Primary Season Ends For Another Cycle

Christine O'Donnell must be missing student loans payments or mortgage payments again. She's threatening the Republican Party that she may run for the U.S. Senate again. Her successful primary challenge to popular mainstream Rep. Mike Castle in 2010 in universally thought to be the reason the GOP doesn't hold the Delaware Senate seat occupied by Chris Coons now. “I think I owe that to my supporters, to at least consider a run,” O’Donnell said in an interview last week. “People sacrificed. Not only came out of their comfort zone-- sacrificed to work hard in order to win the primary. And I think that I owe it to them to give it every consideration.” (She has also said she is available for a paying gig in a Romney Administration if he wins the November election.)

If Democrats are cheering, mainstream Republicans must be rolling their eyes at the thought. Primaries by right-wing extremists like O'Donnell have hurt the GOP in general elections, not so much in deep red states where the brain-dead citizens would vote for a lump of shit labeled "Republican"-- think Utah or Texas-- but in normal states. This primary cycle, for example, saw 15 congressional incumbents defeated-- 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats, although, to be fair, one of the Republicans, Bob Turner, was gerrymandered out of his district and then lost the GOP Senate primary.

All but 2 of the Democratic losses were incumbent vs incumbent matches-- Jason Altmire lost to Mark Critz in western Pennsylvania. Both are extremely reactionary right-wing Democrats who commonly vote with the GOP. In New Jersey moderate Steve Rothman lost to more progressive Bill Pascrell. In Ohio, quirky economic progressive/social conservative Marcy Kaptur beat progressive icon Dennis Kucinich, in a district that was drawn to predict those results. In Michigan under-funded progressive Hansen Clarke was beaten by ConservaDem Gary Peters and St. Louis political fixture Russ Carnahan, a moderate, was beaten by the more progressive William Lacy Clay in a 63% to 34% landslide. In the two districts where there were actual non-incumbent challengers, corrupt Blue Dog Tim Holden was beaten by a more progressive Matt Cartwright, 57-43%, a stunning and rare upset. A few weeks later a similar primary battle in El Paso resulted in longtime Establishment Democrat Silvestre Reyes going down to defeat at the hands of popular young reformer, Beto O'Rourke, 50.5 to 44.4%. (Beto, pictured on the right, will be the Blue America live guest at Crooks and Liars tomorrow at 11am (PT, noon El Paso time.)

In Republicanville, there were 3 incumbent vs incumbent races. Florida Establishment shill John Mica swamped teabagger Sandy Adams, widely considered the stupidest Member of Congress (yes, dumber that Gohmert). He swamped her financially, spending $1,214,486 to her $451,281, and beat her 60-40%. The Republican Machine wiped out an annoying teabagger without much effort. In Illinois, the GOP Machine got behind freshman zombie Adam Kinzinger and helped him beat Don Manzullo, 56-44%, even though the redrawn 16th CD included 44% of Manzullo's constituents and 31% of Kinzinger's. Kinzinger spent $1,548,515 on the primary and Manzullo spent $1,257,113 but outside groups orchestrated, possibly illegally, by Eric Cantor and Aaron Schock (widely rumored to have a gay crush on Kinzinger) spent a great deal of money to defeat Manzullo. The third incumbent vs incumbent race pitted Dan Quayle's lunkhead son, Ben, a leadership lackey, against David Schweikert. Ben Quayle was never popular in the Arizona district and was remembered for having been an on-line pornographer (DirtyScottsdale.com/Brock Landers) before narrowly winning a wild primary against 10 other Republicans (outspending all his rivals combined). This year Schweikert spent $1,289,381 and Quayle spent $1,537,407. An Adelson-funded superPAC, Friends of the Majority, spent another $1,120,000 in negative ads against Schweikert. But Arizona voters were tired-- after just one term-- of being embarrassed by the clownish Quayle and he went down 53-47%.

Far more interesting were the 4 races where non-incumbents beat incumbents. The headliner, of course, was far right extremist Richard Mourdock beating Indiana GOP icon Richard Lugar with a stunning 60% of the vote. Lugar was viewed (disapprovingly) as a mainstream conservative when the GOP primary voters wanted someone more like... Christine O'Donnell. Mourdock spent $3,162,191 on the primary and Lugar spent $8,301,994. But outside spending, mostly from extremist groups, was tilted in Mourdock's favor. Club For Growth spent $947,991 in negative ads against Lugar and $517,810 in favor of Mourdock. The Koch brothers' FreedomWorks spent $341,503 against Lugar and another $330,129 in favor of Mourdock. Similarly the NRA spent over a quarter million dollars tearing down Lugar and approximately $638,000 bolstering Mourdock.

In the Tulsa, OK-area and Jacksonville, FL-area House races, unknown challengers came from nowhere to beat, respectively, John Sullivan and Cliff Stearns. Jim Bridenstine beat Sullivan, an extremist and drug addict, 54-46%. Sullivan spent $1,113,091 on the primary and Bridenstine spent $293,890. The PACs from opthamologists and anesthesiologists, who had felt dissed by Sullivan, spent around $100,000 against him and seem to have made the difference in the race. And in the case of the never-popular Mean Jean Schmidt, it was podiatrists who did her in. In fact, a podiatrist, Brad Wenstrup, beat her 49-43%, in a district east of Cincinnati. Wenstrup sent $357,260 and Mean Jean spent $657,489. The good government group, Campaign for Primary Accountability, spent $132,022 against Schmidt. (It's worth noting that they also spent $240,000 against Reyes, $130,875 against Hoden and $224,529 (some of it funneled by Cantor and Schock) against Manzullo.

Primary season is over and it's time to get serious about November. Normally this would be a time when we could safely say that there isn't a single congressional race anywhere in America where the GOP nominated someone better than the Democrats. That may not be the case this year. We're still investigating, but Republican rebel and libertarian may well turn out to be a less odious choice for voters than anti-Choice fanatic Steve Pestka in the Grand Rapids/Battle Creek area of south-central Michigan. We'll get back to you on that one.

Mean Jean Schmidt Kisses Warren County-- And Possibly Her Political Career-- Goodbye

Who doesn't remember Mean?

