D-Liver D-Letter D-Sooner D-Better

Issa

H. Res 30 expresses the sense of the House that the U.S. Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of its 6-day delivery service. I was shocked that the principal sponsor of the resolution was Sam Graves, a very conservative congressman from Missouri. Rural Missouri. He was not toeing the Party line; he was paying attention to what his constituents want. H. Res 30 was immediately assigned to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by the #1 enemy of the U.S. Post Office Darrell Issa, who is dedicated on destroying and then privatizing it. The House bill tracking system at govtrack.us gives it zero chance of ever getting out of Issa's committee:

There are 54 co-sponsors, a dozen of whom are Republicans. This would have to grow gigantically before forcing Issa to take any action at all. Most of the Republicans co-sponsoring represent rural districts where the postal service is crucial. When Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) signed on as a new co-sponsor yesterday, she said "The US Postal Service is a vital resource for communities throughout our state and our country. Eliminating Saturday mail-delivery does not adequately address the issues facing the United States Postal Service. This is the wrong approach because the Postal Service will lose vital business and consumers will be hurt.”

Illinois state Senator Toi Hutchinson, who's running for the open congressional seat in the Southland second district understands why this is a salient issue. She's opposed to closing the post office on Saturdays and is letting voters in the district know it: "I represent rural areas that depend on the post office to be open and working six days a week. I don't agree with attempts to cut that short." Rep. Bruce Braley, the likely Democratic nominee for the open Iowa Senate seat, was one of the first House Members to sign on to Grave's resolution. Neither of his conservative Republican perspective opponents, Tom Latham or Steve King-- each incapable of acting on behalf of their constituents when their interests are at odds with right-wing dogma-- have not backed Grave's legislation. Matt Cartwright's northeast Pennsylvania district is a microcosm of America. It includes cities, suburbs, small towns and remote rural areas. He's another congressmember incensed over the decision to end Saturday delivery:

"The agency’s crisis is a direct result of an unsustainable congressional mandate imposed on the Postal Service by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA). The federal law forces the Postal Service to pre-fund healthcare benefits for future retirees and to do so in a 10-year period. No other entity-- public or private-- bears this burden. Since the PAEA took effect in 2007, the Postal Service has been required to pre-pay approximately $5.5 billion per year. Yet the same law prohibits the Postal Service from raising postage rates to cover the cost.

"The Postal Service has already slashed mail service by closing 13,000 post offices and drastically reducing hours of operation, shutting hundreds of mail processing facilities, and downgrading standards for mail delivery to America’s homes and businesses. The effects have already been felt locally in Scranton and today’s announcement will only place a greater burden on the 17th Congressional district.

The Postal Service has a mission that is bigger than making money. Our mail system is a vital part of the strength of our American infrastructure. In my view, we should not be allowing a culture of efficiency esxperts to downgrade pasrt of the pride of our great nation. Congress must take a holistic approach in passing comprehensive Postal Reform legislation addressing both the recent decline in mail volume as well as the strain placed on the Postal Service by the mandated PAEA."

Congress may force the post office to stop regular deliveries on Saturdays, but, as comedian Andy Borowitz suggested, it sure isn't going to force the Executive Branch to stop regular drone strikes on Saturdays... or any other days. Doug Tudor is not a comedian. He's a naval vet who ran for Congress in Florida a few years ago. Like many of us, he's concerned with what Issa and his right-wing allies are doing to the post office.

The Undermining Of The Postal Service Goes Beyond Darrell Issa
-by Doug Tudor

This week the United States Postal Service said they would cut Saturday delivery for first-class mail.  They did so because of their budget woes. It should be mentioned, though, the USPS never had any budget woes until Congress said they have to fund their retirement accounts for 75 years in the future. In other words, they never cost the taxpayer a single penny until Congress laid this 75-Year shitstorm on their head. Why would Congress do this? Campaign contributions, of course.

There is a tiny town in central Florida called Nalcrest. It only has a population of less than 500. The population, though, has a distinct hegemony. You see, Nalcrest, is an acronym for National Association of Letter Carriers-- Rest. In other words, NALCRest is a retirement community for the union members of the National Association of Letter Carriers.

From 2011 to 2013, Nalcrest’s representative in the U.S. House was Dennis Ross. Dennis Ross during the same time was the chairman of the subcommittee on the Federal Workforce and Postal Service Committee. In this role, his every action went against the United States Postal Service, even as he was taking thousands of dollars from USPS competitors FedEx and UPS.

NALCrest is now in a new congressional district represented by Congressman Tom Rooney. Unlike Ross due to his subcommittee chairmanship, Rooney does not have the power to single-handedly bankrupt a town of his own constituents, except that he is a solid Republican vote for any crazy ass, lobbyist-fueled vote against the USPS. Like Ross before him, Rooney receives thousands of dollars from UPS and FEDEX.

Wonder why American Democracy seems to be broken.

Me personally, paying less than 50 cents to have a letter taken from the mailbox at the end of my driveway and delivered less than two days later to an end-of-driveway mailbox in San Diego is as American as Apple Pie, “Please Mr. Postman,” and “Take a Letter, Maria.”

