Jeff Merkley Wins First Senate Debate In Oregon

Last night Oregon's Bush rubber stamp, Gordon Smith, was so completely and utterly mauled by progressive Democrat Jeff Merkley that he confused Arnold Schwarzenegger with Sarah Palin in his small, narrow mind. Thirty second clip:



It's amazing how badly veteran Republican senators have been doing this week against Democratic challengers in debates. Wednesday in Tulsa Andrew Rice wiped the floor with clueless reactionary James Inhofe and last night Rick Noriega so flustered John Cornyn that Cornyn actually admitted that he stands for the status quo! At least he didn't lie. John Cornyn is the embodiment of what Bush wants in a U.S. Senator, someone who has rubber stamped every single misguided, catastrophic, half-assed proposal he made. The Senate-- and the country-- would be far better off without the likes of Gordon Smith, James Inhofe and John Cornyn. Do something about all three... here. (And if you're in Dallas Tuesday, be sure to go to Bill Clinton's rally for Rick Noriega. He and Hillary have been stepping up to the plate for Rick big time.)

So What Happened In The Senate Yesterday?

Your host with one of last night's very few heroes

Yesterday morning when I woke up and put on the TV I saw Chuck Schumer talking about why the bailout recovery bill needed to pass and how they would sweeten it up to get some House Republicans to jump on board, I knew progressives and regular American working families were going to be screwed again for the benefit of the crooked dealers who finance the careers of people like Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and provide them with their levers to power.

Four senators I trust to always put working families first-- Russ Feingold, Bernie Sanders, Jon Tester and Ron Wyden-- voted no. Feingold said the bill was "well intentioned" and an improvement over the bill Paulson tried using Shock and Awe to ramrod through but that it is still "deeply flawed."

 It fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression. The bailout legislation also fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn't do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess.

Blue America Senate candidate in Oregon, Jeff Merkley, also explained why he would have voted no, as well. (He's running against Bush rubber stamp and huge recipient of Wall Street bribes, Gordon Smith, who, of course, voted yes.) Jeff commended Oregon's other senator, Ron Wyden for voting in the interest of regular working families. Jeff:

"I have dedicated much of my life to advocating for consumers and I believe it is just wrong to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to bailout the very Wall Street financiers who created this crisis. This bill will allow those same executives to walk away with golden parachutes, while doing nothing to end the abuses of oversight that caused this mess or help working families who need their own economic rescue. This proposal is badly flawed and adding a number of important unrelated items, no matter how worthy, does not fix the problems with this bailout. 
 
"While we must act quickly to avoid further instability in the market, we must also act prudently to ensure that the medicine doesn't make the patient sicker. Last week I laid out clear principles to address this crisis. To protect taxpayers we should require that the government only purchase distressed assets from American companies and not foreign banks. Second, CEOs on Wall Street who created this crisis should not be walking away with millions in their pockets. I want a deal that provides sufficient oversight and accountability of our markets. And we cannot ignore the suffering on Main Street, sidelining our homeowners and allowing deceptive practices to lead more families into bankruptcy.
 
"Like Congressman DeFazio and Senator Wyden, I am committed to the Secure Rural Schools Act and will fight each and every day for Oregon's rural communities. Now my opponent will attack me and say I am opposed to county payments and various tax cuts, but absolutely nothing could be further from the truth.
 
"This is what they do in Washington. They take a bad proposal and add $150 billion of sweeteners to satisfy enough people. This is not how to solve problems.
 
"The crisis on Wall Street and the need for a bailout is an indictment of the failed economic policies of Gordon Smith and George Bush. Their philosophy resulted in unimaginable abuses and excesses on Wall Street and now Washington is making taxpayers clean up the mess. Congress and the Administration should go back to the drawing board and come back with a proposal that prevents more economic pain for families and small businesses and meets some minimum standards to protect taxpayers and guarantee accountability on Wall Street."

 
Rick Noriega, the Blue America-endorsed Senate candidate in Texas is running against John Cornyn, one of the biggest beneficiaries of legalized bribes from the bad guys in the bailout saga. Last night Rick explained to Texans who, unlike Cornyn, he would have oppose the bill:

"Tonight, the US Senate voted on the new plan to bail out the financial system. I have grave concerns about this bailout at the expense of Texas families.

While we urgently need a rescue bill, and I believe that Congress should work quickly to pass legislation to aid our ailing economy, this is a leadership challenge for reform. This bailout should not just be a rescue; it should also be a reform of the system. This attempt still places too much emphasis on rescue, and not enough on reform.

It's hard not to think that this bailout is an undeserved reward to the people who got us into this economic crisis. Taxpayers are being asked to clean up the Administration and Wall Street's mess, and both have asked the taxpayers for a blank check. I do not believe we should give them one.

Now is the time to address how we have gone off the rails-- time to insist on changes to the lack of oversight that led to this crisis. My fear is that this bailout doesn't do that. The lack of prudence and unfettered wheeling and dealing that allowed abusive and reckless loans, shoddy investments, poorly understood financial instruments, and market excess would still be in place after this bill passed. It's like spending $700 billion to clean up a flood in your house without fixing the leak in the roof.

For a bailout of this magnitude to be successful, it needs real accountability. There are virtually no limits on what the Treasury can do with this money and there are insufficient checks on the Secretary of the Treasury. At this point, I am not confident that the Bush administration can manage anything competently, much less a $700 billion blank check.

Several days ago, I outlined what I would support in a potential bailout:

· Real assistance for homeowners

· Real regulation

· Limits on out of control executive pay

· Accountability

This bailout does not contain enough help for ordinary Americans, and this bill is supposed to be about economic rescue, not corporate welfare. Even worse, foreign companies would also be beneficiaries of taxpayer largesse. As such, I can not support it.

The Senate has amended previous versions of the bailout to include a variety of tax breaks that I can support. Instead of fixing the bailout so that it is truly responsive to our economic needs, it has been littered with extras to buy votes.

Texans should not support a bailout that has insufficient protections for the taxpayers, doesn't go far enough in reining in out of control executive salaries, has little relief for people in real distress, and doesn't heal the systemic rot that led to this crisis in the first place."

Last Sunday, when this whole Paulson bailout/giveaway scheme was still in the Shock & Awe stage, we presented Bernie Sanders' alternative plan, one more concerned with ordinary Americans than with the Masters of the Universe. Today Bernie was one a small handful of senators who voted no for the right reasons.

"This bill does not effectively address the issue of what the taxpayers of our country will actually own after they invest hundreds of billions of dollars in toxic assets. This bill does not effectively address the issue of oversight because the oversight board members have all been hand picked by the Bush administration. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of foreclosures and addressing that very serious issue, which is impacting millions of low- and moderate-income Americans in the aggressive, effective way that we should be. This bill does not effectively deal with the issue of executive compensation and golden parachutes. Under this bill, the CEOs and the Wall Street insiders will still, with a little bit of imagination, continue to make out like bandits.

"This bill does not deal at all with how we got into this crisis in the first place and the need to undo the deregulatory fervor which created trillions of dollars in complicated and unregulated financial instruments such as credit default swaps and hedge funds. This bill does not address the issue that has taken us to where we are today, the concept of too big to fail. In fact, within the last several weeks we have sat idly by and watched gigantic financial institutions like the Bank of America swallow up other gigantic financial institutions like Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Well, who is going to bail out the Bank of America if it begins to fail? There is not one word about the issue of too big to fail in this legislation at a time when that problem is in fact becoming even more serious.

