I Am So In Awe Of Nancy Pelosi!

Today has been so exciting! One after the other, Nancy Pelosi and her team delivered all these lobbyist-oriented ConservaDems to the side of the people. And at this point the healthcare reform bill is as good as it's going to get, and it is clearly "the side of the people." It's got to pass, and no one is opposing it but dopes, hucksters, the GOP and their cutouts and shills. When Obama delivered Kucinich, that was the end of the game of opposing it from the left. Today Nancy had every Democratic interest group working at full throttle. Anyone who votes no is basically saying they're ready to join Parker Griffith in his own particular hell.

A couple days ago it started with Blue Dog Betsy Markey (D-CO), but her legend includes a bit about how there were tears in her eyes when the DCCC "forced" her-- a lifelong proponent of healthcare reform (if not of courage or character)-- to vote "no" last time. Poor thing was so distraught about being forced to vote against the bill that she ran out and joined the Blue Dog caucus. But now she's back on the side of the Democrats. Good.

But today... OMG! I can't believe what I saw. Weak, conservative, frightened John Boccieri (D-OH) flipped from "no" to "yes." Brad Ellsworth (Blue Dog-IN) announced he's in, and so did Allen Boyd (Blue Dog-FL) and Harry Mitchell (Blue Dog-AZ), and they were quickly followed by two of the House's worst lobbyist-driven corporate whores, Scott Murphy (Blue Dog-NY) and Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL).

After days of fence-sitting, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach said Friday that she would support a sweeping Democratic plan for healthcare reform that has divided the country even as it aims to bring health insurance to 95 percent of Americans.

Kosmas, one of 39 Democrats to oppose a similar bill in November, said in an exclusive interview with the Orlando Sentinel that she decided to change her mind because the latest version addressed some of her previous concerns about its effect on small businesses and the federal deficit.

“I’m going to vote for healthcare reform,” she said. “I know this is not a perfect bill. But in the scheme of things, it provides the best options and the best opportunities for my constituents.”

She just spent her entire first term in Congress playing footsie with lobbyists, but I guess when Nancy decides it's time to reel 'em back in for the sake of America, they get reeled back in. (I noticed that several labor unions have asked Kosmas to return their campaign contributions and that she has a plausible primary opponent, Paul Partyka.)

Meanwhile, Scott Murphy's upstate NY district went for Obama, albeit narrowly, and re-elected Kirsten Gillibrand in 2008 with 62% of the vote. But he's behaved as if he was in some Deep South district that voted overwhelmingly for McCain and for Republican congressional candidates. According to the Times Union Murphy decided to vote for the bill because it would shift the balance of power from insurance companies to patients and does a better job of reining in medical costs.

Murphy said the final health care package is “much more fiscally conservative” than the broader House-passed bill he opposed last November and would do a better job of reducing the explosive growth in medical costs that “our families and small businesses are facing,” while still expanding insurance coverage to roughly 32 million people.

“This bill is fundamentally different than the bill we voted on last November,” Murphy said, adding that while the measure “is not perfect,” he feels “much better” about it.

Murphy’s decision ends days of intense speculation about how he would handle the issue-- the signature piece of President Obama’s domestic agenda. Widely viewed as a potential swing vote, Murphy has been a top target for intense lobbying in the nation’s capital-- including a half-hour White House meeting with Obama-- as well as a fierce PR campaign in his mostly rural, upstate congressional district.

Ultimately, after a day studying the Democrats’ 2,000-page-plus final health care bill, Murphy said he decided that it was “going to make the system better than what we have now.”

And speakin' about Alabama, ex-Blue Dog Democrat-turned-Republican Parker Griffith will be voting against healthcare for his constituents tomorrow despite the shocking findings from the House Energy and Commerce Committee on AL-05. Although there are two conservative shills running for the Democratic nod-- each a Griffith doppelganger-- there is actually one real Democrat in that race, Mitchell Howie. I spoke with him last nigh,t and he told me that although he would be more comfortable if there was a public option in the bill, or if Alan Grayson' Medicare-for-all formulation was part of the package, he would vote for it, despite reservations that it "might end up being a give-away to the big insurance corporate interests that got our healthcare system into this ditch to begin with." He had a lot of reasons he thought this bill would be a good thing for his neighbors in northern Alabama:

In 2010, seniors whose drug costs put them into Medicare Part D's donut hole, will get a $250 rebate to help offset those costs. Next year, seniors in the donut hole will only pay for half of their prescription drug costs, and over the next ten years the hole will shrink. In a decade, all prescription drugs covered by Medicare Part D will be paid for 75% by the program, and the donut hole will be closed.

I appreciate the fact that Alabamians will no longer be able to be denied coverage by their insurance companies, because of pre-existing conditions, and they'll be able to seek preventative care without worrying about exorbitant copays. Pulling this all off while reducing the deficit sounds like a pretty good deal.

Griffith, a multimillionaire who has dedicated his short time in Congress to trying to do away with the estate tax, has no interest in serving the people in his district who most need a hand from government.

Billy Kennedy, the Blue America-endorsed candidate in North Carolina, is also facing a Republican proponent of Greed and Selfishness, Virginia Foxx, who can't open her mouth without lying about the bill. Billy, a strong advocate for working families, wasn't letting her get away with it.

Virginia Foxx is betraying her constituents as she prepares to vote 'no' on the health care reform bill. It will be devastating for Northwestern North Carolina's working families if reform is not passed... I attended the Congresswoman's lone public forum on health care this week. I wanted to ask her why it was OK for taxpayers to subsidize a career politician's insurance with our tax dollars while she prepares to vote no on giving the rest of us more affordable access... This health care bill has a lot of compromises on all sides. It's not perfect, but doing nothing is unacceptable.

And doing nothing is exactly what skunk-at-the-picnic John Barrow is proposing to do. This reactionary Blue Dog announced he would stick with his GOP allies, like Virginia Foxx and Parker Griffith, and vote against the healthcare bill, despite representing a Democratic-leaning district that gave Obama a 54% majority in 2008. This wasn't unexpected. Barrow, despite the fact that Obama saved his ass in 2008, has been opposed to most of the Democratic agenda, and in fact voted against healthcare in committee votes and on the floor every single time it's come up. Does this pipsqueak of a clown actually think he can run for the U.S. Senate? Not even in Georgia, baby.

Last year Obama rescued Barrow from a progressive and energetic Savannah state senator, Regina Thomas. Obama's ad reassured core Democratic voters that Barrow was on the right team. It would be difficult to imagine Obama doing any such thing for Barrow in 2010. And Regina Thomas is running again. May I strongly recommend that you consider sending the Democratic Party a message that we don't want any more John Barrows shoved down our throats? If we want conservatives ruining our nation, they already have their own party they can vote for. Barrow deserves to be defeated, and Regina Thomas is an excellent replacement with a proven progressive track record.

