Marcy, who is a kind of West Coast Donna Edwards, founded the Los Angeles chapter of Progressive Democrats of America and built a good solid base from which to start her race against Harman. Three years and one week ago I urged Down With Tyranny readers to support her bid against the aloof, imperious Harman. Yesterday I asked her what will be different this year than in 2006.

"The critical factor will be time; I have more time now. We have over a year to organize on the ground. And that's what it's going to take-- a lot of on the ground organizing, particularly in the two opposite ends of the district: the harbor area, where you have a very strong working class base, and in the West L.A./Mar Vista/Venice area where lots of liberal Democrats... You're looking at 40-45,000 high frequency primary voters. Last time I jumped into the race very late-- with  only three months, barely enough time to even reach the absentee voters. Another important factor is Jane Harman herself getting caught with her hands in the cookie jar... [It appears that she was] taking favors, agreeing to backroom deals, to work on behalf of a foreign government to drop charges against 2 people accused of spying and then colluding with Alberto Gonzales to support warrantless wiretaps and be their posterchild! Even though I did not win last time, the fact that I came close-- with almost 40% of the primary vote-- sends a message that she is not invincible and the Machine is not invincible. This can be done.

Marcy can't talk about the urgent priorities facing the country in terms of health care, education cuts, and the rest of the catastrophic consequences of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy-- the veritable impoverishment of the country and hollowing out of our government's ability to do its job-- without talking about the billions, if not trillions, of dollars wasted on pointless wars. "We really do have to connect the dots between war, education and health care. A lot of guns leaves you with very little butter. We can't have this bloated military budget-- larger than the military budgets of all the countries in the world combined-- while committing ourselves to a trillion dollar war and occupation in Afghanistan, and still provide our people with health care. We have 45 million Americans with no health care... Jane Harman is not going to challenge any administration, be it Republican or Democratic, on war, whether the war be in Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan. I think it's terrific that President Obama is the leader of our country; I think it's unfortunate that those who served under George Bush, who led us to war, have Obama's ear. It's really crucial that people who want to see peace in the world speak out for diplomacy and engagement and step up and support challenges to Blue Dogs and Democrats who really are uncritical about war and, worse than that, who are pandering to the military-industrial complex. When I ran, Jane Harman wore a pin of a B-2 bomber; we know who she is hoping to appeal to."