November 16, 2006

Standing with Dean

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 1:58 pm

Old Clinton strategist James Carville seems to have it out for DNC Chairman Howard Dean.

First it was this:

Some big name Democrats want to oust DNC Chairman Howard Dean, arguing that his stubborn commitment to the 50-state strategy and his stinginess with funds for House races cost the Democrats several pickup opportunities.

The candidate being floated to replace Dean? Harold Ford.

Says James Carville, one of the anti-Deaniacs, “Suppose Harold Ford became chairman of the DNC? How much more money do you think we could raise? Just think of the difference it could make in one day. Now probably Harold Ford wants to stay in Tennessee. I just appointed myself his campaign manager.”

Now this:

Asked by a reporter whether Dean should be dumped, Carville replied, “In a word, do I think? Yes.”

He added, “I think he should be held accountable.” He added, “I would describe his leadership as Rumsfeldian in its competence.”

Rumsfeldian?

Since, after all, the party won the House (expected) and the Senate (unexpected). I mean, when I hear about the 2006 election results, I certainly compare it to the disaster in Iraq.

As far as I can tell, the only thing the results have in common with Iraq (at least if you’re a Democrat) is that both now have a civil war involved. However, the intra-party civil war was sparked by Carville. Perhaps he should compare himself to Rumsfeld rather than Dean.

Harold Ford, who lost his bid for Bill Frist’s Senate seat to Bob Corker, said he didn’t want the position anyway. This gives credence to the idea that Carville was involving someone else in his ugly little dispute without that person’s knowledge or permission. This has nothing to do with Ford.

It has little to do with Mary Matalin, Republican strategist and Carville’s wife, despite that Carville called her on election night of 2004 to inform her that Kerry and Edwards were planning to contest the Ohio election and that he disagreed with that decision. Being a loyal Republican, she immediately told the Bush campaign about it, and they got in touch with Ken Blackwell, corrupt Secretary of State of Ohio. The rest is history. No, Carville may have sabotaged the 2004 election, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a Republican mole. There are other possible motivations for sabotaging the election challenge. This has little to do with Matalin.

It has EVERYTHING to do with Hillary Clinton. (Read more…)

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November 10, 2006

Fallout

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 3:57 pm

Tuesday was a mandate for change, clean government, and idea-based politics.

It was a mandate for a check on the out-of-control Bush administration.

It was a mandate for moderation and reform.

It was NOT a mandate for conservatism.

These newly elected Democrats are socially libertarian, for the most part, and economically populist. They are not right-wing conservatives, and you’ll see that difference when they assume office next year.

There’s not too much for me to say. My birthday is tomorrow, and this was a beautiful present.

Thank you, America — with special thanks to 9,000 voters in Virginia (a fraction of 1% of the population) who decided to get out and vote.

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November 2, 2006

The John Kerry I Know

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 1:27 pm

Late in 2005, I was invited as a guest to John Kerry’s birthday gala in Boston. At the party, I had the honor of speaking with Kerry himself as well as his lovely and sweet wife. It was a great experience. But, like many such events, it had several hundred people present, and no one person got much “face time.” That was fine. It was no one’s fault, and what’s more, was a good thing that he drew that kind of support.

After the party, I went to the hotel restaurant with several staffers and other supporters. We all sat down and ordered some late-night food and drinks. We chattered, growing increasingly louder, over one topic after another. The war. Hurricane Katrina. The fact that Kerry’s office had sent an aid plane to the Gulf Coast but had not wanted a media spectacle made of it. The party. Local politics. One of the staffers got a call from the Senator on his cell phone and held it out to the rest of the table for us to send a message. We screamed into the phone.

Ten minutes later, the Senator himself walked in the door, dressed in jeans and casual clothes.He sat down and announced that the bill was on him. Then he entered the conversation as though he’d been there all along.

I am a native of the South and lived within a couple of hours’ driving distance of the areas that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The Gulf Coast is still being neglected, with local businesses and homeowners being disregarded in favor of huge industries. All the missing still have not been located. The issue of disaster relief is dear to my heart, to put it mildly. I mentioned this to the Senator, and thanked him for sending his relief plane.

