An item from Clark County I missed last week while on vacation strikes me as emblematic of the problems facing Republicans up and down the ticket. They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel in a suburban swing district that traditionally should be full of likely Republican candidates.

It seems the candidate the GOP found to take out Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver, who was disciplined by Republican leadership for inappropriate comments to a female staffer and subsequently lost in the primary this year, has some issues of his own.

Last Wednesday The Columbian reported that Republican Joseph James, who is on the general election ballot along with Democrat Tim Probst in the 17th LD, is accused by a local couple of improperly listing a payment made to James’ dog boarding business as a contribution to his political campaign. From The Columbian on Oct. 22:

Thomas and Beth Baker boarded their dog at Joseph James’ dog boarding business in Stevenson several times last year, and usually paid by check.

But the last time they used the service, the Camas couple put the $200 fee on a credit card. When their statement came, they were surprised to learn that the payment had gone to an organization called Complete Campaigns, which offers Web-based services to help campaigns track supporters, votes, fund-raising and volunteers.

James, a Republican who is running for an open House seat in the 17th District, paid the San Diego company $311 in credit card processing fees between Dec. 24, 2007, and Jan. 15, 2008, according to state campaign finance records.

On Jan. 2, James’ campaign reported a $200 contribution from Thomas Baker.

Baker said he never intended for his dog care payment to end up in James’ campaign chest.

James did not return calls to his campaign office and mobile phone seeking comment.

I’ve heard of a lot of lowly actions by Republicans, but taking a customer’s money and trying to make it appear as a campaign contribution without the customers’ knowledge is a fascinating twist. How would anyone want this guy voting on a state budget?

This isn’t the first time James has drawn attention to himself for questionable campaign activity. In February Aneurin at Politics is a Blood Sport ran down James’ claims about having an “MBA” from a place called “Almeda” University.

Who’s Almeda University? Almeda, a website with a post office box located in Boise, Idaho, offers online distance learning and confers degrees based on “life experience”. And there’s the slight issue of accreditation, in other words, there is none from any recognizable accreditation organization.

And in August of this year Chris Mulick took a look at some of James’ spurious claims on transportation and apparent gross over-inflation of fundraising totals.

By claiming a $3,000 monthly in-kind contribution for use of personal space as a campaign and a $700 in-kind contribution for use of a personal vehicle the James campaign haul has been bolstered by $41,000.

Mulick also posted some highly entertaining videos James put up on the YouTube, if you wish to click through.

Contrast James as a candidate with Democrat Tim Probst, a former Republican who once worked for the governor of Illinois and is well versed in economic policy. Which party is actually a big tent and which party is attracting talent and leadership? Maybe we once could (sorta kinda) afford to have buffoons like Jim Dunn or Joseph James in office, but with hard times on the horizon we need all the smart people we can get doing the public’s business.

Being a quality candidate or public official, it turns out, requires more than money and pre-fabricated dogma. In the 17th LD you can chalk up another EPIC FAIL for the GOP Party on that score.

I’m still catching up after four days in Orange County, CA., after a failed effort to get Mickey Mouse to comment on whether or not he is registered to vote, but I have to laugh as I hurriedly digest the latest in the WA-08 race between Darcy Burner and Republican incumbent Dave Reichert.

Sounds like the Seattle Times is up to its old dirty tricks, just like last cycle. Did they call her “Mrs. Bruner” yet? Has Sheriff Dave refused to answer any questions from the publisher’s son?

Kos has the latest poll in the race. (Literally–it’s a Daily Kos poll by Research 2000.)

Funny thing–the dirty tricks are blowing up in the RNC’s face, especially as women recognize a low down RNC/Seattle Times smear job. And over what for crying out loud? Some stinking degree terminology, which Darcy is telling the truth about anyhow. Yeah, that Ivy League stuff shore ’nuff is perplexin’.

Read all about the tied race here. If what matters at the end are the trend lines, then things are looking up.

From Politico:

The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

There’s always been a certain multi-level marketing flavor to the Republican GOP Party. If a lot of their candidates remind you of infomercial hosts, it’s because basically they are. You too can enjoy (success, wealth, esteem, love, real estate fortune) if you too purchase Brand Republican! See, they’ve lifted up an obscure governor and elevated her to unimaginable heights of material plenty. You could be next!

Not that a lot of the hooting and hollering hard right types at her rallies will care. They’re in love, or more accurately (blood) lust, and such passion cannot be constrained by petty concerns over hypocrisy. So she’s standing there extolling the virtues of the “pro-America” parts of the country wearing clothing that costs more than a hundred El Caminos. So what?

She looks marvelous. If only political candidates didn’t have to speak.

Sarah Palin:

“Barack Obama calls it spreading the wealth, Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic, but Joe the plumber and Ed the Dairy Man, I believe that they think that it sounds more like socialism,” Palin said. “Friends, now is no time to experiment with socialism.”