Warren County's in southwest Ohio, a safely Republican enclave in the suburbs of Cincinnati. I'll tell you why we're talking about it today after I introduce it a little more. I've never been there but I remember it well from past campaigns against right-wing Congresswoman Mean Jean Schmidt. According to wikipedia, the county is 94.66% White and the median income for a family is $64,692, over $20,000 more than the average for the state. This is how Republican the county is-- since the first presidential election after its founding, 1856, Warren County has supported the Republican candidate for president every single time except when the Republicans ran Barry Goldwater in 1964. They never voted for FDR but I have no doubt that Goldwater would win in a landslide today. With the massive expansion in population in the 1990s-- much of it suburban white flight-- the county has turned redder and redder, so much so that Democrats rarely even bother to field any candidates. In the 1996, 2000, and 2004 elections, in which eight county offices were on the ballot, there were no Democratic candidates on the ballot and late in 1999 the last Democrat to hold office in the county, a member of the school board, was defeated for reelection by a Republican.

For someone like Mean Jean, Warren County has been a lifesaver-- a lifesaver from the most populous county in the district, Hamilton County (which includes parts of Cincinnati). President Obama won Hamilton County with 53% of the vote, a percentage point better than his statewide showing. And it was counties like Warren that dragged the statewide totals down. He only got 31% against McCain there.

Warren County has always been a bulwark for Mean Jean. In 2006, when she lost Hamilton County to Vic Wulsin, 53-47%, Warren County was there for her-- with 59%, making a nice contribution to her razor thin districtwide total. Warren County outperformed for Mean Jean by a full 8%. (It out performed for Mike DeWine by much more. On the same ballot as Schmidt, he took 64%, exactly 20% better than he did statewide, when he lost his seat to Sherrod Brown.)

In 2008, when McCain was pulling 68% in Warren and 46% in Hamilton-- Obama lost the district 40-60%-- Schmidt took 53% in Warren while, once again, losing Hamilton. She won the district with 45%. Last year Mean Jean had become a staple in the district-- especially with the teabaggers, despite the fact that she was one of the Republicans who helped defeat the T.A.R.P. Wall Street bailout and then switched her vote at the behest of Boehner 4 days later and helped the bailout pass-- and she won with a 58% total districtwide. Warren was her best-performing county, giving her 65% of the vote. It's what makes the 3rd congressional district relatively safe for the lamest and least effective-- and least liked-- Member of Congress from the Buckeye State. Or it used to.

Despite switching her vote for him on the T.A.R.P. bailout, Boehner threw Mean Jean under the bus this year, directing the Republican-controled legislature in Columbus to shore up extremely vulnerable Steve Chabot, a much closer ally, by taking Warren County away from the 3rd and grafting it onto the 2nd. Chabot will be much harder to beat now. But Mean Jean... well, some Democrats in Ohio think she's a sitting duck. So does DWT.

You may have noticed that we endorsed outstanding state Rep. Connie Pillich in her race against Chabot. Well, Connie's legislative district is now split between Chabot's and Mean Jean's congressional districts. She can run in either. And we're urging her to run against Mean. We think she'd have a better chance to win and we think Mean has earned a top flight opponent like Connie. And, let's be frank... who the hell wants to have to run in Warren County? Perhaps if you'd consider contributing even $5 or $10 to Connie's campaign if you agree she should run against Mean Jean Schmidt, we can persuade her. You can do it here. And we wouldn't have to do much to update this video, would we?

Late Friday Newsdump: House Ethics Committee Finds Mean Jean Schmidt Took Bribes From A Foreign Power

Mean Jean Schmidt wasn't born with that name. Her parents christened her with the far more ladylike Jeannette Marie Hoffman. The Schmidt part came in when she married shady stockbroker Peter Schmidt, and she earned the "Mean" after her shocking debut on the House floor (November 18, 2005), when she started screeching at respected ex-Marine and war hero Jack Murtha that he was a coward for wanting to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, deceptively blaming the entire incident on another Ohio right-wing kook, state Rep. Danny Bubp. Schmidt was ordered by John Boehner to lay low, but she's like a Tourette's victim and was soon accusing Obama of having been born in another country and not being constitutionally President of the United States.

Schmidt hasn't had any impact at all in Congress and is widely considered an embarrassment and one of the least influential members of the House. The only other thing she's known for is her dogged opposition to the legitimate aspirations of the Armenian-American community. Schmidt, a dim bulb, isn't exactly someone would expect to even know anything about Armenia or Armenians. But she has been taking bribes from shady Turkish sources and helps run their anti-Armenian efforts. Friday the House Ethics Committee issued their report on her corruption, but decided not to recommend expulsion or arrest, claiming, in effect, that she was too dumb to know she had violated House rules. You have to be pretty dumb to not know taking bribes is against the rules... and the law.

According to the OCE referral, Representative Schmidt received an impermissible gift from the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) when lawyers provided legal services to Representative Schmidt in at least three related matters and then sent bills for their fees to the TCA, which paid those bills on an ongoing basis. According to aCE's referral, between 2008 and 2010 TCA actually paid her lawyers, who claimed to be acting as the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF), a project of TCA, approximately $500,000 for legal services provided to Representative Schmidt. Neither the Committee nor, according to the evidence, Representative Schmidt was aware of these payments when the Committee previously provided advice to Representative Schmidt regarding her options for paying legal fees in the various proceedings.

The Committee's review of the matter indicated that Representative Schmidt did, in fact, receive an impermissible gift from TCA as aCE has alleged, and therefore the Committee did not dismiss the aCE matter. However, the Committee has found that Representative Schmidt's lawyers failed to inform her of their payment arrangement with TCA, and made false and misleading statements to her about their relationship with TCA and TALDF. Because Representative Schmidt did not know she was receiving a gift from TCA, the Committee has determined that no sanction is appropriate in this case. However, the gift was impermissible, and Representative Schmidt must now disclose and repay the gift. Representative Schmidt has worked in good faith with the Committee since September 2009 to determine the appropriate ways to pay her lawyers.

Through a letter to Representative Schmidt issued contemporaneously with the Committee's Report, the Committee has given her guidance on how to appropriately repay the bills which were paid by TCA. In sum, Representative Schmidt must: 1) ensure that TCA does not pay for any further legal services on her behalf; 2) pay from a permissible source the lawyers associated with TALDF for all legal services they performed to date; 3) amend her 2009 and 2010 Financial Disclosure Statements to disclose the gifts from TCA; and 4) disclose any unpaid legal fees from TCA as liabilities on her future Financial Disclosure Statements, until the lawyers associated with TALDF have been repaid in full. This remedy requires any attorney who was actually paid with TCA funds to first agree that they will repay the fees TCA originally paid to them.

