Donna!

Pach!

Hi, Pachacutec! Dems must show stones!!

S’up, y’all?

I don’t want to rain on our parade, but, the fact that Gilchrest lost too says that it may be a feeling of ‘throw the bums out’ no matter what their political views are.

What was the final vote count?

nada, just reading your fine post on Edwards, great vid too!

Hmmm…coinkydinky….very interesting.

On Friday, I mailed letters to Pelosi, Hoyer and Emanuel pointing out the Edwards victory and asking them to pay attention to us. I’m sure they’ll ignore it, but it felt good.

Vid props go to Stoller.

good brain bleach after looking at the heritage site earlier.

I think it must’ve been you.

*g*

We in this house want Pelosi and Reid to become historical (replaced) as soon as possible.

Steny Hoyer may be a DLC Dem, but he’s not dumb, and he certainly understands the math of voting.

How’s Laesch doing? Are they still counting?

But how do we tell the difference between
a Donna Edwards and a Jerry McNerney?

I asked Donna yesterday what exactly changed between this election and 06 and she didn’t give much of an answer.

I think at least some of this was associated with throw the bums out (I’m all for that as I am a term limits advocate) thing. I think also it was an Obama coat tail thing. And maybe people are letting go of some of the prejudice… also as a result of Obama.

If her message hasn’t changed, what did?

New rule of thumb. Don’t elect anyone who’s name ends in ‘ney’.

Lets do it again!

idk, my take-aways was that it was getting a progressive message out and contrasting that with wynn.

The Edwards win is a message to Pelosi etal not to be so complacent and sure of their seat of power. They’ve heard our issues and with the Edwards win showing the results of not listening, this has to give some of the old regulars cause to pause.

Nothing really wrong with Jerry. He is in a very red district after all. Here is what he’s committed to on THE issue which we supported him on.

And here is what needs to happen next.

We are on the move. Let them fear us now. Let us give them reason to fear.

Hmm. . .

Well, Wynn wrapped hinself in Obama, too.

Donna had a lot more money and institutional support this time, as I reference in my post. The early seed money came from a lot of you here, and that allowed her to use the early investment, not only to establish renewed credibility, but to raise more money. She had name recognition in place this time around, and a new campaign leadership team.

There are a number of differences, it seems, to me. She had more resources and more experience in a better name recognition environment to close the sale, and what’s more, the word on Wynn took a little while - two election cycles, apparently - to take root.

It also probably reflects the continued build-up of Edwards’s name recognition from 2006 to now.

JINX!

your words from my screen to dog’s ears

If it’s ONLY name recognition this is not as hopeful as it could be.

We would want the message to be the deciding factor. We read it as a old Dino being rejected in favor or a progressive. I wonder if the exit polls tell that story.

Were there any exit polls?

Has there been and real forensics on that race?

Let’s not forget that it’s almost unheard of for a sitting Congressperson to be unseated.

Turnover in the U.S. Congress was lower than that in the Russian Duma.

And that was before this…………….

CWSI — Conventional Wisdom Scene Investigation….

Suzanne Kosmas (D- Florida) will face Clint Curtis D in a primary battle. The winner will run against Meany Tom Feeney (R-Rotten). Suzanne asked me to keep her posted on the blogs. That may indicate that she doesn’t read blogs herself, and may not be a good sign. It would be helpful to send her these Donna Edwards news items. My computer is malfuntioning. Would someone send the Edwards stories to her campaign email address. Its info @ kosmas for congress dot com. You can put Dave and Company in the heading or in the from box.

Nah. The letters haven’t reached them yet. I’ll claim credit for something next week. :)

Plus, the FISA thing happened Thursday, before your Friday letter.

Where’s Marcy? We need a time line!

:->

Nothing really wrong with Jerry.

He pulled a 180 on the estate tax.

I so love being older (really older than I care to admit). It’s like looking at a complete body of work over time. More than once the people said enough and became active and the fire spread. Nothing could stop the momentum. The People have had enough and we will do what me must to bring serious change.

I think it is about much more than one candidate. I think it is a movement that is sweeping the country. The old guard will want business as usual but the movement will sweep across them. There is nothing so powerful as a movement whose time has come.

I would include within the scope of “name recognition” the association of her name with a progressive agenda that the voters wanted to further.

