NDN Blog

Following up on James' excellent post from earlier this morning, here's a video ridiculing the President's line on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that "it’s never been stay the course."  What is amazing to me about this about-face isn't that the administration is abandoning the phrase, before James Baker and company advocate abandoning the policy, but that they expect Americans to pretend they haven't been spouting this for the last few years.  Maybe that is the Bush legacy: complete duplicity in Presidential communication and leave it to Tony Snow to try and parse the mess.

Claire McCaskill's new ad featuring Michael J. Fox is simple and moving.  In it, Fox talks about stem cell research and hope, reminding voters deciding between McCaskill and Senator Talent (who favors criminalizing stem cell research) that "what you do in Missouri matters to millions of Americans."

The ad is running during the World Series on Fox, when millions of Missourians will be watching their Cardinals.  And pickup on the internet has been impressive - on YouTube this ad is the 15th most watched video over the past week, with over 500,000 views. 

Anecdotally, I'm hearing about this ad from people who have little or no interest in politics.  That means that this powerful message is reaching people who may not have engaged in the election debate until now. 

Senator Barack Obama went on Meet the Press yesterday and had a substantive talk with Tim Russert on issues ranging from Iraq to Medicaid. Of course the quote that is getting all the play is about his evolving plans for '08:

SEN OBAMA: I don’t want to be coy about this, given the responses that I’ve been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility. But I have not thought it—about it with the seriousness and depth that I think is required. My main focus right now is in the ‘06 and making sure that we retake the Congress. After oh—after November 7, I’ll sit down and, and consider, and if at some point, I change my mind, I will make a public announcement and everybody will be able to go at me.

MR. RUSSERT: But it’s fair to say you’re thinking about running for president in 2008?

SEN. OBAMA: It’s fair, yes

Compare that quote, as Tim Russert did, to his comments on the same show only nine months ago:

MR. RUSSERT: But, but—so you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?

SEN. OBAMA: I will not.

Watch the whole video here and decide for yourself; will we get to see Obama run?

The California Attorney General is investigating a threatening letter that has been sent to Latinos in Orange County saying that legal and illegal immigrants risk arrest and even deportation if they try and vote in this November's elections:

The letter, which purports to be from a Huntington Beach-based group, also warns that the state has developed a tracking system that will allow the names of Latino voters to be handed over to anti-immigrant groups.

"You are advised that if your residence in this country is illegal or you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time …," the letter says.

This blatant and illegal voter intimidation should be a signal to progressives and all our allies who support comprehensive immigration reform.  Our opponents are desperate and know they are on the wrong side of this issue, both this fall and in the long term.  Now is not the time to run away from immigration, but to hold Republicans accountable for their failure to find a solution to this most pressing issue. 

Why are Republican Congressmen from New York obsessed with comparing their (and my) home state with various troubled corners of the globe?  Congressman Peter King has been quoted saying that being in Baghdad is “like being in Manhattan.”  And during a recently revealed trip to the Northern Marianas Islands in 2001, Congressman John Sweeney said he had seen "worse sweatshops back home in New York."

Sweeny's trip was paid for by a lobbyist hired by Jack Abramoff, as part of Abramoff's campaign to ensure that apparel producers in the Northern Marianas Islands could continue to call their products 'Made in the USA,' while remaining exempt from federal minimum wage and immigration laws.  The human rights abuses that take place as a result of this lawless situation are well-documented and include withholding wages, keeping workers in overcrowded and unsanitary barracks, prohibitions on religious practices, forced prostitution and forced abortions. 

After the trip, Sweeney received almost $10,000 in campaign donations from Abramoff and his lobbyist associates.  The results:

Within months of returning...Sweeney met separately with Marianas Gov. Fitial and Rudy [the Abramoff lobbyist who arranged the trip] in Washington. Rudy also met with members of Sweeney's staff...Fitial had meetings with Sweeney and his fellow Appropriations Committee member, Doolittle, in Washington on April 8, 2001, to discuss the islands' infrastructure and development needs.

