Who Thinks Congress' Function Is To Write Señor Trumpanzee A Series Of Blank Checks?

Monday morning, NPR and Marist released a new poll that looked into some questions beyond just Señor Trumpanzee's cascading disapproval numbers. For example, 61% of voters don't trust the Trumpanzee Regime, 68% don't trust the Republican-led Congress and a full 70% say that since Trumoanzee somehow managed to get into the White House, "the overall tone and level of civility in Washington between Republicans and Democrats has gotten worse." Now you know.

A new week begins! Let's look at two responses to the Regime's and Congress' determination-- some believe suicidal determination-- to strip over 20 million Americans of healthcare so they can give billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% of Americans. First from a "respected" Republican senator, Trump-critic and GOP agenda supporter Ben Sasse of Nebraska and then one of the hack Fox News commentators, Lisa Kennedy Montgomery (or, if you used to listen to Nirvana and Depeche Mode on KROQ back in the day, just... Kennedy). Sunday, Sasse was on CNN's State of the Union. He's the guy who seems to have persuaded Trumpanzee to do an about face on his insistence for "repeal and replace" and go back to the original GOP plan of just "repeal" and see what can be done sometime down the road in never-never land. Sounds like a real right-wing jackass, right? He is-- always has been too. BUT... Sasse is known nationally, thanks to our media geniuses, for serially being offending by Trump's manners and speaking out against his crudeness, even as he pushes Trump's murderous agenda forward on every front.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said Sunday that he is troubled by President Donald Trump's latest attacks on the news media because he is concerned about the danger of "weaponizing distrust," which can harm the freedoms that define a democracy.

"There's an important distinction to draw between bad stories or crappy coverage and the right that citizens have to argue about that and complain about that and trying to weaponize distrust," Sasse said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union. "The First Amendment is the beating heart of the American experiment, and you don't get to separate the freedoms that are in there."

The Republican freshman senator's remarks come after Trump spent the past week relentlessly attacking the news media-- including CNN, MSNBC, CBS and the Washington Post-- in a barrage of tweets and at event honoring veterans Saturday night at the Kennedy Center in Washington.

"The fake media is trying to silence us, but we will not let them," Trump said, without offering any evidence that journalists-- who cover every public remark made by the President-- have attempted to silence him.

"The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House," Trump said. "But I'm President and they're not."

Sasse added that while "(t)here are a whole bunch of particular journalists who should be called out for particular stories that aren't good enough," it is "not helpful to call the press the enemy of the American people"-- a direct reference to language used by the President to describe journalists.

Trump has referred to the media as "the enemy of the people" several times since taking office, telling the annual Conservative Political Action Conference last winter, "A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are-- they are the enemy of the people."

Trump used the same language in February, tweeting, "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!"

Sasse said that while he agrees with Trump "that there's a lot of crappy journalism out there," if Americans are not open to hearing differing views, it's "going to be possible for people to surround themselves only with echo chambers and silos of people that already believe, only believe what they believe."

"We differ about really big and important things in this country and then we come together around the First Amendment, which is an affirmation of the fact that people are free before government," he added. "I mean, this is the Fourth of July weekend. The Declaration of Independence is pretty dang clear about this-- that we think government is just our shared tool to secure those rights."

The morally outraged and sagacious Señor Sasse has a ZERO ProgressivePunch crucial vote score for the entire 6 months since Trump got into the White House. He hasn't voted against a single Trump nominee nor has he been at variance with a single Trump initiative. (Like Sasse, most Senate Republicans just serve as rubber stamps for every single thing Trump wants. Only 16 Republicans have voted at least once-- and most of them, only once-- against something-- anything-- Trump-related.)

I don't know where Fox News is on my TV-- and I haven't heard Kennedy's voice since she was a KROQ dj but Think Progress reported a couple days ago that she was on-air excusing her party's decision to take healthcare away from over 20 million Americans-- thinning the herd-- as "progressive hysteria" that didn't really matter since "we're all," in her very, very, very GOP words, "going to die" anyway. "We’re all going to die. And they can’t predict--  there’s no way unless they are absolutely psychic and have a party line to heaven, they don’t know who’s going to die or when or how many people." Fox is so amazing. There wouldn't be a Trump-- couldn't be a Trump-- without it. Thanks, Bill Clinton for giving that to America, your most enduring legacy. How'd that deal work out for you?

Unless you live in the Hampton Roads, Norfolk, Virginia Beach area, you probably never heard of Scott Taylor, another hapless Paul Ryan rubber stamp and unaccomplished backbencher, basically a waste of a congressional seat in a district Obama won twice but that the DCCC just keeps botching up. Last year Hillary lost to Trump there 48.8-45.4%. Taylor is a freshman, who last year defeated Democrat Shaun Brown, 61.3% to 38.5% in what everyone would agree is a swing district. Why that big disparity? Was it the DCCC's fault? Yeah. Brown raised $27,892 to Taylor's $839,485 for the open seat race. The DCCC spent zero on her race, hating her because she's a strong advocate of progressive policies and, worse in their eyes, a former Bernie delegate. It looks like she'll be running against Taylor again this year. Yesterday Taylor, who has voted in lockstep with Trump 100% of the time, was on CNN. When Alisyn Camerota asked him about Trump, his response was "I did not come on here to defend the president." No he's out on the media circuit to help push the idea that loyal Republicans have to give Trump a blank check... on everything. His vote score is ZERO, rare in a swing district. His ProgressivePunch voting record summary is pretty breathtaking:

Who thinks we need a more competent, better-led DCCC?

Arlen Specter Boasts He Isn't A Rubber Stamp-- But That Depends If You Look At Who His Biggest Campaign Donors Have Been

The party boy

Arlen Specter thinks his road to re-election takes him through the Land of Independents. He may be right. But he has to win the Pennsylvania Democratic primary first. Vice President Biden, who claims to have once lived in Scranton, and Governor Rendell assured him there wouldn't be one. Pennsylvania Democratic voters may have another idea though, especially with popular Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak edging closer to challenging the whole idea of Specter even being a Democrat. Specter has been emphasizing he's an independent and not a rubber stamp. The independent thing may work better among Pennsylvania's independents but they don't vote in the Democratic primary.

And as far as the claim that he's not a rubber stamp... Well, he sure isn't a rubber stamp for Obama or the Democrats. He's still voting with the Republicans just like he always has. I don't know that that will endear him to primary voters, many of whom are questioning why Biden and Reid bothered even allowing Specter to join the party. He's against Employee Free Choice, against health care reform, opposing Obama's nominees, demanding to jump ahead of the seniority line to hold key Senate subcommittee chairmanships. And there's something much worse about Arlen Specter that no one talks about. He is a rubber stamp-- and the worst kind.

Arlen Specter has always been the worst of the senatorial corporate whores. He's a rubber stamp first and foremost for his big campaign contributors, the ones who have given him close to $50,000,000 since 1989. That's a lot of money and a lot of favors bought at the expense of the public good. And the correlation between how Arlen Specter votes and who gives Arlen Specter the legalized bribes that have financed his career is startling.

Let's start with the biggest fount of congressional corruption of all, the finance/insurance/real estate sector. Specter got more than his share of the $2.2 billion they've handed out to buy loyalty from legislators. In fact, since 1990 the only Republican in the Senate who's taken in more from the crooked banksters in John McCain and that's only because McCain ran for president. Specter scooped up $5,753,310, more even than legendary corruptionists and bankster shills Phil Gramm ($5,510,318) and Mitch McConnell ($5,013,778) and many times more than your average senator.