"This bill does not deal with the absurdity of having the fox guarding the hen house. Maybe I'm the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the Secretary of the Treasury, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem. Now, maybe I'm the only person in America who thinks that's a little bit weird, but that is what I think.

"This bill does not address the major economic crisis we face: growing unemployment, low wages, the need to create decent-paying jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and moving us to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

"There is one issue that is even more profound and more basic than everything else that I have mentioned, and that is if a bailout is needed, if taxpayer money must be placed at risk, whose money should it be? In other words, who should be paying for this bailout which has been caused by the greed and recklessness of Wall Street operatives who have made billions in recent years?

"The American people are bitter. They are angry, and they are confused. Over the last seven and a half year, since George W. Bush has been President, 6 million Americans have slipped out of the middle class and are in  poverty, and today working families are lining up at emergency food shelves in order to get the food they need to feed their families. Since President Bush has been in office, median family income for working-age families has declined by over $2,000.  More than seven million Americans have lost their health insurance.  Over four million have lost their pensions. Consumer debt has more than doubled. And foreclosures are the highest on record. Meanwhile, the cost of energy, food, health care, college and other basic necessities has soared.

"While the middle class has declined under President Bush's reckless economic policies, the people on top have never had it so good. For the first seven years of Bush's tenure, the wealthiest 400 individuals in our country saw a $670 billion increase in their wealth, and at the end of 2007 owned over $1.5 trillion in wealth. That is just 400 families, a $670 billion increase in wealth since Bush has been in office.

"In our country today, we have the most unequal distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth, with the top 1 percent earning more income than the bottom 50 percent and the top 1 percent owning more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.  We are living at a time when we have seen a massive  transfer of wealth from the middle class to the very wealthiest people in this country, when, among others, CEOs of Wall Street firms received unbelievable amounts in bonuses, including $39 billion in bonuses in the year 2007 alone for just the five major investment houses. We have seen the incredible greed of the financial services industry manifested in the hundreds of millions of dollars they have spent on campaign contributions and lobbyists in order to deregulate their industry so that hedge funds and other unregulated financial institutions could flourish. We have seen them play with trillions and trillions dollars in esoteric financial instruments, in unregulated industries which no more than a handful of people even understand. We have seen the financial services industry charge 30 percent interest rates on credit card loans and tack on outrageous late fees and other costs to unsuspecting customers. We have seen them engaged in despicable predatory lending practices, taking advantage of the vulnerable and the uneducated. We have seen them send out billions of deceptive solicitations to almost every mailbox in America.

"Most importantly, we have seen the financial services industry lure people into mortgages they could not afford to pay, which is one of the basic reasons why we are here tonight.

"In the midst of all of this, we have a bailout package which says to the middle class that you are being asked to place at risk $700 billion, which is $2,200 for every man, woman, and child in this country. You're being asked to do that in order to undo the damage caused by this excessive Wall Street greed. In other words, the “Masters of the Universe,” those brilliant Wall Street insiders who have made more money than the average American can even dream of, have brought our financial system to the brink of collapse.  Now, as the American and world financial systems teeter on the edge of a meltdown, these multimillionaires are demanding that the middle class, which has already suffered under Bush's disastrous economic policies, pick up the pieces that they broke. That is wrong, and that is something that I will not support.

"If we are going to bail out Wall Street, it should be those people who have caused the problem, those people who have benefited from Bush's tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, those people who have taken advantage of deregulation, those people are the people who should pick up the tab, and not ordinary working people. I introduced an amendment which gave the Senate a very clear choice. We can pay for this bailout of Wall Street by asking people all across this country, small businesses on Main Street, homeowners on Maple Street, elderly couples on Oak Street, college students on Campus Avenue, working families on Sunrise Lane, we can ask them to pay for this bailout. That is one way we can go. Or, we can ask the people who have gained the most from the spasm of greed, the people whose incomes have been soaring under president bush, to pick up the tab.

"I proposed to raise the tax rate on any individual earning $500,000 a year or more or any family earning $1 million a year or more by 10 percent. That increase in the tax rate, from 35 percent to 45 percent, would raise more than $300 billion in the next five years, almost half the cost of the bailout. If what all the supporters of this legislation say is correct, that the government will get back some of its money when the market calms down and the government sells some of the assets it has purchased, then $300 billion should be sufficient to make sure that 99.7 percent of taxpayers do not have to pay one nickel for this bailout.

"Most of my constituents did not earn a $38 million bonus in 2005 or make over $100 million in total compensation in three years, as did Henry Paulson, the current secretary of the Treasury, and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Most of my constituents did not make $354 million in total compensation over the past five years as did Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers. Most of my constituents did not cash out $60 million in stock after a $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns after that failing company was bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase. Most of my constituents did not get a $161 million severance package as E. Stanley O'Neill, former CEO Merrill Lynch did.

"Last week I placed on my Web site, www.sanders.senate.gov, a letter to Secretary Paulson in support of my amendment. It said that it should be those people best able to pay for this bailout, those people who have made out like bandits in recent years, they should be asked to pay for this bailout. It should not be the middle class. To my amazement, some 48,000 people cosigned this petition, and the names keep coming in. The message is very simple: “We had nothing to do with causing this bailout. We are already under economic duress. Go to those people who have made out like bandits. Go to those people who have caused this crisis and ask them to pay for the bailout.”

"The time has come to assure our constituents in Vermont and all over this country that we are listening and understand their anger and their frustration. The time has come to say that we have the courage to stand up to all of the powerful financial institution lobbyists who are running amok all over the Capitol building, from the Chamber of Commerce to the American Bankers Association, to the Business Roundtable, all of these groups who make huge campaign contributions, spend all kinds of money on lobbyists, they're here loud and clear. They don't want to pay for this bailout, they want middle America to pay for it."

Now that's a senator worth the salary we pay them! This year alone the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate sector gave "donations" (bribes) of $339,649,585 to federal elected officials, 50/50 between the two corrupt Inside the Beltway political parties-- and over $2 billion since 1990. Removing presidential candidates, the five biggest recipients of this largesse in the Senate (this year alone):

Norm Coleman (R-MN)- $2,054,683
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)- $1,814,704
John Cornyn (R-TX)- $1,690,392
Max Baucus (D-MT)- $1,462,115
John Sununu (R-NH)- $1,340,760

Needless to say, they all voted for their corporate masters' interests, as did these sleazy crooks, each of whom is up for re-election in November and each of whom has taken over three quarters of a million dollars this year: Susan Collins (R-ME- $1,038,484), Mary Landrieu (D-LA- $942,397), Gordon Smith (R-OR- $937,931), Lamar Alexander (R-TN- $812,372), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA- $791,271), and Mark Pryor (D-AK- $766,856). We'd be better off if Michael Moore was a senator instead of all these combined.

The richest 400 Americans-- that's right, just four hundred people-- own MORE than the bottom 150 million Americans combined. 400 rich Americans have got more stashed away than half the entire country! Their combined net worth is $1.6 trillion. During the eight years of the Bush Administration, their wealth has increased by nearly $700 billion-- the same amount that they are now demanding we give to them for the "bailout." Why don't they just spend the money they made under Bush to bail themselves out? They'd still have nearly a trillion dollars left over to spread amongst themselves!

Read Moore's whole plan.

Wrap Up Of The Blue America Senate Contest

We had an exciting Blue America week since last Saturday. Our Senate competition has gone exceptionally well, thanks in great part to the extraordinary efforts of the campaign staffs of the 5 Blue America candidates we've endorsed this year, Rick Noriega (D-TX), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Andrew Rice (D-OK), Tom Allen (D-ME) and Mark Begich (D-AK). These guys have assembled great teams and it bodes well for effective office staffs when they're in Washington.

