Alan Grayson Shows That Support For Our Vets Means Something More Than Hot Air

Alan Grayson, the progressive Democrat running against a desperate Bush rubber stamp in Orlando, Ric Keller, has had some of the best press of anyone running for Congress this year. The Vanity Fair feature about his work fighting for taxpayers against Iraq war profiteers is powerful and the article Harper's did on Keller's hypocrisy and corruption probably has had a great deal to do with why Grayson is ahead of Keller in all the polling-- ahead and widening the gap.

But as much as I want to believe that Orlando voters are responding to the two feature stories-- and there is even some plausibility to the effectiveness of the racy Harper's piece since yesterday's Orlando Sentinel covered it prominently-- TV spots seem to have a much greater impact. I look at congressional candidates' TV spots all day and Grayson's have been among the best and most effective. I have a feeling that's why he's ahead. So ahead that the RNC actually sent out an e-mail calling him the "perhaps the most liberal candidate in America." Alan wears that badge proudly and tomorrow he'll start running a new TV ad that will probably elicit more desperate e-mails from the RNC. It's an ad about what really supporting our troops and vets is all about-- not about wearing ribbons or flag pins or making puffed-up jingoistic speeches but about being there when our fighting men and women need you, no matter how boneheaded you think the Commander-in-chief's decisions are. Keller's voting record on assisting military vets is nothing short of abysmal and disgraceful. When I asked Alan about it he didn't hold back: "Keller is one of those fake patriots who loves to send our troops to war, but won't lift a finger to help them when they get back. He says that he's 'pro-life,' too, but he couldn't care less about you after you're born." You can read all the bills he opposed at the link or you can watch this 30 second TV spot that will start running in Orlando tomorrow:



If you'd like to help make sure lots of people see that ad, you can donate to Alan Gayson's campaign on his Blue America ActBlue page.

Game Changing Race In Orlando, Florida-- Alan Grayson vs Ric Keller

Insiders just figured it out; the grassroots already knew

Inside the Beltway there's a buzz starting; it's a buzz Blue America has seen turn into a roar since we first met Alan Grayson last January and endorsed him as our very first candidate of 2008. Blue America buzz and Inside the Beltway buzz don't usually get going for the same reasons. They're buzzing because Alan looks like a winner. The latest polling shows him up over Republican rubber stamp Ric Keller by 4%. We're roaring because he not only looks like a winner but because he looks like a solid progressive leader and a genuine game changer who will spend every single day in Washington fighting for America and American families.

This morning Congresional Quarterly, a lagging indicator of what's going on in congressional races, changed its rating for FL-08 and has woken up to the fact that if Ric Keller is still in DC next January, he'll be working for the fast food restaurant lobby on K Street, a lobby he has served better than any other member of the House. The Beltway perspective:

For much of the year, Republican Rep. Ric Keller of Florida’s 8th Congressional District appeared headed for a relatively painless re-election campaign. But the four-term incumbent’s surprisingly close win in his Aug. 26 primary election signaled that his general election contest also might be more competitive than expected-- which in turn heightened the interest of national Democratic Party strategists in Alan Grayson, a lawyer who easily won the party’s crowded primary the same day.

If some of the Beltway insiders had been paying attention to the Blue America blogs they would have known that Orlando's registration base has changed in a way that makes it unlikely that rubber stamp Republicans will win elections there. And they would have known that Alan Grayson had built a formidable presence with a powerfully and unapologetically progressive message. On the eve of the primary, all the Insiders-- from the Florida Democratic Party and the DCCC to Senator Bob Graham and Ric Keller himself-- said conservative Establishment hack Charlie Stuart would walk away with the Democratic nomination. What they failed to understand was what Alan had built in the district and that Orlando isn't looking for more of the same from the bowels of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Stuart took 27% of the vote. When a shocked DCCC operative asked me how that happened, I asked him if he had seen any of Alan's ads. He hadn't! Strange this one wasn't just extremely effective on Orlando TV, it has had over 36,000 views on YouTube with thousands of views on Huffington Post, Crooks & Liars, Firedoglake, Democratic Underground and ThingsYoungerThanJohn McCain.

No wonder they're surprised-- and no wonder it took until last week for the DCCC to finally put Alan on their Red to Blue list. If only they had watched the 60 Minutes war profiteer expose or the BBC program that featured Alan or just read the powerful Vanity Fair story on the work he's been doing!

Meanwhile, clueless as ever, Keller was one of the 189 rubber stamp, bribed-- he's taken $58,325 in "donations" from Big Oil-- Republicans who voted against the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act last night. That's a losing proposition in FL-08, whether Keller knows it or not. And how will he defend himself and his miserable record? The same way he always has: smear and distortion.

Republicans will likely brand Grayson as a liberal in an effort to sway moderate and swing voters to stay with Keller.
 
...Keller retains advantages as the district’s incumbent and reported $870,000 on hand through Aug. 6, according to his pre-primary report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
 
...But working against Keller is an ever-evolving district population, including a surging Hispanic constituency, that has made the district increasingly competitive between the two major parties.
 
Democratic registration has grown significantly since 2002, Jewett noted, with a surge in Democratic voters evident within the past year. As of July 28, Republicans held a registration advantage equal to less than one-half a percentage point over Democrats in the district. By comparison, Republicans were up by 3.6 percent as recently as December.

Come November, both Obama and Grayson are going to win Orlando-- and Keller will be cashing in on services rendered for the fast food industry when he made sure they could continue feeding Americans garbage that causes cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Many in Orlando still resent the way he treated his family when, after campaigning as a James Dobson-backed Family Values Republican, he started cheating on his wife with a number of young staffers, then dumped the wife, showered the young woman with taxpayer money and married her. Harper's:

Consider the following chronology, which is based on multiple interviews, public records, and previously published accounts:

November 2000: Ric Keller, 36, won the House seat in the 8th district of Florida, which includes his hometown of Orlando. As an ardent proponent of family values, Keller used his wife–Cathy Schott, whom he married in 1992–as a frequent prop for his campaign. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Cathy, two years Ric’s junior, “was mentioned in his press releases. She was featured in his very first TV ad, where Keller told voters: ‘I believe we should send people to Washington with sound moral character.’”

January 3, 2001: Ric Keller was inaugurated as a member of the House freshman class. Beginning work for Keller that day was Danielle “Dee Dee” Michel, who held the title of staff assistant and received a starting salary of about $2,000 per month. Michel turned 23 the day she started work in the front office answering phones and greeting visitors. Keller, who I’m told liked to ruminate about his conservative political positions while dining at Hooter’s, hired a number of strikingly beautiful young female staffers. These included Jacyln Norris, who later married Kevin Madden, now spokesman for Mitt Romney’s campaign, and Jessica Ferguson. Hill staffers joked about the “Keller girls.”