Yesterday Specter was on Meet The Press how he wouldn't back health care reform but flat out lies when he claims he's always been for the little guy and he doesn't mention that Big Insurance has funneled more of the donations into his career ($1,020,130) than into any other Republican Senator other than McCain. The securities and investment corporations who were so eager for the kinds of deregulation that has allowed them to pillage the entire economy and drive is into a recession, if not a depression, knew just who to go to-- and as an industry have given more to Specter ($1,585,518) than another Republican in the Senate other than McCain.

And it isn't only the banksters who Specter has courted and sold out to. Again, not counting McCain's presidential run, Specter is the #1 recipient of legalized bribes from the misnamed "Health" industry ($3,914,733) as opposed to crooked GOP corruptionists like Mitch McConnell ($2,723,168) and Richard Burr ($2,039,094). And in terms of Big Pharma, he even beat McCain! ($1,017,216 for Specter and just under 800 grand for ex-presidential candidate McCain). Specter delivers-- if not for Pennsylvania working families, certainly for his campaign donors.

Although Obama's odious VP pick wasn't as bad as Gore's, it was a warning sign to me that Obama might turn into a disappointment... and fast. Biden has aways been a clueless dipshit who thought he knew more than anyone else in the room. More than Reid or Rendell, it was Biden who was responsible for the Democrat's senseless embrace of the political corpse known as Arlen Specter. There are few certainties in electoral politics but it was sure looking good that Pennsylvania would soon have a second Democratic senator-- an actual Democrat.

Instead, doofus Biden throws his old crony a lifeline and drags him into the already stinking, putrid and corrupt Democratic Inside-the-Beltway Establishment. I think Biden, clueless as ever, actually believes his own dishonest hype about Specter. "I think for some time on the really big-ticket items relating to economics and social policy, safety-net issues, labor-- a whole range of things-- Arlen's been basically a moderate Democrat," the pompous Delawarecrackpot told the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday. Who's he kidding? Going back to the beginning of this year, Specter tried watering down the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act before joining Snowe and Collins in voting to pass it-- a few days before voting to reject Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Towards the end of February he voted to kill gun control laws for the city of Washington. He joined the radical obstructionists in voting against Elena Kagen as Solicitor General and he voted with the banksters to defeat Durbin's bill to allow bankruptcy judges to reset some mortgages to prevent families from being foreclosed on. He's currently working to defeat health care reform and several other items on Obama's change agenda.

Now all the old buddies can be stinking and putrid and corrupt together. Unless the Pennsylvania grassroots put their collective foot down and say, "Screw you, muthafucka." I guess it'll depend on how hard Obama campaigns for Specter. Biden and Lieberman and Ben Nelson could take up residence in Pennsylvania and it would add exactly three votes to Specter's total in a Democratic primary. But Obama could pull the same thickheaded trick he did in the primary in Georgia's 12th CD when he campaigned for one of the most reactionary members of Congress, John Barrow, against a progressive African-American state Senator, Regina Thomas. Because of Obama Barrow is in Congress today, voting against every bill Obama tries to pass. It is widely judged that Barrow is the single worst Democrat in the House because the other reactionaries with voting records as bad are all in overwhelmingly Republican districts. Barrow's district only gave McCain 45% of its vote (unlike Bobby Bright's Alabama hellhole where McCain took 63% or Gene Taylor's Mississippi home, where McCain won 68%!) If he does, Specter will win the primary and, probably, the general election-- and then continue to vote with the Republicans for another six years, pointing out how principled he is while he collects immense sums from the corporate interests who have bankrolled his entire disgraceful career.


UPDATE: Not All Democrats Buying Into Snarlin' Arlen's "Change Of Heart"

He's going to have to prove himself before he gets the backing of Democrats outside the foul, power-crazed Beltway Establishment and their cozy little club.

The Democratic establishment may be lining up behind Sen. Arlen Specter-- but some who control the ground troops aren't so ready to fall into line.

On today's Top Line, Richard Trumka, the secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, warned that union leaders may drop their longstanding support for Specter, D-Pa., if-- as he has promised to do-- he votes against them on their legislative priority, the Employee Free Choice Act.

"Those decisions will be made by people in the state, and our members in the state know who will stand with them. And if Arlen Specter-- he stood with them in the past-- if he continues to stand with them, they'll support him. If he doesn't, they won't support him," Trumka told us.

Trumka said the Democratic Party establishment won't prevent labor leaders from making their own decision on Specter, even though President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., have all pledged to support Specter.

"We have a lot of members that are elected into that establishment, and our members generally do what's right by workers, and we don't care who's lined up against us," Trumka said. "If a candidate isn't good for workers, we won't be there. If they are good for workers, we will be there regardless of their party. I mean, we supported Arlen Specter-- and he was a Republican-- because he was good for what was happening. He was good for our members at that time."

As we reported yesterday, Andy Stern had a meeting with Joe Sestak today and came out predicting that working families are not going to be backing Snarlin' Arlen if he runs, as he expects to, in a Democratic primary. Sestak confirmed what he told me yesterday, namely that if Specter doesn’t start behaving like a real Democrat, instead of just calling himself one to save his skin, he'd would absolutely run against him. “If he doesn’t demonstrate that he has shifted his position on a number of issues, I would not hesitate at all to get in,” Sestak said. Meanwhile Howard Dean, another real Democrat not connected to the slimy Inside-the-Beltway old boys network where how someone votes on core values matters far less with how much of their bribes they're willing to spread around, also warned Specter not to expect votes from real Democrats if he keeps walking in lockstep with right-wingers. He said Specter should expect a vigorous primary if he doesn't support Employee Free Choice, the public option for health insurance and other key items in President Obama's recovery program.


UPDATE: And Then There's The Little Matter Of Franken vs Coleman

Specter in an interview coming out this weekend in the NY Times Magazine: "There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner." I'll consider any Democratic senator who contributes to Specter's campaign as giving a donation to a Republican. That disqualifies them immediately from being endorsed by the Blue America PAC.

Rob Simmons-- Very Much The Wrong Man To Be Calling Any Kettles Black

Rob Simmons, screwing Connecticut seniors

There's no way Chris Dodd couldn't be in the middle of the A.I.G. uproar. First of all, he's the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. But more to the point, Dodd had written a clause and inserted it into the Stimulus Bill limiting excessive executive compensation (including mega-bonuses) for any companies being bailed out by the government. Geithner and Summers talked him out of it for compensation (and bonuses) already contracted. Dodd changed his story on what happened and how it happened a couple times and the media, encouraged by the Republicans and sensing blood in the water, went for the jugular. It hardly helps that Dodd has taken $223,000 in campaign contributions from AIG employees, not to mention $13,238,806 from the finance/insurance/real estate sector, nearly as much as crooked GOP hacks Mitt Romney ($14,650,907) and Rudy Giuliani ($16,632,364) and even more than the some of the worst corporate whores in the Senate, like Joe Lieberman ($9,981,924), Arlen Specter ($5,753,310) and Miss McConnell ($5,013,778), though not nearly as much as the biggest corporate whore of all, John McCain ($32,423,813).

But is failed 3-term GOP congressman Rob Simmons, defeated for re-election in 2006, the right person to be delivering the anti-Dodd message?

"I think it's an outrageous explanation and he's trying to use Washington D.C. double speak to cover his tracks," Simmons said... Democratic consultant Roy Occhiogrosso fired back on [Dodd's] behalf, calling the comments "typical" of Simmons.

"This is one reason he's no longer in office," said Occhiogrosso, who worked on Dodd's re-election campaign in 2004. "He's a discredited former politician who's desperate to get back in the game. The only thing he knows how to do is attack his opponents.

