Steve Scalise Admires Patrick McHenry's "Judgment"

The House Republicans' new odd couple-- with whips, no less

One of the all-time silliest congressional debuts was made by bombastic little North Carolina closet case Patrick McHenry in 2005. He went to school at a Benedictine monastery that doubles as a religionist "college," Belmont Abbey. He was president of the Young Republican Club there and made a name for himself by dressing up like Abe Lincoln and waving a sign that read "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed?" somewhere near a Bill Clinton appearance. A couple years later he started and ran a website called notHillary.com, for which Bush rewarded him with a sinecure at the Department of Labor. McHenry had previously worked for Karl Rove on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign and he was eager to get to Washington and make a name for himself. An unimpressive and diminutive figure he started bragging that he would be the model for how Republicans should vote and vowed to never vote with the Democrats. Although his 1.86 lifetime ProgressivePunch crucial vote score is pretty horrible, there are now several dozen Republicans with even more right wing voting records, including Eric Cantor (1.41), who was just disowned by the party for not being right-wing enough.

McHenry took a more garden variety conservative approach after several career threatening scandals. He seems to have made a deal with the devil and was given a seat on the very lucrative HouseFinancial Services Committee, which he has used to further his ambitions by taking $2,068,336 in legalistic bribes from the finance sector he's supposed to be overseeing.

Yesterday at this time, Steve Scalise, the new GOP Whip-designee, appointed the clownish, bowtie-wearing McHenry his chief deputy-dawg. Under Scalise and McHenry, the senior whip team is made up of Kristi Noem (SD), Dennis Ross (FL), Aaron Schock (IL), Steve Stivers (OH) and Ann Wagner (MO), a lackluster team of hawkish right-wingers. Like McHenry, Schock is also a closet case and Stivers' normally quiescent office was shaken up by a scandal involving photos of his chief of staff's penis. Schock was widely expected to get the Chief Deputy Whip job but he's a "confirmed bachelor" and McHenry found a beard and married her.

When Chad Pergram, a reliable reporter who covers Congress for Fox News, tweeted out the news before it hit the transom, I took the opportunity to share a couple of good-natured laughs at McHenry's expense, especially when he mentioned how Scalise, seeking to calm Schock down, mentioned that McHenry's role as Deputy Whip "gibes him the invaluable experience, insight and judgment to help me lead." Wow! Where does he think he's leading the crackpot House Republicans to? It wasn't long after McHenry was elected that he was implicated in a string of Republican gay murders. That's what happens when you get too involved with gay escort service, I guess.

The murdered gay Republicans include Ralph Reed's purported ex-lover, Ralph Gonzalez (former head of the rabidly homophobic Georgia Republican Party), David Abrami and McHenry guy-pal Robert Drake, the shooter. All three were found last week in a murder-suicide in an Orlando apartment. According to right-wing website, the North Carolina Conservative "All three men were active in Republican politics." They mention that Drake is "an associate" of McHenry's but don't define that. McHenry is alleged to be an associate of quite a few younger men, some of whom are gay and some of whom are just gay-for-pay.

Gonzalez was an influential political consultant, who owned Strategum Group, and managed Congressman Tom Feeney’s 2002 campaign. The house was owned by Gonzalez; Abrami lived with Gonzalez. Newspapers and political websites have been abuzz with posts from friends and associates of Gonzalez, who speculate the motive for the murder-suicide as being a gay love triangle gone wrong.

...Another, more sinister motive has been put forth by several sources, including CrimeBlog.us. Reports there say that Drake was associated with the owner of a gay escort service in the Virginia Beach area. The owners of that escort service are facing charges that they murdered the owner of a rival company catering to the gay community. A source for the Crime Blog reporter states:

“My solid, but unconfirmed, sources say that Drake was trying to hit Gonzalez up for cash to raise money to defend a kid (Harlow Cuadra) who is on trial for murder up in Pennsylvania. The 26 year old “kid” ran a gay escort and porn business in Virginia Beach and may have had several Republican clients–Drake being one. (See www.norfolkmaleescorts.com and www.boybatter.com). . . My sources say Drake may have approached Gonzalez for funds for Cuadra’s defense, threatening to blow the lid off everything by MAKING THE REPUBLICAN CLIENT LIST OF THE GAY ESCORT BUSINESS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.”

There are jailed Republicans, dead Republicans, outed Republicans... And McHenry's office... well, when I called McHenry's congressional office, the guy who answered the phone confirmed that Drake "worked" there but said he didn't know what his duties were. When I asked to speak to the congressman or someone who would know, he put me on hold, then came back, audibly upset, and said he was mistaken and that he didn't know anything and no one else was in the office and then quickly hung up on me. The murder was completely covered up by the Orlando police department and everything about it pretty much disappeared.

In 2012, McHenry's primary opponent, newspaper publisher Ken Fortenberry, showed up at a McHenry town hall and started peppering him with questions about McHenry's overt corruption on the House Financial Services Committee. Nothing phased the smug little McHenry until the end of the meeting when Fortenberry pulled out the photo of McHenry's murdered love, Jason Robert Drake (below). He asked the startled McHenry if he could deny any knowledge of the murdered ex-Marine. McHenry, looking like a rainbow flag, stammered and stuttered, said nothing intelligible and the meeting came to a screeching halt. I guess Scalise didn't look into it-- or didn't care.

McHenry is fond of rough trade

Gay Romney Supporter Patrick McHenry (R-NC) Finally Confronted Publicly About His Connection To Jason Robert Drake

McHenry "associate" Jason Robert Drake (RIP)

I hope you're not surprised that all the GOP closet cases-- well, not whack job Trent Franks, but the rest of them-- have endorsed Mitt Romney. I mean, last time around his campaign co-chair, Larry Craig, was working the public toilets for his boy Willard. There's just something about Romney that the Republican closet queens, from Lindsey Graham to David Dreier, just love.

Take fire-breathing little Patrick McHenry, for example. McHenry, who obsessively fingers the wedding ring symbolizing the fake marriage to a woman he doesn't live with, styles himself the biggest, baddest right-wing fanatic in the whole wide world. "I'll be the example for everyone else in Congress to follow," he has bragged. He was the attack dog against Elizabeth Warrenthe Republicans unleashed lamely at the House Financial Services Committee-- you know, the committee where little McHenry is trying to prevent a bill to prohibit Members of Congress from engaging in insider trading. But how much of a conservative is McHenry really, to have been one of the first right-wing congressmen to kick Newt, Perry, Bachmann, Cain et al. to the curb and jump aboard the Romney Express? Must be the animal magnetism... or McHenry's uncanny ability to always go where the cash is.

Today was an interesting day for Lil' Patrick McHenry. At noon he had a faux-townhall meeting at the Stanley Town Hall in Gaston County-- having invited no one but town employees and his own staffers. His Republican primary opponent, the intrepid Ken Fortenberry, showed up as well. McHenry wasn't prepared for that, especially not when Fortenberry started peppering him with questions about his shady record on the House Financial Services Committee and when he challenged him to debate in every county in North Carolina's sprawling 10th District so that Republican voters there could get to know each of them. McHenry dodged and demurred. But then it got really interesting.

I hate to do this to you, but it would really help if you could surf over to this 2007 post about McHenry's involvement in a triple gay homocide-suicide. Short version: The murdered gay Republicans include Ralph Reed's purported ex-lover, Ralph Gonzalez (former head of the rabidly homophobic Georgia Republican Party), GOP lobbyist David Abrami and McHenry guy-pal Robert Drake, allegedly the shooter. All three were victims in a murder-suicide in an Orlando apartment. According to right-wing website the North Carolina Conservative, "All three men were active in Republican politics." They mention that Drake is "an associate" of McHenry's but don't define that. He is alleged to be an associate of quite a few younger men, some of whom are gay and some of whom are just gay-for-pay.

