EMILY's List Up To No Good Again-- In L.A... And In Hawaii?

Sen. Brian Schatz, City Councilman Eric Garcetti-- too progressive for EMILY's List

On election day eve, late summer 2008, long after mail-in ballots had been sent in, EMILY's List sent out a bizarre message to its members in Tennessee. They withdrew their endorsement from the corrupt, conservative Democratic woman they had recruited and backed all year, Nikki Tinker, a cog in the Harold Ford political machine who was taking on progressive incumbent Steve Cohen, a 100% pro-choice ally. Tinker, was the quintessential candidate of the new EMILY's List: conservative, Blue Dog, corrupt to the bone, allied to Big Business... but she stepped over the line as her campaign turned more and more virulently anti-Semitic and upset EMILY's List's Jewish donor base in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Cohen, meanwhile had been endorsed by progressive women's groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW) and by Planned Parenthood and was way ahead in the polls.

EMILY's List's unendorsement of their candidate had no impact. But Tinker's vile ads did. Cohen won with 79.34% against Tinker's 18.64%. Before Tinker let loose with her barrage of vicious, racist, Republican-like negative ads Cohen was only leading with 65%. Negative ads work with Republican voters, not so much with Democratic voters. "It says Memphis has come a long, long way and that people who were counting on racial voting to prevail are thinking of a Memphis that doesn't exist anymore," Cohen said. "The people of Memphis are more sophisticated voters that deal with issues and someone's record and not simply race."

In the race for L.A. mayor, EMILY's List, predictably, picked the more conservative and sleazy candidate, ex-Republican Wendy Greuel, while progressive women's groups like NOW are backing proven ally and pro-Choice stalwart Eric Garcetti. No one expects anything more from EMILY's List. They back conservative, pro-choice women. But what people do expect is that they refrain from the gutter politics that have gotten them in trouble in the past. Yesterday many of us found this shady mailer from EMILY's List attacking Garcetti by objectifying women:

As Wendy Greuel and her allies unleash unwarranted attack after unwarranted attack on Garcetti, Los Angelenos have grown more and more angry, angry at Greuel and angry at EMILY's List. Garcetti, who was in a dead heat with Greuel after the first round primary has now pulled ahead by double digits. EMILY's List never learns that the Republican strategies it uses in Democratic primaries don't work among Democrats. They didn't work for Nikki Tinker and they're failing to work for Wendy Greuel. And they won't work for EMILY's List's latest conservative recruit, New Dem Colleen Hanabusa, who's running against progressive Senator Brian Schatz.

Hanabusa, an opportunist burning with ambition, was first elected to the House in 2010. She joined the conservative, Big Business-aligned New Dems and ran up a mediocre record as a backbencher with little to no influence. Rather than follow the trail being blazed by fellow congresswoman Mazie Hirono, a progressive champion, Hanabusa stuck to a path to nowhere started by much-disliked right-wing former Democratic Congressman Ed Case. Yesterday she announced she will give up her House seat to run for Brian Schatz's seat in the Senate.

Hanabusa had been considering primary challenges to either Schatz or Abercrombie. A source close to her campaign said Monday that Hanabusa had decided on a Senate campaign and was informing close allies.

A primary between Schatz, 40, and Hanabusa, 61, would evoke generational as well as political fault lines within the Democratic Party. Schatz, a progressive, has the potential to build seniority in the Senate over a generation. Hanabusa, a more traditional liberal, will contend that her experience prepares her to have an immediate impact.

By "traditional liberal," they mean corrupt conservative. The only mark Hanabusa has made in Congress, other than being a lap dog for K Street and a predictable New Dem, was pioneering a way around ethics rules to make money personally from her campaign. Hanabusa "collected significant amounts of money in interest from personal loans she made to her campaign. In addition, her campaign reimbursed her husband thousands of dollars in expenses."

“With the interest rates Rep. Hanabusa is charging for loaning her own campaign money, she could be confused for a loan shark,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “Most Americans open a savings account when they want to earn a little interest on their money. Instead, Rep. Hanabusa is making a killing by investing in her own campaign.”

Campaign records show Rep. Hanabusa made two loans to her campaign committee, totaling $125,000, in 2006. Since then, she has charged more than 9% interest on these loans, resulting in over $30,000 in interest payments. At the end of the 2010 election cycle, less than $3,000 of the principal on these loans had been repaid. Additionally, campaign records show that Rep. Hanabusa’s campaign committee reimbursed her husband, John Souza, almost $9,000 for food and other expenses during the 2010 cycle.

