Trying to decide what to talk about this fine morning, preferably something that hasn’t already been covered here on this website. Should it be Jerry Brown’s advocacy for high-speed rail, which may be a big part of what saves the state and the nation?

Should it be the looming scandal hinted at by the Rick Perry sex ad?

But then I decided that I’d stick closer to my home state of Minnesota, and talk about failed burrito baron Tony Sutton.

The 2006 midterms were a disaster of biblical proportions for the Bush administration and the Republican Party. They lost the House, the Senate, and a raft of governors’ mansions and state legislatures. It was much worse than the “shellacking” the Democrats took last November. And how did George W. Bush respond to the American people’s complete rejection of the Republican agenda? He doubled down on it.

While you work within the constraints put on any Speaker, to implement the agenda of the president who’s in your own party, please let San Francisco have real representation again. San Francisco values really matter to America. The City needs a Congressperson again. Let San Franciscans elect someone who needn’t compromise on their every viewpoint for the sake of the Speakership. You can do this, Madame Speaker. Please make it so. Finally, as I always close my letters and emails to you, more and more futile though they seem because of your dual role nowadays: Thank you for your service to San Francisco, to California, and to the United States of America.

Rahm Emanuel’s horse trading with the Governor of Illinois while Rahm was a Congressman should come as no surprise. The only problems with this is that said Governor was Rod Blagojevich and the transactions will be aired out at trial while Rahm serves as White House Chief of Staff.

Ryan Grim and Sam Stein have an excellent piece on the coordinated efforts of various groups to support Bill Halter’s challenge to Blanche Lincoln. It represents the evolution of the efforts behind the Ned Lamont and Donna Edwards races, and now that the election is over, deserves some discussion.

Jeffrey Feldman writes about the divisions underlying the health care debate in this post by Glenn Greenwald (who was writing about this Jake McIntyre post). Ironically, many of the observations he makes about the inside/outside dichotomy in the Democratic party were sketched out in this this prescient piece by Pach on the eve of the 2006 election.

  Reconcile the guy who wants to filibuster health care reform if he doesn’t get the bill he likes with the guy running for re-election who said all this:   WASHINGTON — After spending most of his Senate career advocating piecemeal health care reforms, Joseph I. Lieberman said Wednesday he strongly supports universal health care. [...]

Former Lamont staffer Tim Tagaris sends this along:
The campaign of Sen. Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., agreed to pay a $50,000 civil penalty after the Federal Election Commission concluded that the campaign repeatedly flouted the law in disbursing cash payments to volunteers during Lieberman’s bruising Democratic primary against businessman Ned Lamont in 2006.

The FEC opened an investigation in late 2006 after Lamont’s campaign lodged a complaint alleging that Lieberman was using a

I don’t know who leaked the fact that Harry Reid contacted Blagojevich to oppose a roster of African American candidates as “unelectable,” but Blago’s office confirmed it and it makes Reid look just plain awful. As Nate says, “The fact of the matter is that Illinoisans have gotten to see an awful lot of Tammy Duckworth, and they simply don’t like her all that much.”

While our Blue America czar Howie Klein is away, I thought we could surprise him with a thank you post for all he has done over the last few years. Howie and many other folks have organized us to nominate, publicize, and support dozens of progressive candidates. Many of these outstanding candidates are now serving in the U.S. Congress.