Edwards was only one of many factors I think. Equally important was the hot press placed on Dems thanks to people like Christy at the lake and progressive blogs elsewhere. The House offices heard loud and clear not only that people were pissed, but also that they were determined to speak out about it. Yet another factor, I think, has been the huge momentum of the Obama campaign in outwardly attacking the war and cutting off at the legs the Bush “security ueber alles” meme. THe great fear for Dems was that they would be seen as soft on terror (i.e. anti- M.E. war continuum), and rather than being seen as “weak” the Obama campaign (and latter Clinton’s) made it clear that the Dems had a new “war” on their hands that was more damaging than the threats by the right that they were soft of terror. Finally, when the Rethugs in the Senate so dishonestly changed the course of events, really pissing of Whitehouse and others, and the Dems responded with notable fury, the House Dems realized that they also had back up. In short, Edwards’ win is impressive and important. But it was as much a victory for her alone (she is so smart, outspoken, engaging, and warm) that if she were a notably lesser candidate with the same views, I doubt that even the progressive fire power of SEIU, Emily’s list, etc. could have carried her.

my fax to mr. hoyer suggested next time he invest in the rule of law, it’ll yield a much greater return.

It’s all those things, you’re right.

Donna is a great candidate, no question. She needed the coalition power, too.

The good news is, having demonstrated that there can be coalition backup for a strong progressive candidate (one who is not already rich), the effect could conceivably be that more strong candidates will decide to make the jump around the country.

I agree with you. The American people, even the ones who don’t keep up with everything the way we do, have a sense of “something wrong.” There is a lot of decency in this country and citizens don’t like it when America is not doing well. I do think this is a movement which may take us several cycles to reach the goal but we will.

which gives us more and better Democrats!

I have faith not so much in the word ‘progressive’, but in progressive ideals and ideas. I have been labeled liberal, left-wing, radical, socialist and now progressive. Progressive is just another word for compassion. We are going to win that day, come next November.

which gives us more and better Democrats!

:)

Lahoma and I are very impressed with Donna Edwards. And we were extremely pleased with Senator Obama last night.

Progressive momentum.

Very nice intro from the governor, too. He looked as if he really enjoyed making that speech.

Momentum rocks the old regulars. They have to be doing some soul searching and deciding if they should stay and join the change or announce retirement to be with their family.

Edwards is the first of many wins. I doubt if many old regulars can get out of the rut and become someone other than they’ve been or they would have done so already. I think they will be replaced by other Edwardsesque wins.

Yeppers. ;0)

Absolutely - it will only get better. And thanks for this post! I think there are other funding differences that are happening too. I don’t know how many Dem voters these days (as opposed to corporations and special interests) are contributing to the DNC, DCCC etc. My sense is that most people are contributing directly to candidates either alone (Obama’s supporters are particularly engaged) or through groups such as Act Blue. I imagine that this will continue, and that if Obama gets the nod and continues to accumulate major funds, he also will be able (and very willing) to fund progressive candidates all over the country with funds not needed in the campaign itself. Alas, as with Lamont, the tricky part is the no-support “clause” for Dem challengers in the primaries. It is here where our progressive funds will be key, and as with Edwards, close losses may mean later gains.

Even if the challengers are not supported by the elected Dems and their funding organs there may be a possibive imprint. Look at Pelosi, for example, while Cindy Sheehan’s primary candidacy may not be a real theat, her very presence in this, has an effect of forcing Pelosi to reassess how she wants to be viewed by her very progressive constituents. So, in short, I think we also have to thank Cindy Sheehan in part for this victory.

I can almost savor the taste of victory next November. And smell the decay of McCain now.

Kiddo: “I can almost savor the taste…and smell….” - man, even your political language is channeled through food. You guys really must eat well! (And thanks for the vicarious bites).

the only thing that works is change. target and change. keep doin’ it.
don’t give up. don’t stop. know your goals and values. target, and change.
i’m happy to say i did my little bit for donna. feels good.

And we’ve learned a lot along the way, too. I learned it is wiser to have fewer better quality candidates than to go for bulk in numbers. The Blue Dogs woke me up with a cold glass of ice water in my face. With Dems like that, who needs Right Wing Repugs. So, I owe Blue Dogs a debt of gratitude. I won’t make that mistake again.

The sun is shining and the sky is clear blue!

There is a lot of talent in the Democratic party. Dodd, Kucinich, Richardson, John Edwards, Chris Dodd, Donna Edwards, Obama and many more. Don’t tell me, please, that Pelosi and Reid are talented. We need to rid ourselves of them and the DLC.

IMNSHO, Gilchrist is an outlier. He was attacked from the right because he refused to toe the R party line 24/7. In fact, his loss may put that seat n play for the Dems in the general election. The Rs have become quite good at becoming the purity party in most every way possible.

Here’s hoping!

We need lots more good progressive candidates and lots more of us here raising money and on the ground doing the face to face work that needs to be done.