 

And, no, neither Ross nor Rooney-- nor any other Florida Republican congressmember-- is cosponsoring Graves' resolution. Florida Democrats Lois Frankel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutsch are though.

How Is Right-Wing Extremist Allen West Working Towards A Win In A Blue District?

A crop of unique and extraordinarily unqualified men and women were elected to Congress last year. It's the ultimate damage the Koch-funded Tea Party did to America. And a case can be made that there was no worse outcome than the defeat of moderate Florida technocrat Ron Klein by raging right-wing extremist and proven sociopath Allen West. Disappointed Democrats and left-leaning independents in Broward and Palm Beach counties didn't bother coming out to vote. In the mid-term before (2006), 43,746 Broward voters gave Klein a 51-47% victory over longtime Republican incumbent Clay Shaw. In Palm Beach County is was 63,611- 59,120 for another 51-47% win for the challenger. Last year it turned around... badly. Klein only managed 39,654 votes in Broward (to West's 46,146) and 60,150 in West Palm (to West's 72,744). In both counties, the GOP vote went up and the Democratic votes... just evaporated. The 22nd CD had been steadily supporting Democratic presidential candidates in recent times. Gore beat Bush 52-48%. Kerry beat Bush 52-48% and in 2008, Obama beat McCain 52-48%.

That brings us to 2012... well first to 2011. The Republican legislature, in strengthening several endangered neighboring Republican districts (Webster's and Rivera's particularly), gerrymandered the area in such away that clearly threw West under the bus. McCain's 48% in 2008 would have been a 44% in the new boundaries... very bad news for West, who doesn't even live in the district.

Ironically, the crazed and clownish West, who will probably get a Fox TV show in 2013, leads all GOP freshmen in fundraising through Sept. 30, bringing in $4.2 million and managing to raise more than half, $2.3 million, in amounts of $200 or less. Two years ago, he’d collected only $543,808 in the same period. The kooks and nuts across the country identify with his sick Jack Bauer persona.

There are two Democrats running for the nomination to take on West, former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy, a rich young businessman with suspicious credentials as a Democrat. In fact, until last January he was a registered Republican, something the DCCC never lets stand in the way of recruiting. They LOVE rich, conservative candidates, regardless of politics.

Miami Dade Supervisor of Elections records shows that Murphy was a registered Republican in Miami-Dade county from 2004 up until January of 2011 and he cast his vote in the 2010 elections as a registered Republican.  Murphy changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat mere months ago- on January 10, 2011, according to the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections... [W]hat’s most revealing about Murphy’s party switch is that given its proximity to the announcement of his candidacy for Congress, it appears that it was done much more for political expediency than for any other possible motive.

Like Frankel, Murphy has raised more than $1 million, although, unlike hers, which comes primarily from small donors, he's getting larger sums from suspicious, wealthy sources.

Before buying his way into the Democratic Establishment's good graces by giving "ex"-Blue Dog Steve Israel, the corrupt and reactionary head of the DCCC, $2000 in March (plus $2,400 to Florida's Democratic Senator Ben Nelson in January, $2,500 to Obama and $4,800 each to Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Ted Deutsch this year), Murphy had been a GOP donor and had been contributing thousands of dollars to Charlie Crist (that's them together below) and Mitt Romney.

Something about Murphy stinks. I'm wondering if he's not part of a Republican scheme to give Allen West an easy time. Is it possible that he was recruited by the GOP to run against Frankel in the primary so that she spends all her money and isn't prepared to fight off West's millions in teabaggy and corporate cash?

Murphy sent an email to supporters, claiming he's "proud to stand with the 99 percent" and denounced West's name-calling comments identifying the Occupy protesters as "communists," "Marxist," "Stalinist," and "socialist" in the same sentence and adding that they're just a bunch of "gangs." But what does this rich Republican Mitt Romney donor know about OccupyWallStreet?

This is smelling more and more like a typical Republican trick, where the GOP incumbent recruits his own weak "Democratic opponent." DWT uncovered this type of scheme in 2006 when California's most crooked congressman, Jerry Lewis, manufactured his own make-believe opponent, Louie Contreras, who completely disappeared after winning the primary. Since then we've seen other Republicans trying the same trick. It's the second best thing to not having any opponent. We're going to have to dig a little deeper into Murphy and see what's really there.


UPDATE: More West Antics Roil Florida Politics

Although yesterday's biggest news regarding West was his call for Herman Cain to drop out of the presidential race/book campaign because of his philandering, a bit of West news is exploding inside Florida political circles. After the new maps came out he supposedly decided to try to switch districts by challenging Tom Rooney. West never lived in the 22nd CD anyway and now it's way bluer than it was when he managed to pull off his win last year. He lives in Debbie Wasserman Schultz's district but he doesn't have the guts to challenge her; he's always been a big mouthed coward. So he's going after Rooney, a befuddled GOP backbencher in way over his head.

"Allen's strongly considering making a move," said a highly placed source affiliated with West's camp. "It's not a big move, just a few miles away."