Well, it turned out that he had sent three. With NO mention in the media. He didn’t want it. It wasn’t supposed to be about making a political statement for him, but about helping those who needed it. This was, of course, an amazing distinction from the sideshow that George W. Bush and assorted Republicans put on to attempt to save face after the storm.

I have to say, I was moved to tears. And I am not the sort of person to cry in public, much less before a famous person. I would have considered it humiliating, but not this time. Kerry portrayed the aura of ease, of sympathy, and of understanding. He wouldn’t think less of me for being emotional about something that was so important to me. How often do you find that, a public official whom you can cry in front of — cry in sadness and gratitude, not excitement — without embarrassment?

For many in that restaurant, this night was the first time they had met the Senator in person. He was perfectly fine with that, perfectly at ease with everyone. He trusted us and was completely genuine, authentic, and honest with us. It was obvious from the way he spoke to us. He spoke like a regular person, not a politician. There was no simpering, sucking up, or pontificating, as jaded people might expect from a meeting with a political figure. It was all real. He talked to us about what we could all do to support Democrats in 2006, and how important it was. He talked about being a fighter and learning from the 2004 campaign.

He talked about his gratitude for our support of him, and how honored he was. This is a pattern I’ve observed from reading about other meetings between him and his supporters. He is always modest and seems surprised and honored that people truly believe in him. How rare is that for an elected official to be honored and modestly surprised that his supporters don’t just support him, but believe in him? I don’t know why he would be surprised; it only makes sense that someone who holds such strong and patriotic beliefs himself would attract supporters with equally strong ideals and equally deep support. However, I recognize that I am far less modest than Kerry, so that is the difference. It wouldn’t naturally occur to him that throngs of people would believe in him, with their minds and hearts. Unlike many political figures, he’s not so full of himself as to assume something like that.

He concluded the evening with bear hugs for everyone. The sort of hug that envelops you, and you just know that if you were to break free of it, the person hugging you would be smiling kindly at you. I know what a “political hug” is. I’ve been the recipient, or victim if you prefer, of one, more than once. This was not a political hug.

I didn’t chat with a politician that night. I made a friend.

The John Kerry I met was, and is, a human being with a heart. He is a public servant in the truest sense of the phrase. In recent days, it’s been said that he’s a “bad politician.” If, by that, people mean that he is bad at dishonesty, fakery, game-playing, and shameless self-promotion, then they’re right. He is a bad “politician.” But you know, we’ve had at least six years of rule by “politicians,” people who do everything with their top priority as their own political fortunes rather than the benefit of the country. America is not better for it.

I don’t know what Kerry’s plans are for the future. No one really and truly knows that except for him, because it will always be his decision. He will not be bullied or pressured into any decision by outside influences, because for him, his career has not been about self-aggrandizement. It has been about serving America. Should he choose to make another run for the highest office in the land, I will be one of the first to get behind him.

Why? Because he is not a “politician.” He’s a regular person. He’s a public servant. He is a patriot.

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October 26, 2006

Election Reform Advocate Within Margin of Error in FL Race

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 1:23 pm

Clint Curtis is a Florida computer programmer who in 2004 accused then-FL Statehouse member Tom Feeney of contracting him to build a vote-stealing program. He went under oath to make his assertion and passed a lie detector test as well.

He is running for Congress this year and is within 2 percentage points of overtaking now-Congressman Feeney in the 24th District of Florida.

From Electoral Vote:

In FL-24, on the central east coast of Florida, a Zogby poll puts Rep. Tom Feeney (R) and Clint Curtis (D) in a statistical tie. Feeney ran unopposed in 2004 because the Democrats regarded this heavily Republican district as hopeless.

The race is 45% Feeney – 43% Curtis according to the Zogby poll.

“Pattyp”‘s highly intriguing blog on the race makes reference in the comments to an internal campaign poll that shows her candidate leading Feeney by 10 points. It is absolutely astounding how, in a heavily Republican district, a candidate could run a highly competitive race against a person he had accused of asking him to rig the vote. Truly, it blows my mind. You’d think he would have been laughed out of town with demographics like that, but clearly that is not the case.

If Curtis wins this seat, the Democrats would already have won the House, and this would just be padding a majority. However, the biggest benefit is that the House would have obtained a strong advocate for voting systems reform, a person who truly understands the issue. Curtis undoubtedly would work with Rep. John Conyers, and we would see some real reform on that front come out of the House.