You know how its supposed to be dangerous to stick up for working families in "red" districts? NC-05 has been a red district but it doesn't look any different from anywhere else where people are waking up to being oppressed by Big Insurance and the corporate pawns from either side of the aisle-- whether Virginia Foxx or John Barrow.

Who's Driving Freshmen To Vote Against The Democratic Agenda And Into The Blue Dog Caucus?

She hated doing that & was on the verge of tears

Blue Dogs-- most of whom have voted more frequently with the GOP than with the Democrats this past year (at least on substantive issues) are heading for the hills. One of the worst, Alabama multimillionaire and reactionary, Parker Griffith, first voted with the GOP approximately 85% of the time, then announced he would vote against Nancy Pelosi for Speaker next year and finally made the jump into the Republican cesspool. Other are just retiring, Arkansas' Marion Berry being the latest. When you hear talk about Democrats losing seats in November, the most likely losers are actually not real Democrats at all; they're Blue Dogs who vote with the GOP. But conventional wisdom is so skewered rightward Inside the Beltway that contrary to all good sense, the Blue Dogs have actually picked up four recent converts: Betsy Markey (CO), Mike Arcuri (NY), Scott Murphy (NY) and Kurt Schrader (OR).

Unlike her batshitcrazy predecessor, the universally loathed Marilyn Musgrave, everybody likes freshman Democrat Betsy Markey of Fort Collins. Just the other day one of her admiring colleagues described her to me as having been "on the verge of tears" when Hoyer and Van Hollen told her they had the votes they need to pass healthcare reform and that she should vote against it. And she did, poor thing. Since getting into Congress one year ago, Markey has voted-- on substantive matters (so not on naming post offices or voting to honor girl scout cookies)-- about 41% with the Democrats and 59% with the Republicans. This is how Hoyer and Van Hollen think a Representative from a Republican-leaning district (PVI is R+9) should vote. She beat Musgrove 187,347 (56%) to 146,028 (44%) but Insiders don't seem think that means voters in CO-04 were looking for change so they have positioned Markey as a Republican-lite agent of non-change. And it isn't working.

U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey, a Democrat from Fort Collins, was one of 39 Democrats who voted against the House health reform bill. She has also positioned herself as a conservative Democrat by joining the Blue Dog coalition.

But the freshman lawmaker, who won a traditionally Republican seat from Marilyn Musgrave in 2008, is vulnerable, independent pollster Floyd Ciruli said.

"Betsy is obviously in trouble," Ciruli said. "Just on the ground there is a Republican majority; now you add to it that there are independents going against incumbent Democrats, and Republicans are extremely invigorated."

Markey has earned a reputation for voting against her party when she feels it is the right thing to do, said her campaign spokesman, Ben Marter. "She is going to continue to represent her district, not rethink the entire campaign because of what people in Massachusetts said yesterday."

I called Marter this morning to ask him what made his boss decide to join the Blue Dog caucus and in the hopes that he could explain to me how it is she felt voting against healthcare-- regardless of the verge of tears stuff-- was "the right thing to do." He didn't call back. Progressives always call back. Republicans never call back. Blue Dogs... sometimes.

I also called Josh Schwerin, the communications director for freshman Scott Murphy, another newly minted Blue Dog. I noticed that he googled my name, checked out DWT and then did call back. Murphy won the special election for the 20th congressional district-- the one Gillibrand represented-- that went for Obama and that is safer for Democrats than Markey's. Yet only half a dozen Democrats voted more frequently with the GOP on substantive issues than Murphy-- characters like Travis Childers (Blue Dog-MS), Gene Taylor (Blue Dog-MS), Bobby Bright (Blue Dog-AL), Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) and Charlie Melancon (Blue Dog-LA). Murphy couldn't join the Old Confederacy so instead he joined the Blue Dogs. He's voted with Boehner more than 75% of the time-- although he does vote with the Democrats on naming post offices. He has the worst voting record in the House for any Democrat not in a "Strong" or "Leaning" Republican district. (Oh, and I don't want to get Josh in any trouble for calling me back; no need to worry: he didn't answer any questions.)

Neither Mike Arcuri's comm director nor and Kurt Schrader's bothered calling back. I guess Arcuri feels that the help he got from Blue America when he first ran has been amply paid back through the constant barrage of automated, canned, saccharine e-mails soliciting donations. Schrader's office, apparently is just too busy fighting off the GOP charges that he's "changed" and become too much of a Democrat. On substantive issues, Schrader has voted with his own party 53% of the time, 47% with the obstructionist Republicans but two the two crazy wingnuts running against him, that's just short of communism.

“I read the interview and what I see in my friend Kurt Schrader is a desperate attempt at self-rationalization,” said Rep. Scott Bruun, who has served in the Oregon House of Representatives since 2004. “Kurt is a good man, I admired him when he was in the Oregon Legislature. I would still call him a friend, although I’m not sure he would think the same of me.
The Kurt I knew in the Oregon Legislature was independent and since he has gone to Washington has been in lock step with Nancy Pelosi and the DNC.”

Bruun announced in October he will be running for Schrader’s seat, that is if he can make it past the May Republican primary, where he faces Fred Thompson of Salem.

Thompson agreed with Bruun’s characterization of Schrader.

“Kurt Schrader has voted more than 98-percent of the time with Nancy Pelosi,” Thompson said. “That’s wrong, because she is not right 98 percent of the time. We don’t need San Francisco politics here in Oregon. This is Oregon.

It's also untrue. Where does Thompson come up with the 98% figure? Did he just pull it out of his ass? Well, possibly, but more likely he got it from the NRCC, which is telling all their candidates to say that about their opponents. So 53% of substantive matters becomes 98%-- even though if you count everthing Schrader voted on since he was elected, post office naming, girl scout cookies and all, he voted with the Democrats 91% of the time. But now that he's joined the Blue Dogs, we can probably expect his scores to veer drastically right anyway. I doubt he has the capacity to effectively defend himself in the reralm of ideas from this Republican calumny. Oh, and the deadline for filing for the Oregon primary is March 9. If you follow Blue America, you probably know that we've already found some solid progressives who we're trying to help in races against Blue Dogs and other reactionaries.

NY-20: It's CONGRESSMAN Murphy As Tedisco Dances Off The Political Stage With An Overdue Concession Speech! And Norm Coleman?

"Norm, be a mensch for a change and think about Minnesota"

Well no word from Coleman other than the sheer joy of forcing Minnesota to get by on only one senator for at least another month or two. But ex-Republican Assembly leader Jim Tedisco just conceded that he lost the congressional race to replace Kirstin Gillibrand.