West's best move-- running for U.S. Senate-- still appears to be off the table. But West gave it a second thought recently, another source said. And he could jump in that race, though it's less likely.

All this talk is both premature and potentially too late. On one hand, the Legislature has yet to meet to sign off on the plans. And the Florida House hasn't even proposed its own version. But, sources in the Legislature tell us that the House is more inclined to adopt major portions of the Senate's Congressional map. So West needs to start making noise now, in part because legislators will have to decide whether to help him. Rooney has a key connection in the Legislature: uber-lobbyist and political fundraiser Brian Ballard, who has represented the gambling interests of the representative's family for years.

Regardless of what West and Rooney work out between themselves, DWT is supporting school teacher and progressive Democratic activist Dave Lutrin for the seat he should have won-- if not for interference from Rahm Emanuel-- in 2006. Lutrin filed for the 16th yesterday. You can contribute to his campaign here. Between Grayson, Ruiz, Frankel and Lutrin, Florida Democrats may be fielding one of the most progressive batch of House candidates in the country!

David Lutrin Is Running For Congress In Florida

David Lutrin is a school teacher and progressive union activist in South Florida. You may remember him as one of Blue America's favorite candidates back in 2006 when he was taking on sex-obsessed Republican Mark Foley. But Rahm Emanuel had other ideas. He and the DCCC sabotaged Lutrin's campaign in order to guarantee a slot for... another sex-obsessed Republican, Tim Mahoney, who Emanuel had persuaded to switch his voter registration so he could run as a Democrat. Of course, as soon as he was elected he joined the Blue Dogs, voted with the Republicans and spent all his time pursuing his sex obsessions. He was defeated after one miserable term and the district is now saddled with vapid plutocrat Tom Rooney.

Yesterday Dave Lutrin filed with the FEC to run for Congress. I hope he runs against Rooney but, because Rick Scott and his allies have delayed the state's redistricting, no one knows where the boundaries of any districts will lie. The video above, with Dave talking about the issues that have motivated the OccupyWallStreet movement, was in front of Allen West's district office. "I don't think I'll be running against Allen West," he told me earlier, "but the message is the same and I'm taking it all over South Florida.

It's good the Dave is willing to express a progressive vision for South Florida. Thanks to a completely dysfunctional state party addicted to abject failure, many people haven't heard one since they moved down there from up North. Last year, for example, voters had to pick between Rooney and a teabagger in a blue T-shirt. As I mentioned at the time, a raving teabagger, Republican Jim Horn-- who was a greed-crazed selfish Republican when he was in the same college as me in the '60s--looked like he would run against Rooney as a third party candidate, splitting the Republican vote. But it didn't work out that way.

I wonder how long it will take Debbie Wasserman Schultz to embrace Horn, despite this public record of political contributions:



Jim Horn, a Palm City businessman, on Monday changed his voter registration from Republican to Democrat at the Martin County Supervisor of Elections Office, and also amended his ballot designation for the Congressional District 16 race from no party affiliation to Democrat... Horn, calling himself a “Traditional Values Democrat,” noted that he comes from a family of Democrats from New York.

“I was talking to my uncle the other day about my candidacy, he’s still in Manhattan, he said, “Bring your values to the Democratic Party like we did when we were younger,” Horn said. “You don’t have to accept what everyone is saying.”

“Unfortunately, I believe he will be an embarrassment to the Democrats,” Smilan stated. “In my opinion his presence on the ballot will be very divisive. He will reflect very poorly on the Democratic Party and drag down the ticket.”

In the end Horn only took half the number of votes Rooney got-- 162,285- 80,327-- one third of the vote. He lost all 8 counties in FL-16 as Democratic participation plummeted from 2008 (when the disgraced Mahoney managed to get 139,373 votes) and 2006 (the previous midterm- 115,506, which saw the Democrat win in 4 of the 8 counties, including 2 out of the of the 3 big ones, Palm Beach and St Lucie).

Florida Democrats are more often than not excruciatingly bad-- but when they're good... OMG! You get people like Nick Ruiz, Dave Lutrin and Alan Grayson. Oh yeah... Alan Grayson. See him last night with Rachel talking about OccupyWallStreet? You don't want to miss this:



Republicans in Congress don't get it-- don't want to get it. But even the Business Insider had to admit the OccupyWallStreet Movement that Grayson and Lutrin were talking about has legitimate gripes-- really serious legitimate gripes.

The "Occupy Wall Street" protests are gaining momentum, having spread from a small park in New York to marches to other cities across the country.

So far, the protests seem fueled by a collective sense that things in our economy are not fair or right.  But the protesters have not done a good job of focusing their complaints-- and thus have been skewered as malcontents who don't know what they stand for or want.

(An early list of "grievances" included some legitimate beefs, but was otherwise just a vague attack on "corporations." Given that these are the same corporations that employ more than 100 million Americans and make the products we all use every day, this broadside did not resonate with most Americans).

So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?

Do they have legitimate gripes?

To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.

And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.

The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.

In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely-- if ever--been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.

