations (led, at the time, by the U.S.) pledged to try to reduce global warming by curtailing greenhouse gas emissions. Trump’s decision, while expected, is nonetheless stunning in its short-sightedness, its rejection of clear science, and its utter disregard for the nation’s long-standing role as a world leader."

Everyone I know says, "follow the money," because that's really all that Trump has ever been about. Last week, Charles Pierce agreed 100%: It's all-- everything-- about the money.

It simply comes down to money: the Russians, the meetings that mysteriously slipped everyone's minds when they were testifying before Congress or filling out disclosure forms, the vanishing tax returns, the emoluments mess, the bizarre attraction to wealthy overseas authoritarians, the unshakable presence of Michael Flynn. All of it, simple American greed magnified by a culture of celebrity and, through a fluke presidential election, dropped like a dead squirrel in a chimney into the world's greatest democracy-- and, as a result, stinking up the entire joint.

The latest story involves Jared Kushner, his father-in-law's Secretary of Everything and, as one clever Twitterperson put it, Slumlord Millionaire. On Thursday night, right on schedule during Happy Hour, both NBC and the Washington Post dropped the news that Kushner was the person inside the White House in whom the FBI had taken an interest, as was reported in last Friday's Happy Hour news dump...

So they're going to be rummaging around in the way this family has done its business in the ethical wasteland of New York real estate and its satellite enterprises. That makes sense. If there is money from Russia, that's probably where the spin cycle is located. If Flynn needed money, that's very likely where he got a great deal of it. If the entire White House apparatus is caught up in covering things up in every direction, it probably is covering up how much money it is and where it goes. That was the deal that the country made last fall.

In their infinite wisdom, enough of the American people got together and decided to put a manifestly unqualified and manifestly unfit New York real estate sub-tycoon in charge of the executive branch of the national government. He has proceeded to do business there in the same shadowy fashion in which he's done business everywhere else. He's kept everything within the family, even if the family members are no more qualified to do the work than he is. Either he never knew that you can't run a democratic republic that way, or he didn't care. Either everything is a surprise to this crowd, or they think that the institutions of government are just another great, fertile field of grift to be plundered.

In any case, at the end of the day, it's all going to be about money. Jared Kushner is just the most recent clue in a completely bogus treasure map.

Another distraction: Melania. Novelist Monica Byrne sure is stirring up some major shit, revealing the affair Melania has been having with the head dog security at Tiffany's. Look at this tweet storm. Yowza! And there's more! Awesome Luvvie is more than happy to get into the shit!

We all know that Melania is disgusted by the fail whale she is legally bound to. We KNOW. We see it every time she winces when he touches her and when she refuses to hold his hand. We see it in her stupid squint that her soul dies a little bit every day she has to be attached to him.

I had already heard through the grapevines that she was gonna divorce his ass but then he went and played the world’s unfunniest practical joke and became the President of the United States. So she was stuck with him, and doomed to play the ornament in Satan’s tree of an administration.

BUTTTT I hadn’t heard about her side-bae, who happens to be a security guard at the Tiffany’s at the Trump Tower that Melania refuses to leave, even as her husband is living at the White House. I HADN’T HEARD THAT AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE. I thought she was getting through it with a rabbit or some other battery-powered toy. But no, she might have went and got her real life meat.

Chile, listen. Allegedly, Melania outchea playing Rapunzel in the Trump Tower and refusing to let down her hair to play First Lady in DC because her real boo works in the lobby. Maybe she said “Shit. I ain’t gon divorce you or poison you in your sleep because I hate your guts so much but what I will do is not miss out on my regular dick down because you wanna go be president. I’m staying, like Effie White. And NYC gon love me.” That wily bish.

I’m guessing that is why she kept on being like “don’t hold my hand, Donald.” Cuz her boyfriend was gon get mad and come see Marmalade Mugabe in these streets. And then Secret Service woulda had to neutralize him and the pipe she was getting on a regular was gonna be no more. I SEE IT NOW. It all makes sense.

Security Bae ain’t bad on the eyes, either. He got the chin dimple going on and errthang. Meanwhile, the walking 7 deadly sins Melania is married to got the face for radio. No comparison in the looks department.

But here’s the real PETTY in all this. Melania’s gift to FLOTUS (the real one) Michelle Obama on inauguration day was from Tiffany’s. LEMME FIND OUT SHE USED SECURITY BAE’S FRIENDS AND FAMILY DISCOUNT.

If this is true, then the writers of Real World: Trump Administration (yes, they got writers) better get to work. Rich people are crazy and conniving AF.

Honestly, we’ve been going at this resistance all wrong. The key to Tangerine Voldemort’s downfall is getting Melania mad enough at him. SHE got the key.