So far nearly 1,700 people voted by donating over $46,000. It's probably no coincidence that the numbers of votes exactly corresponded to the population of each state. Rick Noriega is ahead with more than 900 votes (and nearly $20,000) and Jeff Merkley is coming in second with over 600 votes (and nearly $10,000), followed by Andrew Rice, with over 500 votes and more than $8,000, Tom Allen 300 votes/$5,000, and Mark Begich 250 votes/$2,000. The populations of each state:

Texas- 23,904,380
Oregon- 3,747,455
Oklahoma- 3,617,316
Maine- 1,317,207
Alaska- 683,478

At first I was worried that Rick was going into the contest with both hands tied behind his back. Although he had made a great first impression with our community when he visited with us last August, I was concerned because he suspended his campaign two weeks ago. No, no, not like McCain's cynical, partisan spin pseudo "suspension." A Lt Colonel in the Texas National Guard, Rick was on duty all week helping Texans recover from the devastation of Hurricane Ike. But when your opponent is John Cornyn...

Cornyn has taken the same tact we have in fundraising. We're asking our community to donate to Rick and the other Blue America Senate candidates to stop Republican obstructionism with a filibuster-proof majority so McConnell, McCain and the rest of the McGoons can't keep Obama from enacting real change legislation. Cornyn has been trying-- without much success-- to convince Texans to react to that differently than were asking them too.

"We need to keep the gas on for the next 40 days to make sure our opponents' dreams of a filibuster-proof Senate don't become a reality," Cornyn finance director Dolly Gonzalez wrote in an email today to donors.

She attached a memo from Cornyn campaign communications director Kevin McLaughlin with some quotes from Joe Biden about how nice it'd be to have 60 or more Dems in the Senate -- "to overcome Republican obstruction and bring fiercely needed change."

McLaughlin's kicker: "It would be bad enough if Barack and Biden get elected, but imagine if they had 'rubber-stamp Rick' there too; there will be no stopping them from shoving their liberal agenda down our throats."

Noriega spokesman Martine Apodaca replied, "Rubber stamp Rick? That's like getting called unethical by Ted Stevens. Cornyn knows that his rubber stamp voting record for the President's disastrous policies are the reason the country is in a ditch."

Voting ends at noon (PT) and we'll figure out the winner by 1pm. If you haven't voted yet, please do. Remember, first prize is $5,000 and second prize is a thousand dollars. Last time I was in Texas I met Mark Strama, an outstanding young state legislator from the Austin suburbs, once the head of Rock the Vote, now helping turn the state Capitol blue. He's a major supporter of Rick Noriega and I found this clip of him explaining why Rick can beat Cornyn in November.




UPDATE

The winner of our competition is Rick Noriega with 917 votes (and $19,871.47) and runner-up is Jeff Merkley with 639 votes (and $9,392.71). We'll be sending Blue America checks for $5,000 to Rick and $1,000 for Jeff. In the end we collected $47,130 for our candidates. Thanks everyone who participated.

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


UPDATE: RICK HAS CORNYN SHAKING IN HIS $975 BOOTS

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


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

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

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

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

Blue America Senate Candidates Speak Out On The Bush Regime "Bailout"

Blue America is in the middle of a competition between our five awesome Senate candidates, Andrew Rice (D-OK), Rick Noriega (D-TX), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Tom Allen (D-ME). In our first 24 hours we've had over $4,300 in contributions from 118 people. Today Crooks & Liars has a letter posted from Blue America alum Jon Tester urging his supporters get behind Mark Begich. I was thinking of posting a similar better from one of Jeff Merkley's supporters. But Jeff is way out ahead and I'll hold that letter for now and pass along some comments from our candidates on the latest Bush Regime/Republican Party catastrophe to come down the pike, one whose proposed "solution" is probably worse than the catastrophe itself and one, I'm happy to see, hasn't been embraced by either Barack Obama or the American people.

Andrew Rice is a state Senator in Oklahoma City dealing, in a less removed way than Washington politicians, with the everyday travails of everyday people. Like his constituents, he's growing increasingly concerned with GOP ideology getting in the way of a non-political commonsense approach to basic problems the country faces.

"Over the weekend the Bush Administration contradicted their own longstanding ideology and sent Congress a massive $700 billion proposal to bailout financial institutions on Wall Street. What has Jim Inhofe, who's been in Washington for 22 years, done to avert this crisis? Absolutely nothing. And now that we're in this mess, all he said last week when we saw the biggest financial crash since the 1930s was that he'll 'be keeping a close eye on the fallout.'"  
 
"Jim Inhofe is responsible for this mess. George Bush was probably the most successful president since FDR in getting everything he wanted in his economic package passed through congress. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy. Deregulation. Limited Oversight. And Jim Inhofe rubber-stamped it every step of the way. Look where it's gotten us. And all he can offer the people of Oklahoma is "I'll be keeping a close eye on it." The good people of Oklahoma deserve much better than this."

This morning Tom Allen and rubber stamp Republican Susan Collins squared off in Portland in the first of ten debates leading up to Maine's Senate election in November. Tom hammered her on her complicity in every disastrous Bush Regime policy initiative that she has been tied up in-- from the Iraq war and the crises in energy and health care right to the mortgage crisis and the Wall Street meltdown. "I fundamentally disagree with Susan Collins on her support of these policies that have been so harmful to people in Maine. At the fuel pump and the grocery, looking at our 401k statements or watching $12 billion per month go out the door for an endless civil war, we are all feeling the consequences." Collins is in a particularly awkward position because she is the only member of the Maine congressional delegation to support all of the failed Bush economic policies down the line and she is still doing it, even as the economy slides towards the precipice. Tom:

"The Bush Administration's consistent philosophy has been that free markets work but without government regulation. Now we ask, works best for whom? Wall Street Manhattan or Wall Street Portland? Now taxpayers may have to pay as much or more as they've already paid for the war in Iraq for the Bush Republicans' refusal to conduct oversight or accountability."

Allen said it is critical that the bailout package minimize taxpayer exposure, make sure homeowners get a lifeline, include oversight of the Treasury and limits on excessive compensation for executives.

"We need to protect Maine families and small businesses. We have to contain the financial crisis on Wall Street and take action to spur economic activity on Main Street," he added. "We must make sure this never happens again."

"We need a government that works for ordinary families and small businesses, not special interests. This crisis is a vivid illustration of what happens when the federal government refuses to do responsible regulation and oversight of the financial markets. That is exactly what the Bush Administration and its allies like Susan Collins and John McCain have adopted -- policies and positions that have led us to the edge of financial disaster,."

The Bush Administration on Saturday sent a three-page proposal to lawmakers calling for taxpayers to buy $700 billion in mortgages. Some estimates are that a bailout package will reach or exceed $1 trillion. The $700 billion figure is roughly what has been spent to date on the war in Iraq and the annual budget appropriation for the Pentagon. The Bush proposal is the largest financial bailout since the Great Depression.

"The Bush Administration and its allies have put us into a corner where we must bail out these firms. We're going to do that this week and I look forward to working in a bipartisan manner to get that job done. But we should not bail out Wall Street without taking care of Main Street.

"We must address the root causes of the Republicans' failure to do oversight and to regulate our financial markets. We can no longer sit by as corporate America assumes all the profit but wants taxpayers to assume the risk. We need bold corporate reforms for transparency, to reign in compensation, and to strengthen fraud laws."