"The other reason Rob Simmons is not in office is because his constituents voted him out," he added. "He voted for policies that are largely responsible for running this country into a ditch."

Occhiogrosso is correct about Simmon's rubber stamp support for all of the worst of the Bush era economic policies that led to the current catastrophe, but before we look at them, let's remember that even though Simmons was in the House for a very short time, the same finance/insurance/real estate sector that has been so generous to Dodd for decades, pumped $1,021,631 into Simmon's short political career. A list of his biggest donors looks like a list of special interests eager to get their hands on taxpayer dollars and influence public policy for their own benefit-- General Dynamics ($91,575), Pfizer ($90,135), United Technologies ($60,450), Dominion Resources ($40,000), the National Association of Home Builders ($40,000), the National Association of Realtors ($40,000), the NRA ($37,650), WalMart ($31,555)... Simmons largely lost his re-election bid because he was seen by his constituents as serving those special interests rather than the interests of ordinary Connecticut families.

While he was in office Simmons was distrusted by the far right that came to dominate his part-- he's pro-choice and pro-gay-- but was always on the wrong side on civil liberties issues and on economic issues. A former CIA spy, Simmons announced he would run against Dodd in 2010, although he may have to engage in a primary battle against CNBC sociopath Larry Kudlow, who also wants to run.

Simmons has a reputation as a moderate because he is pro-choice and pro-gay, positions that don't endear him to the GOP's hard right. But on the economic issues important to the Greed and Selfishness wing of the party, he's never been a moderate, voting to wreck Social Security and to consistently shift the tax burden from the very wealthy to the middle class. In 2004, Simmons was one of the Republicans handsomely paid off by the credit card companies to revise the bankruptcy law in favor of... the credit card companies, a move that has proved devastating to consumers and to the economy. Selling out to the banksters on this bill was hardly an anomaly. From the first moment Simmons got into Congress he worked against the interests of American families and for the interests of Big Business. One of his earliest votes was to in favor of Cheney's controversial energy plans that catastrophically increased American dependence on Middle Eastern oil while shattering Democratic proposals to increase CAFE standards on automobiles. When 16 moderate Republicans crossed the aisle to oppose the bill (including his Connecticut colleague Chris Shays), Simmons wasn't among them.

Simmons has also been an unfaltering advocate of removing opportunities for the public to seek redress in court against medical and corporate malfesance. Every time there was an opportunity to cap damages for victims, Simmons was on the side of Big Business against against consumers and victims; never with the moderates and always with the right-wing of his party. Even when it came to reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada, something that was very much demanded by Connecticut seniors, Simmons was in the vanguard of right-wing Republicans sabotaging the efforts. No to seniors but yes to abolishing the estate tax for multimillions and yes to cutting capital gains on dividends and yes on making Bush's unfair taxes permanent.

We have a long way to go before the 2010 election but if the GOP thinks the people of Connecticut, no matter how disappointed in Dodd they happen to be right now, are about to elect someone responsible for much of the real mess the country is facing, they've got to be smoking something they oppose legalizing.

Democrats Pass Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act-- While Every Single Republican Joins In Boehner's Efforts To Kill It With Parliamentarty Tricks

Republicans Want You To Grab For The Cheese

Even in the middle of what is turning out to be the worst financial crisis since anyone younger than John McCain was born, Republicans are still hell-bent on screwing over working families and serving their corporate masters. Yesterday the House overwhelmingly passed H R 5244, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2008, 312 to 112. Only one reactionary Democrat, a Blue Dog of course, Herseth Sandlin, voted with the Republican leadership. Meanwhile 84 Republicans fled in the other direction, joining the Democrats to pass a bill meant to protect consumers from predatory credit card companies.

If, by some miracle, McConnell and McCain can be overcome when they seek to use the filibuster to kill the bill in the Senate, and if, by another miracle, Bush signs it, the new legislation will protect consumers from unsuspecting interest rate hikes on credit cards. The opposition was led on behalf of the banks and credit card crooks by their pet hack, David Dreier (R-CA). Dreier has taken massive legalized bribes disguised as "contributions" -- $385,850 from commercial banks, $115,733 from Savings and Loans, $135,543 from assorted crooked lobbyists and another $156,299 from other financial corporations. The bill was proposed by House Financial Services Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). The bill calls for major new regulations on credit card issuers that the banking lobby, with Dreier's help, has been beating back for years. Under the new law banks will have 45 days to notify consumers of any interest rate hikes and would ban "universal default," a practice in which a consumer's interest rate on one card increases if he or she misses a payment on another card or the credit score drops. It also ends "double-cycle billing," in which consumers are charged interest for the entire amount charged during the billing cycle unless the bill was paid in full.

Without shame, even in the current economic situation, Republicans are howling on behalf of their corporate paymasters. Far right extremist and one of the pillars of the GOP's Greed and Selfishness wing, John Campbell (R-CA) who is a member of the Financial Services Committee, insisted that the credit crisis means the bill is "the opposite of what we need right now."

The House Republican leadership, well aware that many of it's members are facing defeat in November for serving corporate interests instead of their constituents' interests, decided to attempt to kill the bill with a parliamentary maneuver, a motion to recommit, which is easier for sleazy Republicans (and Blue Dogs) to vote for than a bill that could easily make it into a 30 second TV ad and be devastating. Although the bill itself passed 312-112, with 84 Republicans joined the Democrats, the attempt to kill the bill was much closer, 219-198, with not a single Republican voting against the maneuver. Nine nominal Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- regular suspects like Nick Lampson (D-TX), Heath Shuler (D-NC), Harry Mitchell (D-AZ), and Trent Childers (D-MS)-- joined with their ideological brothers to try to kill the bill.

Among the dishonest Republicans who voted to kill the bill and then, choking in fear of their November meeting with voters, actually went against their own anti-families instincts and against their bribers' wishers to vote with the Democrats were

Mary Bono Mack (R-CA)
Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
John Culberson (R-TX)
Charlie Dent (R-PA)
the notorious Diaz-Balart Brothers (R-FL)
Thelma Drake (D-VA)
Randy Forbes (R-VA)
Jim Gerlach (R-PA)
Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Sam Graves (R-MO)
Robin Hayes (R-NC)
Ric Keller (R-FL)
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI)
Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Dave Reichert (R-WA)
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL)
Chris Shays (R-CT)
Mike Turner (R-OH)
Fred Upton (R-MI)
Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Don Young (R-AK)

That list is basically the 22 Republicans most likely to lose in November and willing to sell out their own beliefs in fear. Below are another 13 Republicans in serious jeopardy of losing their seats but who are more afraid of their bankster campaign donors than of the voters.

Brian Bilbray (R-CA)
Steve Chabot (R-OH)
David Dreier (R-CA)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Jon Kline (R-MN)
Randy Kuhl (R-NY)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Steve Pearce (R-NM)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Tim Walberg (R-MI)

Watch Carolyn Maloney, the principal sponsor of the bill, explaining what it's all about on the floor of the House yesterday:

In Congress, How Can You Tell The Difference Between A Mainstream Conservative And A Crackpot Neo-Fascist?

They don't all make it as easy as Sarah does

If only if it were as easy as the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull-- or a pig and Sarah Palin! But with virtually all Republican politicians having slipped into lemming-like, rubber stamp behavior it is next to impossible to figure out who's a mainstream conservative, like Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and who's a raving extremist maniac like, Scott Garrett (R-NJ) and James Inhofe (R-OK).

Still, every now and then a bill comes up in the House-- where Republicans can't prevent it with filibusters and obstructionist tactics-- that separates plain old Republican conservatives and people who would be in the Nazi Party or the KKK if that was socially acceptable. Yesterday such a bill was voted on-- and passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority-- the No Child Left Inside Act, which seeks to fund the teaching of environmental education and facilitating outdoor learning activities.

