The Vote It's Safe to Ignore

The Fear That Dare Not Speak Its Name is running off at the mouth. Apparently Democrats don't have enough to worry about on this Pennsylvania Primary Day, so they've started obsessing about racism.

Specifically, how all those horrible American racists are going to doom Democratic hopes in the fall by voting Republican.

I am going to type this very slowly so everyone gets it the first time:

Racists, wingnuts, religioids and other fascist, freakazoid republicans never, ever, EVER vote for the Democratic candidate.

Not even the ones who are registered Democrats.

Yes, the Democratic Party is infested with racists and other republican freakazoids. Unfortunately, I am personally acquainted with some of them. They are registered Democrats, they call themselves Democrats, but they never, ever, EVER vote Democratic.

So can we please kill off for good this myth that it's possible to persuade such people to vote Democratic?

Seriously. This idiocy is rapidly approaching psychosis.

Democrats win by getting real Democrats off their fat asses and into the polling booth.

Period.

Anything else is a waste of time, money and effort, and the primary reason Democratic candidates lose.

Congressional Candidate John Yarmuth of Louisville stood up in 2006, proclaimed himself a Proud Liberal Democrat, and beat the shit out of five-term republican incumbent and Mitch McConnell pet Anne Northup.

He did it without getting one single vote from a racist, a wingnut, a religioid, or a republican of any kind, shape or form. And he didn't waste a single minute or a thin dime trying.

He spoke directly to the real Democrats who have always been ignored by DINOs like Hillary, and he drew them back to the polls, where they rewarded him with victory.

That's how real Democrats win. That's how Obama has won the Democratic primary. And that's how Obama will win the Presidential Election in November.

(Part of this post originally appeared as a comment on Salon.com.)

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.

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Will It Turn My Red State Blue?

While the national Democratic “leadership” is busy trying to figure out how to squeeze just one more state into the Democratic electorial vote column, on the ground here in the ignored “red” states, we’re setting our sights higher.

Twenty-four years after Mitch McConnell’s upset of Senator Dee Huddleston started the republican takeover of traditionally Democratic Kentucky, 2008 is shaping up as the year our 6-2 red congressional delegation flips to a 4-4 or possibly 5-3 blue group.

Three weeks ago, I would have said 4-4 was a lock, 5-3 likely and a complete reversal to 6-2 Democratic a definite possibility.

But the withdrawal of the only Democrat with a chance in hell of beating Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell makes it far less of a sure thing.

Nevertheless, we have progressive political novices courageously challenging republican incumbents in two Congressional Districts, and a wide-open race in another.

(Details after the jump.)

In the far-western First District, military veteran Heather Ryan is challenging seven-term incumbent Ed Whitfield. You’ll remember that Ryan was fired from her job on Mitch’s orders because her 12-year-old daughter Heaven dared to challenge McConnell on his support for the Iraq catastrophe.

Although Ryan is being studiously ignored by the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP), and although the KDP has failed to support a challenge to the extremely weak Whitfield for six straight election cycles, the unemployed mom, whose husband is on military deployment, has the determined support of Kentucky’s progressive blogosphere.

She also, unlike some supposedly stronger candidates in other districts, has a campaign website.

In the Second District, which ridiculously stretches almost 200 miles from the western flatlands past the Bluegrass to the foothills of the eastern mountains, republicans are still reeling from the last-second decision (seriously – barely an hour before the filing deadline) of seven-term incumbent Ron Lewis to not run again.

The rural Second is pretty conservative but not stupid, which is why it kept re-electing worthless piece of furniture but real repug Lewis over the pathetic repug-lites the KDP kept putting up against him.

The good news is that now Democrats have a real chance to take back the Second. The bad news is that two Democrats are running in the primary, and neither one of them can claim to be a progressive.

David Boswell and Reid Haire are both from Owensboro, at the far western edge of the Second District. Both are experienced local politicians – Haire the Daviess County Judge-Executive, and Boswell the state senator. Neither has a campaign website up.

Boswell is anti-choice (or as Eva Destruction put it, “believes pregnant women are the property of their husbands or parents”) and Haire has contributed to Mitch McConnell’s re-election. Hard to say who comes out better in that comparison.