The ideas widely held by the Bush Administration and its allies like Susan Collins and John McCain that the market will take care of itself without federal regulation and oversight have failed our middle class miserably. Amid a market panic last week, John McCain reiterated for the 17th time his position that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." Chief executive officers presiding over reckless behavior are walking away with millions in compensation while homeowners face foreclosure and watch their retirement investments dwindle.

"We need to change our economic policies in order to strengthen our middle class instead of feeding the superwealthy and big corporations. We must do that - now. And to fix the problem on the longterm, we need new leadership in Washington that will meet the tough challenges with bold solutions. It's time for a change."

This afternoon Jeff Merkley is in Central Oregon talking with working men and women about the bailout. Unlike his multimillionaire opponent-- most recently caught employing scores of undocumented low wage workers in his frozen foods factory-- Jeff's perspective comes straight from the heart of the middle class. "For years, CEOs on Wall Street made millions based on sub-prime mortgages and backroom deals.  Today, they still have those millions but taxpayers are the ones paying the price. The bailout may be necessary, but that doesn't mean it's right... American workers have fallen victim to the pervasive greed in the Bush-Smith economy. This week's collapse on Wall Street and news about a trillion dollar bailout is startling news for millions of Americans.  What is most troubling and infuriating to many is the idea that powerful special interests have made billions through greed-driven ventures and working families are paying the price."

From his perch on the powerful Finance Committee, Gordon Smith has rubber stamped the Bush policies that have led us to this point. In many ways, he is echoing his friend John McCain about our "strong economy." This is one of the worst financial crises in a century. It is certainly not a symptom of a "vibrant" economy.

...Federal bailouts may be necessary, but that doesn't change the fact that this situation should never have become the crisis it is today. Years of lax government oversight and deregulation directly contributed to the meltdown of financial markets. George Bush, John McCain, and Gordon Smith are all followers of an economic philosophy that has favored the powerful over working class Americans. We are all feeling the effects of that philosophy today and it's just one more reason we need a change and make Washington work for working Americans.

You can vote for your favorite Senate candidate here and the winner will get $5,000 and the runner up $1,000.

Help Blue America Pick A Senate Candidate

A few weeks ago Blue America launched a competition among 9 of our progressive House candidates. It was far more successful than we had imagined when our PAC offered $5,000 as seed money to get the show on the road. In the end, 1,899 individual donors contributed over $43,000 to our candidates. On top of that DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen matched our $5,000 to the winner and two other Democrat House leaders, who wish to remain anonymous, gave another $15,000 between them. So, our winner, Miami-Dade progressive Democrat, Annette Taddeo walked off with over $30,000-- and the next day she was added to the DCCC's Red to Blue list.

Today we begin a week long competition between the five candidates for the U.S. Senate endorsed by Blue America, Tom Allen (D-ME), Mark Begich (D-AK), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Rick Noriega (D-TX) and Andrew Rice (D-OK). None of these are the "easy" races that the big money is flowing to. These are the tough ones, although each one is winnable. And these are the races that will make the difference between the Republicans ability to filibuster and thwart Obama's reform program for real change. If at least two of these candidates don't win, we will be stuck in the same hideous gridlock we're in now-- with partisan hacks like Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl and John McCain obstructing everything the Houses passes and then cynically claiming the "Democratically-controlled" Senate can't get anything done.

Each of these candidates has done at least one live-blog session with us at Firedoglake and I encourage you to go back to the archives and re-read their responses to the questions they were given. Each link above goes to an FDL session. I want to say something about the rules of this game before we go further. Blue America will send the candidate with the most "votes" a check for $5,000 and the runner-up will get a Blue America check for $1,000. A vote is a contribution-- for any amount between $1 and $2,300 at the Blue America Senate contest page. If you contribute $1.00 that counts as one vote. If you contribute $2,000 that counts as one vote. (We're Democrats for the most part; not Republicans.) We loved the enthusiasm of supporters donating again and again and again. One guy gave Russ Warner 80 individual donations. It still just counted as one vote though. If you vote for two or more candidates though, each counts as a vote.

I asked each candidate to write a few paragraphs that would serve as a vision statement about why they are running for a seat in "the world's most exclusive club." Before I share them with you, though, I want to say something about our candidate in Texas, Rick Noriega. Rick is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas Army National Guard and is on duty this week which has been so calamitous for so many residents of Texas. With the devastation in Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast area, his campaign and the Texas progressive movement are putting all their energy into helping with the recovery efforts. As Matt Glazer wrote today, "We have Red Cross facilities and shelters being shut down and there is no food in the food banks in Austin or San Antonio." (Needless to say, John Cornyn is using this lull as an opportunity for more negative, distorted campaigning.)

Rick had managed to get this statement off to us though:

I'm running for the Senate, because I believe that we need to get our country back on track.

Our energy crisis is a national security concern. I have proposed policies that provide immediate relief for Texas families, move the United States towards energy self-sufficiency, and develop a sustainable energy and economic future for Texas. By increasing investment in alternative energy technologies and improving the efficiency of our cars and homes, we can begin to address our nation's energy problems, make Texas a leader in renewable energy technologies and create thousands of new jobs.

Our health care system is broken and Washington hasn't doing a thing to fix it. I've called on the federal government to expand health insurance for children of hardworking Texas families. I've also proposed providing tax incentives for small businesses that provide health coverage for employees, closing the prescription drug "donut hole" currently affecting Medicare recipients, focusing on preventative medicine and building transparency and accountability in our health care system.

I'll work to responsibly end the war in Iraq and bring our troops safely home, with a phased military re-deployment. At home, veterans are denied the basic benefits they deserve. We must honor the sacrifices of our men and women in the armed services by keeping our benefits commitment, and I am dedicated to this goal.

Texas needs a senator who will prioritize Texas families over the special interests, and that is exactly what I am committed to working for you when I'm in the U.S. Senate.

Even before Alaska's corrupt senior Senator, Ted Stevens, was indicted Mark Begich was leading in the polls. He was looking like a shoe-in. The danger now is that with his Republican colleague, Sarah Palin on the national ticket, Stevens could get a boost to what once seemed like a moribund and hopeless campaign. Mark may still be favored to win, but it's going to take a great deal of hard work and plenty of resources. As of last month Stevens had raised $4,438,543, primarily from the special interests he serves, and Mark had raised $1,714,299. Here's what Mark had to say about why he's in the race:

I'm running to represent Alaska in the US Senate to try to get Washington working for Alaska's families again. Being born and raised here and as the father of a young son, I care deeply about Alaska and its future. Alaska families face many challenges today, including skyrocketing energy costs and decreasing health care access. Alaska needs open, ethical and independent leadership to set our state on a path toward healthy, vibrant communities with new opportunities for Alaska families. The contrast I offer with Senator Stevens is clear.

Alaska has accomplished a lot in the last 50 years since statehood but it time to start a new chapter of Alaska history. I recognize the past but its time to think about the future. I will work to provide leadership to develop a national energy policy-- Alaska should be a world-leader in developing our non-renewable and renewable resources responsibly and in a way that improves local economies. Alaska can-- and should-- be exporting these energy innovations into the world market. I also intend to bring to new standards for ethics in government. I will work to end self-policing by senators, make financial records of public servants accessible, and stop special treatment for senators and their families. It's time to rebuild trust in our government. While I work to make new, tougher standards the law of the land, I will personally live by them from Day One.

Thanks to Crooks & Liars, Firedoglake, Digby, Down With Tyranny, and all the supporters of Blue America. I appreciate the help you're giving to my campaign and the work you're doing to achieve change nationwide.

