—>Joe

You guys are making a huge mistake pushing Sam Bennett for Congress in the 15th CD in Pennsylvania.

I am a registered Democrat in Bethlehem, PA which is right in the heart of the 15th Congressional District. I am also an unabashed liberal but I won’t be voting for or supporting Sam Bennett in any way.

She is an opportunist of the first degree who has been using people of good will to further her own ambitions and her track record, such as it is, consists of her taking all the credit for accomplishments that others achieve.

She, and some of her unknowing blogger supporters, have been making much of the fact that the last democrat to run against Charlie Dent in the 15th got 43% of the vote without spending hardly any money. What they are not saying, maybe because they don’t know this District well enough, is that any Democrat will get 43% of the vote. You need to raise $2 million in order to get from 43% to 50% plus 1 vote in order to win.

You really should ask more ordinary people who live in the district what they think of her before crowning Sam Bennett as the savior of progressivism in the Lehigh Valley. She has done some work, some good, some not so good. However, in my opinion, that doesn’t make her qualified for our unquestionable support.

She has also run, and lost twice, for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Allentown. She could not beat two different Democrats, who were both less than spectacular candidates, in her own base area. How in the world can anybody look at that result and think that makes her a viable candidate to win a general election in a vastly larger and more diverse congressional district against an incumbent Republican Congressman?

A lot of other people have done a whole lot more to support and promote a progressive agenda in this area for a much longer time than Sam Bennett. Just because none of them happen to have declared that they are running for Congress doesn’t necessarily mean that they will all line up in lock step behind Sam Bennett.

In fact, many of the progressive leaders in the district, including some of the highest profile Democratic elected officials are not supporting Sam Bennett Because they know she cannot win the Congressional seat. These folks are quietly trying to find a better candidate and a way to replace Bennett without having her throw a fit and undercut a better candidate.

All Bennett is doing is what she has always done. She is gaming the system to get lots of campaign donations to pay off the $100k in personal loans and debts she has from her two failed mayoral campaigns and to feed her ego-driven need for lots of attention and positive feedback.

She will not beat Charlie Dent but she will take lots of money from well meaning progressives though and that is a shame.

I am so excited that these distaff candidates can tell the DCCC and EMILY*s List that their support is progressive and national. Nothing matters more than money right now, folks — the big funders will scour those end-of-September reports, looking for the ability to bring in money across sectors and geography. This money at the end of this quarter really matters to these candidates.

Please help if you can. Now is infinitely better than next week.

TSF: I’ve just logged out at work and will be home in an hour or so. I will definitely cough up as much as I can tonight.
I love that even my small contributions are valued by BA candidates!

Just saw this in the Glob feed from AP:

Emptying the trash, carrying groceries and toting golf clubs were among duties allegedly assigned to U.S. marshals protecting two federal judges in New York over the last decade — one of whom has been nominated to be the next U.S. attorney general.

Looks like Mukasey isn’t going to be such a slam dunk after all.

Hi, RevDeb – I hope this is just the start of more and more. Did you read the piece over the weekend about his treatment of an uncharged “material witness” and his attorney a week or two after 9/11/07? He refused to allow a well-known, but Arab-surnamed, NY attorney to co-counsel w/ the man’s California atty, who of course knew nothing about NY procedure. The transcript was astonishing.

Eeee Gads….House overwhelmingly voted to tighten Iran sanctions.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/U…..52007.html

Only one little goody in it, and that it is this:

“It sanctions foreign companies with US subsidiaries which invest in Iran particularly in oil and gas sectors.”

In any case, here we go again…give Bush/Cheney what they want…WTF?

Schwarzenegger has also promised to sign a bill that would prevent California’s two largest public employee pension funds (cal pers and cal strs) from investing in any company doing business in Iran.

yeah its nice to know that if one’s funds are limited you’re not disparaged…after we don’t ALL have deep pockets…but there’s always a way to contribute….

juslin, I have read Howie’s comments to that effect many times on BA threads. Howie says what he thinks, as I’m sure you know ;). I enjoy the push for $ when I have a FEW $ to give, but it’s hard sometimes for me to participate in the dialog when I can’t do that.

I don’t know if you have seen this “Howie” video interview or not. It’s been up for a while at Howie’s DWT blog- go over to DWT, and click on the life guard station pic, and then follow links.

Some where in there Howie is talking about how the most $$ that BA raised in a week came when he put out an appeal for $5 donations. Well, he wasn’t just talking, he was celebrating!