Fall 2001: A number of Hill staffers and lobbyists became aware that Keller and Michel seemed unusually close, and talk about their relationship began circulating in political circles. Michel was transferred down to Keller’s Orlando office and given the job of campaign finance director. This represented a significant leap from her original position. She also remained on the office payroll, making her one of six Keller employees who were getting two checks-- one from the campaign and one for her staff work. (That was a situation that at least one watchdog group found most unusual.)

June-2002: Keller was a frequent companion of Michel’s when he returned to Orlando from Washington. In late June, the pair attended a Fort Lauderdale-area campaign event sponsored by marine industry interests. (That years Keller strongly supported a bill that exempted the “recreational marine” industry from certain labor rules.) Keller and Michel met with crewmembers aboard the Wehr Nuts, a 124-foot mega-yacht. The congressman overnighted in South Florida.

November 2002: According to House disclosure records, Keller and Michel traveled together on the 12th and 16th of the month. On the 18th, campaign disclosure records show that Michel received an early year-end bonus of $1,000. Disclosure filings showed no other Keller staffer received a bonus during the election cycle. Keller and his wife separated later in November.

December 2002: Michel departed from Keller’s staff. From January of 2001, when she started to work for Keller, and her departure date, she received a combined total of roughly $68,000–$17,000 for her work on his campaign and $51,000 for her work on his staff.

January 2003: According to the Orlando Weekly, “Keller isn’t answering questions” about the separation, but sources “close to the congressman” told the newspaper that he had “been unhappy with his marriage for two years.” (His unhappiness, thus, could be traced to January of 2001.) The sources suggest to the Weekly that the root problem was that “he [Keller] is outgoing while Cathy is quiet and reserved.” Those sources don’t mention that this “family values” congressman left his wife as she was battling Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative disease that impacts both sight and hearing.

Early-2003 (estimated): Michel began to work for Hammond & Associates, Keller’s political fundraising firm. The firm is based in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Between 2001 and 2006, Keller’s campaign paid Hammond more than $211,000. In 2006, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington issued a report listing Keller as one of 72 members of Congress who used campaign funds to pay relatives or their relatives’ employers during the prior six years. Among the firms that employed lawmakers’ relatives, Hammond ranked eighth highest in payments received.

March 5, 2003: Divorce finalized for Ric and Cathy Keller.

June 2004: According to the Orlando Sentinel, the National Republican Congressional Committee’s website “listed [Michel] as a contact for a Keller campaign fund-raiser where political action committees were asked to pay $2,500 to attend a weekend of festivities in Orlando, which included a ‘reception, theme park and golf for up to four people.’”

March 19, 2005: Keller wed Michel. His chief of staff, Bryan Malenius, told the Orlando Sentinel that he is “positive” that his boss “would not want to answer questions about when the two began dating.” Asked about that same question, ex-wife Cathy Keller said, “I don’t think, for the sake of the children, I can say anything about that.” (Cathy Keller declined to comment for this story.)

May 3, 2007: Keller filed his most recent financial disclosure statement with the House. Michel is still identified as an employee of Hammond & Associates–yet Hammond & Associates never seems to have listed Michel as an employee on its website. Did she work there or not? Was she an independent contractor? If so, did she raise money for Keller? Did she get a salary or a percentage of what she brought in? There’s no way of knowing for sure, since neither Hammond & Associates nor Keller replied to a request for comment. (As of early this year, Keller has primarily relied on a firm called Bellwether Consulting Group for fundraising help.)

Today, the one-time “Citizen Legislator” sits atop a campaign war chest of almost half a million dollars, much of it, according to the Orlando Sentinel, donated “from interests affected by legislation that comes before Keller’s two committees: judiciary and education.” Some outsider. Life in Congress has been good to Keller, who by all accounts enjoys the status, star power, and personal attention it brings him. It’s easy to see why he has reconsidered his ideas over both term limits and the sanctity of family values.

And he's never had to face an effective opponent before. Want to help?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best News Of The Day: Alan Grayson Crushes Reactionary Hacks In Orlando

Today Florida had its congressional primaries and with about 93% of the vote counted it's looking like Donna Edwards may soon have a strong progressive with a reform-minded agenda working with her in Congress. (Oh, there's still the general election in November... but Keller barely managed to hold onto his party's nomination against Todd Long who's getting 47% of the Republican vote.) AP has called the race for Grayson but says it's too close to call on the GOP side. (UPDATE: Keller was finally declared the winner late last night. But he is now seen a really damaged goods.)

Alan Grayson... 48.4%
Charlie Stuart... 27.5%
Mike Smith... 17.3%
Quoc Ba Van... 3.7%
Alexander Fry... 3.1%

Which ad do you think will be most effective in the general election?



or this?



And, think about donating to Alan's general election fund at our Blue America ActBlue page so he can keep running the ads. This is what red-to-blue is really about, not some more Inside the Beltway Stalinism.

The Grayson campaign paid for weeks of the above TV spots and Orlando's Democratic voters overwhelmingly backed him. Yesterday, according to The Hill Rep. Dennis Kucinich tried saying something similar at the Convention and it was editted out of his speech:

"They're asking for another four years -- in a just world, they'd get 10 to 20."

Alan Grayson (D-FL): Three Days Before Primary Day

Thirteen 2006 challengers endorsed by Blue America now sit in Congress-- Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), John Tester (D-MT) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), plus Reps. Arcuri (D-NY), Bruce Braley (D-IA), Carney, Donna Edwards (D-MD), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), John Hall (D-NY), Paul Hodes (D-NH), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Patrick Murphy (D-PA), and Joe Sestak (D-PA)-- and 4 others from 2006 had close calls and are poised to win in November: Vic Wulsin (D-OH), Larry Kissell (D-NC), Charlie Brown (D-CA) and Eric Massa (D-NY). Not one of these was a "sure thing" or even an easy race. We leave the easy races for others. Blue America does the hard ones. Our first pick of 2008 was Alan Grayson and this Tuesday he faces recently "converted" Republican Mike Smith and an establishment hack and wealthy clownish shill from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, Charlie Stuart, in the Democratic primary. After a very tough race Alan looks like the prohibitive favorite to win Tuesday and go into the general election campaign against incumbent rubber stamp Ric Keller with a full head of steam. I see Alan as one of the Blue America success stories. If you've missed our earlier chats with Alan, I want to recommend you read the Vanity Fair feature about his efforts fighting Iraq war profiteers or go over and watch some of the TV shows he's been on talking about these efforts.

Above is a clip of Alan's brand new TV ad which he just started running on Orlando television. It's powerful and to the point. I think you'll like the ending.

Today Alan is joining us in the comments section of Firedoglake at 2pm, EST for another chat. The other day I asked him to help me understand the whole concept of "change" in a political context.

Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination by being the candidate of change. Now John McCain says that he’s the candidate of change, and we bite our lips and try not to laugh out loud. But since the promise of change crosses the whole political spectrum, we’d better start thinking-- what will change... and how?

What will change are our priorities. Specifically, we will concentrate on meeting human needs, our needs. Health is a human need. Education is a human need. Public safety is a human need. Affordable transportation is a human need.

Here are some things that are not human needs: Making sure that you can own a gun. Preventing two people of the same gender from uniting. Insisting that other people speak English. Instigating unnecessary wars. When our priorities change, these issues take a back seat.

I, for one, would like to live in a place where the hungry are fed, the homeless are sheltered, the children are educated, and the sick are healed. That’s what we’ve been told, for around 3000 years, that a just society tries to accomplish.  Only recently has anyone suggested that a just society is one where everyone is packing heat.

And when that change occurs, the economy will improve dramatically. Why? Because meeting human needs keeps money in the country. If the bridge that fell down in Minneapolis-- which is still down-- were rebuilt, then the construction worker who rebuilds that bridge will make money. He will use that money to pay his rent, and his landlord will make money. The landlord will go to dinner in a restaurant in Minneapolis, and the waiter will make money. The waiter will get his hair cut, and the barber will make money. Meeting human needs means putting more money in the hands of Americans. And spending it on the war in Iraq means it’s gone, forever.

The U.S. trade deficit is $2 million a minute. Under the Bush Administration, money has gushed out of this country. No wonder gas is $4 a gallon, the cost of living is rising, unemployment is up, and the housing market is down. It’s the worst case of economic mismanagement in American history.

And that will change. Because people with a conscience are coming together, and saying “we need to take care of each other.” People with a conscience are taking power in America. And people are letting their conscience guide them.

We're changing. And that’s real change.

I have no doubt Alan is going to win on Tuesday. After that he faces a well-financed incumbent with nearly a million dollars on hand-- a well-financed incumbent who has been faithfully serving the special interests who have given him millions of dollars and have every intention of shelling out whatever they have to to keep him in office. But Orlando is a very changed district and Ric Keller has never been up against a candidate like Alan Grayson. This could be one of Blue America's most important achievements. Take a look at the clip up top again. In case you've forgotten, our Blue America page is here

Gerrymandering And Bribery Defining The Decline Of Representative Democracy

Ric Keller shed some major pounds-- and a GOP registration edge

Over the course of the last month, DWT has had an underlying theme running through it about how democracy doesn't thrive when big corporate entities flood the airwaves with billions of dollars to create "conventional wisdom" that the corporate candidate-- whether a Republican or a nominal Democrat from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- is "solid," "moderate," "trustworthy," "independent," or whatever they want to tag the bribe-takers who serve their special interests. And "billions" is not an exaggeration. Since 1990 here is a list of some of the industries that have bought off federal elected official. Next to each industry is the amount and the percentage that went to Republican candidates:

Commercial banks- $202,277,227 (60%)
Insurance- $295,786,177 (63%)
Big Oil & Gas- $220,438,183 (75%)
Pharmaceuticals- $156,914,005 (65%)
Real Estate- $548,872,745 (53%)
Telecoms- $112,197,677 (56%)
Automotive- $129,123,535 (75%)
Accounting- $104,391,210 (59%)
Gambling- $80,443,289 (46%)
Lobbyists- $141,823,142 (48%)
Health Professionals- $414,596,937 (57%)
Securities & Investment- $576,374,966 (50%)
Retail Sales- $124,338,201 (61%)
Crop Production- $101,769,909 (59%)
Air Transport- $114,112,051 (60%)
Beer, Wine & Liquor- $90,584,648 (56%)
Defense Aerospace- $63,932,281 (57%)
Tobacco- $60,567,666 (74%)

That's far from complete but that's already billions. And that money, as we've been pointing out, is going directly into enhancing the careers of politicians in return for votes of the special interests of the industries giving out the loot. And this is just the legal bribes. Not counted in this are unknowable sums that have been paid to overtly corrupt politicians like Ted Stevens (R-AK), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Duke Cunningham (R-CA), John McCain (R-AZ), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Tom DeLay (R-TX), Bob Ney (R-OH), William Jefferson (D-LA), Gary Miller (R-CA), John Doolittle (R-CA), Tom Feeney (R-FL), Don Young (R-AK), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Rick Renzi (R-AZ)...

You getting the picture? Without real-- not fake McCain style-- campaign finance reform, so anathema to Republicans and to Blue Dogs, Big Business will just continue to buy off Congress and our taxes will continue to be misappropriated and spent to enrich ambitious crooks-- inside and outside of government.

And there's another side to this systemic corruption as well, one covered-- at least from a Florida perspective-- in today's Orlando Sentinel by Scott Maxwell: Politicians Get To Pick Their Own Constituents. And Florida may be is one of the worst, but is certainly not unique. Short story: state legislators of whichever party controls the legislature get together once a decade (unless you're in Texas) and redraw, very specifically, legislative and congressional districts that virtually guarantee your party's-- or in really corrupt cases, like Tom Feeney's and the Diaz-Balart Brothers'-- your own slam dunk electoral victories. It's why almost no incumbent ever loses an election.

Maxwell tells the story of Republican rubber stamp hack John Mica whose bizarrely shaped district snakes through half a dozen counties looking for wealthy suburbs and avoiding people of color to create a safe Republican seat.

Not that Mica's complaining. His district may be long and unwieldy. But it's also solidly Republican -- which is precisely how it was designed.

In fact, the lines were crafted so precisely that five of these six Central Florida congressional districts favor Republicans-- even though collectively they contain more Democrats.

Welcome to politics in Florida-- where the deck's stacked before you even get to the polls.

Redistricting has long been a slimy game. Back when the Democrats were in charge in Tallahassee, they drew lines to suit their fancy. And Republicans cried foul... until they got in control and decided to do the same.

That leaves us with the mess we have today-- with districts that look like they were drawn by a drunken cartographer, splitting cities in half and following few logical geographic boundaries.

The other side of the black magic map making that created Mica's 7th district, also created the 3rd district, occupied by Corrine Brown, also twisting and turning this way and that, a district that Republicans created to dump as many Democrats in as possible, guaranteeing a seat to Corrine, but keeping lots of Democrats where they could do the least "harm" in the 5 other Central Florida districts. Her bizarrely drawn district has a PVI of D+16! Republicans don't bother to run there. But they know they will take the other 5 neighboring districts which have been sucked clean of Democrats. The result: 5 entrenched, extremely mediocre, Republican backbench rubber stamps with districts that have virtually guaranteed that-- between the corrupt campaign financing system and the advanced political-demographics of district drawing-- they will serve forever-- Ginny Brown-Waite (best known for threatening to dig up the bodies of Americans who died in France during the World Wars because France wouldn't attack Iraq), Cliff Stearns, the aforementioned Mica, the more-mediocre-than-Brown-Waite Ric Keller, and Florida's most corrupt politician, Tom Feeney.