Two republicans initially filed to replace Lewis, but Lewis’ chief of staff has now dropped out, leaving state senator Brent Guthrie of Bowling Green with no primary challenge.

As DINOs, neither Boswell nor Haire is likely to excite Kentucky’s progressives much, so the Second District race will come down to how powerful the Democratic wave is in November.

But we’re going to have fun in Louisville’s Third District, where humiliated ex-congress critter Anne Northup is begging for another whuppin’ from Proud Liberal John Yarmuth.

Northern Kentucky’s Fourth District might be interesting, if novice Michael Kelley can get some support from state Democrats for his challenge to repug two-term incumbent Geoff Davis.

In the Fifth and Sixth Districts, incumbents are sitting pretty. DINO extraordinaire Ben Chandler of Lexington’s Sixth has two republican challengers that nobody ever heard of and will coast to re-election. As will republican Hal Rogers of eastern Kentucky’s Fifth. Eastern Kentuckians may be overwhelmingly Democratic, but they appreciate somebody who knows how to bring home the bacon, no matter how unethically or illegally. Kentucky Democrats may be none too bright at times, but they’re nowhere near stupid enough to run against Rogers.

Speaking of stupid Democrats, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and DSCC Chair Chuck Schumer have guaranteed Mitch McConnell’s re-election by forcing Andrew Horne out of the race in favor of Criminal and Democratic Traitor Bruce Lunsford.

How bad a candidate is Bruce Lunsford? Bruce Lunsford is so bad, that there are dedicated progressive Democrats in this state who will not vote in the Senate race if Lunsford is the Democratic nominee.

Which he probably will be, even though he technically has six primary opponents. The only one of the six who is seriously challenging Lunsford is millionaire Greg Fischer, who is already getting slammed for falsely claiming to have picked up Horne’s supporters.

Last year, I wrote that the Democratic win in the Kentucky governor’s race was a good omen for Democratic wins statewide and nationally in 2008.

I still believe that, even though Governor Beshear has proven not to be the Great Democratic Hope I thought he was.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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My Congresscritter is Cooler Than Your Congresscritter

OK, so Proud Liberal John Yarmuth (D-KY3) isn't technically my Representative, if you're going to get picky about District borders. But I like to pretend he is, especially after reading pieces like this one from Page One Kentucky.

It’s hard not to like John Yarmuth. A year into his first-term as 3rd District Congressman, it’s obvious that he’s having a good time in Washington, but he’s also taking his job seriously. When he spoke to about 50 folks at Spalding University last night (a mix of journalists and students), he was eager and open in talking about his experiences. It almost felt like a family gathering (Yarmuth seems to get plenty of props from his colleagues for his media experience) where you catch up with the adventurous cousin who’s been away.

Yarmuth tells it like it is in a way that’s unusual in political circles. For one, he can admit mistakes, but he’s also willing to talk about the reasons behind his votes, even if those reasons are political.

And he's funny!

Colbert: “The best thing I’ve done in terms of publicity and exposure,” was his appearance on Stephen Colbert’s show on Comedy Central. Among the outtakes he shared was Colbert’s challenge to see if Yarmuth could tell the difference between Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. In a blind taste test, Yarmuth got it right…twice. So Colbert asked him how long he’d been drinking on the job. There was also this clip I found on Comedy Central’s web site.

Read the whole thing for Yarmuth's take on Iraq, Blue Dogs, the presidential race, S-CHIP, running against Mitch and more.

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Yarmuth Shows House How Oversight Is Done

Proud Liberal John Yarmuth, D-KY 3, gave Condi Rice what for in today's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. Via BlueGrassRoots:

Reminded by Yarmuth that the State Department's own inspector general recently found a rising level of Iraqi corruption that was compared to a "second insurgency," Rice still refused to say whether she believed conditions had worsened.

"...Some things have gotten better, some things have gotten worse...I can't give you a net assessment on the spot," Rice said.