Andrew Rice is running in Oklahoma, a state with a proud populist tradition that has gotten redder and redder in recent years. We really have our work cut out for us with this one! But, considering what it would mean to Oklahoma, to America and to mankind to retire James Inhofe and replace him with someone as forward-thinking as Andrew, it's well worth the effort. We've gotten to know Andrew and his family pretty well and I guess that's why he sent such a personal statement:

I’m regularly asked why I decided to run for the U.S. Senate. There are certainly moments when I wish I wasn't so busy and away from my wife Apple and our two amazing boys. I know it's worth it, though, because we desperately need new solutions and new leadership that will put people before politics again. Truth be told, there are a lot of personal and important reasons why I am running for U.S. Senate. The two most important and simple reasons are below:

That is Parker on the left. He is 20 months old, and that's a photo of him on his first birthday enjoying his cupcake. On the right is Noah; he is 3 years old, and he loves to wear his cowboy hat and dance. Noah and Parker are Apple's and my two children. It may seem cliché to say I'm doing this for my kids, but this is the easiest and most sincere way to explain why I care about what happens in the United States Senate, and why I want to have a seat at the table in deciding what happens.

What I want to do for Oklahoma is simple: I want to make sure that the people of this state have a voice in Washington. They haven’t gotten that from Jim Inhofe, and I think that’s the very least people should get when they elect someone to the U.S. Senate. When I’m elected to the U.S. Senate, the people of Oklahoma will know that we may not agree on every single issue, but when it comes down to what’s most important-- jobs, the economy, health care, protecting our troops-- I will always have their back. I will look out for Oklahoma because I will always think about the effect my decisions have on the world Parker and Noah will inherit.

No matter what the pollsters or the pundits say about me or my race, I will always hold fast to these simple truths. That’s true for my campaign, and will be true when I get to the U.S. Senate.

In politics no one is perfect so I don't use perfection as a standard of measurement. I use Paul Wellstone. I like to think all of our candidates will get into the Senate and work as selflessly and courageously as he did. From the minute I heard Jeff Merkley speaking in front of a live audience, I thought, "Wow, he's like Wellstone!" His statement is too:

Hello Blue America, I’m Jeff Merkley and I’m challenging Republican Gordon Smith for U.S. Senate in Oregon. I’m here to tell you why I’m running and what I’ll do to shake things up in Washington. When I was a child, my father took me to my public school, pointed to the front doors of the schoolhouse and told me they were not just doors to the building, they were the doors to opportunity-- if I worked hard, I could do and be just about anything. I took his words to heart.

You and I know that Washington is truly broken. I am determined to change the way Washington works. As House Speaker, I fought hard to make serious changes in Oregon from granting gay and lesbian couples the same rights as married couples, to cracking down on the payday lenders who prey on working families. I took on the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies and never backed down. In my eight years as a state legislator I have never abandoned my progressive values and I will not abandon them as your next Senator from Oregon. I will never look the other way when Government tries to take away your civil liberties and erode the laws this nation was founded upon. I will not sit quietly when Congress tries to block hardworking people from organizing and advocating for fair wages and affordable health care. And, I will fight with every fiber of my being to end the biggest foreign policy blunder in the history of this nation and bring our sons and daughters and husbands and wives home immediately.

It’s time to inject some backbone into Congress, and if elected, I’ll be there to lead the way.

Tom Allen was elected to the House on the same day Susan Collins was elected to the Senate. She has been a dependable rubber stamp for Bush and for the special interests that have so lavishly financed her career. Tom took a very different approach to his duties. He's been working for the families of Maine, not for the insurance companies, not for Big Oil, not for the banks, not for Wall Street and not for Big Pharma-- and not for Dick Cheney. His voting record and Susan Collins' voting record are very different. His looks like what you would expect a Mainer's to look like. Her's would be perfect too... if her constituents lived in Mississippi.

Since first being elected to Congress I have never never been afraid to stand up for what is right and in the best interest of Maine and America. In 2002, I stood up to President Bush and the Democratic leadership to vote against the War in Iraq. I opposed the President’s failed economic policies and the Cheney Energy Bill, while helping to ignite a national debate on prescription drugs and writing legislation to prohibit the construction of U.S. bases in Iraq. Susan Collins has supported President Bush on all of the biggest issues of our time-- on energy, on the economy, and on the war in Iraq. She also voted for FISA, voted against habeas corpus, voted for the President’s plan to redefine the Geneva conventions against torture, and cast one of the deciding votes to confirm Samuel Alito.

I am the only U.S. Senate candidate to have my own plan for universal healthcare. I have worked towards some of the toughest climate change legislation ever introduced in Congress and I have an energy plan to provide immediate relief to Mainers and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. I have made the right choices for Maine and will work to change the direction of the country when in the U.S. Senate. I need your help to get his message out to the people of Maine!

This competition will last all week and we'll announce our winner and runner-up winner next Saturday. Please don't forget to vote and don't forget to get your friends and family to vote. Try to visualize a U.S. Senate without James Inhofe, John Cornyn, Susan Collins, Gordon Smith and Ted Stevens. And truck over to Crooks & Liars where you can see the TV ads the campaigns made so you'll get an idea about one of the ways they'd like to use your donation. In fact, if there's an ad you see that you feel is especially effective and want to see run on TV... think about including an extra couple of bucks.

Why Are Republican Incumbents Afraid To Debate In Their Home Districts?

After seeing what an incredibly effective speaker Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is, I was interested in knowing if he would be debating Bush's rubber stamp mouthpiece Gordon Smith. So I asked. His campaign has proposed a series of 8 debates. Merkley has committed to five specific debates around the state with different Oregon television stations and nonpartisan public service groups. So far Gordon Smith hasn't committed to any. But let's be fair, if you had a record like his-- in a state like Oregon-- would you want to defend it in public? But they I started seeing a surprising pattern: Republican incumbents all over the country are avoiding or minimizing the number of debates they're willing to have with Democrats.

Yesterday, almost in passing, we saw how Bush rubber stamp Charlie Dent refuses to debate Sam Bennett about energy policy. “Congressman Dent is so deep in the pocket of Big Oil companies and special interest groups he’s refusing to publicly defend his record and have an open debate about the issue,” said Kathryn Seck, Sam Bennett’s campaign manager. “He should explain why he’s taken $75,000 from Big Oil and given them billions in tax breaks while middle class Pennsylvanians are struggling to afford high gas prices.  Voters deserve an open dialogue on the issues and Congressman Dent is ducking the issue.” Then this morning I got a press release from Iowa's 4th CD (the north central part of the state, centered in Ames). And sure, enough, the Bush rubber stamp incumbent, Tom Latham, is refusing to debate the Democratic candidate Becky Greenwald.

Tom Latham refused this week to debate Becky Greenwald while he is home on the August recess. The Greenwald campaign accepted a debate with Latham at the Iowa Farmer’s Union Convention, an event that Latham is attending. Latham refused to debate.
 
“We are disappointed that Tom Latham refused to debate Becky Greenwald at the Iowa Farmer’s Union Convention. We tried to work with his schedule and find a venue for a debate at an event Latham would already be attending,” said Campaign Manager Robert Brennan. “Iowans deserve to hear from Tom Latham why after 14 years in Congress, he has done nothing to address the energy crisis, lack of care for our veterans and the high cost of healthcare.”
 
Last week, the Greenwald campaign sent a letter to the Latham campaign asking to hold four debates over the August recess. The Latham campaign refused the debates saying their schedule was full. The Iowa Farmers Union tried to accommodate with his schedule and arrange for a debate at their convention in Marshalltown, IA on Saturday August 23rd, an event that Latham will be attending. The Latham campaign refused to debate.