A few weeks ago, I called Honolulu City Councilman Stanley Chang when I saw he had filed the paperwork to run for Hanabusa's 1st district seat. I was excited that someone was going to offer her a primary challenge. He told me that it was an open secret in Hawaii that Hanabusa would not be running for reelection but would try to climb the political greasy pole, either by running against Governor Neil Abercrombie or against Senator Brian Schatz, both progressives. Since being appointed to Congress, Schatz has run up a 94.12 ProgressivePunch crucial vote score, the 11th best in the Senate, almost as good as Mazie Hirono's 96.30. Schatz and Hirono are both co-sponsors of Tom Harkin's bill to take Chained CPI off the table. Hanabusa is keeping her mouth shut on where she stands on Chained CPI. Schatz is exactly the kind of Democrat EMILY's List thrives on attacking and smearing. We'll be watching.

Steve Pougnet-- Better Than Mary Bono Mack, For Sure... But A DFA Candidate? What A Joke!

A couple years ago I got into an unpleasant spat with the folks at EMILY's List. Without reliving the whole yucky episode let me just say that, with the encouragement of reactionary DLC frontman, Harold Ford, Jr, they endorsed a truly horrible corporate shill, Nikki Tinker, for a House seat held by a decent liberal, Steve Cohen. Tinker was the right color for the mostly black district and had the right plumbing for the women-oriented EMILY's List. That her policies and demeanor were far to the right of what Democrats expect from their candidates didn't come into the decision to endorse her. In the end-- like a day before the primary-- EMILY's List, embarrassed, even mortified, had to withdraw the endorsement after weeks of Tinker's divisive anti-Semitic campaigning. Tinker still had the right plumbing-- and EMILY's List still didn't care a bit about the innate conservatism of her political agenda-- but too many nice Jewish ladies make up the financial backbone of EMILY's List for them to let the overt anti-Semitism slide.

It's uncomfortable to tell a woman's group they're making a grievous mistake by endorsing a woman over a man, even if the woman is a terrible candidate and the man would be a far better representative of the issues that make women's lives better. I have less problems doing that with gay groups who would rather endorse crappy gay people than awesome straight allies. Next week Blue America will be explaining why we we're endorsing David Segal for the open House seat in Rhode Island over openly gay Providence Mayor David Cicilline. This week, though, there's a much tougher race we need to talk about, the one in the Riverside County, California, pitting GOP clothes horse and robot Mary Bono-Mack, the incumbent who inherited the seat when her husband, Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident-- and half the district mixed her up with Cher-- against the popular gay mayor of Palm Springs, Steve Pougnet. The first time I wrote about Steve, in March of 2009, I was gushing and enthusiastic-- not just an openly gay member of Congress, but one who is legally married to his partner and with two adopted children! And if I lived in CA-45, I would surely be voting for Steve in November. He's a better candidate than Bono-Mack in every single conceivable way. But I don't live in CA-45 and instead I'm looking at a wonderful and well-meaning gay civil rights group, Stonewall Democrats, endorsing him and pushing him in the DFA Grassroots All-Stars poll. Right after their letter, Pougnet shot to the #4 position, just behind fellow California candidates Beth Krom, Bill Hedrick and Ami Bera. Pougnet doesn't belong on that list at all. He's the only one on it who isn't a progressive. He's the only one on it who, in fact, is likely to join the hateful Blue Dog Caucus. I'll come back to that in a second. First the letter from the Stonewall Dems:

When I first heard about Palm Springs Mayor Steve Pougnet’s campaign for Congress in California’s 45th District, I got very excited about the prospect of increasing the number of out Members of Congress-- and doing it with a candidate who has years of solid, problem-solving experience serving the people in and around Palm Springs. When elected, Steve will also be the first Congressman who is legally married to his partner and has children.

Steve is one of our ElectEquality candidates now and we’re thrilled to be helping him in any way we can to unseat Republican Mary Bono-Mack. Steve has been chosen for the DNC’s Red-to-Blue program because they feel-- like we do-- that not only is Steve the right candidate for the job, he also has a very good chance of winning.

Steve is already one of our ElectEquality 2010 candidates. With just a quick click of the mouse, you can help Mayor Pougnet become an All-Star.