Drake was associated with the owner of a gay escort service in the Virginia Beach area. The owners of that escort service-- there have been unconfirmed rumors that McHenry was both a client and a silent partner-- are facing charges that they murdered Bryan Kocis, the owner of a rival gay escort service. When I called McHenry's congressional office, the guy who answered the phone confirmed that Drake "worked" there but said he didn't know what his duties were. When I asked to speak to the congressman or someone who would know, he put me on hold, then came back, audibly upset, and said he was mistaken and that he didn't know anything and no one else was in the office and then quickly hung up on me. The murder was completely covered up by the Orlando police department and everything about it pretty much disappeared.

Now, back to today's confrontation. After Fortenberry couldn't get any answers from the smug, self-entitled McHenry to any of his questions, he whipped out a large photo of Drake-- the one above-- and asked a startled McHenry if he could deny any knowledge of the murdered ex-Marine. McHenry, looking like a rainbow flag, stammered and stuttered, said nothing intelligible and the meeting came to a screeching halt. At some point, Republicans in North Carolina are going to want to know who closet case McHenry really is and what he knows about these murders and the gay escort services in northern Virginia.

As for his endorsement of Romney... psychotic right-wing fanatic Steve Baldwin went bonkers this week on Steve Deace's crazy hate-talk radio show. His gripe is that Romney was “obsessed” with gay rights as governor of Massachusetts, and he's blaming the right-wing media itself for giving Romney a free pass. In the past he's insisted that Jeff Carneal, president of Human Events' publisher, Eagle Publishing (a subsidiary of extremist publishing house Regnery), is an “avowed homosexual” who has supported pro-equality causes. Who knows? Maybe all this stuff is why all the gay Republicans in congressional closets are supporting Romney:

Baldwin: Our conservative media won’t write negative stories about Romney. They won’t even investigate him. I’ve submitted story after story to National Review, to Human Events, to American Spectator, and every once in a while they’ll do a story with a few negative things about Romney, but a full-scale investigative piece about Romney has not appeared in most of the conservative movement’s media. And you’ll find out there’s conflicts of interests, you’ll find out National Review endorsed Romney last year, they like him this year. You’ll find out that the chairman of Regnery Gateway, that publishes Human Events, is a homosexual who likes Romney. You find out these editors have various biases. And as a result, they have collectively, along with talk radio I have to add-- Sean Hannity likes Romney, a lot of our radio talk show hosts have been very hands off when it comes to Romney’s record, even though they have all been briefed and all been given information about Romney’s background. Coulter and other national columnists and Hannity and even Mark Levin say very little about Romney’s record and refuse to dig into it. So you hear nothing from our own media, so the mainstream media, they’re too lazy to dig up the stories. And so as a result, Romney’s getting a free pass here...

Deace: Does Mitt Romney have a history of supporting homosexual issues beyond the gay scoutmasters thing that we saw from 1994? What did he do in Massachusetts when he was governor?

Baldwin: Oh my goodness. Gay proclamations, gay dances, gay proms, gay assemblies, gay this, gay that. He had an entire commission called the Governor’s Commission, which served at his own discretion, and they funded gay events and programs in the schools. He promoted all kinds of laws, rules, internal, a lot of internal things, like his department of social services awarded Family of the Year, Parents of the Year, to a gay couple. He appointed homosexual leaders to key positions throughout his administration. I mean, his whole administration was characterized by an almost obsessive devotion to the homosexual agenda. I would venture to say that Mitt Romney was the most aggressive pro-gay governor in American history, either party. Period. I mean Amy Contrada wrote a thousand page book documenting hundreds of actions by this man to advance the homosexual agenda. Hundreds. He was obsessed with it. You gotta start wondering here.

Par for the course, the Gaston Gazette was too freaked out to mention anything about Drake in their coverage of the townhall today. What else is new? Mostly boring video... but watch at 13:05:

Patrick McHenry Poses As A Republican Square But He Lives A Far Racier Lifestyle Than North Carolina GOP Voters

Patrick McHenry got into Congress from an exurban district in western North Carolina and immediately declared himself the model of congressional conservatism who would define ideological purity for the whole GOP House caucus. He was elected class clown by the freshmen but managed to vote no on everything that could even remotely be seen as beneficial to working families. His career-long ProgressivePunch score is 1.36 and since Obama has been elected, his score is... yes, a zero (among 30 Republicans who have taken that "no on everything approach, like fellow lunatic fringe NC congressmember Virginia Foxx).

North Carolina's ideological twins may agree on every single vote but their sameness ends abruptly when it comes to lifestyle. Foxx's life's mission seems centered on a mania of hatred towards LGBT people. Since her earliest forays into politics she's identified herself as a "gay hater." McHenry may have a 100% anti-LGBT voting record but he is, albeit a closeted one, gay. And not just gay, closeted, homophobic, and utterly self-loathing but also mixed up in one of the most jaw-dropping gay congressional scandals of all time, something that makes Mark Foley's and Larry Craig's look like child's play. (We covered it in 2007 but it's been so covered up and papered over that it still amazes me that a triple Republican gay homicide/suicide involving a sitting U.S. congressman is almost totally unknown to the public. You should hit that link above to read the whole story.

The murdered gay Republicans include Ralph Reed's purported ex-lover, Ralph Gonzalez (former head of the rabidly homophobic Georgia Republican Party), David Abrami and McHenry guy-pal Robert Drake, the shooter. All three were found last week in a murder-suicide in an Orlando apartment. According to right-wing website, the North Carolina Conservative "All three men were active in Republican politics." They mention that Drake is "an associate" of McHenry's but don't define that. He is alleged to be an associate of quite a few younger men, some of whom are gay and some of whom are just gay-for-pay.

Gonzalez was an influential political consultant, who owned Strategum Group, and managed Congressman Tom Feeny’s 2002 campaign. The house was owned by Gonzalez; Abrami lived with Gonzalez. Newspapers and political websites have been abuzz with posts from friends and associates of Gonzalez, who speculate the motive for the murder-suicide as being a gay love triangle gone wrong.

...Another, more sinister motive has been put forth by several sources, including CrimeBlog.us. Reporters there say that Drake was associated with the owner of a gay escort service in the Virginia Beach area. The owners of that escort service are facing charges that they murdered the owner of a rival company catering to the gay community. A source for the Crime Blog reporter states:

“My solid, but unconfirmed, sources say that Drake was trying to hit Gonzalez up for cash to raise money to defend a kid (Harlow Cuadra) who is on trial for murder up in Pennsylvania. The 26 year old “kid” ran a gay escort and porn business in Virginia Beach and may have had several Republican clients–Drake being one. (See www.norfolkmaleescorts.com and www.boybatter.com). . . My sources say Drake may have approached Gonzalez for funds for Cuadra’s defense, threatening to blow the lid off everything by MAKING THE REPUBLICAN CLIENT LIST OF THE GAY ESCORT BUSINESS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.”

Old news, even if it never made the news? Sure, but with three Republicans challenging McHenry from, believe it or not, the right, the sketchy details of the murders and the closeted lifestyle that McHenry has led are starting to circulate again. Just yesterday a very credible hard core conservative in Burke County, Dennis Benfield, asked what kind of trouble McHenry is in to be spending $3,000 a month of campaign contributions on a fancy DC law firm.

I have been accused of having a long-standing grudge against Congressman Patrick McHenry because he defeated my candidate in 2004. Baloney. The only reason I need to vote for someone else in the May 4 Republican primary is McHenry's unvarnished ineffectiveness.

This last week's news revealed the good congressman's real legacy in the 10th District-- the Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton metropolitan area had a 15.8 percent unemployment rate in January, highest of all 14 N.C. metropolitan statistical areas. Caldwell County saw its highest rate ever at 17.5 percent.

Tea-party folks have it right: "Throw all the bums out!" McHenry has been in Congress for almost six years and how's he done? He wants Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill! Amazing. Reagan himself wouldn't support that.