If the Republicans can't win in a district with 70,000 more registered Republican voters than Democrats, where can they win? (I mean outside the Old Confederacy?) Ironically, they might have won this one; Tedisco started with an "insurmountable" lead. Murphy, the Democrat, is some Blue Dog from Missouri who should have proven no match for Tedisco. But then Michael Steele and the RNC moved in and decided to make it a referendum on Obama. That was a bad idea. Obama is popular in the district and people like his approach and they are angry with Republicans who are being obstructionist. And that's how they painted their own candidate-- as someone who would join Boehner and Cantor and Ryan in holding Obama back. It cooked his goose. Congressional Republicans have an approval rating historically low and if you take The South out of the numbers, the approval rating for GOP leaders is so low that it can't be accurately measured.

The recount was a total bust. The more votes that got counted the further back Tedisco fell. In the end Murphy won with 401 votes. In his victory statement Murphy acknowledged that at least part of the reason he won is because of the help he got from President Obama and Vice President Biden. He said he "can’t wait to start working with the President to deliver the urgently needed recovery funds to Upstate New York." I hope that means he'll be working with Obama to pass the change agenda, not working with the Republicans-- like John Barrow, who Obama helped win in Georgia and who has consistently worked against the changes Obama promised to bring America.

Interestingly enough, a poll completed for the SEIU shows that President Obama is more popular than Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania among Republicans. Of course Specter's long overdue political demise is a special case, but it is clear that everyone outside of the Mormon theocracy and the deepest, darkest bowels of most of the former slave-holding states, voters want to see Obama succeed and resent mindless lockstep obstructionism from Republicans. Democrats feeding into this are going to get burned. If I were Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh I'd be trying to behave less like a Republican and more like a Democrat.

We'll let you know if Michael Steele resigns or gets fired today (or NY State GOP chairman Joseph Mondello for that matter) or they wait a little while and think of some reasonable excuse to get rid of the two of them.

Tea Parties For The Party Of Sore Losers

No wonder Miss McConnell hightailed it out of the country when he heard about the Gingrich/Fox-sponsored hate rallies organized "against taxes" today. And no wonder dozens of right-wing politicians with an eye on future political careers-- from Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, and Mitt Romney to Eric Cantor and Sarah Palin-- are staying as far from these crazed and unfocused out-of-control expressions of every kind of discontent and Know Nothing hatred in the country as they can. Of GOP leaders only three, each a dead-end extremist-- seccessionist Rick Perry (R-TX), John Boehner (R-OH) and Paul Ryan (R-WI)-- are riding the demagoguery train to wingnutia today.

I'm worried about right-wing violence and terror-- and I hope the administration does something about it. If Fox incites violence they should lose their broadcast license and the inciters should face trial. These teabag hate fests are clearly part of the "resurgence in 'recruitment and radicalization activity' by white supremacist groups, antigovernment extremists and militia movements."

When I first saw the video below I didn't think it was that big a deal. I figured it was some kooky Ron Paul fan screaming about fascism or just some delusional dittohead who's stayed up too many hour listening to his hero's recordings over and over. But then someone told me he's actually a Fox TV anchor, right wing sociopath Cody Willard from their failing business network. Take a look:



The hate fests are attracting actual Storm Front fascists while Fox anchormen yell about Obama being a fascist because he's determined to lessen the dangerous income gap between Americans, an income gap that goes way beyond fascism into the realms of feudalism, plutocracy and monarchy. It should surprise no one that these GOP/Fox-events are filled with people who don't want change. That's what conservatives are-- people afraid of change. And that's why they voted for McCain. But they lost. Basically what we're experiencing here is another case of GOP sore loser syndrome. And now that the vote count in NY-20 has moved Scott Murphy far enough ahead so that he'll wind up as the next congressman from New York, we'll soon experience a fresh dose of their inability to deal with losing. In fact, they lost their first court case as well-- at the hands of a judge handpicked by the GOP! Let's hope the sore losers don't draw this one out as long as Minnesota.

Total fair and balanced network coverage... live:

With Absentee Ballots Breaking In His Favor, Murphy Has Pulled Ahead In NY-20 Congressional Race

Democrat Scott Murphy's up by 46 votes now, after 1,400 of the 6,700 absentee ballots have been counted. The Republican Party obstructionists aren't going to let a simple thing like a majority of votes stop them though. Bringing in their top election thief, they're looking to try to disenfranchise as many Democratic voters as they can. The Albany Project is covering this in minute detail.

At this point, the absentees appear to be breaking significantly for Murphy. Tedisco leads by 68 votes among ballots cast on Election Day, while Murphy leads by 114 votes in the much smaller pool of absentees.

But the totals so far do not include Saratoga County-- a Tedisco stronghold that comprises more votes than any other county in the 20th congressional district. A Saratoga County official has told the Albany Times-Union that it will not report any results until its count is finished, leaving a key Tedisco-leaning county out of the early numbers.

Tedisco’s campaign said late Thursday that the totals from Saratoga County, which have not yet been added to the state Board of Elections website’s count, would have pushed the race in Tedisco’s favor by 60 votes, but that was before three Murphy-favoring counties reported more totals Friday morning.

Fired by Assembly Republicans from his leadership post, Tedisco is now more desperate than ever to grab the congressional seat. The fact that there are 70,000 more registered Republicans in the district than Democrats is making them all a little nervous. Daily Kos has a great report on how Tedisco's team is going about trying to steal the election.

[V]irtually all ballots from Democrats who fit the profile of "second home owners" are being challenged-- and if the Board does not uphold the challenge, those ballots are being set aside, unopened, subject to a formal appeal by Tedisco. That is: They cannot be opened until a judge rules on them.

This GOP strategy is going to significantly depress Murphy's vote tally in Columbia, at least temporarily.

Those unfamiliar with Columbia County may not be aware that there has been, for many years, a large second home community here-- made up overwhelmingly, though not exclusively, of Democrats from New York City. Many of these voters have been here for many years, in some cases decades. As is entirely appropriate and legal, they have cast their ballots here without incident many times before, including just a few months ago for Barack Obama.

But as I'm hearing it, the Tedisco lawyer in Columbia (sent in by John Ciampoli) came prepared to challenge pretty much anyone who was a Democrat who had their absentee sent to a "downstate" address.

UPDATE: Michael Steele Has Been Wrong On More Than Just Poor Befuddled Jim Tedisco

Just as Michael Steele was trying to persuade George Stephanopouls that he isn't a crook and convince Bill Bennett's hate talk radio audience that there is no recession which can be clearly seen by how busy the malls are ("The malls are just as packed on Saturday"), CNNMoney released a report that would embarrass Steele... if he were embarrassable.

