I was an Obama supporter from the start. But that didn't mean I didn't respect John Edwards. I believe that just as Hillary Clinton made Obama a better campaigner, Edwards made both of them step up to the plate back in the early days when the front-runners were content to tread water. Obama was content to speak in grand, vague terms, and while Clinton's speeches were more concrete, she was just saying the same thing every Democrat says when gunning for the big job (the economy, healthcare, education, etc.) Edwards however, he decided to talk about poverty. Yeah, Democrats are always there for the middle class, but what about the poor? What have we done as a nation for the most vulnerable recently? This is a man who kicked off his campaign in New Orleans, a city ravaged not just by a hurricane, but by government indifference.
NH-Sen: Reid Wilson suggests that John Sununu's close ties to indicted Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens may prove a serious liability for the junior Senator from New Hampshire (Stevens' campaign committee, it seems, paid for a couple of fishing junkets for Stevens and Sununu).
In 2006, a number of Republican members of Congress lost their seats because of associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. This year's version of Abramoff may be Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and his close relationships to a few fellow senators is causing fits, none more so than for New Hampshire's John Sununu.
While many senators have donated contributions from Stevens to charity, Sununu was already having trouble with a 2004 fishing trip he took to Alaska with the state's senior senator. The trip to the Kenai River Classic was paid for by a joint campaign account including Stevens' and Senator Lisa Murkowski's campaigns and Stevens' leadership PAC. Also at the event was VECO Corp. president Bill Allen, whose company is at the center of the controversy surrounding Stevens and who was convicted in the probe.
The campaign of Sununu's Democratic opponent, Jeanne Shaheen, will not be inclined to let this slide:
Sununu wasn't the only senator who hit the events -- five others made the trip in 2004 -- but he's the only one facing a tough re-election fight this year. His opponent, former Governor Jeanne Shaheen, has hammered Sununu for his ties to Stevens, and while Stevens has refunded contributions from the Alaskan's various campaign and PAC accounts, Shaheen's campaign now wants the full costs of both trips reimbursed.
MN-Sen: Remember Norm Coleman's housing mini-scandal? The very senior Senator from Minnesota has a nifty basement apartment in a townhouse on Capitol Hill, where he lives when the Senate is in session. Since the townhouse is owned by a friend and business associate, Coleman pays all of $600 in rent, and even that is apparently optional.
As first reported by National Journal, Coleman rents a Capitol Hill apartment in Republican operative Jeff Larson’s million dollar home for a mere $600 a month, and on two occasions he failed to pay any rent until questioned about it by a reporter and on another occasion he paid with used furniture. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee alleging that Coleman violated Senate ethics rules. Coleman has still failed to provide documentation of a lease or answer who pays the utilities for the apartment.
Now I know that in New York City, $600 a month will get you a whole pile of nothing, apartment wise. But maybe things are different in DC? New York is very expensive, after all.
Well, it turns out that not only are things not especially different in DC (barring a cozy relationship with your landlord like Normie has), but in Minnesota as well.
Lucky Norm.
MS-Sen: A Mississippi news station notes that Roger Wicker is having a tough time remembering the (intensely negative) contents of his campaign ads...which he approved of course:
Seems to me that Wicker is either lying, or just isn't paying any attention to the kind of ads he's running (and approving, as required by elections law).
Or perhaps both are true. Lies, and failure to do due diligence.
NE-Sen: Scott Kleeb's first TV ad:
Very wholesome, no?
ME-Sen: The latest (60-second) ad from Democratic candidate Tom Allen:
MA-Sen: If you're the kind of person that just HAS to stop and watch a car wreck, or if you're heavily into schadenfreude, check out Rasmussen's latest MA-Sen poll.
House Races
AZ-01: The Cook Political Report sees the race in Arizona's First District (formerly held by the scandal-plagued Rick Renzi) slowly drifting away from the GOP, and has changed their rating of the race to "Leans Democratic" from "Tossup".
Arizona’s congressional primaries will not be held until September 2nd, but the identities of the party nominees in northern Arizona’s sprawling 1st district are fairly clear. EMILY’s List-endorsed Democratic state Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick held over 10 times the cash on hand of her nearest primary opponent, former TV reporter Mary Kim Titla, at the end of June. Similarly, GOP former mining industry official Sydney Hay is all but officially her party’s standard-bearer after Republicans could not convince several of their top choices to run.