I challenge all you McHenry lovers out there to find just one bill where he led the fight (against those awful Democrats) that created even a single job in western North Carolina. Instead, he votes against Pell Grants that send poor kids to college-- legislation that has had bipartisan support since 1965.

And where was he during the health-care debate? Yes, he may have voted the right way, but you never heard his voice or saw his face in the media and I doubt he persuaded any "Blue Dog" Democrats to vote with the GOP.

He likes to take credit for bringing money here, but he's more successful scoring real-estate deals to make himself a millionaire. He likes his picture made with volunteer firefighters, deputies and first-responders, but, besides delivering their check, what does he do to help them qualify for those grants?

Meanwhile, he spends $3,000 a month from campaign funds to retain a Washington law firm. Why? What trouble is he in?

And he meddles in local Republican primaries where he shouldn't.

McHenry is part of the problem, not the solution.

There are three other Republicans running against him this spring. We are absolute fools, as a party, to keep sending this self-serving professional politician back to Congress.

Now, what about that photo above and this photo down here? Up top is McHenry frolicking with the fabulous Jackie Sullens, a GOP lesbian political activist in Gaston County and down here McHenry's having a good old time with Jackie and her housemate Ann LaFarr. What would Virginia Foxx say? Well, North Carolina Republicans haven't been terribly thrilled about these photos since they first surfaced in 2008. In fact, Virginia Foxx type Republicans were appalled:

The best part about these photos (other than the fact that McHenry is grabbing Sullens’ breasts in the second photo) is that Jackie Sullens is an open Lesbian. Not only does Sullens work for the GOP as the Gaston County Republican Women’s newsletter lady, but she openly lives with another woman, whom she is in a lesbian relationship with.

WHO'LL BE THE NEXT REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITE TO BE DRAGGED OUT OF THE CLOSET SCREAMING ABOUT MEDIA WITCH HUNTS?

A certain lil' congressman allegedly likes his trade rough

Lil' Patrick McHenry isn't a character in Comedy Central's brilliant Lil' Bush, which features Lil' Cheney, Lil' Rummy, Lil' Condi, Lil' Tony Blair, Lil' Jeb, Lil' Hillary, Lil' Mikey Moore, Lil' Obama... but not Lil' Lil' Patrick McHenry. He's too... lil'! But he may be about to get a lot bigger, at least in terms of the traditional media that has made Larry Craig a household name-- and soon. DWT readers already know that the North Carolina arch-conservative (other than 3 nut-case freshmen, McHenry's got the most reactionary voting record in Congress) is allegedly another hypocritical closet queen waiting nervously for his moment on the national stage.

And yesterday BlueNC gave Rep. McHenry's closet door a nice, loud jolt. In a scandal that will prove to be far bigger than South Park's outing of Tom Cruise (covered in great depth and detail by Wikipedia), it looks like there is a connection between McHenry and a murderous Republican homosexual love triangle/escort service.

The murdered gay Republicans include Ralph Reed's purported ex-lover, Ralph Gonzalez (former head of the rabidly homophobic Georgia Republican Party), David Abrami and McHenry guy-pal Robert Drake, the shooter. All three were found last week in a murder-suicide in an Orlando apartment. According to right-wing website, the North Carolina Conservative "All three men were active in Republican politics." They mention that Drake is "an associate" of McHenry's but don't define that. He is alleged to be an associate of quite a few younger men, some of whom are gay and some of whom are just gay-for-pay. (Note: The websites in this GOP report are graphic, pornographic gay prostitute sites and if you don't want to see that kind of stuff DO NOT copy and paste the links. They are purposely not in the form of links.)

Gonzalez was an influential political consultant, who owned Strategum Group, and managed Congressman Tom Feeny’s 2002 campaign. The house was owned by Gonzalez; Abrami lived with Gonzalez. Newspapers and political websites have been abuzz with posts from friends and associates of Gonzalez, who speculate the motive for the murder-suicide as being a gay love triangle gone wrong.

...Another, more sinister motive has been put forth by several sources, including CrimeBlog.us. Reporters there say that Drake was associated with the owner of a gay escort service in the Virginia Beach area. The owners of that escort service are facing charges that they murdered the owner of a rival company catering to the gay community. A source for the Crime Blog reporter states:

“My solid, but unconfirmed, sources say that Drake was trying to hit Gonzalez up for cash to raise money to defend a kid (Harlow Cuadra) who is on trial for murder up in Pennsylvania. The 26 year old “kid” ran a gay escort and porn business in Virginia Beach and may have had several Republican clients–Drake being one. (See www.norfolkmaleescorts.com and www.boybatter.com). . . My sources say Drake may have approached Gonzalez for funds for Cuadra’s defense, threatening to blow the lid off everything by MAKING THE REPUBLICAN CLIENT LIST OF THE GAY ESCORT BUSINESS PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.”

More sordid GOP details are available. Meanwhile there are jailed Republicans, dead Republicans, outed Republicans... And McHenry's office... well, the press secretary is on vacation so they have no comment. I couldn't get them to put me on the phone with Lil' Congressman McHenry. Maybe he was making preparations for the Republican National Convention.

DON'T THINK LARRY CRAIG'S RESIGNATION IS THE END OF THE STORY OF CLOSETED GAY REPUBLICANS GETTING INTO BIG TROUBLE

It's been mentioned that it was very convenient for the Bush Regime to get Alberto Gonzales' resignation story off the front pages and off the national TV screens-- with nary a trace-- and, in fact, the first I heard about Larry Craig's outing was a joke by a friend who said Gonzales himself had forced his closet door open. Political Washington has been aware of Craig's adventures in Toiletland for decades and it was quite a coincidence that he was outed at the same time that Alberto would have resigned. At the time I dismissed it for what it was-- just a joke.

But there's another story going around the Internet today, that the Bush Regime was more than happy to get rid of Senator Craig because of his antipathy towards the Patriot Act. Bush was furious with Craig for joining with mainstream conservatives and Democrats in opposing the renewal of the highly unconstitutional Patriot Act. "At a meeting recently, Bush referred to Craig as 'a goddamned
traitor' and told the National Republican Senatorial Committee to start recruiting someone to run against the Idaho Senator in 2008."

The Bush Regime-- even post-Rove-- just sent a harsh and powerful message to senators that they have the way, and the will, to enforce their version of... discipline. Even a right-wing tool like Ben Stein has been yapping around on TV claiming Craig was set up by "the Executive Department."

Meanwhile, there's another gay Republican and another Republican Gonzalez in trouble-- except this one was murdered 2 weeks ago. But the AP report about the gay love triangle seems to have missed one point: one of the men, Republican consultant David Abrami, was straight. (Just because someone is Republican, you can't automatically assume they are secretly gay.) Gonzalez and Drake, on the other hand were gay, and former roommates.

As we mentioned yesterday, Drake, a former marine, also is alleged to have a strong relationship-- both intimate and business/political-- with right-wing Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC). When I spoke to McHenry's office about this they at first insisted they never heard of Drake then, confronted with specifics, admitted they know him. They refused to put Congressman McHenry on the phone. There is every indication that McHenry may have been one of the Republican elected officials who was using the services of the gay prostitution agency connected to Drake. Our pals over at the BradBlog points out the connections between Florida's ultra-corrupt, vote-tampering congressman, Tom Feeney, and Gonzalez and reports the threat to expose the list of Republican elected officials who were using the gay escort service.

These matters are being examined by law enforcement officials. DWT will keep you informed as it unfolds.

Nature Of Addiction And Republican Party Politics

The music business has had a very long and storied history in terms of drug use-- and not just among artists. But by the end of the '80s, the drug lifestyle among music executives was being frowned on. I worked at a very humane company and addicts were given so many opportunities to recover and rehabilitate that it took years for anyone to actually get fired. I remember two on my team who were still using massive amounts of drugs long after everyone around them had cut it out-- or had at least cut back to mere recreational weekend use. One guy's drug abuse impaired his ability to function effectively and releases and even artists' careers were ruined because of his inability to do his (key) job. He was eventually fired-- although not before endless interventions. The other guy actually did great work on coke; it was like high octane fuel for him and his department functioned flawlessly. Every now and then-- though not often-- he'd end up at the bottom of a dark hole... and that was bad. He too was given an ultimatum: straighten up or look for a new job. So he kicked his drug use-- completely.