Strip malls, neighborhood centers and regional malls are losing stores at the fastest pace in at least a decade, as a spending slump forces retailers to trim down to stay afloat, according to a real estate industry report.

The consequence for consumers: Fewer stores to shop and less product choice.

In just the first quarter of 2009, retail tenants at these centers have vacated 8.7 million square feet of commercial space, according to the latest report from New York-based real estate research firm Reis.

That number exceeds the 8.6 million square feet of retail space that was vacated in all of 2008.

Reis' report shows that store vacancy rates at malls rose 9.5% in the first quarter, outpacing the 8.9% vacancy rate registered in all of 2008, and marking the largest single-quarter jump in vacancies since Reis began publishing quarterly figures in 1999.

"These record numbers are symptomatic of the pervasive weakness that we're seeing across economic sectors," said Victor Calanog, director of research with Reis.

"Consumers are worried about their asset bases and they aren't buying things," he said. "Their home values and retirement accounts are still reeling, and consumers remain concerned about future income as job losses accelerate."

And the report goes on the predict that it will get much worse, with mall vacancies headed for historic highs until stabilization starts in 2012, after Obama has been able to dilute the catastrophic impact of decades of ideologically greed-driven Republican economic policies.


THE NY-20 RACE: TWO ADDITIONAL NOTES FROM KEN

(1) About those NYC absentee voters

The GOP singling out of possible "second home" voter registrants is more sinister than the Albany Project writer quoted here suggests, as has been reported earlier on The Albany Project. There is no question that someone with more than one residence is legally entitled to vote from any legitimate address. What the election-stealers are targeting, the theory goes, is something more particular: NYC residents who may have rent-controlled or rent-stabilized apartments in the city. While it's just possible that it's somehow kosher for them to vote from their upstate address, in NYC it is pretty much an absolute requirement that a rent-regulated apartment be the tenant's primary residence. At the least, this is called into question if the tenant votes from another address.

The idea appears to be intimidation. Remember, those ballots are being segregated before opening. Speculation is that the intent is to encourage absentee voters who have NYC addresses (who may be presumed to be dangerously likely to be Democratic voters). whose rent-regulated status might be jeopardized, to try to withdraw their ballots before they're counted.

(2) About Jim Tedisco

I've written a number of times here about the extremely peculiar and dysfunctional structure of New York State government which has been essentially permanent over the last 40-plus years, in which, by common consent of the two major parties, control of the State Senate was conceded to the Republicans and the Assembly to the Democrats, with most of the real legislative power lodged in the hands of the two legislative leaders, the Senate majority leader (R) and the Assembly speaker (D). The two of them have been, along with the governor, the famous "three men in a room" who have pretty much been the state government over this period. (It's only recently, with the implosion of the state GOP, that the Republicans' grip on the Senate faltered and finally, in the 2008 election, was lost.)

The thing is, since the two legislative leaders barely tolerate input from members of their own caucus, the minority parties -- the Senate Democrats and Assembly Republicans -- have had almost literally no function during this time, and except on rare occasions can barely be said to have risen to the stature of an "opposition" party. They have been mostly reduced to the status of obstructionists (with hardly any power to obstruct anything, except on occasional special issues) or outright clowns. Now that the Democrats have taken control of the Senate, we're seeing a gruesome demonstration of what happens when a caucus with a heavy concentration of such time-servers takes on the responsibility of governing. It has been a woeful spectacle.

And the Senate Democrats were a class act by comparison with the equally useless Assembly Republicans, who tend to be the intellectual and ethical equivalent of used-car salesmen. And who is Jim Tedisco? The leader of the Assembly Republicans -- or in fact, as Howie points out above, the former leader, the caucus having declared its intent to replace him with someone even creepier from among its ranks. (And if you're looking for creepy, trust me, the NYS Assembly Republican caucus is a jim-dandy place to find it.) It may sound impressive to refer to the candidate as Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, but in real-world terms what it breaks down to is someone who has at best put in his time in the Assembly watching government happen around him, and who in the end proved too clueless even for that cadre of clowns.

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Time For Norm Coleman To Throw In The Towel, Take 23

Who's the bigger sore loser?

As of yesterday the official number of votes by which Al Franken is now leading sore loser Norm Coleman in the "election" to Minnesota's second Senate seat has risen to 312. That's right, after months of fighting and millions of dollars wasted in Coleman's frivolous law suit, he managed to gain 111 votes-- while Franken gained 198 votes, a net positive of 87 for Franken.

Of course none of this matters one bit to the Republican obstructionists behind Coleman's battle-- primarily McConnell, Kyl and Cornyn. They know that Coleman has no chance to win. They just want to delay-- for as long as possible-- Franken being seated. And there are plenty of grassroots Republicans-- those without functioning brains beyond being able to repeat what they hear from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and the other GOP strategists. Take Michele Bachmann supporter Jim Bendtsen in Anoka County, just north of the Twin Cities. Bendtsen, 54, was quoted in USAToday yesterday regurgitating just what he hears from Limbaugh. He says "he's willing to forgo a senator if it means slowing President Obama's agenda. 'I'm in favor of keeping Franken out of office as long as possible,' he says. 'The more votes Obama has at the federal level, the more damage I think he's going to do to America.'"

And for all those who would prefer to see America fail than watch Obama succeed, that kind of talk is pretty standard. Yesterday Franken's attorney explained that it's all over for Coleman but Republican obstructionists don't care about Coleman or Minnesota-- just advancing their cause: obstruction. These are the people who really believe in "4 more years."

“I think we are done,” Franken attorney Marc Elias told reporters after the counting. “It’s no more complicated than this … More Minnesotans voted for Al Franken than for Norm Coleman.”

Asked about Coleman’s pledge to battle on, Elias said, “I don’t think there is much of a case on appeal, candidly.”

Even Republican-oriented newspapers and far right extremists are starting to give up on Coleman's counterproductive tactics. Ramesh Ponnuru in the National Review: "I think it's time for him to give up this fight." Today however, eyes shift east as official absentee vote counting gets under way in the contested election for Congress in NY-20. It's all tied-up now but Nate Silver says the trend is Murphy's friend in this case. He explains that there seems "to be a relatively higher proportion of absentee ballots returned in counties where Murphy performed well on election night. For example, Columbia County, where Murphy won 56.3 percent of the of the vote last week, accounted for 9.8 percent of ballots on election night, but accounts for 15.3 percent of absentees. Conversely, Saratoga County, which is a Tedisco stronghold, represented 36 percent of ballots on election night but only 27.2 percent of absentees."