What I do know is that I’m not okay that our good taxes might be paying for Squinty McGirk to have a side floozy. It’s costing us millions a month for her and Barron to ignore Papaya Pol Pot, AND for her to be getting her pipes cleaned by some scruffy dude downstairs. These Trumps get away with murder, treason, infidelity and then they get paid for all of it. Their white privilege is on a hunnid thousand trillion. Let her have melanin and y’all would have her wig hanging in effigy. They get away with all types of clusterfuck behavior.

Is Melania getting federally-funded side peen? I wanna know. And let’s keep asking the tough questions. The ones that matter. The shady ones, especially.

Yep

Obama Hasn't Fired John Brennan Yet-- Let Alone Had Him Arrested

We've been suggesting that it is past due to disband the CIA for many years. And that includes the NSA (which has illegally intercepted virtually every e-mail ever sent by every American citizen). Most senators don't care who the CIA spies on-- other than… senators. Then they get a little riled up. Yesterday the CIA finally admitted they had indeed hacked into Senate computers to spy on senators. Caught like a rat, John Brennan said... he is sorry.

One senator who actually does care about unconstitutional domestic spying on Americans is Mark Udall (D-CO). He's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and he was the first out of the box suggesting Brennan be held accountable. Resignation or firing is a good first step.

"After being briefed on the CIA Inspector General report today, I have no choice but to call for the resignation of CIA Director John Brennan. The CIA unconstitutionally spied on Congress by hacking into Senate Intelligence Committee computers. This grave misconduct not only is illegal, but it violates the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of separation of powers. These offenses, along with other errors in judgment by some at the CIA, demonstrate a tremendous failure of leadership, and there must be consequences.

"The CIA needs to acknowledge its wrongdoing and correct the public record in a timely, forthright manner-- and that simply hasn't occurred under John Brennan's leadership. Such an acknowledgment is necessary, whether we're talking about spying on Senate computers or about correcting misleading and inaccurate information about the CIA's detention and interrogation program. An internal CIA accountability board review isn't enough."

You may recall that when senators first accused the CIA of spying on them in March, Brennan just lied right to their faces. It's good at it. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he told Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the committee and a huge backer of the National Security State. NOTHING! "We wouldn’t do that," he continued. Us? How could you even suggest it! My feelings are hurt. "That’s just beyond the scope of reason in terms of what we’d do." Obviously, Obama has to get rid of this clown. He can't be effective working with Congress again.

But there's a far more important reason. If he isn't held accountable-- seriously accountable-- can you imagine what the next Republican CIA director will feel he can get away with? Or, just as bad, Hillary's CIA director? Brennan seriously broke the law. He should seriously pay for it with some serious prison time. By the end of the day, Harry Reid had chimed in with… a stern rebuke, a step in the right direction but he should be following Udall's lead on this.

The CIA Inspector General’s report describes actions by the CIA that are appalling and deeply threatening to our system of checks and balances. Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight and the CIA’s actions were an attempt to undermine that responsibility.

What is even more disturbing is that the unauthorized CIA actions come in the context of the Senate’s effort to complete a report of the CIA’s interrogation program. The deeply troubling CIA actions show to what lengths some in the CIA are willing to stoop in order to prevent the report’s release and to avoid accountability.

The CIA is comprised of good men and women of integrity who sacrifice a great deal to protect our nation. The actions of a few risk tarnishing the work of many. The CIA’s leadership must take action to address these misdeeds, restore its trust with Congress and ensure that this episode will never, ever be repeated.

Anyone who isn't demanding Brennan be removed has to be looked at with suspicion. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), another member of the Intelligence Committee, noted yesterday that "I voted to approve John Brennan to lead the CIA, in the hope that he could help rebuild some of the trust between the agency and the Intelligence Committee. But that trust has only deteriorated during his tenure. I have lost all confidence in Director Brennan's leadership of the CIA and forthrightness in dealing with the Committee." That's a diplomatic way of telling Obama to get rid of him.

Rick Noriega Speaks Out On Bush's Bailout/Corporate Giveaway Scheme

Over the weekend when we posted statements from the Senate candidates in our Blue America contest, Rick Noriega was on active National Guard duty trying to help Texas recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ike. This morning he was able to add his voice to the caution being expressed by all the Blue America candidates about Bush's dangerous giveaway and the tendency of Insiders to get stampeded into supporting it (the way they were stampeded into supporting attacking Iraq). Rick:

"I am outraged that taxpayers are having to foot the $700 billion bill to clean up the mess made by greedy Wall Street investors and mortgage lenders. This is what happens when John Cornyn takes nearly $1.5 million from the perpetrators of the crisis, spends six years championing an anything goes culture on Wall Street, and abdicates his duty to protect Texans from Wall Street greed. Cornyn's special interest record is something Texans have come to expect but can no longer afford.
I believe:

• Any new bailout must contain provisions to help middle class Americans keep their homes and their retirement security. Americans need to hold Wall Street accountable for its failures, just as Americans need to hold their elected representatives accountable for their failures to address this before it became a $700 billion problem.


• The need for oversight and accountability of any new bailout is more important than ever. These firms are should not get a blank check from the taxpayers.


