Congress not working? "Centrist" former VA Rep. Tom Davis has the "solution"

"Centrists," you see, aren't necessarily "moderates" -- ah!

by Ken

I wish I could be more rational about this astonishingly stupid op-ed served up in the Washington Post by former VA Rep. Tom Davis, "Voters can help cure poisonous partisanship." But the closer I looked, the more apoplectic it made me.

As a congressman from northern Virginia, Davis was by reputation a "centrist," and he clings to the label -- but explains that the "centrist" label has nothing to do with ideology.

By "centrists," I do not necessarily mean "moderates" but refer instead to members who are willing to work across the aisle to find common ground with partisan opponents to achieve tangible results. There are indeed still members of Congress who recognize that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good and that some incremental change can be preferable to no change.

And so, while he acknowledges that "the Republican Party has certainly become more conservative," this turns out to be of no consequence. First, you see because it's offset by the liberalization of the Democratic Party, which exists nowhere except in the itty-bitty brain of Tom D. How is it that the Democratic Party has become "more liberal" at the very time that its officeholding ranks have been reduced to a handful of actual liberals? And then, nothing seems to be the fault of conservatives, except in a plague-on-both-your-houses way, while these imaginary hordes of liberals seem to be screwing up everything.

Now if you wanted to say that the mainstreram of the Republican Party has moved so far to the right that conservative Democrats appear, relatively speaking, somewhat liberal, that's at least a defensible position. I would still argue it, but even if we accepted it, it makes nonsense of Tom D's basic argument.

He even anticipates the argument that no compromise is possible withi people whose brains are too defective to admit of any possibility of compromise, by telling us that in the good old days you didn't have to have compromise! --

because there were Republicans who held views to the left of some Democrats, and vice versa. Compromise wasn’t always needed because it’s not compromise if the position is already something you support. In today’s political environment, however, compromise is a prerequisite to accomplishing anything -- one need look no further than the votes to avoid the U.S. credit default last summer, to avoid a government shutdown or to prevent taxes from being raised on working families.

Man, does this guy even listen to what's coming out of his piehole?

Tom D can prove that the problem isn't the radicalization of the Republican Party. How? Well, you see, when Arlen Specter switched parties,

[his] decision was as much about political survival as about his beliefs. In his announcement, Specter conceded that he was unlikely to win a Republican primary and said that he was “unwilling” to have his “29-year record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”

Yet more mainstream media reports focused on what Specter’s exit supposedly said about the GOP than on his electoral calculation. Journalists ate up Specter’s argument and likened centrist Republicans to dinosaurs -- politically extinct relics.

Nobody's going to catch me sticking up for the likes of Arlen Specter, but does Tommy D know anything, and I mean anything at all, about Arlen's reelection battle? How is it humanly possible for even the slimiest, stupidest, most dishonest bilge-dispenser to skip over what made it unlikely that he could win the Republican nomination for reelection? Do you have any inkling about that, Tommy Buttwipe? Don't you think that matters even a little? Does the name Pat Toomey (now Sen. Pat Toomey) mean any7thing to you? And which mainstream media didn't report this? Is our Tommy locked up in a basement somewhere with no access to actual information?

But you see, just as Arlen Specter's defection proves that there's nothing wrong with the Republican, so does Olympia Snowe's retirement -- because, you see, she didn't leave the party!

Note that Snowe did not say she was leaving the Republican Party because it has become too extreme. Nor did she say she was being forced out. She is not leaving the GOP; she’s leaving the Senate. And poisonous partisanship is a bipartisan problem.

"Gone are the days of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans," we're told. "Now the most liberal Republican in the Senate is more conservative than the most conservative Democrat." Sorry, Tommy, there are plenty of conservative Dems in the Senate -- just not if your standard of measurement for conservatism is, say, Saxby Chambliss or Jim Inhofe -- or Pat Toomey.

So the Democrats, those flaming extremist liberals, are pretty much useless. However, there is still, Tommy D is here to tell us, "a critical voting block" of "centrist Republicans" in the House. They just, um, don't ever vote "centrist." Hmm.

Well, Tommy D can explain that too. "The pressures faced by centrists in both parties are the result of several macro factors: campaign finance laws, balkanized media, and "the ideological sorting of the parties." There are actually some moderately interesting points made here, concerning pressures felt by GOP congressmen who may not be absolutely as extreme as their party's currently regnant most extreme elements (of which there's nary a mention).

This also explains, by the way, how it's become so difficult to do business in Congress. Okay. "The solution," says our Tom, "begins with voters sending to Washington more pragmatic, results-oriented members who are willing to compromise to get things done."

No, I think the solution, if there is one, has to start with understanding the problem.


ON A LIGHTER AND NOT ENTIRELY UNRELATED NOTE,
AL KAMEN TELLS OF TWO TRAVELING CONGRESSMEN

From his "In the Loop" in the Washington Post:

Legroom for Cantor

Speaking of airplanes, two easily recognizable House members found themselves on a Delta flight Monday from Atlanta to Washington: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and civil rights icon John Lewis (D-Ga.).

Lewis, as he most always does, settled into a seat in coach class for the relatively short flight — an hour and 45 minutes — up from his district to Washington. Cantor, however, was sitting up front in business class.

We wondered about the trip and that minor indulgence and e-mailed Cantor’s office Wednesday afternoon but got no reply. They’ve been a tad busy these days with his small-business tax cut bill working its way to passage on the House floor.

We’ll let you know soon as we find out.

What, Al? You really expect Eric Cantor to fly coach? It is to laugh.

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Creeps 'n' crooks from the Bush regime keep crawling out of the woodwork: Remember Lurita Doan?

Former GSA adminstrator Lurita Doan

"Washington's special charm is much like Hollywood's: It doesn't matter what they write about you -- or how you performed your role in government -- as long as they spell your name correctly. A fine future as a consultant or at least a newspaper or television pundit awaits you."