Pach,

From Thurs. when I heard of Nancy’s stand down on PAA I immediately thought that she heard the message loud and clear coming out of the MD-04. Just like Jane Harmon modified her behavior after being primaried by Marcy Winograd.

Wake-up calls are good. Let’s keep making them.

Pach,
Is there any info on the make-up of the “conference” to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the bill? I seem to recall reading something that it was going to be the Chair and ranking members of both Intel and Judiciary committees. That may just have been someone speculating but it is not a pleasant thought and would throw us back into playing defense on the issue.

Corporate America is on trial in this election. Those guys must be dealt with. Harshly.

Here’s a question:

Is Blue America backing candidates who they review for their progressive bona fides or are they hunting around and getting a progressive to run in the districts we need to unseat a DINO.

I would like to believe that “some group” is looking at the DINOs and then looking for someone to challenge each of them and then getting behind them.

How does this work?

I have not seen anything on that yet; last I saw it was still up in the air or at least not yet public. But I’m not as plugged in day to day as I used to be, as I’m very busy on some other project work.

More scouting the available menu than recruiting.

Stoller did some work to try to pop some recruits going in to this cycle but found it very hard. He says many locals are just as passive about change as nationally oriented people are.

That said, I still want to watch and see if getting a real win like this, with a base and a playbook, makes a difference in coming cycles.

It’s no guarantee, but it has potential. Recruiting is very hard, but it’s easier when people feel a bit more like the might have a shot, with ready allies at their side.

But we need more than one person working on this in a part time way. You raise a good question: is there a way we can institutionalize more of a recruiting process for the next cycle, and start that ball rolling now?

where to begin? and how?

Is it better to have Democrats who truly subscribe to progressive principles or try and force non-progressive Democrats to behave more progressive?

Both.

So what can we do to help get that ball rolling?

First takes longer, but is necessary. Getting started on one brings you outcome two.

now if we can get a few more donna edwards in congress then we’ll see the country back on the road to restoration from repug thuggery….

We need both. And, if we can get a Dem president who has really broad cross-party support all across the country, this will also push elected officials in D.C. to respond to local pressure on key issues like the war, health care etc.

Might I suggest Halliburton? ;0)

I’m sure Ms. Edwards’ win fits in somehow, but somewhere along the way the House leadership figured out the way to frame the FISA debate was that it’s about protecting the telcoms, not the American people. Thus, you have KO’s brilliant special comment, Kennedy’s big FU to the administration, and Nancy saying stuff like Bush has nothing to offer but fear. Little by little I’m hoping that meme is picked up by the corporate media.

i say #1. replace #2’s with #1’s where possible. focus on blue districts. allow no substitutes in blue districts.

We can’t do it alone, I don’t expect. Still, it’s something we can kick around among the Blue America gang, talk with some friends in the Edwards’ coalition, and see what shakes out.

We’d need a lot of eyes and ears on the ground all around the country. It would be a kind of campaign, I expect.

OT: This is a “strange” story…hmmmm….are they trying to say that CIA people in undercover companies like Brewster-Jennings, for example, aren’t/weren’t…effective..??:

“The CIA-run “companies” were located far from Muslim enclaves in Europe and other targets, and their size raised concerns that one mistake would blow the cover of many agents, the report noted.

In addition, because businessmen don’t usually come into contact with Al-Qaeda operatives, the cover didn’t work, The Times said.

Officials say the CIA’s efforts to use corporate disguises have yet to produce a significant penetration of terrorist or weapons proliferation networks, the paper pointed out.”

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/C.....62008.html

Why now???

That’s exactly what I was getting at. You did a better job at it than I did. ty.

Great post, Pach!

In yesterday’s book salon with AJ Rossmiller, I quoted a line from his book Still Broken that I think applies here as well: “There is nothing more dangerous to a controlling and manipulative structure than someone who finds his or her conscience and resolve.”

Perhaps Donna’s win will encourage more conscience-finding and resolve-stiffening among the folks on Capitol Hill — both elected and staff.

maybe. i don’t know how vulnerable they are. i guess the most important thing is to look out for malfeasance and come down hard on it whenever possible. everything the Cheney Administration didn’t do except for a few (Enron, etc).

Bad link for the book . . . let me try again.

Still Broken

Pach sez:

(one who is not already rich)

That’s what really scared them, I imagine. Ned was one thing — “how many self-funding millionaires can there be in my district?” each one of the corporatist-enabling congresscritters must have thought after August 2006. “And if I’m nice to every one of them, none of them will challenge me.”

