The Daily Blue America Report

Superb Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter

Texas-10- Early voting, increased Democratic voter registration, a lack of enthusiasm for McCain and for Republicans in general looks like it is turning one of Tom Delay's gerrymandered districts-- a big swatch of eastern and central Texas from Austin to the Houston suburbs-- blue. Larry Joe Doherty is doing an incredible job and Bush rubber stamp Michael McCaul' is suddenly waking up to realize he may soon be working for his father-in-law directly. Today's Austin Statesman seems to have detected a bit of the old gloom and doom setting in at McCaul campaign headquarters.

After looking at the early voting turnout-- two to one, Democrat over Repug-- McCaul campaign manager Jack Ladd sent out an e-mail alert to right-wing activists: “This is very bad news. If you think your friends are volunteering, they are not. I know I’m not going to sit down and die, and I know you will not either. There are only 12 days left, and this is not a lifelong commitment, we are asking you just give part of a day or days and help keep CD10 Republican.”

Between the Rick Noriega, Barack Obama and SEIU ground campaigns-- not to mention Larry Joe's own-- McCaul would probably be better off spending the next 12 days in one of the snake-handling churches that support him begging for some of that sky-god intervention Palin is counting on.

New Hampshire-01- None of the freshmen elected in 2006 has been more forthright in battling the special interests and always keeping the interests of working families front and center than Carol Shea-Porter. Unfortunately, Jeb Bradley, the rubber stamp reactionary the voters in eastern New Hampshire decided to replace in 2006, is trying to get his old job back. And there's nothing he won't stoop to to get back to Washington. Right now he's using a poor distraught Gold Star mother to distort Carol's support for the troops and principled opposition to the war. Carol has received the endorsement of the VFW's PAC, and an A+ rating from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. What Bradley is trying to do to her is despicable. 

Carol is a military spouse and has been one of the best friends our fighting men and women have in Congress but Bradley is callously manipulating this woman-- apparently driven insane and filled with partisan rage and hatred-- as an attack dog against Carol.

Bradley's corporately funded campaign includes the most vicious and deceitful ads being run by anyone from either party in New England. His ads are entirely based on distortion and outright lies-- like this ugliness. Fortunately New Hampshire is not Alabama and most of the voters there seem to see right through Bradley's slimefest. The two most recent polls-- both in October-- show Carol ahead of him by an average of 7 points. The problem is that Bradley was a 100% corporate shill before Carol banished him from Congress and K Street wants him back-- and right-wing front groups and hate organizations like Freedom's Watch are flooding the district with ads. Carol can really use our help-- and she's earned it.

Pennsylvania-03- The only independent who Blue America has endorsed this year, Dr. Steven Porter, is running against an anti-choice fanatic/pathetic Democratic hack from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Kathy Dahlkemper and against one of the most useless and personally corrupt GOP shills in Congress, Phil English. Predictably, the two superficial and unqualified major party candidates have conspired to keep Steven out of the debates. When Edinboro University announced recently that they are including him in a debate next Tuesday, the petrified and tongue-tied Dahlkemper immediately backed out. English isn't saying whether or not he will participate.

"Dahlkemper’s refusal," Steve told us, "is evidence of a fatal flaw in the character of a legislator:  the lack of courage. When the choice before the electorate is limited to one between clever thieves and shallow puppets, the only results possible are disastrous. We are experiencing those kinds of results now in our land and across our planet. And still, things can get worse. Recessions can collapse into depressions. Terrorist conflagrations can escalate into nuclear war. The greed of international business can result in ecological holocaust. To stave off such calamities, legislative leaders around the world will need the courage to speak the truth and act accordingly. The cowardice of Mrs. Dahlkemper (and a very corrupt political system which supports her) in both driving independent voices off the ballot and refusing to face them in open debate signals her complete unpreparedness for the office which she seeks. It is a warning sign of unmistakable dimensions."

And English, as usual, has problems of his own. One of the misguided labor unions that has backed him preciously, AFSCME, has finally woken up and seen the light, launching a half million dollar campaign against him for his consistent support of Bush's anti-working family economic agenda. The AFSCME campaign may not be enough to defeat English. Steve has virtually no money to mount a campaign and Dahlkemper is such an abysmal candidate that no self-respecting progressive could possibly vote for her. On top of the corporate pals who English has sold his soul to are coming through for him with last minute mega-donations, especially mutual fund firms, mortgage bankers and other authors of the economic collapse he has helped preside over. Needless to say Big Oil and every big corporation that opposes labor unions, especially Wal-Mart, is donating to English.

Tonight's last item: in a move that surprised most people, Oklahoma's fourth largest newspaper, the Muskogee Phoenix endorsed one of the best candidates running for Senate anywhere, Andrew Rice.

There is no doubt that Inhofe maintains a conservative attitude that reflects the position of his constituent base, but the extremist statements he has made throughout his career on many subjects hurts his credibility and the state's image despite whatever positive contributions he has made while in Congress. And extremism, whether to the right or left, does not promote good government policies or government that benefits everyone.

That is why Andrew Rice is a better candidate in the U.S. Senate race.

Rice has a more even-handed and rational approach to the issues and problems we are experiencing. He has gained a experiential world view as a missionary, working with rural development projects in Asia, that would serve him well in the Senate.

And another great Blue America candidate for Senate, Jeff Merkley, had a pretty special endorsement today too:



Meanwhile, I want to remind everyone to be sure to wander over and check out Digby's Blue America fundraiser.

Blue America Welcomes Dr. Steve Porter, Progressive Candidate For Congress-- Round 3

Last night I read that Cindy Sheehan had qualified for the November ballot to oppose Nancy Pelosi and will base her campaign on Pelosi's refusal to start impeachment proceedings against Bush and for not taking any effective action against the war in Iraq. I used to live in the district. If I still did, I'd vote for Cindy. And she isn't the only worthy independent running for Congress. Today is a week shy of the one year anniversary of our last chat with Blue America fave Steve Porter. As he did in 2006, Steve is running for the House seat still held-- if tenuously-- by Republican rubber stamp Phil English. Of course, when Steve was our Blue America candidate in 2006, he was running as a Democrat-- even if the national Democrats ignored his race.

This year, like Cindy, he's fed up with the national Democrats, didn't run in the primary and decided to challenge both parties in the November general election as an independent. Steve will be with us at Firedoglake for a couple hours this afternoon and he's eager to answer questions about his campaign and his new book, America's Dying Democracy.

