Matt Dunne has finally raised the abortion issue with Brian Dubie, and, unfortunately, I think it’s a mistake. The basic premise (which has been used before in the Lt. Gov. race) is that we don’t want a guy running the Senate who professes to be anti-abortion (or pro-life, I suppose), when he could be in a position to break a tie vote that would limit or outlaw abortion in Vermont.

I like Matt Dunne — a lot. I think his campaign has been great. But, look, there isn’t going to be any chance of a tie vote in the Vermont Senate on this or any other issue, with the Democrats (yeah, yeah, not all of them are pro-choice, either) holding a 21-9 majority. Raising the abortion issue is a booga-booga against Dubie, even though the premise is factually possible. It’s just doing scare tactics using an extremely implausible situation, at least for the near future.

Dubie said basically the same thing in a clip on VPR.

I, of course, as a l-o-o-o-ong time feminist, am totally pro-choice, and I’m glad Matt is too. And it’s killing me to apparently agree with Brian Dubie on anything. But this is the first thing he’s done in the campaign that I don’t respect.

Nobody likes being manipulated, and that’s what this tactic is. Can’t Matt find any other issue to confront Dubie on? Like how many Vermont cows were actually sold to Cuba (and wasn’t that breaking a trade embargo? not that I’m in favor of the trade embargo) after Dubie’s visit? And what has his “ambassadorship” to Quebec brought to Vermont?

Even more important, what will Matt do that Dubie hasn’t done (that almost sounds like a song …). Those answers are out there in Matt’s campaign materials and on his website (mattdunne.com). We need to see more of them in the mainstream media.

NanuqFC

( – promoted by odum)

Laura Bush, Barbara Bush, John McCain and Dennis Hastert were warmly welcomed by Rainville and Vermont Republicans. The donors to her campaign are legendary in the latest annals of Republican corruption, and must be confident they will be repaid — if she is elected. 

PAC money from Denny Hastert,  Tom DeLay,  Jerry Lewis,  Curt Weldon,  Roy Blunt,  Curt Weldon,  John  Shimkus,  Don Sherwood,  Peter Hoekstra,  John Boehner, and  Dan Burton was received by Rainville (fine ones to talk about morals and family values, aren’t they?) 

If she really wants to ‘change direction’ why did she even accept, and why won’t she return these donations?  $57,230.69, buys a lot of access.  She may not mind being beholden to these hypocrites, but I do! 

Notice than none of these ‘men’ are pro-choice, and all have scandal attached to them.  Some may not even win re-election themselves, if their poll numbers are anything to go by.

Colin Powell and John McCain were seen as strong figures, but both caved in under intense pressure by the BushCheney cabal.  Still no wmd’s — Osama is laughing his socks off and torture and illegal wiretaps are now the law of the land, with habeus corpus doa.  You go, Martha!  Play with the big boys who don’t take their oath of office seriously either.

And of course she owes Bush big-time for the visits by both his wife and his mother.  So sad; I’d love to vote for a good woman, but Martha is letting herself be used to ‘stay the course’ that is tearing this country apart.

Look what that did for Colin Powell and John McCain — they caved in under pressure and lost a certain spot in history by doing so.  Power corrupts .. and absolute power …

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This is cute. From a Welch campaign press release:

Burlington, VT – Gilles and Claudette Rainville of East Georgia will host a meet and greet for Peter Welch on their Franklin County farm Monday evening.

The Rainvilles will host Welch, a candidate for U.S. Congress, and U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy for food, drink, and politics on Monday, October 23 from 5:00 –7:00 pm.

“I am pleased to have the support of Gilles and Claudette Rainville in this race and look forward to discussing the issues facing Vermonters with their community,” said Welch.  “The Rainville name means a lot in Franklin County and this event means a lot to my campaign.”

Welch has visited numerous farms on the campaign trail, including the Rainville farm.

The event is free and open to the public.

Heh.