Sweeney initially refused to discuss the trip, but is now admitting that he violated House ethics rules by going on a lobbyist-funded trip. 

Congressman King's comments are even more absurd.  Last I checked, Manhattan was not on the verge of a civil war and their were no leadership purges going on in the NYPD to try to reign in roving bands of sectarian death squads. 

Sweeney and King's comments are symptoms of the greater Republican disease.  After 12 years in power in the House, they will say anything, no matter how out of touch with reality, to advance their political agenda.  It can't get much clearer that the time for change is now. 

At least enough to introduce himself in his new Spanish language radio ad "Creencias" (Believes).  "Creencias" is running in and around the city of Providence, which is 30% Hispanic.  NDN Hispanic Strategy Center Advisor Maria Cardona praised the effort, calling it "a smart and necessary strategy that more Democrats across the country should follow if we want to win back the House and Senate."  With its inclusive and positive message, "Creencias" is the exact opposite of the RNC ad demonizing Hispanics, that was run against Steve Laffey during the Republican Senate primary. 

Everyone on our team should be following Whitehouse's lead (and the advice of NDN) and engage the Hispanic community. 

Former VA Gov. Mark Warner has just announced that he will not be running for President in 2008, surprising supporters, pundits and Democrats nationwide.  Since leaving the Governor's office nine months ago with record high approval ratings, Warner has been raising money and traveling the country, particularly to NH, IA and SC, in support of Democratic candidates.  He's been getting good press coverage and seemed to be staking out a space as a leading, moderate contender for the '08 Democratic Presidential nomination.  This being Washington, rumors about his next political move are already flying.  Depending on what and whom you are reading, he could be contemplating a run for Republican John Warner's Senate seat in 2008, thinking about getting his old job back as Governor in 2010, or even making himself available as a VP pick.  Family appears to be a major factor in his decision, and from what I've personally seen of Governor Warner, it is clear that he is very devoted to his wife and three daughters. 

The complete text of his announcement is here.

The latest Republican scandal just won't go away.  Yesterday, the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) accused the FBI of lying to cover-up its failure to investigate Mark Foley in July 2006, when CREW first sent then Congressman Foley's inappropriate emails to the FBI.  The FBI says that the emails were heavily redacted and that they were unable to contact CREW.  CREW calls both claims untrue saying:

On Monday, October 2, CREW sent a letter to the DOJ I.G.’s office, attaching exact copies of the emails CREW had sent to the FBI on July 21, 2006. Both the former page’s name and the person to whom the page forwarded Rep. Foley’s emails were clearly visible. Moreover, after CREW sent the emails to the FBI, CREW’s only subsequent contact with the Bureau was one telephone call from the special agent to whom CREW had sent the material confirming that the emails were from Rep. Foley. CREW had no further contact with the FBI.

Why is the FBI unable to get its story straight about its apparent decision to not investigate Mark Foley when they first found out about the emails?

Also, Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe, a former member of the Congressional Page oversight board, confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that he had been told about inappropriate emails from Mark Foley to a Congressional Page "years before" the acknowledged 2005 incident.  At the time, Kolbe says he spoke to Foley's Chief of Staff Kirk Fordham and took no further action.  This latest revelation is yet another layer in the Republican's explanation for why they were so lax in their attention to the welfare of the children working in the Congressional Page program.  Should make Mr. Fordham's upcoming testimony to the House Ethics Committee even more interesting.

In this Republican Congressional leadership the buck never seems to stop anywhere, but it sure gets passed around a lot.  That is unless the background to Speaker Hastert's press conference this morning was some kind of morbid hint about his future as Speaker. 

Rick O'Donnell, the Republican running in the Colorado 7th Congressional District, is down by 11% in the latest Reuters/Zogby poll, and he's getting desperate.  Exhibit A: his latest ad which uses grainy images of Hispanics to try and scare voters and convince them that his opponent is soft on immigration and border security.  A pretty hypocritical move from a member of the party that failed to pass immigration reform.