In 2010, with 257 Democrats in the House and 59 in the Senate, Democrats will inevitably have to turn more of our electoral efforts to defense of incumbents than to support for challengers. Tonight, Open Left is adding our first incumbent to the Better Democrats 2010 page: Representative Alan Grayson, of Florida's eighth congressional district.
Alan Grayson, the outspoken member from Orlando, as usual, wasn't mincing words: "Rush Limbaugh is a has-been hypocrite loser, who craves attention. His right-wing lunacy sounds like Mikhail Gorbachev, extolling the virtues of communism. Limbaugh actually was more lucid when he was a drug addict. If America ever did 1% of what he wanted us to do, then we'd all need pain killers."
Grayson was a Better Democrat back in 2008, and he was also an original signer of The Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. He has also wasted no time demanding more accountability for the Wall Street bailout, a campaign that is closely connected to our efforts here on Open Left:
Let's keep Alan Grayson in Congress--throw a few bucks his way. To help connect the inside and outside of the progressive movement, we need leaders like Grayson in Congress.
Now's as good a time as any to announce that I'm working for Alan Grayson (FL-8) as his senior policy advisor.
The Financial Services Committee had a hearing yesterday with a variety of witnesses, and one of them was the Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, Donald Kohn. The Fed has lent out $1.2 trillion over the last few months in response to the credit crisis, and won't tell anyone who they lent the money to.
If you haven't already, watch this clip, it gets good.
We need your help. About a half hour after this hearing, I got a call from the VP of Public Policy for a major bank, who assured me that they have taken no capital aside from ordinary discount window financing from the Fed.
Where do you think this money went? What kinds of questions should we pursue?
The NRCC leaked "Death List" earlier in the week included 34 Republican-held seats they considered lost, leaning Democratic, or "toss-ups." One of the few competitive seats that Republicans thought was leaning their way was FL-08, where Better Democrat Alan Grayson is challenging Ric Keller. However, a new DCCC poll today shows Grayson ahead by double-digits: 52%--41%. Those are the sorts of margins from which incumbents like Keller rarely, if ever, recover.
If Democrats are ahead by double digits in the House seats that Republicans thought they would hold onto, we could be headed toward an epic landslide that will take Democrats well beyond 100 seats. Let's pile it on, by giving to Grayson and the other strong candidates on the Better Democrats page. I think we are building a wave even bigger than 2006, and we are more than halfway to our final fundraising push. Let's go over the top.
I think one of the things we've seen over the past week is how much leadership matters. Back in June, I argued with the MyDD folks that having 60 Democratic Senators was just not that important relative to having a much smaller group who would serve as an aggressive progressive bloc.
So no, we don't need 60 votes to move progressive priorities. What we need are a committed group of Senators - perhaps as small as 25 or 30 - without whom the other clumps can't get anything done.
Can there be any doubt, with Bush demanding $1 trillion and the only factor at work is how cohesive Democrats can be under pressure, that a 60 vote threshold is just irrelevant, a silly excuse put forward by Democratic leaders to justify inaction? Today, Alan Grayson said that what he wants to see happen with this bailout is simple. "String 'em up." Darcy's campaigning on it, Annette Taddeo is campaigning on it, and Jeff Merkley is going after his opponent with a vicious blast: "Gordon Smith says, "don't play the blame game" - what he really means is "don't hold me accountable"."
Democratic majorities don't matter, what matters is leadership. We put leaders on the Better Democrats page. Go there and throw in a few bucks. I'm tossing a few to Grayson for saying to Paulson what needs to be said.
Hell no.
And you know, since the dollar won't be worth much soon, you might as well use them on getting a different Congress that can start to fix this horrific mess. Give here. And I'm hoping that, along with some of our old friends on the inside, these people can form the nucleus of a new caucus.
Annette Taddeo and Hilda Solis campaign against the bailout in South Florida. Taddeo is a Better Democrat.
Aside from angry anonymous lawmaker (emails one and two are worth reading), Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, I have a few statements from candidates running for Congress. It's not the easiest thing in the world to craft a message with a fast-moving situation on the fly, but the basic gist should be 'hell no'. And please don't talk about bipartisanship.
I guess an aspiring congressman is supposed to have a more politically correct vocabulary, but this is absolute bullshit!
It is bullshit that once again the taxpayer is going to get stiffed, while multimillionaire CEO's strap on their golden parachutes.
It is bullshit that guys like Adam Putnam can stand in front of news cameras, spout a bunch of lies, and have the news anchor "thank you for joining us, Congressman."
It is bullshit that we have troops in the field, and our elected representatives are tripping over themselves to figure out how to keep bankers from losing their banks.
The new House Forecast is up. The projection has tightened in focus, as I currently forecast a 13-17 seat Democratic pickup, compared to a 12-18 seat projection two weeks ago. Since the last forecast, there have been many category changes:
FL-08 upgraded from "Lean Republican" to "Toss-up"
IA-04 upgraded from "not competitive" to "Likely Republican"
IN-09 upgraded from "Lean Democratic" to "Likely Democratic"
KY-03 downgraded from "Likely Democratic" to "Lean Democratic"
LA-07 downgraded from "Lean Democratic" to "Toss-up"
MS-01 upgraded from "Lean Democratic" to "Likely Democratic"
MO-09 downgraded from "Toss-up" to "Lean Republican"
NJ-07 downgraded from "Lean Democrat" to "Toss-up"
NC-08 downgraded from "Toss-up" to "Lean Republican"
PA-11 downgraded from "Likely Democratic" to "Toss-up"
TX-07 upgraded from "Likely Republican" to "Lean Republican"
WA-08 downgraded from "Toss-up" to "Lean Republican"
Also, check out the Better Democrats Act Blue page. Among other great candidats, potential progressive leaders like Darcy Burner (WA-08) and Alan Grayson (FL-08) are campaigns where your small donations can really make a big difference in building a progressive governing majority. Make a difference today.
One of the most exciting candidates I've met this cycle is Alan Grayson, a high profile trial lawyer who has been suing defense contractors for fraud, and is now running for Florida's eighth district in central Florida. I spent some time with him at Netroots Nation, and took video. Usually I have to push candidates to become more aggressive, in Grayson's case, he pushed me. Grayson is part of a new crew of progressive professionals, people like Darcy Burner and Donna Edwards with a tremendous track record of success in fields other than politics who are crossing over into the progressive sector out of a sheer revulsion of where this country is headed. It's different than the civil rights era of liberalism and the single issue liberalism of the 1980s, much more fearless.
In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms. But so far, it's been all over the map. I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.
First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill. They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.
Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.