Republicans and Democrats need 1,000 signatures to get on the ballot in PA-03. Independents need 2,171 and Steve filed a thousand extra, having collected almost all of them himself by walking door to door around the district and introducing himself to voters. He's says he's campaigning more vigorously this year than he did in 2006. "I'm running a more grassroots, door-to-door campaign this year," he told me. "I've walked over 500 miles so far; thousands of homes that I've been to." In nearly a third of the houses he visited, he found that the people weren't registered to vote. "It's alarming that so many people have given up on democracy and just say, when they come to the door, 'I can't stand it anymore; go away. I'm not registered; I don't vote.' In fact, that's one of the reasons I'm running for office. For me, both major parties have been derelict in their leadership... to put it mildly."

I asked him if he has a real chance to win this race-- after all, English is being underwritten by his corporate masters to the tune of around $1.5 million (so far) and if the DCCC ignored the independent minded Porter, they are lavishing support on the empty-headed cookie-cutter Democrat running this year, Kathy Dahlkemper. He told me he has a reasonable chance to win.

I think it depends very much on the level of frustration that people feel in this district and nationwide. Independent registrations have gone up while major party registrations have decreased and I think that people are in a mood to listen to an alternative voice. Neither major political party represents, or can represent, the average citizen of the United States. They're owned by special interests and I think the public is catching on to that. The lies that are being told-- by President Bush on the one hand and by Nancy Pelosi on the other-- are simply catching up to them. Polls show that the Democrats gained control of both Houses of Congress in 2006 for one overarching reason: the public believed that the Democrats would get us out of Iraq. And the day after the election, Nancy Pelosi takes the impeachment hearings off the table. The Democrats caved in and gave Bush virtually everything that he wanted. Other than raising the minimum wage they accomplished nothing. They did nothing about Social Security, nothing about health care, nothing about shoring up the economy, nothing about the energy crisis, nothing about ecology of the planet; they did nothing about our borders. Congress' approval rating is the lowest in history; I'm not surprised. I'm hoping the public will listen to an alternate voice that's not owned.

He makes the point that after running twice already, he has far more name recognition than Dahlkemper does. In 2006 over 82,000 people voted for him (to English's 104,000). English spent $1,466,487 (around $14.10 per vote) and Steve spent $63,034 (or .77 per vote).

He feels that the biggest difference since leaving the Democratic Party is that his hands are no longer tied. "I can say what I need to say. You don't get anywhere with the two major parties unless you sell yourself to them. I was willing to do that in 2006 because I still believed in their message and that they were serious about getting us out of Iraq. I really did. I was take in. I was very angry when Pelosi took all of that off the table; it was the clincher for me. The Democrats don't want people who think for themselves. They want people who they can control, just like the Republicans do. People who think for themselves don't make it in the two major parties."

In the end he knows he'll have to caucus with the Democrats if he's elected and he's aware that they might not like him. "I'm not going there to be Miss Congeniality. I'm going there to help my country and to help the people of this district... I'm not going there to whore myself out or to be anybody's ass kisser. I'm going to do the things I need to do to satisfy my own conscience and work for the well-being of our people. I'm not going to be like Kathy Dahlkemper. Kathy Dahlkemper is an idiot; she can't speak four coherent sentences in a row. She's a woman who doesn't believe in choice. But she's well-packaged and she's exactly what the Democrats want: someone they can lead by the nose."

ActBlue only collects donations for Democrats. You can give to an anti-choice candidate like Dahlkemper but not to a pro-choice independent. If you'd like to donate to Steve's campaign today, you can't do it through the Blue America site. You can do it on his own site or by sending a check to Porter for Congress, 9451 Page Road, Wattsburg, PA 16442. This weekend, anyone who donates at least $50 through Steve's site-- or who sends a check with a little "BLUE AMERICA" notation will get an autographed copy of America's Dying Democracy.

GASOLINE PRICE INCREASES ARE NOT A COINCIDENCE-- THEY ARE PART OF THE BUSH ECONOMIC MIRACLE

Yes, there's a connection between who we elect and how badly we get ripped off

Dr. Steven Porter is the Blue America-endorsed candidate for Congress in northwest Pennsylvania. In 2006 he held rubber stamp slob Phil English to 54% of the vote which excited the Inside the Beltway Democrats so much that they realized English is vulnerable and started looking around for one of their own corporatist hacks to take him on. They didn't get the one they wanted but they managed to stick Democrats with an anti-choice loser named Kathy Dahlkemper who virtually guarantees another term for English. Steven had already pulled out of the Democratic Party in disgust and is running as an independent. He sent us this straight forward look on why we're paying do much at the gas pumps today. It is based on a posy by F. William Engdahl, an Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization in the HuntingtonNews.net. Steven Porter's report:

The article states that 60% of the price of oil is not due to the supply/demand pressures cited yesterday by the oil company magnates to the Senate of the United States. Rather, it says, the prices are being jacked up by speculative trading which, since the new Bush commerce laws were passed, are now often beyond the regulation and control of Congress.
 
In fact, the article quotes the Senate’s own Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (report filed Washington D.C., June 27, 2006, p.3) which warns about an impending crisis. Quoting the Senate’s own report: "Until recently US energy futures were traded exclusively on regulated exchanges within the United States, like the NYMEX, which are subject to oversight… In recent years, however, there has been a tremendous growth in the trading of contracts which are traded on unregulated electronic markets… The impact of market oversight has been substantial… In contrast… unregulated OTC electronic exchanges are not required to keep records or file Large Trader Reports… These trades are exempt from oversight."
 
Engdahl goes on to say that Enron was behind the push for unregulated oil trading, and that the largest speculators in this unregulated market include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase. It is of extreme importance to note that these banks are leading contributors to the campaigns of all three presidential candidates (numbers 1, 6, 2, and 4 respectively for Clinton; 1, 16, 10, and 2 respectively for Obama; and 3, 12, 2, and 9 respectively for McCain), as well as to other members of Congress.

It is quite clear that Congress has ignored its own report, and that the major candidates and major parties are "owned" by the speculators whose greed is now causing an enormous amount of pain to the American people. When I read such reports, I laugh at the claims that either of the corrupted parties or any of the puppeted candidates will bring about change for our people. And I continue to be dumbfounded by a media which does not bring these connections to light but rather spends hour after hour, headline after headline, arguing about political trivia.
 
