Majority Parties - August 29th
On Sunday, August 29, hundreds of house parties will take place around the country, all with one goal in mind: restoring a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Have a great time attending or hosting a Party for the New Majority and YOU will help put an end to a decade of Republican abuse!
Check out the parties in your area, or sign up to host one at:
http://www.majorityparties.com
John Kerry needs a Democratic House to reverse the damage done by the radical right that has dominated Congress for 10 LONG years. Otherwise, Tom DeLay and his gang will block President Kerry at every turn. We CAN'T let that happen.
By raising money for Democratic House candidates around the country, we CAN achieve victory. Help make the difference. Sign up today!
Dems Come Back to Secure America
More than 100 House Democrats returned to the Capitol on Tuesday to be briefed by 9/11 Commissioners and to discuss the Commission's bipartisan recommendations. Leader Pelosi convened the Democratic Caucus to begin this work after House Speaker Dennis Hastert refused her requests that a special session of Congress be convened to deal with the urgent recommendations contained in the report.
Of course, Republicans have fought the 9/11 Commission from the beginning. President Bush stonewalled its creation, and after the report's release, Speaker Hastert insisted that he was in no rush to implement any of the recommendations.
@Stake attended the press conference held by Democratic leaders. Speakers emphasized their desire to draft a bipartisan bill as soon as possible that would translate the report's recommendations. The bill would be meant only as a starting point for debate, recognizing that meaningful debate cannot begin until legislation is introduced.
Democratic Caucus Chair Robert Menendez began:
"What I'd like to take my moment here is to create a sense of urgency, and I will not use my words, or my perceptions of that urgency. I use Lee Hamilton's words, before the caucus today.
"Lee Hamilton said - and I served with Lee Hamilton when he was the Chair of the International Relations Committee when I first came here 12 years ago - he said the following:
"'The time to act is now. The time to act is now. There are dangerous risks, and consequences for not acting.' He said, 'Six months of waiting is unacceptable.' And he said, 'It's time to make choices.'
"'No greater risk than preserving the status quo could be taken for this country.' Those are very compelling words..."
As these words make clear, this is not about "rushing" anything, despite Republican attacks. To the contray, it is about utilizing the short period of time left before Congress breaks for the election to actually get something done. Just read the letter below sent to President Bush asking him to call Congress back for a special session and judge for yourself…
The Texas GOP Smear Machine
You may have seen or heard about a new campaign against John Kerry by a dubiously-named group called "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." You may or may not have heard that their attempt to undermine his war record is filled with error and deceit, so much so that John McCain urged the White House to denounce the ads, calling it "the same kind of deal that was pulled on me." The White House did not denounce the ads, and this article in the Los Angeles Times explains exactly how deeply entwined this group is with the GOP Machine:
"Robert J. Perry, the main financier behind the effort to discredit Sen. John F. Kerry's military record, is the most prolific political donor in Texas.
"A homebuilder who lives lakeside in this Houston suburb, Perry has helped bankroll the widespread success of Republican candidates here, has long-standing ties to many close associates of President Bush and has contributed to Bush's last four campaigns.
"According to interviews and campaign documents, he has given a total of more than $5 million to scores of political candidates."
[...]
"'Bob Perry pulls the strings and never gets his hands dirty. But even by his standards, this latest deal is just over the top,' said Charles Soechting, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party."
[...]
"In the 2002 election cycle, he also provided about $700,000 for the GOP's effort to dominate Texas politics. That included $165,000 given to Texans for a Republican Majority, an offshoot of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority, formed to help conservatives get elected.
"The election that year of a slate of DeLay-backed Republicans - all supported by Perry - gave the GOP control of the state House for the first time in 130 years. That paved the way for passage of a host of conservative measures, such as abortion restrictions and limits on medical malpractice cases. The GOP also redrew congressional maps for Texas, a move designed to shore up Republican control of Congress."
We hear from inside sources that Perry's next group will be Well-to-doers Kept Out of Vietnam by Pushy Minority Glory Hogs (WKOVPMGH), responding to a moment early in Tom DeLay's career...