The race leans Democratic, it seems, due to a combination of the ethical cloud over Renzi, the Republican Hay's unabashed arch-conservatism and lobbyist background, and Kirkpatrick's own popularity:
McCain’s presence atop the ballot should help Republicans across the board in Arizona, but Democrats may hold the megaphone in this expensive district covered by the Phoenix media market. The lingering taste of the Renzi land deal fiasco may have also soured voters on congressional Republicans here.
Some Republicans privately concede that Kirkpatrick is a good fit for this district and that the GOP may not have the money to help Hay counter a barrage of Democratic ads. But the bottom line may be that Democrats got their top choice to run here and Republicans did not. This seat moves to the Lean Democratic column.
TN-01: Tennessee's First will have a new Representative next year, as Republican Phil Roe upset incumbent David Davis in the GOP primary yesterday, by just over 500 votes.
Rep. David Davis (R-Tenn.) was upset Thursday in a little-noticed Volunteer State primary.
Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe (R), who finished in fourth place in the 2006 GOP primary that Davis won, took this cycle's primary by about 500 votes — or less than 1 percent — according to the Associated Press.
Davis won the 13-way 2006 primary with just 22 percent of the vote. He has established a very low profile on Capitol Hill since coming to Congress.
This has little impact on Democratic hopes - the district has been Republican-held since 1881, and with a PVI of R+14, it is Tennessee's most Republican district. Nevertheless, it's kind of interesting, especially as Davis becomes the first Congressman from Tennessee to be successfully primaried since 1966.
And as Kagro X noted, it's especially significant that part of the reason Davis lost was because his opponent - his Republican opponent - was successfully able to portray Davis as a tool of Big Oil. From Ben Pershing:
The heated Democratic primary contest between Rep. Steve Cohen and attorney Nikki Tinker fizzled out at the Memphis polls Thursday, as Cohen easily overcame Tinker's late invocation of race and religion and cruised to a 60-point victory. Instead, a northeastern Tennessee contest that had flew below the radar ended up headlining the day's electoral news, as freshman Rep. David Davis unexpectedly lost narrowly in the GOP primary to Johnson City Mayor Phil Roe in the 1st district.
Davis is the fourth House incumbent to lose in a primary this year, following Utah Rep. Chris Cannon (R) and Maryland Reps. Wayne Gilchrest and Al Wynn (D). Though the district is heavily Republican and will stay in the GOP column in November, Democrats are already highlighting the race as an example of how they believe the politics of energy can play in their favor. Roe focused his campaign on charges that Davis was in the pocket of "Big Oil."
If Democratic positions and talking points on energy can play in a Republican primary in such a conservative district, there's no telling how far they might be able to go in November. We'll have to see how hard the party is actually willing to push back on energy, of course.
NM-01, NM-02, NM-03: Democratic House Caucus Chair (and former DCCC chair) Rahm Emanuel was in New Mexico yesterday, gigging with all three of the state's Democratic House candidates: Martin Heinrich in NM-01, Harry Teague in NM-02, and Ben Ray Lujan in NM-03.
Yes, the war was a big factor. But the deteriorating economic condition in the middle class was a big factor in the fact that the Democrats took back the House and the Senate. And it will again be a contributing factor because people realize that under the Republican Party stewardship, the middle class has been hurt.
Both Heinrich and Teague are on Red to Blue as we speak (Lujan is cruising in a traditionally Democratic district). As a swing state with two top-tier House races, a U.S. Senate race, and the promise of an entirely new slate of federal representation next year (except for Sen. Jeff Bingaman), New Mexico is one of the most exciting - and promising - states in the country this cycle for political junkies. It's good to see that the national party leadership is conscious of this fact.
KY-03: Very bad news for fans of former GOP Rep. Anne Northup. As she seeks to defeat incumbent Democratic freshman John Yarmuth in a rematch of their 2006 affair, Northup's campaign is apparently sputtering to the extent that she has fired her campaign manager, Scott Will:
"There's not much more to say," Jackson said. "Scott's a great guy and did a great job. But a lot of time, it comes down to personalities and management style."