But Donna Edwards? She’s something else entirely — a real-life, homegrown, movement- and union-funded, people-powered opposed-to-the-corporatists phenomenon. That could happen in any district, in any state. No need for self-funding. And that, my friends, is scary as hell.

Yes. ;0)

Yep, the CIA is using an old model - capture the criminals at the business level. While that model might work for arms sales or counter proliferation, and some other things, it escaped the CIA’s comprehension that Al Qaeda works out of mosques, coffee houses, and online. Here is a housewife who has had contact with multiple Al Qaeda ops. http://www.wired.com/politics/.....rentPage=1

The CIA should, IMO, follow that model rather than having gigs in Europe.

Not at all a coincidence, Pachu.

They’re a bunch of bullies, living inside a house of cards. Once we send a clear and unequivocal message that their party is over, they will fold.

Edwards helped it, and now we can seal the deal with Barack Obama.

When the RNC saw, in red-state Virginia, that Obama had pulled 136,000 more votes than all of the republicans combined, their bowels loosened.

Would you like a call?

If Barack can run the table, the DAY that Hillary Clinton concedes, you can circle that on your calendar, because within 45 days of that date, Condoleeza Rice will resign, to head out to some corporate boardroom sinecure. More of our military; our ACTIVE DUTY military, will start to speak out against their being used to cover george bush and the GOP’s asses until they can leave office and dump the shitmire in the democrats laps.

The rat exodus from bushCo will begin to look like it’s being led by the woodwinds section of the Hamlin city orchestra.

Shorter tb:

There is NOTHING; and I fucking mean ZIPPO! That will make the bushCo plates come crashing down 1/10th as effectively as will our nominating Obama.

And again, it’s not because he’s some “saviour” of our party, and of the chance to salvage something from two terms of bullshit, arrogance, greed, and stupidity. It’s because WE are becoming the saviours for those things.

And that ALSO scares the living shit out of the party hacks who want this to go into Denver undecided, so that they can use their influence as superdelegates to sustain themselves in power.

In this house we can become somewhat metaphorical. Happy Sunday!

L. and okk

Yup! And, wasn’t that an amazing event yesterday with Richard Clarke also here at the lake answering questions. Truly amazing.

Passing by to say the CIA buggers are too bloody busy chasing ghosts of the cold war and torturing innocents kidnapped from the streets of many countries.

I love it. Happy Sunday to boh of you as well! Did you ever tell us what grades you teach? Your students, in any event, are lucky to have you.

Lahoma is elementary and middle school english. I’m high school math.

Excellent points, and one slight correction, if I may.

Cindy Sheehan is running as a Decline-To-State candidate in the general (not the primary) election this November against Nancy Pelosi.

(It’s what, in other states, might be called an Independent Candidacy.)

Shirley Golub, on the other hand, is running against Nancy Pelosi in the June Democratic primary election.

time for fahrender to turn in. y’all take care.
and thanks, Pach for a great post.

Thanks, interesting: so it is a marriage of material evidence and metaphor :-)

Thanks so much for the correction. I didn’t know that. So Pelosi has two Dem challengers on her heels. Interesting.

Given that we have no real clue as to how secure or unsecure the nuclear weapons are in the former Soviet Union, we still need to have those CIA agents chasing those “ghosts of the cold war” almost as much as we need to expand our abilities in the Middle East.

There are many ways to go after the puzzle and it is often best to attack it from multiple angles.

No, she has a Democratic primary challenger and a Decline-to-State Independent challenger in the general election. Unless there’s another primary challenger (in addition to Shirley Golub) whom I am unaware of….

Living on the west coast, it never occured to me how much one race in MD could impact the DC powers-that-be. Cool!

The tide is turning.

OT - and fascinating: Could the long standing Democratic states of Pennslyvania and Oregon be the key clinch states in the upcoming presidential election? Perhaps yes, if Clinton gets the nod according to new Rasmussen polls discussed here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....107/458570

OK, it is Sunday I am a bit slow (and sleep deprived). Thanks again. So, in short, she has two challengers. Good. Both hopefully are left leaning.

OT, but very interesting:

Via Left in Alabama, Tim Lennox is reporting that CBS will be airing the Siegelmann story that we’d heard had been killed. It’s not on the schedule on CBS’ site, but I’m watching. If any of you have TIVO…

Additionally, the ‘critters on are on home leave for a week, so they’ll have an opportunity to hear from gruntled constituents about their having ended the war, stood up to the Unitary Executive, and impeached Bush and Cheney.

Great post Pach, thanks.

Steny Hoyer dumped $150K into Al’s campaign at the last minute to eff’n buy votes. I am LMAO at how pissed Steny is, because he’s not getting any of that money back.