Time is running out for the American people to come to their senses.

ActBlue doesn't take contributions for Blue America candidates who aren't in the Democratic Party. I can't imagine we'll ever endorse a Republican but it seems reasonable that when we're looking at an anti-choice "Democrat" and a rubber stamp Republican, we need to speak up for the independent. If you'd like to support Steven's campaign you can do it directly at his website.

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IN PA-03-- A CASE FOR MIKE WALTNER

Almost a year ago, Blue America re-endorsed a stalwart progressive for Congress in northwest Pennsylvania's 3rd CD, Dr. Steven Porter. I say "re-endorsed" because Steve was one of our candidates in the last election cycle as well. At the time, and with absolutely no support whatsoever from the DCCC or any other establishment Democrats, Steve held rubber stamp Republican hack Phil English to a 54% share of the vote, signaling deep vulnerability. He has become more than moderately disillusioned with the Democratic Party and has decided to run as an independent. Please take a look at his most recent visit to Firedoglake to get an understanding about why he's decided to leave the Democratic Party behind.

Soon after our session with Steve last August, I got calls from several of the other candidates considering making the run for the Democratic nomination. The first guy who called was a living, breathing example of all Steve's complaints about Democrats who are as clueless-- and complicit-- as Republicans. But eventually I spoke with Mike Waltner, a minister from a solidly working class family with a compelling lifestory. Since then he has emerged as the grassroots fave among Democrats running for the nomination. A DWT reader from a neighboring congressional district asked if he could introduce Mike's campaign here and I was happy to give him the space. His report:

PENNSYLVANIA PRIMARY, APRIL 22-- 3rd CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

-by Pittsburgh Steeler Fan Working for Universal Health Care



National media attention is currently focused on the presidential race in the upcoming Pennsylvania Primary, scheduled for April 22, 2008. However, the Democratic primary in the 3rd Congressional District deserves much wider coverage because of a fundamental difference between candidate Mike Waltner and the other three candidates. This difference speaks to the type of Democratic Party progressives hope to build.  The winner of the Democratic Primary will face incumbent Phil English-R in November. Because of the past record of Rep. English and the current political climate, it is assumed that the top vote-getter on the Democratic side can win this race.  
 
I am a member of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single Payer Health Care and was drawn to Mr. Waltner's campaign because of his position on health care. I live in Pittsburgh, PA where our group advocates for HR 676, which is co-sponsored by 89 members of the House of Representative and would establish a single payer health care system in this country, essentially "Medicare For All".  We are fortunate that our representative in Congress, Rep. Mike Doyle, is one of the co-sponsors of HR 676.  
 
Pennsylvania CD-3 is a sprawling district that encompasses the city of Erie and spreads southward to Butler County, which is just north of Pittsburgh. When supporters of HR 676 became aware of Mike's campaign, we decided to become involved because he has made health care a centerpiece of his message, and he clearly speaks of his support for a single payer health care system on his web site. During the first week of April, a number of individuals supportive of our efforts held a fundraiser for Mike in Pittsburgh and raised over $3,000 for his campaign.

This past weekend, seven supporters of HR 676 traveled to Butler to hand out campaign literature on Mike's congressional campaign and we also distributed material on HR 676. We worked jointly with seven of Mike's Butler supporters, some of whom are UAW members working at the local steel plant. Incidentally, this steel plant is one of the few remaining industrial workplaces in Butler and the town is a shadow of its former self-- much like Erie and hundreds of other rust-belt cities in Pennsylvania.

In terms of the difference between Mike and his opponents, a debate held on April 7th in Hermitage, Mercer County is instructive. The other contenders for the nomination are Kathy Dahlkemper, a small-business owner; Erie County Councilman Kyle Foust; and Tom Myers, an attorney. Michael shaped the debate on health care by announcing that he would work for a bill to bring universal health care to all Americans. Though the other three candidates said that they agreed with the concept of universal health care and would support such a bill if it got to the House floor, they didn't pledge to fight for it and doubted that such a bill could succeed. 

It's this type of wishy washy, "have it both ways" position that points to the difference between leaders who would fight for a policy that would clearly benefit their constituents and others who are simply interested in getting elected. Mike will be a leader who will fight for the types of policies articulated on his web site. And this is why Mike is deserving of the support of Blue America and Down With Tyranny readers… even though it is important to defeat a Republican rubber stamp such as Phil English, it will not be enough to simply elect any Democrat. "Not more Democrats, but better Democrats."


The ActBlue pages for Mike's campaign are all here.

WHY DOES THE MEDIA CALL RUBBER STAMP BUSH-CHENEY REPUBLICANS "MODERATES?"

Despite what the Post says, Phil English is not a moderate-- not in his politics or in his lifestyle

I'm not certain if the Senate is going to wind up voting today on the Webb Amendment or not. I just saw Senator Webb on CNN rip into John McCain's craven and love the war/hate the troops stand. In a way it was kind of embarrassing because it highlighted McCain's incipient senility and unfitness for office-- not just for the presidency he craves to desperately, but for the Senate as well. The poor old geezer really needs to retire and get some rest and sunshine into his dark, dark life. He called Webb's amendment unconstitutional, claiming "The Constitution of the United States gives no authority for the Congress of the United States to set lengths of tour or lengths of duty in the military." It's probably been a while since he's bothered to read it-- especially since his party has completely abandoned it. But, as Webb pointed out a few minutes ago:

Well, first of all, Sen. McCain, who I’ve known for 30 years, needs to read the Constitution. There is a provision in Article I, Section 8, which clearly gives the Congress the authority to make rules with respect to the ground and naval forces. There’s precedent for this.

Think Progress has the video of Webb being interviewed by a contentious Fox hack who now does the talking head thing at CNN. She wasn't happy-- and tried to shut him down-- when Webb said "This administration can no longer be believed when it's talking about policy in Iraq."

And according to this morning's Hill Reid and Webb are getting closer to the 60 votes they need to overcome McConnell's obstructionist filibuster. "Four new Senate Republicans signaled Tuesday that they may vote for a Democratic amendment aimed at giving U.S. troops in Iraq more time at home between deployments, helping Democrats inch closer to a rare victory on the conduct of the Iraq war."

Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a 100% Bush tool and rubber stamp on Iraq, has to face the voters next year and he's been sending out press releases about how moderate he is. Today he said he's "studying" Webb's amendment. Pigs will fly first before Lamar Alexander breaks with Bush. The other Republicans the Democrats are counting on are George Voinovich of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina, all three of whom also have unwavering records as rubber stamps. And as Digby mentioned yesterday, "the best thing about the grey eminence John Warner finally leaving the Senate is that he will no longer be around to play Lucy pulling the football away from the Democrats at the last minute any more." If we have to count on him, every one of our soldiers there will be dead before they're brought home.

This morning's Washington Post tries talking about GOP "moderates" balancing loyalty to Bush against political loyalties. The concept is fraught with distortion and error. The "moderates" may call themselves "moderates" but had Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray done their homework at looked at how the "GOP moderates" have voted on the dozens of roll calls pertaining to Iraq, they would have noticed that, despite the press releases and the compliant, easily manipulated press, these members of Congress are anything but moderate.

With a difficult war debate looming and presidential vetoes for a host of popular legislation threatened, moderate Republicans in Congress are facing a tough choice: Stand by President Bush or run for their political lives.

That's because even if members of Congress like Senators John Sununu (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (R-NM), and John Warner (R-VA) and dozens of House members like Phil English (R-PA), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Mary Bono (R-CA), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Mike Ferguson (R-NJ), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Chris Shays (R-CT), Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Jon Porter (R-NV), James Walsh (R-NY), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Fred Upton (R-MI), Heather Wilson (R-NM), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Peter King (R-NY), Bill Young (R-FL), Vito Fossella (R-NY) want to claim to be moderates-- like their constituents-- their voting records all have something in common: each and every one of them has been a Bush-Cheney rubber stamp on the entire Iraq agenda. But you would never, never, never guess that from reading the Washington Post. The Post and other Insider-the-Beltway establishmentarian media outlets have decided, arbitrarily, to refer to them as "moderates." In today's piece of puffery they single out Pennsylvania's Phil English, who is in a toss-up congressional district trending away from Bushism. Although the two Post writers certainly never bothered to look at it, English's voting record is very clear. He voted on 53 roll calls concerning Iraq. He differed from Cheney exactly once-- this year, when it became obvious that voters in his district were furious about being represented by a rubber stamp. Since that one vote he has reverted to form and has taken the Cheney position on the 7 subsequent Iraq-related roll calls. But without mentioning the way he votes Murray and Weisman make him sound like a reasonable "moderate."

Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), who has been exploring bipartisan accommodations, especially on Iraq, complained yesterday that, for all their talk of bipartisanship, the "House Democratic leadership has not reached out to us at all."

Maybe they'll do a follow up and explain how exactly English is exploring bipartisan accommodation. I'd love to know. Maybe he discusses it with the young boys he picks up late at night when Post reporters are fast asleep.


UPDATE: WHAT IS IT WITH THE POST?

Taylor Marsh was reading a different part of the Post this morning. While they were writing misleading headlines to make radical right Republican rubber stamps seem like reasonable statesmen, they were also smearing Democrats on another page.

MODERATE DEMOCRATS ARE STILL WAY WAY BETTER THAN REPUBLICANS-- MEET KYLE FOUST

Sunday Blue America stirred up quite a controversy by endorsing our old friend, Steve Porter, for Congress in Pennsylvania's 3rd CD. Like last year he's running against rubber stamp Republican Phil English. But he's also running against whomever wins the Democratic primary, a primary Dr. Porter has twice won in the past. He won't be competing in the primary this year; he's disgusted with the Inside the Beltway Establishment and has decided to run as an independent. Many Blue America members cheered him on and others were certain that was a bad move that would guarantee another victory for the odious English. I highly recommend Sunday's very lively discussion with Steve Porter at FDL.

In the course of this, I was unkind to one of the Democrats running, Kyle Foust. He wrote and asked for an opportunity to give me his side of the story. "I take great offense to being called a 'hack politician, a Democratic rubber stamp wanna-be,'" he wrote. "I am a life long Democrat and the son of a former County Chairman and former County Councilman. I take my Democratic roots seriously and I hold the issues of the Democratic Party close to my heart." Here's the letter I wrote back to him:

We spoke on the phone a couple months ago when you called and told me about your plans to run for Congress. I speak to candidates on behalf of our PAC all the time, several a week, every week. Let me be frank: as highly as Steve Porter recommended you and as eager as I was to get behind your campaign I was, to put it mildly, severely underwhelmed by your grasp of the issues and your attitude towards the problems and opportunities facing the country and the Democratic Party. That is no excuse for name-calling and I feel badly that I referred to you as a hack and a rubber stamp wanna-be. I apologize for the name calling. I won't do it again.

This morning Kyle followed up with another letter and I asked him if it would be OK with him if I posted it here at DWT and he said sure:

Howie,

Thank you the your reply and your apology. The apology wasn't needed. I'll be honest, though. When Republicans call me names, it rolls off my back, but when Democrats and/or progressives do it, it hurts a little. Being in the public eye, however, exposes you to such things and I've grown somewhat accustomed.

I just wanted an opportunity to set the record straight a bit about how "real" of a Democrat I was. I saw your blog about Chris Carney and any comparison to him (to me) is way off base. I've built a solid reputation here in Erie County as someone who can work with Republicans while remaining true to my Democratic roots. As an old social science education graduate, I have a great appreciation for this Country and what the Republicans are, unfortunately, doing to it. I plan on going to Washington to help fix that.

However, I am no ideologue. I first got elected, and I continue to enjoy widespread support because I vote for things that are in the best interests of all my constituents; liberals, conservatives, Dems, and R's combined. I don't believe I can force my own ideology on the public anymore than I want some right wing nut forcing his or her ideology on me. Somewhere in the middle is where reasonable people meet to solve disputes and find solutions to problems. That is where I tend to me.

Having said that, I am a proud Democrat and I don't apologize for that to any one or any group. My Republican friends know this and respect this. They support me (along with many Democrats) because they know I have the public's interest in mind, not my party's.

When we spoke on the phone, it doesn't surprise me that I "underwhelmed" you with my responses. There are two reasons for that. One, I was just beginning the process of having to identify, more clearly, what my policy positions were. My responses to you, I'm sure, reflected that.I am no policy expert but I think I have a pretty solid inner compass to help me find my way. The second reason our phone call may not have been as positive as it could have been is that I am a very guarded person about my feelings to strangers. I really didn't know much about you or Firedog at the time. The last thing I wanted was to say something inarticulate and then have it posted on the web so that Phil English could use it later on in a commercial or whatever. This guy is a pathologically vicious campaigner and I don't want to hand him any material. The Republicans have already come at me to bloody me up so I know they'll use whatever they can get.