Curtis’s official website

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Major Blogger Takes Up Swiftboating

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 6:55 am

I have watched with increasing irritation as the blogosphere castigates John Kerry and Evan Bayh for not donating as much to the DSCC as a small, anonymous blog site would purportedly wish them to.

And then, after Kerry does something he had planned to do for days, they take credit for “persuading” (read: strongarming) him to do it.

I hate to attack fellow Internet activists, but you know, sometimes you have to call it what it is.  It’s swiftboating.  It is a group of people unfairly leaping on any accusation made against Kerry, who has been doing precisely what they themselves have advocated doing this year.

It started with the now-defunct startup blog “heyjohn.org,” which claimed to have been administered by anonymous top Democratic Party officials, claiming that Kerry and Bayh had been miserly with their money. This claim is false.

Then Markos, the proprietor of the major blog site Daily Kos, who worked for the Dean campaign in 2004 and apparently harbors a lasting grudge against the man who beat Dean, globbed on to the attack and issued a vulgar smear against Kerry’s spokesman for calling out the anonymous site. He attempted to convince his flock that the calling-out was somehow aimed at him, his friend Bowers at another blog, and their readership.

It’s worse than disgusting when purportedly liberal bloggers act like Karl Rove, which is exactly what has happened with this trumped-up “scandal.”

Markos quotes Wade’s slam of the anonymous attack site HeyJohn.org:

“Cowards can hide behind anonymous Web sites,” Mr. Wade said, “but Democrats out in the country, party leaders and real net-roots activists know how hard John Kerry has fought to win these elections.”

The comment was specifically in reference to heyjohn.org, a smear site claiming to be set up by Party members. NOT to Chris Bowers’s campaign to get unchallenged or under-challenged House incumbents to donate money to contested races. Because…. the Bowers campaign was targeted to safe House incumbents. Not Senators, and specifically not potential 2008 presidential candidates. In the era of billion-dollar campaigns, it’s insane to suggest that a potential major party presidential candidate should give up his war chest, besides being a slap in the face to those thousands of people who donated to the individual with the intention that their money be used in a future presidential run.

But Kos pretends that the Wade comment was somehow directed at Bowers, him, and the blogosphere in general.

Bowers doesn’t look that anonymous to me. Nor am I.

Now that is a very good observation. Bowers isn’t that anonymous, and neither is Markos. So maybe… he wasn’t talking about them?

It gets worse, with Kos completely ignoring the facts of what Kerry has done.

Ask any campaign around the country at this stage what they would prefer — a campaign visit from Kerry (or anyone else save the Big Dog), or cold hard cash, and guess what they’ll answer? Money and volunteers will help us close this election strong. Not campaign appearances that is more about Kerry building support and chits for 2008 as it is about helping our guys this year.

Several things wrong with this.

1. False dichotomy. It’s not a choice of campaign visits or donations, and it’s certainly not as though Kerry’s done one and not the other.

2. Kerry has been doing far more than making campaign visits. He has donated over $3.2 million of his own campaign war chest this election cycle to candidates and committees.

3.That’s not including what he has raised for other candidates, using his own campaign’s money to pay for fundraising on an email list that he could easily have used to raise money for himself instead (ahem, Hillary). That figure is in the double-digit millions. What’s more, this is not an “incumbency protection racket” in which he only supports safe incumbents who have zero chance of losing their seats. He’s supported the people-powered candidacies of Lamont, Webb, Tester, etc. His last appeal was for the four tightest races: Menendez (NJ), McCaskill (MO), Ford (TN), and Webb (VA), the four races that will determine who wins the Senate. He’s spent campaign money on this advertising, and a lot of it. These fundraising appeals are not cheap.

4. Kerry has used his email list to mobilize lawyers for election protection and poll watching in several key states. That’d be “volunteers,” I would say. What’s more, it’s a very important part of the election to observe the voting process. With so many races tight, you can bet your arse that there will be voter suppression and other shenanigans taking place. It’s all the Neocons have left.