Was I looking at a pattern? I reached out to a few of the campaigns I speak to regularly. Gary Peters (D-MI) has accepted invitations from the Troy Chamber of Commerce-- and even from the Troy Republican Party Club, as well as from other groups who have been trying to set up debates. Joe Knollenberg-- a Big Oil shill who has accepted $66,250 in "donations" from Big Oil and owns over $90,000 in oil company stocks that increase in value as gasoline prices rise-- is petrified to stand up in front of an audience of voters and defend his energy voters.

Annette Taddeo debates empty chair in Miami

In May the AFL-CIO, which had endorsed Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart in 2006, invited their 3 candidates plus Democratic challengers Annette Taddeo, Joe Garcia and Raul Martinez to a debate. The three Republicans, panicking at the last moment, ducked the debate. Each blamed scheduling conflicts. The AFL-CIO went on with the debate-- Annette told me she debated Ros-Lehtinen's empty chair-- and then endorsed the debate winners, the three Democrats.

South Florida congressional Republicans backed out of next week's debates. Their opponents say they're hiding.

Miami's three Cuban-American Republicans in Congress have scrapped plans to participate in a series of debates with their Democratic challengers.

The South Florida AFL-CIO, which in recent years has hosted debates for mayoral and gubernatorial races, planned three debates next week for the nationally watched contests. But the Republicans said this week that they're not going, throwing the bipartisan nature of the event into doubt.

The union-- which endorsed the three incumbents in 2006-- says the events will go on next week as scheduled. All three Democrats, who represent the first significant challenge to the incumbents, said they plan to attend and suggested the Republicans were reluctant to spar face to face.

"We just want to give our working families a chance to talk to the candidates,'' said union president Fred Frost, who met late Wednesday with representatives from two of the Republican campaigns in a bid to revive the events. "I think they'd be squandering what I'd consider a great opportunity."

In New Jersey Dennis Shulman has been trying to get incumbent Scott Garrett to debate him in front of voters. Apparently Garrett-- like fellow extremist loon and Big Oil shill John Kline in Minnesota-- just doesn't think he has to do debates. Kline's spokesperson said his record speaks for itself. It does-- and if voters were actually reading it Kline wouldn't get 30% of the vote.

Last year Darcy Burner was eager to debate incumbent Bush rubber stamp Dave Reichert everywhere in the district. His staff, wary of putting him into unscripted settings because he has a tendency to either put his foot in his mouth or reveal his lack of policy depth, allowed him to do one debate, which was sponsored by the Seattle Times. The Times debate for 2008 is scheduled for October 8 and Reichert is going to do it. Meanwhile, though, there have been debates proposed by KCTS-9 and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as well as by TV station KING 5 and radio stations KUOW and KIRO 710. Darcy wants debates. Reichert wants to hide. Similarly, Bob Lord has challenged John Shadegg who refuses to talk, only waves his toy air pressure gauge over his head and mutters incoherently about running for the Senate. Shadegg won't say yes or no about debates. Last year Vic Wulsin was able, after embarrassingly her repeatedly, to get Mean Jean Schmidt, one of the House's most woefully ignorant members, to do one debate. Vic would like to do a series of debates across the district to talk about how to help solve the economic conditions of Ohio families hit hard by recession, the housing crisis, gasoline prices, unemployment, the health care crisis and inflation but Mean Jean isn't answering. The Ohio News Network has asked both candidates to debate in October but it looks like Vic may have the stage to herself.

Most of the Senate races have at least one debate scheduled. But Gordon Smith isn't the only senatorial coward hiding from his Democratic opponent. John Cornyn (R-TX) doesn't feel comfortable unless he's speaking at places like the Petroleum Club in Fort Worth. Big Oil has given him more money this year ($480,100) than any other member of Congress (other than the million plus they gave to ExxonJohn McCain) and he's backed them all the way, which is precisely why you're paying around $4/gallon at the pump. But when it comes to debating Rick Noriega about his votes, Cornyn is full of... petroleum. Plenty of TV and radio stations, as well as civic organizations throughout Texas, have reached out to the two campaigns for debates. Noriega keeps accepting invitation. Cornyn claims he's negotiating. But he isn't even doing that-- unless he's negotiating with himself.

Just as I was about to publish this, I got an e-mail from Andrea Miller, the powerfully articulate and knowledgeable Democratic candidate running against dull rubber stamp Randy Forbes in southern Virginia. Her experience is almost identical to at least half, perhaps three-quarters of Democratic challengers:

Randy Forbes is avoiding me big time. There have been at least 3 requests (2 from radio and 1 from TV). Additionally, there has also been a debate request from a group that simply wants to schedule a public forum.
 
What is he afraid of? I have an energy policy and he has energy questions. I have solutions to our education challenges and he doesn't even know there is a problem.

My guess: he's just afraid of Andrea Miller and getting his ass kicked publicly in front of the electorate when she exposes his indefensible voting record.

SAYING THANK YOU TO REAL AMERICAN PATRIOTS WHO STOOD UP FOR US

Yesterday the Blue America PAC started running a series of full page newspaper ads in GA-12, alerting John Barrow's constituents that although he campaigns as a Democrat in Savannah, Vidalia, Augusta, Milledgeville, and Statesboro, when he's back Inside the Beltway, he's been the single most dependable Democrat for George Bush and Dick Cheney and for the big money corporations looking for money-grubbing congressmen who will vote for their special interests. The week before that, the Blue America PAC took out a full page ad in the Washington Post and in every newspaper in Steny Hoyer's Maryland district, making sure his constituents knew about his shameful and decisive role in getting Bush's anti-constitutional FISA bill passed.

But over the last few days the Blue America bloggers, Digby, Jane, John and myself-- plus our colleague Glenn-- were mightily impressed by the courageous battle some members of the House and Senate and some candidates for the House and Senate, have waged against overwhelming odds and a sense of gruesome Insider inevitability. We decided that on behalf of the 5,969 donors who contributed $345,395.81 in the last few weeks we would pick a dozen and make symbolic contributions as tokens of gratitude to their campaign funds.

The first names to pop up, of course, where Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold, the heart, soul and conscience of the Senate. Listen to Chris Dodd make his last ditch plea to the Senate yesterday. And take a look at excerpts from Russ Feingold's speech:

“…it could not be clearer that this program broke the law, and this President broke the law. Not only that, but this administration affirmatively misled Congress and the American people about it for years before it finally became public.”
…
“If Congress short-circuits these lawsuits, we will have lost a prime opportunity to finally achieve accountability for these years of law-breaking. That’s why the administration has been fighting so hard for this immunity. It knows that the cases that have been brought directly against the government face much more difficult procedural barriers, and are unlikely to result in rulings on the merits.”
…
“I sit on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, and I am one of the few members of this body who has been fully briefed on the warrantless wiretapping program. And, based on what I know, I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the Inspector General report, the election of a new President, or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation. I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. I invite any of my colleagues who wish to know more about those activities to come speak to me in a classified setting. Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure.”