You were correct about one thing in your blog about me-- I do oppose public financing for elections. We have great social problems in this country that need to be solved; health care, drug addiction, domestic abuse, public education, just to name an important few. We need to marshal our resources toward those problems and the solutions for them. I don't want to subsidize the slander that goes into elections. I argued with Steve Porter over this issue and reminded him that public financing will not eliminate a persons incentive to influence policymakers, it will only change the means by which it is done. We need to elect people who have the will and the backbone to resist such pressure and do what is right. As I've said earlier, I've developed a pretty solid reputation as someone who has done that locally and, if I'm fortunate enough, I plan on conducting myself in a similar fashion in DC.

Thanks again for your reply and your apology. Take care.

Kyle

BLUE AMERICA WELCOMES BACK DR. STEVEN PORTER-- BUT NOT AS A DEMOCRAT THIS TIME

If you've been a Blue America regular you probably recall our 2006 candidate for Congress in northwest Pennsylvania, Dr. Steven Porter. He ran a great race against rubbery rubber stamp Republican Phil English, holding English to 54% of the vote, drawing over 80,000 votes for himself and all with no help whatsoever from the Inside the Beltway Democratic Establishment which viewed him as too grassroots, too anti-war and too independent. One thing was sure: Steve Porter was never going to be a Rahm Emanuel type candidate or congressman. He never stopped talking about taking legal bribes out of the electoral system, not exactly a message Emanuel or Steny Hoyer wants Democrats to talk seriously about. Blue America embraced him with gusto and 594 of us donated $5,630 to his campaign-- as well as a song and two videos. You might want to go back and check Steve's original session with us at Firedoglake as well as a followup he did with us in January.

A few months ago I was saddened to get a call from Steve telling me he had decided not to run again. He had good news however; he wanted to introduce me to a local Democratic councilman, Kyle Foust, who would be opposing English. He asked me to speak with Foust on the phone. I did-- and wasn't impressed. If I was expecting someone as brilliant and resolute and courageous as Dr. Porter, I had set myself up for a let down. Here was just some hack politician, a Democratic rubber stamp wanna-be with no clear ideas about why he was running, about what was important in the public arena or about how to fix any of the problems he heard about (like Iraq). He didn't have too many firm opinions but when it came to campaign finance reform he did: he's against it. I later told Steve that I wished Foust luck in defeating English but that we both realized on the phone that he was not a Blue America prospect. I may have missed it with Chris Carney but I can smell a Blue Dog in the making a mile away now.

And so can Steve. He went back and asked Foust some probing questions, thought it over and decided to jump back in the race. But not as a Democrat. He reregistered as an unaffiliated independent and that's how he'll appear on the ballot in 2008. A firm believer in accountability, Steve is a hawk on impeaching Bush and Cheney. He told me that "From the moment Pelosi took impeachment off the table, I knew there was no difference between the parties and that the Democrats would only posture and feign opposition which they knew would never amount to anything. In the end they gave George Bush absolutely everything he's asked for... [It] is a calculated strategy to win greater gains in 2008... using the lives of our kids in Iraq-- and the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians-- for political purposes."

Steve isn't running for Congress as part of a career move. He is serious about the issues-- more serious than almost anyone I have ever talked to. When he says he wants to end the occupation of Iraq now, he means "end" and he means "now" and he means them in plain unnuanced English-- English even George Bush and Rahm Emanuel can understand. Thursday he spent the day doing interviews at newspapers and television stations across PA-03 explaining why he is running again and why he has decided to eschew the baggage of the two Inside the Beltway political establishments. His website goes into this very thoroughly.

This morning I was on the phone with Howard Shanker, the grassroots progressive running for Congress against Rick Renzi in Arizona. He told me that the party leaders didn't ask him how he felt about issues or positions; "All they care about, is how much money you can raise." Funny, I hear that from almost all of our candidates. It has Steve pretty worked up too. "We flit from Republican to Democrat, Democrat to Republican and they're both owned by the Special Interests. The only thing that matters [to the 2 established parties] is raising money and by the time enough money is raised for a campaign, all the candidates are in the pockets of the big contributors... If just a handful of independent voices could somehow galvanize the progressive public nationally so that they could win, it would shake the 2 major parties to their roots and they might begin to think that its time to serve the people instead of the special interests."

Steve is joining us at Firedoglake this afternoon (2pm, EDT) to explain how he expects to beat Phil English and answer any questions we have. He told me his goal in this campaign is to "reach people who believe America's future is not with the Nancy Pelosis and George Bushs but with independent statesmen like Paul Wellstone and Bernie Sanders." I think he's come to the right place. Please join me in contributing to his campaign at Blue America. First 10 donations of $30.00 or more get an Impeach Cheney cap-- because Steve Porter is one progressive who no one can tell impeachment is off any tables.

WHEN THE CHOICE IS BETWEEN A DEMOCRAT, A REPUBLICAN AND A PROGRESSIVE, WE'LL OPT FOR THE PROGRESSIVE

Today our old pal Dr. Steven Porter announces that he will not abandon the battle to rid PA-03 of the odious Bush Regime rubber stamp Phil English. Steve has formally left the Democratic Party and re-registered as a non-affiliated independent. On Saturday, Steve will join us at Firedoglake, the first candidate we are endorsing who is not running as a Democrat. Come by and talk with Steve about why he gave up on the Democrats and how he expects to win in northwest Pennsylvania next year. The show kicks off at 2pm, EDT.

“No one tried harder than I to change the Democratic Party from within, and it is with a great deal of sadness that I have come to believe that both major parties no longer represent the people of this district or this nation.
 
“I remember speaking with former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley soon after he declared that he would not run for re-election. ‘When I first ran,’ Bradley told me, ‘people asked what I believed in.  Now the only thing they care about is how much money I have.’
 
"Since the Buckley vs. Valeo decision of the Supreme Court in the 1970s which declared that money was the equivalent of free speech-- a decision which I believe has destroyed the ‘one-man, one-vote’ principle of our Constitution-- both major parties have deteriorated into machines whose primary purpose is to serve the special interests which finance their campaigns. I can no longer be a part of that process, and I believe it is that process which has created America’s distrust of its government and prevented the Democrats from ending the war in Iraq, even after they were given a clear mandate to do so by the 2006 elections.
 