This year it looks like Brown-Waite and Stearns are home free, Mica and Feeney will have spirited challenges, and Ric Keller will probably lose his seat, due at least in part to a vastly superior opponent (Alan Grayson) and a fortuitous and significant Democratic shift in registration. And Corrine? She's safer than anyone, of course. Republicans, points out Maxwell, "crammed so many Democrats into Corrine Brown's serpentine district, which snakes its way through nine counties from Orlando to Jacksonville, that there were enough Republicans left over to make the rest of the districts GOP-friendly." And, like I said, Florida is bad, but by no means alone. Certainly Texas and California are just as bad. Florida, at least, may address this corruption with a state constitutional amendment that takes the power for redrawing districts out of the hands of politicians. There are innovative proposals to address this problem around the country. And, who knows, one day voters may even realize politicians should not get to define what is-- and what isn't-- bribery.

Alan Grayson TV Ad Looks Like A Game Changer

Alan Grayson is the Blue America-endorsed candidate running against garden variety rubber stamp Republican Ric Keller in an Orlando district that has been turning blue. Early balloting started this week for Florida's primary election and Alan has been the only candidate with a TV ad up-- and what a TV ad! If every Democratic candidate had an ad this powerful to run, we wouldn't be talking about 12-20 House seats; we'd be talking about 30-50. Of course, not every candidate has a story as compelling as Alan's. Take a look at the ad:



If you'd like to see Alan keep this running, please consider donating to his campaign at the Blue America ActBlue page. As you just saw, he knows how to make effective use of the donations that come in.

Stoller has more-- much more.

UPRISING IN FLORIDA-- MEET DOUG TUDOR

Worries congressmen who voted for warrantless wiretaps violated their oaths of office

In November, 2005, it was Arkansas Democrat Marion Berry who famously referred to Florida wingnut Adam Putnam as that "Howdy Doody-looking nimrod." Back then Putnam was working hard to set up the conditions that have led to the economic collapse this country is experiencing now. The bill he was pushing and that Berry was opposing was an attempt to throw "220,000 people off food stamps, allow states to impose new costs on Medicaid beneficiaries, squeeze student lenders and cut education funding, cut aid to state child-support enforcement programs and trim farm supports."

Republicans, particularly his mentor, Tom DeLay, liked Putnam's reactionary ideas and he was brought into their House leadership. Last week he was leading the House Republicans to destroy the U.S. Constitution and arbitrarily moving away from the concept of the rule of law. Nazi Germany didn't go from a democratic republic to a fascist dictatorship in one night. It took many years of hard work by politicians exactly like Adam Putnam to bring that about.

Yesterday, DWT contacted Doug Tudor, a twenty year naval veteran who has decided to challenge Putnam is his central Florida bastion east of Tampa. Formerly a strong Democratic district, dispirited Democrats didn't even bother running a candidate in 2006. Tudor is shaking up politics in Polk County, not by trying to echo Republican talking points but by presenting a clear and powerful alternative, the alternative Americans want to hear. Predictably, the cowardly Democratic Establishment, which prefers Republican-lite candidates, is trying to ignore his grassroots race. Tudor, who traveled to Iraq over 30 times, has been endorsed by Democracy for America. His politics are strongly progressive across the board. He wants to end the war in Iraq. He defends a woman's right to choice. He would never support inequality for any Americans and he supports the equal rights for gay men and women. He knows Bush will never end the war and in his campaign speeches he calls on Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Florida Senator Bill Nelson to end the war. I had a feeling he might have something to say about warrantless wiretapping and retroactive immunity. He did:

“On five occasions during my Navy career, I raised my hand and affirmed ‘to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.’ Members of Congress take a similar oath. I believe that those members who voted in favor of HR 6304 did so in violation of their oath of office. I would have voted against this bill.”

Another central Florida Democrat campaigning on a platform of progressive reform, Alan Grayson, is coming from a similar perspective. He is also running against a Bush rubber stamp happy to trade away our liberties for campaign contributions from Telecoms, Ric Keller. (Putnam scooped up $12,500 from the telecoms this year and Keller sold his vote for about half that-- $6,000.) Grayson is confident that Americans are as angered by this betrayal as he is. "If they really want to know what the American People are saying and thinking, there's no need to spy on us. All they have to do is read the newspaper headlines on Nov. 5."

SCOTT McCLELLAN'S LITTLE FALLING OUT WITH THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN RUBBER STAMPS

No more thick as thieves

Yesterday it was the activism end of being a blogger that was driving me, more than the journalism end. We got a little involved with Steny Hoyer's collaborative efforts with the Bush Regime to undermine the Constitution, helping collect a couple hundred grand and working with a team on some newspaper ads. In the process we lost touch with the ongoing saga of Scott McClellan who testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Even before he showed up, something remarkable had happened-- a former Bush Regimist agreed to voluntarily come before a congressional committee-- without a subpoena-- and give sworn testimony. For Republicans this was shock and awe! And they reacted... well, they reacted like school yard bullies react when there's no adult around. According to US News and World Report, "Republicans went straight for his throat."

He was dismissed as a "disgruntled former employee." He was likened to no less than the apostle Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus Christ-- and that by a fellow Texas Republican. "Scott McClellan alone," Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio intoned, "will have to wrestle with whether it was worth selling out his president and friends for a few pieces of silver."

Although quite a few Republicans tried their hand at character assassination, afterwards it was generally agreed that the Clown Of The Day Award went to the now svelte former rolly polly rubber stamp from Orlando, Ric Keller, who demanded to know -- out of the blue-- whether McClellan remembered ever taking illegal drugs. If Scott had wanted to play rough with Keller he could have asked him what his role was in his major campaign donor Lou Pearlman's child molestation scandal. It would have been far more germane than Keller's sleazy question.

According to the account in this morning's NY Times, McClellan thinks it was probably Cheney rather than Bush who was behind the leaking of Valerie Plame's name to the press. "I do not think the president in any way had knowledge about it. In terms of the vice president, I do not know. There is a lot of suspicion there." Bush didn't exactly come off heroically either. McClellan said he should how he decided to invade Iraq since he was "less than candid and less than honest" about persuading the American public that it was necessary to attack Iraq.

One of the most lunatic fringe extremists in the whole GOP, Iowa nutcase Steve King, has no interest in getting to the truth and seems to feel no one else should either. He asked McClellan why he couldn't have just "taken some of this to the grave with you and done this country a favor?" King, of course, has a long and shameful career of mixing up "the country" and the radical wing of his political party.