I was so proud of him. And he continued doing an amazing job and his department continued outperforming in terms of profitability. And then one day it all collapsed. He had traded in one addiction-- drugs-- for another. And the other caught up with him with devastating consequences for everyone around him. And no one suffered more than he did, of course... his career and his personal life shattered and ruined. I thought about both these guys I used to work with last night when I was reading the Tom DeLay chapters in Max Blumenthal's book, Republican Gomorrah.

DeLay's grimy political career had two overarching premises: on the one hand a rebel's crusade against regulations and on the other, a raw, naked lust for unprecedented authoritarian power. DeLay's father was an alcoholic who beat young Tom and his two brothers mercilessly when he was bingeing, leaving them "with physical and psychic scars." Like most right-wing politicians who are the product of that kind of abusive upbringing, he fell right into the same patterns himself, getting expelled from school and earning himself the nickname "Hot Tub Tommy for his bawdy, drunken behavior and his disrespect for women. He was easy prey for a charlatan snake oil salesman like Jim Dobson, whose poison is proselytized on Capitol Hill by Virginia reactionary and religionist kook Frank Wolf.

But DeLay's born-again experience had only transformed his alcoholism into another addiction. "The convert maintains the same addictive thinking as before," University of Kansas professor of religious studies Robert Minor wrote of alcoholics who trade liquor for evangelical religion. "There's a similar level of intensity in their dependence religion as [in] their dependence upon the previous addiction. And the substitution will remain successful as the religion continues to produce a more fulfilling high than the substance or process they abandoned."

With his conversion, DeLay gained loyalty of the evangelical grassroots. Writing in 2001, when DeLay's influence was at its zenith, Peter Perl, observed that "DeLay's faith has solidified his political base and fundraising with the Christian Coalition and other religious and socially conservative groups. They love him, because DeLay's America would stop gun control, outlaw abortion, limit the rights of homosexuals, curb contraception, end the constitutional separation of church and state, and adopt the Ten Commandments as guiding principles for public schools."

Instead, it led to one of the ugliest political scandals in contemporary politics with DeLay forced to resign from Congress and eventually sentenced to prison for a wide range of corruption. The way he and his sleazy cadre of allies played the religious right reinforced the stereotype that "evangelicals are easily manipulated and that evangelical leaders are using moral issues to line their own pockets." Some of the fake religionists DeLay had in his pocket-- particularly Ralph Reed, who was on the cover of Time ("The Right Hand of God"), like Marco Rubio was last week ("The Republican Savior")-- were disgraced and shunned by the movement. Reed went from being the Savior to losing a Republican primary in Georgia for Lt. Governor by 12 points and then having his ex-lover, Rafael "Ralph" Gonzalez murdered in a love triangle by Jason Drake, a staffer-- and lover-- of Patrick McHenry. Will Rubio fall as hard and fast? Probably. Here's something to ponder about Reed and his circle from a 2011 article in Salon, 4 years after my post (linked above at "lover"):

Ralph Gonzalez had served as the executive director of the Georgia Republican Party at a time when Ralph Reed was that Chair of that organization as well as the executive director of the Christian Coalition. In his role as executive director, Gonzalez helped orchestrate the smear campaign against Vietnam Veteran Max Cleland that contributed to his defeat at the hands of Saxby Chambliss. Gonzales worked as campaign chair for Tom Feeney, Jeb Bush’s running mate in his first, unsuccessful, run for Florida’s governorship, when Feeney was running for Speaker of the Florida House. Feeney was later accused of ordering a prototype of a system to hack electronic votes while working for a Chinese company whose Quality Control Manager, Hai Lin Nee, was let off with a suspiciously soft slap on the wrist for selling protected electronic components of a radio-frequency guidance system to the People’s Republic of China, a scandal connected to the purported suicide of an investigator linked to that case. Gonzalez, who reportedly did not hide his homosexuality from those who knew him, was also president of the Strategum Group, a political consulting firm that was paid $3,144.06 by the Alabama Republican Legislative Committee to produce a anti-gay pamphlet that depicted two men sitting on a porch swing holding hands with the caption, “God Created Adam and Eve; Not Adam and Steve.”

David Abrami kept a lower profile. An attorney, Mr. Abrami was described as a “long-term” friend of Gonzales’s. The two lived together and vacationed together, once taking a trip to Amsterdam, although Abrami was reported to have a girlfriend. Abrami was a former business partner of convicted criminal and Fox Radio host, Doug Guetzloe. Guetzloe also acted as attorney for Tom Feeney. Abrami did have one additional moment of infamy in 1992 when as the 22-year-old Vice President of the Central Florida Young Republican Club he garnered attention from the Secret service after holding a fundraiser at the University of Central Florida where participants were charged two-dollars to fire a shotgun at enlarged photographs of President Bill Clinton in what he dubbed a “Turkey Shoot.”

Patrick McHenry started his political career as a protégé of Karl Rove as the National Coalition Director for George W. Bush’s 2000 Presidential campaign and later briefly worked for Secretary of Labor Elaine Chou, wife of house minority whip Mitch McConnell. It is reported that Jason Drake worked as a campaign volunteer for Patrick McHenry while Drake was stationed in North Carolina. After initial denials, McHenry’s staff confirmed that they knew Drake though they would not comment of the nature of McHenry’s relationship with the man though it has been reported that it was both, “intimate and business/political.”

...The murders of Gonzalez and Abrami were first believed to be “a lover’s quarrel,” as reported by police at the scene. However, that term was later scrubbed from news reports and in a final disposition of the case police refused to release a timeline of events or speculate on a motive in the case.

“What prompted him to go in and commit that crime remains undetermined and may never be known,” stated a complacent Joe Picanzo, a Commander with the Orange County Sheriff’s department, “We have so many different and conflicting statements from people.”

At the time of the murders rumors swirled that there was a link to that crime and another murder in Virginia involving homosexual pornography and a male escort service employing ex-marines. Those rumors were never substantiated though with Karl Rove in the mix images of Jeff Gannon and his extraordinary, and still unexplained, access to the White House leap to mind.

“All three associated socially and professionally to some degree,” confirmed Officer Picanzo back in 2007, as he picked up a broom to sweep all of this back into the closet.

What's in Rubio's closet? Plenty.

WAXMAN DOES NOT SUFFER FOOLS GLADLY-- MAYBE McHENRY AND WESTMORELAND SHOULD LOOK FOR NEW COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

Henry Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, ground zero for investigating Republican malfeasance and criminality is also in the process of passing legislation to finally give residents of the District of Columbia real representation in Congress. As I mentioned in January, I'm not a huge fan of the inherently unfair and racist compromise but, considering the inability to get a better deal, I'm rooting for it as a first step. And, in fact, the bill easily surmounted its first hurdle in the committee yesterday. The bill, which would also give Utah, the most dependably right-wing state in the Union and a Republican bastion, another member in Congress, passed by a vote of 24-5.

Today the House Judiciary Committee will probably give it a tougher time since it's filled with even worse die-hards and hard-right racist nutcases than the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Of course, how you define someone as "worse die-hards and hard-right racist nutcases" than North Carolina's Patrick McHenry or Georgia's Lynn Westmoreland, considered the two stupidest members of Congress, is something else entirely.