The Republicans started off by trying to kill the bill with a parliamentary tactic. That failed, although 172 Republicans stuck with Boehner and Blunt in their anti-education, anti-environmental efforts. A few minutes later Pelosi shoved the whole thing down their throats, a bill that was very hard for anyone trying to even pretend they're part of the mainstream to oppose. This time 108 far right Republicans, plus one nominal Democrat, Brad Ellsworth (IN), from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, voted no. A few dozen cowards ducked the vote and locked themselves in toilet stalls... praying Larry Craig wasn't making his Capitol Hill rounds.

We'd like to highlight a few of the extremists in tight re-election battles who don't give a damn and just voted no, no, no. Many are familiar names to DWT readers, basically the co-authors, along with the Bush Regime, of the Iraq occupation, the high unemployment rate, the high inflation rate, the housing crisis, and the Wall Street meltdown. Try to keep them in mind this November. They've worked hard to earn a place in your memory bank.

Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
John Culberson (R-TX)
Thelma Drake (R-VA)
Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Randy Forbes (R-VA)
Elton Gallegly (R-CA)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Virgil Goode (R-VA)
John Kline (R-MN)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Tim Walberg (R-MI)
Don Young (R-AK)

My faves are the really dishonest ones, like Adam "Howdy Doody" Putnam (R-FL) who voted to kill the bill with an obstructionist move that not many voters would understand, but when that failed was too scared to vote against it and give his opponent a cudgel to slam him over the head with. In fact, Florida had a number of this genre of cowardly and deceptive congresscritter. Joining Adam Putnam on our Hypocrite of the Day List are Floridians Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, CW "Bill" Young, and the two sleazy Diaz-Balart Brothers as well as Randy Kuhl (R-NY), Robin Hayes (R-NC), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Mike Turner (R-OH), Michael McCaul (R-TX), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Jon Porter (R-NV), and, of course, Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH). These are the Republicans with no backbone and who regularly treat their own constituents with contempt. Every single one of this list has a surging Democratic opponent and each could be replaced in November by an aware electorate.

Have You Met The Andersons-- They Know How To Beat Slimy Republicans

Would you vote for this used car dealer?

There are all these rumors that Chris Matthews is going to run, as a Democrat, against Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Senate race in 2010. I have kind of mixed feelings about him, but if he was auditioning yesterday-- and will campaign like this-- when he ripped Republican extremist Eric Cantor (R-VA) to shreds on Hardball he's certainly going to get my support.

Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, on the other hand, aren't running for any office. They're just a couple of Minnesotans who lost their son, Major Stuart Anderson, in Iraq. They could be the parents of anyone in America. Like half the people in Minnesota, the Andersons think Norm Coleman's got to go. Watch:



I know Norm Coleman. We were co-secretaries of our class at PS-197 in Brooklyn long before he had all those face lifts and cosmetic plastic surgeries to make himself look younger. My impression of Coleman is a lot like the Andersons'-- a yes man. He's tried to paint himself as a moderate and-- especially as election day started looming-- an independent voice. But when you examine his record... pure Bush rubber stamp. Since being elected in a fluke-- when Senator Paul Wellstone was killed in a mysterious plane crash many people attribute to Karl Rove's machinations-- Coleman has participated in 43 Iraq-related roll calls. He hasn't strayed from the Bush-Cheney line on any substantive matters. He voted with the Democrats and half the Republicans to provide humanitarian food assistance in connection with U.S. activities in Iraq on April 3, 2003 and then two years and a couple dozen rubber stamped bill later he broke with Bush over a budgetary accounting procedure.

When the tough votes come up Norm Coleman is always there for Bush and Cheney and never for folks like the Andersons. And Americans in general are starting to see McCain the same way that Minnesotans like the Andersons see Coleman. The NY Times is reporting some interesting polling data this morning that shows Americans look at John McCain as less likely to bring change and that he "is widely viewed as a 'typical Republican' who would continue or expand President Bush’s policies." And this year there is letter worse than being viewed as a "typical Republican."

Why Are So Many Republican Incumbents Afraid To Debate This Year? Just Look At Their Voting Records

Ric Keller lost some weight-- and his sense of dignity and honor

Republican incumbents don't seem to want to debate. They want to wave air tire gauges over their heads and yell "Drill here now." When it comes to health care, ending the war in Iraq, getting relief for overburdened working families, real solutions to energy problems... they have nothing they want to say-- at least nothing they feel comfortable with the public hearing.

Last night I spoke with Alan Grayson, the Democrat running for Congress in Orlando. He was telling me how he went to a southern regional hotel workers union meeting a couple of days ago and that he strongly advocated for universal health care and paid vacations like they have in so many other industrialized nations. I remember that the ultra reactionary editorial board of the Orlando Sentinel had opposed him in the Democratic primary-- which he won so handily-- and that they opposed him basically because they oppose paid vacations (for others, not themselves). I asked Alan if his Republican opponent, Ric Keller, a slimy hypocrite better known for sleazy personal attacks than for ever debating issues, would challenge him on that. He only hopes he will so lucky, since how does someone asking for voters to support them explain why they oppose paid vacations and health care?

Fact of the matter, Keller's record on health care, if it gets out to low-info voters, will destroy his already slim chances to be re-elected. Already vulnerable on many issues, his consistent opposition to health care for needy children and for military veterans puts him on very shaky grounds. Keller, though, will in all likelihood agree to at least two somewhat low key debates with Alan. Many other Republicans have been ducking or minimizing getting up before the voters and going at it mano a mano.

Take Oregon's desperate Bush rubber stamp Gordon Smith for example. With his re-elect numbers sinking into oblivion and his chances of re-election nearly nonexistent he has taken to running millions of dollars of the worst negative ads anywhere in the country against Jeff Merkley, all the time refusing to commit to debates. Smith is so busy turning his corporate bribes into ads that attempt to tie Jeff to rapists that he is doing everything he can to avoid appearing with Jeff in front of audiences to discuss the issues. Jeff has agreed to a series of eight debates across the state, most of them from non-partisan civic organizations and media outfits.

It's even worse in House races which aren't as high profile as Senate races like Jeff's. Along New York's Southern Tier Eric Massa has been attempting to get another rubber stamp Bush Republican, Randy Kuhl, to participate in a series of debates they have both been invited to. Eric has agreed to all. Kuhl would rather run around doing cheap stunts for his friends at Big Oil-- who, so far, have paid him $37,600 for his services-- than accept invitations from to speak in front of his constituents at any of these forums:

1. WXXI Forum
Proposed date: Monday September 22, 2008
 
2. Alfred University Political Science Club
Proposed dates: Wednesday October 1, 2008 or Wednesday October 8, 2008
 
3. League of Women Voters
Proposed date: Thursday October 2, 2008
 
4. St. John's Meadows Political Forum
Proposed date: Monday October 6, 2008
 
5. WETM Debate at Elmira College
Proposed date: Tuesday October 21, 2008
 
6. League of Women Voters Elmira, NY
Proposed date: Sunday October 26, 2008
 
7. GRAPE Candidates' Forum
Proposed date: Friday October 3, 2008
 
8. 13 WHAM Candidates' Forum
Date open
 
9. R News at St Bonaventure University in Olean
Date open
 
10. R News in Rochester
Date Open

Kuhl, like so many other bought-off Big Oil shills in the Republican House caucus, claims he has no time to debate his opponent because he has to spend all his time trying to pass "Drill, Baby, Drill." But his career record on energy is one of the very worst of any member of Congress. "I think it's more important to debate this energy bill on the floor of the house and solve the problem than it is to worry about a political debate with somebody in some remote section of the district," is what he's telling the media. But what he's not telling that media is about the sickening voting record that has led directly to massive profits for Big Oil and massive debt for consumers who are being ripped off at the pump-- and will soon have to face winter hearing bills. Do you think Kuhl tells anyone he voted to oppose legislation that would have provided stricter penalties for gasoline price gouging, while outlawing market manipulation and empowering state attorneys general to enforce the law? Do you think he wants to explain his votes against expanding tax breaks for renewable energy, hybrid cars, energy efficient buildings and appliances and paying for it by reducing current tax benefits for oil and gas companies? How about his votes against extending and creating tax incentives for energy conservation and renewable energy production and paying for it by eliminating or reducing the manufacturing tax deduction for oil and gas companies? That's the real Randy Kuhl energy record-- that plus taking "contributions" from Big Oil. And that's the real reason Randy Kuhl is reusing to debate Eric Massa.