BLUE AMERICA LIVE DISCUSSION TODAY WITH ALAN GRAYSON (D-FL)

Late in January, Blue America made its first endorsement of the year, central Florida progressive, Alan Grayson. Because Alan is a distinguished and knowledgeable attorney, we asked him to come back to Firedoglake today (2-4pm, EST) to talk with us about this week's Supreme Court ruling. Before we get into that, though, let me remind you that there are many issues on the minds of Orlando voters above and beyond Bush's unlawful detainees. Alan's opponent-- going out of his way once again to show what an utter rubber stamp he is-- refused to join the veto-proof majority in the House this week when it passed a bill to extend unemployment benefits for struggling workers.

This is especially ironic since Ric Keller voted down the line for every failed economic policy spewed out by the Bush Regime, the actual cause of the catastrophic unemployment trends, the mortgage crisis, the spiraling inflation and the whole glorious Bush Economic Miracle. When I asked Alan Wednesday about Keller's refusal to give working people a break he predicted he would soon regret his vote. "Keller will wish that he'd voted for it when he's unemployed, on Nov. 5th."

Alan's campaign has put together a video that is a good introduction to him and his candidacy and it might be a good idea to watch it before we get into a discussion with Alan:



If you agree with me that Alan is just the kind of forward-looking and proactive guy we need in Congress, please consider joining me in donating, or donating again, to his campaign at our Blue America page. We have a box of brand new 2-disc sets (Quixotic, which doesn't come out until July 8) from Matt Keating and the first 20 people to donate at least $30 today get the CD set.

HOW BUSH REGIME AND ITS ALLIES ROBBED US BLIND-- THE GREATEST HEIST IN HISTORY

Well, the Bush Regime robbed us blind in many ways. The destruction of the federal regulatory system has basically given Bush Family allies license to steal-- everything. We had a chance to stop them after Enron. But we didn't and now we have a mortgage crisis, an energy crisis and an inflationary cycle that is rapidly derailing the economy. But that isn't what we're here to discuss today. Today we're here to talk about war profiteers and $23 billion missing "in Iraq." Before you watch it, I want to point out that the lawyer in the blue shirt is Alan Grayson, the Blue America-endorsed running against Republican rubber stamp Ric Keller in Orlando. I want to urge you to watch this and if you get the idea to donate to Alan's campaign after you see it... here's the place.

UPDATE: THE VIDEO HAS BEEN REMOVED... BUT

There's a gag order on the BBC investigators and I don't know if that's why the video has been removed from the internet. It can only be viewed in England now.

We found another video, although just the part that has the Alan Grayson parts. I'll try to get the full film back. Meanwhile, this one is worth looking at:

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY VISION FOR AMERICA-- EAT DUST AND DIE

Yesterday I started the day by painting a picture of the Republican Party dream of unfettered, unregulated capitalism, the kind that brings us polluted streams and air, as well as food, medicine and products that kill, gasoline prices through the roof and a current mortgage crisis that is dragging the whole economy down the toilet. Selfish, greed-obsessed Republicans are willing to push people until the have no choice but to strike back. FDR once saved the country from the evils of Republican excess. Bush is far worse than Coolidge and Hoover ever were. I sure hope Obama can rise to the occasion.

Meanwhile, the House, at least, is trying to ameliorate the worst of the Bush Regime's war on regulatory sanity. Yesterday 22 Republicans got in a mainstream mood and joined every single Democrat-- even the worst reactionary goons like John Barrow, Jim Marshall, and Nick Lampson-- to pass the kind of act that doesn't move Rev. Wright out of the headlines for one second-- but an act that will save countless Americans tremendous grief. Many of the Republicans who joined the Democrats to do the right thing (instead of the right-wing thing) are the ones who have already announced their retirements-- but not all.

H.R. 5522 (which Mitch McConnell is already plotting to filibuster to death in the Senate) is the Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosion and Fire Act. If McConnell's filibuster fails-- it may-- and if Bush is too embarrassed to veto it, the bill will require the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to issue rules regulating combustible industrial dusts, like sugar dust, that can build up to hazardous levels and explode, the way it did this past February at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia. The explosion killed 13 workers and injured dozens. Jesse Lee has far more details on the bill.

You might wonder how anyone could oppose a measure like this. 165 Republican extremists did. But many of the wingnuts who are in the worst jeopardy of losing their jobs in November slinked over to the Democratic side of the aisle yesterday and voted to help regular working Americans for a change, including radical-right nuts like Don Young (AK), Fred Upton (MI), the 3 GOP extremists in south Florida (the petrified Diaz-Balart brothers and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen), John McHugh (NY), Phil English (PA), Jon Porter (NV), Steven LaTourette (OH), and Thaddeus McCotter (MI).

Alan Grayson, the Blue America-endorsed candidate from Orlando, was in Somalia a few months ago. "No schools, no water, no garbage collection, no police," he told me. "Truly, a libertarian paradise.  And a 1000-mile-wide dumpster... Who are these nuts, who would rather see us sick, hurt or dead, than to have the law protect us?  What kind of 'homeland security' is it that 'protects' us from bottled water and nail files at the airport, but not from explosive dust?  Why don't all these black-helicopter, tin-foil-hat paranoids who feel that the law should be disemboweled move to Somalia-- there's a real no-government, libertarian paradise."

Almost all of our Blue America candidates for the House are facing lunatic fringe Republicans who refused to vote for this basic safety measure. Here's a partial list of the reactionaries who opposed this proven danger in the workplace:
Scott Garrett (NJ)
Charles Dent (PA)
Dave Reichert (WA)
Michael McCaul (TX)
Mean Jean Schmidt (OH)
Ric Keller (FL)-- the kook who Alan Grayson is challenging in Orlando
David Dreier (CA)
Robin Hayes (NC)
Dana Rohrabacher (CA)
Randy Kuhl (NY)
Tim Walberg (MI)
Gary Miller (CA)

Any of the anti-government reactionaries above could be captured on camera saying the same thing, but today we have a quote from New Jersey extremist Scott Garrett (courtesy of BlogTheFifth) explaining his law of the jungle "philosophy" of government-- although not its consequences. Please watch Garrett summing up in one minute why the 21st Century should see the demise of the Republican Party. And after you watch, think about these words from Dennis Shulman, the progressive Democrat running against him in the northernmost district of New Jersey. "Scott Garrett has endorsed the sentiment that members of Congress ought to go to Washington `to eliminate government,' and he is voting in line with that sentiment, opposing even the most basic effort by the government to provide common sense protections for America's working people. Obviously, people should not be forced to choose between a paycheck and a basic level of safety-- that's why we need OSHA to look out for people."




