I agree with what you said:

The best situation is when we can get behind a progressive Democrat ina primary and take out someone like Al Wynn. But if we help throw one seat– especially in the House– to the Republicans it will send a message that we mean business. And it isn’t going to effect the organization and leadership. The Democrats are probably going to pick up more than a dozen new House seats in November.

Take down Carney.

And, my first thought, even before I got to the comment where it was suggested was a billboard/ billboards. Then radio ads.

I don’t know how much text can be put in billboards and still be effective, tho. More in other formats, obviously.

But 2 possibilities I can think of so far as framing:

1)What Carney said; what Carney did.

2)Why does Carney want to… (give permission for illegal wiretapping, etc.)

Semi-relatedly: when they (at the convention) asked for nominations for affirmative action officer, I almost nominated Geraldine Ferraro. The people around me talked me out of it. I thought it would have been amusing and we’d already been there for seven hours and needed a break.

Our issue is basically lack of broad reach, right? So the question would seem to be, once we’ve singled out who we’re going to make the example of, how to embarrass the shit out of him with as many impressions as possible with limited resources. And, yeah, this is duhvious, sorry . . .

So my question is, how can we extend reach beyond our immediate circle of the netroots and maybe tap other established progressive groups’ resources. I like the ad idea, but is there a way to go beyond outdoor? Howie, Jane, do you guys, or John or Glenn, have connections to tap to reach out to groups like TrueMajority, MoveOn, Credo, as big a coalition as possible of groups equally and zealously vested in this issue, which, like Praedo says, is about the very viability of the Constitution. These folks have big lists and frequent use of “creative” contests to both solicit and fund national (or regional) cable ads, like on Olbermann or something, typically on pretty quick turnaround?

See, naive as this might sound, what I’m envisioning is a kind of “road block,” as they say in the media buying world, where you almost create a national message of, “Len Boswell, you have sold us out, and this ad is only the first indication of hell to pay.” The killer app here, as starry-eyed as it might be, is this is the kind of thing that’s gonna get the eyeballs of the MSM, in their quirky political sidebar reports, as in, “What the hell? This progressive netroots coalition is singling out a mfking Democrat!” Tweety, Blitzer, and you KNOW Olbermann would love shit like this.

I’m not saying do Boswell, but I will posit this as maybe a template of weighing our choice of “example”: we’ve got a True Blue progressive, Ed Fallon, weighing a run against him here in Iowa, and the threat to throw not only BlueAmerica resources behind Fallon, as well as embarrassing, Bush Dog-imprinting-on-his-forehead national-ish media, could at least signal we are rolling up the newspaper and maybe ready slip a tire-iron inside. But IDing even a minor progressive threat to our “example” candidate, and promising to help make that threat far more real than they ever would’ve feared, could give us a media coup, embarrass the shit out of our subject, and maybe even plant the seeds of a real electoral tonic. And warn the others, “more of the same awaits you, you unctuous co-opted bitches.”

Again, I know this is slinging wishful shit against the wall — apologies for coming off all Capra-esque — but desperate times and all.

You want him and his staff to see and hear this stuff.

Also, I think we should organize a Bush Dog action where folks call them up and say:

“Four Words.

Telecom Amnesty.

Donna Edwards”

And for republicans at risk substitute “Bill Foster”

I like this idea because of his leadership visibility. He would be hard to take down next term (what year is he up?). But look at IL-14. John Laesch made fabulous inroads into Hastert’s district over the course of two runs. Sadly, Foster had the money to beat him but I truly believe Laesch set the stage. Granted, a senate seat is from different from a congressional district, but is there someone to run against Rockefeller? On the face of it I really like the idea. But I know nothing about that community.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate request the House to return the papers of H.R. 3773, FISA legislation; and that if the House agrees to the request, the Senate insist on its amendment, request a conference with the House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, and the Chair be authorized to appoint conferees on the part of the Senate, with no intervening action or debate.

This was rejected by the GOP, on the basis that no conference is necessary. Playing that forward, a determined minority of GOP Senators can continue to obstruct going to conference.

“Friending” folks and chatting back & forth isn’t for me. There’s better tools out there for finding potential meetup folks in RealSpace. So is there nowhere that FDLers can go to discuss matters that have a longer half-life than the few hours that a discussion thread lasts here, plus the “long tails of irrelevance” like this one, until the commentariat moves along like we always do in blog-land? (Leaving EPU’s as the only — and very lame — way for continuity?)

I won’t mind if nobody reads/responds… that’s the way it goes in blog-comment-land. :>

Your point is right on the money. I just wanted to dispel the thought that a conference committee was “a done deal” as between the House and Senate, and lay out that the House hasn’t asked for one.

that is all.