In yesterday's session, the opposition came from these two KKKlowns who lamely-- and unsuccessfully-- sought to undermine it with laughable amendments. McHenry offered an amendment that would return parts of DC to Maryland. Waxman's ruling that his amendment was moronic and not worthy of serious consideration was upheld by a 17-5 vote in which most Republicans clenched their teeth and wished McHenry would go play outside in traffic. McHenry was screaming that the bill, sponsored by Republican Tom Davis of Virginia is unconstitutional. His-- and Colbert's-- good buddy Lynn Westmoreland agrees, of course. Can you imagine being stuck on a committee with both these nincompoops? And Westmoreland had his own crazy, childish amendment to annoy people with as well-- which, of course, was also overwhelmingly defeated. He tried to add a provision that would make the bill null and void if it led to a change in the partisan balance that Davis predicted would occur if, as anticipated, DC elects a Democrat and Utah elects a Republican. Their biggest fear, of course, is that eventually DC will get 2 senators, African-American ones.

Waxman will deftly deal with the mentally handicapped members of his committee and the more serious obstructionism from the wingnuts all week as his committee brings 5 important bills to the floor this week. Today the House votes on the Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007, the Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2007 and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007. Tomorrow we have the Accountability in Contracting Act. According to Waxman "For the past six years we've had an Administration that has tried to operate with secrecy and without transparency and without the public having knowledge about their actions and to be able to therefore hold them accountable... The 5 bills we'll be considering over the next two days will reassert the principle that democracy thrives on openness and accountability."

The legislation seek to change the way Congress and the federal government do business and shines a bright light on how the government operates. The bills seek to end waste in federal contracting, strengthen protections for federal "whistleblowers" who report waste, fraud, and abuse, increase disclosure requirements for Presidential records, require disclosure of big donors to Presidential libraries, and provide long overdue and constitutionally-mandated oversight of the veterans' health care crisis and other federal issues. Taken in context with what the 110th Congress has already put in place, these bills are strong step forward to restoring accountability and public trust in Washington.

The 5 bills Waxman will shepherd through Congress:

H.R. 1309 - The Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007
This bill amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in a dozen substantive provisions to provide for more timely disclosure of government documents, including restoring the presumption of disclosure to FOIA, helping FOIA requesters obtain timely responses, improving transparency in agency compliance with FOIA, providing an alternative to litigation, and providing accountability for FOIA decisions.

H.R. 1255 – Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007
Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, Bush issued Executive Order 13233 which overturned an executive order issued by President Reagan and gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 nullifies the Bush executive order and establishes procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

H.R. 1254 - Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2007
This bill requires the disclosure of donors to Presidential libraries. Presidential libraries are built using private funds raised by an organization or foundation working on behalf of the president. Under current law, donations for the presidential library can be unlimited in size and are not required to be disclosed. The bill would require that all organizations established for the purpose of raising funds for presidential libraries or their related facilities report on a quarterly basis all contributions of $200 or more. You want to guess why?

H.R. 985 - Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007
This bill strengthens protections for federal whistleblowers to prevent retaliation against those who report wrongdoing, waste, fraud, or abuse to authorities.

H.R. 1362 - The Accountability in Contracting Act
Under the Bush Administration, spending on no-bid contracts has more than doubled and the Administration has hidden contractor overcharges from Congress, international auditors, and the public, impeding oversight and diminishing accountability. This bill changes federal acquisition law to require agencies to limit the use of abuse-prone contracts, to increase transparency and accountability in federal contracting, and to protect the integrity of the acquisition workforce. The bill limits the duration of no-bid contracts awarded in emergencies to eight months, requires large federal agencies to develop and implement a plan to minimize the use of noncompetitive contracts, requires an agency to prepare a public letter explaining why it awarded a no-bid contract, requires that contract overcharges more than $1 million be disclosed to Congress, mandates that agencies devote at least an additional 1% of their procurement budgets to contract oversight, planning and administration, and closes the revolving door, requiring that former federal procurement officers wait one year before seeking employment at a lobbying or contracting firm.


PEELING BACK THE MOLDY, DARK CURTAINS OF SECRECY BUSH AND CHENEY USE TO MASK THEIR CRIMES

The House overwhelmingly passed Waxman's Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007, 333-93. Not one Democratic congressman voted against it and only the worst rubber stamp partisans among Republicans backed Bush and Cheney on this. Even one of the worst right-wing extremists in the whole Congress, Roy Blunt, their whip, broke ranks with Bush on this one and voted with Speaker Pelosi! This is how the bill is described on Speaker Pelosi's website:

Overturning the Bush Executive Order. Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13233 which overturned an executive order issued by President Reagan and gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 would nullify the Bush executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

Among the far right loons who voted in favor of keeping information away from historians and the public are all the usual villains: Duncan Hunter (CA), John Kline (MN), Joe Barton (TX), Michele Bachmann (MN), "Buck" McKeon (CA), Dan Lungren (CA), Don Young (AK), John Doolittle (CA), Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Mean Jean Schmidt (OH), Gary Miller (CA), Howdy Doody (FL), Tim Walberg (MI), Brian Bilbray (CA), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Denny Hastert (IL), Steve King (IA), Thelma Drake (VA), John Boehner (OH), Barbara Cubin (WY), Lynn Westmoreland (GA), Heather Wilson (NM), "Doc" Hastings (WA), James Sensenbrenner (WI), Doug Lamborn (CO), Jim McCrery (LA), Patrick McNutcase (NC), Sue Myrick (NC), Virginia Foxx (NC), Tom Tancredo (CO), and the 3 far right Rogers (AL, MI and KY).


UPDATE: THREE PASSED SO FAR! GO, HENRY!

With the Regime fuming, the House overwhelmingly passed the first 3 of Waxman's 5 "sunshine" bills today, bills pushed by the media to make the Regime less hostile to the Freedom of Information Act. Predictably, Bush says he'll oppose, or even veto, the bills. The bills Bush-- the perfect little authoritarian shit-- most fears are the ones that open up presidential records and the ones that protect government whistleblowers. The votes were 390-34 on the presidential library bill, 333-93 on the presidential records bill and 308-117 on the FOIA legislation.

BUSH AND 144 HOUSE REPUBLICANS OPPOSE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE EXTENSION-- BATTLE MOVES TO THE SENATE WHERE McCAIN WILL SHOW HIS LEADERSHIP ABILITIES

The answer was "no"-- for Bush and whole GOP

Yesterday I got a chance to visit with Jon Powers, the Blue America-endorsed progressive running in an open seat in western New York. He was in town visiting friends and I stopped by to see him. So did a roomful of Iraq war vets-- each and every one a strong Democrat, strong patriot, and among the best of what comes out of our country. I felt humbled to hang out with these guys.

While I was meeting with Jon and his friends, the House voted overwhelmingly (279-144) to pass the Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008 (H R 5749). Someone had asked Jon what the top issue is in his district  (NY-26, which stretched from North Tonawanda and the Buffalo suburbs east to Greece and the Rochester suburbs and south to Wyoming and Livingston counties). His answer was direct: "Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs." I asked him about the high price of gas and he said that's part of "jobs." Republican incumbent Tom Reynolds, who Jon frightened into announcing he wouldn't seek re-election, voted with the 144 anti-working families Republicans against the bill. Only 49 Republicans abandoned their extremist party leaders to vote with working Americans. Even the worst of the Democrats-- creeps like Shuler, Barrow, Boren, Marshall, Bean-- voted for the bill. Most of the Republicans who crossed the aisle aren't exactly friends of working folks; they are just scared witless about an electoral tsunami headed their way.

Larry Joe Doherty is running against a congressman too out of touch even to be scared witless-- Michael McCaul in Texas. McCaul married into one of Texas' super-rich families and, like Bush, is clueless when it comes to the problems American families are going through today. We asked Larry Joe, who has been endorsed by Blue America, if McCaul's vote yesterday would be an issue in the campaign.

"With rising gas and food prices, even a brief period without work can devastate a family's finances. So what does Mike McCaul do? He kicks families while they're down. But what's worse is that he helped put the economy in this state by voting to spend billions on a misguided war while ignoring economic needs here at home and supporting policies that ship American jobs overseas.  Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, and we're sending you home."