David Krikorian, a rival who brought Mean Jean's criminal behavior to light and who Mean Jean is suing for defamation of her "good" character, said, "The Ethics Committee proved that we were right all along-- Rep Schmidt has received a half a million dollars in improper gifts from the Turkish Coalition of America... Personally I find it hard to believe that Jean Schmidt did not know the facts regarding her own attorneys in legal actions which she commenced in her own name-- I find that to be laughable! The American people are tired of Congressmen and women who break the rules and get away with it by blaming someone else-- the the people of Ohio's second district deserve better than an ignorant Congresswoman."

The Book Closes On Defeating Mean Jean Schmidt In 2010-- Ohio Is A Festering Mess

OH-02 voters saved from this hideous choice- Book & Schmidt

Ohio state Rep. Todd Book, an unattractive candidate of the reactionary Strickland-Redfern machine, would have been the least inspiring candidate Democrats could have possibly put up against Mean Jean Schmidt. It almost seems like Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is determined to deliver Ohio back into the hands of the GOP. After some investigation, the area's Tri-State Building and Construction Trades Council withdrew its endorsement of Book last week. Book, who had raised almost no money in the race, withdrew entirely from it.

This leaves, by default, David Krikorian, an independent "spoiler" from the 2008 race, as the Democratic candidate. Independent candidate Surya Yalamanchili, who was on Donald Trump's reality TV show The Apprentice, is also running.

There's probably a better chance that Democrats will lose Boccieri's seat-- after the confused conservative-leaning freshman voted against healthcare reform and for the anti-choice Stupak Amendment-- than there is that they will pick up Mean Jean's much-targeted seat.

It's official: Beltway Creeps have no shame (but a lot of convenient "scheduling conflicts")

Sir Elton and the Piano Man face2face --

uh-oh, watch out for Beltway Creeps!

by Ken

Oh man, you just can't take your eyes off these Beltway Creeps, not for a second!

Okay, as you undoubtedly know, piano-rockers Sir Elton John and Billy Joel really enjoy performing together. They've had huge success with their Face2Face concert tours, and are currently in the midst of the first since 2003.

(No Beltway Creeps yet. Just wait, they're coming!)

One of the stops on the current tour, this coming Saturday, July 11, in fact, is in Washington, D.C., at Nationals Park.

(Uh-oh, did you feel that chill? I think that was the icy breath of Beltway Creeps creeping up on us.)

Now presumably anybody can buy tickets, and that applies to group sales as well. So if, say, a person wanted to hold a fund-raiser based on Saturday's event, and if that person puts up his/her cash, the tickets are turned over, and everybody's happy.

Now enter the Beltway Creeps. Presumably those rules we were just talking about -- all that applies to Beltway Creeps just like people. And among the foot-stomping fans at Nationals Park Saturday will be paying guests of Illinois Rep. John Shimkus and longtime DWT fave Ohio Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt. That's right, the Queen of Mean herself!

They'll both be squeezing moolah out of their fat-cat benefactors to see, um, Elton John? Wait, wait, that can't be right, can it? There must be some mistake.

Oh, but it is! We have it on the authority of The Party Blog, part of the Sunlight Foundation's Party Time project.

YOU DIDN'T KNOW THERE'S A PARTY TIME PROJECT?

Frankly, neither did we. But somebody's got to keep an eye on these creeps, no? Party Time's "remit" (as they say in British spy shows):

Sunshine's Party Time is a project to track parties for members of Congress or congressional candidates that happen all year round in Washington, D.C. and beyond.

We also post information we receive about parties where members of Congress are expected to participate -- such as convention or inaugural parties.

Since we don't hear about all the parties, you can also tell us if you know where the party is and we don't.

At this point, let's turn the floor over to The Party Blog (I'm telling you, you're going to love this):

ANTI-GAY RIGHTS REPS USE ELTON JOHN TO RAISE CASH

At least two members of the House of Representatives -- both of whom are on record opposing gay rights -- will be hosting fundraisers at the upcoming Billy Joel/Elton John “Face2Face” concert at Nationals Park on July 11.

In July 2006, Reps. John Shimkus (R-IL) [right] and Jean Schmidt (R-OH) both voted to define marriage in the Constitution as a one man-one woman affair, according to ontheissues.org and the Human Rights Campaign.

In November 2007, both representatives voted against a measure aimed at prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. And in June 2008, they co-sponsored a bill to amend the Constitution to prevent same sex couples from marrying. Shimkus voted to ban gay adoptions in DC in July 1999. (Ontheissues records of these votes can be found here and here).

Sir Elton John has been a vocal advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention and for global gay rights (see his foundation here, and attempts to raise public awareness here).

This isn’t Shimkus’ first Elton fundraiser. In 2005 the Kentucky Democrat reported:

“A spokesman for Shimkus, Steve Tomaszewski, said his boss’s fund-raiser at the Elton John concert was neither an endorsement of the singer’s politics nor a betrayal of Shimkus’ stand on gay marriage. Shimkus won’t attend himself, however, because of a scheduling conflict, Tomaszewski said.”

Tomaszewski confirmed Thursday to Party Time that the congressman will most likely not be attending the fundraiser on July 11 either. Rep. Schmidt’s director of communications would only agree to answer questions by email, and has not yet responded to Party Time.

And speaking of the Piano Man, one wonders how those intrepid Defenders of Marriage, Schedule-Conflict Steve and Mean Jean, responded to last month's news, Billy Joel splits from third wife:

Billy Joel and his wife, Katie Lee Joel, are getting a divorce, according to The New Jersey Star-Ledger. The 60-year-old rock star and his 27-year-old wife have been married for five years.

The couple released a statement saying the decision to split "is a result of much thoughtful consideration."

The marriage was Joel's third. He previously was married to Christie Brinkley and, before that, to his business manager.

Katie Lee Joel was described by the Star-Ledger as a cookbook author, socialite and fashion show habitue who hosted the first season of Bravo's "Top Chef."

If you want to see which of the Creeps is partying, check here. And if you've got party tips, here's the Sunlight Foundation's contact page.

#

The Daily Blue America Report-- #8

They should all retire together

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



[ Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems ]

The Daily Blue America Report-- #7

Yesterday I woke up and the very first thing I read, a story in the Austin Statesman, inspired me for the whole day. It's about a woman born in 1899 whose father was a slave. A slave! Please stop for one moment and think about that. Her father was owned like a piece of furniture or like livestock by someone else who may well have been unsympathetic to his humanity. This woman, 109 year old Amanda Jones in Cedar Creek, Texas, voted early, by absentee ballot. She's been a Democrat for 70 years but this week she had the opportunity to vote for Barack Obama. "I feel good about voting for him," she said. I hope all the Blue America candidates will live up to the dreams of people like Amanda and like the people who fought to free her father and her people-- our people-- from slavery.