You have to feel sorry for some of these self important incumbent dullards who are petrified to face up to Democrats who will publicly cite their voting records. And when you get one as pathetic as Randy Forbes in southern Virginia, you find another factor-- a brilliant and articulate opponent running against him. How is an uninformed rubber stamp like Forbes ever going to be able to face up to someone like Andrea Miller? He's scared to death and he's doing everything he can to avoid her. In fact, when her campaign manager showed up at a public picnic yesterday to hand deliver an invitation to him to a TV debate, Forbes called the security guards to have him escorted off the property!

Forbes has taken in $531,519 so far this year, much of it from defense contractors, commercial banks, lobbyists, and other special interests while Andrea has been given $31,583, almost entirely from small grassroots donations. As long as Forbes refuses to debate her on TV he can just keep running his negative ads and distortions and never have to face up to a truly disgraceful voting record. With that in mind, DWT has just started an ActBlue page for Andrea. Anyone who donates today will be entered in a drawing to win one of six Georgie Is Out Of Here Party-in-a-Box kits. Just donate here through ActBlue.

Republican Incumbents Flee From Bush And His Policies

Reichert & Bush-- they should leave together

The Republican Party's right wing religionists are demanding their right to endorse Republicans from their pulpits. Of course, they already have that right. If they do, however, they lose their tax exempt status and have to pay taxes like everyone else.

Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.

The effort by the Arizona-based legal consortium is designed to trigger an IRS investigation that ADF lawyers would then challenge in federal court. The ultimate goal is to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship.

The neo-fascist Alliance Defense Fund was founded by James Dobson and other Republican shills who take in billions of dollars a year fleeces their flocks and pay no taxes at all. Dobson is determined to see Sarah Palin as president and will do whatever he can to make that happen. He is also determined to hold expected Republican losses in the House and Senate to a minimum and to accomplish that, his prayers will have to work a lot better than they did when he begged for rain on the night Barack Obama spoke at Mile Hill Stadium in Denver.

This morning's Congressional Quarterly has two features on the congressional races. Bob Benenson and Greg Giroux posit that, post-Conventions, the Democrats have the advantage.

While all this suggests a closely contested White House race may well be in the offing, it appears very unlikely that the messages each party tried to hammer home have had any effect on the political battlegrounds where this year’s congressional elections will take place.

And a status quo ante would mean a big advantage to the Democratic Party in its down-ticket races because it went into the conventions favored to expand the majorities it won in the Senate and House with its big gains in the midterm elections two years ago.

Democrats put a great deal of focus on their congressional candidates, will the GOP played down what they see as a lost cause. Making an already bad situation that even worse was "the fact that the convention was mainly oriented to bolstering the images of McCain and Palin as mavericks who have at times battled with their own parties may make their 'coattails' rather short for fellow Republican candidates." So far this year, every candidate McCain has campaigned for-- all in heavily Republican districts-- has lost in high profile upsets. His "image as a GOP contrarian"-- which is primarily self-serving hype-- actually hurts GOP candidates since it's based on issues like immigration, global climate change and campaign finance regulation where he differs-- at least image-wise-- from the rubber stamp positions held the right-wing Republican members of Congress and the even more right wing challengers.

There have been no signs so far that McCain’s hopes of rehabilitating the party’s fortunes have taken hold, after the nosedive in public opinion polls that it and President Bush have suffered because of issues such as the prolonged Iraq war, the stumbling economy and the aftermath of public outrage over the slow governmental response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A USAToday/Gallup poll taken Aug. 30-31 showed that while respondents’ opinions of the Democratic Party were 54 percent favorable to 37 percent unfavorable, the ratings for the Republican Party were 39 percent favorable to 51 percent unfavorable.

Elsewhere in the same CQPolitics issue John Cranford and Rachel Bloom write about the panic among Republican incumbents turning into a stampede to distance themselves from the most hated men in American politics, Bush and Cheney. They point out that in 2008 "the erosion in support" for Bush and his policies is "dramatic among Republicans."

Interestingly, this Congress has been the most rubber stamp bunch since 1953 when Congressional Quarterly started keeping track! Bush's failed, even catastrophic, policies have had higher support from members of Congress than even Ronald Reagan's! Among Republicans in Congress there have been years during the Bush presidency when the rubber stamp rate was an astounding 94%-- which is why Republican senators like Norm Coleman (R-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), Gordon Smith (R-OR), John Sununu (R-NH), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), James Inhofe (R-OK), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ted Stevens (R-AK) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and scores of House members-- they single out Robin Hayes (R-NC), Jon Porter (R-NV), Dave Reichert (R-WA), Chris Shayes (R-CT) and Don Young (R-AK)-- are facing difficult battles for re-elction in November.

By 2007 there were some savvier Republicans who started realizing voters were dissatisfied with the reflexive rubber stamp postures they had been taking and some started moving away from Bush's agenda a bit. By 2008, the rubber stampism that saw members voting with Bush more than 90% of the time, sunk down to an average of 63% in the House and 68% in the Senate. Only hard core rubber stamps like McConnell, Inhofe, Cornyn... and McCain-- despite the fake maverick image constantly pushed by his media allies-- stuck with Bush over 90% of the time.

Blue America candidates have been struggling to overcome GOP-friendly local media barons cooperating with Republican incumbents who have had long, solid records of supporting Bush's policies across the board but who are now claiming to be "moderates" or "independents." On the Senate side Tom Allen has to convince a Maine electorate that his opponent is the Susan Collins who has voted with all the Bush policy initiatives Mainers detest, rather than the Susan Collins of the millions and millions of dollars in TV and radio spots trying to convince voters she's been good on issues. The dishonesty has been just as bad on the opposite coast where Oregon's arch rubber stamp Gordon Smith has been insinuating in his ads that he's "with" Obama.

Sam Bennett (PA-15), Darcy Burner (WA-08), Joe Garcia (FL-25), Annette Taddeo (FL-18), Alan Grayson (FL-08), Jim Himes (CT-04), Larry Kissell (NC-08), Eric Massa (NY-29) and Russ Warner (CA-26) each faces a right wing rubber stamp incumbent who has blindly supported Bush for years and is now claiming to be "independent." Each s massively financed by the corporate special interests they have represented over and above their own constituents. If today is a good day for a donation, these are the candidates who will make the best use of getting rid of the kinds of reflexive right wing rubber stamps who will stand in the way of the change Obama represents.

Will Gordon Smith's Next Stunt Be To Just Leave The Republican Party?

