I have to run out, but I do want to note that there are important Congressional primaries today.
The first is in Virginia, pitting defense contractor and local public official Gerald Connolly against former Congresswoman and progressive Leslie Byrne. Connolly got the endorsement of the Washington Post, and turnout is extremely low. I would back the antiwar Byrne over Connolly, though he does have some good urban planning ideas. If you have a vote in this district, use it. In Fairfax City, out of 14,000 votes, by 8am the registrar reported less than 150 votes recorded. The internets can swing this one.
The second is in Maine, in a six way race on the Democratic side. Chellie Pingree and Ethan Strimling are the progressive candidates, while Adam Cote is the conservative in the race. If you have a vote, it's probably best to go for Pingree so as not to split the progressive vote and let a Bush dog slip into a progressive seat.
In these races, Pingree is the favorite in Maine and Connolly is the favorite in Virginia. It's a useful test to see if progressive older women can defeat conservative hawkish men. I really have no idea. I had thought this was going to be a really good year for women to be running, so I guess now we'll see.
I'm curious about the release of McCain's medical records. He's a 71 year old guy with three bouts of cancer, and yet the AP is saying he has a clean bill of health. Maybe that's true. But isn't the story really as follows?
The campaign is allowing a small pool of reporters (including NBC) access to McCain's medical records from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm ET in a conference room at the Copper Wind Resort in Phoenix. The reporters are allowed to take notes but not remove or photocopy the records.
Halliburton contacted Congressional candidate Jared Polis in CO-02. Polis has been sharply critical of the company, and the company's letter calls Halliburton 'an American success story'.
In yet another sign of his pivoting toward the general election, Senator John McCain said at a roundtable with business leaders here today that comprehensive immigration reform should be a top priority for the next president.
In other news, SEIU is blasting McCain's recent health care proposal and McCain's health checks out, if you believe a cloistered set of reporters who got to review 1000 pages of medical records for a few hours.
Leslie Byrne and Gerald Connolly are neck and neck in VA-11, with the latest polling showing Connolly leading Byrne 37-34.
Democrats Work and Wes Clark are teaming up with the program 'Serve with a General'. They will go to one Congressional district and jointly do a community service event. You can help pick the district here.
Comcast and Cox filtering the internet and blocking file sharing traffic might be a felony.
Michigan Liberal criticizes the DNC and the Michigan Democratic Party for violating their charter and refusing to hear complaints about seating the Michigan delegation. Michigan Liberal is the blog not given credentials to the convention, because of this legacy of holding the party accountable.
It was towards the end of the campaign in 2006 and we were running well back in the polls. Bill Clinton and Karl Rove, the leaders of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and U.S. Chamber of Commerce - they had all lined up behind incumbent Senator Joe Lieberman. Then we received a call that Senator Ted Kennedy wanted us to join him at a rally at a senior center in Bridgeport.
Coal Is Dirty from DeSmogBlog launches to take on the myth of 'clean coal'.
Lots of rumors about Hillary as VP, nothing credible. One of the annoying parts of dealing with the VP game is that it's basically a choice by one man, Barack Obama, and yet he has hundreds of people around his campaign who play themselves off as 'senior' and pass rumors to each other and the press. And this isn't just about feeling important, it's about running a campaign for their preferred VP pick. I've heard a lot of rumors about Chuck Hagel, for instance, but there are a good number of Hagel boosters in the Democratic foreign policy establishment for a lot of (good and bad) reasons.
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