Northern Virginia is a world a way from the Austin and the Houston suburbs but Judy Feder, the Democratic nominee for the seat now held by out of touch Frank Wolf, had much the same reaction. "The decision by Congressman Wolf to continue to support the failed economic policies of the Bush administration is particularly damaging at a time when many of Virginia's families are faced with concerns about financial and economic stability," Judy told us this morning. "Defending the status quo over the needs of Virgnia's hardworking families is just not acceptable-- they deserve better."

Among the hard core right-wingers who gave the finger to working men and women and signaled that they won't, under any circumstances, be available to help the victims of The Bush Economic Miracle were:

Steve Pearce (NM)
Michele Bachmnan (MN)
Scott Garrett (NJ)
Thelma Drake (VA)
Michael McCaul (TX)
Ken Calvert (CA)
Frank Wolf (VA)
Peter King (NY)
David Dreier (CA)
Dana Rohrabacher (CA)
Two Families Values Fossella (NY)
Mark Kirk (IL)
John Shadegg (AZ)
John Kline (MN)
Mike Pence (IN)
Jerry Lewis (CA)
Marilyn Musgrave (CO)
Virginia Foxx (NC)

Seeing Foxx's name made me double check where little Miss Patty McHenry was. I had a good laugh thinking about how the loud mouthed closet queen once bragged how he would teach his GOP colleagues by example how a true right-winger should vote and how he would never waiver from the dark path. All it took was a strong opponent jumping into the November race and McHenry scurried across the aisle with his tail between his legs to squeak out a "yes," with the Democrats, who I'm sure were as amused as I was.

Despite an out of control unemployment rate (officially 5.5% but, when you include discouraged workers who have given up looking or can't afford the gas to go look, closer to 15%) Bush has vowed to veto the bill if it gets by obstructionist tactics by McConnell and McCain in the Senate. And the House was 3 votes short of a veto-proof majority.

One place the Democrats will not be able to look for one of the 3 votes needed to override Bush's promised veto is New Jersey 's most radical right ideologue, Scott Garrett. New Jersey voters have an opportunity to take him out with the trash in November and replace him with one of the most extraordinary people running for Congress this year, Dennis Shulman. We called Dennis and asked him what he makes of such a crazy and uncaring vote from a congressman representing such a mainstream and moderate suburban New Jersey district. "Scott Garrett's vote is yet another indication that he is out of touch with the economic crisis facing North Jersey and this nation.  Perhaps Garrett's twenty years as a career politician supported by the special interests gives him a false sense of job security, but his constituents know that we are in an economic crisis and that we shouldn't blame families just because the Bush-Garrett economy is failing."

I spoke with quite a few candidates about the vote last night. My favorite off the cuff remark was from Alan Grayson in Orlando. The Republican incumbent in his district, Ric Keller, a notorious rubber stamp, voted against unemployment benfits and Alan said, "Keller will wish that he'd voted for it when he's unemployed, on Nov. 5th." Please consider $5 donations for Alan, as well as for Dennis Shulman, Judy Feder, Jon Powers and Larry Joe Doherty, all easily accessible on the Blue America ActBlue page. It's our government. Let's not let special interests buy it up; we've seen the results of that.

ELECTORAL TARGETING: THE 2008 HOUSE RACES

Just a brief word on primaries for faithless Democrats like Ellen Tauscher and Rahm Emanuel and then I won't mention them for the rest of this story. The beauty, though, in primaries is that targeting can be done based substantially, or even entirely, on the record of the incumbent. In other words, if the incumbent gets elected as a Democrat but then votes like a Republican, Democrats have the right duty to hold his or, in Tauscher's case, her, feet to the fire. The $20 million that it cost Holy Joe Lieberman to retain his "safe" seat should serve as a warning to Tauscher-type Democrats. Judging by her actions since the primary, one Tauscher-type Democrat, Jane Harman, has learned a valuable lesson in politics and I think we can expect better things from her because of Marcy Winograd's muscular primary challenge.

Unfortunately, in targeting for the general election, the degree of odiousness of the incumbent is all too often not the determining factor of whether or not to target a seat. The reality of electibility takes precedence. Believe me, it's purely coincidental when the seat of an especially hideous Republican winds up an electoral priority for the DCCC or DSCC. That's what made Jerry McNerney's race against Dirty Dick Pombo so important and that was the one saving grace of the victory by anti-choice Emanuel puppet Heath Shuler over Charlie Taylor.


Late in October I was working on a piece I never got to finish: "The Dirtiest Dozen Republicans in The House." It was meant to be more than just another list of the worst of the worst. I started by noting how all the Democrats seriously targeted by the GOP for the midterm elections were the Democrats who voted most frequently with Republicans on substantive issues. They' didn't go after the liberals, the populists and the progressives who they can't stop screaming about. They targeted the Democrats who have supported Bush and who have most frequently rubber stamped his policies and gone along with his anti-human, corporatist agenda. In this huge anti-Bush year, which augured so well for Democrats, Democratic incumbents reckoned to be endangered included reactionaries like Charlie Melancon (LA), Jim Marshall (GA), Chet Edwards (TX), Leonard Boswell (IA), John Barrow (GA), Alan Mollohan (WV), John Salazar (CO), Melissa Bean (IL), John Spratt (SC). By voting records, outside of housekeeping tallies, these incumbents are hardly Democrats at all. But that's where the GOP put it's money. Conservatives in Georgia, for example, who donated money to the GOP saw their contributions paying for partisan campaigns against Jim Marshall and John Barrow, Democrats who generally vote very much how Georgia conservatives want them to vote, while not a red cent went into defeating a Georgia liberal whose voting record drives them crazy-- John Lewis-- who they didn't even bother to oppose.

Now what about the Republican incumbents being targeted by Democrats? In the true sense of the term, there are no longer any moderate Republicans, but of the dozen least fascist-oriented Republican incumbents-- ones who occasionally vote in the interests of their constituents instead of for corporate interests-- only 4 were seriously targeted: Chris Shays (CT), Michael Fiztpatrick (PA), Nancy Johnson (CT), and Rob Simmons (CT). (All but Shays were defeated.) Way on the extreme end of the political spectrum, however, where it gets hard to sort out who's a conservative and who's an actual fascist, quite a few lively races were under way that were meant to oust some of the most extreme hate-mongers and right wing fanatics in Congress. Among the worst Republicans who had serious challenges to face in November are Mean Jean Schmidt (OH), Chris Chocola (IN), John Kline (MN), Jim Ryun (KS), Marilyn Musgrave (CO), Thelma Drake (VA), Michael Sodrel (IN), Barbara Cubin (WY), John Doolittle (CA), Dirty Dick Pombo (CA), J.D. Hayworth (AZ), Dennis Hastert (IL), Robin Hayes (NC), Charles Taylor (NC). Six of these extremist ideologues went down to ignominious defeat.

Still, the vast majority of far right fanatics in the Republican House caucus, including some of the absolute most bigoted and most corrupt, got off scott free with virtually no serious challenge. Look, for example at the list of the 33 unreconstructed neoConfederates who voted against renewing the Voting Rights Act this year: Richard Baker (LA), Gresham Barrett (SC), Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Joe Barton (TX), Jo Bonner (AL), Dan Burton (IN), John Campbell (CA), Michael Conaway (TX), Nathan Deal(GA), John Doolittle (CA), John Duncan (TN), Terry Everett (AL), Virginia Foxx (NC), Trent Franks (AZ), Scott Garrett (NJ), Phil Gingrey (GA), Joel Hefley (CO), Jeb Hensarling (TX), Wally Herger (CA), Sam Johnson (TX), Steve King (IA), John Linder (GA), Patrick McHenry (NC), Gary Miller (CA), Charlie Norwood (GA), Ron Paul (TX), Tom Price (GA), Dana Rohrabacher (CA), Edward Royce (CA), John Shadegg (AZ), Tom Tancredo (CO), Mac Thornberry (TX), and Lynn Westmoreland (GA). Although grassroots Democrats supported vibrant campaigns against Doolittle and Tancredo (and against the retiring Hefley's even worse replacement), the other 30 on this list of human scum had almost nothing to worry about. And that doesn't even go to the virtually unchallenged kingpins at the helm of the whole Republican culture of corruption-- Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Don Young, Jerry Lewis, Duncan Hunter...