California-46- Pete McCloskey retired from the GOP congressional delegation 5 years before Dana Rohrabacher was elected. But McCloskey saw that there wasn't something quite right with Rohrabacher. This week he endorsed-- and started actively campaigning for-- Debbie Cook.

“What is desperately needed in the next Congress are individuals of great integrity with fresh thoughts from outside the Beltway, and who also possess a willingness to set aside partisanship and rigid ideology. I am confident that she will help bring courtesy and thoughtful compromise back to Washington, and maybe even help restore some of the faith in our system of government that all of us have lost at least a little bit of over the last few years. Dana Rohrabacher is part of the problem.”

Florida-08- Early voting is massive, more people eager to express their enthusiasm than just beat the rush. It isn't massive just in Florida either, but all over the country (30 states). In Florida, though, Governor Crist may well have doomed McCain's chances to win the election by extending early voting hours. The earlier voters seem to be overwhelmingly people eager to vote for change. A friend in Orlando who saw the statewide figures told me that 60% of the Florida voters so far have been Democrats and Republicans and Independents are about even, 21% and 19% respectively. Alan Grayson is feeling like a great deal of hard work from his staff and volunteers is paying off. His polling shows him decisively ahead of rubber stamp retread Ric Keller and much of his game plan for the election-- just as it was for the primary-- was tied up early voting. "We're winning for one reason only," he told me this morning. "This year, truth wins against lies." And according to HuffPo the early voting trends are showing an even bigger landslide against McCain, Bush and the Republican philosophy of governance than anyone expected.

Florida- 25- Mario Diaz-Balart, a clownish man, has been a complete rubber stamp for the entire Bush-Cheney agenda. Three months ago a consultant told him that Bush and his agenda are unpopular down in Miami-Dade so he started trying, superficially at least, to distance himself from Bush. Now he tries claiming, he an "independent voice." His record tells another story though. His voting record on veterans, for example, is absolutely breathtaking. There isn't a worse one in the entire Congress! Since January 2003 Diaz-Balart the Younger has participated in 29 roll call votes regarding our veterans. Take a look at it. The only question that comes to mind is "why does Mario Diaz-Balart hate the people who went to war defending this country?" Of the 22 votes he voted against American veterans 22 times!

•    Mario Diaz-Balart voted against increasing Department of Defense survivor benefits. (Roll Call 144, 2006)
•    Diaz-Balart voted against military pay raises. (Roll Call 554, 2003)
•    Diaz-Balart voted against $3.6 billion to enhance quality of life for the troops (Roll Call 546)
•    Diaz-Balart voted against minimum rest periods for troops (Roll Call 796, 2007)
•    Diaz-Balart voted against protecting service members from bankruptcy (Roll Call 107, 2005)
•    Diaz-Balart voted against expanding healthcare for reservists (Roll Call 221, 2005)

Yesterday Joe Garcia released a new television ad that let's South Florida voters know the real story on Diaz-Balart's record on veterans.

Virginia-10- One might think that after Frank Wolf exposed himself on camera as a cranky and violent old fascist, he would just shut up and hope not enough people became aware of the story to topple him from power. But if you are one of those people to imagine that, you don't know much about what a self-entitled, self-righteous jerk Frank Wolf has always been. Lowell at Raising Kaine has another video and another look at a congressman whose "good 'til" date has long expired. Paul Begala has also noticed that there's something seriously wrong with Wolf and that he needs a nice long rest-- forever. "Dare to ask Rep. Wolf a question, and his paid congressional staff gives you a couple of lumps. I’m sure Kim Jong Il would be proud."

Texas-10- Charles Kuffner recorded a very worthwhile interview with Larry Joe Doherty. You get a great feel for who the candidate really is and what kind of a congressman he will be when he beats Bush rubber stamp Michael McCaul.

Ohio-02- BlueOhioan wins today's prize for ugliest ad of the day. Would it come as a shock that it's from Mean Jean Schmidt, the lunatic fringe congresswoman who got drunk at a St Patrick's Day Party and slipped in Michele Bachmann's vomit?

Indiana-06- Yesterday's Fort Wayne Journal Gazette rejected a major force in the extreme wing of the national Republican leadership, Mike Pence, and urged its readers to vote for Berry Welsh.

Voters in Indiana’s 6th Congressional District should elect Barry Welsh. The Democratic challenger’s positions on the key issues facing the country are more palatable than those of the incumbent, Mike Pence... [H]is position on issues such as health care, the economy and war will better serve the interests of 6th District residents than those of his opponent... Welsh demonstrates a greater understanding of how the country needs to move forward to put an end to the wars and repair relations with other nations.

This Obama ad could be adapted for any of the Blue America candidates:



[ Find Your Polling Place | Voting Info For Your State | Know Your Voting Rights | Report Voting Problems ]

The Daily Blue America Report-- #4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have You Had Enough... Yet? Mean Jean Schmidt Is Still Disgracing Congress

Joe the Plumber seems to be all smoke and no fire in Ohio, Polling shows Obama leading McCain 51-42% statewide.

[T]he Republican ticket's emphasis on Joe the plumber-- the Ohio man who challenged Obama on his tax plan and who McCain and running mate Sarah Palin are trying to turn into a symbol-- is not paying huge dividends, according to the poll.

While 68 percent of Ohio respondents said they recognized Joe the plumber, only 6 percent said that Joe's story will make them more likely to vote for McCain. An additional 4 percent said the tale made them more likely to vote for Obama; and 85 percent were not affected.

.
There's no breakdown-- at least that I've been able to find, for Ohio's GOP heartland, the south and southwestern part of the state, Ohio's second congressional district, home of Mean Jean Schmidt.

In 2006 less than 3,000 votes separated first-time challenger Vic Wulsin (D) and lunatic fringe incumbent Schmidt (R) in a district stetching out east from Cincinnati. In that race Mean Jean spent $1,935,564 and Dr. Wulsin spent $1,021,186. Keep in mind that OH-02 gave Bush 64% of its vote in 2004, the second highest, by 1%, in the state. This year, as of September 30, Mean Jean had raised $1,079,960 and Dr. Wulsin raised $1,447,873. A Momentum Analysis poll 2 weeks ago showed them in a dead heat, with nearly 30% of voters undecided.