• We need to rein in the out of control pay and golden parachutes of the CEOs who got us into this mess."

If you didn't vote in the contest yet, please do. The winner gets $5,000 from Blue America and the runner up gets $1,000. Here's where you can vote. And, remember, only 28% of Americans think Bush's corporate giveaway disguised as an economic plan is the right way to proceed. The other 72% either agree with our candidates or are unsure.

As Bernanke prints money to give Bush Regime corporate cronies, oil has started to skyrocket again-- as investors shift into commodities-- and even some of the middle of the road followers in the Democratic caucus are starting to get suspicious now that they're reading the bill-- and seeing the building public sentiment against it. Matt's got a letter from a skeptical Brad Sherman, someone who usually just goes along to get along. Going along to get along isn't something anyone who knows Albuquerque Democratic candidate Martin Heinrich will ever expect. Heinrich is a real voice for the underdog and for regular folks-- as well as being an innovative thinker with a sense of vision. I suspect the corporatists from both sides of the aisle aren't going to be that thrilled about someone with such an independent way of thinking in Congress.

Martin's out-of-whack lunatic fringe opponent, Darren White

"Middle-class New Mexicans have been pushed to the breaking point by eight years of failed economic policies of the Bush Administration and this bailout unloads yet another burden onto the backs of hard-working New Mexicans. Darren White agreed with George W. Bush's economic policies and supports more of the same for our nation's economy.

"It's time for a change. It's time for economic policies that help middle-class New Mexico families and protect New Mexico taxpayers. It is outrageous that American taxpayers will bear the burden of an estimated $700 billion required to bail out greedy Wall Street executives and reckless mortgage lenders. The nation's financial crisis exposes the ineptitude and outright negligence of the Washington regulators George W. Bush charged with overseeing the financial industry.

"As part of this historic package, Congress needs to address the struggles of middle-class New Mexican families on Main Street and not simply hand over a blank check to irresponsible executives on Wall Street. A comprehensive package needs to include significant reforms to our current regulatory system, hold accountable those responsible for this financial crisis, and payback American taxpayers for any loan granted as a part of the rescue."

Although at first Bush and Paulson basically said that there would be "no deal" if Democrats insisted on taking away their cronies golden parachutes, they've backed away from that now. I mean it kind of sounds like "We'll bring on a Depression if the people who have been bribing us to get away with murder don't get paid back from the public purse." Chris Dodd, chair of the Senate Banking Committee and Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee are starting to bring a little of sanity into the picture to protect the general public instead of just Bush and McCain campaign donors.


UPDATE: RICK HAS CORNYN SHAKING IN HIS $975 BOOTS

Cornyn is on the run, trembling and even talking about abandoning Bush and his corporate sponsors. Of course, for Cornyn, talk is always cheap. The likelihood of Cornyn not voting for the corporate giveaway is unthinkable, no matter how he wants to spin it for the media.


UPDATE: LOOKS LIKE HOYER'S PLAN TO COLLABORATE WITH BUSH AGAIN IS GOING SOUTH

Hoyer's, Bean's and Emanuel's sick instincts to immediately give away the store and just go along with Bush and his (and their) corporate paymasters isn't working out that well. Not only are the America people fed up with the "plan"-- or scam-- already, Democratic members of Congress are promising their constituents they'll vote for them, not for Bush, the Republicans, Hoyer and what FDR used to call the banksters. Tim Ryan (D-PA) isn't exactly a radical but this was the line he drew in the sand for Bush and, more importantly, Hoyer this afternoon:

"I will not vote for a blank check to bailout Wall Street bankers. Any legislation must have vastly increased oversight and regulation of the financial services industry, prohibitions on excessive executive compensation, relief for homeowners facing foreclosure, and prohibitions on taxpayer money going to foreign banks.

"More importantly, every American should be outraged that the Bush Administration and the Republicans in Congress continually block small increases for education funding, expanded health care and increased middle-class tax cuts on the grounds that we can't afford them, yet when it's time to bailout the big money people on Wall Street, there's no time to spare and no check too large. If only we could get this kind of timely attention for gas prices, consumer protections and other initiatives that benefit average Americans."

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

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

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

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

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

BUSH, McCAIN, THE GOP, AND THE BLUE DOGS ALL SEE EYE TO EYE ON RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY FOR CRIMINALS

There were some primaries while I was away and there's one winning Blue America candidate I especially want to call to your attention, Martin Heinrich (NM-01). While some Democrats-- like David Boren (OK), John Barrow (GA), Chris Carney (PA), Melissa Bean (IL), Jim Cooper (TN), Tim Holden (PA), Nick Lampson (TX) and Heath Shuler (NC)-- are actually taking bribes contributions from the Telecom industry and rubber stamping Bush's decision to use illegal and unconstitutional warrantless wiretaps against American citizens while granting these "donors" retroactive immunity for having broken the law, and while other Democrats are ducking the controversy and cowering under their desks hoping no one calls them on it, Martin has aggressively taken the battle to the law-breakers and their champions. He has gone after his crook-coddling/Bush backing Republican opponent, Darren White, in a way that New Mexico voters understand. And in this video he goes after those who would shred the Constitution for a bowl of corporate porridge: "Bush's allies on both sides of the aisle have ignored the rule of law and infringed upon our constitutional rights." Watch him:



The video points out that 41 bribe-hungry Democrats joined 186 extremist (and bribe-hungry) Republicans to vote for warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. Martin made the video before John McCain made it clear last week that his vision for a third Bush term includes continuing Bush's destruction of the Constitution. This is another in a series of spectacular McCain flip flops meant to placate the far right of his political party. Where once he called for investigations into warrantless wiretaps, now he suddenly says Bush was right to order them and that he would do the same if elected. Just last year McCain was saying "I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is... I don't think the president has the right to disobey any law." Last week, the lobbyists who run his campaign-- some of whom have been taking immense sums of money from the law-breaking telecoms-- were castigating the ACLU for agreeing with what he said in 2007 and declaring that "neither the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001."

Even Establishment insiders like Joe Biden (D-DE), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, think McCain is way off base and that this is just another in a long string of examples of his muddled and confused thinking on important security issues.

In his statement, Biden wrote that the FISA statute, which he helped draft, "made clear the exclusive legal steps the President must take in order to conduct national security surveillance."

"President Bush chose to ignore the law and now it seems Senator McCain will continue this policy," Biden writes. "Once again-- there is no daylight between President Bush and Sen. McCain."

"We all share the goal of capturing the terrorists and protecting national security and we can do that without violating the privacy of the American people," he added. "Like President Bush, Sen. McCain is presenting the American people with a false choice-- national security or civil liberties. We need a President who understands that we can have both. It’s what our values and our Constitution demands.”

You may be aware that our PAC has been running a series of educational ads for the residents of Chris Carney's northeastern Pennsylvania district. Previously we shared the full page newspaper ads and TV spots that the readers of this blog and several others managed to purchase. The radio spots started running last week on WGGY (country music), WILK (news/talk), WMGS (adult contemporary), WBHT and WBHD (Top 40). Take a listen and if you'd like to help us with more ads like this for more members of Congress who don't believe in the rule of law, please visit the PAC.




UPDATE: COMCAST REFUSES TO RUN OUR ADS-- AND CARNEY PRESSURES LOCAL MEDIA IN HIS DISTRICT

Glenn Greenwald over at Salon has been arguing with Comcast for the past 2 weeks about our FISA advertising. All the radio stations, 7 newspapers and all non-Comcast TV stations ran the ads, despite calls from Carney. Comcast, one of the companies that has been accused of illegal spying on American citizens, refuses to run them. Glenn wrote about it today.

Quite predictably, Comcast's legal counsel, David Silverman of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Washington DC, wrote an email late last week (here) claiming -- laughably -- that Comcast has decided to reject the ad because it "would face potential liability for any defamation contained in the spot." Silverman identified one line in the ad during which the logos of the lawbreaking telecoms (including Comcast) are displayed -- "[Carney] wants to pardon phone companies who broke the law and gave thousands to his campaign" -- and claimed that this statement "is factually incorrect and potentially defamatory against the entities shown."

The very suggestion that Comcast is rejecting this ad due to fear of defamation lawsuits -- rather than because the ad brings to light Comcast's own lawbreaking and criticizes one of its favored Congressman -- is just preposterous. As indicated, multiple newspapers, television and radio stations vetted the same ad and accepted it and have been broadcasting it. The only difference is that, unlike Comcast, they and their favored Congressman aren't criticized in the ad.

Moreover, the fact that these telcoms broke the law in allowing warrantless spying is an argument that lies at the heart of the debate over telecom amnesty and FISA. It is a claim that -- as the mountains of substantiation submitted to Comcast demonstrates -- is made continuously in all sorts of venues and by multiple political and media figures, without any of them ever being sued for "defamation."

YESTERDAY'S PRIMARIES

Turnout was strong in South Dakota and Montana today. But these last two presidential primaries are by no means the end of the primary season, not when there are hot races from New York to Alaska. I think the last one is Massachusetts, where the Republicans have redder faces than usual, on September 16. From the progressive point of view, we have important campaigns culminating in Georgia on July 15 (pitting "Voice of the Voiceless" state Senator Regina Thomas against corporate shill and Bush Dog John Barrow), Alaska on August 26 (where progressive grassroots candidate Diane Benson is contending with 2 establishment insiders, Ethan Berkowitz and Jake Metcalfe for the seat the voters will be taking away from Republicrook Don Young), and Virginia (where a week from today Leslie Byrne is battling corrupt war profiteer associate Gerry Connolly).