Steve is one of the ten finalists (and the only openly LGBT one), in Democracy for America’s “Grassroots All-Stars” poll, a project that allows the candidate with the most online votes to receive support from DFA’s PAC and its network of supporters. With your help, we can help him win this crucial endorsement. A Pougnet win in November sends a message to Republicans everywhere that casting pro-equality votes only part of the time is simply not good enough. Vote for Mayor Steve Pougnet and help put him on the road to victory!

The benefits of this endorsement include:

• A fundraising email from DFA Chair Jim Dean to all DFA members, with a $20,000 commitment
• In-state crowd-sourcing emails for volunteer events with a commitment to raise 500 volunteer hours from DFA members in the All-Stars' home state
• At least one national volunteer e-mail to over one million DFA members with the commitment to deliver at least 200 national phone bankers.
• A $5,000 contribution from Democracy for America PAC.
• Appearances by DFA Chair Jim Dean at available campaign events

As you can imagine, the competition among the All-Stars is intense and Steve needs all the votes he can get. You can vote from each of your email accounts, but can only vote from each one once. Also, once you've voted, tell your friends and family through Facebook and Twitter that you voted for Steve to become a DFA All-Star!

Voting ends on Sunday at midnight (Pacific time), so don't wait.

I spoke with Pougnet last year and was pretty disappointed. He's great on gay issues, of course, but other than that... well, he's better than Mary Bono-- but far from a progressive. How far? He told me he would consider joining the Blue Dog Caucus if he's elected in November. That makes him ineligible for a Blue America endorsement, of course, but I couldn't help but ask him more about it. I asked him if he was aware that the only Democrats-- a dozen of 'em-- who were so homophobic that they actually refused to even vote for the Hate Crimes bill were all Blue Dogs. He doesn't care. I walked away with the impression that the guy's weak, confused, frightened and devoid of character, exactly what we don't need in the Democratic House Caucus-- and exactly the kind of easy to manipulate shill the DCCC thrives on. And, of course, he's one of theirs. He's not one of ours... no matter how upfront he is about his sexuality.

Don't Hate On EMILY's List-- More On Harold Ford's Nikki Tinker

Everyone is entitled to make a mistake and it was damn Christian of EMILY's list to publicly puke on their worst endorsement of the year-- anti-Semitic Blue Dog Nikki Tinker-- just hours before the polls opened in Memphis this morning. I noticed that the papers in Memphis covered it and I sure hope women who admire and respect EMILY's List get the message before they vote for a reactionary bigot like Tinker over Steve Cohen, someone who's world view-- if not his plumbing-- is far more in sync with EMILY's List than Tinkers'.

Even Mr. Hope made a statement about the election this morning in Tennessee's 9th CD. Look how courageous Barack Obama is. He offers me more reasons to not bother to vote every single day:

"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee. It's time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country."

Just one missing sentence. He could have used the one he employed to make sure the single most Republican Democrat in Congress, John Barrow, was re-elected over a progressive African-American state Senator in Georgia a few weeks ago.

That said, everyone at Blue America World Headquarters was thrilled today when EMILY's List announced their newest endorsements. Most of them are Blue America faves: Sam Bennett (D-PA), Judy Feder (D-VA), Annette Taddeo (D-FL), and Vic Wulsin (D-OH). "These Democratic women," said EMILY's List president Ellen Malcolm, "are running some of the most exciting, competitive challenger races in the country and gaining critical ground in historically Republican districts.  Ranging from doctors, businesswomen, and public servants, these women are leading the way on issues affecting American families every day. EMILY's list members are proud to support these Democratic women and help elect them to the United States House in November."


Let's hope the politics of reactionary divisiveness is defeated in Memphis today and we can all celebrate EMILY's List emergence on the Side of Light. I love their write-up on Annette:

A small business owner and a community leader, Annette Taddeo is running for Congress because she believes South Florida needs a new beginning. As founder and CEO of LanguageSpeak, Taddeo has a 15 year track record as a successful businesswoman and was named Businesswoman of the Year by the South Florida Business Journal and one of the top 50 Latina entrepreneurs in the country by Hispanic Magazine. Taddeo is also a strong advocate for women as the chair of the Women's Enterprise National Council's Leadership Forum and a National Founding Partner and member of the executive board of WIPP-- Women Impacting Public Policy.

Taddeo's priorities reflect the values of the 18th district. She has already raised more than every recent Democratic challenger in this seat combined and the district is seeing historic increases in Democratic voter registration. Annette Taddeo's leadership, experience, and dedication to her community will make her a valuable voice for the working families she will represent in Congress.