It's a very Republican district-- but there's another right-wing candidate in the race, David Krikorian, and he's sucking up significant support directly from Mean Jean's base. Two years ago Blue America created a one minute musical ad that was very popular online, Have You Had Enough. This year, along with our partners at SaysMe.TV, we've just reprised the ad-- as a 30 second TV spot-- and you can put it on the air in the Cincinnati cable market. Yes, you; with no ad agency, no consultant, no media buyer... just you. Here's how:

Step one: Go to the Blue America SaysMe.tv site.

Step two: Select Cincinnati from the drop down menu

Step three: Select either of the two Mean Jean ads, the "Had Enough" one or the one about how Mean accepted a bunch of money from Big Oil and then voted for their agenda in Congress

Step three and a half: type in your name so that when the ad plays on the networks you select, your name will appear at the end of the ads

Step four: Ignoring the annoying request for a zip code, pick the TV network and the times you want your ads to run. (The minimum is $100.)

As you can see, ads range in price from $7 a spot (SciFi channel in the morning) to $23 for ESPN in prime time. Prime time on CNN is $19 an ad and for MSNBC it's $13 a spot. MTV and VH1 are only $12 a spot. Here's the 30 second version. It will end with "Paid For By... your name."

Blue America Candidates Kicking Butt Today

Last night Mean Jean Schmidt appeared at a debate. She couldn't worm out of it but watching her performance one could certainly understand why she tried to. Claiming that she only became aware of our nation’s financial crisis a few weeks ago should probably disqualify her for many people right on the spot. What does she do in Washington if not look out for the interests of her constituents? She has voted for massive deregulation of everything and against tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, when even a serial deregulator like John McCain was warning-- two years ago-- that
"if Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole."

Last week she flip-flopped on the bailout and voted for it although most residents of OH-02-- including both her opponents-- feel that the bill was garbage which won't do anything to help the fundamental economic and financial problems of the country, problems Mean Jean's ideology have helped to bring to the fore. The latest polling, even before Mean's flip flop, shows her in a statistical dead heat with Vic Wulsin, much of her base eroding towards arch-conservative independent David Krikorian.

In fact, polling for Blue America candidates across the country is looking excellent. A second poll showing Larry Kissell with a serious lead over Robin Hayes came out yesterday. And while even more prominent Republicans in south-central Ohio have been announcing their support for Mark Schauer's bid to return mainstream representation to MI-07. a new poll shows that Schauer has opened a formidable ten point lead over Walberg. It showed a 4 point shift towards Schauer in the last 2 weeks and has him leading among independents by 12 points, 39 to 27%. Obama has also edged into a double-digit lead over John McCain in the district, leading 50 to 39%. Same with Eric Massa-- second poll, confirming a significant lead over Randy Kuhl, 51-44%.

All of these candidates are part of the People For the America Way House candidate contest that you can vote it. Please take a look and see if any-- or all-- of these candidates tickle your fancy.


UPDATE: THE ENEMIES OF HUMANITY HAVEN'T GIVEN UP YET

Yes, our candidates are polling well against the Bush rubber stamps trying to stay in Congress. But GOP front groups are on the attack with millions and millions of dollars. And even the small amount of money the NRCC has is being deployed strategically to save some of their most vulnerable extremists, nut cases like Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Steve Chabot (R-OH) and to attack two of the best Democratic freshmen, Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) and Steve Kagen (D-WI).

Mean Jean Schmidt Forced To Debate Right After Her Yes Vote On The Wall Street Bailout/Giveaway

Vic Wulsin has finally trapped Mean Jean Schmidt-- like a cornered rat-- into a debate. It's tonight at 7pm at Anderson Center and it will be televised by WCPO. There will be 3 debaters, Dr. Wulsin, Mean Jean and another far right extremist, David Krikorian.

Ohio's second CD is dark red-- the PVI is R+13-- and if the district had a normal mainstream conservative representative she or he would be pretty safe. But they don't; they have extremist crackpot Mean Jean Schmidt. In 2006 it was a 51/49% win for Schmidt. She spent nearly two million dollars and Vic Wulsin spent just over one million and they were separated by less than 3,000 votes. This year they have raised virtually the same amount of money. And this year there's another factor that Saturday's Research 2000 poll missed: David Krikorian, who is appealing, strictly, to Schmidt's base. Polls that include him, like Momentum Analysis' survey last week, show a statistical dead heat between Vic and Mean Jean.

With M. Jean's hands tied from going too negative on immigration demagoguery because of McCain, Krikorian has the field to himself and is taking male white voters away from Mean. He's billing himself a "Reagan Conservative" and is eating into what she expected to be her margin.

Her yes vote on the Wall Street bailout on Friday could finish her off. She's now officially a flip-flopper and a case can easily be made that she put the interests of her fat cat campaign contributors ahead of the interests of middle class working families in Ohio. And, in fact, Vic's campaign moved quickly to explain to voters where she and Mean differed on the bailout. Vic made it clear that she would have voted NO had she been in Congress instead of Schmidt. This is from Friday's Politicker Ohio:

"While Vic Wulsin certainly thinks Congress has a responsibility to keep the economy running, the bill that the House voted on today was saddled with pork, included no offsets for tax incentives added by the Senate and no long term solution to fix Wall Street and prevent this kind of crisis from happening again," said Wulsin spokesperson Kevin Franck.

Although there's some more recent Mean Jean music clips, I'm thinking it's time to reprise an oldie but goodie from 2006:

You Want Four More Years Of Lies And Divisiveness?

All week the Blue America candidates have been telling me that their opponents have been going increasingly negative. From coast to coast the Republican Party has decided to follow John McCain into the gutter... or he's decided to follow them into the gutter-- or, more likely, they're all just going along with Karl Rove who knows better than most that when you have nothing positive to run on, you just better make stuff up. You could see the controlled outrage in Oklahoma Senate candidate Andrew Rice's face yesterday when he addressed the overflowing sewer of lies that James Inhofe has opened up against him with a series of viciously negative ads.

Mean Jean Schmidt didn't get her nickname because anyone thought she was one of the good guys, so no one was expecting her to change her ways in this campaign. But a friend in Blue Ash, Ohio was still shocked by a mailer he got from her campaign accusing Dr. Victoria Wulsin, who has dedicated her entire life to health care and public policy regarding health care, especially for children, of experimenting-- "grotesque medical experiments"-- on human beings. Even the Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Malia Rulon, a quarter inch shy of being part of the Schmidt campaign, points out that Schmidt's mailer was filled with lies; I think she called it "stretching the truth."