Early today South Dakota's Secretary of State was estimating a 40-45% turnout among Democrats (normal is 15-40%) and a 25% turnout among dishearted and discouraged Republicans. In Montana they were expecting close to half of the state's Democrats to vote, a 10% increase over 2004. Obama had already clinched the nomination before today's voting was halfway over.

As for Blue America we had some wins and some losses today. Although reactionary Dem Leonard Boswell had a close call, he managed to retain his seat; big disappointment! Our other candidates won today: Martin Heinrich in New Mexico, Dennis Shulman in New Jersey. We'll update on California later, although I was delighted to see L.A.absentee voters decisively turned down racist loon Bill Johnson despite concentrated support from the Paulista camp in an abysmally low turnout election. We were also happy to see NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg, one of the most progressive members of the Senate, win decisively against right-leaning, Bush-supporting Democratic Congressman Robert Andrews. All the New Jersey primary votes are here.


UPDATE: MORE RESULTS

James Bianco beat racist maniac Bill Johnson 346,510 (73.87%) to 122,548 (26.13%). Hard to imagine that many people could have voted for someone with Johnson's views, although it's likely they didn't know what he was all about.

Also in California, Russ Warner took 70% of the vote in CA-26 and will face ultimaqte Republican rubber stamp David Dreier. On the right, California Republicans in the extreme north of the state had to pick between a mainstream conservative, Doug Ose, and off-the-cliff extremist, Tom McClintock. They picked the fanatic loon (of course) giving him 54% of the vote-- and making it easier for Charlie Brown to win in November.

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

Wanna go to a party with these two losers?

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

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

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



UPDATE: McCAIN'S DILEMMA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Martin with Senator Jeff Bingaman

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

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

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

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

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

REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN PARALYZED WITH FEAR AND FILLED WITH RECRIMINATIONS OVER THEIR PARTY'S DISINTEGRATION

Blue America didn't raise money for conservative Democrats Bill Foster, Don Cazayoux or Travis Childers but some smart DWT readers questioned our cheers-- even restrained cheers-- for their victories. Undoubtedly they will be tugging the Democratic House caucus in a dangerous rightward direction. But what the Republican defeats have meant is probably worth it, at least right now. Congressional Republicans desperately want to distance themselves from Bush and embrace McCain. McCain wants to distance himself from Bush-- and from the congressional Republicans! Today's NY Times paints a compelling picture of a political party on the verge of implosion with phrases like "waves of apprehension" and talk of "senior Republicans urging congressional candidates to distance themselves from President Bush to head off what could be heavy losses in the fall." In the most insanely Pollyanna pipedream for Republicans in November former NRCC head Tom Davis (R-VA) warned that all that Bush rubber stamping had damaged the congressional Republicans so severely that "unless Republican candidates changed course, they could lose 20 seats in the House and 6 in the Senate." By fall they'll be asking their church auxiliaries to pray they only lose 20 House seats and 6 Senate seats. Even Davis admits “The political atmosphere facing House Republicans this November is the worst since Watergate and is far more toxic than it was in 2006.” 31 new Democrats were elected in the House in 2006 and not a single blue district turned red... not one... not anywhere.

The victory by Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat elected in a once-steadfast Republican district on Tuesday, was the third defeat of a Republican in a special Congressional race this year. In addition to foreshadowing more losses for the party in November, the outcome appeared to call into question the belief that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois could be a heavy liability for his party’s down-ticket candidates in conservative regions.

Republicans had sought to link Mr. Childers to Mr. Obama in an advertising campaign there. Republican leaders said they were looking to Senator John McCain of Arizona, the likely Republican nominee, as a model whose independent reputation appears to allow him to rise above party in a year when the Republican label seems tarnished.

But Mr. McCain’s advisers said the Mississippi race underlined his intention to distance himself as much as possible from Congressional Republicans. Mr. McCain has already been openly critical of some of President Bush’s strategies.

Republicans are already declaring it's every man for himself. The 66 64 lobbyists that make up the McCain brain-trust claim the problems the GOP congressional candidates are having has nothing whatsoever to do what them-- NOTHING. DO YOU HEAR ME? N-O-T-H-I-N-G! "But they said it steeled their resolve to run a campaign that distinguished Mr. McCain from both Mr. Bush and a Congress where he has served, in the House and the Senate, since January 1983. They said Mr. McCain would seek-- sometimes explicitly, sometimes not-- to distance himself by speaking critically of what he has described as excessive spending in Washington, as well on issues like the environment." In other words, McCain will throw the rest of his hated party under the bus at every opportunity. He feels very burned after campaigning for Oberweis in Illinois and after having done a recorded message for every single Republican household in MS-01, endorsing their dead dog candidate there. McCain was made to look weak and with toxic coattails.

The special election results left Democrats and Republicans in rare agreement about one thing: President Bush looms as a drag on Republicans.