How could that happen with a Democrat in the White House? Yeah... aren't we all wondering, although all you have to do is look who financed his election campaign-- as well as McCain's-- and who he picked for his economic team, to realize the deck is totally stacked against working families. Give up? NEVER! That's why it's so important to elect people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and progressives running for the House, like Grayson, Ruiz and Lutrin. And why you should consider participating in OccupyTheBoardroom this weekend.

Polar Opposites: Dave Lutrin And Sean Duffy (AKA- Paul Ryan, Jr.)

Sean Duffy, clearly a mindless acolyte of Paul Ryan, himself a mindless acolyte of admitted Jesus-hater Ayn Rand, was reminded, if just subliminally, by the SEIU this week, that Gore, Kerry and Obama all carried, by increasingly large margins, Wisconsin's 7th congressional district. Perhaps his boyfriend Paul saved his ass by directing the gerrymandering of the district to include more Republicans and fewer Democrats. Perhaps. But McCain only won 43% of the district and next year Duffy's opponent, state Senator Pat Kreitlow, is widely acknowledged one of Wisconsin's most talented political leaders-- as well as the adored and respected longtime evening news anchor for WEAU-TV in Eau Claire, the heart of the district. And he has an impressive legislative record of accomplishment for Wisconsin working families... unlike Duffy, who just "me-too's" everything Ryan ever says and was the lead sponsor this week on the bill to eviscerate Dodd-Frank, making it easier for his Wall Street campaign donors to prey on unsuspecting consumers. Matt Taibbi didn't mention Duffy in his latest Rolling Stone piece, but he was certainly describing him.

"We're seriously talking about defaulting on our debt, and cutting Medicare and Social Security, so that Google can keep paying its current 2.4 percent effective tax rate and GE, a company that received a $140 billion bailout en route to worldwide 2010 profits of $14 billion, can not only keep paying no taxes at all, but receive a $3.2 billion tax credit from the federal government. And nobody appears to give a shit. What the hell is wrong with people? Have we all lost our minds?"

I doubt Duffy-- or even his mentor for that matter-- would understand a word of any of that. These are purely political creatures out to make a buck for themselves. They get their marching orders from Wall Street and Big Business-- the folks who finance their careers. When Obama was still insisting Ryan was "serious" and worth paying attention to, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman had already alerted the country to the fact that Ryan's ideas were worthless and that Ryan himself is nothing but a Flimflam Man. Duffy is just a Flimflam wanna-be. Thursday Krugman was on Ryan and all the little nihilistic Ryan wanna-be's again.

[W]e’re looking at not one but two looming crises, either of which could produce a global disaster. In the United States, right-wing fanatics in Congress may block a necessary rise in the debt ceiling, potentially wreaking havoc in world financial markets. Meanwhile, if the plan just agreed to by European heads of state fails to calm markets, we could see falling dominoes all across southern Europe-- which would also wreak havoc in world financial markets.

We can only hope that the politicians huddled in Washington and Brussels succeed in averting these threats. But here’s the thing: Even if we manage to avoid immediate catastrophe, the deals being struck on both sides of the Atlantic are almost guaranteed to make the broader economic slump worse.

In fact, policy makers seem determined to perpetuate what I’ve taken to calling the Lesser Depression, the prolonged era of high unemployment that began with the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and continues to this day, more than two years after the recession supposedly ended.

Let’s talk for a moment about why our economies are (still) so depressed.

The great housing bubble of the last decade, which was both an American and a European phenomenon, was accompanied by a huge rise in household debt. When the bubble burst, home construction plunged, and so did consumer spending as debt-burdened families cut back.

Everything might still have been O.K. if other major economic players had stepped up their spending, filling the gap left by the housing plunge and the consumer pullback. But nobody did. In particular, cash-rich corporations see no reason to invest that cash in the face of weak consumer demand.

Nor did governments do much to help. Some governments-- those of weaker nations in Europe, and state and local governments here-- were actually forced to slash spending in the face of falling revenues. And the modest efforts of stronger governments-- including, yes, the Obama stimulus plan-- were, at best, barely enough to offset this forced austerity.

So we have depressed economies. What are policy makers proposing to do about it? Less than nothing.

The disappearance of unemployment from elite policy discourse and its replacement by deficit panic has been truly remarkable. It’s not a response to public opinion. In a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, 53 percent of the public named the economy and jobs as the most important problem we face, while only 7 percent named the deficit. Nor is it a response to market pressure. Interest rates on U.S. debt remain near historic lows.

Yet the conversations in Washington and Brussels are all about spending cuts... For those who know their 1930s history, this is all too familiar. If either of the current debt negotiations fails, we could be about to replay 1931, the global banking collapse that made the Great Depression great. But, if the negotiations succeed, we will be set to replay the great mistake of 1937: the premature turn to fiscal contraction that derailed economic recovery and ensured that the Depression would last until World War II finally provided the boost the economy needed.

Did I mention that the European Central Bank-- although not, thankfully, the Federal Reserve-- seems determined to make things even worse by raising interest rates?

There’s an old quotation, attributed to various people, that always comes to mind when I look at public policy: “You do not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.” Now that lack of wisdom is on full display, as policy elites on both sides of the Atlantic bungle the response to economic trauma, ignoring all the lessons of history. And the Lesser Depression goes on.