UPDATE: GOP Still Obstructing Minnesota Senate Resolution

Today's NY Times mentions, despite partisan fanatics like Mr. Bendtsen, that Minnesota really does need two senators, just like everyone else.

“I keep hoping that it will end,” Ms. Klobuchar, a Democrat elected in 2006 to her first term, said this week, adding that her biggest concern is a doubling of requests from ordinary constituents in need of help-- with a missing Social Security check, say, a stalled adoption in Guatemala, or a tangled problem with veterans’ benefits.

“The system,” she said, “was set up for two senators for a reason.”

...A political scientist at the University of Minnesota, Lawrence R. Jacobs, said that given the deluge of requests for help from those losing jobs, homes, everything, Ms. Klobuchar was “a little like the Dutch boy trying to plug the dike.”

Evil Incarnate Sets Up Camp In NY-20

Tedisco calls in the GOP garbage truck

Phil at The Albany Project is on the ground with the latest from the post-election race in NY-20 between Scott Murphy and Tedisco. The GOP sent in their dirtiest gun, Mr. Brooks Brothers Riot, himself, Roger Stone. He hopes to help Tedisco steal the congressional race the same way he helped Bush-Cheney steal the presidential race in 2000. Since you'll probably be hearing plenty more about this sleazebag in the coming weeks, we thought we'd make sure you have all the necessary context, in the form of this short video clip:




UPDATE: The See Saw Count Now Has Murphy Up By 83 Votes

A judge just ruled that the vote counting should proceed-- Tedisco opposed that-- and the most current count has Murphy up by 83. Tedisco apparently plans to use Roger Stone to challenge absentee ballots... but only the ones that voted for Murphy.

Republican Party Response To Tedisco's Defeat: "Dems Trying To Steal Election-- Send Us Money"

Are ALL Republicans sore losers?

Yesterday GOP hopes to keep Al Franken from being seated in the Senate took another blow as another Minnesota court ruled against Norm Coleman's Republican Party-funded frivolous law suit. Coleman's sore loser posture is starting to grate... big time. And while this was happening, the GOP was losing another close election (in upstate New York)-- and vowing to use the same obstructionist tactics.

National Republicans are warning prospective donors that Democrats are trying to “pull a Franken” and “steal” Tuesday's special election in upstate New York.

Republicans made the charges in a fundraising email sent out early Wednesday morning after a too-close-to-call finish in the New York House race between Democrat Scott Murphy and Republican Jim Tedisco.

Murphy leads by 65 votes with all precincts reporting, but thousands of absentee ballots remain uncounted. Final results may not be known for weeks.

The GOP e-mail highlights Minnesota Democrat Al Franken, who appears likely to win a Senate seat after a state court gave him an important legal victory on Tuesday over Republican Norm Coleman.

“Democrats have almost succeeded in stealing the election in Minnesota and seating Al Franken,” wrote Guy Harrison, the National Republican Congressional Committee's executive director. “We cannot allow them to manipulate electoral results to seat another tax-troubled liberal.”

The email indicates Republicans are gearing up for a legal fight over the election results, and suggests the party will pursue a more aggressive legal than in Minnesota. In that contest, Coleman was initially up after Election Day but Franken was able to usurp his lead in the recount and legal process.

What's left of the NY State Republican Party is running off to every court they can find screaming for injunctions. While recreating the exact same thing they did in Minnesota, they claim they're trying to prevent another Minnesota. By state law all absentee ballots should be counted by April 13, unless the GOP starts with the obstructionist law suits again.

NY-20: Too Close To Call-- Scott Murphy Ahead Of Disco Duck

Republican Jim Tedisco of Schenectady is (or was) the minority leader of the NY State Assembly. He decided to use that position as a stepping stone to the congressional seat in a neighboring district when Kirsten Gillibrand, the second-term representative, was appointed to the U.S. Senate. The district has 70,632 more registered Republicans than Democrats and Bush won it twice. Last November, Obama squeaked by McCain with 51%. When the campaign started, polls showed Tedisco burying an unknown Blue Dog Democrat, Scott Murphy, 50-29%. But one of the most inept campaigns in memory-- even today Tedisco, who can't vote for himself because he doesn't live in the district, sent a text message to voters... but the wrong ones-- steadily shrunk Tedisco's lead and provoked bloody GOP infighting and lots of confusion and costly errors. Tonight the unknown Democrat from Missouri is ahead by 65 votes, although thousands of absentee ballots remain to be counted.

Even before the polls closed, Tedisco, following the Norm Coleman strategy, was in court protesting Murphy's victory. This is a startling and devastating defeat for the GOP, both on the state and national level.

One GOP consultant who isn't working on Tedisco's campaign suggested this race could actually end up being a "perfect storm," leading to calls for the ouster of party leaders all the way up the food chain.

On the line are local leaders like Saratoga County's Jasper Nolan, an early champion of Tedisco and veteran chairman who has weathered several failed coup attempts; state Chairman Joe Mondello, who presided over the meeting at which the 10 county chairs picked Tedisco and was under fire even before the party's historic loss of the state Senate majority last year; RNC's Michael Steele, who was the first to suggest the 20th CD contest would be a bellwether of the national GOP's ability to make a comeback.

That bellwether meme-- and the Republican Party's insistence at nationalizing the race and making it a referendum on Obama and his program-- is at the heart of the GOP disaster tonight. Tim Kaine, head of the DNC had a curt and to the point synopsis of how the race unfolded:

Scott Murphy embraced President Obama's message of change and his plans to fix our economy and create jobs, and as a result  he stormed from more than 20 points down to winning a majority of votes cast tonight. Scott's performance tonight in an overwhelmingly Republican district, where Republicans enjoy a registration advantage over Democrats of more than 70,000, represents a repudiation of the failed politics and policies that Republicans continue to embrace. We are confident that when all the ballots are counted, Scott will expand his lead and become an ally to President Obama in Congress who will help the President create jobs and turn our economy around.

Democratic Party sources estimate that after the counting is done, if trends hold steady, Murphy will increase his lead and beat Tedisco by 210 votes.

NY-20: Tedisco Gets Libertarian Kicked Off Ballot-- Libertarian Endorses Scott Murphy

In giant blunder, GOP nationalizes congressional race

Jim Tedisco thought it would help him win the congressional election in upstate New York's 20th CD on Tuesday if he could get Eric Sundwall, the Libertarian candidate out of the race. Sundwall says he and his family have been abused, threatened and harassed. And the Republican state party machine has tied him up in court so that he couldn't campaign. The Board of Elections kicked him off the ballot and late today he announced he would not be contesting the decision and that he endorsed Democrat Scott Murphy, probably sealing Tedisco's fate.