Yesterday's GOP House caucus meeting, according to Christian Bourge's report for CongressDaily was a mad house with Republicans screaming at each other and everyone pointing fingers at everyone else. "Sources said the meeting erupted into yelling at several points, with Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., the most vocal about the problems the GOP faces heading into the fall. 'There is chaos among the ranks,' said one GOP insider close to the House leadership. 'Some people are pissed and they want [National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole] out.'" Most of the rank-and-file blamed the whole leadership, not just the hapless Cole.

Today the desire to distance themselves from Bush and their own reactionary leadership helped stampede dozens of House Republicans to vote with the Democrats in passing a farm bill that Bush has vowed to veto. In fact, so many Republicans wanted to make the point to their constituents that they do not stand with Bush, the it passed with a veto-proof majority, 318-106. Among the usually dependable Republican rubber stamps loudly eschewing Bush were vulnerable members like Phil English (R-PA), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Sam Graves (R-MO), Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Steven LaTourette (R-OH), the two pathetic Diaz-Balart brothers (R-FL), Don Young (R-AK), Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), Fred Upton (R-MI), John Kline (R-MN), Jon Porter (R-NV), Denny Rehberg (R-MT), etc.

So who stuck with Bush? What kind of unabashed, tone deaf rubber stamp addicts? Glad you asked; many of the usual suspects, the worst of the worst-- Patrick McHenry (R-NC), John Boehner (R-OH), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Melissa Bean (Blue Dog-IL), Scott Garrett (R-NJ), John Shadegg (R-AZ), Heather Wilson (R-NM), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Gary Miller (R-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA), Mike Pence (R-IN), Ric Keller (R-FL), David Dreier (R-CA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Robin Hayes (R-NC), Brian Bilbray (R-CA), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Daniel Lungren (R-CA), Virgil Goode (R-VA), etc. Too scared and paralyzed to vote at all: Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), and Mary Bono (R-CA).

And it isn't only members of Congress who are despairing. "Scott Reed, a former chief of staff to the Republican National Committee, said the defeat would dampen fund-raising. 'Republican leadership needs to really take a good look in the mirror,' Mr. Reed said. 'They’re taking the party off the cliff.'” Yes they are-- and none to soon!

On a related note, I met New Mexico congressional candidate Martin Heinrich in person tonight. He's in a fairly unique-- and enviable-- position. When every quasi-rational Republican in America is running as fast and as far from Bush as they can-- especially after Cheney's and Rove's magic touch moments in Mississippi this week drove up the Democrat's winning margins-- Martin's clueless opponent, Darren White, is embracing Bush and running around Albuquerque chanting "4 more years." On May 27 Bush will be flying in to Albuquerque to host a fundraiser for his former Bernalillo campaign chief. We decided to invite Martin back to Firedoglake this weekend for another live blog session.


UPDATE: "THE CHANGE YOU DESERVE" ISN'T GOING OVER TOO WELL WITH THE ZOMBIES

I wonder what the GOP paid the consulting team to come up with that one! Even the most brain dead Republican hacks and cheerleaders realize that superficial slogans are going to do no more to save their asses than attacks on Jeremiah Wright.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE MESS-- THE VERY PROFITABLE DISMANTLING OF CIVIL SOCIETY

George Bush sewer system-- joke may be on us

Yesterday Scholars & Rogues featured a pretty ominous look at the serious deterioration of basic American infrastructure. The author, Dr. Denny, points out that our otherwise preoccupied government is normally only moved to action by catastrophes-- like the deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis last year. So that bridge is nearly fixed. They're waiting for a spate of disasters before they do anything preventive. They may not have to wait long and we have far more than "failing bridges to find, fund and fix." Dr. Denny is left cold by the leadership abilities of the current presidential candidates to lead us successfully through a real crisis. Just to keep up, the U.S. would need to spend $225 billion per year for 50 years-- $11 trillion. McCain definitely has a couple wars he'd rather wage. But the country's infrastructure-- not just roads and bridges but also dams, sewage systems, drinking water systems, air traffic control, nuclear plants, electricity transmission lines, levees...-- gets a grade of D. Unfortunately, national politicians don't usually find infrastructure sexy.

Wall Street does, I found out on the radio yesterday. Tens of billions of dollars are coming out of the firms that brought us the real estate and mortgage collapse and going into buying up infrastructure. Alarm bells went off when I heard that the sleazy GOP vulture capital firm Carlisle Group-- whose real estate arm went belly up recently-- is buying up sewer systems and roadways. And they're only one of many.

Republicans want to reduce taxes and let the infrastructure go to hell so that the public supports selling it all off to for-profit companies. Democrats are too cowed to stand up for government functions that have been delegitimized by greed obsessed Republicans (and Blue Dogs and DLC Democrats). So... on to the predators. Today Morgan Stanley-- and I assure you a more unscrupulous and cut throat firm you will never find-- announced that it has raised $4 billion to target investments "that provide public goods or essential services in sectors such as transportation, energy and utilities, social infrastructure and communications." Global Infrastructure Partners (General Electric and Credit Suisse) have capped their infrastructure fund yesterday at $6.5 billion. A new Carlyle subsidiary, Carlyle Infrastructure Partners, formed specifically-- and under heavy political protection-- to rip off American taxpayers and ratepayers is investing $1.5 billion in transportation and water and wastewater facilities, including roads, bridges, tunnels, airport facilities, maritime ports, transit projects and other public benefit infrastructure in the US and Canada. Henderson Investors, CVC Capital Partners, Macquarie (Australia), Rreef, Citigroup, Ferrovial (Spain), Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Alinda are all up to the same thing.