UPDATE: ONE OF THE OPPONENTS OF SAFTEY IN THE WORKPLACE REGULATIONS IS INLAND EMPIRE EXTREMIST GARY MILLER

Miller's progressive opponent, Ron Shepston, doesn't seem surprised that his congressman is on the wrong side of this issue. "I can say that I find it amazing that so many Republicans can carry their knee-jerk reaction against government involvement so far as to vote against something that is so fundamentally important. If you ask most Republicans if government should fund the military the response would be near universal but there are many other issues that are just as important to our country and our values which they somehow trust to the private sector. It never seems to occur to them that the founders recognized that bad behavior drives out good. No less than Thomas Jefferson worried about this and felt at the deepest levels that the function of government was to protect citizens from monied interests. Their ignorance knows no bounds. Fortunately, voters are running from them in droves."

IS BUSH STARTING TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT WAR PROFITEERING?

Well, perhaps... but not the way one would expect the nation's chief law enforcement official to. Sure, the Bush Regime is trying to convince concerned voters they are cracking down on rampant war profiteering by their biggest supporters-- without damaging said supporters (of course). So they found some chumps to charge and now they're ballyhooing what awesome war profiteer fighters they are. It's a farce and I called Blue America's expert in this area, Alan Grayson, and asked him to explain what's going on. Keep in mind that Alan is running for Congress in Orlando against one of Bush's most pathetic and consistent rubber stamps, Ric Keller. If you'd like to see a real war profiteer fighter in Washington next year, please consider contributing to Alan's campaign here. His report:

The Bush Administration, having learned nothing, continues to operate as if the appearance of doing its job were just as good as-- maybe better than-- actually doing its job. Case in point: recently touting to the Chicago Tribune that a handful of unfortunate souls, around eight or so in five years, have been indicted for work that they did while employed by KBR and Halliburton in Iraq. And this is supposed to give the appearance that the Bush Administration actually has taken a stab at upholding the laws against war profiteering in Iraq. "Heck of a job, DOJ."

But something is wrong with this picture. These folks have been indicted for their roles in submitting bloated bills to the Army and the taxpayer, but KBR and Halliburton never had to give any of that money back. And KBR and Halliburton themselves have escaped all punishment, not only for the overbilling, but also for establishing and perpetuating a crooked system in which such criminals flourished.

The Chicago Tribune's report was front-page news. You know what really would be front-page news? If Dick Cheney's old company ever was held accountable for even a penny of the waste and fraud that they've perpetrated on the troops, and the taxpayers.

POSSIBLE BREAKTHROUGH IN ANTI-HALLIBURTON WAR PROFITEER CASE

Hopefully you had a chance to catch the exciting discussion we had last Saturday over at FDL with one of the most provocative and best qualified Democratic congressional candidates of the year, Alan Grayson (FL-08). He hopes to bring his tremendous expertise in prosecuting war profiteers to Washington next year. I can't think of much Washington needs more.

So when I saw an A.P. story about an appeals court reconsidering a quashed case against Halliburton, the first person I turned to was Alan.

A federal judge in Houston had thrown out lawsuits filed by truckers and their families against Halliburton and its former subsidiary, KBR Inc., over a deadly ambush on April 9, 2004, that killed six KBR drivers, wounded others and left one missing and presumed dead.

On Wednesday, lawyers for the truckers and their families asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to overturn the judge's ruling and reinstate their cases. The plaintiffs accuse KBR of knowingly sending its workers into harm's way while delivering fuel to U.S. troops at a Baghdad airport.

"We're cautiously optimistic that the 5th Circuit is going to get it right," said Roger Hawkins, lawyer for former KBR trucker Reginald Lane, who was wounded in the convoy attack.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit heard arguments from lawyers for both sides during a rare closed-door session. It could take several months for the court to issue a ruling.

Truckers' relatives were allowed into the courtroom, but the hearing was closed to the public and media.

Halliburton and Houston-based KBR asked for the closed hearing because they said "confidential information," including an Army investigative report on the ambush by Iraqi insurgents, would be discussed.

Tobias Cole, a lawyer for wounded trucker Kevin Smith-Idol, said he didn't hear any references to "top secret" information during the hearing. He questioned the companies' motives for seeking a closed hearing.

"They're just trying to hide their own negligence," Cole said.

Alan can relate. "The most interesting thing about this report on the appeals court argument," he told me yesterday, "is that Halliburton was able to get the court to conduct the argument in secret. Halliburton's central strategy, from beginning to end, is to keep the American public in the dark about what it's been doing in Iraq. That's why they insist on these closed-door sessions. That's why they require their employees to arbitrate their claims in secret. That's why they get draconian 'protective' orders (really, gag orders) in all their federal cases. That's why they block every FOIA request for their records. What they seem to forget is that they're bathing in OUR MONEY, taxpayer money, and we have a right to know how they've been spending it, wasting it, and stealing it."

Alan is challenging the ultimate rubber stamp nonentity in central Florida, a do-nothing lump named Ric Keller. Keller's biggest claim to fame was some kind of hysterical grandstanding to prevent customers from suing fast food chains like McDonald's-- just before he collected some hefty campaign contributions from OSI Restaurant Partners and the National Restaurant Association, helping bring his total of legalized bribes from the Food & Beverages industry to $64,450 in 2006 alone (not counting the further $34,600 he scooped up from the booze industry). Last year Keller outspent his Democratic opponent $1,691,408 to $984,771. Let's narrow that gap a little this year with a little Blue America action


UPDATE: AND BUSH LETS THEM GET AWAY WITHOUT PAYING TAXES

This from the March 6 Boston Globe: "Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven."

BLUE AMERICA IS BACK IN ACTION-- WITH ALAN GRAYSON (FL-08)

Meet Alan live at FDL today at 2 PM (EST)

It's been over two months since Blue America has endorsed a new candidate (Gretchen Clearwater in Indiana's 9th CD against reactionary Blue Dog Baron Hill). In the interim we've been urging progressives to donate to the progressives in early primary battles, particularly Donna Edwards (MD-04), John Laesch (IL-14), Mark Pera (IL-03), and Vic Wulsin (OH-02). Today we've invited a truly exceptional candidate on for a chat, someone who has already accomplished a great deal outside of government and who wants to run against corrupt Republican rubber stamp Ric Keller in central Florida. Before we get into just how Alan Grayson has been working on our behalf as a private citizen, let's take a look at the district and the race as it's shaping up.

Keller has been a rubber stamp backbencher from FL-08 (Orlando area) since 2000 and has accrued an unremarkable, albeit abysmal, voting record across the board, supporting the far right line on everything-- from choice (anti) to gay rights (anti) to Bush's ill-advised war and occupation of Iraq (pro). The district, which has seen a huge influx of new residents-- something like 150,000-- many of whom are from Puerto Rico, has been trending blue. Since 2002, Keller's majorities have shrunk down from 65% to 61% to 53%. The more people get to know him, the less they like him.

