In an interesting development, one of the only four losing democratic incumbent congressional races in the country is speaking out. Second Congressional District Rep. Nancy Boyda's campaign manager Chad Manspeaker has posted a blog on the Kansas blog Everyday Citizen calling for a greater need for youth outreach and leadership development for youth in the state.
After a tough year in Kansas that made only a net gain of one state house seat and lost a US Congressional seat, democrats in Kansas are bitter sweet. Inspiration for hometown favorite Barack Obama came out in force with a gain of 4% over Kerry's loss in Kansas in 2004. Obama also garnered a 65,000 vote gain since 2004. Yet even with those benefits, Kansas was unable to create any local benefits for itself.
This morning's Topeka Capitol Journal says democrats in the state have no bench of candidates ready to step up and run for any statewide seats much less to seriously oppose the now 3 members of Congress in Kansas.
McJoan has the news on the FISA victory today. It's a bit hard to describe just how much work this took and how significant a change this represents. I never believed we had a chance to stop immunity for telecom companies, I thought it was a fight worth having anyway. But something has shifted in the last few weeks that suggest this Congress is willing to stand up to Bush.
There were always two leverage points for the right on this one. First of all, the fake deadline that would leave our country vulnerable was trotted out as an excuse for expanding wiretapping authority and immunizing telecoms. I had private assurances from senior Democrats that they would make sure that the country fixed this vulnerability before the temporary FISA fix expired in August. Amazingly, the House was willing to let the bill lapse and go back to the 1978 FISA law, and called out the dishonest characterization instead of knuckling under to Bush. Second of all, 21 Bush Dogs wrote a letter asking to pass immunity for telecom companies. Those Bush Dogs create a pro-immunity majority, which gave pro-immunity Rockefeller all the leverage in House-Senate negotiations.
The Republican House secret session nonsense, combined with the amazing organizing by the ACLU and Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hamsher, Marcy Wheeler and Christie Hardin Smith and good leadership by Pelosi, Conyers, and Hoyer, and some bravery by House freshman Nancy Boyda, brought the Bush Dogs away from their position. An intelligent compromise - that phone companies would be allowed to submit evidence in court despite state secret arguments from the President rather than getting blanket immunity - allowed the Bush Dogs to vote for national security instead of the telecoms.
Here are the Bush Dogs that voted correctly on the FISA bill today (h/t Marcy Wheeler).
Heath Shuler and Chris Carney did their usual Bush enabling. I will have more soon on the amazing victory this vote represents. Democrats do not and have not stood up to Bush and the right-wing on national security, ever. Only this time, they did. And it looks like it might just become a habit. Immediately after the vote, a slew of Democrats running for office issued statements on the vote and at least one referenced Bill Foster's victory. There's nothing stronger in politics than running on an issue, and that's what is happening right now.
Congratulations to all involved. And to the 400 people who gave some cash to Bill Foster, and to the many others who volunteered to get him elected, kudos to you. Elections have consequences.
Nancy Boyda was just on the floor of the House speaking against immunity for telecommunications companies and against spying on Americans. She kept repeating, "I don't believe the terrorists have won", and discussed the rhetorical tricks being used right now which are similar to the run-up to the war in Iraq and (she says) the war in Iran. She also says this issue is more important than being afraid of 30 second ads.
Nancy Boyda is one member to watch. I keep hearing people telling me how much she is pushing the caucus to be better.
(Following Boyda is Doc Hastings quoting this Blue Dog letter from 21 Democrats on immunity.)
One interesting note about the FISA fight is how it is politicians from more conservative areas who are both holding the line and calling for retreat. I won't go deeply into the Bush Dogs, 21 of whom signed a letter calling for immunity for telecom companies who broke the law. More interestingly are people like Nancy Boyda and Bill Foster, who bravely spoke out on the issue and asked Democrats to hold the line. Foster did so during a close fought election, and Boyda, I'm told by several reliable sources, spoke out strongly in a caucus meeting demanding that Democrats hold the line despite the advertising run against her in her district. It is these politicians who we should laud for their work just as we criticize those who choose what is easy.
And now on to Foster, and how his race intersects with FISA and Iraq. Blue Majority bet big on both the Robin Weirauch OH-05 special election and the Bill Foster IL-14 special election. Weirauch lost, and Foster won.. More interestingly, the trends that Chris and I noticed in the 2006 MyDD/Courage Campaign polling project - that mentioning you are a Democrat and mentioning Iraq tend to drive support - still seem operative. Weirauch ran an antipartisan 'Washington is broken' campaign, not mentioning Iraq in her ads and refusing to run as a Democrat. Bill Foster, by contrast, ran with 'Businessman, Scientist, Democrat' on his web site, and put withdrawing troops from Iraq front and center in his paid media. And the results seem fairly clear. Weirauch did not shift her losing margin at all, whereas Foster took a district held by Speaker Dennis Hastert and won it by a clear majority.
National security was front and center in the IL-14 race, and when given the choice, even voters in a Republican district chose the Democrat because he was clear and strong on the core challenges of the Bush administration, Iraq and elite lawlessness. Oberweis accused Foster of raising the White Flag, but it didn't work. Now, critics of the theory of why Foster won will point to a bloody Republican primary in IL-14, arguing that Oberweis was weakened more than Latta, but there was an equally bloody primary in OH-03. And while Latta was a better candidate than Oberweis, it's hard to imagine that could account for the entirety of the shift in IL-14 and the fact that there was no shift of margins in OH-03.
The fact is that national security, and specifically, Iraq, is a winning formula for Democrats. Bill Foster ran as a Democrat and ran on Iraq. He also ran on retroactive immunity, as I noted before our endorsement:
"The President and his allies in Congress are playing politics with national security, and that's wrong. Nobody is above the law and telecom companies who engaged in illegal surveillance should be held accountable, not given retroactive immunity. I flatly oppose giving these companies an out for cooperating with Alberto Gonzalez on short-circuiting the FISA courts and the rule of law."
Any nonsense that Bush Dog Democrats, especially people like Melissa Bean who are in similar GOP-leaning areas need to hold the interests of telecom companies because they have to vote with their district is just cover for them enabling more power to Bush. In Bill Foster we have a Democrat winning in a blood red district calling for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq and protection for civil liberties over fake claims of urgency by his opponent. There can be no more crystal clear proof than taking Dennis Hastert's district that the Republican fear fear fear message does not work as long as it is called out by strong and forceful Democrats.
Democrats should hold firm on issues like FISA and Iraq, not just because it's the right thing to do but because that is precisely what voters are clearly demanding. And candidates should run on these issues; Iraq is not off the table, voters don't like lawbreaking from their leaders, and everyone wishes George Bush had never happened.
I just had to tell ya'll about this because its something that makes me crazy.
Last year around Christmas time - the Kansas GOP sent out what I'm sure they thought was a normal everyday fundraising email. What they mistakenly did was talk about all the great work they are doing and talked about their Vote Caging program.
After the repeated attacks on bloggers that we've seen on FoxNews shown to us on BraveNewFilms and what they've spent the week leading up to YearlyKos talking about on O'Reily (which I've been subject to by some nutbar who changes the station at my gym).
I've also been watching something else going on all week. Something very contradictory the "Liberal Bloggers" and "Liberal Media" accusations that Bill and his buddies at Fox seem to throw around so freely.
STATE BLOGS