…and on an aside, I got an email asking me why I’d been focusing so much on Rainville and hadn’t said a peep about Tarrant lately. It’s simply because the last diary I did post felt like an epitaph. The Tarrant campaign had just become so pathetic, it seemed there was nothing more to say. By all means set me straight if you think I’m off base, and feel free to let loose with any other topics or gossip or thoughts you might feel like sharing that you don’t think merit a whole diary…

[Quick UPDATE/P.S. – the DCCC has just dropped another $69,000 into the VT US House race. It’s reassuring to know they’re still taking this contest seriously…]

In Senator John McCain’s television spot for Martha Rainville, the straight-talking maverick from Arizona says “we’re all a little tired of the way things are in Washington”

…or, wait – I think it was “most americans are disgusted by politics in Washington.”

In any event, he says Rainville is an “independent principled leader”… or, no – it’s that it “takes a tough person to be independent.”

Well, it aint plagiarism, but the ads McCain is cutting on his endorsement express (presumably in a cross-country attempt to gin up local goodwill for his presumed presidential run in ’08) are pretty damned cookie-cutter. He uses the same rhetoric and buzzwords for Rainville as he does for Ohio Republican Deborah Pryce, among others (thanks to a reader for pointing this out via email).

But McCain isn’t sweating the details – and that includes the details of the campaign finance law that famously bears his name, the McCain-Feingold act, as McCain’s endorsement express has left the law in tatters across the country. Click below the fold for a detailed list of offenses, along with comparitive links between the Rainville and Pryce TV spots for you to judge for yourself (and we throw in a li’l bonus pic for ya at no extra charge…).

From Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH):

And Martha, Martha, Martha…

And how’s that McCain-Feingold thing going on your endorsement express, Senator McCain? From The Senate Majority Project:

September 2005: McCain Breaks Required Ad Approval Section. McCain cut a TV ad endorsing Marilyn Brewer for the United States House of Representatives (California’s 48th Congressional District). As reported by the Orange County Register, “One thing the first airings of the ad did not include: Brewer does not state that she approved the ad. That’s now required by law. Specifically, the law co-sponsored by McCain himself.” [Orange County Register, 9/5/05]

September 2005: McCain Breaks 501c3 Rules. Political Money Line reported that “Talk of 2008 – Sen. John McCain’s Straight Talk America” registered again as a federal PAC…The phone number on their form was also listed as the fax number on the website of the Reform Institute, a 501c3 organization supporting McCain’s goals.” The IRS has a strict prohibition against 501c3 organizations conducting political activity. [Phoenix News, 9/9/2005]

March 2006: McCain Disregards Fund-Raising Restrictions in California. On March 20, McCain showed up at a “high-priced fundraiser” to show his support for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. McCain was the “star attraction” at the event that allowed guests who contributed or raised $50K to $100K to take photos with the governor and attend a private reception. Some of the money went to Schwarzenegger’s camp and some to the CA GOP. California Democrats and some campaign finance experts “question whether McCain is violating” the McCain-Feingold Act, which “restricts candidates for” federal “office from raising money for parties and sets limits on how much money they can raise for other candidates.’ [The Hotline, 3/21/06]

August 2006: McCain Runs TV Ads in Michigan that Fail to Include Disclaimers. McCain endorsed Joe Schwarz of Michigan for Congress, while Schwarz was running television ads that blatantly violated rules under McCain Feingold, specifically failing to include the proper spoken and written disclaimers [Club for Growth, 8/3/06]

August 2006: McCain Raises Soft Money in South Carolina. McCain went to South Carolina to raise money for Adjunct General Stan Spears. The invitation says that the “minimum donation requested is $100,” but says nothing about the maximum. The law that he helped pen specifically prohibits Senators from raising more than $2100 for a state candidate; however, the Spears invitation encourages donors to give more. This means that John McCain is raising soft money. [Hotline, 8/15/06]

August 2006: McCain Again Stars in TV Ads that Fail to Include Disclaimers. In a fundraising mailer, Club for Growth heads Pat Toomey and David Keating write: “The TV ad — featuring none other than John McCain endorsing Lincoln Chafee — was illegal under the McCain-Feingold law! It’s not the first time Chafee ignored the law. He did it at least 1408 times with at least four different TV ads that were illegal under the so-called ‘stand by your ad’ provisions. … If Club members keep donating funds to Laffey’s campaign, we will soon teach wayward Republicans a lesson they’ll never forget.” [The Hotline, 8/21/06]

John McCain. An independent, maverick…

…Falwell asskisser.