"Einstein’s explanation of insanity was for people to do the same thing over and over yet expect different results. We keep electing the same corrupted politicians and expect them to act for our welfare. It is time to try to end that by offering the public a clear, un-affiliated, un-owned choice.
 
“Having conducted two congressional campaigns in this district, I am well aware of the political tactics of the area, and they aren’t pretty. I will not engage in any rhetoric which involves personal attacks on opponents or waste the public’s time responding to personal attacks or lies circulated about me and my positions. You all know that I have instituted a law suit to respond to such attacks, and I will let that law suit do its work in our courts. Rather, in my campaign for election in 2008, I will stress my programs for the people of this district and this nation, and I would like to start right now.
 
In case you don't recall, Steve's #1 priority involves Iraq and global terrorism. It was last year when we first talked with him and it is today. "I begin with the war in Iraq which, as you know, I have opposed from day one. I believe that only a political solution in Iraq will end the slaughter and bring our troops home. That is why I support an immediate end to the use of our soldiers in an offensive capacity. I would give the government of Iraq six months to establish autonomous zones in their country: one for the Kurds, one for the Shiites, and one for the Sunnis (with Baghdad as perhaps a fourth divided city along the lines of Berlin after World War II). The zones would share equitably in Iraqi oil revenue, and the re-building of Iraq would be open to all international efforts-- not just those of Halliburton and the four big oil companies (Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and BP). US forces could aid in securing these autonomous zones, but after six months they would be re-deployed, mostly back home, and it would be up to the Iraqis to defend their own zones against any terrorist or civil aggression. Having accomplished this, I would re-invigorate our failed alliances so that the irradication of terrorism is internationally undertaken with all nations sharing in the burden instead of leaving the United States to carry it virtually alone. Finally, I would work to end the cycles of poverty and despair which have created global terrorism and made the United States as hated a colonial intruder as were France, England, Spain, and others in the age of Imperialism."

A closer runner up for Steve priority-wise is health care. He vows, with great enthusiasm, to campaign, in PA and in DC for universal health care in America and specifically for the passage of HR 676, the enactment of the Physicians National Health-care Program.

Next on his agenda is environmental action. "I will campaign to save our planet from what may be its permanent destruction by immediately mandating significant improvements in automobile gas mileage by putting resources similar to the billions wasted in Iraq into the immediate development of clean, renewable, American-produced energy."

He is completely committed to public funding of elections which he feels will help reinvigorate our much beaten down democracy. He is adamant that elected officials must be beholden only to the people and not to the special interests which currently buy them off.

On Social Security reform, he's looking for a real solution, quite the opposite of the Republican plan to wreck the system. "I will campaign for the solvency of Social Security by requiring all people to pay their fair 6.2% of all wages earned." Similarly his plans for tax reform are the polar opposite of the unfair system that the Bush Regime has rammed down our throats. He is very clear about the need to end Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy and for powerful corporations. He hopes to reshift the tax burden off the backs of the middle class.

An economic populist, Steve plans to campaign against the outsourcing of American jobs by insisting that trade deals are mutually beneficial and that wage, environmental, and monetary standards in the nations with which we trade are compatible with those of the United States. He opposes illegal immigration the economic forces which thrive on cheap labor/substandard wages.

Steve didn't get any help from the DCCC last time and if it were possible, he'd get even less this time. But the issues sound very much the same and the song still works just fine. Let's give him a hand.



UPDATE: PEOPLE WANT ENGLISH TO STOP RUBBER STAMPING BUSH'S WAR AGENDA

This is a brand new nonpartisan TV ad that is running in PA-03 starting today:

THE CASE AGAINST POLITICAL DEFAMATION-- WHY IT MATTERS AND WHAT TWO PROGRESSIVES ARE DOING ABOUT IT IN PENNSYLVANIA AND ARIZONA

Big Phil English (R-PA) forms defense fund to fight off charges of defamation and slander

Ellen Simon is one of the most accomplished and distinguished public service lawyers I've ever met. Last year when she ran for Congress against corrupt Arizona pip-squeak Rick Renzi (R), who is now plea bargaining with federal prosecutors to keep down an expected prison sentence for gross corruption, she was viciously and savagely attacked by right wing maniacs. This year instead of running for the seat again-- although it will be an open seat-- Ellen has decided the best contribution she can make to our country is to work on a project that would hold accountable candidates and groups that defame their political opponents. Later this summer, Blue America will have Ellen guest blogging to explain her new project.

Another progressive candidate who has decided not to run again is a Blue America fave, Dr. Steve Porter. The Republican incumbent and his supporters had slandered and smeared Porter-- who is a scholarly Jewish professor-- as "a Nazi." Odd that a Republican could project so blindly and with so little self-awareness as to call an opponent as Nazi, when the current GOP agenda mimics the same fascist principles that were imbued in nazism! In any case, Dr. Porter defamation law suit against English has been moving forward in the courts. Here's part of a letter I got from Steve yesterday:

As you know, in October of 2006, Rita and I filed a defamation suit against Phil English and his campaign.  Though the press pundits called it a "stunt," it was no stunt.  We have a case and we are pressing it forward.
 
Particulars were filed last February and are a matter of public record.  There are 7 counts against English for conspiracy, defamation, and damage to our reputation and lives.  We are now in the law suit phase known as "discovery."  It may be as much as a year until we get to trial, but that will happen, and God willing, we will receive a judgment in our favor.
 
Yesterday, I got a call from Roll Call Magazine reporter Paul Singer about the suit because apparently English is worried enough about it to have started a legal defense fund (toward which he contributed a whopping $10 of his own money). 

Rita, Alan Natalie (our lawyer), and I are very proud of what we are doing, not just because I am standing up for the defamation against me (particularly the labeling of me as a Nazi sterilizer when I am in fact a Jew), but because English's kind of campaigning has got to be stopped in America.
 
The bastards at all points along the political spectrum-- but particularly on the conservative right lately-- have degraded our democracy and our electoral processes with the worst kind of irrelevant filth.  You have all seen it ad nauseum:  the swift boat ads against Kerry, the denigration of Senator Max Cleland by Ann Coulter because his three limbs were blown off by an American grenade and not a Vietnamese one, etc., etc.
 