The fiscal catastrophe of the 30's brought on something else in much of the world, the rise of Big Business financed faux populist movements-- fascists-- that have too many similarities to our own Teabaggers to ignore. So be better not. However, at the same time, there was a heightened consciousness among working families that weren't sucked in by the allure of fascism. While Hitler, Franco and Mussolini rose in Europe, Franklin Roosevelt vanquished the Republican fascists here in America. Obama is no FDR by any stretch of anyone;s imagination, but there are political leaders in every part of America, some in Congress, some in state government, some not in any governmental positions, ready to fight back. I want to point one out I hope we'll be hearing a lot more from this year.

David Lutrin was a Democratic candidate for Florida's 16th CD in 2006... until Rahm Emanuel forced him out of the race to make way for a self-funding Republican willing to switch his party registration. Emanuel's candidate won, went on to be as big a pervert as the Republican he replaced (Mark Foley) and lost reelection-- after voting with the GOP for two miserable years. Now the district is represented by a rich right-wing asshole, Tom Rooney, perhaps the worst member of Florida's congressional delegation (not counting Allen West). I wonder if we could persuade Dave Lutrin to run again. From the sound of this video, he's still as passionate about the issues the country faces as ever:

File Under: You Can't Make This Stuff Up (FL-16 Again)

Florida's 16th congressional district is famous for roughly the same reason I started treating the DCCC as the bad player it has proven itself to be. Start with a longtime incumbent, whose alcoholism and closeted homosexuality-- both widely known Inside-the-Beltway-- had combined to create a very sick yen for being caught molesting underage boys. And he was. But congressional leadership, primarily Republican congressional leadership, covered up for him. Rahm Emanuel, then head of the DCCC saw Mark Foley's crumbling world as an opportunity to pick up a House seat in a relatively red district. So he kept his mouth shut too-- complicit in allowing Foley to have his way with young congressional pages (primarily the sons of big GOP donors). Long story, short: Emanuel with Steny Hoyer, froze the legitimate Democratic candidate running against Foley-- Dave Lutrin-- out of the race and enticed a wealthy lifelong Republican, Tim Mahoney, into the race (delivering on their promise of an uncontested primary and a "special circumstance" for the general). The special circumstance was how the media exploded into an orgy of Mark Foley Caught With His Pants Down (in a boys dorm).

Although Foley resigned and checked into a posh clinic for naughty Republicans, it was conveniently too late to get his toxic name off the ballot and Mahoney was elected-- though just barely (49-48%). Mahoney went on to revert to voting with his fellow-Republicans and to chase women all over town. His one term ended in scandal, amid sexual escapades, payoffs, hush money and all sorts of things normally associated with Republicans (which, of course, he was, despite the deceptive blue jersey) and now extremely entitled son of Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney has taken possession of the seat. Old news, right? Certainly... but whatever is old...

A few weeks ago David Lutrin called and asked if Doug Kahn and I would help him run against Rooney. We agreed and were especially excited because there was already a raving teabagger, Republican Jim Horn, in the race which would surely split the Republican base allowing a Democrat to win. (Obama only took 47% of the district, about the same as Gore and Kerry.) Horn is a kook who went to the same college-- SUNY, Stony Brook-- as I did and he was a typical Republican climber, devoted in all ways to the whole Greed and Selfishness ethos that so afflicts right-wingers.

Anyway, a week later Lutrin decided his family wasn't prepared for him to run and he withdrew, leaving a retired airline pilot, Stan Smilan, as the Democrat in the race. Problem was Smilan didn't want a primary so when the teabagger decided to pull off his red jersey and don a blue one, declaring himself a candidate for the Democratic nomination, Smilan withdrew, leaving FL-16 voters with a choice between two Republicans... again!

I wonder how long it will take Debbie Wasserman Schultz to embrace Horn, despite this public record of political contributions:

Jim Horn, a Palm City businessman, on Monday changed his voter registration from Republican to Democrat at the Martin County Supervisor of Elections Office, and also amended his ballot designation for the Congressional District 16 race from no party affiliation to Democrat... Horn, calling himself a “Traditional Values Democrat,” noted that he comes from a family of Democrats from New York.

“I was talking to my uncle the other day about my candidacy, he’s still in Manhatattan, he said, “Bring your values to the Democratic Party like we did when we were younger,” Horn said. “You don’t have to accept what everyone is saying.”

“Unfortunately, I believe he will be an embarrassment to the Democrats,” Smilan stated. “In my opinion his presence on the ballot will be very divisive. He will reflect very poorly on the Democratic Party and drag down the ticket.”

Friday's the last day for filing... and, believe it or not, Mahoney wants to give it another shot.

