As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Is There One Moderately Sane Republican?
Kay Bailey Hutchison wants to be Governor of Texas. She was favored to win the Governor's race in 2010 over the current Governor Rick Perry, although Perry has moved ahead in the last few months. Resigning from the Senate to campaign full-time would doubtlessly raise her profile and give her a chance to regain the lead. So she announced that she would do just that, sometime in October or November. Texas has a special election requirement for Senate vacancies (though the Governor can appoint a temporary replacement), so there would be a May 2010 TX-Sen race.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's message Wednesday was as simple as it was confusing: If Gov. Rick Perry does not quit his re-election race to give her a free run at the Republican gubernatorial nomination, she will quit the Senate to run against him.
In a bizarre series of interviews, Hutchison — who has been in the Senate for 16 years — said Perry is wearing out his welcome by wanting to win re-election so he can have 15 years as governor. And if he does not get out of her way, she will quit her job to take him out.
Wednesday morning Hutchison told a Dallas radio station that she planned to quit her Senate seat in October or November to challenge Perry.
Several hours later, however, she told reporters in Washington that her statements had been misunderstood and what she really wanted was for Perry to get out of the race.
“Nobody expected (Perry) to run for 15 years, and I think there's a chance that he wouldn't run because he would see how divisive it is and that he's trying to stay too long and that he can really help in many ways if he doesn't run, in which case I could then be able to stay in the Senate all the way to the end,” Hutchison said, according to Congressional Quarterly.
Who the hell does that? Perry is LEADING right now. Why would he want to accommodate her by leaving the race so she doesn't have to quit the Senate? Does she realize that Perry would get to name her temporary replacement? Does she realize that most politicians kind of like that kind of power? Does she realize that politicians don't usually quit campaigns to make it easier for their opponents?
Here's a few things I saw in some of the downballot races that interest me in this election:
• CA-04: Charlie Brown, a patriot in the strictest sense of the term, has been running his campaign for Congress based on some simple directives - to help those in need, to work in their own community, and to lead before ever getting to Washington. This week, in the wake of the California wildfires, he has provided supplies and relief to evacuees in Butte County, one of the hardest-hit areas.
• VA-05: This kind of volunteerism and early leadership is something we're also seeing in the campaign of Tom Perriello, who's facing Rep. Virgil Goode in the general election. This is about service, but it's also about raising the bar for activism as an outgrowth of a political campaign.
Early on, Perriello set aside 10 percent of the time and resources of his campaign staff to work on local projects. Larry Campbell, assistant pastor at Bible Way Cathedral in Danville, Va., says he was surprised that Perriello's campaign wanted more than a photo op when they visited his food bank.
"I've had many political candidates come through, but I've never had any work along with us in the area of social-action changes," he says, citing ongoing help from Perriello volunteers. "Most candidates who are running for national office have more programs just getting people out voting for them, but to give back to the community is a heavy statement for social change."
• TX-Sen: The DSCC is hammering John Cornyn for only changing his vote to halt Medicare cuts after the bill was assured of passage. He already lost the Texas branch of the AMA's support over this vote. His opponent, Rick Noriega, is going to need a lot of cash to catch up to Cornyn, but he has raised $1M online, making him the "largest (non-presidential) online fundraiser with ActBlue since its inception." Unfortunately, Texas is such a big state that you probably need LOTS more than Noriega has been able to raise to run a solid challenge.
• CO-Sen: Bob Schaffer, the Republican vying for this open seat, can't stop stepping in scandal. The latest is that he helped negotiate a lucrative oil deal in Iraqi Kurdistan, against the wishes of the State Department, and it's causing major problems for Iraqi efforts to negotiate a hydrocarbon law. Tied to Big Oil and putting personal benefit over country; quite a feat! Mark Udall is the Democrat here.
• MN-Sen: I thought Al Franken's latest ad was pretty good, and represented some outside-the-box thinking:
"In Washington, they debate whether former members of Congress should wait one year or two years before they become registered lobbyists. How about never? I'm Al Franken, in Washington I'll fight for a new law to prevent members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists."
It's a sharp message, picking up on anti-Washington sentiment. What's more, it's not off the typical shelf of "Democratic issues" we hear over and over again.
• AK-Sen: In other ad news, Mark Begich's latest uses the culture of corruption which has consumed Alaska politics and contrasts it with his personal integrity.
Begich says how he's made all his finances public, so the people can know what he's up to. "But it's not that way in Washington, DC," Begich says. "It's time to end the secret deals for special interests, and the special favors for elected officials."
There's nowhere that will work better than Alaska.
• GA-12: The primary between John Barrow and Regina Thomas is this Tuesday. Blue America has been running ads in the district, and Barrow is peeved.
Howie Klein of Los Angeles, a retired music industry executive and one of Blue America's founders, said the PAC got behind Thomas because of Barrow's votes supporting the war in Iraq, President Bush's signature tax cuts and a recent bill to protect telecommunications companies that help the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines.