It’s in the 14th Amendment! If any adult male (through the 19th it becomes any adult) qualified to vote is denied the right to vote, then the state in which it happens shall lose representation in the House of Reps (and the Electoral College) to the extent of that denial.

If we posit an Australian standard of 100% turnout, then the electoral votes and representation for each state can be reduced to the extent that turnout doesn’t meet that standard.  Thus, if turnout in, say South Carolina, is only 33% the SC would lose 2/3 of its members of the House etc.

Had the standard existed in 2000 and 2004, Bush would have lost

[Crossposted at What’s the Point?]

I wanted to do something here that was in keeping with the web community philosophy that the more you know about the people behind a web site, the more interested you’ll be in what they have to say — unless, of course, the extra information includes some rather disturbing IM messages.

So, based on a similar idea by James Boyce on Huffington Post, I decided I’d do a kind of Meet the Bloggers feature of my own to let people know  the writers of GMD a little better.

But, the idea came with a bad omen…

Cuz, following Boyce’s original entry, he profiled Peter Daou, who soon disappeared from the blogosphere to work for Hillary Clinton. And then, almost on the day he posted his profile of Jerome Armstrong, news began to spread about Armstrong’s past run-in with the SEC and his fondness for astrology-based, political fortune telling.

And, with that, the series ended.

So, in order to appease the Stars, who are perhaps a little miffed about the demotion of Pluto, I decided to just post the responses to my first interview question: What is your first political memory?

Of course, you’re certainly encouraged to answer the question in the comments, too…

And now, in There’s Moretown, here they are:

Jack McCullough…

My first political memory was the night JFK won the nomination for  presidency in 1960. This was a big deal for my family, and that election  is the first one I really remember.

Odum…

Vietnam Cease Fire. What was it…january of…’73? I think it made an  impression ‘cuz my family was watching so intently, and I was able by  that time to read enough to recognize the words "cease fire" in the  wipe/box over the anchorman’s (Harry Reasoner, maybe?) shoulder.

Ed Garcia…

Goodness, I forgot all about this.

Mine is being taken by my  grandparents to see George McGovern at a whistle stop in Stockton, CA  in the summer of ’72. My grandmother told me, "When you see Senator  McGovern, mijo, you tell him you’re going to be the first  Mexican-American President of the United States!" And I did. He laughed  and said, "Good for you!" and shook my little hand.

DAMN, I wish I had a picture of that. I was seven and a half.

Anyway, i left there with a baloon, and one of those blue-on-white McGovern  stickers. Which I applied to the back bumper of my mom’s ’67 Firebird.  BOY, was she pissed. Especially since she couldn’t get it off. She  didn’t dare spank me, though – she didn’t want to hear it from my dad  and grandfather; she was already hearing it enough for supporting  Nixon.

My parents were divorced. Hell, if my wife went Republican, I’d divorce her too. And she knows it.

Actually, i think that was a couple years after the day i asked my grandma what  all those little stick men behind Walter Cronkite were. I was sitting  in her lap. She drew me closer and crossed me and whispered, "Those are  boys who died in the war."

Later on, I went to play in the garden with my army men, but it wasn’t as much fun that day. For some reason.

Mataliandy…

Mine was sitting in the back seat of our big old green station wagon, waiting in line at the Jack-in-the Box drive-through. It was just getting dark out. The radio was on, but I wasn’t paying attention. Then my parents both started exlaiming their utter disbelief that “he” had been elected.  My Dad said something along the lines of “How could this happen? Doesn’t anyone remember?” Then we got a lecture on “this guy’s” history, and how  important it is to vote, so that a “liar like this guy” could never be  elected again. It seemed like a very loooong drive home. As annoying as it was to a little kid hankering for her hamburger and fries, it did sink in.

I did not know at the time who "he" was (I was a bit too young to have  any clue). It was Nixon.