-- Al Kamen, in a WaPo "In the Loop" item yesterday,

"Accentuating the positive"

by Ken

At the top of anyone's list of Bush regimistas who used their invaluable experience as a stepping stone to bigger and better things would be our old pal Michael "Heckuva Job, Brownie" Brown, the man who presided over FEMA's spectacular nonresponse to the Katrina disaster. As our pal Al points out, our Brownie "went into the disaster recovery consulting business and is now a radio talk show host quoted frequently in the media on disaster matters," adding: "Well, despite somewhat limited experience in this field -- we're not counting his time as judges and stewards commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association -- he did spend four years at FEMA."

Now Al has tidings of another of our favoritest regimistas, onetime General Services Administration administrator Lurita Doan, "bounced [according to Al] in 2008 by the White House amid allegations that she tried to award work to a friend and misused her authority for political ends." All indications were, and are, that in her tenure at the helm of GSA she had been unhesitating in adopting Karl Rove's mission to turn the entire executive branch into a propaganda arm of the regime.

Actually, the story turned out to be even stinkier. As I wrote back in May:

So here we were the other day, jumping ugly on poor Lurita Doan as she slinked out of her post as administrator of the General Services Administration--in disgrace, we assumed, for the conversion of the GSA to an arm of Karl Rove's Right-Wing Political Bulldozing Machine and the mounting murmurs of money diversion that took place on her watch.

Now word is that Lurita was made to walk the plank, not for being corrupt, but for not being corrupt enough! Apparently even as the Bush regime's days dwindle, it's never too late for the powers that be to be ramming more of their partisan hacks and cronified Republicrooks into gummint employment. And it seems that Lurita actually stood in the way, and so had to go.

Congress Daily's Dan Friedman reported that he was told by then-Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a Doan supporter, that she "rejected a series of White House candidates for the jobs of GSA general counsel and chief acquisition officer." According to Davis, backed up by "GSA officials," "That seems to be the straw that broke that camel's back."

Yesterday Al reported:

A Washington Post investigation of Doan's activity turned up, among other things, a no-bid procurement order she had approved for a friend's firm. This led to a House oversight committee investigation, another by the GSA inspector general and one by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). The U.S. Office of Special Counsel urged President George W. Bush to discipline her "to the fullest extent," including canning her.

So on Tuesday we got an e-mail from a local public relations company.

"Lurita Doan is a former administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and former small business owner; she is an expert on the principles of small business and can give a unique background on how government affects it," the note said.

"These include fiscal discipline, good government, leadership, and the execution risks inherent in most government initiatives. Ms. Doan can bring her keen insight to your organization in perhaps a weekly column. Her writings have previously appeared in USA Today, LA Times, Roll Call and others."

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Former NRCC Head Tom Davis: "A Right-Centered Party Can't Be A Majority Nationally"

Inside-the-Beltway, in light of the 60,000 people who showed up for the Million Moron March this past weekend, wonderers and wondering whether the Republican Party will be able to pull back towards the mainstream or if they need to go through a period of out-and-out, full-blown insanity first, complete with secessionism, birthers, deathers, 10-ers... and historic losses at the polls.

As I pointed out last night after sitting on the phone with three of the most respected and competent pollsters in the country, the worst position for any member of Congress to be in in 2010 is to be seen as someone who has taken money from the health care and insurance industries and to have then opposed health care reform. That pretty much describes today's Republican Party. Combine that with wild-eyed extremism and even just perceived obeisance to media clowns like Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly and the 2010 scenario the Villagers keep likening to 1994 could have a lot more in common with 1934, where voters punished Republican pig-headed obstructionism and extremism by reducing their already meaningless minority in the Senate to 25 and in the House to 103 lunatics barking "socialist" at everything FDR proposed in an attempt to rescue the country from decades of a corporate/GOP economic agenda.

Yesterday's Hill attempted to hold onto the victory-belongs-to-Republicans song they're always singing while still recognizing that not everything is pointing quite in that direction. Like the rest of the Villagers, they're looking at Senate races and scratching their heads, wondering what hat the GOP plans to pull the magic double digit win from. The only clear cut GOP Senate primary is in Pennsylvania where the party is stuck with crazy right-wing extremist Pat Toomey because the Republican incumbent left the party and declared himself a Democrat.

The weakened party infrastructure and optimism about 2010 have crowded Senate races and produced just one clear primary in a dozen key contests. And, in several cases, local officials and activists are bristling at the direction the national GOP has taken in those races.

Contests in Colorado, New Hampshire, Florida, Kentucky and California have featured local Republicans speaking out against national party involvement.

Republican Party chairmen in Colorado and New Hampshire have spoken out against the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) involvement after the committee bought up website domains for Colorado Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (R) and hosted a fundraiser for former Granite State Attorney General Kelly Ayotte (R).

Both races feature other less-prominent and less-hyped primary candidates who nonetheless have significant standing-- a pattern that is covering many other GOP Senate primaries... The NRSC also has drawn heat for endorsing Florida Gov. Charlie Crist in his contested Senate primary with former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

Another notable example is Kentucky, where the NRSC is hosting a fundraiser for Secretary of State Trey Grayson later this month, despite eye surgeon Rand Paul’s traction in the money chase and recent polling.

... Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) spokesman Eric Schultz said the GOP’s primaries will lead to jockeying for social-conservative votes, which could come back to haunt it in centrist states.
“The disarray surfacing in the Republican ranks in these states is symptomatic of an ideological battle that could and likely will impact their ability to win a general election,” Schultz said.

As the DSCC has found out in recent cycles, there is often consternation when the national party gets involved in state politics. The question is usually how significant the detractors are.

Most of the GOP primaries involve reputable conservative primary opponents who could, at least, do some damage before the general election. On most of them, though, the jury will be out for a while.

Buck and Aurora City Councilman Ryan Frazier will oppose Norton in Colorado. In Ohio, car dealer Tom Ganley threatened to spend upward of $7 million against Portman. And in California, State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore has conservative devotees and could draw some support against centrist former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. [World Wrestling Entertainment personality Linda McMahon is likely to challenge Bob Simmons, the anointed Republican Party Establishment candidate in Connecticut to take on Chris Dodd.]