"He's in a Democratic district and he's still voting worse than anyone else," Klein said. "If we can somehow harm to his chances of being elected, there is a state senator who seems very progressive and intelligent who could do the job." [...]
Barrow responded with a statement saying his support for an increase in the minimum wage and opposition to cutting veterans benefits and privatizing Social Security, among other issues, have put him at odds with Bush plenty.
"Apparently the only way to persuade some people that I'm not a rubber stamp for George Bush is to become a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi," the Democratic House speaker, Barrow said. "And I refuse to be a rubber stamp for anyone."
Attacking liberals and dismissing Democrats seems to be an awkward strategy for a primary, but he is the incumbent and Thomas hasn't raised much of her own money. Frankly if we can make this competitive it'll be a win.
They actually went ahead and called a vote on the motion to proceed to a debate on the FISA bill.
It passed 80-15.
There are now 30 hours of debate available on FISA and I'm sure Sen. Dodd and Sen. Feingold are going to use every scrap of that, but realistically, I don't see how we stop this freight train. Delay is the only option.
From the "better Democrats" front, two Senate candidates weigh in on FISA. Jeff Merkley:
The bill will force federal district courts to immediately dismiss any cases against telecommunications companies that participated in illegal surveillance. This is unacceptable. The Constitution of the United States was violated. Over several years telecommunications companies turned over the records of millions of innocent Americans to the federal government without proper oversight and without a warrant.
The Bush Administration disregarded the Fourth Amendment when it authorized this surveillance and now Congress may provide the Administration and these companies a free pass. This is a mistake. The Senate is set to vote on the FISA bill this week. For the sake of our constitution and the foundation of our democracy, I urge all Senators to unite in opposition to this bill.
On Christmas Day in 2004, when I was deployed to Afghanistan, a group of buddies and I drove down to Jalalabad road to get to an outpost so that we could wake up our children and our families on that Christmas Day through the internet.
As we approached that outpost, we encountered what we thought was perhaps a near-ambush. When we got on the computers to wake up our families on that Christmas Day, I suspect that the government probably listened in on my and Melissa's conversation because it was communication between two countries. And I know that whoever did, probably didn't notice a little change in my voice or the tone. But Melissa knew - she understood.
I went to Afghanistan and fought for this country, and to protect the Constitution of the United States, and I believe it's wrong that there's sweeping amnesty to those who have violated privacy laws that are protected by the Constitution.
That's great, but of course we have a Senate afflicted with DC disease and weighed down with telecom cash.
As I said, I'm not hopeful. 30 hours may just be enough if the other bills are foregrounded to delay this. But that's about it, and it may be delaying the inevitable.
UPDATE: Here are the 15 who stood up for the Constitution today.
...no Obama on that list, he was campaigning. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway. He's el foldo on this issue.
"The bill has changed. So I don't think the security threats have changed, I think the security threats are similar. My view on FISA has always been that the issue of the phone companies per se is not one that overrides the security interests of the American people."
A few weasel words from there, but Obama is totally cool with the precedent of the government giving a slip of paper to a corporation allowing them to break the law. He's cool with the premise of "we were just following orders" that was shot down at Nuremberg being revived. He's cool with if the President does it, then it isn't illegal. He's cool with a bunch of the other really dangerous aspects of the bill, including the vacuuming up of every communication that leaves or enters the United States without even the caveat that they be related to terrorism. He's cool with a national surveillance state.
I got a bit of pushback crowing about Don Cazayoux' victory in as special election in the Baton Rouge area. Considering the guy's political hero is John Breaux, he's not exactly going to be my favorite Democrat. My narrower point was that the "Republican attack machine" is not nearly as fearsome as advertised, that's all.
In a sign that the Senate Republicans could be in danger in even states usually deemed safe for them, a new Rasmussen poll of Texas finds that Sen. John Cornyn (R) could very well have a race on his hands against Democrat Rick Noriega, a state Representative and Iraq War veteran:
Now, Cornyn has a ridiculously large lead in cash on hand, and George Bush would probably be more concerned with getting his puppet Cornyn re-elected than he would getting John McCain in the White House. But as a baseline poll, before the campaign even really starts, this is quite incredible. Rick Noriega is a veteran and a state Senator who got into the race with the support of the Texas netroots. He believes in ending the war, restoring balance to the economy, and ending unfunded education mandates. If we turn the large Hispanic community into regular voters in Texas, we'd have a very large swing state. Rick Noriega shows the way. I'm very excited about this seat.
There are a few other Senate primaries coming up where we have the chance to pick a better Democrat, too. In North Carolina tomorrow, Jim Neal is the better choice against State Sen. Kay Hagan, although Hagan is favored. In Nebraska on May 13, millionaire Republican-turned-Democrat Tony Raimondo is trying to buy the nomination, but we have netroots favorite Scott Kleeb. And on May 20, the Democratic primary in Kentucky will hopefully give us Greg Fischer instead of terrible Liebercrat Bruce Lunsford. Senate Guru has more on all these races.
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