Gordon Smith (R-OR), on the right... as usual

We've been talking about how almost all of the Senate Republicans running for re-election this year are avoiding the St. Paul HateFest. From Susan Collins (R-ME) to Pat Roberts (R-KS) to Ted Stevens (R-AK), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and John Sununu (R-NH), they all want to play down their identity as Republicans and as incumbents. And no one has been more diligent at this than Oregon rubber stamp supremo Gordon Smith. Smith has now run two TV ads touting Barack Obama. Just look at this one; it almost makes you feel sorry for McCain. What are Oregon Republicans thinking when they see that? Well, I think Oregon Republicans aren't surprised. Smith was the first Republican Senator to bail from McCain's doomed campaign, demanding they remove his name from their website that claimed he was the chairman of their re-election committee. He also announced he had no intention of helping right-wing Republican congressional candidate Mike Erickson in his campaign for the vacant northern district centered on Salem. Oh-- and Smith was the first sitting Senator to tell the RNC that he wasn't coming to their convention.

Today Jeff Merkley's campaign, wrote a short speech for Smith, just in case he changes his mind and decides to show up after all or, if like George Bush, he wants to send them a video-message. Every single word in this speech comes from remarks Smith has made previously during his time in the Senate.

Thank you all so very much.[1] I'm very proud of you for being here. And I'm very grateful that you're here, because this event gives us a chance to come together.[2]

It's very meaningful to have African-Americans support me because I view them as God's children, too.[3]

The Democratic Party is not my constituency. These are people that believe in socialism. I don't.[4]

My campaign people will kill me for saying this but[5], President Bush has set our country on the course of recovery at home and strength abroad. We are safer today because this president has had the backbone to follow terrorism where terrorists are and go after them, and they have failed to strike us again on our own shores since 9-11.[6]

I believe when President Bush stood in front of "mission accomplished'' on an aircraft carrier that, in purely military terms, the mission was accomplished.[7]

And I for one am thankful that we have a military as capable as this, and a commander in chief that had the courage not to listen to Hollywood, or the New York Times, or the French.[8]

It's not John Kerry's fault that he looks French.[9]

George Bush understands what creates opportunity in America.[10]

President Bush represents economic recovery and American leadership.[11]

And[12] I'm for John McCain. I'm in his kitchen cabinet. I'm one of six senators on his advisory committee.[13]

Thank you.[14]

[1] Oregon Leadership Summit, 12/3/07
[2] Oregon Leadership Summit, 12/3/07
[3] Fox News Network, 4/1/02
[4] The Oregonian, 8/22/06
[5] Center for American Progress remarks, 6/11/08
[6] Oregon Daily Emerald via U-Wire, 5/19/04
[7] Senate Floor Speech, 12/08/06
[8] Senate Republican Conference, "Great American Moment", 4/9/03
[9] Los Angeles Times, 8/13/04
[10] Oregon Daily Emerald via U-Wire, 5/19/04
[11] Oregon Daily Emerald via U-Wire, 5/19/04
[12] Oregon Convention Center Press Conference, 10/26/07
[13] PolitickerOR, 8/20/08
[14] Oregon Leadership Summit: Dec. 3, 2007

Jeff is one of the most promising Senate candidates on the Blue America recommended list. We think he'll be one of the finest senators in America and the idea of him replacing a hack rubber stamp like Gordon Smith is incredible. Please consider giving him some help against the massive corporate donations Smith is sucking up from the Big Business interests he's been representing in the Senate since 1996. If you want to be persuaded, watch this 30 second spot about the dangers of "free" trade that Jeff's campaign just started running in Oregon today:



UPDATE

It looks like all of Smith's $5,331,860 in expenditures so far have backfired-- badly. His approval rating is so low (38%) that it is virtually impossible for him to win re-election. Since he started spending money on TV ads undermining Oregon Republicans, by trying to cling on to Obama, he picked up no Democrats and he picked up no independents; instead, he lost support among Republicans. This guy is toast.

Adam Putnam Expecting Doom And Gloom In The GOP Ranks-- I Wonder Why

Time to say good-bye

Yesterday when we were laughing about how happy Bush, Cheney, McCain, Boehner and the rest of the GOP assclowns were to cut back on their wake-like convention in St Paul, we mentioned in passing that Howdy Doody (R-FL) is still scheduled to address the assorted gathering of lobbyists and fanatics tomorrow evening. Doug Tudor, the progressive ex-naval officer who Democrats have nominated to take back the central Florida seat Doody now sits in, mentioned recently that Doody never uses the words "re-elect" or "Republican" on any of his campaign literature. Republican Party consultants have warned incumbents that antipathy for Republicans and Republican policies is running so high that they should try passing themselves off as anything but a Republican incumbent.

Last week Rep. Doody told a local paper that November is going to be very tough on Republicans. "It's a tough year for all incumbents," he whined, "but it's certainly shaping up to be another tough cycle for Republicans... I think that basically every prognosticator believes that we lose a handful of seats in the Senate and probably will continue to lose seats, almost certainly will continue to lose seats, in the House as well... The voters haven't extracted their pound of flesh yet, and so the anger didn't really diminish after 2006, and in fact, it's kind of increased. Approval ratings are 20 points lower today then they were on Election Day in 2006 when Republicans got fired. So, I don't think anybody has a great handle on how that shapes up."

We've been marveling at Bush rubber stamps like Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Chris Shays (R-CT) actually running TV ads with pictures of Obama! In fact, if you haven't seen Smith's, you should take a look. It's a riot, although something tells me that John McCain won't appreciate it, especially when he described Smith as a member of his "kitchen cabinet"-- after Smith loudly resigned as chairman of the McCain Oregon election team and also declared he wouldn't be coming to McCain's nomination party. When asked how many Senate candidates had decided to skip their party's convention, an RNC spokeswoman said it would be easier to recite the small number who are showing up! And it isn't only Republicans afraid of losing their Senate seats who are trying to distance themselves from McCain and the Republican Party. More than half of Michigan's Republican congressional delegation decided they were otherwise engaged.

But, as a member of the House leadership, Congressman Doody couldn't worm out of it and is in the uncomfortable position of having to make a speech. Doug thinks he may be praying for something to happen that cancels Tuesday too!

The bad joke goes, on September 11, 2001, there were only two Americans that took heart from the terrorist attacks-- Gary Condit and Lee Greenwood. Condit was glad the Chandra Levy headlines would be forgotten, and Mr. Greenwood knew he would have another war from which to profit. Adam Putnam is slated to deliver an address at the Republican National Convention on the night when the Republicans will talk about “reform.” On “Reform Night,” Mr. Putnam will talk about Social Security. He will undoubtedly betray his constituents by parroting the party line of privatization, which the American public rejects at the rate of over 80%. I have no doubt that Mr. Putnam sincerely hopes his “opportunity to address America” will be scuttled by the impending devastation wrought by Hurricane Gustav. Certainly John McCain is glad that Bush and Cheney cancelled.

A few weeks ago Doug was interviewed in the St. Petersburg Times and they made a point of saying how without some financial support, he wouldn't be able to put up a viable challenge to one of the most rubbery of all the Florida Bush rubber stamps. He's the first candidate on a new DWT ActBlue page... if anyone would like to lend a hand. In fact, anyone who donates at least $25 this week will get a brand new double CD by Matt Keating, Quixotic.

Can You Guess Who Senator Corndog Is?