DeVore this week decried a memo from the NRSC that included praise of Fiorina, taking direct aim at Chairman John Cornyn (Texas).

“Under John Cornyn, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has racked up an impressive string of endorsements in support of non-conservative, unpopular, poorly vetted candidates across the nation,” DeVore said. “These candidacies have thus far gone on to flounder or implode.”

It's even worse in House races around the country, where lunatic fringe teabaggers are threatening relatively mainstream conservatives, not just party choices but incumbents as well. The problems inside the South Carolina Republican Party are more than just about Joe Wilson's now infamous cri de coeur or the recent unmasking of the fact that most of the hierarchy are closet queens. The state Party is at war with itself-- a war pitting hard core conservatives against actual fascists. But former NRCC head Tom Davis, a mainstream conservative, thinks the party will indeed veer back towards a more mainstream direction. He defends the national committees' involvement in candidate selection and says it's the only way to keep the lunatic fringe from taking over the party and doomed it to electoral irrelevancy. In a slam against extremists like Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter, Davis pointed out that "The people who run the blogs, do the talk radio, they just have a different bent on the whole thing. They just have a different outlook on the world. The difficulty comes when the party shrinks, which we've done. We've been in a contractual mode in the last eight years. You shrink to the base, and the base tends to be a little harder core and less willing to give up power. Our strength is now among the independents and generating a base turnout. It's got to be resolved. A right-centered party can't be a majority nationally."

"It is right for these committees to get involved and pick the strongest candidates. When I was campaign chairman, we did this unapologetically to make sure that we got the right candidates in, and we ended up picking up seats," said Davis, who headed the NRCC during the 2002 cycle.

"If you leave it just to local committees sometimes, you have a very narrow constituency to which these candidates are appealing," he added... "I'm not sure [voters] want to put Republicans in charge of anything again," he said. "Democrats have the governing momentum. They have the legislative power. But the political equation has now shifted, as it often does, to the out party."

Is there more to the Republican Party than just this?

Maybe the newly unemployed regimistas should just say they were in prison -- isn't that better "work experience" than service in the Bush regime?

Don't worry about our Dana. Apparently she and her better half have enough bucks salted away to be able to afford "to do something that would help others." (No, she does not mean nude press conferences. Who started that rumor anyways?)

"The cream always rises to the top. Those that are the first-rate individuals out of the administration and who have developed good bipartisan relationships and have solid policy experience will be able to make the transition."

-- Nels Olson, of the executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International, in Philip Rucker and Dan Eggen's "All That Experience and No Place to Go," in today's Washington Post

by Ken

I say, if you can't trust cliches, what can you trust? (Apparently not Team Obama's ability to plan a simple concert, for one. But I digress.)

That's a good one from our head-hunter friend Nels, the one about cream rising to the top. Personally, though, my thoughts have been going more to the one about rats deserting a sinking ship. After all, if there's one thing we know, it's that rats desert a sinking ship.

And goodness knows, as the second term of the Bush regime turned to crap, we saw armies of the bastards jumping -- or being pushed by bigger, meaner rats -- off the Good Ship Chimpy. Now, however, we (and the left-behind rats) are learning a corollary to the Rat Rule:

A smart rat knows when to jump.

You might say that this is kind of obvious, or should be to any right-raised rat poised for the big jump. But apparently a lot of the left-behind rats aboard the U.S.S. Chimpy didn't get the message. In case you missed the above-cited Rucker-Eggen piece in today's Post, the subhead is "GOP Appointees Scramble for the Few Washington Jobs in a Tough Economy."

I know it's not a good thing to take pleasure in the misfortune of others, and it doesn't matter that the Germans have a whole word for it, Schadenfreude. I mean, the Germans probably have words for lots of stuff that's not apt to get you karmic time off for good behavior against your eternal rap sheet.

So it was with no sense of personal pride that I chortled, giggled, and guffawed my way through the article. Man, life is tough!

Here's the news, in case you missed it:

As President-elect Barack Obama's team transitions into the federal government tomorrow, President Bush's political appointees will be locked out, and in these tough economic times many of them are scrambling to find new jobs. High-ranking White House loyalists have deluged Washington headhunters with pleas for jobs. Corporations and nonprofit organizations have stopped hiring. With the GOP out of power, jobs on Capitol Hill are scant and K Street lobbying firms have trimmed their golden parachutes.

So this is the new reality: Instead of boasting to friends and colleagues of new jobs in goodbye e-mails, many longtime Bush aides have offered home phone numbers and Gmail and Yahoo e-mail addresses as their new contacts.

Tip: Try not to laugh too hard while you're drinking tea. You're apt to see it spraying out of your nose.

Awww! After all the hard work they put into turning the country -- and the world -- into the shithole their masters dreamed for us.

"It's a bear market out there, no question, for Republicans leaving the Hill or the administration," said Tom C. Korologos, a longtime Republican adviser and lobbyist who served as Bush's ambassador to Belgium from 2004 to 2007. "In this political business, you live by the sword and die by the sword. . . . You're a caretaker for a while, and all of a sudden there's nothing to take care of and you're gone."

In the current political climate, ties to an unpopular president could hurt candidates. "I think there are people whose connection to the Bush administration will be a kind of taint if they try to stay in Washington," said Calvin Mackenzie, a professor of government at Colby College.

Rucker and Eggen do offer a sterling example of how to do the Rat Jump wisely. Now, Tom Davis isn't an administration-jumping rat. He's one of those "Republicans leaving the Hill." You'll recall that he got tired pretending to be a "moderate Republican," as if there were such a thing in this century. Everybody assumed it was just a matter of time before he transitioned his way into one of Virginia's U.S. Senate seats. Instead, he read the tea leaves in his increasingly Democratic northern VA district and decided to jump ship without even serving out his last House term:

Tom Davis, a powerful Republican congressman from Virginia, retired last year and landed a seven-figure job at Deloitte Consulting, a global financial services company, as the economy started to tank. But he said many of his GOP colleagues "didn't get out soon enough" and are stuck with few opportunities. The market is so poor, Davis said, that some senior GOP congressional aides "are fighting over taking a pay cut from $130,000 to $140,000 to just $60,000 to $70,000."