Yarmuth told her that he and others were elected to Congress last fall because the American people were convinced "that they weren't leveled with about the conduct of this war, and that...if the administration had been more candid, then maybe the approval rating for what we're doing over there would be of reasonable levels."

"And, unfortunately, this total stonewalling and lack of candor is what's contributing to a lack of confidence in the American people," the Louisville lawmaker said.

And what has Ben Chandler, Kentucky's Sixth District DINO, done lately - or ever - to hold Smirky's maladministration accountable for the infinite number of disasters it has inflicted on the Sixth District and the nation?

(Crickets. Crickets.)

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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It's Article One, Stupid

(Via Terry Whitehouse of DitchMitchKY and Media Czech of BlueGrassRoots.)

Louisville freshman John Yarmuth, KY-3 remains the lonely upholder of Kentucky's integrity in Congress.

David Herszenhorn in the NYT's blog the caucus features Yarmuth in a piece on the progressive freshmen's attempt to persuade their spineless and/or jaded colleagues that Congress, not the president, is the premier Constitutional power in this country.

The way Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky sees it, lawmakers on Capitol Hill and Americans everywhere have forgotten who the Founding Fathers really intended to run the country –- not the President who was more of a Constitutional after-thought but the Congress, the people’s elected representatives.
Mr. Yarmuth said he and many of the 41 other freshman Democrats in the House had been puzzling for some time over just how to remind voters of this, how to mold a most basic lesson of American civics so that it could be carried far and wide by the modern techniques of political messaging. And then an idea struck.
Today, on the House floor, Mr. Yarmuth began distributing small buttons, seemingly made of parchment, with the words, “Article 1” – as in Article 1 of the Constitution, which states, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
In other words: Mr. President, the Congress would like to remind you, that you, dear pal, are Article 2.

Read the whole thing, as it is full of tidbits like the elected yahoos who think "Article 1" refers to the First Amendment.

I seriously doubt Ben Chandler, DINO-KY 6, can claim that kind of ignorance. He just prefers fellating Smirky to representing his constituents.

Cross-posted at Blue in the Bluegrass.

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Iraq Summer in Kentucky

More than 1,000 Kentuckians turned out in Louisville last night to protest the Iraq War. Your humble correspondent was not there, but Bluegrass Roots was.

Proud Liberal Congressman John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, spoke, as did his 2006 primary rival Andrew Horne, the subject of a grass-roots draft to persuade him to run against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, next year.

Horne on Iraq, Bush and McConnell:

"Americans do not start wars of aggression. Americans do not torture. We know who we are. Americans do not abandon and neglect their veterans, no more than they abandon their own children. "

"This isn't a partisan issue, this is an American issue"

"President Bush and Mitch McConnell are responsible for this, and they must be held accountable"

"Mitch, can you hear us, we are the people!"

Don't miss the Update 6 description of the post-rally march to Mitch's house, in which 300 protestors chased off the 20 bikers Mitch was hiding behind. With pictures!

Live-blogging courtesy of wi-fi provided by Mitch McConnell.

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Takin' Names for 2008

I hereby nominate Sixth District Congressman Ben Chandler, D-KY, for the first name on the DINO Hit List to get a progressive primary opponent in 2008.

The treasonous schmuck was one of 41 "Democrats" voting to let the Usurper put the finishing touches on his American Dictatorship.

In January, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave Sophmore Chandler a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, as a fairly obvious incentive to get him to vote the straight and narrow on the Democratic agenda.

At first it seemed to work, too. Benny voted in line with the leadership on most of the important votes, most recently co-sponsoring a bill to impeach AG Alberto Gonzales.

But Benny's been a shill for this maladministration since his special election in 2004, and now he's reverting to form.

Look, I understand the importance of not eating our young, keeping the majority, red-state politics, blah, blah, blah.

But a vote that blatantly invites Smirky to shit on the Bill of Rights? An engraved invitation to declare himself dictator-for-life? When bush's disapproval rate is poised to exceed Nixon's? When republicans are running for the exits? When a significant majority of Americans trust DEMOCRATS more than republicans on the war on terror?

What. The. Fuck?

No, scratch that. I don't really care what slimy rationalizations float in Chandler's wingnut brain.