"In his early years in Congress, DeLay tended to keep his bizarre views out of the headlines. But in 1988 one of his barmier moments occurred in public. According to the Houston Press, DeLay gave an impassioned defense of Dan Quayle, who was then under fire for using family ties to get into a National Guard unit and out of serving in Vietnam. DeLay explained to reporters a theretofore little-noted phenomenon. DeLay claimed there was no room in the Army for people like himself and Quayle because so many minority youths had gone into uniform to escape poverty and the ghetto. This remarkable explanation left his audience dumbfounded. After DeLay left the microphone, a television reporter asked, 'Who was that idiot?'"
As Nicholas Confessore once put it in an article on DeLay's dominance of the lobbying community on K Street, "Welcome to the Machine."
Who needs the 9/11 Commission when the GOP has Katherine Harris?
Even as Republicans ran around indignant that any critic would even suggest they had played politics with terrorism, Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State turned Congresswoman, was giving the lie to their rhetoric. The story broke on outlets across the country…
On the AP wires:
"She told the audience that while in the Midwest recently, the mayor of Carmel told her how a man of Middle Eastern heritage had been arrested and hundreds of pounds of explosives were found in his home."
[...]
"Nancy Heck, a spokeswoman for Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, said, 'The mayor never talked to Katherine Harris. They never had that conversation.'"
And on local TV:
"Congresswoman Harris faxed us a statement sticking to her guns, but adding, 'I regret that I had no knowledge of the sensitive nature of this situation and any undue concern this may have caused.'
"Bottom line?
"Congresswoman Harris insists a terror plot was uncovered in Indiana. Everyone else we've talked to says there's no proof at all of what Harris claims. We'll keep you posted."
So Harris has found herself in the difficult spot of having either blatantly lied about terrorism for election purposes, and having leaked classified information for election purposes. One of Harris' prospective opponents in the Democratic primary, wrote a letter requesting an ethics investigation to determine which exactly of the two it was, and reminding Harris and the ethics committee of this oath:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will not disclose any classified information received in the course of my service with the House of Representatives, except as authorized by the House of Representatives or in accordance with its Rules."
Next time you see a Republican viciously dismissing a critic for questioning their integrity, remember Katherine Harris.
"Turning the Corner"
Just as President Bush had reached into his bag of talking points to unveil,
"We're turning a corner, and we're not turning back."
His rhetoric was severely undercut by the July jobs report:
"In a report rich with implications for the presidential race and the future of interest rates, the government said Friday that the economy added only 32,000 jobs in July, a second straight month of weak hiring…"
"In addition to the weak job growth in July, the Labor Department revised data from the previous two months, showing the economy added 61,000 fewer jobs than previously reported. Although the economy has added 1.2 million jobs this year, that is only slightly more than what is needed to keep up with growth in the nation's work force. Employers would have to add another 1.2 million jobs by the end of the year just to get even with where the economy was before President Bush took office in January 2001."
This disappointing employment news also comes just as the OMB releases the figures for the federal deficit, which break last year's record of $375 billion at a full $445 billion. To get an idea of the implications, the interest being paid each year henceforth on the deficit from these two years alone will be over $49 billion - paying for nothing, down the hole of debt service.
And even this omits the implications of the Middle Class Squeeze that is affecting families in a number of ways. The Economic Policy Institute notes, for example, that,
"real average hourly wages have fallen from $15.83 to $15.65. Similarly, real average weekly wages have fallen from $533.58 to $525.84."
With the "recovery" having begun over two years ago now, it is clear that administration policies, rather than helping, are actively hurting the translation of the recovery into job gains. And yet the Republicans see no reason to shift gears or abandon their failed policies of tax cuts for the extremely wealthy - rather they simply want more, more, more…
If you wonder whether the Republicans would be so callous, we'll give you another date to look forward to. On August 23rd, as much of America struggles with declining wages, a strained job market, and skyrocketing health care prices, the administration's new labor rules will go into effect, and millions of American workers will lose their right to overtime pay.