Hint: he ain't got any bullets in his gun. And his good friend and longtime political ally, George W. Bush, gave him the nickname. More hints? Well... he's certainly one of the most favored of all members of Congress by Mr and Mrs Satan (in fact, their Contran PAC alone gave him $42,500 in the current election cycle) and he's the #1 most bribed senator by Big Oil (not counting John McCain who is, after all, running for President). Big Oil "donated $484,100 so far this year-- for services rendered-- and have given him $1,317,825 since he was first elected. Still not ringin' any bells? He's also the #1 recipient of cash from the gun fanatics-- over $15,000 this year alone-- and not counting presidential candidates (again, McCain is, by far #1), he is the biggest recipient of "donations" from car dealers who sell foreign-made autos. That's a big hint because if anyone in the Senate is responsible for destroying the American manufacturing base and for supporting policies that have led directly to the outsourcing of American jobs, it is Senator Corndog.

Still stumped? OK, the booze industry-- again McCain is by far their biggest recipient-- gives more to this guy ($88,400 this year alone) than to any senator not running for president. So do commercial banks ($201,548 this year), who are appreciative in his steadfast help in weakening the federal regulatory agencies enough so that there would be so little oversight that... well, you heard of the real estate bust, I'm sure. Thank Corndog.

OK, if you haven't guessed yet, maybe you stopped following the intricacies of campaign finance after McCain's cynical and very superficial regulations just made the whole mess worse. Fair enough. Let's look at Senator Corndog's voting record instead. Here is a list of categories in which he is the very worst-- i.e., most reactionary-- of all 100 senators:

-The well-being of America's military personnel
-Response to the Darfour humanitarian crisis
-Respect for international treaties and the United Nations and arms control treaties
-Relations with Cuba
-Nuclear weapons
-Intelligence agency oversight
-Aid to needy children
-Aid to American veterans
-Aid to workers negatively impacted by trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA
-Aid to needy senior citizens
-Aid to Native Americans
-Aid to impoverished women
-Aid to small family farms
-Aid to Big Pharma
-Aid to the Insurance Industry
-Aid to banks and credit card companies
-Aid to the asbestos industry
-Aid to the firearms industry
-Public education
-Air pollution
-Clean water
-Humane treatment of animals
-Renewable energy
-Choice
-Availability of contraceptives
-Coziness with lobbyists
-Coziness with Big Tobacco
-Heath care
-Foreclosures
-Hate crimes
-Individual rights
-Separation of Church and State
-Freedom of Speech and Press
-Government surveillance of citizens
-Human rights
-Drug prevention
-Judicial nominations
- Protection of working men and women to organize unions
-Pension protection
-Occupational safety and health
-Outsourcing of American jobs overseas
-Civil rights
-Preserving Social Security
-Ethics in Congress
-Campaign finance reform

Again, this isn't a list of areas where Senator Corndog is bad. This is a list of where Senator Corndog is the worst member of the U.S. Senator (although in many cases tied with other right-wing extremists like Inhofe, McConnell and McCain). OK, enough with the guessing game? This little animated song and dance will give it all away:

Chris Shays Tries Glomming On To Obama

Few of the rubber stamp Republican senators are as likely to be defeated in November as Oregon's Gordon Smith, someone who just spent 5 years voting for every single item on the Bush-Cheney agenda followed by 6 months of trying to convince Oregon voters that he's a "moderate," an "independent voice," and-- unbelievably-- kinda almost a Democrat. Back in June he was laughed off the air with a short lived ad that attempted to cash in on Barack Obama's huge popularity in his state. There's no Republican in the House who has tried this exact same tactic more forcefully than Chris Shays of Connecticut. Shays is the last Republican member of the House from the 6-state New Hampshire region and his Connecticut congressional district has a PVI of D+5, the bluest district in America represented by a Republican.

Like his close ally, Joe Lieberman, Shays has managed to stay in office by persuading Democrats that he isn't really that Republican. His voting record, however, paints a very different picture. When Bush and the Republicans needed his vote-- no matter what the harebrained scheme they were pushing, he was always there for them. Take Iraq, for example. "Mr. Moderate"  participated in 63 roll calls regarding Iraq since he voted 4 times on October 10, 2002 to authorize the use of force there. And "Mr. Moderate" voted against the Bush-Cheney agenda in Iraq exactly... 3 times, once to require competitive bidding on oil contracts when Cheney was caught trying to steal all of Iraq's oil, as did more than 4 dozen other Republicans, once to turn an Iraqi reconstruction grant into a loan (which was supported by 84 Republicans), and once on an inconsequential and unsubstantive budgetary matter. This week Shays, who is co-chairman of McCain's pointless Connecticut operation (he is polling just 36% against Obama) released an ad, very much like Gordon Smith's, trying to capitalize on Obama's immense popularity in Connecticut. Take a look-- and then consider donating to Blue America endorsee Jim Himes' campaign to replace him.



And Senator Obama's response? "In this race, the good people of Connecticut should know that Barack Obama supports Jim Himes and believes Himes is the candidate who will bring the change American families need to Washington."

You Don't Have To Guess What Sort Of Judges McSame Would Burden Us With If He Had The Chance

If you wonder what kinds of judges McCain would pick were he to be elected president, you can do more than just check his Senate voting record on judicial confirmations. You can also take a look at his kowtowing to extreme right elements in his own Party who have ordered him to stop considering moderates for the VP slot. Right-wing religionists have told him, for example, that someone like Lieberman would be approved for Secretary of this or that but not as Attorney General or VP. They also crossed Tom Ridge off his list. Fox News is reporting that "Several sources at the RNC told FOX News that in the last 36 hours, senior McCain advisers and aides have told RNC officials that McCain 'got the message' last week that choosing a running mate who supports abortion rights would not be helpful." They even rejected McCain's proffered deal that he be allowed to pick a moderate on abortion as long as he is anti-gay. McCain wants to tell them to go suck a lemon-- he hates them as much as they hate him, maybe more-- but his ambition is so overwhelming that he would ask his wife to show her tits to a bunch of bikers if it meant he would get 50 more votes in South Dakota. The only thing that will keep him from picking Meg Whitman is his fear that the religious right will sit out the election. Is John McCain a coward? He always has been, although his carefully crafted image has been one of courageousness and independence. And that bring us to the voting record.

Don't worry, we're not going to go through all his decades in Washington. But let's look at the controversial Bush nominations and where McCain was on each. I looked over 40 votes starting in 2002 when the Bush Regime got serious about stuffing the federal judiciary with extremist ideologues. The trick for the Regime was to make sure all the corporatists they wanted on the bench-- and that has always been the only real criteria for them, that the nominee be a tool of Big Business who would never think twice about the "nation of whiners" (basically, workers and consumers) and always rule in favor of corporate interests-- were also social Neanderthals who could be counted on to be anti-choice, anti-gay, anti-whatever else was being scapegoated by the GOP at any given moment.

The short version of this story is that there have been 40 votes-- confirmations and clotures-- for federal judges. McCain-- Mr. Moderate, Mr. Maverick-- voted with Bush all 40 times. Yes, he voted 100% of the time with Bush, just like the worst lock step extremists-- the ones who don't take on airs and try painting themselves as something they're not, the crazy old reactionaries like Jim Inhofe (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The contentious battles kicked off with D. Brooks Smith of Pennsylvania, who Bush nominated to for the lifetime position of Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands). The nomination was strongly opposed by environmental groups and groups defending women's rights, civil rights and the rights of people with disabilities, not just because he was a sure vote against all they are advocating but because of his shady ethics and shaky judgment.

At the time the Democrats held a slim majority in the Senate, but there was an effective conservative majority, with every single Republican-- including McCain, of course-- committed to supporting all of Bush's nominations, regardless of how horrendous any may have been, joined by a handful of right-wing corporate-oriented Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. By the time Smith's nomination came before the Senate, they had already approved all the mainstream conservatives-- more than 70 of them-- that Bush had sent their way. Smith was the first of the crackpot zealots to get a vote. The Republicans were joined by Evan Bayh (IN), Joe Biden (DE), John Breaux (LA), Robert Byrd (WV), Jean Carnahan (MO), Tom Carper (DE), Byron Dorgan (ND), John Edwards (NC), Bob Graham (FL), Ernest Hollings (SC), Herb Kohl (WI), Mary Landrieu (LA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Zell Miller (GA), Ben Nelson (NE), and Bill Nelson (FL).