Last year he ran against a reactionary old-line Democrat, Charlie Stuart, part of the Central Florida establishment-- at least by marriage-- with no personal accomplishments whatsoever (a kind of mini-Bush in that respect) and with policy positions that should ring alarm bells... loudly: anti-choice, pro-corporation, unwilling to speak out against the Iraq fiasco. He wants to run again this year. Fortunately, Alan Grayson can prevent Florida voters being stuck with a choice between a horrible Republican and a nearly as bad Democrat.

Last Sunday DWT carried a story, The Crime of the Century: A Scandal of Epic Proportions That Will Haunt the Legacy of the Bush Regime. In many ways that-- and the Vanity Fair expose it's based on-- is the perfect introduction to Alan Grayson and what makes him the perfect progressive candidate, and someone Beltway Insiders, and especially everyone inside the Bush Regime, needs to be very, very afraid of. Alan knows exactly where all the bodies are buried-- and he can't wait to get to Congress so the judicial gag order he's under won't apply. And it goes beyond "just" Halliburton, KBR and the usual war profiteer suspects. You know all the crime always being alluded to in regard to members of Congress and defense contractors? They better pray with all their might that Grayson doesn't wind up with "Representative" in front of his name. When I asked him, for example, about Duncan Hunter, Duke Cunningham and Jerry Lewis he replied "I wish I could tell you about that actually, but the rule about sealed cases is such that I'd get locked up if I did." But not on the floor of the House. Instead he was able to speak in generalities:

I think what the Republicans, particularly the ones in California and the Southwest in general have recognized is that you can make an awful lot of money from government contracting. In regard to Iraq, I've described those people as 'war-whores.' But it's not limited to Iraq, and in Southern California-- particularly in the area around San Diego [this is Duncan Hunter/Duke Cunningham-Brian Bilbray/Jerry Lewis/Darrell Issa/Dana Rohrabacher/Ken Calvert territory; sound familiar?]-- there's an awful lot of companies that exist, basically, to rip off the government. And I think that's one reason why the U.S. Attorney in San Diego was replaced [by the Alberto Gonzales Justice Dept.]... concerns that there would be legitimate investigations into that whole scene. Government contracting generates a huge amount of profit-- some of it legitimate, some of it illegitimate-- that is doled out to people in accordance with a very subjective process that's subject to all sorts of favoritism and manipulation. Sometimes the people who are in a position to dole out this money are influenced by the people who end up receiving it. And that's what we call in general terms 'corruption.' ... The only part of the Defense Department that's actually been cut since Bush took over has been the auditing staff.

Alan Grayson has been investigating and prosecuting corruption and, particularly war profiteering cases, for quite some time. Few people-- other than someone like Dick Cheney, of course-- know as much about it as he does. We need this man in Congress... now.

For those who haven't had a chance to read it yet, let me quote from the end of the Vanity Fair article:

In the more distant future, a Democratic administration might open up the vaults and expose the American public to the scale of what has been looted. "What we have seen up to now is the worst of the worst in terms of a deliberate cover-up," Grayson says. But if and when it comes to an end, he thinks it's entirely possible that Congress will appoint a special prosecutor-- one whose targets might one day reach "an extremely high level."

After Jane sent me this I called Alan and read it to him on the phone and asked him if he'd be advocating impeachment for Bush and Cheney now if he were in Congress. He didn't hesitate or hum or haw. He just said, "Absolutely. The right wing's worst nightmare would be Alan Grayson with subpoena power. Gag order and the threat of criminal contempt have kept me and my clients quiet up until this point but if I get elected to the House of Representatives that's all gone. The speech and debate clause protects me entirely. At that point I can tell everybody everything that I know and, on top of that I'll have the ability to actually hold hearings, launch investigations, assign staff and subpoena people... Just on the basis of what I know of government contracting alone I think that there are strong arguments in favor of impeachment."

I'm eager for Congressman Grayson's first tete a tete with Madam Speaker. If you want to see that too-- and to see a progressive leader and fighter from central Florida, someone who believes with his whole being that "you don't beat Republicans by imitating Republicans," please consider 2008's first Blue America plea. Let's help this guy get the Democratic nomination and then beat the Republican rubber stamp.

Yesterday Alan put together a special little video clip for Crooks and Liars and I suggest you take a look.

TOMORROW'S BLUE AMERICA CANDIDATE: ALAN GRAYSON

We've written a bit about Alan Grayson here, here, and here and tomorrow (Saturday) he'll be our guest at Firedoglake at 11am, PT (2pm in Florida). We'll be talking with him about his experiences prosecuting war profiteers and about his campaign for Congress in the Orlando area. But there's a lot more to Alan Grayson, of course. You can see something about him, his wife and five children at his website bio. But I wanted to find a way to give people a better feel for who Alan Grayson really is.

While we talked on the phone, he wound up talking about Joni Mitchell... a lot. I asked him why she is so important to him. I thought if I shared that with you, you might get a feel for where this guy is coming from beside the fact that he is a strong and committed progressive.

Can one person be the soul of a whole generation? If so, then Joni Mitchell is that person, for every child of the '60s and the '70s. "I am a woman of heart and mind," she sang, and she has been sharing with us what is in her heart, and on her mind, for almost all our lives. In song after song, she introduced us to characters of surreal depth and texture: "Edith and the Kingpin," "A Strange Boy," "The Last Time I Saw Richard," "Nathan La Franeer," and so on. And she introduced and then re-introduced us to her ever-evolving self, as in "Refuge of the Roads," "The Silky Veils of Ardor" and "Chinese Cafe." Wise enough to create "The Circle Game" and "Both Sides, Now," funny enough to create "Twisted," and soulful enough to create "Big Yellow Taxi" and, of course, "Woodstock." Chronicler of love for the first liberated generation. Creator of songs I want to share with my children. Voice of an angel, beauty of a goddess, wisdom of a maharishi, conscience of a saint. 
 
Everything we need to know, we learned-- or can learn-- from Joni Mitchell.

By the way, you don't have to wait 'til tomorrow. We've already opened our Blue America page for Alan. Ric Keller likes boy bands. If you want to elect a progressive who understands the difference between the Backstreet Boys and Joni Mitchell... well, you know.

DOES THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY HAVE A CANDIDATE FOR THE MOST COMPETITIVE CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT IN FLORIDA?

Ric Keller-- very vulnerable

Republican Ric Keller is the congressman from Disneyland and I've noticed that the DCCC says they're targeting his district this year. Makes sense; the 8th CD has been trending bluer and bluer, his steady pattern and ethical misbehavior is finally catching up with him and the Orlando-area district is definitely ripe for a Democratic takeover. But there's a problem. In 2006 the Democratic candidate, Charlie Stuart, took 46% of the vote. He wants to run against Keller again this year. And the problem? Stuart is a reactionary Dixiecrat whose attitudes are more in line with the GOP than with what actual Democrats are looking for. For starters, he's been against a woman's right to choice and he's been in favor of, or at best ambivalent about, Bush's irresponsible occupation of Iraq. He's a supremely flawed candidate who thinks campaigning against gay equality is a winning issue and, looking at where he stands, he should probably be challenging Keller in a Republican primary rather than trying to run as a Democrat.