Davis often repeats a saying passed down by his grandfather, a former Nebraska attorney general: "There is nothing as desperate as a defeated politician looking for a job."

Interestingly, a major problem the desperate regimista rats are having is that they don't want to go back where they came from. One Ron Kaufman, described as "a close White House adviser to former president George H.W. Bush and an executive at Dutko Worldwide," who "helped many loyalists land appointments at the beginning of the Bush presidency," is now telling the regime refugees: "Go home. Take the expertise you've learned here, go back home and apply it to a trade back home."

But they're not biting. The above-quoted Tom C. Korologos -- you remember, the "longtime Republican adviser and lobbyist who served as Bush's ambassador to Belgium from 2004 to 2007," who understands that "it's a bear market out there, no question, for Republicans leaving the Hill or the administration" -- explains: "We're talking Washington. There's an old saying, you know, they never go back to Pocatello." (I'm guessing it was a helpful WaPo editor who added, "referring to an Idaho railroad town," concerned that readers wouldn't get the Pocatello reference. It's a lucky thing Tom C. didn't say "Podunk" instead of "Pocatello," or they would have had to explain Podunk.)

You'll be relieved to learn that there are regime refugees who can afford to take time off, among them our darling Dana Perino. But she won't be doing nothing:

Dana Perino plans to travel with her husband to volunteer in South Africa at the Living Hope Community Center, a beneficiary of Bush's anti-AIDS initiative.

"I didn't want to sit around the house thinking about what I want to do next," Perino said. "I wanted to do something that would help others."

Perino said many White House employees have been too busy in the final months of the Bush presidency to look for new jobs, but acknowledged the difficulty.

"Certainly it's not the roaring days of the dot-com boom or the 52 months of growth we saw during this administration," Perino said, getting a plug in for her boss's economic record.

I don't know about you, but I'm missing our Dana already. No, not really! (You bought that?) Which is not to say unequivocally that we won't look back at these as the golden years for White House press communications, and I'm not even going to try to work in some kind of rude crack about how if only she had had the courage to pioneer nude press conferences, she'd have the job offers rolling in. No, I'm going to take the high road on this one.

Apparently we're supposed to feel sorry for the ex-regimistas because they have poor job-hunting skills:

[F]or many Bush appointees, this is the first time they've been on the job market for years, if not decades. Many came to Washington during the 1990s to take jobs in the Republican-controlled Congress, only to move into the administration after Bush's 2000 election.

"These are people who haven't put together a résumé in 20 years," said Steve Gunderson, a former Republican congressman who is president of the Council on Foundations. He has been reviewing résumés of those seeking jobs in the nonprofit sector. "It's a first for them in developing résumés, applying for open and competitive jobs, and trying to figure out where their skills might work best."

"Figure out where their skills might work best"? OMG, talk about a straight line of the "big fat hanging curveball" variety. I'm not going to swing, though. That would be the old schadenfreudenvoll me. I'm above that sort of thing now.

Nah, I'm just kidding! I'm not above it. I'm right down in it. As a veteran of many resume wars, having spent countless hours trying to construct one that might get me some kind of decent job, I'm just going to make one suggestion to all those first-time resume-writers: When it comes to your time served in the Bush White House, you might want to fudge and claim to have been out of the workforce, like maybe a stay-at-home mom or dad. Failing all else, say you were in prison.

I'd like to think that will still count as better employment history than time served as part of the Bush regime. Meanwhile, why not give Monica Goodling a call and see if she's free for lunch?


POSTSCRIPT: INSIDE THE CREEPY WORLD
OF THE BUSH-CHENEY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

Too late for inclusion in the original post, I found this passed-along link from Howie, in which Slate's Christopher Beam recounts his experience behind enemy lines, crashing Sunday night's final gathering of the loyal regimistas in the Spanish Ballroom of Maryland's Glen Echo Park.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll check the locks on your doors and windows to make sure none of these people can sneak in.

BULLETIN: THE DANA PERINO WATCH (FOR BIL)

As I stood in line for barbecue, Dana Perino came over to greet some friends. "I'm starting to breathe!" she said. I asked her for a comment on the party. "It's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the outgoing administration and reminisce in casual clothes," she said.

[Hmm, nothing about those rumored nude press conferences? -- Ed.]

And, oh yes, there's a good chance you'll upchuck, hearing almost-former President George W. Bush say:

So we're no longer sprinting to the finish -- we're dancing to the finish. This is objectively the finest group of people ever to serve our country. Not to serve me, not to serve the Republican Party, but the United States of America.

And yes, there really is a Bush-Cheney Alumni Association, for "employees, appointees, and interns of President George W. Bush … as well as campaign donors and volunteers." Christopher picked up his own application form. You can find about it online. In a sense, a very grim sense, we're all veterans of the Bush regime -- and certainly victims. That ought to count for something.

Wouldn't you think?

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Young People Fleeing The Republican Party In Droves

Dawn Gibbons hosts a fashion show for Nevada Young Republicans

Yesterday we ran a post about how quite a few males over 50 who still like the same songs they were listening to 30 or more years ago would vote for McCain. Of course the ones who die between now and November won't be voting for McCain. And I bet a lot of the Bill O'Reilly Depends crowd will go vote for McCain too... if they remember. Today's Washington Post, on the other hand, has a story on the woes of Republicans in their 20s. They are the "few and the frustrated."

All the Reagan-worship goes over their head and makes them think their candidates are out-of-it "old fogies." The president of the Young Republicans moaned to the Post that "The Republicans are sort of talking down to Gen-Nexters, not bringing them in... You don't hear Barack Obama going around saying, 'I'm John F. Kennedy.' He's saying, 'I'm Barack Obama.' There's a reason for that. He's inspiring an entire generation, and it's a generation that's trying to change the world in 160 characters or less through text messages."