Infrastructure assets such as utilities, toll roads and airports are attractive to financial bidders like banks and pension funds because of their stable cash flow despite having lower growth rates than other private equity opportunities. GE had disappointing first-quarter earnings, but its infrastructure segment performed better than expected.

The money being ante-ed up for infrastructure projects by private capital is at historically high levels.

New roads, railways, oil pipelines, hospitals and schools: the world is an infrastructure financier's oyster. In Mumbai, for instance, there are plans to build an extension of the city to house 15 million people - nearly double the size of London's population. One UK banker who returned from there last week said: 'I left London depressed at the state of the markets. Going there, you see that there are people making huge sums of money.'

Even in the developed world, there are signs that we do not have the infrastructure to cope with continued economic and population growth. Blackouts, road congestion and capacity problems in airports and on railways are commonplace in both the US and Europe. In addition, an ageing population means different kinds of healthcare facilities are needed.

The question is: how are these essential building blocks going to be financed? There has been a decline in governments' willingness or ability to pay for new facilities in the past 15 years. Among the developed countries, government outlays on capital projects fell from 9.5 per cent of overall spending in 1990 to 7 per cent in 2005, according to the OECD.

Increasingly, it is the private sector that world leaders now rely on to fill the funding gap.

...What attracts investors to infrastructure is solid cashflows - user charges and tolls - which provide the opportunity to borrow larger sums to pay for acquisition and investment costs. However, there have been concerns that infrastructure funds have borrowed too aggressively against cashflow, compromising the efficient running of facilities.

And globalization means this travesty won't just be happening in Mumbai... but also in Manhattan. You think the Chinese and Arabs own us now? Just wait.

A few weeks ago I met a really smart guy at a party in Virginia, Andy Stern, president of the SEIU. Last week he and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius did an editorial for the Christian Science Monitor, Main Street, Not Wall Street, Should Fix Crumbling U.S. Infrastructure. They're right but swimming against a powerful, perhaps irresistible, tide. And Wall Street has the money it takes to buy off the politicians it needs to buy off. Their investments in crooked Democrats like Rahm Emanuel, Melissa Bean, Harold Ford and the like are as valuable to them as their investments in Republicans. There is no public interest; just bottom line; and just try telling Rahm Emanuel something different.

At its best, America's infrastructure has powered our economic prosperity, created well-paying jobs, and served the public interest.

Today, however, it has fallen into a dangerous state of disrepair. The Minnesota bridge collapse last summer brought home the urgency of repairing and modernizing our nation's system of highways, bridges, tunnels, power plants, transmission lines, and airports.

But doing so will be prohibitively expensive. Current plans seek to exploit the nation's need for private profit. But there's a better source of capital at hand: public pension funds.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.6 trillion is needed in the next five years alone just to maintain the adequacy of existing infrastructure.

...It would be a monumental mistake to turn the future of America's infrastructure over to the same crowd that brought us the subprime crisis, an economy loaded down with debt, and recession.

We should know better by now than to create a scenario where bridges and highways are sliced and diced like subprime loans into financially engineered "collateralized infrastructure obligations."

America needs a large source of stable, long-term capital to build the system of buildings, roads, and power supplies needed to sustain the country. We need a source of capital that values infrastructure because it provides a reasonable rate of return, strengthens the overall economy, and doesn't burden users with excessive fees.

Enter that source of capital:

Public pension funds, which are responsible for the retirement benefits of more than 18 million Americans, have more than $3 trillion in assets, and a long-term investment approach consistent with the stable returns that infrastructure assets generate.

Pension funds could buy and build infrastructure, putting the profits to work for the retirement of workers, not for the benefit of Wall Street CEOs.

See? Didn't I say he was a smart guy? Let's hope his support for Obama is going to mean at least this.

I spoke with a couple of the Blue America candidates about the problem with infrastructure, Regina Thomas, a long time member of the Georgia legislature and Martin Heinrich, head of the Albuquerque City Council, both of whom have spent a great deal of time and energy dealing with the problems of crumbling infrastructure in their local areas. Senator Thomas told me the deterioration in the last 7 years was symptomatic of Republican government. "They're just reactive to a situation where they should have been pro-active. Then they capitalize on catastrophic situations to make millions for themselves and their cohorts... this is shameful, at best-- oh! I forgot they have no shame when it comes to making money for themselves... We all drink the same water, breathe the same air and walk the same soil-- sooo...do they think that they can take their dollars, hide in a bubble and not be afffected by the irresponsible inactions to our environment?"

