On Friday, the anti-war group Vote Vets put out an ad in Maine that harshly criticized Republican Sen. Susan Collins' support of the war. The spot, which had $200,000 behind it and was narrated by a veteran, hit the Senator for being complicit in the wasting of federal dollars and lives in Iraq.
"Sen. Susan Collins just stood by and let all of this happen, and still is," says Iraq War veteran Alex Cornell du Houx. "I gave 100 percent in Iraq. I can't afford to give Iraq any more. Call Susan Collins and tell her we want our money back."...
"As the target of weeks of relentless false and negative attacks aired on TV and radio by allies of Senator Collins, Tom Allen knows that distortions such as these ads have no place in this race," said Carol Andrews, Allen's communications director. "Congressman Allen is the candidate in this race who three months ago set a standard for positive communications pleas from third parties. He asked Senator Collins to join him in that effort. That request was refused."
I didn't like Tom Allen when he went after bloggers in 2005. He's part of that wanker class. I hope he defeats Susan Collins and would vote for him if given the opportunity, but I can see why Maine voters wouldn't want to put him in the Senate.
I got an email today from Moveon asking me to sign this petition against various media outlets for distorting Wes Clark's words. The subtext here is that Moveon is standing by Clark while Obama disavowed him, an implicit statement from Moveon leaders that they've had enough triangulating nonsense from Obama. And Obama gets it, fortunately. Conservatives have been using Clark to attack Obama, and Obama responded by wisely bringing Clark in from the cold. This is very good on all counts. I'm impressed with Obama's reversal, I'm pleased that Clark stood up for himself, and of course, the subtext here was Moveon's savvy counterpunch against Obama for his patriotism dig yesterday at Moveon.
They couldn't respond directly, even if they wanted to. Obama's speech attacking Moveon for their Petraeus ad left the group vulnerable, because their members would probably prize loyalty to Obama over loyalty to a questionable campaign tactic. With FISA and Clark, Moveon is on more solid ground. It's good leadership on Moveon's part, and a nice tacit reversal from Obama.
A terrific surrogate in Wes Clark and a great possible cabinet appointee has been rescued from dumb media oblivion.
Iraq war veteran Adam Cote, a former Republican who has sought to portray the six-candidate contest as a battle between himself and front-runner Chellie Pingree, was lambasted in an e-mail Tuesday by the campaign of Portland state Sen. Ethan Strimling as "a Republican in Democrat's clothing."
Strimling campaign manager Corey Hascall wrote that Cote has received substantial financial backing from Maine Republicans and support from BIPAC, "a big business group whose board of directors include(s) officials from Halliburton and Exxon Mobil."
Soliciting donations for Strimling in her "Dear friends" e-mail, Haskell said, "I am writing today to ask that you help us stand up for Democratic values and stop our party's nomination from being hijacked."
One of the biggest political problems we're going to face in 2009 is the bevy of conservative 'Blue Dog' Democrats in Congress that want to fund war and tax cuts for the wealthy while cutting social programs.
The Blue Dog caucus is already preparing for huge growth, and with little infrastructure on the liberal side, this is a problem we're going to have to handle during the 2010 cycle with primary challenges, and the environment will not be as conducive as it is today. The Blue Dog caucus is the heir to the Dixiecrat segregationist tradition in the Democratic Party, and have become tightly wedded to the corporate backers of the right. Many of their members blocked mortgate reform, fought against SCHIP, and worked to pass the Bankruptcy Bill in 2005.
Bill Foster, Don Cazayoux, and Travis Childers are all going to be new Blue Dogs, and they come from conservative districts. But this is not a regional problem - Adam Cote in Maine's first district is basically a Republican in waiting, and he's using progressive infrastructure to try to get elected in an open seat that should go to a progressive. He's against opposes raising the minimum wage in Maine, and was endorsed by the hard-right business lobbying group BIPAC, which favors tax cuts for the wealthy, tort reform, subsidies for oil companies, and free trade. Cote is the only Democrat running for Congress endorsed by the group, and it is funded by, among other companies, Halliburton.