In Minnesota brand new polls show that both Obama and Franken have leaped significantly ahead of McCain and Coleman. And the Star Tribune, the biggest paper in the state, attributes it to Minnesotans disgusted reaction to the Republican negativity.

For Coleman, there is little good news in the poll. The number of voters who view him unfavorably continues to grow, the number who see him favorably is falling, and his job-approval rating has slipped to 38 percent-- his lowest ever in the Minnesota Poll.

...The new poll suggests that one reason for Franken’s gain is voters’ reaction to the abrasive advertising in the campaign.

The survey shows that 56 percent of poll respondents consider ads criticizing Franken to be “mostly unfair personal attacks.” Only 42 percent said the same about ads criticizing Coleman.

Some of the ads by the Coleman campaign and national Republicans show Franken when he was an entertainer, cursing and ranting on political subjects. Others stress the tax and accounting mistakes of his private corporation when he was living in New York.

McCain and the Republicans have decided to spend the rest of the campaign going negative-- no, I mean really negative... negative like you've never seen before. If they can't get people to vote for them, they hope to get voters to just stay away from the polls altogether, since the uber-motivated Greed and Selfishness voters always vote and, of course, mostly vote for the Party of Greed and Selfishness. Take a look, for example at this column by a McCain campaign official in Virginia. This is what we'll be seeing, especially in the battleground states from now until November. This is the racist trash we warned would be coming last night in McCain Unleashes The Republican Smear Machine. He accuses Obama of wanting to paint the White House black, supporting reparations, changing the national anthem to the "black national anthem," teaching "black liberation theology in all churches," and replacing the flag with a "star and crescent logo."

Yesterday Michael Shear warned Washington Post readers that McCain plans a 24/7 Rovian type smear campaign against Obama. Today Frank Rich writes that McCain's vicious little pitbull with lipstick is doing more to hurt him than help him. Palin, unable to talk intelligently about any issues, domestic or international, has found her ultimate role in the McCain campaign-- everything dishonorable and filthy. The trashy crooked hack from Alaska is now on auto-repeat wherever she goes, warning voters that Obama is palling around with terrorists. It's good that they found something worthy of her character to do between now and November when she returns to her view of Russia in disgrace.

Even Rove, the mastermind behind the faltering McCain campaign, admits if the election were held today, Obama would be elected president, having clinched all the electoral votes he needs. Rove, McCain, Palin, and the whole menagerie of slimy Republican candidates for Congress, plan to create as much filth and negativity as they can to change that. But Rove's negative strategy, especially in the hands of an imbecile like Palin, may well backfire on McCain.

'Our opponent... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country,'' Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

''This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America,'' she said. ''We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism.''

...Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee ''palling around'' with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as ''not like us'' is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

...[T]hough she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

If the poll in Minnesota is any indication, and if the Republican attacks on Democrats using Obama's association with Rev Wright earlier in the year-- in three red district races where favored Republican congressional candidates backed by McCain were defeated-- are any indication, it isn't only something McCain will come to regret but something the entire Bush-McCain Party will come to regret. Today's polls from Ohio, an absolute must win state for McCain, show it slipping irretrievably out of his grasp. As McCain said himself, if all you do is run a bunch of attack ads, it shows you have no vision for the future. John McCain, more than any candidate I have ever seen in my life, has no vision for the future. I like the way Obama is answering back:

Polls In Red States

This morning when asked why Obama is gaining momentum everywhere in the country while his own polling numbers are tumbling, McCain sputtered and groused to his buddies at Fox that "life is unfair." With support from voters solidifying around Obama's calm, measured approach-- and rejecting the McCain campaign's erratic and hysterical reactions to everything-- the battlegrounds for November have been shifting into "safe" Republican states like North Carolina, Indiana, Virginia and Florida. In fact, Florida Republicans are panicking. So are congressional candidates tied to McCain.

Recall that McCain has an unbroken record this year when it comes to coattails: three contested special elections (all in heavily Republican districts, "safe" seats in Illinois, Louisiana and Mississippi) were won by Democrats when McCain's efforts on behalf of Republicans backfired badly. Polling news from around the country is looking gloomier and gloomier for the Republicans, even in areas they thought were safe for them. The NRSC has given up on races in New Mexico and Virginia where they once thought they could hold onto seats of retiring Republicans. This morning's Washington Post declared that the GOP's gradual decline in Virginia has turned into a free fall (And, by the way, this isn't just happening in the DC suburbs, as this Kos diarist-- click on the link-- makes clear when he explains the importance of bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley's endorsement of Obama.)

Long-serving members of Congress and the state legislatures are not only leaving office but also blasting their party on the way out. Just a few years after running his party's national congressional campaign effort, Rep. Tom Davis of Fairfax County is leaving Congress embittered by the Republicans' hard-right positions and frustrated that there appears to be no home for moderates who might appeal to suburban voters.

Virginia's GOP "gave me the middle finger," Davis said after party leaders maneuvered to hand its nomination for the retiring John Warner's U.S. Senate seat to former governor Jim Gilmore, rather than allow a primary between the hard-right Gilmore and the moderate Davis. "Anybody who compromises, you go back to your party base and you're an apostate. You're squishy. You're weak."

Two of Virginia's longest-serving GOP leaders, Sen. John Chichester of Stafford County and Del. Vince Callahan of Fairfax, left the legislature this year with harsh words for their party-- and both have endorsed Democrat Mark Warner in this fall's Senate race.

"I'm extremely distressed by the path it's taking," Callahan told me of the GOP in Virginia. "It could end up being a minority debating society. We can't be a party about immigrant-bashing or gay-bashing or any other bashing. We should be a party of fiscal responsibility, which is how I got into it."

Even worse was some of the startling congressional polling news that came in from around the country. Maybe they're hoping Mooselini will turn this around for them tonight, but it looks like the Republican brand is as toxic as astute prognosticators have been saying it was. Let's start in Texas, where Blue America-endorsee Larry Joe Doherty has been in an under the radar struggle with another lockstep, rubber stamp Bush millionaire, Michael McCaul, whose father-in-law, the Clear Channel CEO, bought him the seat after DeLay had the district gerrymandered to be safe for a garden variety Republican. That same district is no longer viewed as safe. New polling data shows him rapidly closing the gap with McCaul. Yes, Texas.