Jackson said the loss of a campaign manager exactly 13 weeks before the election will not harm Northup's chances against incumbent Democrat John Yarmuth, who won the seat from her in 2006.
"We still believe this is a five-point race," he said.
Frankly, if it really is a five-point race, given Yarmuth's relative popularity, the bad political environment for Republicans, and Northup's high-profile losses in 2006 and in the 2007 governor's race, it's a crime for them to fire Scott Will. If Northup really is in the race to that degree, there's no reason to change horses in midstream.
Perhaps, then, the campaign isn't really going as well as they would like.
Time to call maverick-poop on this "celebrity" stuff.
Here, free of charge, is the ad I'm thinking of (from the DNC, or MoveOn, or some other group other than the campaign, since it's against Obama's grain). I'm sure some of you will have better ideas, but it's time to hit him where he lives (all eight of them).
John Edwards is an embarrassment to his Party, and of course, to Elizabeth:
John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.
In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.
Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.
Well, since he didn't love her, it's okay that he made a run for the Democratic Party's nomination knowing that he was lying through his teeth about this. And a Friday news dump on the day of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? Coward.
We've had a running battle for the last couple of hours with some other freepers (RedStaters?) Bad Dad started an effort to freep a poll at AOL that showed McCain in the lead at 100% of the States.
Even though we all know that's total BS, it could ultimately have some impact if we let it stand. We've been playing Whack a Mole with these Right Wing freepers but the previous diary just did not get enough attention to have an impact.
Thank you for taking this onto the Rec list... Democrats are ignoring a goldmine
This spring while Oil prices soared, debate festered between various factions as to whether supply/demand vs. speculators were causing the energy markets to rocket up. In case you haven't noticed, Oil markets are crashing and only one real actual thing has happened to affect this situation, and that thing was predicted to cause this exact response.... what is it?
The Democratic Congress CLOSED the Enron Loophole in the Farm Bill on June 22nd
Take Credit NOW PLEASE!!! The MSM is claiming there is a fear of soft economic growth... This is laughable as oil went up and up through the spring and summer as it became common for the MSM and everyone else to talk slow growth, recession, etc... Something else happened, something the press is ignoring as well as our Party, at our own peril.
Paper trail and links to back this up below with graphs...
Calling it a "precautionary effort," John McCain's campaign said yesterday:
...that it would return all the contributions solicited for it by the Jordanian business partner of a prominent Florida fund-raiser for Mr. McCain.
For the McCain camp, the decision caps a queasy two days in which news accounts scrutinized a cluster of more than $50,000 in unusual contributions from a single extended family of Californians, the Abdullahs, and several of their friends. [...]
The donations came under scrutiny because of their large size and the fact that for the most part, the Abdullahs do not appear wealthy. In addition, several of them interviewed expressed indifference or even hostility to Mr. McCain’s candidacy.
All this taken together has raised the question of whether at least some of the family and their friends may have been donors in name only who were reimbursed by someone trying to skirt individual contribution limits.
It raised the question? It seems pretty clear that there is no question about the fact that a $9,200 donation from a Taco Bell manager, or another $9,200 from a man who, after first denying the donation, said of McCain:
He’s like a worse copy than Bush. I’m still not going to vote for him."
...does more than raise a question. And while the McCain campaign is still feeling queasy, perhaps they could look at the donation from the Hess Corporation office manager who decided to hang onto her 15 year old car so she could give McCain $57,000.
If there were a group of questionable donations all with the name Abdullah
that were funneled through a guy in Jordan
who is a Jordanian national
who is under investigation for war profiteering
and it were Barack Obama
instead of John McCain
would this be a bigger deal?
Second update by SusanG: And another great question posed by our own Zackpunk:
So wait a minute
Does that mean this Taco Bell manager gets to keep the money being "returned" to him?
According to First Read, the McCain campaign says the new ad called "Painful" will be run in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia (Northern Virginia), and Wisconsin.
It lies about Obama's economic policies, and the Obama campaign is calling McCain out on it:
This ad is a lie, and it's part of the old, tired politics of a party in Washington that has run out of ideas and run out of steam.
July started out incredibly badly for Darcy Burner and her family. While the family is still dealing with the loss of pretty much everything they owned, Darcy's future remains as bright as ever. That's in large part thanks to the netroots, who stepped up to help make sure that her campaign could go on in the face of her family's catastrophe.