Although the disaster of Hurricane Katrina's weakened and destroyed leeves hit closer to home for Regina and her constituents, Martin has had similar experiences with the underlying philosophy of Republican governance. "For the past eight years we have been a country without a plan," he told me. "We have given no thought to the future. The voices that spoke out about long term planning fell largely on deaf ears. America's greatness comes from our innovation and foresight, and to ignore infrastructure, which plays such a critical role in commerce and Americans' daily lives, is simply short-sighted. Our country has already dug our children a hole that will be extremely difficult to climb out of and to create yet another structural disadvantage is to do them a great disservice."

Savvy members of Congress like Regina Thomas and Martin Heinrich are a first step towards climbing out of that hole and cleaning up the unimaginable mess George Bush is leaving us. Please consider visiting our Blue America page today and lending a hand to Regina and Martin. They both deserve it. (Anyone who donates to both in the next 24 hours gets a Blue America thank you CD-- a surprise.)

McCAIN'S LOBBYIST DRIVEN CAMPAIGN CAREENING FROM POSITION TO POSITION

I was just hiking in the hills above my house. Up where Shannon meets Carnavon one of my neighbor's home was smashed in. A car had gone out of control and smashed up the front walls of two rooms. I saw the fire engine pass by last night around 9PM. This morning they invited me in to see the damage. It was horrible but thank goodness neither of them was hurt. The driver-- who had had a McCain moment was going way too fast and lost control of the car-- is 70, even younger than John McCain, but just got very confused. An ambulance took her to a hospital; I hope she's ok.

If you've been reading DWT with any kind of regularity lately, you know how concerned we are about this latest ploy on the part of the Bush Regime and their congressional allies to dismantle the rule of law, eviscerate the Constitution, and make sure they and their cronies get off scott when accountability finally becomes a real possibility. A few weeks ago New Mexico Democratic congressional candidate, Martin Heinrich did a guest post explaining why retroactive immunity and warrantless wiretaps are important issues for all Americans. What Martin doesn't talk about is why people like John McCain, who profess to revere the constitution, are supporting warrantless wiretapping of Americans citizens and retroactive immunity for criminal actions by Bush Regime members and their cronies in the telecom industry.

Today's USAToday, though has the answer-- and this is not one of those McCain moments. It's a well thought out strategy for getting the money he needs to get the power he wants.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has condemned the influence of "special interest lobbyists," yet dozens of lobbyists have political and financial ties to his presidential campaign-- particularly from telecommunications companies, an industry he helps oversee in the Senate.

Of the 66 current or former lobbyists working for the Arizona senator or raising money for his presidential campaign, 23 have lobbied for telecommunications companies in the past decade, Senate lobbying disclosures show.

If you think this is a coincidence, go read Ann Coulter or watch Fox News. McCain, in fact, has been kissing up to the telecoms for some time.

In the fall of 2003, telecommunication companies lobbied for a bill that would ban state and local taxes on Internet access, and they had support in high places [as well as support from the blogosphere].

Sen. John McCain, who at the time was chairman of the committee overseeing telecommunication issues, helped write the bill that would outlaw those taxes. McCain's committee sent its version of the bill to the full Senate on Sept. 29, 2003.

Four days earlier, AT&T Wireless executives gave McCain's 2004 Senate re-election campaign $10,500, according to campaign-finance records. AT&T Wireless, which offers Internet connections like other telecom companies, says in its 2003 disclosure report to the Senate that it lobbied on the bill. [The blogosphere didn't get any bribes, legal or otherwise, the way McCain did, for supporting this legislation.]

The Internet tax ban-- which became a three-year moratorium after a legislative compromise-- is one of several bills sponsored by McCain and supported by telecom firms. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee won praise from industry executives for his opposition to state and local regulation and taxes on telecommunication as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee from 1997 to 2001 and 2003 to 2005.

During that time, 23 people who now work for McCain or raise money for his campaign were lobbyists for telecommunication companies, records show. Those current and former lobbyists, their spouses, their work colleagues and the executives and political action committees of their telecom clients have donated more than $750,000 to McCain's campaigns over the past decade, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

McCain has sucked in nearly $800,000 from the telecoms and their top executives and associates for his troubles. The telecom lobbyists have bundled far more than that for him-- probably millions. He refuses to say.

McCain has repeatedly sought restrictions on lobbyists and campaign donations, saying they create the appearance of corruption. "It is no coincidence that the most influential lobbyists with the greatest access in the nation's Capitol are also the most prolific political fundraisers," McCain says on his campaign website.

Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera said McCain is taking a "'Do as I say, not as I do' approach to campaign finance, ethics and lobbying reform."

McCain can't get his story straight-- and he never has in his entire career. His entire political strategy has always been to talk a good game, hype himself as a reformer, a moderate and an independent, and then go on his super-reactionary way. Watch him debate himself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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