So who are Democratic targeters zeroing in on for 2008? The first rule of thumb, after watching for retirements, is to look for seats where the Republicans won by 5% or less. Just going by the numbers that would put 40 Republican-held seats into contention. Seven of them are also freshmen, traditionally considered to be an incumbent's most vulnerable year since they haven't had time to establish themselves as institutions in their districts, delivering bacon to the locals in return for political fealty above and beyond ideology. The seven freshmen who won tight races are Vern Buchanan (FL-13; who didn't really even win and may not be seated), Bill Sali (ID-01), Peter Roskam (IL-06), Tim Walberg (MI-07), Michele Bachman (MN-06), Adrian Smith (NE-03), and Dean Heller (NV-02).

Several grassroots and netroots favorites nearly unseated Republican incumbents and know they can count on no-strings-attached support if they try again. This puts 19 Republicans from the under 55% list in jeopardy: John Doolittle (CA-04), Brian Bilbray (CA-50), Marilyn Musgrave (CO-04), Michael Rogers (MI-08), Joe Knollenberg (MI-09), Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11)-- Michigan will definitely be a battleground state in '08-- Michele Bachman (MN-06), Adrian Smith (NE-03), Mike Ferguson (NJ-07), Jim Walsh (NY-25), Randy Kuhl (NY-29), Robin Hayes (NC-08), Mean Jean Schmidt (OH-02), Deborah Pryce (OH-15), Phil English (PA-03), Jim Gerlach (PA-06), Thelma Drake (VA-02), Dave Reichert (WA-08), and Barbara Cubin (WY-AL).

Several of these Republicans won with less than 50% of the vote, making them particularly interesting as targets-- including Doolittle (49%), Musgrave (46%), Buchanan (officially it was 50/50 but the voting irregularities were so blatantly egregious that this race should be re-run), Jon Porter (NV-03; 48%), Ferguson (49%), Heather Wilson (NM-01; 50/50 with less than 900 votes separating the 2 candidates), Hayes (even closer-- 50/50 with less than 400 votes separating the two), Pryce (50/50 with around 1,000 vote disparity), and Cubin (48%).

The other Republicans who managed to stay in office with 55% or less of the vote were Richard Renzi (AZ-01), Chris Shays (CT-04), Dick Keller (FL-08), Mark Kirk (IL-10), Jerry Weller (IL-11), Mark Souder (IN-03), Geoff Davis (KY-04), Lee Terry (NE-02), Scott Garrett (NJ-05), Tom Reynolds (NY-26), Charlie Dent (PA-15), and Mike McCaul (TX-10).

If you go back to the Blue America archive of candidates we raised money for, you'll find several we will be encouraging to run again in 2008, particularly Charlie Brown, either Vic Wulsin or Paul Hackett, John Laesch (who will be ready to run as soon as Planet Denny Hastert announces he's resigning to replace Bush's ex as the new ambassador to Japan), Angie Paccione, Larry Kissell, Tony Trupiano, Eric Massa, and Steven Porter. Personally I feel we made tremendous headway in CA-25 and CA-45 with Robert Rodriguez and David Roth and I'd like to see them both continue to build a Democratic base in those districts. (And my fingers are crossed that a close watch on incumbent Democrats Al Wynn, Tim Mahoney, and the aforementioned Jane Harman, will either yield acceptable behavior or fresh primary challenges from Donna Edwards, David Lutrin and Marcy Winograd.

Who Are The Worst Members Of Congress-- The Best Electoral Targets?

Club For Growth (of corporate power)

There are endless ways to measure this and plenty of strategies to answer the question. Normally I consult members' voting records. It's an imperfect way to do this but, sprinkled with a little sense, it really is the best way to figure out the worst of the worst. At that link above, if you scroll down to the bottom of the list-- bottom of the barrel-- you'll find the worst of the worst. Problem is, most of these reactionary lunatics are in backward districts filled with people just like them. Many don't have any real opponents. One of those tied for worst, Steve King of Iowa, does have a great-- if longshot-- opponent this year, Rob Hubler. So do Mike Pence of Indiana, Thelma Drake of Virginia, John Kline of Minnesota, Tom Feeney of Florida, Henry Brown of South Carolina and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina.

But among those at the bottom of the barrel are five who actually look like they are facing defeat in 2 weeks:

Tim Walberg (R-MI)
Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)

Coincidentally, the most extremist of the Republican Party front groups, the neo-fascist Club for Growth, has endorsed three of these arch-reactionaries this week: Bachmann, Shadegg and Garrett. According to the National Journal's House Race Hotline, "when the Club, who normally likes to just play in GOP primaries, endorses an incumbent, you know GOPers are worried." The Club is a good contrary indicator and it's not a bad idea to put money behind the opponents of these incumbents. Among the best candidates running anywhere-- regardless of who they're running against-- are Mark Schauer (MI-07), Vic Wulsin (OH-02), and Dennis Shulman (NJ-05) all Blue America candidates and Bob Lord (who can be helped out here).

The new issue of Time Magazine has their startlingly superficial look at a dozen Hot Races, including Linda Stender's battle against right wing nutcase Leonard Lance (NJ-07), nominal Democrat Alice Kryzan's fight with rightist Chris Lee for the open NY-26 seat, Jim Gilmore's likely slaughter by moderate Democrat Mark Warner in the open Virginia Senate race, a reprise of the biased, pro-Reichert garbage hit piece by pseudo journalist Amy Sullivan on how the netroots is hurting front runner Darcy Burner (WA-08), Charlie Brown's homegrown campaign against lunatic fringe carpetbagger Tom McClintock (CA-04), Suzanne Kosmas' likely defeat of the corrupt Florida hack Tom Feeney (FL-24), the Mississippi race pitting two worthless reactionaries-- so-called Democrat Travis Childers and Republican Greg Davis-- against each other again (MS-01), the unlikely race between come from behind Becky Greenwald against GOP hack Tom Latham (IA-04), a spectacular race pitting one of this year's congressional superstars, Martin Heinrich against Bush's closest New Mexico ally, Darren White (NM-01), the laughable race between arch-conservative Democrat Mike McMahon and GOP hot dog vendor Bob Straniere in Staten Island (NY-13) to replace convicted GOP congressman Vito Fossella, Mary Jo Kilroy's march to victory over right-wing kook Steve Stivers in Columbus (OH-15), and the Senate race in Minnesota pitting moderate Democrat Al Franken against Bush rubber stamp Norm Coleman.

If Time wanted to be relevant, the race they should have covered is this one.

And this morning there are more CQPolitics congressional race ratings changes-- each one dire for the GOP. We all saw this coming: after unmasking herself on national TV, crazy right wing extremist Michele Bachmann's chances of winning re-election have dimmed in MN-06. Since Bachmann shot her mouth off, Blue Dog Elwyn Tinklenberg has been given over a million dollars by outraged Americans to help him get rid of Bachmann-- on top of which, the DCCC is running another million dollars of ads against her.

The best news of the day, though, came in Orlando, where top Blue America endorsee, Alan Grayson, is now seen as the clear winner against corrupt Bush rubber stamp Ric Keller. A victory for Grayson, which now appears likely, will mean there is another person in the House with a Paul Wellstone quality of fighting for American working families against the power of the deadly combination of Big Business + Big Government. In two weeks, the best news of the night could well come of FL-08.

Suzanne Kosmas is also now favored to beat another extremely corrupt Republican radical, Tom Feeney (R-Abramoff) in central Florida (the 24th CD). After trying to tough out the accusastions that he had been taking bribes from Abramoff, Feeney "took the unusual step of apologizing to his constituents in a paid ad this summer, labeling the trip a 'rookie mistake.' Yet the Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board noted the Abramoff flap in its recent endorsement of Kosmas.