And here’s mine…

A discussion of Nixon’s resignation happening around me on a porch while on vacation in Maine. Based on the August 9th, 1974 resignation date, it well could have been right as it was happening and I must have been 4 years old… Conversation like “Thank God, we’re getting rid of that bastard…” is what I remember…

What’s interesting, aside from the obvious fact that, except for Jack, we’re all pretty much the same age, is that clearly we all grew up in families with a perhaps pathological interest in politics.

So, I suppose, this is how junkie bloggers are born.

In September of 1941, Vermont declared war against Nazi Germany.  That’s three months before Pearl Harbor. 

So…if elected as state representative, I will introduce a resolution declaring peace with Iraq and ordering the A-G of the Vermont National Guard (who is elected by the legislature) to remove all Vermont members of the Guard immediately.  What’s my time table?  How about the 5:15?

The war is illegal and has nothing to do with 9/11.  Frankly, Martha Rainvillle is a war criminal and responsible for the deaths of every Vermonter she sent to slaughter. 

I look at her and  think “Hanna Arendt was right, evil is banal.”

( – promoted by odum)

You know, with the complete implosion of the Republican party happening right before our eyes, you’d figure I’d be blogging 24-7.  Been busy lately with school and the Osman campaign, so I haven’t had too much time.  And there’s just too much good stuff to write about. Every day, it’s something new, whether Foley-related (or some other cognitive-dissonance-inducing Repub gay thing), an Abramoff thing, or another 2 or three house races suddenly becoming competitive.

Hands down, my favorite has got to be the ‘GOP done been playing the Christianists for suckers’ thing, something I’ve talked about quite a bit at my own blog, Five Before Chaos . And, with David Kuo’s new book, ‘Tempting Faith’  making waves, the cat is out of the bag. Kuo, a self-described Konservative Kristian, was the #2 man at Bush’s Office of Faith Based initiatives. The most overlooked signifigant thing about his book is when he reveals one of the few moments that Bushco spoke the absolute truth, when he describes many in the administration as describing Falwell, Dobson and others as ‘nuts’ and ‘kooks’.

What’s even more striking is the reaction from some evangelicals,  a shoot the messenger tactic. The White House folks are pedaling the ‘doesn’t sound like the same guy we had working here angle’, and radical cleric James Dobson had this to say, a combination of ‘sour grapes’ and ‘waaahhhh, we’re so persecuted’:

“The release of this book criticizing the Bush administration’s handling of its faith-based initiative program seems to represent little more than a mix of sour grapes and political timing. David Kuo’s book doesn’t hit shelves until next week, but excerpts released by media outlets paint the picture of a dissatisfied federal employee taking shots at the White House effort to connect faith-based nonprofit groups with legitimate societal needs.

“Big media will no doubt play this story to the hilt in the next several weeks, because it allows them to take aim at two of their favorite targets: President Bush and socially conservative Christians. Sadly, Kuo’s characterization of his former colleagues, bosses and mission — mischaracterizations, really — will be fed to the public as truth.”

Carpetbagger has some more on that.

A few other good links on the subject:
Howard Fineman’s ‘For the Faithful, A Trying Time’
Alan Wolfe’s ‘Are Evangelicals Over?’

I have to say that I’m loving the position the evangelicals are put in right now: continue to be played for suckers(which shouldn’t be that hard when you look at what they believe in the first place), or stay home and sit out the election. They really have no place else to go. Gawddamn, it feels good to say that. Maybe they’ll form a third party that will accomplish nothing but draw away GOP votes, another winning scenario for us in the reality-based community.

Finally, Keith Olberman has featured the Kuo book on his Countdown program last week. Here are parts 1 and 2. You’ll enjoy. try not to gloat. Aw, hell, gloat. We’ve been waiting for this a long time.

Part 1 of Olbermann on ‘The Nuts’

Part 2

you can read more of JD Ryan’s stuff at Five Before Chaos

At her press conference on Monday, Rainville feebly tried to distance herself from her national GOP benefactors in the US House leadership. With everyone from Speaker Dennis Hastert on down the leadership rolls seemingly either indicted or implicated in some scandal or other, Rainville confirmed that while she would of course support Republicans for House leadership, she may not endorse the current crop.