 


UPDATE: TINKER GOT THE CRUSHING SHE EARNED

When the absentee ballots were counted about 90 minutes after the polls closed, Cohen had 81% of the vote. It never went below 79% and his winning total was 79.34%. Once the most vile snake in Memphis, Harold Ford, saw the handwriting on the wall (or in the polls) he quickly threw his protegee under the bus. Tinker finished with 18.64% and a very sour taste in the mouths of everyone who supported her. Rahm Emanuel, Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer owe Steve Cohen a public apology.

It was interesting that before Tinker let loose with her barrage of vicious, racist, Republican-like negative ads Cohen was only leading with 65%. Negative ads work with Republican voters, not so much with Democratic voters. "It says Memphis has come a long, long way and that people who were counting on racial voting to prevail are thinking of a Memphis that doesn't exist anymore," Cohen said. "The people of Memphis are more sophisticated voters that deal with issues and someone's record and not simply race."

In November Cohen will once again face the lowliest of all the Ford family, Harold much-hated brother Jake. In 2006 Jake managed to garner 18% of the vote. He'll do worse this year.

Today Is Primary Day In Memphis-- Please Vote

Last night Keith Olbermann named Nikki Tinker "The Worst Person In The World." I think she's just a garden variety Republican hack, not any better or worse than the rest of them. It's just that she's running as a Democrat. Yesterday we talked about why her Harold Ford-backed anti-Semitic, racist, homophobic campaign against progressive Congressman Steve Cohen is such a disgrace and why EMILY's List essentially de-endorsed her within hours of the opening of the polls. Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen should be ashamed to have not come to the aid of Rep. Cohen-- they make me sick-- against this reactionary bigot whose closing issue of the campaign is a pure Rovian appeal that the Godless Jew, Cohen, is opposed to letting little children pray to God in school. If she wins, which is unlikely, I hope the Democratic leadership chokes on her. Here's what Olbermann had to say:

Yesterday's Primaries-- And A Preview For Tomorrow's Primary In Memphis

Judy Baker, progressive victor in Missouri

Kansas, Missouri and Michigan all had primaries yesterday. Mostly incumbents and Establishment favorites won their races. The stupidest candidate who ran for Congress in any district in any state for either party, Brock Olivo in the Missouri district (MO-09) being abandoned by Kenny Hulsdorf, got wiped out. He came in 4th. If you want to understand why, watch the video at that link back there. What I can't understand is why 4,637 Republicans (10%) voted for him. Blaine Luetkemeyer won the GOP nod with 39%, beating Bob Onder in a bloody, vicious contest between two extremists, and progressive state Senator Judy Baker beat former Missouri House Speaker Steve Gaw (42%-33%) to take the Democratic nomination. It's a very Republican, very white district (PVI is R+7) and includes "Little Dixie." Kerry scored 41% of the vote in 2004.

In the Missouri governor's race, Democratic homophobe Jay Nixon won his primary handily, as was expected, and he will face Kenny Hulsdorf who barely managed (49-45%) to edge by Sarah Steelman for the GOP nod. Nixon is favored to win in November but after his most recent outburt of homophobic hysteria some of his financial support dried up.

There were two congressional races in Michigan people were watching and one in Kansas. The KS-02 race looked like it would be a re-match between radical right lunatic (and ex-Congressman) Jim Ryun and incumbent moderate Democrat, Nancy Boyda. But it appears that Ryun went down to a narrow defeat-- 51-49%-- to Lynn Jenkins. It's a pretty red district but Boyda has done a good job, is known as very independent-minded, and hasn't given the voters any reason to vote her out of office. A side show in Kansas was ex-Attorney General Phill Kline's running for re-election as District Attorney in Johnson County. He's the titular head of the Nazi-faction of the Kansas GOP and he had his head handed to him by a mainstream conservative, Steve Howe.

In Michigan's 7th CD, state Senator and Blue America-endorsee Mark Schauer beat a perennial vanity candidate-- who was the party nominee in 2006-- 66-34%. Schauer will face far right extremist Tim Walberg, a freshman, in November. The more complicated race was in MI-13, where incumbent Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, mother of Detroit's unpopular, hapless and indicted mayor, drew two opponents, Mary Waters and Martha Scott. Aside from being the mother of the reviled mayor, Kilpatrick was a die-hard Hillary supporter, something that went over badly among African-American voters in MI-13, who overwhelmingly and enthusiastically supported Obama. It was neck and neck all night-- with Waters ahead most of the night-- until Kilpatrick's home turf came in late and put her ahead. She raised around $800,000 and her closest opponent, Waters, raised around $10,000.