There was even bad news for the crumbling Republican Party in Wyoming, where the at-large House seat being abandoned by crazed KKK advocate Barbara Cubin now looks like it will go to Democrat Gary Trauner instead of another GOP clone, Cynthia Lummis.

In an upstate New York district (NY-25), Dan Maffei is so far ahead of a listless Republican nonentity, Dale Sweetland, that the race is all but over. The district has been edging blue and Maffei has outraised Sweetland 4-1.

And, finally, in Oregon's one open seat, voters are completely rejecting a far right extremist loon, Mike Erickson, in favor of a moderate Democratic state Senator, Kurt Schrader. It has all been steeply downhill for Erickson, an anti-choice fanatic, when his Republican primary opponent accused him of gross hypocrisy for paying for at least one abortion for a girlfriend. He's not likely to break 40%. Schrader has nearly a quarter million dollars left to spend and Erickson has barely $40,000 on hand.

Meanwhile a new poll in Alaska is reporting that Congress' King of Pork, Don Young, is going to lose his
House seat-- by a lot. Ethan Berkowitz is up 51-43%!

Please help Alan Grayson put this new ad up on TV starting today:




UPDATE: REPUBLICAN PARTY IS WORRIED

Politico has a list of the ten incumbents the GOP is most worried about (based on their phone-banking operations). #1 is Robin Hayes (NC), who is now denying his denial about saying Democrats hate people who like God. The man has actually lost his mind. Others on the list:

Dave Reichert (R-WA)
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI)
Don Young (R-AK)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Jon Porter (R-NV)
Phil English (R-PA)
Randy Kuhl (R-NY)

THE SUPREME COURT SLAPPED DOWN CONGRESS TOO, NOT JUST BUSH

Leading up to the 2006 elections, Bush and Rove knew it would be easy to get the rubber stamp Republicans and plenty of craven, cowardly Democrats to vote for the abysmal Military Commissions Act (S. 3930). And it was. This bill was at the heart of what the Supreme Court struck down today, lecturing both the unitary Executive and the rubber stamp Congress that they're not allowed to change the Constitution just because they want to.

Every single Republican in the U.S. Senate voted to pass this atrocious, viciously anti-constitutional piece of junk law... with two exceptions, Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who ducked the vote, and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) who voted with 33 pro-Constitution Democrats. Some of the senators who voted for this were instantly sent packing by their constituents, namely George Allen (R-VA), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Mike DeWine (R-OH), Rick Santorum (R-PA), and Jim Talent (R-MO). Sometimes democracy works.

In November another batch of senatorial creatures who voted for this bill will face their constituents for the first time since that vote. One is John McCain, a key player in the passage of the bill, someone, in fact, still defending it and vowing to appoint judges like the 4 extremists who voted against the ruling yesterday. Other senators facing re-election who should be held accounatble for their bad judgment in the fall are:

Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Norm Coleman (R-MN)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Ted Stevens (R-AK)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)

If any of these senators work for you, fire them in November. The Senate would be a far better place if each and every one of them-- the Democrats as well as the Republicans-- were contemplating what they did wrong while looking for a new line of work.

In the House 160 Democrats voted against the bill ( H R 6166), along with 7 Republicans. Thirty-four Democrats disgraced themselves by voting with the GOP. You can look over the full list of the betrayers and defenders of the Constitution here. I'd like to single out some especially egregious members of Congress whose constituents should hold them in contempt and fire them:

John Barrow (D-GA)
Charlie Dent (R-PA)
Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Mike Pence (R-IN)
Michael McCaul (R-TX)
Don Young (R-AK)
Dave Reichert (R-WA)
Melissa Bean (D-IL)
Jim Marshall (D-GA)
Randy Kuhl (R-NY)
Phil English (R-PA)
David Dreier (R-CA)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Mary Bono (R-CA)
Frank Wolf (R-VA)
Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Dan Boren (D-OK)
Joe Knollenberg (R-MI)
the Diaz-Balart Brothers (R-FL)
Robin Hayes (R-NC)
Virgil Goode (R-VA)
Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Chris Shays (R-CT)
John Kline (R-MN)
Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV)
Thelma Drake (R-VA)
Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Sam Graves (R-MO)
Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
John Shadegg (R-AZ)

That's 30-- strictly bipartisan-- whose departures would make the House a far, far better place.

How To Run A Dirty Re-Election Campaign-- Meet John Kline and Diana Bratlie

John Kline has a record

You may remember Mike McIntee as the innovative Minnesota artist who created the videos for our Blue America campaign song last year, Have You Had Enough? This year Mike is volunteering for the Steve Sarvi campaign. Sarvi is running against one of the worst of the extremist Republican radicals, John Kline in a district just south of the Twin Cities. And he's up to his old tricks again. Kline, who's hallmark is dirty and deceptive campaigning, has hired one of Minnesota's most notorious dirt tricks operatives, Diana Bratlie. And Mike has done an entertaining and informative video about what Bratlie's been up to. It's worth watching:



Note at the end of the clip Mike explains that when he asked Bratlie why Kline refuses to hold public forums with voters and answer questions, she says "since Kline has a record, he doesn't have to do that." Since Kline is one of the Texas Tea Party clowns who is shilling for Big Oil in DC this week (instead of facing his constituents back home), we decided to take a look at his record. Let's start by asking ourselves if his constituents know that he has taken $118,705 in campaign "donations" from Big Oil-- which just may have something to do with the fact that he has rubber stamped every single bill, without exception, that Big Oil has wanted, bills which have led directly to skyrocketing fuel prices. ($36,800 of that has come from Koch Industries, one of the most venal Republican oil firms that rewards oil industry shills who sell out their home districts; they're one of his top donors for his entire shameless career in Congress.) I mean we are talking about a guy who has participated in 30 rolls call votes regarding renewable energy and who voted against renewable energy all 30 times-- a startling record for that $118,705!

John Kline's voting record is breathtaking-- even compared to other rubber stamp Republicans. When you look at the substantive roll calls that have divided the two parties, he's tied for the second worst position at the very bottom of the Republican barrel. His score is .047 (out of 100)-- identical to lunatic fringe extremists like Tim Walberg (R-MI), Mike Pence (R-IN), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Thelma Drake (R-VA), Trent Franks (R-AZ), and even worse than voting records by nationally recognized disgraces like Mean Jean Schmidt, Marilyn Musgrave, Tom Feeney, Scott Garrett and John Doolittle. Who has a worse voting record than John Kline? Lynn Westmoreland, the maniac who went on the Colbert Report 2 years ago, bragged about cosponsoring a bill to have the Ten Commandments posted in every classroom and, when asked to name the ten...

Colbert: What are the Ten Commandments?

Westmoreland: You mean all of them?–Um… Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal Um… I can’t name them all.

As for Kline's specific voting record, the one that makes him immune from questions from his constituents:
Iraq War- voted with Bush and Cheney 59 times out of 59 roll calls; worst record in the entire House.

And when he came to the well-being of our active duty service men-- providing them with armored vehicles and health care and things like that? There have been 22 roll calls since Kline got to Congress and he's voted against our service members all 22 times.

Veterans? 23 roll calls, 23 votes against veterans.

But it isn't only military personnel and veterans he hates. He's voted against senior citizens, the unemployed, farmers, children, and victims of natural disasters, every single time there has been a vote. And it shouldn't surprise you to find out he's voted against women's choice every single time that has come up as well-- 13 roll calls since he was first elected.

So if he votes against everything and everyone, what does he support? Glad you asked? He has a 100% voting record in support of tax breaks for the wealthy, tax breaks for Big Oil, tax breaks for big corporations, and for people who commit hate crimes. And that's the voting record Diana Bratlie thinks he doesn't need to explain to voters in Minnesota! Perhaps you want to check out Steve Sarvi's record.