With Democrats like Chandler (and Nick Lampson and Henry Cuellar, the ungrateful bastards), what do we need with republicans?

We - real Democrats, liberals, progressive, members of the reality-based community, bush-haters all - WE got these assholes elected. WE handed them the House and the Senate.

WE brought them into this new Democratic world, and WE can take them out of it.

Next year, people will not only be looking for a way to punish republicans hard, they'll also be looking for a way to punish Democratic Collaborators.

2008 is going to be our best chance to not just grab huge majorities in both houses of Congress, but to replace Democratic Collaborators with Real Democrats.

Check out this vote roll to find out whether your Democratic representative is a collaborator. If he or she voted yes, start recruiting a primary opponent today.

Do it now, before voting Democratic makes you an enemy combatant, Guantanamo-bound.

I am extremely relieved and proud to announce that Louisville's own John Yarmuth, D-KY voted keep the Bill of Rights and deny Smirky a crown.

UPDATE, 6:42 p.m.: Logical Negativism has the full list of DINOs in the House.

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Lame, Lamer, Lamest

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote to both of Kentucky's U.S. Senators (Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, both republicans) and two of its six Representatives (republican Ron Lewis and Democrat Ben Chandler) and demanded that they support impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney.

I received the following email response from one of them. See if you can guess who it is.

(SNIP)
Though I fully support our troops in their efforts to aid Iraq in its transition from Saddam Hussein's regime, I continue to have serious reservations about the extent of our nation's involvement in Iraq. I was not a Member of Congress when it agreed to a resolution authorizing the President to use force in Iraq, but I believe that Congress, who alone has the authority to declare war, was presented questionable evidence regarding weapons of mass destruction and related matters.

However, now that we find ourselves in this situation, we must look forward and devise a plan to stabilize Iraq, ease the strain on our troops and improve the capacity of our intelligence agencies. Rest assured I will keep your thoughts in mind if the congressional leadership calls for an investigation into the President's reasons for going to war.
(SNIP)

Yep, that's our BennyBoy, DINO extraordinaire. And rotten office manager. His staff sent me the autoresponse for Iraq (which I did not mention in my impeachment demand, which focused on violations of the Constitution), not the one for impeachment. Maybe Benny doesn't have an impeachment auto-response prepared yet.

Nothing from the RWAs, but that's no surprise. McConnell's waaaaay too important to stoop to responding to the likes of a lowly voter (and obvious Democrat/traitor - my name's probably being purged from the voter rolls as I write), Bunning's senile and Lewis is a sniveling weasel.

I'm currently trying to borrow a residential address in Louisville, district of Proud Liberal Democrat and Northup-Slayer John Yarmuth, so I can get past the stupid House email verification system to make the same request.

We'll see if Yarmuth, whose outspoken liberal courage has been making Benny look bad all year, can get it up for impeachment.

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Meet Mitch's Nemesis

Update Below

If you heard this morning’s Democratic Response to the latest blatherings of the Usurper, remember it. You may have heard the voice of …

The Man Who Takes Down Mitch McConnell in 2008.

McConnell, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate, has owned Kentucky since he beat two-term incumbent Dee Huddleston in 1984 with one of the original attack ads (bloodhounds searching the U.S. Capitol for Huddleston, who had a tendency to miss votes.)

But his star has been fading since his hand-picked Boy Guv, Ernie Fletcher, shat on the Governor’s Office carpet in 2004 by breaking state civil service laws to get his idiot cronies into state jobs.

Now national Democratic leaders have seen fit to reach deep into Kentucky politics to lift up Iraq War Veteran and retired Marine Lt. Col. Andrew Horne to give the Democratic response to Dear Leader’s weekly radio address today.

Horne lost the Democratic primary for Kentucky’s 3rd District Congressional seat (Louisville) last year to John Yarmuth, who went on to take down five-term incumbent Anne Northup, another McConnell protégé.

Yarmuth is now the heartthrob of Kentucky progressives, who hang on word of his Washington doings like prepubescent teens following Britney Spears.