And look at North Carolina. In fact, more specifically, look at NC-08 in the south-central part of the state that became near and dear to many activists from all over America in 2006 when a stalwart working families supporter, Larry Kissell, came within 324 votes of dislodging weak and useless Bush rubber stamp Robin Hayes. New polling suggests that this year will not be close. A new Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner poll conducted September 28-29 shows Larry Kissell leading Representative Robin Hayes by 11 points, 54- 43%. Obama is also ahead of McCain by roughly the same margin in NC-08 and Democratic Senate Candidate Kay Hagan is leading Elizabeth Dole by 14 points (55%-41%). 8th District voters believe that Larry will do a better job on the economy than Hayes, who supported the job-destroying CAFTA bill, and that Kissell is more likely to stand up for North Carolina's workers.

Even in red, red Idaho, the Democratic house candidate Walt Minnick has pulled ahead of Republican far right extremist Bill Sali, 44-38%! And one of the sweetest polls of all came out of southern Ohio this morning where Vic Wulsin's momentum has caught up with rubber stamp incumbent Mean Jean Schmidt in OH-02. Momentum Analysis calls the race a dead heat with 16% of the voters still undecided. Vic's spokesperson, Kevin Franck, points out that the poll found that 85% of voters are worried that the economic crisis on Wall Street puts their families at risk.

"The economy is by far the most important issue on the minds of families in Southern Ohio and Jean Schmidt supports the same failed economic policies that have gotten us into this mess. Jean Schmidt has been a part of the problem in Washington; Vic Wulsin will be a part of the solution.
 
“Congresswoman Schmidt opposed tighter restrictions and oversight for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of whom failed and have already gotten billion dollar taxpayer bailouts, she voted against limiting high-cost mortgages for those who could not afford them and when she was in Columbus, she raised taxes on Ohio families just about every chance she got. Vic Wulsin thinks it’s time to make government in Washington accountable to the people again.”

Earlier today Congressional Quarterly changed its rating on two Michigan races from "leans Republican" to toss-up. Blue America candidates Gary Peters and Mark Schauer are now seen as winners against Republican right-wingers Joe Knollenberg and Tim Walberg. The fact that McCain has read the writing on the wall and decided to pull his faltering campaign out of Michigan entirely probably dooms the both of them.

The AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka explains why Obama isn't winning by double digits and why he should be and could and will be. Please watch this passionate, powerful beautiful speech:

Throwing Gas On The Fire Of Republican Discontent-- OH-02... Time For Mean Jean Schmidt To Leave Congress

Mean Jean Schmidt has been a complete puppet for Big Oil. She doesn't even charge a lot for her services. Other congressional shills-- from both political parties-- have been paid massive amounts of money to vote the way Schmidt does. But Big Oil only threw her $9,100 in return for having never opposed them on anything-- not on cutting their corporate taxes ($13.6 billion in tax breaks for the most profitable corporations in history), not on sabotaging every attempt to increase fuel efficiency standards, not on irresponsible footdragging on the development of alternative energy, not on cracking down on price gouging, and not on supporting any efforts to force Big Oil to drill on the millions and milliosn of acres they current lease from the federal government. Mean Jean is what you call a patsy.

And crazy. Her idea of energy policy is to make up stories about China drilling under Florida from Cuba and stealing American oil. She embarrassed the Republican leadership with her wild and false claims and finally Florida's Republican Senator Mel Martinez had to step in and explain that her bizarre charges were an "urban myth." If he was unfortunate enough to actually know Mean Jean, he'd know most of her public pronouncements are what polite society might call "urban myths."

Anyway I was really happy to find out today that Victoria Wulsin's campaign is about to run the TV ad below all over southern Ohio starting on the opening day of the Republican Convention. If you can spare any change, please consider making a donation to her campaign so she can run the ad lots of times. Recent polling shows that only half the Republicans in the second district are considering voting to re-elect Schmidt. Overall, the poll found that only 33% approve of her performance in Congress and only 36% are prepared to re-elect her.

Congressional Campaign Craziness

Two of America's brightest hopes: Darcy Burner and Annette Taddeo

While I was without Internet access this week, a bunch of great story leads came in around congressional races. There's no thread here, so don't look for one. I'm almost afraid to read it but Glenn and I were sources in a Wall Street Journal and Pocono Record (my old hometown paper) story on congressional miscreant Chris Carney, Liberal Democrats Turn On One of Party's 'Blue Dogs'. There's no question in my mind that I explained to the writer that Blue America is not, not, not a Democratic Party political action committee but an independent, unaffiliated, progressive PAC. I think I even explained to him how the first politician I ever worked for was a liberal Republican, John Lindsey, who was running against a corrupt, reactionary Democrat, Abe Beame. (Lindsey won and later switched parties.) But all that didn't fit into the narrative he had decided on before he interviewed me. He did pull out the best line in our TV ad about Carney's FISA vote though: "the same un-American spying powers they have in Russia and Communist China." The story also notes that we've endorsed Independent candidate Steve Porter in another Pennsylvania district as well but I loved the vision of what it's all about that Carney-- who begged us for support in 2006-- put forward:

The first Democrat to represent his conservative-leaning district since 1961, the freshman representative has distanced himself from the 2006 support of liberal groups such as Blue America, MoveOn and the Brady gun-control campaign. Instead, he is courting prominent local Republican leaders and proudly pointing out that half of his staff is Republican.

The first two positions he emphasizes on his campaign Web site are a defense of Second Amendment gun rights and a crackdown on illegal immigration. Mr. Carney rejects amnesty for unregistered aliens and supports English as the official national language.

I've never watched The Office but the interns in Dennis Shulman's campaign office did a riotous and brilliant parody of that show based on Scott Garrett's tendency to take large sums of money from Big Oil and then vote enthusiastically for their agenda. It's really funny and you should take a look. And Garrett's love affair with Big Oil is not unrelated to the dismal ranking EnvironmentNewJersey gave him today. The New Jersey congressional delegation, as a whole did great-- even the Republicans. The average of Scott Garrett's 5 Republican colleagues was 80%. Garrett, on the other hand, scored a dismal 8%, more like what a typical Texas legislator scores on these kinds of examinations, which took into account votes on measures that would preserve open space, protect clean water, reduce pollution, end subsidies to Big Oil, and fund clean energy alternatives. Dennis Shulman:

"As with many other areas of his record, Scott Garrett's environmental record is simply shameful. With $69,000 in contributions from Big Oil, it's no wonder he votes to protect the special interests instead of looking for new energy alternatives. What I don't understand is Scott Garrett's problem with clean drinking water and smog-free air.