My friend's aunt is in her 90s and lives in a retirement hope. Like plenty of senior citizens, she's an Internet whiz. She's also an iTunes fanatic and gets great pleasure in turning the other residents on to new music and leading discussion groups. She literally goes on line to find good deals on walkers for her friends. John McCain, on the other hand, seems to think that a computer is some kind of new fangled typewriter he plans to learn sometime after he learns economics. His Internet policies simply don't exist. It's not part of his life, although he's heard about it. He also heard that people are paying a lot for gas nowadays.

The Republican brand, as Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), said recently, "is in the trash can. I've often observed that if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf." And it's even worse among people under 30.

Voters under 30 are more than twice as likely to identify themselves as Democrats, according to the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll.

...Republicans haven't always been so disconnected. A quarter-century ago, Reagan charmed young voters and won 59 percent of their vote in 1984. In 1992, on the heels of the Reagan Revolution, voters under 30 split their allegiance about evenly between the two major parties. But every presidential cycle since then, Democrats have gained ground. This year, according to the Post-ABC poll, 44 percent of those under 30 call themselves Democrats, and only 18 percent identify as Republicans.

Today's Post also has a fashion story about tattoos. Oh, they must be all those Democrats, you think? Well, they may not be a certain kind of young (Young) Republican but I remember meeting a young man once and getting intimate with him only to discover a huge Nazi eagle and swastika tattoo. We got to discussing it and it turned out that his family had taught him to hate Jews. Asking him if he had ever met any led to the discovery that he had mixed up African-Americans and Jews. This was well before Republican propagandists started claiming Obama is a Jew but my young friend just absolutely knew that every single person of color he ever saw was Jewish. He had inherited his family's bigotry but I'm happy to report that after a summer of friendship he lasered off the swastika. I haven't been in touch with him in a number of decades so I don't know if he's still voting Republican or not; my guess is that he still is.

HULSHOF LEAVING CONGRESS TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI-- PLUS BONUS: TOM DAVIS & RON LEWIS

Kenny Hulshof-- finally a job that will get him out of Congress

Over the last 6 years extreme right wing Representative Ken Hulshof has seen his margin of victory steadily shrink from 68% in 2002 to 65% in 2004 and to 61% in 2006. Today Hulshof becomes the 26th Republican to abandon the dismal House Republican caucus for a risky run for Missouri governor. Hulsdorf, a dependable rubber stamp for all things Cheney and Bush, has constructed a voting record that is even beyond extreme by GOP standards. Among Missouri's congressional delegation, and using ProgressivePunch's Chips Are Down analysis, you find only bizarre wingnuts Roy Blunt and Todd Atkin voting more consistently for the radical right agenda in the current Congress. Hulshof has been trying to get out of Congress for some time and applied to become president of the University of Missouri. After the interview he was laughed off the campus and has remained in Congress looking for another opportunity. So far two Democrats, Marion County Commissioner Lyndon Bode and State Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, have filed to run and others may jump in now that Hulshof is out.

Hulshof will have to defeat state treasurer Sarah Steelman and Lt Gov. Peter Kinder in what promises to be a contentious and bloody primary.

And number 27 looks to be northern Virginia rubber stamp Tom Davis, who can't take the heat any longer in an increasingly moderate district.

And I put together a little video clip in honor of Representatives Hulshof and Davis-- and all their cuttin' and runnin' colleagues who will make the U.S. Congress a better place by their departures




UPDATE: TOO LATE FOR THE VIDEO BUT...

Number 28-- Kentucky wingnut Ron Lewis, who "abruptly withdrew his name to run for re-election Tuesday, only minutes before the filing deadline, setting off a late scramble for a replacement... [I]t was Lewis' sudden decision not to run again that was the most surprising, and filled with last-minute intrigue. Lewis chief of staff Daniel London went to the secretary of state's office to withdraw his boss' name - and file his own papers to run for the seat, according to state Board of Elections executive director Sarah Ball Johnson.

About the same time, state Sen. Brett Guthrie also filed papers to run. So, Guthrie [favored by the NRCC] and London will face off in the Republican primary on May 20... Two Democrats, state Sen. David Boswell and Davies County Judge Executive Reid Haire also filed, and will face off in the Democratic primary.

The West Kentucky congressional district is solidly Republican, though Democrats contested the seat last cycle. President Bush won 65 percent there in 2004. But Lewis won only 55 percent in his re-election bid against Democrat Mike Weaver in 2006."


UPDATE: TOM DAVIS MAKES IT OFFICIAL-- 5 IN 5 (BUSINESS) DAYS... EXCELLENT RATE

No 8th term for Republican Tom Davis (VA-11). He made what everyone already knew, official today, announcing he would be retiring from Congress at the end of this session. Of course there were a few obligatory words about spending more time with the family, but the often and increasingly frustrated Davis "said it is simply time to do something new." Let's hope he convinces a few dozen of his colleagues to follow his example. Davis is trying to engineer a coup by wealthy self-funder Keith Simian and has donated $300,000 of his campaign fund to him.

Davis believes the best Republican candidate to succeed him is Oakton resident Keith Simian, a former football player and business owner who has "quietly raised $670,000, more than any of the Democrats who have formed exploratory committees," he said.

Several prominent Democrats have already announced their intentions to run for Davis' seat, including former U.S. Rep. Leslie Byrne and Iraq War veteran Doug Denneny. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly (At large) has formed an exploratory committee for the seat.