5. Kerry’s organization will use its email list to recruit volunteers for local campaigns nationwide.

6. If I donate money to someone, it’s because I want to express my support for that person. Not because I want him to forward the money on to someone else. This is especially pertinent for potential 2008 candidates: People donate to them now because they support them for 2008!

Whatever your opinion of Kerry may be, or for that matter of Markos, it’s only fair to call them as we see them. Markos has a personal grudge against someone and he is using that to spread distortions and lies against that person in the exact same style that Rove does — pretending that he is being attacked and playing the victim, while marshalling his troops with the same accusation against them: “By insulting me, he insulted you.” It’s Rovian to the core and it’s how Rove keeps his fundamentalist troops in line. If we are going to act this way, we should do it against Republicans, NOT against our own.

Shame on you, Kos. Shame.

To major bloggers’ credit, not all of them leaped on Kos’s smear bandwagon. Jerome Armstrong, a former blogger for Mark Warner, didn’t buy it. He called the argument hogwash.

If you still want to call out the ’08 wannabees, make it for where the money is most needed– at the numbered 25-100 House seats, not in the committees.

That’s exactly what Kerry has been doing. He’s donated $3.2 million of his own funds to those races, as well as raising money for Democrats in 2006. If you donate directly to the campaign, you know where it will be used, unlike general donations to the party. As a matter of fact, this was a criticism of the DSCC and DCCC by the blogs, that they didn’t allocate enough money to particular races.

Try telling that to the likes of Markos, who is so blinded by leftover resentment from the 2004 primaries that he disregards the facts.

Then, when Kerry did what he planned to do all along, or at least since October 9, and donated half a million to the DSCC and DCCC, Kos took credit for it.

Shame on you, Markos. Shame.

Also to bloggers’ credit, a majority of respondents called him out on his smears, although he did not recant. They didn’t like seeing Democrats attacked in a major election year such as this one, particularly Democrats who have done a lot to help take back Congress. Perhaps this one bad seed has shot his credibility now. One can only hope. The liberal blogs deserve a better spokesman than a Rovian distortionist.

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August 31, 2006

Welcome Back, and a Roundup

Filed under: Other — PolitiCalypso @ 8:25 am

Wow, time to dust off, oil, and polish this blog. It’s been awhile. I will have some real blog posts later, and over the weekend, but in the meantime, here’s a roundup of interesting topics.

  • Most importantly of all, I have a new banner graphic.
  • On blog community site Daily Kos, blogger “Bill in Portland Maine” gives us the Hurricane Katrina Hall of Shame, a list of the worst of the worst in quotes from public figures. I am from the Gulf Coast region and have a personal stake in this, but anyone with a heart would do well to read this.
  • The Gulf Coast has lucked out this year, so far. After fears that Ernesto would enter the Gulf of Mexico and intensify to a major hurricane, it took a turn north. I’ll have a blog entry this weekend about the dynamics in play this season, which have thus far kept activity minimal.
  • John Kerry sends out a fundraising e-mail for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, who is running against Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Because he used the true statement that Blackwell abused his office in the 2004 election and prevented legitimate voters from casting their ballots, the media attacks it. Amazing that it’s acceptable political discourse to accuse the opposition party and 60% of the American public of aiding terrorists, but it’s NOT acceptable to call attention to voter suppression.
  • The South’s obesity problem continues to… um, expand.
  • Senators George Felix Allen of Virginia and Conrad Burns of Montana are idiots. With enough people coming out to vote for their opponents–Jim Webb and Jon Tester–they can be removed from office this year. The polls are showing both races neck and neck.

That’s all for now! A preview of features for Friday and the weekend:

  • A blog on the technology of voting systems. Why the systems used in most precincts in the U.S. are horribly insecure

  • A blog on the 2006 Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons, with analysis of factors that have so far enhanced or prevented tropical cyclone formation
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August 16, 2006

Kerry is raising money for Lamont

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 10:31 am

Today John Kerry sent an e-mail to his approximately 3-million-person subscriber list to raise money for Ned Lamont and two incumbent Senators–Akaka and Menendez–who supported the Kerry-Feingold bill and are in tightly contested races. Akaka is facing a strong primary challenge from conservative Democrat Ed Case. Menendez is facing a challenge from Republican Tom Kean.