Those two were the easy ones because they were on the front line of the Senate every step of the way. It took us hours of e-mails and phone conversations to come up with the other 8, not because there weren't eight worthy progressives and patriots but because there dozens of them. It was painful narrowing them list down to just 8. Let me run down the list and give you a bit of rationale for each:

Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) was elected to the House on the same day that Susan Collins was first elected to the Senate. Collins, a reflexive Bush rubber stamp, was a big booster of warrantless wiretaps and retroactive immunity. We don't think it's a coincidence that only 2 senators not running for president received bigger donations from the telecoms than Collins. In 2008, her campaign chest has swelled by over $35,000 with telecom money while she was working diligently to grant them everything they wanted. (She's taken $87,621 from them since being elected.) Tom voted against warrantless wiretaps and against retroactive immunity despite pressure from powerful Democratic Party hacks Steny Hoyer and Rahm Emanuel. Tom didn't care about the telecoms contributions or about party leaders manipulations. He stood for principles that cannot be compromised. "I strongly oppose retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies," he told us. "Neither the government nor large corporations are above the law. Individuals and corporations that break the law must be held accountable." Bingo.

Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) has a somewhat similar story. He's running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pete Domenici, who voted in favor of wiretapping U.S. citizens. Worse yet, the right-wing extremist Tom must face in November, Congressman Steve Pearce, is equating giving his corporate donors immunity from Justice with national security. Although Tom's Colorado cousin, Mark Udall, buckled under right-wing pressure, Tom stood firm. This is what he had to say on June 20th when the House voted:

The FISA bill we considered today would compromise the constitutionally guaranteed rights that make America a beacon of hope around the world.

Today's vote was not easy. I stood up to leaders of my own party and voted against this bill, because I took an oath to defend Americans and That duty is most important when it is most difficult. We can protect our nation while upholding our values, but unfortunately, this bill falls short.

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) has fought to protect the constitution and to respect the traditional New Hampshire motto: "Live Free Or Die." In her state people don't give up hard-won liberties for some tinpot would-be tyrant. Her opponent, a rubber stamp zombie she beat in 2006, is trying to make a comeback and is beating up on her by claiming her defense of the Constitution was... unpatriotic. She's fighting back... proudly and unapologetically. This is part of what she wrote in the Union Leader two weeks ago:

The foundation of democracy is individual freedom from government interference. I am willing to compromise on many issues-- but not on the Constitution. Being forced to choose between protecting our national security or protecting our Constitution is a false choice; we do not have to sacrifice one for the other. It is our responsibility as Americans to protect both.

Doug Tudor isn't in office. He's running against the third ranking Republican in the House, central Florida ideologue and extremist Adam Putnam. Doug is a 20 year Navy veteran and he takes the Constitution for which he fought and risked his life very seriously. His comments about the FISA battle were jarring for their straightforward, no holds barred directness:

“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.”

Needless to say, Putnam was jumping up and down and eager as a little redheaded beaver for the warrantless wiretaps to be made legal for his campaign contributors in the telecom industry to have their minds set to rest that they would never have to answer for any crimes they may have committed.

Dennis Shulman is a blind rabbi in northern New Jersey running for a House seat currently occupied by the last radical right Republican left in the Northeast United States, Scott Garrett, who has taken over $9,000 from the Telecom industry this year and, of course, is gung-ho for wiretapping Americans. Dennis spent a great deal of time thinking this issue through. Here's what he told us:

"The House of Representatives, with the support of Republican Scott Garrett, recently passed a bill that would grant President Bush and future administrations unprecedented powers to spy on American citizens without a warrant or review by any judge or court. The new law would also let our nation's largest telecom companies off the hook for knowingly violating the law and releasing their customers' private information at the behest of George Bush.

"Our constitutional right to protection against unsupervised searches was written into our Bill of Rights for good reason by Founders whom we rightly celebrate.

"Neither President Bush nor Scott Garrett are as wise as James Madison.

"It is unfortunate that it appears that the telecom industry has managed to falsely conflate its quest for retroactive immunity for lawbreaking with the issue of national security. The Founding Fathers understood that our safety as a nation depended on our being a nation of laws. Retroactive immunity undermines the rule of law, and therefore undermines our principles and security as a nation.

"The President, his advisers, and his rubber stamps in Congress, including Scott Garrett, have demonstrated a pattern of disregard for the laws of the United States. This bill not only immunizes telecom companies from lawsuits, but it would also block the American people from ever knowing the full extent of the Bush Administration's illegal behavior.

"I urge my fellow Democrats in the Senate to vote against this unnecessary and deeply troubling law.

"I believe that Congress must protect the rights of citizens and the laws of our country from career politicians in Washington too willing to cave to special interests and endanger the fundamental rights that we, as Americans, hold so dear."

State Senator Andrew Rice (D-OK) is running a strong campaign against one of the most extremist members of the U.S. Senate, James Inhofe, who raked in $12,550 from the Telecoms this year and was determined to grant them retroactive immunity-- and positively giddy about giving the government the right to listen in to all phone conversations and read all e-mails without a court order. Andrew disagrees-- strongly:

“Congress must remain vigilant in order to protect Americans from another terrorist attack. However, the bill that is before Congress this week bargains away the privacy of law-abiding American citizens while protecting the companies that allegedly participated in the President’s illegal wiretapping program. The Senate should stick to the narrow fix it set out to accomplish by making it clear that the government does not have to obtain a warrant to listen to foreign-to-foreign communications. Instead, this bill allows a significant expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act so that government can eavesdrop on the international communications of innocent American citizens. Since losing my brother on 9/11, I have vowed to improve America’s anti-terrorism capability without sacrificing the freedoms that so many Americans have died to protect.”

Rick Noriega is running in that big ole state just south of Oklahoma. His opponent, rubber stamp corporate shill John Cornyn has taken $15,250 from the Telecom industry this year and he is as eager as Inhofe to grant them retroactive immunity. Rick has thought about the issue more seriously and from a different perspective than just helping out campaign contributors.

“Many times throughout my lifetime I have sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States . This isn’t a part-time Constitution. We as a nation cannot grant anyone sweeping amnesty if they break the rules. It’s appalling that my opponent, John Cornyn, puts his special interest campaign contributors ahead of the Constitution. Texans have had enough.

Americans will not accept an abuse of power, and they will not accept corporations getting away with breaking the law.

We already have a law in place that balances national security concerns while adhering to the Constitution. This is not the time to compromise the privacy of the American people and not the time to disregard the Constitution of United States. I regret that the Senate has voted this way.”

Jim Himes is standing firmly with his state's senior senator, Chris Dodd on this issue. Fake moderate Chris Shayes is once again eager to rubber stamp the Bush-Cheney agenda, somehow trying to say that granting Bush the ability to wiretap all American citizens without a court order makes us "safe." Jim sees right through that craven, partisan posturing:

"In Congress, I will always stand up for the fundamental American belief that no man, and no corporation, is above the law. As always, this is a matter for the courts to decide-- not for Congress, and absolutely not for the same Bush Administration who may have violated the law in the first place. It is great to see so many American citizens of all backgrounds coming together to stand up for the rule of law and in opposition to retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who may have illegally spied on American citizens at the Bush Administration's request. I am disappointed that Chris Shays and so many others continue to stand with President Bush by refusing to stand up for this most fundamental of American principles."

Jon Tester (D-MT) was a populist underdog who ran for the Senate in 2006 against an Insider Democrat backed by Chuck Schumer and the Beltway Establishment. He beat him in the primary, beat an entrenched Republican incumbent in November and has gone on to represent the interests of regular Montana folks in DC. His statement about the this fight was an inspiration and may well have influenced his Montana colleague: "It deals with the freedoms that so many people have fought and died for. If we want to get serious about the War on Terror, we need to make the investments to fight the war on terror. We ought not be taking rights away from honest citizens. If we've got terror cells around the world, then let's invest in human intelligence. Let's invest in our Special Forces. Let's go after 'em, and let's be serious, and not get sidetracked by Iraq. Right now, we're taking rights away from honest people. If they think you fall into their list, you're a target. By the time they figure out there's a terror cell, they can get a warrant.... The government ought not be taking away our freedoms."