Another Outing
After it was disclosed that the information for Tom Ridge's press conference was years old, a fact conspicuously absent from his otherwise detailed account, the administration flooded the media with as much information as possible in an attempt to insulate themselves from charges of politicization. In the process, they appear to have outed one of America's best and only intelligence assets inside Al Qaeda:
"The effort by U.S. officials to justify raising the terror alert level last week may have shut down an important source of information that has already led to a series of al Qaeda arrests, Pakistani intelligence sources have said.
"Until U.S. officials leaked the arrest of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan to reporters, Pakistan had been using him in a sting operation to track down al Qaeda operatives around the world, the sources said."
In response, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who was arguably the prime mover urging the investigation of the outing of Valerie Plame, wrote another letter to the White House:
"I respectfully request an explanation to me and any other member of Congress who might wish one of who leaked this Mr. Khan's name, for what reason it was leaked, and whether ... reports that this leak compromised future intelligence activity are accurate."
The only explanation from the White House thus far was that the name was given to reporters "on background," which as the AP explains, "means that it could be published, but the information could not be attributed by name to the official who had revealed it." Decide for yourself whether that defense is even pertinent.
The leak reportedly infuriated Pakistani officials:
"'Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaida suspects ran away,' one of the Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity."
And British Home Secretary David Blunkett "expressed displeasure in fairly severe terms that Khan's name was released, because they were trying to track down other contacts," going on to denigrate Tom Ridge's behavior in general:
"Is that really the job of a senior cabinet minister in charge of counterterrorism? To feed the media? To increase concern?"
As Democrats were meeting on Tuesday, determined to get to work on serious intelligence reform, a Reuters analysis summed up the state of affairs with the GOP:
""The unmasking of an al Qaeda mole after a U.S. security alert points to disarray within U.S. intelligence and could mean President George W. Bush is accused of playing politics with security, the top U.S. election issue."
Republicans are asking America, "Who will best protect American security, Republicans or Democrats?" We think that the answer is obvious!
Defund the Turncoat
On Friday, Rodney Alexander, the incumbent Democrat in Louisiana's 5th district committed an act of what Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer called "perfidy," or as Webster's defines it, "a deliberate breach of faith; a calculated violation of trust; treachery." Having just re-registered as a Democrat days before, Alexander switched his party registration to Republican just 20 minutes before the filing deadline, effectively preventing any strong Democratic challenger from opposing him, and betraying the voters, volunteers, and party that had gone to extraordinary lengths to elect him just two years ago. DCCC Chairman Matsui issued the following statement:
Matsui Calls on Alexander to Apologize to Grassroots, Refund Supporters After Fraudulently Representing Democratic Affiliation in Campaign
Washington DC - - "Rodney Alexander owes an apology and he owes a refund to the thousands of honest people who supported him based upon his fraudulent claim that he was going to run for Congress as a Democrat. Louisianans and people all across the country took him at his word and backed his campaign with their hard earned money and with their own time and energy. Because of his calculated and cowardly act of personal advancement on Friday, I am demanding that Mr. Alexander reimburse the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for the $193,000 the committee used to help him win this seat in the 2002 general and run-off elections.
"Mr. Alexander carried the 5th District by less than one thousand votes. The support of the DCCC and the Louisiana Democratic Party was a determining factor to his win. The DCCC directed over $736,000 to the Louisiana State Party to help raise awareness on voter issues in the 2002 cycle.
"If Mr. Alexander has any conscience, he should also give back every penny he has raised this election cycle, including the $70,000 that Democratic Members of Congress have given him based upon his fraudulent claim that he was a Democrat running for Congress. Mr. Alexander's underhanded and secretive party-switch made it abundantly clear that he is not a man of honor. That said, he can find some redemption by doing the honorable thing and returning the contributions to his former supporters who request it."
We want to ensure that every donor who contributed to Alexander is made aware of his actions, and is able to request the refund that he has now promised. If you contributed to Alexander and want a refund, go get your money!