There's Only One Good Guy In This List Of Characters: Dave Lutrin, Mark Foley, Rahm Emanuel, Tim Mahoney, Tom Rooney

In our one brief phone conversation, Democrat Chris Craft didn't impress me much. The popular St. Lucie County Commissioner seemed like a nice enough guy but wet behind the ears, not terribly savvy on the national issues and likely to follow a conservative Blue Dog line in national politics. I talk to cookie cutter DCCC candidates like that all the time. I didn't think he'd be able to make much of a dent in any incumbent's armor with his me-too brand of Republican-lite messaging, not even against a dim bulb like Tom Rooney (R-FL). When, predictably, he dropped out of the race a couple weeks ago I think I may have tweeted it. He wasn't only unimpressive; he was uninspiring.

The district, on the other hand (FL-16), is one I follow closely. Adam, the old DWT art director, lives there and Doug, the guy who's running Blue America's anti-Blue Dog efforts, lives a few blocks out of the district. And the district has an interesting recent history. Mark Foley was elected congressman in 1994, got caught molesting congressional pages, and resigned in 2006. Before it became known outside of political circles that he was gay-- let alone imposing on young boys-- Foley was seen as unbeatable by Democrats; the district has a PVI of R+2 and the incumbent was well-liked. He had been re-elected in 2004 with 68% of the vote (while Bush only won the district with 54%). But an idealistic, progressive school teacher, Dave Lutrin, decided to run anyway; brave soul. And Blue America decided to back him. And along came... Rahm Emanuel (with Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Republican hack Tim Mahoney in tow). Emanuel knew what few others at the time did: the Foley case was going to explode in the national media. He scrambled to recruit a conservative who he felt-- for whatever reason-- could win the race. That would exclude a progressive person without the capacity to self-fund: Dave Lutrin. Instead he persuaded a registered, putatively wealthy shady Republican business man-- Mahoney-- to switch registration and "become" a Democrat. Hoyer, Emanuel and Wasserman Schultz clamped down on endorsements, campaign funds and everything else for Lutrin and forced him out of the race, giving the Republican a clear path to the Democratic nomination.

Mahoney ran, as a Democrat, against Foley's name (with some other poor schnook explaining that if voters voted for the child molester he-- the schnook-- would get the seat. It actually almost worked! Mahoney won with 49% while "Foley" got 48%, 3% going to an independent. In Congress Mahoney promptly set about compiled a corporately-funded campaign chest, a quasi-Republican voting record-- and a sex scandal to rival Foley's. He lost his re-election bid and a pathetic Republican zombie, Tom Rooney, is holding the seat, getting the idea that rote obstructionism is what being in Congress is about.

It was widely reported last week that Mahoney thinks it may be time for him to run for the seat again, presumably as a Democrat. Apparently, someone has told him that... scandal is back in again? Yesterday Dave Lutrin called me and told me he's running. This will be a classic example of the media and the DC insiders looking down their noses at a regular middle class American who dares to think he can run for what is increasingly an all millionaires club. We'll schedule a live session with him at C&L asap.

Tom Rooney-- The Worst Member Of Florida's Congressional Delegation

Rooney is well to the right of Czar Nicholas II

After Tim Mahoney, the corrupt Republican turned-quasi-Democrat who Rahm Emanuel had recruited 2 years earlier for Mark Foley's congressional seat was exposed as another sexual predator, reactionary Republican Tom Rooney took the seat (in 2008, an otherwise stellar year for Democrats). Since then Rooney has distinguished himself as the most extreme right-wing congressman in the state of Florida. His ProgressivePunch rating is a perfect zero-- more extremist than Adam "Howdy Doody" Putnam (0.81), Ander Crenshaw (0.97), John Mica (1.80), Jeff Miller (1.84) or crazy birther Bill Posey (2.38), Florida's 5 radical right fringe members.

Rooney beat Mahoney 60-40, but only because Mahoney got caught in flagrante delicto, politically speaking. McCain only managed 52% in the district (which has a PVI of R+4.56). One of Florida's poorer districts, with a median income of just $39,408 and over 85,000 home foreclosures projected over the next four years, the unemployment and health care situations are both abysmal. There are 172,000 uninsured people in Rooney's district. So is Rooney working his butt off to enable reform legislation? Are you joking? He's one of the worst obstructionists in the House.

This week, instead of working on his constituents' dire needs he was busy sending ridiculous mail to his constituents inspired by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, a piece Rooney called "How Many Czars Are Enough?" He questions the constitutionality of President Obama's appointments, in lockstep with the anti-America crowd around the Hate Talk Radio hosts who determine his every move.

Since taking office in January President Obama has appointed at least 32 czars to help implement his agenda and to oversee various government entities. The President has appointed czars ranging from a Tourism Czar to a Guantanamo Bay Closure Czar. What is troubling to me is these czars are not confirmed by the Senate nor does Congress have any oversight over them unlike traditional Cabinet members.

The President's czars have a salary of up to $172,000 and that doesn’t include staff members or office and travel budgets. We don’t know what the total cost of all of the czars will be, but it’s become clear that the growing number of czars is a waste of taxpayer dollars. How many additional czars will the President appoint to circumvent the Senate confirmation process? Recent town hall meetings across the nation have demonstrated how the federal government is accountable to the people.