THERE ARE SOME IMPORTANT RACES TUESDAY-- A SCORECARD

caption contest

I don't care about reading tea-leaves in regard to the '08 presidential elections. I care about winning in Kentucky and Virginia, maybe New Jersey. The New Jersey State Senate currents has 22 Democrats and 18 Republicans. The well-respected and nonpartisan website, PoliticsNJ, says there are currently 14 safe Republican seats and 21 safe Democratic seats. That leaves 2 Republican seats leaning Republican and one Democratic seat (currently held by Ellen Karcher) leaning Republican and 2 Republican seats, those currently held by Nicholas Asselta and Sonny McCullough leaning Democratic. The General Assembly has 50 Democrats and 30 Republicans. PoliticsNJ rates Charlotte Vandervalk (R) as "Likely Republican," 5 open Republican seats plus John Rooney's (R) seat as "Leans Republican," another open Republican seat as a "toss up," 3 open Democratic seats as "toss ups," Michael Panter's (D) seat as a "toss up" and two Democratic seats, Nelson Albano's and Linda Greenstein's, as "Leans Democratic." 44 Democratic seats are seen as safe as are 22 Republican seats.

The DCCC is looking to see how the races go in the first and second senate districts because if Assemblyman Jim Whelan (D) beats Sonny McCullough (R) and if Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew (D) beats Nicholas Asselta (R), as looks likely, it will be open season on 7-term Republican rubber stamp Frank LoBiondo (NJ-02) next year.

I'm slightly more excited about the state legislative races in Virginia, especially in the state senate. Although national prognosticators are looking for signs of Democrats being able to knock off rubber stamp Congressmembers Thelma Drake, Tom Davis, Virgil Goode and Frank Wolf in 2008, just as important is the ability of the Democrats to pick up control of the state senate in time to stop the Republicans from gerrymandering congressional districts in 2010. On important race to watch is up in Fairfax County, where Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R), wife of Congressman Davis, is in a tough battle to win re-election in an increasingly moderate suburban district that has been turning against Republicans regularly. If Chap Petersen beats her it will be another indication that Tom Davis needs to start handing his resume out around K Street.

But the most important race to watch Tuesday is in Kentucky. The question will be how big will Steve Beshear's victory over corrupt and despised Republican incumbent Ernie Fletcher. If Beshear turns out with a margin of over 15%, Miss McConnell may abandon his role as the Bush Regime's chief obstructionist in the Senate, a role that has brought his approval ratings down to a place that predicts he could well be defeated next year. Strong showings by Beshear in the western and northern parts of the state, where Republicans usually do well-- and where polls show him beating Fletcher-- will send McConnell into panic mode. For people looking to see how badly tarnished the GOP brand is-- Bush is widely hated in Kentucky now-- the Secretary of State's race between the big-spending Republican incumbent, Trey Grayson and an underfinanced and completely unknown Democrat, Bruce Henderson is a key. If Henderson gets within 5% of Grayson (who has been treating Fletcher as if he were radioactive, McConnell would be considered dead man walking.

In their headlong rush to turn themselves into a backward regional party of the South with limited appeal to any other regions of the country, the Republicans are likely to sweep Mississippi.


KY REPUBLICANS DEPLOY THEIR BIGGEST WEAPON-- ONE FEW CARE ABOUT AND ONE THAT WILL COME BACK TO BITE MISS McCONNELL IN THE ASS NEXT YEAR

Kentucky Republicans wheeled out arch-reactionary singer Pat Boone, best known as someone who brazenly stole r'n'b music from African-American songwriters and wimped the tunes up for of grandparents version of all-white pop radio, in a last ditch effect to try to prevent a Democratic sweep of all the Kentucky state offices tomorrow. Boone and the KY GOP, flying in the face of an avalanche of gay Republican arrests and convictions and in the face of mounting rumors that the state's senior Republican senator, Mitch McConnell, is himself a closeted, self-loathing homosexual. TMP has the homophobic Boone recording

GOOD NEWS FOR PROGRESSIVES IN SENATE RACES IN VIRGINIA AND TEXAS

Texas Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator, Rick Noriega and family

Although polls show that moderate Democrat Mark Warner will wipe the floor with either mainstream conservative Tom Davis or far right radical Jim Gilmore in the 2008 Virginia senate race, Davis' decision to not run-- while probably depriving Democrats of his House seat-- cedes the vast political center and will help Democrats up and down the ticket.

It was inevitable that Davis would drop out as soon as it was announced that the GOP would forgo a primary to pick a nominee and opt for a convention dominated by the kinds of extremists and neo-fascists who have run the Virginia Republican Party into the ground in the last few years.

Much more important news comes from Texas, where the Democratic insider/establishment candidate, multimillionaire Mikal Watts, has decided to give up his senseless and divisive bid for a chance to face radical right extremist John Cornyn in the U.S. Senate race next year. Blue America-endorsed Rick Noriega has been, despite Watts' gargantuan spending, the far and away favorite of the Texas grassroots. The Burnt Orange Report carries a statement from Watts and we just got an official statement from Rick Noriega's campaign:

I received a call from Mikal Watts this morning informing me that he has decided to withdraw from the Democratic Primary race for the United States Senate.

As Teddy Roosevelt once said, the credit goes to the man in the arena. And Mikal Watts will always have my utmost respect for standing in the arena and highlighting how John Cornyn has let Texas down, placing political extremists and his financial contributors ahead of the people of Texas.

Of course, this is not the first time Mikal has been in the arena-- he's been a true friend to Democrats in Texas and throughout the nation, and has always had the courage to stand up for his convictions.

Today, Mikal made a very difficult and personal decision to put his family first. That's a reflection of a strong character and a truly grounded leader.

Mikal and I made plans to sit down together in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I'll continue the campaign that we started together and fight for the vision for a better Texas that we continue to share.

This is great news for Texas Democrats who will be able to rally around Noriega and present the pathetic and ultra-reactionary junior senator a united front. This will be a very tough race in a very Republican state, but could well be the icing on the cake of a huge national repudiation of right-wing Republican policies over the past 7 years. If you want to congratulate Rick, consider a contribution to his campaign fund today.


UPDATE: MORE BAD NEWS FOR REPUBLICROOKS-- ALASKA

Virginia and Texas might be joined by another "red" state in electing a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, as corrupt senior senator Ted Stevens' disgraceful career continues to crash and burn. And Democrats in the state have been busy reminding Alaskans what kind of a crook the state has representing them in Washington. Today a really great new resource for Stevens watchers was launched, RetireTed.com. Worth a visit, if just for the fantastic artwork.