If my law suit is successful, it may signal the end of this nonsense and make a real contribution to the preservation of our democracy.  It will not stop the political prostitution of candidates who are owned by special interests ( for that we need the public funding of elections), but it may keep candidates and a pathetic corporate media focused on issues instead of libel and slander.

Although Steve isn't running against English this year, don't worry that the Democratic-leaning district will be forfeited without a fight. This morning's CQ Today makes it clear that English's rubber stamp record on Iraq and the rest of the Bush/Cheney agenda will not go unchallenged.

Pennsylvania's Phil English is a member of the big House Republican Class of 1994 -- the one that ushered in a GOP majority that lasted for a dozen years until Democrats overturned it in last year's elections. Though he prevailed against the strong partisan tide to win a seventh term in 2006, English was one of a number of Republican survivors re-elected with underwhelming vote numbers.

Running in a northwest Pennsylvania district, including his hometown of Erie, where he was used to more dominant performances, English took 54 percent to defeat Democrat Steven Porter, a little-known educator who did not attract national attention.

That modest showing in Pennsylvania's 3rd District, coupled with a continued public opposition to President Bush and his policies, has spurred the Democrats to wage a more vigorous -- and much earlier starting -- effort than usual to unseat English in 2008.

Two Democratic candidates already have emerged: Kyle Foust, an Erie County councilman who has organized an "exploratory" campaign, and Tom Myers, a lawyer with close ties to organized labor who is an official candidate.

... Despite the many months that will transpire before voters head to the polls, it seems clear that the Pennsylvania 3rd race will be dominated by the ongoing war in Iraq. In recent interviews with CQPolitics.com, Foust and Myers identified the Iraq war first when asked which issues they would emphasize in their campaigns. And English has been vocal in his advocacy of a beefed-up diplomatic effort to solve the crisis.

Democrats, though, have tended to note English's opposition to a Democratic-crafted war spending measure, vetoed by President Bush, that included a timeline to redeploy troops from Iraq.

"I don't think Phil English's view on the war is how people feel in the 3rd Congressional District," said Foust, who also said the war would be "the biggest issue, for sure" in the upcoming race.

"I think the country is incredibly frustrated with the direction that we've taken [in Iraq]," Myers said. "Mr. English has supported that endeavor almost completely right down the line."

BARNEY FRANK SAYS THERE ARE TEN CLOSET CASES IN CONGRESS. ANYONE KNOW WHO THEY ARE?

This evening I went to the L.A. County Library's author's series, ALOUD, to hear Daniel Hurewitz, who wrote Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics and Stuart Timmons, who wrote Gay L.A.-- A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics and Lipstick Lesbians. There was a great deal to savor and enjoy but what inspired me to run home and get to google was a mention of Frank Shaw, who was elected mayor of L.A. in 1933. "Unfortunately, he would eventually go into the history books as having led the most corrupt city administration in Los Angeles history" and he was the first U.S. mayor successfully recalled from office. What brings him up these 70 years since that recall was his behavior while trying to deflect the public approbation resulting in his unconscionable corruption. He turned the L.A.P.D. loose on the 'til then unmolested gay community, the first time-- though not the last-- they would be scapegoated by an ambitious and crooked politician.

Before heading over to the Library I saw a New York Times story about a less socially divisive reaction to gay people, not in California, where we are currently burdened by a corrupt and Neanderthal Republican governor, but from Massachusetts, where the state legislature struck down attempts by right-wing loons driven insane by hollow interpretations of Bronze Age superstitions, to outlaw same-sex marriage.

“In Massachusetts today, the freedom to marry is secure,” Gov. Deval Patrick said after the legislature voted 151 to 45 against the amendment, which needed 50 favorable votes to come before voters in a referendum in November 2008.

Massachusetts is the only state in America with full marriage equality. I guess it isn't a coincidence that Massachusetts also boasts one of only two openly gay members of Congress, Barney Frank (whose district, by the way, has a smaller percentage of gay people than the state in general).

In their May issue OUT Magazine featured "The Power 50" (they're obsessed with inane lists) and as part of that they interviewed Barney: "Out On The Hill-- Coming Out Didn't Stop Barney Frank From Becoming One of America's Most Powerful Politicians." One question stood out; actually, no questions stood out. One answer did though.

OUT: Are there closets full of closet cases on Capitol Hill?
Barney: "Sure. There are probably five or seven in the House and at least three senators.

Next question? Nope; they just let it drop. So, I had to turn to "Washington's Most Dangerous Man," my pal Mike Rogers to try to get to the bottom of this. Mike's web site, blogActive, makes a habit of exposing the worst of the hypocrites, the ones with the consistently homophobic voting records who also participate in closeted gay sex, the only kind Republicans approve of.

Mike is ultra cautious. He wants multiple sworn statements from participants and clear pictures before he'll out anyone, no matter how viciously anti-gay they are. Mike totally blew the cover of Virginia wingnut Ed Schrock, now retired, and for years has been helpful in getting out the information on Mark Foley (F-FL), also retired, and three who are still hiding in their closets, David Dreier (R-CA), James McCrery R-LA), and Larry Craig (R-ID).

Craig is a senator and surely one of the 3 Barney was referring to since he outed him on the Bill Maher show last year. And the others? Well, most people in DC who know about these things feel that Miss McConnell (R-KY) doesn't just act that way; he's as gay as any panicky right-wing closet case you never want to meet. Ditto for Lindsey Graham (R-SC). That's the easy part. Everyone knows about McConnell, Graham and Craig. What about all those House members?


Well, that's tougher. Dreier hardly even counts as being in the closet any longer since it's so widely known that he's gay, even in his own district... although no one ever speaks about it out loud. And McCrery thinks he inoculated himself by marrying his secretary and stashing her away somewhere deep in Louisiana. We've had some speculation about ex-high school wrestling coach Denny Hastert but the male prostitute who says he had sex with him was too embarrassed to be publicly identified. And people are pretty suspicious, for good reason, about Patrick McNutcase (R-NC). And the other 3? Mike's gone mum on me; but I know he's got some hot investigations he's tying up. Of course, Larry Flynt is trying to get to the bottom of all this too.


OOPS... ALMOST FORGOT PHIL ENGLISH

There have been rumors about him being something weird for years-- like a pursuer of young men. Someone reminded me this morning when I did a story about him being a defamer and slanderer.