Rainville laid out her own leadership dream team of Republicans who “…can get something done without waiting for a perfect bill or a perfect plan.” Who makes up her ethically superior slate? Why, Nancy Johnson (R-CT), Heather Wilson (R-NM), and Charlie Bass (R-NH).

First of all, it should be stated that none of these Reps to my knowledge has indicated an interest in leadership. It should also be pointed out that, given the polling in their districts, it’s possible that not a one of these incumbents will survive re-election. Nevertheless, for those who aren’t familiar with these relatively “clean” republicans, here’s a primer after the fold:

Nancy Johnson:

As the author of legislation to crack down on sexual predators who use the internet, Rep. Nancy Johnson should be among the most vocal critics of the GOP’s handling of the Mark Foley imbroglio.

But the dean of the Connecticut Congressional delegation has been remarkably soft spoken about the scandal – the single statement posted on her homepage is nothing more than an effort to deflect criticism from her colleagues in the Republican leadership.

A little odd?

Not!

Johnson apparently was financially involved with Foley, whose penchant for online chats with semi-nude pages threatens to topple the GOP leadership. Before the Florida representative was publicly disgraced, the congresswoman privately teamed up with him to raise thousands of dollars for her campaign, FEC documents show.

Heather Wilson:

Reminiscent of the still-unfolding scandal involving Rep. Mark Foley — and what many, even on the right, see as a Republican cover-up — is an earlier scandal involving Republican Rep. Heather Wilson (NM-01) and her husband, Jay Hone. The video above shows a KOAT-TV7 (Albuquerque) news story prompted by one of Wilson’s first actions when she was appointed to head the NM Department of Children, Youth and Families. Wilson served as Department Secretary from 1995-1998. On her third day in office, she removed a sensitive department case file, which had been opened on her husband, from the agency’s central records repository in Albuquerque. Although Wilson initially denied doing so, she later changed her story and admitted removing the file. In other words, she lied.

Charlie Bass:

A top aide to Rep. Charlie Bass resigned yesterday after admitting he used a government computer to post misleading messages on liberal Web sites.

Tad Furtado agreed yesterday to resign as policy director, the number-two job in the Republican congressman’s office.

That click clack sound you hear is Martha reloading her M16, as she has shot herself in the foot so many times now, it’s time for new ammo…

Stop the presses!! Republican Lieutenant Governor Brian Dubie actually followed through and participated in today’s debate on the Mark Johnson Show! Perhaps he had some extra Wheaties this morning. Or perhaps the choir of voices taking him to task for hiding from a direct confrontation with his opponents finally reached a critical mass. In any event, the Lite Gov, who has only agreed to five debates and has already backed out of two, has finally deigned to throw the democratic process a bone (pesky democratic process).

But how did it go? I couldn’t listen, but I’d love to hear a report. The question is, now that Dubie has poked his head out from his hidey-hole, will he see his shadow and dash back in by cancelling more debates, or will he see that maybe it isn’t so gosh darn scary after all and reconsider his intent to bag this weekend’s scheduled forum at Sterling College? He doubtless has plenty of fans telling him to simply ignore the election (Haik has even suggested that since Dubie had a two week flyover of Baghdad and could also probably beat me up, that he should get a free pass for his abject fear of facing Dunne in a fair fight… not sure how that logic works, exactly…).

But who knows? After today, maybe a sense of honor and respect for our constitutional Republic will suddenly re-emerge, trumping his fear and craven strategy of self-presevation. Maybe he’ll feel some self-consciousness about the patheticly tiny number of debates he’s agreed to and at the very least, reschedule the two he blew off… maybe, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

In any event, the Dunne campaign (which has apparently pulled former Vermonters First blogger and gubernatorial gadfly Adam Quinn out of his short-lived Planned Parenthood gig) has announced a presser tomorrow that will herald the change of heart of a major Dubie supporter to the Dunne camp. No word on who that might be, so we’ll have to wait til tomorrow to see, unless one of you has a tidbit (waddaya think… maybe Illuzzi??).

UPDATE: Nope – according to Freyne, it’s the Vermont Troopers Foundation, which endorsed Dubie two years ago. Great news for Dunne, but maybe not quite as juicy as the press release led us to hope…