VIRGINIA SHAPING UP NICELY FOR 2008-- THEIR STORY IS PRETTY MUCH THE WHOLE NATION'S

The last time Virginia supported a Democrat for president it was 1964 and LBJ trounced Barry Goldwater. A new Washington Post/Rasmussen poll indicates that 2008 could be the end of a red tradition in the commonwealth. The disdain in which Virginians hold the current occupant of the White House is unprecedented (a 35% job approval rating) and "by a margin of 11 percentage points, Virginians would prefer that the next president be a Democrat, indicating that even a reliably red state could flip in 2008."

But that ain't nothin' compared to the race that's shaping up to replace John Warner in the U.S. Senate. First off, it doesn't matter if the GOP puts up a far right extremist, ex-Governor Jim Gilmore III, or a mainstream conservative, Congressman Tom Davis (also the III); the polls shows Mark Warner absolutely romping to a landslide victory-- probably with a 30 point margin.

Tomorrow Virginia's 84-member Republican State Central Committee will get together and decide whether to pick their sacrificial lamb by convention or primary. Primary means Gilmore is the candidate. "If a primary were held today, the poll shows, Gilmore would beat Davis by 19 percentage points." The Post perpetuates the myth that Davis is a "moderate," which his voting record proves is untrue. Example: Davis has participated in 54 roll calls regarding Iraq. So how many times did this "moderate" just rubber stamp the Bush Cheney position? Once, a February 2007 nonbinding resolution. So he's a moderate because he only rubber stamped Cheney's demands for endless war 53 times instead of 54 times? And it certainly doesn't look like he's "moderate" on women's choice. He participated in 23 votes and he voted the religionist right position against choice all 23 times. I'm sure the Post has some reason they call Davis and other wingnuts moderates. Maybe it's because they have never been photographed in a KKK or Nazi costume.

But like I said, it doesn't much matter which of these pathetic yutzes the GOP picks or how they pick him.

In the Senate race, Warner leads Gilmore 61 percent to 31 percent, a 2 to 1 margin replicated in nearly every region of the state. Warner leads Davis 63 percent to 28 percent. In vote-rich Fairfax County, where Davis argues that he would have more appeal than some recent statewide GOP candidates, Warner is up by 24 percentage points over the congressman (57 percent to 33 percent).

Gilmore and Davis say they are confident that Warner's lead will significantly diminish as the race heats up.

Warner's large advantages are a testament to his broad popularity, voters' unfamiliarity with his likeliest opponents and the state's current Democratic trend.

...Warner has a 67 percent favorability rating, and his appeal crosses party lines.

More than 7 in 10 Democrats have a favorable impression of the former governor, as do 69 percent of independents and 61 percent of the state's Republicans. Even 4 in 10 self-described conservatives said they would vote for Warner, who was elected governor in 2001 as a pro-gun Democrat who appealed to voters in traditionally GOP counties.

UPDATE: DAVIS WILL PROBABLY NOT BOTHER RUNNING FOR SENATE

Damn! I was hoping Tom Davis would run and give Democrats an opportunity to pick up his Northern Virginia congressional district while he got trounced by Mark Warner. But the neo-fascists in the Virginia GOP opted for a state party convention rather than a primary to select their nominee. And since the convention will be dominated by far right radicals, Jim Gilmore will be the nominee.

THREE BLIND REPUBLICAN MICE-- SUPPORTIN' WAR PROFITEERS TO THE BITTER END

In Tom Davis' world a little war profits never hurt nobody

I'm sure Bush will veto it-- if his Senate Chief Obstructionist, Miss McConnell (R-KY) can't deep six it with some of that parliamentary trickery he's always using it to thwart the will of the people-- but you have to laugh at this one. The House just passed the War Profiteering Prevention Act by a vote of 375-3. It crimianlizes war profiteering. Did someone decriminalize it? Not allowed is "overcharging in order to defraud or profit excessively from war, military action, or reconstruction efforts" and if Bush signs it-- lol-- it will be "a felony subject to up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million or twice the illegal profits of the crime."

If your mind works anything like mine, you're probably wondering what kind of sick slobs voted against this, right? I'm sure you know which party they all come from. The misanthropes who don't want to see war profiteering made illegal are:
-Richard Baker (R-LA), who has voted with Bush on every single Iraq roll call. H'es 100% so why sully that now?
-Tom Davis (R-VA), who is now trying to appeal to a much more right-wing and lunatic fringe GOP base as he tries to run for the Republican nomination to replace Senator John Warner and is trying to show that, at heart, he's just as insane as Eric Cantor-- or even more so. In the past, when he just had to deal with a moderate suburban district outside DC, he even once-- out of 55 roll calls-- opposed some Bush-Cheney scheme of destruction in Iraq. But that was then. Now's he's desperate to butch up his image. That and a big fat bribe from Erik Prince, the North Carolina Republican war lord who runs Blackwater and has given Davis over $700,000 in "campaign contributions." A real American that Davis. This was his argument against the bill-- which even kooks like Patrick McHenry, Mean Jean Schmidt and Doug Lamborn couldn't buy: "Hundreds of contractor lives have been lost over in Iraq, and I think the widows and the mothers, of these sons and daughters who've been killed in Iraq would be, I think chagrinned to hear their sons referred to as profiteers."
-Mike Rogers (R-AL), as crazy as they come, so nothing more or less could ever be expected of him. You want to know exactly how crazy? Just look at his voting record regarding the well-being of America's military personnel. He's a lot more interested in the well being of America's war profiteers than of the young men and women who are on the front lines.

AND THE NEXT SENATOR FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA WILL BE... SENATOR WARNER

Unless Hillary selfishly asks him to run for VP, there will be a new Senator Warner from Virginia

But not the current Senator Warner (R). Robert Novak published today what everyone has been whispering about for months, that John Warner won't seek re-election and that wildly popular ex-Governor Mark Warner will waltz into the Senate.