Darcy Burner is running against a corporate hack and rubber stamp in Washington, Dave Reichert, who is all about rewarding his corporate donors with retroactive immunity. Reichert took $6,000 for the Telecoms so far this year and thinks they should not be accountable for crimes they may have committed. Darcy has been one of the most outspoken opponents of this bill; watch the 30 second video. After the bill passed in the House, she didn't despair; she start rallying for action:

Like many of you, I'm incredibly disappointed with today's vote on retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies. I've made my position on this issue very clear, and I've been happy to be fighting to ensure that we uphold the Constitution through all of this. But the real question is what we do going forward. We need to make sure that we elect people to Congress who are going to defend the Constitution at the same time that the keep this country safe. I promise you, I will never let you down on that. It's time for us to elect more and better Democrats.

We're less concerned about the "more" and focussing on the "better." We will send each of these patriotic Americans a grassroots contribution for $1,000. If you haven't donated yet and would like to, please feel free-- right here. Let me leave you with a final thought from Senator Dodd. He's talking about you:

Lastly, I want to thank the thousands who joined with us in this fight around the country - those who took to the blogs, gathered signatures for online petitions and created a movement behind this issue. Men and women, young and old, who stood up, spoke out and gave us the strength to carry on this fight. Not one of them had to be involved, but each choose to become involved for one reason and one reason alone: Because they love their country. They remind us that the "silent encroachments of those in power" Madison spoke of can, in fact, be heard, if only we listen.

UPDATE: RUSS FEINGOLD ASKED US TO REDIRECT HIS CHECK

Senator Feingold isn't running for re-election in 2008. He was pleased that we're recognizing his service to the country and he asked us to send the $1,000 check to the Patriot Corps. He's been saying for years that a strong grassroots field program is the key to electoral victory. That's why his Progressive Patriots Fund created the Patriot Corps in 2006-- a way to support progressive candidates nationwide. In the lead-up to the 2008 election, the Progressive Patriots Fund will again be hiring, training and sending field staff to key races across the country. 

IN CASE YOU'VE BEEN WONDERING WHY JOHN CORNYN (R-TX) IS AT&T'S FAVORITE U.S. SENATOR...

While Rick Noriega was serving in the Texas National Guard in Afghanistan, John Cornyn was racking up the most anti-military personnel and anti-veteran voting record of anyone in the U.S. Senate. He was also racking up a breathtaking war chest of corporate contributions from every special interest under the sun-- and under the rocks. Although Cornyn's biggest individual campaign contributors were JP Morgan Chase & Co (over $61,000), the Bass Brothers (over $51,000) and Exxon Mobil (over $48,000), the telecom companies are also big fans and showered him with bribes "contributions" in the run-up to the votes on retroactive immunity for their criminal activities. AT&T, for example, one of the very worst of the spying operations looking for immunity from prosecution, singled Cornyn out for the MOST donations to any senator (not counting the ones running for president). Even their biggest senatorial shill, Jay Rockefeller, was given less than Cornyn-- although just slightly less. What I can't understand is how Cornyn (and Rockefeller) can take huge sums of money from these companies and then vote on an issue specifically about them. Isn't that unethical? Shouldn't it be criminal? Would you like seeing John Cornyn and Jay Rockefeller behind bars for the rest of their stinking lives for selling out the Constitution? I would. A lot.

Today Rick Noriega, a candidate for the Senate seat currently held by Cornyn, sent us a video he recorded about the FISA bill. There is no question how Rick would vote-- very differently from the way Cornyn already voted in February and very different from the way Cornyn has promised his financiers how he will vote when it comes up again. Give it a look-- and afterwards, if you'd like to see this honorable man in the Senate instead of an execrable one, visit our Blue America ActBlue page and consider a donation.




UPDATE: TEXANS ARE READY FOR SOME REAL CHANGE

Bye-bye Cornyn? A poll released today by Texas Lyceum, a statewide, non-partisan group, shows that Rick Noriega has caught up with the big-spending John Cornyn. The live interview poll has Noriega with 36% and John Cornyn at 38% with 24% undecided or unfocused on the race. The margin of error is 4.5%, greater than the difference between Cornyn and Noriega.

TEXANS HAVE WOKEN UP TO THE FACT THAT JOHN CORNYN IS THE WORST IN THE WHOLE SENATE

Dragging down each other's approval ratings in Texas

A few days ago we looked into the fates of Republican senators in 2006 who had less than a 55% approval rating 7 months before the election; they were all defeated. Today's Dallas Morning News must have been difficult for Bush rubber stamp John Cornyn to digest:

According to pollster Scott Rasmussen, John Cornyn could be knocked out in November by Democrat Rick Noriega. The pollster has the junior senator with a 47-43 lead over Noriega. Anytime an incumbent polls below 50 percentage points, there could be rough times ahead.

Despite what's going on nationally, it seems a reach to think that Texas could start electing statewide Democrats in November.

Rasmussen, however, says either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama are competitive against John McCain in Texas. McCain has a six-point lead over Clinton and a five-point lead over Obama.
So right now Texas is in play for the presidential election.

Imagine that.

On the other hand, Cornyn has continued to vacuum in immense amounts of legalized bribes from his corporate supporters, desperate to keep the most reliable toady they have in the Senate. He has $8.7 million in the bank to use against populist Democrat Rick Noriega, who has $329,000 cash on hand. That's a 26-1 ratio Cornyn holds. Will it be enough to buy him a re-election? And who has been bribing John Cornyn with these massive amounts of cash?

Well, of course, there is the oil and gas industries (in for almost $1.2 million), the real estate industry ($750,000), Wall Street ($625,375), commercial banks ($510,092), the insurance industry ($412,089), booze distributors ($201,150)... And no one is complaining. Cornyn is one of the most dependable anti-consumer/anti-worker senators in America. Whether it's the Bass Brothers ($70,000, his second biggest donor), AT&T ($67,000, his third biggest donor), Exxon Mobil ($48,730), Goldman Sachs ($43,400), Valero Energy ($39,900), they always get what they pay for.

Cornyn in way at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to voting records-- more extreme than anyone else in the Senate except two or three lunatic fringe Republicans. But no matter what the issue-- from the well-being of our active duty military personnel and military veterans to assistance for children, the disabled, senior citizens, the unemployed, workers, or Americans in need of health care, John Cornyn is the worst member of Congress. He has never-- not once, not on any of these issues, gone against the corporate diktats of his campaign contributors. There is no one else in the U.S. Senate as corrupt as John Cornyn or as out of touch with the needs and interests of his constituents.

Blue America has endorsed Rick Noriega. Even with Cornyn's abysmal approval ratings among Texans, Rick needs to get his positive message out if he's going to have a shot at winning in November. So far 298 people have donated to Rick through Blue America and we've raised a bit over $5,000 for his campaign. Please take a look at his live blog session at Firedoglake and see if you'd like to help get rid of the worst of the worst and put in a thorough decent man committed to the values and principles that have made America great. Do it here. Anyone who donates at least $30 today gets a CD from Blue America, a hits package from George Jones (add .01), Lynn Anderson (add .02), Little Jimmy Dickens (add .03) or Tanya Tucker (add .04). CDs choices are limited so, first come, first serve on any particular artist. And the biggest donor today gets a 4-disc box set from Waylon Jennings, Nashville Rebel.