Unless I am badly mistaken, Kerry is the first Democrat to support Lamont in such a concrete way. Credit where it’s due–Hillary Clinton’s HILL PAC did cut him a check after he won the Connecticut primary. The party leadership and most elected officials have endorsed him. But to my knowledge, Kerry is the first to raise money on his behalf on a large scale like this.

Lamont would be a great colleague for the other New England Dems with his mainstream liberal positions and common-sense perspective on the war, which a majority of Americans agree with. And anyone who’s ever seen him on TV can attest to his appealing personality.

Also, I think that Kerry deserves props for this move, which is more than simply a statement of “support” to cover one’s behind on this issue without any real walking the walk. Kerry is using the valuable resource of his e-mail list to draw attention to Lamont while helping two other embattled Democrats who stood against continuing the war indefinitely, one of whom is a very strong liberal voice.

Snippets of his e-mail below the fold, with a link to donate. It’s pretty strong language in places, and I’ve bolded comments that stood out to me.

We say America needs candidates who take strong positions and have the courage of their convictions. We’ve got them. We’re searching for leaders who understand that we can’t change George Bush and Don Rumsfeld’s aimless course in Iraq if we don’t stand up in this fall’s campaign and demand change. These leaders are standing right in front of us.

…

Each of these strong leaders has forcefully spoken out in favor of a clear timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Despite the “warnings” coming from consultants, political pundits and naysayers in Washington, each of these candidates is making the mess in Iraq a central issue in their campaigns for the Senate. They aren’t afraid to talk about why the war is wrong and what must be done to change course and start doing what is best for our troops and our country. And they aren’t afraid to stand up for a better way that will bring our heroes home and put Iraq in Iraqis’ hands.

It’s time to reward their courage.

…

In Connecticut, Ned Lamont has caused a national stir by successfully challenging the Bush position on Iraq that ignores the utter failure of the President’s policy and calls for a deeply misplaced reliance on a dangerous course of action. In the Senate, Ned Lamont will go head to head with Don Rumsfeld, and our troops will benefit from Lamont’s leadership. He knows that patriotism isn’t reserved for those who defend a President’s position; patriotism is doing what’s right for our troops and our country.

My friend Dan Akaka (D-HI) has been a powerful voice of opposition to dangerous policies, as one of 13 votes in favor of the Kerry-Feingold amendment calling on the Bush administration to withdraw all U.S. combat troops by the middle of 2007.

My colleague Bob Menendez (D-NJ) proudly supported that amendment, as well. In fact, the day after we voted, he put his money where his vote was, putting an ad on TV saying it was time to start bringing our troops home. His vote was that important to him.

Ned, Dan, and Bob have been attacked mercilessly for acting with such conviction and are locked in close must-win races.

Donate

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August 10, 2006

Connectifix 8/10

Filed under: Politics — PolitiCalypso @ 3:36 pm

First, Joe Lieberman takes not just a leaf, but the entire Rove playbook:

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman seized on the terror arrests in Britain today to attack his Democratic rival, Ned Lamont, saying that Mr. Lamont’s goals for ending the war in Iraq would constitute a “victory” for extremists, including those accused of plotting to blow up airliners traveling between Britain and the United States.

“If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” Mr. Lieberman said at a campaign event at lunchtime in Waterbury, Conn. “It will strengthen them and they will strike again.”

Senator, you have just accused 60% of the American public and an overwhelming majority of what you used to call your party of aiding and abetting Al Qaeda. You are not an “independent Democrat.” You are a neoconservative. That is the same slimy talking point that they use.

Meanwhile, Ned Lamont supported the Kerry-Feingold resolution calling for a withdrawal date (spotted on Democratic Underground):

GWEN IFILL (PBS): Do you think the voters are telling people in Washington to pull out of Iraq right away or eventually?

NED LAMONT: What I’ve said was I think the Kerry-Feingold amendment made sense. They said: Look, over the course of the next year, let’s bring our troops home. Let’s let the Iraqis step up. Let’s have them take responsibility for their own defense.

I don’t need to say much else on this point.

In semi-related news, props to the British intelligence and police for nipping this one in the bud. Pity that American counterterrorism has been effectively sidelined in favor of a failed war, oil profits, and letting the government inside our private spaces.

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