Faced with the prospect of spending much of the rest of campaign on the witness stand being harassed by the machine's hired gun, I chose not to play that game. Since I could not file suit in the county of my choosing, I decided to end my candidacy and not subject myself and my family to any further abuse, threats or harassment from the political machine.

...Mr. Tedisco denies any involvement with the concerted effort by his supporters to knock me off the ballot. I don't believe him. The ruthless effort by his supporters to knock me off the ballot without a word of protest by him proves his unfitness for any office let alone Congress in these critical times.

I will be voting for Scott Murphy on Tuesday. While we disagree on some important issues, I find him to be a man of honor, a good family man and successful businessman. Unlike Tedisco, he actually lives in the District. And, unlike Mr. Tedisco, I view Scott's business success as a virtue, not a vice.

I urge my supporters and all those who believe in open and free elections to show their disgust at the tactics of the Republican political machine to win at all costs. Please join me in voting for Scott Murphy on Tuesday.

Old Whine In New Bottles-- Tedisco Campaign Stumbles And Falls Behind

Is Tedisco's nosedive all part of Steele's grand strategy?

Everyone thought the congressional race in New York's Republican-leaning 20th CD (PVI is R+3) would be a slam dunk for Jim Tedisco, the Minority Leader of the New York State Assembly. The Democrats came up with a totally unknown, cut-and-paste Blue Dog, some guy from Missouri named Scott Miller or Scott Murphy or something like that... just some self-funder with no real shot. Early polls showed Tedisco absolutely swamping him. But after weeks and weeks of inept, negative campaign ads from the Republicans and, especially, from extremist GOP front groups trying to turn the election into a referendum about President Obama's policies, polls started to shift away from Tedisco and towards Miller or Murphy or whoever the guy from Missouri is. Today, with just 4 days to go before election day, Miller or Murphy has pulled ahead and now leads Tedisco by 4 points.

What happened? It can't be the tepid ads the DNC started running, first with Biden and then with Obama tepidly endorsing Miller (or Murphy; I should look it up since he's probably going to be a Blue Dog congressman voting to sabotage Obama's programs who I'll be denouncing for the next couple of years). I have a feeling it was just the sheer ineptness of the Grand Obstructionist Party (AKA- The Party of No).

Tedisco's Republican colleagues haven't done him any good. And I don't just mean Michael Steele's strategic disaster of a campaign, which even Tedisco himself denounced. Republicans on the national stage look mighty clownish these days. Just yesterday, the House Republican leadership horribly botched an attempt to offer an alternative budget. It turned into a p.r. nightmare as they all stumbled all over each other and got laughed at by the national media.

With far right sad sack Mike Pence rushing to grab the spotlight, Paul Ryan was thrown under the bus before he could explain what the clowns were trying to accomplish. By the end of their news conference, everyone was laughing loudly as they dug a deeper and deeper hole for themselves. Ryan's explanation: "The problem is that somewhere along the line, someone got the mistaken impression that we were going to roll out a budget alternative today." How could that have happened? John Boehner, Ryan's boss: "Two nights ago the president said, 'We haven't seen a budget yet out of Republicans.' Well, it's just not true because-- Here it is, Mr. President." You know, people in NY-20 apparently have TVs and radios and read newspapers. They may be unsure about what they do want, but they sure know it isn't more of what we just experienced under George Bush and this crew of stale holdovers and ritual obstructionists.

The local paper, while pointing out that President Obama enjoys a high favorability rating among NY-20 voters (65%), has a less nationalized perspective on why Tedisco is losing, something that goes back to the chess master at the RNC:

Tedisco’s campaign is viewed by voters as more negative by a 44-25 percent margin, while Murphy’s campaign is seen as more positive by a 42-25 percent margin.

Forty-two percent of voters credit Murphy with waging the more positive campaign, compared to 25 percent who say that describes Tedisco. Similarly, by a 44-25 percent margin, voters say Tedisco has been running a more negative campaign than Murphy. Nearly one in five voters says it’s both candidates. More than two-thirds of Democrats say Murphy’s campaign is more positive and Tedisco’s more negative. Republicans see it more even, with 36 percent saying Murphy’s been more negative and 29 percent saying Tedisco. Independents say Tedisco’s more negative by 42-25 percent margin.

And NY-20 isn't the only constituency where Republican Party obstructionism is backfiring on the Party of No, the same way it did in 1934 when the Republicans tried to sink FDR's efforts to rescue the nation from the last depression right-wing ideology-run-amuck caused. At that time the Republicans saw their once mighty advantage in the Senate shrink by 10 more seats (after a shocking drubbing in 1932) to a pathetic rump: 25 Republican obstructionists left in the Senate. Even Harry Reid sees that the pattern this year is leading in exactly that direction again. Now new polling from Missouri shows that voters there aren't buying GOP snake-oil either.

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) leads both of her potential Republican opponents in the race to replace retiring Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), according to a new poll conducted by a GOP pollster.

Carnahan leads Rep. Roy Blunt (R) by a narrow 47 percent to 44 percent. The Democrat leads former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman by a wider 47 percent to 39 percent margin.

Is this what voters will be thinking about when they go to the polls? Looks that way.

Will Obama Have Coattails In Special Elections-- Like In NY-20's Contest Between Tedisco And Murphy?

In November Obama ran up bigger vote margins than John Kerry in every state except for 6 racist throwbacks that are still largely KKK bastions, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The first number is Obama vote percentage and the second is Kerry's.

Alabama- 39/48
Alaska- 38/36
Arizona- 45/44
Arkansas- 39/45
California- 61/54
Colorado- 54/47
Connecticut- 61/54
Delaware- 62/53
DC- 93/89
Florida- 51/47
Georgia- 47/41
Hawaii- 72/54
Idaho- 36/30
Illinois- 62/55
Indiana- 50/39
Iowa- 54/49
Kansas- 41/37
Kentucky- 41/40
Louisiana- 40/42
Maine- 58/54
Maryland- 62/56
Massachusetts- 62/62 (Kerry's home state-- and Obama came up with 90,000 more votes)
Michigan- 57/51
Minnesota- 54/51
Mississippi- 43/40
Missouri- 49/46
Montana- 47/39
Nebraska- 42/33
Nevada- 55/48
New Hampshire- 54/50
New Jersey- 57/53
New Mexico- 57/49
New York- 62/58
North Carolina- 50/44
North Dakota- 45/35
Ohio- 51/49
Oklahoma- 34/34
Oregon- 57/51
Pennsylvania- 55/51
Rhode Island- 63/59
South Carolina- 45/41
South Dakota- 45/38
Tennessee- 42/43
Texas- 44/38
Utah- 34/26
Vermont 68/59
Virginia- 53/45
Washington- 58/53
West Virginia- 43/43
Wisconsin- 56/50
Wyoming- 33/29

The result was 365 electoral votes for Obama and 53% of the popular vote, as opposed to the 252 electoral votes and 48% of the popular vote that Kerry took, or-- in way of comparison, 286 electoral votes Bush got in 2004, along with 51% of the popular vote.