The other hot race today was the Democratic senatorial primary run-off in Georgia. Moderate ex-state Rep. Jim Martin beat reactionary loon Vernon Jones, 59-41%. He'll be facing extremist Saxby Chambliss, one of Bush's most dependable Senate rubber stamps in November.

Rep. Steve Cohen & Obama

Tennessee holds its primary tomorrow and all eyes are on Memphis, where progressive freshman Steve Cohen, who is white and Jewish, is being challenged by a vicious anti-Semitic, racist pawn of ex-Congressman Harold Ford. It's been a very ugly race-- and the ugliness is all on one side, Nikki Tinker's. Steve Cohen was first elected in 2006 with the help of Blue America and we have enthusiastically endorsed him again. If you know anyone in Memphis, please call them and talk to them about this race. Cohen has been a real leader for working families and he is the only progressive congressman from Tennessee. Tinker is a complete corporate shill and far more conservative across a wide array of issues. Rahm Emanuel, a longtime ally of Ford's, has encouraged institutional support for Tinker and has prevented his DCCC pawn, Chris Van Hollen, from coming to the aid of Cohen, the way the DCCC and Nancy Pelosi backed other challenged incumbents like Kilpatrick yesterday and Al Wynn a few months ago. One of the most corrupt members of the Democratic Party, Gregory Meeks (NY) has been supporting Tinker, as has Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio). More progressive and respectable members of the Congressional Black Caucus like John Conyers and Jesse Jackson, Jr. have been campaigning for Cohen.


EMILY's List Embarrassed By Nikki Tinker's Racist Campaign

We were pretty disappointed when EMILY's List came out for Nikki Tinker in her anti-semitic, homophobic, racist jihad to turn a solidly Blue district reddish. I think they wish they had never gotten involved with this campaign of bigotry. The following statement was issued by Ellen Malcolm, president of EMILY's List, in response to recent ads run by the Nikki Tinker for Congress campaign: 
 
"We were shocked to see the recent ads run by the Nikki Tinker for Congress campaign.  We believe the ads are offensive and divisive.  EMILY's List does not condone or support these types of attacks."

Next time DLC Chair Harold Ford makes a recommendation, take it with a grain of salt.

THE REST OF THE PRIMARY SEASON-- PLUS A DWT MONEY MATCH FOR REGINA THOMAS

It is rare that a congressional incumbent loses a primary battle. In 2006 it happened twice-- mainstream conservative Republican Joe Schwarz lost to raving right-wing maniac Tim Walberg in Michigan and controversial Cynthia McKinney-- a victim of a media pile on-- was beaten by Hank Johnson. Schwarz v Walberg was a completely ideological and the McKinney v Johnson race had a different dynamic.

So far in 2008 there have been 3 incumbents beaten in primaries: progressive leader Donna Edwards vanquished a corrupt Insider in Maryland and two mainstream conservative Republicans, Wayne Gilchrest and Chris Cannon, were beaten by extreme right fanatics, Andy Harris and Jason Chaffetz, respectively in Maryland and Utah.

This morning's CQPolitics lists 8 more primaries in this cycle with potential upsets. First and foremost, of course, is the challenge underfunded grassroots progressive state Senator Regina Thomas is giving the most reactionary Democrat in the entire House, Blue Dog John Barrow in GA-12. According to CQ "racial demographics are a factor in this sprawling east Georgia district, which includes areas in and around Augusta and Savannah. Two-term Democratic Rep. John Barrow, who is white, faces a primary challenge from state Sen. Regina Thomas, who is African-American and is seeking to galvanize support from black residents who make up 45 percent of the district’s population... Challenger Thomas may be further hindered on the money front." Barrow is a special interests rep, taking massive contributions from every big corporation looking to buy a vote. Most recently, for example, he was a recipient of a great deal of money from the telecom industry looking for enough Democrats to cross the aisle and vote like Republicans to grant their criminal executives retroactive immunity. Barrow helped provide them with the margin they needed-- and helped fill his warchest. He has more than $1.3 million dollars on hand. Regina has only the $38,000 that have been donated to her through ActBlue. She isn't worried because her electoral career has never been about money and she has always won in the Savannah area by running grassroots campaigns.