If nothing else we’re making the Democratic leadership work a lot harder to cover their tracks. Big congrats to FDL for helping make this happen. This would not have been accomplished without the attention to all the Parlimentary stuff they have used to try and cover their tracks.

but, but, but those aren’t on the progressive agenda!

Really!?! Well, that is good news. The Bush adm. is a house of cards. But so far the media has helped them stay intact. That will be my clue that they’re ready to implode. When the tv news starts reporting all the stories that they’ve withheld these last 8yrs.

How much tv coverage did McConnell’s admission that FISA was all about protecting the TelCo’s (as opposed to America) get? I didn’t see any. I would not even have known about it if it weren’t for the net.

Solai@99; it won’t all come from our media. As usual, some of the brit papers are leading the way.

This, courtesy of good ol’ AW.Com. Send them a “hat tip”, if you got it.

:o)

http://www.independent.co.uk/n.....83374.html

And, while I’m on a rant against our beloved media….it ticks me off that no one mentions KO’s special comments. Froomkin does. But that’s it. I mean really, wtf, KO sounds off and there is no debate about what he said. No echo, no followup. That’s it, it’s over, let’s get back to talking about Hillary’s cackle.

Pach — I think one of the first steps is to identify Members (either R or D), who vote against an interest or set of interests in a particular district, and run serious informational campaigns against them. If they are D’s let them know where it is coming from, if they are R’s the fact that ground work is being done to lay a base for a candidacy will help in recruiting the right candidate.

Give you an example — two years ago I spent ages figuring out the Leadership PAC’s and other means of transferring funds that represented the lobby work of the Financial Industry that very much benefited from the Student Loan program — One of Minnesota’s Congressmen, Klein in MN 2 is part of that republican network. Anyhow the key person in it was Debroah Pryce from Columbus (with a nice big Ohio State on her doorstep) in what could be a swing district). However she has retired — open seat. My point here is however, that something like the cost of Higher Education and the Cost of Student Loans is a Progressive Issue that can be turned into a voting issue — but you have to first “educate” and alienate voters around the matter — and then bring on the solution, either an attractive primary challenge if it is a D, or a solid opportunity for a progressive, where base has been laid for an opponent to a sitting R. This should be the lesson from Wynn — you had a set of issues about votes and relationships with lobby interests, that laid the base. And yes, it took two tries to achieve success.

By the way, I could not get Colleen Rowley to use the money Klein was taking from the for profit student loan industry — it turned out she really didn’t know how to organize a campaign. I think ActBlue supported her, but without some basic training in running, such support doesn’t get you all that much.

i agree - but i think it makes MSM uncomfortable b/c they dont have the balls to express truth to power imo

Boo@97; that’s a great point, about Hoyer shovelling the benjamins to Wynn.

For too long, we progressives have been making the assumption that the current crop of sell-outs just needed to be coaxed a little, to come out and start nailing some bushCo ass to the wall. Now, they’re really starting to show their true colors, and all we need to decide is if we want one of the worst of the hacks, a candidate who’s never risked an atom of political capital for our side, to be the president, or if we want someone who’s kicking republican ass like he was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to carry the ball for us.

Tough choice, huh? :o)

Thanks for the reminder our congress critters are in home districts in the new week….I plan to visit Sam Farr, our gentle progressive on the CA central coast, and seek his counsel on how best to get serious attention from Pelosi, Boxer and DiFi on their unacceptable Rethuglican get along cowardice patterns.

Can’t say this enough, but we must never forget what our Dem “leaders” and Bush Dogs have done to destroy this country, and how many thousands have died from their actions. No matter how much pandering they start doing to us now that the political tides are turning toward us, we must still do everything we can to remove the Stenys and Rahms from our political system…forever.

They will work to undermine our efforts if they remain in office. The Constitutional Crisis we are now in is so extreme, and is a direct result of these people, that we must never forget. Never.

Better and Better Democrats ‘08!

While some critters are home, many are taking the opportunity for a spring break junket to see the world. I don’t consider Kerry’s trip to Pakistan to oversee the elections in this light, but I bet if we were to do a chart of places they are visiting , most would be in warm (or interesting) places.

Pach - Thank you for this post. It inspires those of us who stay active in the political party doing what we can to assist in changes. I see a lot of people working really hard and dedicating some serious volunteer hours, more than I can ever contribute. It’s about a lot more than money. It’s walking the pavement, making calls, talking to people, knocking on doors, handling campaign phones. Hats off to them.

I’m off to take my little Molly for a walk and a sniffing fest. We’ll sop up some vitemin D. Thanks again for this post.