He's failed at everything he's ever put his hand to, except marrying the daughter of an extremely wealthy-- albeit corrupt-- farmer (owner of the Larson Dairy, best known for illegally selling cows stuffed with massive doses of antibiotics). He calls himself a "marketing consultant" and a "successful small businessman" but, in fact, like Bush, he's a nothing at all-- just someone who lucked into a great deal of money and is now looking for something to do. His brother, a prominent-- and reactionary-- Orlando Republican and the head of that city's Chamber of Commerce, was a major contributor to his last campaign. Oy.

The question of whether or not Stuart is actually a Democrat is not just based on his family connections or even his positions on issues. When he ran last time he promised voters he would not vote for Nancy Pelosi to be Speaker, not because she had taken impeachment off the table but because he felt she was "too liberal."

Yeah, the DCCC says they're targeting FL-08. Yeah, Ric Keller is a corrupt car-wreck of an incumbent with scandals coming out of every inch of his career, but unless the Democratic Party comes up with a serious candidate, this will be another wasted opportunity.

Last summer, when I was investigating Republican Congressman Lil' Patrick McHenry's involvement in a spectacular triple gay Republican homicide/[suicide?] in Orlando, I got to know some of the reporters at the Orlando Sentinel. I got back in touch with them to ask why there has been virtually no in depth reporting on such a hot congressional race and why both Keller and Stuart get such an easy ride from the paper. "Well, Keller... he's a Republican. They get easy rides [giggles]... And Stuart... well, Jane Healy is the editorial page editor and she's got a lot of say-so and they say she went to school with Stuart and makes sure the paper goes easy on him." Wow! And oops.

Is there any alternative? My reporter pals told me to expect a couple of primary challengers for Keller-- wing-nuts Todd Long and Bob Hering, neither of whom has much of a chance. They thought I would like the environmental activist running as a Democrat, Corbett Kroehler and suggested I also look into an attorney/activist they think is the sleeper for the Democrats, the only one who could actually defeat Stuart and then Keller, Alan Grayson. Jane over at FDL suggested I read the recent Vanity Fair article about how Grayson is going after Halliburton and other contractors and war-profiteers who are ripping off tax-payers in Iraq.

Grayson spends most of his days and many of his evenings on a lonely legal campaign to redress colossal frauds against American taxpayers by private contractors operating in Iraq. He calls it "the crime of the century."

His obvious adversaries are the contracting corporations themselves-- especially Halliburton, the giant oil-services conglomerate where Vice President Dick Cheney spent the latter half of the 1990s as C.E.O., and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root, now known simply as KBR. But he says his efforts to take on those organizations have earned him another enemy: the United States Department of Justice.

Over the past 16 years, Grayson has litigated dozens of cases of contractor fraud. In many of these, he has found the Justice Department to be an ally in exposing wrongdoing. But in cases that involve the Iraq war, the D.O.J. has taken extraordinary steps to stand in his way. Behind its machinations, he believes, is a scandal of epic proportions-- one that may come to haunt the legacy of the Bush administration long after it is gone.

Maybe we need to invite this guy over for a Blue America q&a. He sounds like a real Democrat issues-wise. He's not pandering to the Republican-lite crowd at all and as for being a fighter... well hit that Vanity Fair link and read the story if you want to know if he's a fighter or not. Let me look into this some more and we'll see how far we want to take it.

FILTHY FLORIDA POLITICS: THE LOU PEARLMAN-RIC KELLER CONNECTION

Rep. Ric Keller eats less than contributor Lou Pearlman

When I worked at Warner Bros. Records we weren't exactly Boy Band Headquarters. There was one randy gay A&R guy who used to try to do what, traditionally-- and repulsively-- many straight A&R men have always done: used their immense power of the promise to make life's ultimate dream come true in return for sex. The straight guys did it with young women. The gay guy did it with young men. It pissed me off. I did all I could to thwart him but sometimes he got away with his foul deeds. And I eventually would wind up as friends of some of his victims-- some of whom became waiters and some of whom became superstars. I just got off the phone with one of the former superstars.

I had just read Pach's stories about crooked Boy Band entrepreneur/molester Lou Pearlman at Huff Po and I called... "Mr. X" for a quick consultation. He was a boy band with a couple of ten 10 songs and he was friends with all the other boy bands. Let me quote him when I asked about Pearlman: "I knew there was shit going on before he was caught. He is disgusting. I had friends who worked at Jive who told me that is how Backstreet [Boys] got out of their arrangement with him; they were going to expose it all." He then went on to recount some very explicit details I'll leave out.

Pearlman has been authoritatively alleged to be ripping off his young proteges for many many years-- and he's also been alleged to have been ripping off their trousers. He's in jail now and last week's Rolling Stone recounted how one boy from every band had to take it for the team and give in to his perverted lust.

The good news is that Pearlman wasn't your typical toilet trawling Republican like Bob Allen or Larry Craig. But he sure was writing checks to Republican politicians. According to the Orlando Sentinel the Florida Attorney General (a Democrat) opened an investigation into what turned out to be $300 million in grand larceny by Pearlman. Pearlman donated thousands of dollars to his Republican opponent who won the election and promptly dropped the case against his campaign contributor. The Republican Attorney General, by the way, is another Republican closet case. He's also now the Governor of Florida!

But the politician who Pearlman was most attracted to is one of Florida's most crooked, the Abramoff and Delay-tainted Ric Keller. Between 2000, when he first ran for Congress, and 2006, when Pearlman skipped town and fled to Bali, he wrote Keller at least six thousand dollar checks. Keller, who is facing another tough re-election effort, as well as a major primary challenge by an even more extreme wing nut than himself, refuses to return the money.

Keller, who is divorced, represents the 8th CD (Disneyworld and Orange County). The district went for Bush in 2000 and 2004 but has been trending blue and Keller only managed an anemic 53% last year against a very weak anti-choice Democrat, Charlie Stuart. The DCCC sees FL-08 as a prime target this year and Keller as one of the most vulnerable of Republican incumbents. So far there are 5 Democrats looking to take Keller on, Charlie Stuart again plus environmental activist and progressive Corbett Kroehler, attorneys Alan Grayson and Mike Smith (who smells very DCCC), and a law student named Quoc Van. Keller has two primary challengers, Bob Hering and whacko right wing radio host Todd Long. This should be a fun district to watch.