MR. ROGERS' McCAIN'S NEIGHBORHOOD

I hope you watched yesterday's video du jour of John McCain flat out lying-- or else proving the frighteningly advanced state of his dementia-- on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. The Straight Talk Express is now a runaway freight train filled with nuts-- or piloted by one. Claiming that there's "significant progress," McCain told a radio audience-- and then reiterated the exact same thing on TV-- that "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today." That's a)- just not true and b)- a scary thing for a candidate for president to say because he's either consciously lying or utterly clueless and delusional.

Or does he know a neighborhood in Baghdad that no one else does? (It sure ain't the Green Zone, not that that's a neighborhood anyway. McCain who once was a hair-breath away from switching parties, was back on CNN today at first defending his positions and then, confronted with evidence to the contrary, denying they were his positions! Watch the video of a doddering and deceitful old fool committing political suicide.

Other Republicans are abandoning McCain's-- and Cheney's-- hopeless and confused position on Iraq as fast as they can. Our old friend Dr. Steven Porter, who is running for Congress against long-time Iraq War advocate Phil English (PA-03) has been tying to figure out where exactly English stands on the war. English has been the absolute perfect example of the ultimate Bush rubber stamp. Of the 44 Iraq-related votes between October 10, 2002 and May 25, 2005, English voted with Bush 44 times. His voting record is an abomination; no one in the entire Congress has a worse one. Now, though, English is feeling the heat and flipping around like a live trout on hot skillet. Here's what Porter had to say last week:

Now that he is drawing heat from Move-on, our Congressman, Republican incumbent Phil English, representing the beleaguered 3rd district of Pennsylvania, has seen fit to try to con us about his Iraq flip-flops.

English's position on the war has as many twists and turns as a corkscrew.  When Bush was riding high in the polls, nothing was wrong with Iraq, and English supported it-- lies and all-- from day one.

Then, as Bush's position began to crumble, in order to avoid the political fall-out, English began to distance himself from the President by equivocating about the war before the 2006 elections and by siding against the "surge" of troops afterward.

Now, no doubt under orders from the Republican leadership, he refuses to support the bill which might lead to bringing our troops home.

The flip-flops are, of course, purely political. It is doubtful that Mr. English has any reasoned position on the foreign policy he is directed to support, and if he has, he has never articulated it. He is just another Washington politician scrambling to make himself look good and to keep in favor with his party leadership.

By comparison, I opposed the invasion of Iraq from the get-go and did so because my study of history compelled me to reject Bush's arguments for the war. It was clear there were no weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq posed no threat to the U.S., that Saddam-- evil as he was-- had no link to the 9/11 terrorists or to Al-Qaeda, and that the tribal conflicts between Shiite, Sunni, and Kurd were centuries in the making. It was also clear to me that the invasion was far more about oil and money for the likes of Halliburton than the cause of democracy. I have never wavered from these conclusions.

Moreover, I believe that the only viable solution to the mess Mr. Phil and his brainless President have created is to seek a divided Iraq with Kurdish, Shiite, and Sunni autonomous regions and with each sharing equally in the oil revenues which have evidently been "divvied up" by the likes of Exxon, Shell, BP, and Chevron through the production-sharing agreements in the new Iraqi constitution.

It is time to send English and his like-minded Congress men and women packing.  It is also time for the press to stop lauding him for his flip-flops and to get on board with a program which will end this horrible war.

Maybe McCain could take Phil English on that stroll through the magical Baghdad neighborhood-- or maybe he'd be too big a target even for the delusional McCain.

IS PENNSYLVANIA HEFTY RIGHT WING CONGRESSMAN A SEXUAL PREDATOR-- A GAY ONE?

I've written a bit about Rep. Phil English here at DWT in the past. And no matter who you ask in DC (or back in Erie) one thing you learn is that you do not want to get between this man and a ham-and-cheese sandwich. But that's old news. Actually the tale I'm about to impart is old news too-- old news that never quite saw the light of day. But I'm jumping ahead of myself.

Today I was cleaning up some of the old comments and I came across 3 I had never seen, all on the Phil English link above. With a little amateur sleuthing I traced one to a local Erie, PA blog called Erie Rant.

The latest rash of alleged pedophile scandals of those holding respected positions in Erie County is beginning to cast doubts on current congressman Phil English. There are reports that English was arrested by Erie County Police while serving as Erie County Comptroller while Louis Tullio was Mayor. Sources report that officers reported to Tullio that Phil English was caught soliciting a black male youth for sex a late summer evening near Buffalo Road.

Apparently Mayor Tullio did not want the scandal to effect him. So he had the officers release English with the understanding that he would leave town never to return. Is this the real reason Phil English ran for state treasurer in 88 after serving as Erie County Comptroller? Was English only able to return home after the death Mayor Tullio. If this story is true did this secret die with Mayor Tullio?

I spoke to an old political expert and friend in Sharon, PA, right across the stateline from Youngstown and part of English's northwest Pennsylvania district. What she told me was pretty shocking. The highly unpopular Congressman English, often called "Jabba" or "Congressman Glutton," has had some pretty freaky rumors circulating about him for many years. Although my friend said she had no first hand knowledge of English's much whispered-about dalliance with a young male prostitute in Harrisburg (something that I found was mentioned in the Wayne Madsen Report), she knew quite a lot about the married congressman's uncontrollable urges for young males. She says that he was arrested quite a few years-- and many pounds-- ago in flagrante delicto. His victim was an underage African-American boy and he was hauled to Mayor Tullio's home in the wee hours of the night, in handcuffs. They mayor, a virtual feudal baron for 2 decades in the area, made him swear to never run for office again and to get out of town in return for the incident to be disappeared.

I have no way of knowing for sure whether or not AmericaBlog was referring to English in a short, sweet June posting about "a certain conservative anti-gay northeastern Republican congressman who got into some trouble with the cops a number of years ago for soliciting a male prostitute. And if it is English, does this refer to the funny business in Erie or the funny business in Harrisburg?

But the anti-gay mania-- often a cover for closet cases trying to throw off suspicions-- is apparent in his viciously homophobic voting record, identical to the gay-bashing voting records of other Republican closet queens in the House like David Dreier (CA), Mark Foley (FL) and Jim McCrery (LA). If Phil English wants to be gay, that should be his right and there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of-- although he should stick to guys over 21 or 18 or whatever the age limit is. But if he wants to get it on with males he should not be using his power in Congress to make the lives of other gay men and women miserable by passing laws designed to put them at disadvantages and make them into second class citizens. Maybe he needs to see a psychiatrist.