The other hot primary in Georgia, on July 15, like Regina v Barrow, is on the GOP side, where extreme right wing loon Paul Broun, with one of the most breathtakingly fascist voting records in Congress, is being challenged by state Rep. Barry Fleming who says Broun far enough to the right. His voting Progressive Punch voting score is 0.55 (out of 100), making him the 435th most progressive member of Congress (out of 435). In other words, he is further right than any other member of Congress from Georgia or anywhere else. And he's being challenged for not being a "true conservative." Yes, these people are bat-shit crazy. (Broun even joined 16 other die hard psycho-paths to vote against the Americans With Disabilities Act this week.) Democrats in the district are hoping that the spectacle of the two far right nuts, Broun and Fleming battling for the far right, will turn voters off enough in GA-10 so that Iraq War vet Bobby Saxon beats whichever damaged Repug washes up to face him in November.

August 5 features a contentious Democratic primary in Detroit (MI-13) where the incumbent, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, is the mother of the controversial and wildly unpopular mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. She has to face two well-know challengers trying to hold her accountable for her son, state Sen. Martha Scott and former state Rep. Mary Waters.

Two days later there is a really important race in Memphis, where progressive incumbent Steve Cohen is facing a challenge from the right. Nikki Tinker supporters have run an anti-semitic, anti-white, and typically Republican campaign against Cohen.

But Cohen faces a greater degree of difficulty than Republican Davis across the state, in the form of his district’s demographics. Cohen, who is white, represents a district where about three-fifths of the residents are black. The district had been represented by black Democrats, the father-son combo of Harold E. Ford (1975-97) and Harold Ford Jr. (1997-2007), for the previous 32 years. Some black activists argued Cohen, the only major white candidate in the 2006 primary, won only because the black vote was fractured among multiple candidates.

That proposition will be tested in this year’s primary in which Cohen has drawn four African-American opponents — including airline executive Nikki Tinker, his closest competitor in 2006, when she took 25 percent of the Democratic vote. Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus have already donated to Tinker’s campaign. But Cohen has the advantage of incumbency and strong support from prominent members of the local black community, as well as some leading black colleagues in Washington, such as Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel of New York.

In the eastern part of Tennessee (TN-01) a couple of wing nuts are also having a primary. Far right freshman David Davis is being challenged by Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe, who nearly beat him in 2006 and has been pointing out that he reeks of corruption, taking money from every special interest under the sun and then voting for whatever they like. This is true of 95% of Republicans and nearly a third of the Democrats. But people in the district can only vote against (of for) one member of Congress and it would be a good sign if Davis is defeated. Needless to say, he's loaded with cash.

The August 12 primary in Colorado features a three way race pitting extremist kook Doug Lamborn against 2 other right-wing Republicans. It doesn't matter who wins. Although it would be great to see someone as extremist as Lamborn be driven out of politics.

August 26 has a major primary in Alaska which Phil Munger covered for us in great detail on Monday. Basically it looks like one of Congress' most corrupt Republicans, Don Young, who has been in the seat since 1973, will be defeated by an equally conservative but even stupider Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. Parnell, though, is supported by the popular governor, Sarah Palin and that is probably the death knell for Young's ill-starred career. On the same day Democratic insider Ethan Berkowitz faces grassroots progressive Diane Benson and the winner of that race win go up against either Young or Parnell. Rahm Emanuel and the most corrupt elements of the Democratic Party in DC are behind Berkowitz.

Primary season wraps up on September 6 with another corrupt member of Congress trying to hold on to his seat, this time a Democrat, William Jefferson in New Orleans. "Jefferson is seeking re-election even though he faces 16 federal bribery and corruption charges related to his business dealings with companies seeking contracts in Africa. His trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on Dec. 2." In 2006 he managed to survive a challenge from fellow Democrats with the cynical help of Republicans from Meterie. It is unclear-- like almost everything regarding Louisiana politics, who will be running against Jefferson in September.

It is clear that there are two progressive Democrats who need our help, Congressman Steve Cohen and state Senator Regina Thomas. I urge you to donate generously to both of them but there is a special incentive today. A generous DWT reader has offered to match all donations for Regina up to $500 at the Blue America ActBlue page. Please give. Barrow has been one of Bush's most reliable votes on keeping the war going and on all the little tricks Bush has pulled, like granting retroactive immunity to his cronies.