Cote is also an Iraq veteran, and is backed by VoteVets. So here we have someone who is basically a Republican - opposing the minimum wage is pretty bad stuff - running in an open seat backed by Wall Street and defense contractor money. Conservatives like Cote should be understood as ideological warriors for the right-wing and the business community who are enwombing themselves in the Democratic Party because that is where power is going to flow.
This should be a seat going to a real Democrat. Cote isn't even that, he was apparently a registered Republican until 2006. I'm sure if he got into Congress, Cote would be a mediocre member of the Democratic caucus. He would vote for the GI Bill, and he would follow along and vote for timelines when it was safe to do so. He would be a Blue Dog, or a New Democrat.
But what we need in Congress are liberals, people who were correct about Iraq in the first place, people who know that the minimum wage doesn't hurt job growth but the lack of the minimum wage hurts people. I've written about the need for a liberal EMILY's List style organization. In the meantime, if you're a Mainer, watch out for Adam Cote.
After beating 2006 Hastert opponent John Laesch in the primary, Democrat Bill Foster is running in a special election in Illinois's 14th against Republican Jim Oberweis, who is so unpopular that he lost to Alan Keyes in a primary (update: well sort of, there's more detail in this comment). This is Dennis Hastert's old district, a 55% Bush voting area in 2004.
Paying down this debt must be the first order of business. I intend to work with the Blue Dog Democrats in congress -- a group dedicated to curing this by making the hard decisions necessary -- as well as any other groups that make deficit reduction their top priority. I'm sure that I'll be at odds with the Blue Dogs on more than a few issues - for example mortgage industry reform - but when it comes to deficit reduction, we all agree that we have to get our house in order.
I don't like that he's going to become a Blue Dog, but I do like that he's willing to break with them. Still, because of the Blue Dog association I won't put any of my energy into the race, though I might change my mind depending on what I hear from him on the FISA legislation. It's not reasonable to hold Foster responsible for the Blue Dog caucus, since he probably doesn't understand just how corrupt they are and actually believes that they want to deal with the budget instead of raise military spending and cut everything else. And I do like his slogan, 'Businessman, Scientist, Democrat'. But it's too bad he has associated himself tightly with that group; with some exceptions, they are bad people and he shouldn't go near them with a ten foot poll.
What makes the race interesting is that Foster is polling pretty well, down 45-43 with 12% undecided. Considering the margin of error, it's tied. I posted a polling memo below, and it shows that Foster takes a lead when both candidates bios are read. Since the memo doesn't actually say what those bios are, I don't trust them.
The other point of interest is that Foster's ads focus on Iraq and ending combat operations versus his opponent's position of keeping troops there for ten years. It's kind of weaselly language, frankly, since ending combat operations can mean pretty much anything. I can see our troops engaging in a 'training operation' or operating in an 'advisory capacity', which is why the language is so transparently noncommittal, though it does actually paint some sort of contrast with his Republican opponent, who wants our troops there for at least ten more years. With the partition idea out there, it's a reasonable assumption that Foster thinks that keeping troops in Iraq makes sense.
Foster's first ad points out that the Iraq war is diverting resources from health care and other economic problems.
And this one contains a promise to an end combat operations.
Patrick Murphy is a strong supporter of Foster, and he is pushing aggressively to get him in office. This is a good test of a generic Iraq change message in a fairly red though not overwhelmingly red district. Right now, no one's convinced me this is a particularly important race for anything but tactical reasons, since it's entirely unclear to me that Foster is a progressive and I have asked Foster's staff for a statement on FISA.
For the first time ever at their national convention the Young Democrats of America - with the help of Democrats Work - will be embarking on a major community service project. On Friday, July 20th at the Adams Mark Hotel in Dallas, the Convention will turn its focus to supporting the families of soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Homefront's "Operation Backpack" program.
YDA delegates and special guests - including General Wesley Clark, VoteVets founder Jon Soltz, and WWE Superstar Chris "Harvard" Nowinski - will assemble back-to-school backpacks and distribute them to Dallas-Fort Worth area military children with a parent deployed overseas.
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