PO Box 367
Quitman, LA 71268
202-387-3742
(His staff was so disgusted by his actions that they quit en masse on Monday, so be patient if they have trouble fielding your call…)
Races to Watch: Farrell and Sullivan Storm Connecticut
On Tuesday night, the Connecticut primaries ended and the campaigns began. Two pivotal stops on the Road to a New Majority are CT-2, where Jim Sullivan will take on faux-moderate GOPer Rob Simmons, and CT-4, where, as the Hartford Courant puts it:
"…the race to watch is the 4th, the southwestern Connecticut district where Democrat Diane Farrell is set to ambush Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Shays."
Both Simmons and Shays are almost stereotypes of the rubberstamp-in-moderate's clothing campaign that Republicans are now running all over the country. Simmons, for example, has spoken to the press about his outrage at the Abu Ghraib affair, and has tried to distance himself from Bush:
"When asked who he'd like to invite to campaign with him, [Rep. Simmons (R-CT2)] mentions Arizona Sen. John McCain, an outspoken Bush critic on several issues. 'We have a lot in common,' Simmons says. He did ask first lady Laura Bush to visit in March, and she helped raise $100,000 for his campaign. But he doesn't intend to extend a similar invitation to the president."
That's all well and good, except that Simmons has voted with DeLay and Bush on 88% of roll call votes, including a vote quashing any House investigation into the Abu Ghraib scandal.
As for Shays, who has only voted with Bush a mere 85% of the time, the best judgment on his true colors comes from the stream of GOP attack dog talking points that have come out of his mouth recently. For example, when the House was debating the repeal of the library search clause of the Patriot Act, yet another vote the GOP cheated their way to victory on, Shays had the nerve to stand up and announce:
"I have 70 constituents who lost their rights on September 11; and to hear this debate, I am not sure we seem to care about that."
This was Jose Serrano's apt response:
"...I am troubled by the comments of the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. SHAYS). To tell a New Yorker, to have a New Yorker hear that we somehow do not care for the victims of September 11 is really the cheapest kind of blow a Member can put on this House floor. I care and everybody else cares. But in the process of caring for the victims of September 11, no one said we were supposed to throw away the Constitution of this country."
Add that to other Shays classics such as, "[Al Qaeda] and Iraq, they're like peas in a pod," or his press release on Richard Clark, "Clarke Statements Revisionist," and you see that Shays has done nothing with his alleged moderate credentials except use them to cynically advance the agenda of his right wing masters.
Jim Sullivan, an investment banker, hails from the largest city in the district, Norwich, where he grew up and served as a city councilman and worked with the Norwich Community Development Corporation. Dianne Farrell is a highly popular First Selectwoman of Westport, a position akin to Mayor. Farrell has also served as chair of the South Western Regional Planning Agency's Metropolitan Planning Organization and was an elected member of the Westport Board of Finance. We'll be working to help these candidates get their messages out, and teach their rubberstamp opponents that they cannot go home and put on the moderate mask.
Quick Links
GOP Kick Themselves in KS-03: A hotly contested GOP primary for the third district in Kansas pitted the party's choice against an extremist, out-of-the-mainstream candidate for the chance to challenge Democrat Dennis Moore in what the GOP thought was one of their best chances for pick-up. Unfortunately for them, it didn't turn out so well: "'The Republicans couldn't get it together,' said Larry Sabato, a political scientist and director of Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. 'They have blown it again.'" Why? Aside from being an extremist, a local editorial noted that "Kris Kobach does not seem to have the common sense to come in out of the rain." Not too promising…
Salazars in Colorado The brothers Salazar are making a charge to make Colorado a shade bluer this November. In the Senate race, Ken Salazar will take on arch-conservative (and beer mogul) Pete Coors, while John Salazar will take on Greg Walcher in Colorado's open 3rd Congressional District. According to Salazar's site, before the primary on Tuesday: "Farmer and Army veteran John Salazar has double-digit leads over all of his likely Republican opponents in the race to replace retiring Congressman Scott McInnis in Colorado's 3rd District, according to a poll Salazar released on Wednesday." Go Salazars!