I oppose adding new layers of government intervention to an already bloated federal bureaucracy, and this issue is certainly no exception. The President’s Constitutional authority to appoint these individuals is dubious, their presence diminishes the role of the traditional Cabinet, and their immunity from Congressional oversight defies our longstanding system of checks and balances. The interests of democracy are best served in a climate of greater accountability and more transparent decision-making.

I am a cosponsor of a bill, H.R. 3226, which would withhold funding to any czar not confirmed by the Senate. The President claimed he would run the most transparent administration in recent history, if this is true he needs to have these czars appear before the Senate and go through the proper vetting of a Senate confirmation.

Past administrations have had czars but the Obama administration has taken it to a whole new level. Reagan and George H.W. Bush each had one czar, Clinton had three, and George W. Bush had four. In less than a year this new administration already has 32. It is difficult to understand how the President can continue to appoint czars when he has yet to fill all of the key Senate -confirmed positions in his administration.

None of that is true. It's all Republican Party talking points meant to discredit President Obama and anger people at the government. This video didn't make it into Rooney's silly talking points:



Rooney is on the team of loony House Republicans-- Paul Broun (R-GA), John Shadegg (allegedly once caught by a fellow congressional wingnut in bed with the man's wife), Mike Pence, Jack Kingston, Darrell Issa, and li'l Patrick McHenry who, unlike the other nuts who worry that the "czars" are taking over the country, claims that they are "simply figureheads, at which point they're collecting a salary for doing no work for the taxpayers."

Now if Rooney and his wingnut cronies weren't out making up lies about "czars" maybe he would have some time and energy to work on the problems facing his constituents in the 16th district. If the health care reform bill he is fighting so hard to kill, HR 3200, were enacted here's how it would impact his own district:

• Help for small businesses. Under the legislation, small businesses with 25 employees or less and average wages of less than $40,000 qualify for tax credits of up to 50% of the costs of providing health insurance. There are up to 18,500 small businesses in the district that could qualify for these credits.

• Help for seniors with drug costs in the Part D donut hole. Each year, 16,600 seniors in the district hit the donut hole and are forced to pay their full drug costs, despite having Part D drug coverage. The legislation would provide them with immediate relief, cutting brand name drug costs in the donut hole by 50%, and ultimately eliminate the donut hole.

• Health care and financial security. There were 1,100 health care-related bankruptcies in the district in 2008, caused primarily by the health care costs not covered by insurance. The bill provides health insurance for almost every American and caps annual out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 per year, ensuring that no citizen will have to face financial ruin because of high health care costs.

• Relieving the burden of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers. In 2008, health care providers in the district provided $74 million worth of uncompensated care, care that was provided to individuals who lacked insurance coverage and were unable to pay their bills. Under the legislation, these costs of uncompensated care would be virtually eliminated.

• Coverage of the uninsured. There are 172,000 uninsured individuals in the district, 22% of the district. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nationwide, 97% of all Americans will have insurance coverage when the bill takes effect. If this benchmark is reached in the district, 149,000 people who currently do not have health insurance will receive coverage.

• No deficit spending. The cost of health care reform under the legislation is fully paid for: half through making the Medicare and Medicaid program more efficient and half through a surtax on the income of the wealthiest individuals. This surtax would affect only 5,750 households in the district. The surtax would not affect 98.3% of taxpayers in the district.

More Bad News For Florida GOP

Lobbyist & RNC member Al Cardenas sticks a knife in Marco Rubio's back

Al Cardenas may not be a household name but in Florida GOP circles he's more than just one of Washington's sleaziest and most corrupt lobbyists. He's the former chairman of that state's GOP. He's also the man who nurtured the career and political ambitions of a young Cuban-American fanatic, Marco Rubio, and is widely considered Rubio's mentor and political godfather. The godfather just endorsed Rubio's opponent, Florida gay-blade Charlie Crist, for the open Senate seat. Crist has been scooping up all the cash and all the Cuban-American political big names, leaving Rubio-- whose campaign is broke and paying employees with IOUs-- with nothing but the teabaggers and dittoheads. Cardenas' stab in the back may be the most painful for Rubio-- rumored to be about to pull out of the race and run for Attorney General-- but Rubio has been abandoned by all his former Cuban-American allies, including the notorious gangsters Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, and outgoing Senator Mel Martinez (who voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor today, something Rubio was hysterically opposed to). Cardenas' statement to the press was a none-too-subtle call for Rubio to pack it up and start working on the far right flank of the Republican base to get behind the more mainstream gay blade. "As we look to the 2010 election cycle, I urge Republicans to unite the Republican Party by standing behind Governor Crist. With Governor Crist atop the ticket, I am confident that our party will achieve sweeping victories in 2010."

But Republican woes aren't just at the top of the ticket. Most of their first tier draft picks to run for Congress have bowed out, well aware that Florida has swung Democrat and is trending away from the crazy right-wing politics the GOP base hears about from Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs and Bill O'Reilly and is demanding for their state. Today GOP hopes were shattered for defeating freshman Suzanne Kosmas as their top recruit, former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, publicly stated he's not running. Right after meeting with top Republican strategists at the NRCC Holtz told a TV audience, "I'm working for ESPN. I don't want to run for Congress." Instead Pete Sessions will put up some teabagging birther to try to win the seat back from Kosmas who defeated an entrenched incumbent, Jack Abramoff operative Tom Feeney, 57-41%.