Burner's campaign has just turned in their pre-primary filing with the FEC, and she's reporting to have raised nearly $351,000 in the month of July, ending the period with close to $1.5 million in the bank. Those are monstrous numbers, especially when you consider that only $18,000 of her total came from PACs.
Reichert's numbers are in, too, and and it doesn't look good for the incumbent. His July take, was just $115K.
Here's the breakdown in their reports for July and for the election cycle to date.
Total for July:
Burner: $350,897.68
Reichert: $115,474.88
From Individuals:
Burner: $329,022.30
Reichert: $49,159.88
Small Individual Donations:
Burner: $186,832.07
Reichert: $8,544.00
Total for Cycle from Individuals:
Burner: $1,995,109.43 (85%)
Reichert: $1,084,379.23 (58%)
PACs for July:
Burner: $18,100.00
Reichert: $62,250.00
Total for Cycle from PACs:
Burner: $296,859.24 (13%)
Reichert: $570,645.46 (31%)
Total for Cycle:
Burner: $2,337,372.67
Reichert: $1,866,086.08
Refunded in Cycle:
Burner: $6,550.01
Reichert: $56,970.00
Cash on Hand:
Burner: $1,476,757.53
Reichert: $928,113.96
It doesn't really get better than that. The difference between a people-powered progressive campaign and that of an establishment Republican really couldn't be made more clear. Also note that Burner's ActBlue numbers are at $416,118, or just under the difference in cash on hand. One of the reasons Darcy gets so much support is because, even though she's not in Congress yet, she's already a leader.
And she'll be talking about one of her projects, the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, today on Meet the Bloggers (http://meetthebloggers.org/ [link corrected]) at 1:00 EDT. Her appearance will be followed by a roundtable discussion on Iraq by David Goldstein, Matt Stoller, and me. You can stream the show live and participate through the comment thread, or you can view an archive after it's posted.
Time Magazine Calls Out McCain Ad- Worse than Willie Horton
Three days ago I posted a diary breaking down McCain’s "The One" ad (I posted the ad at the bottom of this diary) – pointing out the multitude of similarities to the end-times Left Behind novels. To many, not coming from an evangelical background or context, this probably came across as a conspiracy theory. However, today Amy Sullivan of Time Magazine confirmed our worst fears.
The John McCain Campaign has reached a new low in presidential politics. The McCain campaign is working to feed on people's fears and internet rumors that Sen. Obama just might be the Anti-Christ. We have seen the Republicans swift-boat, conjure up affairs, and enact false investigations. But, we have never seen anything this low.
There's really not a lot to say about this, except that we need to understand that the Republican dog-whistles are heard very well. Last week the McCain camp put out a web-only ad that appears to be a high-pitched call to the End of the Worlders out there that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ.
Now RedState.org is selling mugs and t-shirts that make the same connection, complete with horns on the famous O.
The murmuring in the blogosphere against Obama's run-of-the-mill ad campaign have been growing louder. The general feeling seems to be that you can't sell a new kind of politics while using the well-worn templates of Democratic campaigns of yore. Mike Lux wants more Obama face-time in ads, and that could surely make voters feel like they know him better. But it really does little to address the essential problem: a laundry-list, policy-wonk ad--no matter how it's filmed--is still a laundry-list, policy-wonk ad.
Almost as volatile as the "race" issue in this year's election is the issue of age. It is as equally impossible to ignore the reality of McCain's age as it is to ignore Obama's being black. The media and most pundits have tip-toed around this subject for months. I doubt that there is anyone out there who hasn't had a parent or grandparent, aunt or uncle who as they advanced into there seventies began to exhibit signs of diminishing mental ability. It's just a fact of life. It's not a stigma. It's not something you whisper about. It is something you become concerned about that's all.
I know nothing fox News does should surprise me. And like a cranky child making a scene in a grocery store for his "Fruit Loops" the best response is none. But I'm going to draw people's attention to Dan Abram's Beat The Press segment last night where Faux News has continued to fan the flames of suspicion about Obama's faith. It is good to know what's out there, and recognize where there Contards who are insisting he's muslim are getting their fodder.
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