But they also still carry a torch for Horne, whom they supported in the primary, before swallowing their pride after the primary loss and working their tails off for Yarmuth.

Horne was also endorsed in the primary by Change for Kentucky/Democracy for America, and I think I detect the brilliant hand of Democratic National Committee Chair and DFA founder Howard Dean in the selection of Horne for today’s response. Wouldn’t surprise me if Senator and Marine combat veteran Jim Webb had a hand in it too.

McConnell, who may be best known for his cast-in-stone opposition to campaign finance reform, has a reputation for campaign success second only to Karl Rove’s.

But we all know what happened to Karl in November.

And McConnell is up for re-election in 2008, at what will undoubtedly be his weakest point in 24 years.

Last week, we heard the first rumors here in Kentucky that Horne might take on McConnell next year. People leaped into action at the news, but one of his original supporters put a damper on it by saying Horne had made no decision yet.

I think we can start lining up campaign contributions now.

Update, April 1, 8:56 a.m.

Some choice excerpts from Horne's response to the Usurper:

" ... I am proud of my service, and very proud of those men and women currently in harm’s way who are doing their best in a terribly difficult situation.

...
"In short, the Commander-in-Chief has failed to properly lead the troops, and previous Congresses didn’t ask the tough questions, or demand accountability. The result is the mess we are in today.
...

"... these bills both demand something that previous Congresses did not – accountability from the administration. Both bills demand that the President continue to verify that we are moving Iraq towards stability, and that we are on track to disengage our combat troops from the Iraqi Civil War by 2008.

"Accountability is something this administration has demanded of everyone else. Go to the website of the White House, and put in a search for the word “accountability.” What comes up is a list of nearly 2,000 pages on the site that mention the word.

...
"It's ironic that an administration that has touted its commitment to tying accountability to funding for things like schools or social programs is so opposed to any performance evaluation itself, especially with American lives on the line.

"Both Houses of Congress have done their jobs and will soon finish a bill that will provide for the troops. When they’re done, the only person who could keep funds from reaching troops would be the President. If the President vetoes this bill because he doesn’t want to formally demonstrate progress in Iraq, never in the history of war would there be a more blatant example of a Commander-in-Chief undermining the troops. There is absolutely no excuse for the President to withhold funding for the troops, and if he does exercise a veto, Congress must side with the troops and override it.

"As a loyal Marine who loves my country and my fellow troops and veterans, I ask you, Mr. President, please do not withhold funding from our troops because you are afraid to change course and show progress in Iraq."

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More Money, Plus a Deadline

It looks like the House Dems may have come up with an Iraq bill the Usurper can't veto.

The House has passed a $124 billion war spending bill - wait, wait, it gets better - that sets an August 31, 2008 deadline for bringing the troops home.

The Washington Post initially managed to spin it as a defeat for liberals (seriously, why hasn't Ben Bradlee beaten the crap out of every editor there yet?), but dropped that nonsense after the final vote.

It's a military spending bill with a troop withdrawal deadline. Boy George has sworn to veto any Iraq deadline, but wouldn't vetoing the funding mean hurting the troops?

The vote was 218-212, with two Republicans voting yes and 14 Democrats voting no.

The two Republicans voting yes were Walter B. Jones of North Carolina and Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland. Seems to me I've heard good things about Jones before, in terms of being kool-aid-resistant, but why does Gilchrest hate America?

The 14 Democrats voting no were John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Lincoln Davis (Tenn.), Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio), Barbara Lee (Calif.), John Lewis (Ga.), Gene Taylor (Miss.), Jim Marshall (Ga.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Michael R. McNulty (N.Y.), Michael H. Michaud (Maine), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Diane Watson (Calif.) and Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).

I'd bet that Kucinich for sure and probably the California dems voted no because the deadline isn't yesterday, but does anybody know anything about the others?

Here in Kentucky, the vote broke along party lines. Not sure whether liberal John Yarmuth or Blue Dog Ben Chandler was more reluctant. I'm sure John hates the late deadline and Ben hates having any deadline at all.

Now it goes to the Senate. Who originally said that the Senate is where good bills go to die?

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