Word that Holtz was unimpressed by the clowns at the NRCC came right on top of yesterday's news that popular St. Lucie County Commissioner Chris Craft has decided to jump into the congressional race against far right extremist Tom Rooney, who brags how he's voted against nearly every proposal that's come from the Obama administration, regardless of the impact on his own constituents. Rooney is a hard core obstructionist and an empty-headed ideologue with no solutions to Florida's woes.

CQPolitics immediately changed it's rating for the race from Safe Republican to Republican Favored. Florida's 16th CD is the third worst hit congressional district in the country by the mortgage crisis. There have been 25,532 foreclosures so far and over 85,000 are projected over the next 4 years. Rooney was forced by constituent pressure to cross the aisle and vote with Democrats for the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. But today he is fighting tooth and nail against health care reform and says he will never support the public option that his donors in the Insurance companies and Medical-Industrial Complex are so adamantly against. Odd that Rooney should be so opposed to health care reform when the Center For American Progress found that his constituents would be among the people with the most to gain! These are the results of their examination of health care in Florida and how President Obama's proposals would help:

• 850 residents of Florida are losing health insurance every day, and 14,000 Americans cover everyone-- and $1,100 more nationally.

• Our broken health insurance system will cost the Florida economy as much as $19 billion this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured-- and up to $248 billion nationally.

• In Florida there has been a 15 percent increase in the uninsured rate since 2007.

• 3,920,000 are uninsured today in Florida.

• In Florida the combined market share of the top two insurers is 45 percent, limiting employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive.

• The average family premium will rise from $12,763 to $21,779 by 2019 in Florida without health care reform.

• In Florida, without health care reform, 556,070 will have lost coverage from January 2008 to December 2010.

• In Florida, 1,854,000 people would gain coverage as a result of the House health care reform bill by 2013, and 2,982,000 would gain coverage by 2019.

• A typical Florida family will pay $21,779 for health coverage in 2019 without health care reform.

The same local folks who forced Rooney to vote for the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act should start pressuring him to vote for health care reform. Remember, as bad as the U.S. system is for delivering high quality, low cost health care to regular working families, it's much worse in Florida. And Rooney's approach isn't viable: "Instead of imposing an expensive, government-run healthcare system on the American people," he read from his Republican Talking Points memo, "let's implement some common sense ideas that will make healthcare more affordable and accessible." His common sense ideas? An apple a day and more tax breaks. Someone should sit Tom Rooney down and make him watch this clip:



Meanwhile, Florida has something else to worry about. An angry mob of astro-turfed right-wing dupes and Obama-haters showed up at a health care forum in Tampa, hosted by Congresswoman Kathy Castor and state Representative Betty Reed, to prevent a serious discussion of the issues. The teabagger and dittohead thugs, encouraged all day by poisonous Republican Party officials and Hate Talk Radio hosts, soon turned violent and started fist fights.

Angry protesters and strong supporters are clashing inside and all around a health care reform town hall meeting in Downtown Tampa. The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 6:00 at the Children's Board of Hillsborough County drew hundreds of people who quickly began to overwhelm staff and event organizers at the front entrance.

As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant. At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.

Karen Thurman, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party was appalled because she has been working hard to encourage people to come to these meetings to exchange ideas and to have their concerns answered.

"Throughout the summer, we have been reaching out to Floridians to engage in an important debate on the future our health care system. We have heard story after story from people who are struggling to get the care they need.

"Recently, their thoughtful discussions are being interrupted by angry mobs-- well funded and organized by Washington special interests-- attempting to drown out the voices of the hard-working Floridians who are desperate for health insurance reform. These groups are not concerned about Americans' access to quality heath care, but are extreme ideologues, only interested in 'breaking' the President and thwarting the change Americans voted for last November. 

"In the last three years the Republican Party has lost control of the House, the Senate and the White House because they have offered no ideas and no solutions. Now, these well funded right-wing groups are following the example of the Republican Party and instead of providing real ideas for fixing our broken health care system, they're doing everything they can to drown out thoughtful discussion and spread vicious and hateful lies. Their desperate behavior does nothing to help their cause, Floridians or our country. 

"Despite their threatening tactics, we will continue our work to give a voice to the majority of Floridians who believe that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care."

It was a relief to see the Lou Dobbs network allow one of its anchors, Rick Sanchez, to get into the real story of these violent assaults on democracy. Sanchez nailed the ratty hide of Rick Scott, one of the financiers of the mayhem, to the barn door (just as Chris Matthews did with a Freedomworks shill on Harball this afternoon). Take a look:



UPDATE: And Now Mel Martinez Is Resigning

No, not just retiring; resigning. It really is the party of quitters. Will Charlie Crist make a play for the far right base he's losing to Rubio by appointing Katherine Harris or Jeb Bush as an interim senator? After all, she'd fit right in with the obstructionist GOP Senate caucus.