The day of the Smith confirmation vote the Washington Post and the L.A. Times editorialized that he was a bad choice, pointing out that "Smith has been a federal district judge since 1988. His record raises questions about his suitability for this important seat. In 1997, Smith refused initially to recuse himself from hearing a bank fraud case even though the claims implicated another bank where his wife was a vice president and where the couple had substantial financial assets. Instead, in violation of federal judicial ethics, Smith issued a number of rulings in the case, including several favorable to the banks, before finally recusing himself. Smith long remained a member of a club that barred women even though by 1992 the federal code of judicial ethics specifically prohibited such membership. Only in late 1999, when the circuit court seat to which he has now been named first became vacant, did Smith obey the rules and resign." The NY Times had come to the same conclusion of Smith's unfitness

A few days after Smith's confirmation, Schumer wrote an OpEd in the NY Times arguing that ideology should be considered as one factor in the confirmation of federal judges.

"The not-so-dirty little secret of the Senate is that we do consider ideology, but privately... If the President uses ideology in deciding whom to nominate to the bench, the Senate, as part of its responsibility to advise and consent, should do the same in deciding whom to confirm. Pretending that ideology doesn't matter-- or, even worse, doesn't exist-- is exactly the opposite of what the Senate should do."

The battle got really intense, though with the Miguel Estrada nomination-- and the seven cloture votes that followed from March, 2003 until July 2003. Not being a judge, the neo-fascist Estrada, perhaps the most radical right of any of Bush's worst nominations, had no paper trail. McCain and the rest of the Republicans all voted to shut down debate on this one but--even with the help of DLC type conservative Democrats like John Breaux, Zell Miller, and the Nelson twins-- they never managed to force a vote and in September Estrada finally skulked away. At the time the Madison, Wisconsin Capitol Times joined many editorial boards breathing a sigh of relief.

The Bush administration did everything in its power - and a few things beyond its legitimate power-- to secure a federal appeals court judgeship for Miguel Estrada. And, now that Estrada has withdrawn his name from nomination, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, claims Estrada is the victim of "a political hate crime," while Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., grumbles about "obstruction" and Bush complains that "the treatment of this fine man is an unfortunate chapter in the Senate's history."

What a crock!

Estrada was forced to withdraw from consideration for a place on the influential Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the Senate was not going to approve him and the American people were fine with that. In other words, the process worked. Bush, Frist and DeLay are just mad because they did not succeed in adding another judicial activist to the federal bench.

A favorite of extreme right-wingers, Estrada's track record and his actions during the confirmation process suggested that he would use the judgeship to advance his views-- rather than interpret the law honesty. That made a lot of senators, including some Republicans, concerned, and created the space that allowed a Democratic filibuster to prevent a Senate vote on the nomination.

In judicial nomination fights, filibusters ought to be employed judiciously. But Estrada's refusal to cooperate with the confirmation process made it entirely appropriate to block his confirmation.

Well aware that his views on legal matters placed him well outside the judicial mainstream, Estrada refused to respond to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee. And the Bush Justice Department refused to release memos Estrada had written while serving in the office of the solicitor general in the administration of Bush's father.

None of this phased John McCain in the least. He voted for cloture (to shut down debate) on this godawful nominee 7 times. He also voted for cloture and/or for confirmation for two right-wing Supreme Court judges, Sam Alito and John Roberts, as well as for Janice Brown, Brett Cavanaugh, Carolyn Kuhl (failed), Charles Pickering (failed), David McKeague, Jeffrey Sutton, Jerome Holmes, Leslie Southwick, Deborah Cook, Henry Saad (failed), Priscilla Owen, Thomas Griffith, William Myers (failed), and William Pryor.

McCain's 100% lockstep votes in favor of anti-environmental, anti-regulatory, anti-worker, anti-minority, anti-consumer hack judges should give anyone who cares to ponder it a look at what kinds of judges we would be likely to see nominated from a McCain administration. And with rubber stamp Republican senators that think advice and consent means agreeing with everything, the American public could look forward to scores, if not hundreds, of judges eager to serve corporate interests and further screw ordinary Americans.

When I heard Pastor Rick ask Obama, a constitutional scholar, which Supreme Court judges he would not have nominated, I knew what the answer should have been. Obama certainly would never have nominated any of the atrocious ideologues put on the bench by Reagan or either of the Bushes. But his answer was nonconfrontational and mild, going right to the Court's weakest and most pathetic link, Clarence Thomas. A couple weeks ago I heard Jeff Merkley speak at a small rally. He's challenging one of these rubber stamp senators in Oregon, Gordon Smith. Like McCain, Smith has never run across a Bush nomination he wasn't enthusiastic about. He voted for every one of them. That's a definition of a rubber stamp. Merkley made it clear when he spoke that he would have voted against the extremists Bush had nominated for the courts. "Time and time again," he said, "Republicans like Gordon Smith have voted to stack the courts with extreme right-wing judges who favor corporate special interests over ordinary Americans. Oregon deserves a Senator who will put the people and their rights first and is not afraid to stand up to the divisive politics of the Republican party." Yeah, so does America, lots of them.

More Mike McCaul Twitterings

At one time I might have called this series of posts the Mike McCaul Watch but it isn't really McCaul himself we're following here; it's his inane and childish notes on Twitter, especially the #dontgo circus routine he's part of. After we first started following him, he changed his logo, although I'm hoping he didn't go to the trouble on our behalf:


McCaul can be summed up in one not so short sentence: married the daughter of Clear Channel's CEO, got one of the DeLay gerrymandered districts, rubber stamped every single failed policy Bush ever proposed (no exceptions) and takes huge bribes-- called "contributions" inside the Beltway-- from special interests and then votes for whatever they want no matter how badly it impacts his constituents, Big Oil's $107,934 "donation," juxtaposed with the price of gasoline being Exhibit A.

Blue America has endorsed his opponent, populist Democrat Larry Joe Doherty and we encourage everyone to donate $5 every time McCaul twitters. Here's his latest (since the last time we brought you up to date):

MikeMcCaul Texas Observer found out the best TV moment of my Stump at the Pump in was a setup! That's OK. Real voters don’t read liberal web pages. 05:54 PM August 07, 2008


MikeMcCaul The house chamber is totally scary with nobody here and the lights off. I hope those tourists #dontgo. I dont want to be hear all by myself! 06:30 AM August 08, 2008


MikeMcCaul @downwithtyranny - you silly liberal. PS - can you and your friends fax your gas reciepts to me? 08:39 AM August 08, 2008 from Twittelator in reply to downwithtyranny


MikeMcCaul Just noticed on the official house schedule they list this as the "Summer District Work Period," not "Summer Vacation." Huh. 10:54 AM August 08, 2008


MikeMcCaul Playing with an intern's iphone. These things are GREAT - Dell ought to promote 'em more; I haven't seen one single ad! 11:23 AM August 08, 2008


MikeMcCaul Thinking about asking the leadership if I can #dontgo back to Austin for the weekend. Already slid my reciepts under Pelpsi's door. 09:37 PM August 08, 2008

Don't forget to keep donating to Doherty. On Tuesday his FEC report came out and it shows that his grassroots support have netted him more campaign cash than all of McCaul's corporate bribes in the past quarter.