There are similar instances in congressional districts in every part of the country. A combination of Obama's coattails and voters' disgust with Republican governance combined to elect a great many Democrats in traditionally Republican seats. Upstate New York's 20th congressional district, which has a PVI of R+3 gave Bush 51% in 2000 and 54% in 2004, dumped it's drunken, woman-beating wingnut of a Republican incumbent, John Sweeney, and elected moderate Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in 2006 by over 13,000 votes, 53-47%. This past November, against concerted and well-financed opposition (Sandy Treadwell spent over $7,000,000, $6 million from his own pocket, to Gillibarnd's total of $4.4 million), Gillibrand's constituents sent her back to Congress with a startling 62% of the vote. Obama's margin of victory was smaller but his win was not something Republicans were expecting.

New York's completely clueless soon-to-be-ex-governor appointed Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat and it was widely assumed, on both sides of the aisle, that he was throwing away the NY-20 House seat. If the Republicans get it back, it will be a close race, and a very expensive one. Their candidate, Jim Tedisco, started out with a seemingly insurmountable lead against Scott Murphy, a moderate Blue Dog Democrat who isn't exactly inspiring any progressives. But after a series of missteps from Tedisco and from the national GOP, the race is now neck and neck. The NRCC has leaned on its members to flood Tedisco's campaign with money and 88 of them have responded with checks. The NRCC itself has put 344,000 into negative TV ads and the RNC has put in another $180,000. National Democrats have put $156,000 into the race.

Tedisco, a hard-core conservative, refuses to say whether or not he will join the Republican Party's All Obstruction/All the Time strategy against President Obama's policies and won't answer any questions about where he stands on the Stimulus bill. If Obama were to appeal directly to voters in NY-20 to give him a supporter in Congress, the way FDR did for Democrats, Murphy might actually hold the seat. Gillibrand is trying but the impact isn't the same.

Meanwhile, on the Republican side, the race is seen as a make it or break it contest for the party itself. Today's Hill:

Though officials at the NRCC warn the race will be close, privately Republican strategists say a loss would be devastating. Republicans hold a wide voter registration advantage in the district, and before Gillibrand beat an ethically tainted incumbent in 2006 Republicans had held the seat since the 1970s.

Early polls showed Tedisco with a wide lead, though recent public surveys indicate Murphy is quickly closing the gap. Though Republicans privately expressed early optimism and played up their chances of taking over the seat, some strategists are now privately expressing concern.

Private GOP polls show that Murphy has all the momentum and has actually pulled slightly ahead of Tedisco. The RNC's embattled chairman has realized that if Tedisco loses he will probably be forced out of his job even sooner than is expected.

[A]fter a series of comments that have turned Steele into the butt of jokes on late-night comedy shows and a punching bag in his own party, Republicans say the former Maryland lieutenant governor's performance depends more than ever on his mastering the essential duties of a party chairman: raising money, hiring staff members and helping candidates win elections. No major figure in the GOP has yet called for the resignation of the party's first black chairman, but many want him to stay behind the scenes, even though his reputation as a likable and telegenic figure helped win him the job in the first place.

Today's North Country Gazette absolutely savaged Tedisco and will make it even harder for him to make up lost ground against Murphy. A campaign add from President Obama about GOP obstructionism would end Tedisco's chances once and for all.

The economy-- layoffs and foreclosures and other detrimental effects of the recession-- is the most important issue in the campaign for the 20th Congressional District.
 
While Democrat Scott Murphy of Glens Falls has been focused on the everyday issues facing middle class families in this tough economy, the Republican candidate Jim Tedisco, part of the Republican regime that got us into this recession, is still driving around in his state-owned vehicle spouting his rhetoric and claiming to be “one of us.” While you are struggling to make your car payments, pay your car insurance, maintain your vehicle and put gas in it, Tedisco is among the state employees who are riding around at your expense. He’s NOT one of us.

What Do Progressives In Upstate New York Think Of The Candidate Democratic Bosses Picked To Run For Kirsten Gillibrand's House Seat?

I asked a prominent progressive from Saratoga County to give us an assessment of the race to fill Kristen Gillibrand's House seat. He doesn't sound very optimistic:

BLUE DOG ANYONE

Here in the 20th congressional district of Upstate New York we have borne our share of electoral indignities over the years. Chief among these were Congressman Gerry Solomon (R), who once famously claimed on the House floor that his wife needed to be able to have assault weapons to defend herself (in their exclusive and wealthy neighborhood of mansions in Queensbury, NY).  Solomon’s successor, handpicked by Republicans was the infamous John Sweeney, a drunk, spousal abuser, and quite possibly the main reason (see Florida recount shutdown) we suffered through 8 years of the worst presidency in the country’s history. When then Congressional candidate Kirsten Gillibrand decided to run for the seat in the '06 election, she was enthusiastically embraced by Democrats and progressives in the district. During her campaign she portrayed herself as a progressive, promising to help bring the Iraq war to an end and to restore some accountability to Congress. Once elected, she joined the Blue Dog caucus and repeatedly voted for funding Bush’s war. In a delegation of increasingly progressive congressional Democrats from New York State, she acted more like a Republican than a Democrat would, should or could. Shortly after being picked by now unpopular NY Governor David Patterson to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate seat, it was revealed that she had a 100% approval rating from the NRA.  She also told reporters that she kept shotguns under her bed to protect her family in “dangerous” Hudson, NY.  Brilliant, considering that she has 2 young children, one a toddler!

Now with a vacated seat here in the 20th CD, we are left with 2 choices: James Tedisco (R), a 25 year NY assemblyman with no legislative accomplishments and who is barely coherent, or a newcomer, Scott Murphy, a venture capitalist. Murphy, originally from Missouri, worked as an aide for Missouri's former Democratic governors, Mel Carnahan and Roger Wilson.

Murphy’s website is light on details of how he would represent the district.  Consider these position factoids from his website:

America and the World

Scott believes the US can be an effective leader in the world on fighting terrorism, combating climate change, and helping those suffering from poverty and hunger.

Hmm. Hard to be against those issues. Tell me more

Health Care

With about 47 million Americans lacking health insurance-- and many more unable to afford skyrocketing costs-- the United States is facing a health care crisis. As a successful businessman, Scott knows the strain that rising health care costs place on small business, families, and local communities.