"From dealing with sinkholes and sludge to clean air and clean water, Garrett has proven time and time again he can't be bothered with the environmental safety of his constituents, and he can't be trusted with the energy concerns of this country. As illustrated by the admirable scores of Garrett's Republican colleagues, what matters is not whether an idea is Democratic or Republican, but whether it is good for the country. Scott Garrett's record reveals that he is part of the special interest culture of corruption in Washington that is endangering the safety and prosperity of our state and country."

After looking at Shulman's interns' video I found another one just as enjoyable, one my friend Susan sent me from Polk County, Florida. It's an incredibly informative clip about who the real Adam Putnam is-- way uglier than you thought-- and why he's like an asp at the bosom of Florida citizens. People in this district (FL-12), unlike Carney's but very much like Garrett's, do have a viable alternative: Doug Tudor.



Then there's more Cuba-related stuff to report, though not from the crazy right-wing extremists in Miami, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the reactionary Diaz-Balart Brothers, who are all entering the twilight hours of their political careers, as voters get more and more fed up with their sterile and pointless demagoguery on Cuba.

When Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) learned about a scheduled trip of 11- and 12-year-old kids from Vermont and New Hampshire to Havana, he suffered a near panic attack. He then demanded an emergency meeting with officials from the State Department and Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The obedient executive branch agency obeyed and scheduled the session.

Diaz-Balart and his brother Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), who also represents a south Florida district filled with Cuban exiles, get their knickers in a twist whenever they learn of any event that might even slightly dent the harsh rules of embargo and travel ban that they along with the other members of the Hate-Castro industry. For the Diaz-Balart brothers, and their female counterpart from south Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (R-FL) limiting travel to Cuba ranks far higher on the priority scale than the banal issues facing constituents in their districts-- like unemployment, foreclosures, school drop outs and lack of health care.

Ros-Lehtinen and the Diaz-Balart brothers [along with the corrupt and treacherous Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who proves everyday that cash trumps party Inside the Beltway] help guide the small but influential Cuba Democracy Caucus on Capital Hill. On July 10, this bastion of Castro haters invited all Members to an "important" meeting with Bisa Williams, Coordinator for the State Department's Office of Cuban Affairs, and Barbara Hammerle, Deputy Director of OFAC.

At the meeting, according to the invitation, Diaz-Balart planned "to discuss the very troubling granting of a Treasury/OFAC license to a little league team to travel to Cuba in August."

But it was some further removed Cubano kookiness from the GOP that came across than transom while I was looking for Internet cafes with WiFi this weekend. It was Cheney, long recognized by members of the reality-based community as the most... reliable Republican in Washington, who first made up the story about Cuba and China sucking all the oil out from under Florida. This was quickly parroted by two more always dependable sources, Roy Blunt: "Even China recognizes that oil and natural gas is readily available off our shores; thanks to Fidel Castro, they’ve been given a permit to drill for oil 45 miles from the Florida Keys" and John Boehner: "Right at this moment, some 60 miles or less off the coast of Key West, Florida, China has the green light to drill for oil in order to lower energy costs in that country." All fake. But even when Florida's Republican Senator Mel Martinez called Cheney's, Blunt's and Boehner's lies "an urban legend," that didn't stop extremist crack pots like Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Tim Walberg (R-MI), and Mean Jean Schmidt-- the loophole queen of Ohio tax evaders-- from insisting it was true. Just when they finally died off, along comes Wisconsin bottom feeder, John Gard, resurrecting it for low-info voters. Even after Cheney disavowed his own lies, Gard has been running with it, first in fliers in late June and now on a lame TV ad trying to trick voters into thinking high gas prices are the fault of freshman Democrats Steve Kagen. Gard conveniently neglects to mention that he supports all of Big Oil's initiatives that have raised the price of gasoline and heating oil while he had accepted large donations (bribes in plain English) from... Big Oil ($42,550 in 2006 and another $6,750 so far this year). Same old Republican story: take the bribes, vote the special interests and then blame the Democrats.

Even more bizarre on the Cuba front though was a story in the Oregonian yesterday by Janie Har, Erickson explains Cuban trip was "one-third" humanitarian, in which hopeless Republican congressional candidate Mike Erickson defends a pleasure trip to Cuba as humanitarian. His trip included "dove shooting, cock fights, and Comandante Fidel Castro's Annual Gala Cigar Dinner and Auction." Gee I wonder what the Diaz-Balarts would say.

House races don't get polled much but I've got my ear to the ground and I'm hearing a lot of numbers that get thundered over by the daily Obama-McCain tracking polls. Look for a wipe-out for Alan Grayson next Tuesday in the Democratic primary in Orlando. Reactionary Democrat Bobby Bright is 10 points ahead of even more reactionary Republican Jay Love in the deep red Alabama second congressional district. Also in 'Bama (AL-05) Parker Griffith in way out ahead of Republican wing-nut Wayne Parker in the nation's only Parker v Parker contest. Meanwhile a Benenson Strategy Group reported that Charlie Brown is ahead of far right extremist ideologue Tom McClintock in northern California (CA 04). In CO-04 it looks like Marilyn Musgrave's about to finish out a shameful career in bigotry this November, polling just 36% again Betsy Markey's 43%.

The DCCC's two wretched hand-picked ex-Republicans in Florida, Suzanne Kosmas and Christine Jennings look like they are the two complete losers everyone but Rahm Emanuel and his posse sees. Kosmas is polling 23% and Jennings 37%. Let's see how much money Emanuel can waste on these two. And right-wing Dem and self-proclaimed Blue Dog Frank Kratovil isn't doing any better in Maryland's first CD-- polling just 28%. And speaking of the Kagen-Gard rematch in Wisconsin, the GOP-affiliated Public Opinion Strategies has Kagen at 46% and right-wing kook Gard at 42%.

Today we get closer to a real race when Darcy Burner faces off against Bush rubber stamp Dave Reichert in the Seattle 'burbs. It's more a beauty contest than anything else, but if Darcy wins, it is expected that Reichert's sources of campaign funds will dry up quickly. Whatever happens, we should all think about chipping in to help replenish Darcy's campaign chest.

Also, there are two right-wing maniacs in Wyoming, Mark Gordon and Cynthia Lummis vying for the opportunity to be beaten by Democrat Gary Trauner in November in the race to fill the at-large seat that has been disgraced by Barbara Cubin (R-KKK) and, before her, Dick Cheney. This primary is widely considered the ugliest Repug on Repug race in the country. The most recent polling data I saw on the Wyoming race-- by Research 2000-- shows that Trauner would beat Lummis 44-41%, pretty stark in a state where Kerry only managed 29% of the vote.