Gloomy top Republicans in Virginia are privately predicting that a man named ''Warner'' will be elected to the Senate from their state next year, but add that he is likely to be a Democrat.

The state's GOP leaders not long ago were sure that 80-year-old Republican Sen. John Warner would seek a sixth term in 2008, but now they think he probably will not. That would open the door for Democratic former Gov. Mark Warner (no relation) to enter the race. Any Republican would be an underdog against the Democratic Warner.

Rep. Tom Davis is the leading prospect if John Warner doesn't run, but conservatives are seeking somebody to oppose Davis' nomination.

Extreme wingnut Eric Cantor is said to be sniffing around. The interesting thing about Davis, though, is that it is likely that if he runs, not only will the GOP lose a senate seat, they will also lose the 11th congressional district which has trended decidedly Democratic in recent years, helping decide the last gubernatorial election for Kaine and the last senate election for Webb. Bush only managed to beat Kerry with 50% of the vote and even Davis won the district with his smallest margin since first being elected in 1994, tumbling from a high of 82% in 1998 to a mere 55% last year in this moderate suburban district which has shown itself to be sick of GOP extremism. Cantor would be lucky to wind up with a third of the vote in this CD.

DEMOCRATS COULD TAKE VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE SENATE SEATS NEXT YEAR

WILL JOHN WARNER'S EFFORTS TO BEQUEATH HIS SENATE SEAT TO TOM DAVIS, LEAD TO A VICTORY FOR SENATOR MARK WARNER?

This morning's Moonie Times indicates what DC Insiders have long suspected: that 80 year old fossil, Senator John Warner, will not seek re-election next year. In recent years the Virginia GOP has been torn up-- like so many state Republican parties-- by battles between conservatives and neo-fascist extremists. When the extremists win the primaries, they often lose the general elections.

"There has been considerable discussion about the possibility that [Mr. Warner] might delay an announcement of candidacy, then announce he wasn't going to run, to allow Congressman Tom Davis to build up at the beginning of the campaigns, which would give Davis an advantage," said Morton C. Blackwell, chairman of the Virginia's Republican National Committee and leader of the conservative Leadership Institute.

...Speculation about Mr. Warner retiring increased this spring after filings with the Federal Elections Commission showed he had raised only $500 during the first quarter of the year.

Another indication was the resignation last year of Susan Magill, who was Mr. Warner's chief of staff for 18 years.

Mr. Warner's resignation would likely result in a tough political battle to replace him that would begin inside the Republican State Central Committee, which decides how the party will picks its nominee.

Members could choose a convention or a primary election, which would likely benefit a more moderate candidate.

Among the unelectable extremists eyeing Warner's seat are Rep. Eric Cantor (VA-07), Rep. Randy Forbes (VA-04), and the as yet unindicted bribe taker Rep. Robert Goodlatte (VA-06).

Republicans hope for a candidate who can succeed in Northern Virginia where the party has won too few votes in three straight losses for top statewide office.

"I hope the George Allen election caught the attention of the rest of the state," said Delegate David Albo, Fairfax County Republican. "Republicans used to say, 'We are going to win big in the rest of Virginia, and try not to lose bad in [Northern Virginia.]' But when you have 90,000 people a year moving into [Northern Virginia], eventually that strategy is not going to work."

House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, Salem Republican, agreed.

"We have to do better in [Northern Virginia] if we are going to win," he said.

Much of this would be moot if former Governor Mark Warner decides to run for the seat since he is widely popular and much admired throughout the state and could easily beat any of those Republicans who are unknown statewide. Mark Warner's close friendship with John Warner has keep him out of the race to date-- as well as huge speculation that he is Hillary's #1 choice for vice president.

AND TENNESSEE COULD BE SOME NICE FROSTING ON THE CAKE

Conventional wisdom lists Lamar Alexander's Senate seat in Tennessee as a safe one. But with 2008 shaping up to be a year of discontent with incumbents and a year of disdain for Republicans-- one that could make 2006 look like a dress rehearsal-- Alexander might not be that safe. He has, after all, been a craven rubber stamp for a Bush-Cheney agenda that is no more popular in Tennessee than it is anywhere else in America (not counting Utah). Tennessee Democrats and the DSCC are convinced they can win this one and they both have the same moderate candidate with crossover potential in mind.

Short of a Fred Thompson candidacy at the top of the ticket or a suicidal Harold Ford nomination by the Democrats, which will leave progressives sitting on their hands, Alexander could be vulnerable to a well-run campaign from a big-name Democrat. And this morning one of the savviest political pundits in Tennessee, Jackson Baker, is suggesting that Mike McWherter is getting ready to jump into the race. McWherter's dad was popular 2-term Governor Ned McWherter.

Fresh from his service as treasurer in state Senator Lowe Finney's win last year (taking back a Democratic seat from Don McLeary, considered by McWhrerter a "turncoat" after changing party affiliations in 2005), the 52-year-old activist is now focusing on Alexander, whom McWherter sees as a slavish follower of President George W. Bush.

"With one or two exceptions, he's done everything the president has wanted him to do. He's toed the party line," said McWherter, who has recently paid courtesy calls on ranking Democrats, both in Tennessee and in Washington, D.C. , informing them of his interest in running next year and soliciting their support. He is getting active encouragement from Gray Sasser, state Democratic chairman and son of an influential former officeholder himself, former Senator and Ambassador Jim Sasser.

Last week, the Nashville Post ran a similar story about the prospects of McWherter offering Alexander a serious challenge. The Post reports Sasser's enthusiasm. "Should Mike decide to run, he would be a terrific candidate for the U.S. Senate. I firmly believe that Sen. Alexander is beatable in 2008. Tennesseans, like the rest of America, are ready for a change and are disappointed that Sen. Alexander continues to back the failed policies of George Bush and Karl Rove, voting with the Bush administration more than 90 percent of the time."