Scott believes we must find a bipartisan solution that provides health care access to everyone.

By increasing coverage, we can reduce visits to the emergency room and ensure that no family is forced to choose between quality health care and other necessities. Scott has pledged to work with President Obama, Republicans and Democrats in Congress, and leaders in the health care industry to find common ground on ways to expand health care coverage to all Americans.

Scott applauded the bipartisan passage of an expansion of the successful State Children’s Health Insurance Program as an important step forward in making sure every American has access to health insurance.

Scott also supports federally-funded stem cell research. This research holds promise to provide cures to some of the most devastating diseases including childhood diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

Again not very substantive. How will coverage be increased?  Are you advocating Single Payer Universal healthcare? Why not? How does one find a bipartisan solution with the party of NO? The last paragraph should be a no brainer as almost all progressives support Stem cell research and probably a majority of Republicans. It is also a moot point as President Obama will reverse the bush policies prohibiting stem cell research by executive order.

Job Creation and Economic Recovery

Scott doesn’t just talk about putting people back to work, he has actually helped create over 1,000 jobs, including jobs in growing sectors like green energy and internet technology. It’s that kind of private sector experience and willingness to look beyond ideology that we need in Washington to get our economy back on track and create jobs right here in the 20th Congressional District.

Vague, vague, vague! Where did you create these jobs? Can we look up the statistics?

Where will these new jobs come from in Upstate NY’s chronically depressed economy that lacks critical infrastructure? Most young people leave here never to return after college because there are NO jobs. Green energy! Does that include the Republican favorite of green energy: Nuclear power? You know the one where we magically dispose of the waste for future generations.

So where does Murphy stand on issues such as Civil rights? Gay Marriage? The environment? Illegal surveillance of Americans? No one knows. Many have asked. None have been answered. An article in Newsday does tell us where he stands on a few issues:

The last person to hold the seat in the 20th district was a Blue Dog Democrat-- a fiscally conservative caucus that Murphy wants to join. Gillibrand had managed to wrest the seat from former Republican Congressman John Sweeney in 2006 after a police report became public showing that Sweeney's wife had called 911 in what appeared to be a domestic violence incident. 

Many voters are just beginning to learn about Murphy, a businessman and former political staffer from Missouri. 

For starters, he's pro-gun, a position he shares with Gillibrand, which has gotten her some criticism in more urban parts of the state since she's become Senator. 

So he wants to be a Blue Dog and supports gun rights (already guaranteed in the constitution for 200+ years).  I think we’ve been down this path before. There are also murmurings from Democrats in the district who wonder why it is that Murphy has never contributed money to any local Democratic candidates for other offices in the district, or why he had a re-election sign for Republican State Senator Betty Little in his front yard in a recent election.

The lack of candor on questions from both candidates has even rattled one local newspaper in the district, the Glens Falls Post-Star. In their weekly column, entitled "Boos and Bravos," they wrote:

Candidates should communicate more directly

Boos to the congressional candidates from the two major parties, Republican Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy, for their over-reliance on spokesmen and press releases to communicate to voters. This is a grassroots election taking place in a very short time frame. Voters deserve to hear from the candidates and have their questions answered directly, not filtered by political flacks and in pre-written, sanitized statements. Every day, the local media is bombarded by press releases from the candidates with alleged quotes from the candidates. But when asked to come on the phone to clarify their positions and answer questions, the candidates have taken to deferring to their "spokesmen." It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens far more than it should. If you want to run for Congress, have the courage to speak to voters for yourselves. Otherwise, step out of the way and let someone else have a try.

So here in the 20th we have an unknown quantity running on the Democratic line for Congress. Other than his pro-gun, Blue Dog leanings, we don’t know what else he stands for. Some might argue that electing a Democrat, any Democrat is better than a Republican. But is that true? How is it good if this representation supports values that will fail to help a majority of the districts residents? In the Glens Falls Metro area the median income (of those still employed) is around $38,000 per year and this is one of the better stats for this CD. Tax cuts for the wealthy anyone? How will more of the same failed policies such as those advocated by Republicans and Blue Dogs help working people in a collapsing economy in an already economically depressed district? In addition there is the likelihood that this CD will be redistricted out of existence after the next census.

After the last 8 years of crime, corruption and cronyism why should anyone be willing to support candidates who are evasive in their positions on critical issues? Progressives have worked hard to elect candidates who share their values. We are in deep trouble on many different fronts: environment, economy, critical government services, deficits and Civil liberties. If Mr. Murphy can’t take a stand on issues how can he represent us effectively in Congress? As the Post-Star wrote:

"If you want to run for Congress, have the courage to speak to voters for yourselves. Otherwise, step out of the way and let someone else have a try."

A new Blue Dog to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in NY-20?

Scott MURPHY for Congress from Elizabeth Benjamin on Vimeo

by Ken

Thanks to our colleaague Phillip Anderson of The Albany Project for calling attention to a post on the blog of New York Daily News political reporter Elizabeth Benjamin, "Scott Murphy's Challenge," in which she notes about the Democratic challenger in the March 31 special congressional election in NY-20 to replace now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand:

"Murphy also said he plans to be a Blue Dog, just like Gillibrand when she represented the 20th, and has already applied for membership to the caucus."

Benjamin, reporting on "an event in Albany this weekend at which he was formally endorsed by Gillibrand and another local pol, freshman Rep. Paul Tonko," notes that Senator Gillibrand --

heaped praise on Murphy at Saturday's event, saying his experience as a venture capitalist (or in her words, "entrepreneur") makes him uniquely qualified to be a congressman at a time when the economy is tanking.

She also noted that he married into a Washington County dairy family and knows how to milk a cow, which "matters in this district, matters in upstate New York."

Murphy is taking his cues from Gillibrand and hewing closely to her pre-Senate ideology on hot-button issues like gun control. He called himself a "strong supporter of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms," adding that while he agrees it's crucial to keep guns out of the hands of children and the mentally ill, "we also need to respect the rights of law-abiding citizens."

If that's the bad news, then the also-bad (or maybe not-so-bad, depending on how you look at it) news is that Murphy doesn't seem to stand too terribly much of a chance.

He's largely unknown in the 20th CD, particularly compared to his GOP opponent, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, who has served for more than two decades in the Legislature, and the accelerated special election timetable makes raising his name recognition that much harder.

(You can see from the video below [the one I've posted it at the top of this post] that even seasoned Democrats have a bit of trouble recalling Murphy's surname from time to time).

For the record, The Albany Project's devtob offers a more glass-half-full view of the event, and in general of "the excellent Scott Murphy" -- there is, after all, plenty to dislike about GOP candidate Tedisco.

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