Ben Bernanke:

Bernanke said Monday that economic recovery would depend greatly “on the pace at which financial and credit markets return to more normal functioning” and said Congress should consider ways to encourage lending in any package.

“If Congress proceeds with a fiscal package it should consider including measures to help improve access to credit by consumers, homebuyers, businesses and other borrowers,” he said in his prepared remarks.

The central bank chief said in the slowing US economy consumption was falling, confidence was low and the housing market still depressed.

“The slowing in spending and activity spans most major sectors,” he said.

Clearly the McCain-Palin campaign’s sole purpose at this point is to heighten the stupidity of what Atrios always refers to as “our stupid discourse.” Because nobody who has the slightest idea what is going on in the real world can take seriously Republican claims about “socialism” when a former head of Goldman Sachs is advocating for massive demand-side spending. The traditional media would be doing its job to point out the absurd nature of the McCain-Palin attacks.

At some point a half-truth or quarter-truth or one-eight truth starts to become a bald-faced lie, at least in the reality based community. Without some sort of effort to shore up the consumer economy, a recession will likely be very painful, to put it mildly.

As always with the current incarnation of the Republican Party, hating the dirty hippies is far more important than any actual policy prescriptions. If they can’t keep “spreading the wealth” to fund vinotherapy for corporate executives, they’ll throw a series of massive temper tantrums.

While the initial (and horribly flawed) $750 $850 billion bailout was “government by Dow,” McCain-Palin represents the possibility of government by pique. It’s a pathetic and troubling spectacle to see the McCain-Palin campaign thrashing about hoping for a “game changer” when their only hope was to level with the American people.

John McCain is not a stupid man. He must know that something has to be done about the larger economy, so for him to countenance these ridiculous statements by his running mate puts him at risk of losing whatever shred of credibility he still possesses.

I wanted to give McCain a break a while back when he appeared to be signaling to his supporters that they should stop acting like a bunch of middle school students (apologies to middle school students everywhere,) but it appears that was a temporary blip or something. It looks like McCain wants to go down dirty. So be it. The historians can sort it out, if they wind up caring who McCain was.

The election is happening now in Washington state, so as always urge all your progressive friends and neighbors to get those ballots mailed back (except, of course, where you still have those old-fashioned voting thingies, I think they are known as “polling places.”)

At long last, someone has been arrested for voter registration fraud. Too bad for the McCain campaign it’s a Republican being accused. From The Los Angeles Times:

The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario late last night on suspicion of voter registration fraud.

State and local investigators allege that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California.

Jacoby is accused, according to the article, of duping voters into registering as Republicans by presenting them with a fake initiative petition that would “crack down on child molesters.”

Every desperate line of attack by the Republicans is turning into an exploding cigar. Sure, there’s two weeks left, but there’s little evidence any of the baloney about socialism and all the other crud is doing anything but making a few fringe lunatics say mean things. Obama has stated he can endure the slings and arrows for a few weeks, so I guess we all shall.

It’s too soon to declare the McCain campaign one of the worst on record, but that possibility is starting to appear on the horizon. Yeah, yeah, don’t let up and throw them anchors and crush their spirits and all that, but seriously, the McCain campaign is one big stinking pile of putrid stuff that smells bad to this point.

The McCain campaign has somehow managed to combine the charm of Dick Cheney and the effectiveness of Michael Brown, with a soupçon of Dukes of Hazard. It’s times likes these we really miss the late Molly Ivins. She doubtless could have described it better, and thrown in a reference to some kind of varmint.

Serious Republicans know their standard bearer’s campaign is a disaster, and you have to wonder just how willing some of them are to keep re-arranging the deck chairs while the band plays.

Republican congress-critter calls for investigations of “anti-American” activities, Democratic opponent gets darn near close to a half million dollars in donations in 24 hours.

Yes, but what do the netroots actually do? It’s a mystery.

The Columbian newspaper, which in 2004 endorsed George W. Bush, has endorsed Barack Obama.

But as we examined leadership qualities of both men, we saw Obama’s massive strides in uniting his own Democratic party, even reaching beyond his party to speak to all Americans. McCain, in stark contrast, continues to slog through a fractious Republican Party that often is his worst enemy.

It takes strong leadership skills to enlist record numbers of volunteers and to continually explore new heights in the polls, as Obama methodically demonstrates.

As for judgment, Obama chose a running mate who neither hurt him in the polls nor diverted the spotlight from the main man on the ticket. McCain’s choice has done both. McCain tries to masquerade this recklessness as the virtue of a maverick. Would he use that same recklessness in appointing Supreme Court justices and Cabinet members? Which candidate in recent weeks has shown a presidential demeanor? Which could best restore worldwide respect for the U.S.? Which man has tried to soothe — not stoke — rancor in the homestretch of this campaign? Clearly, that man is Obama.

Wow. This endorsement will make the righties howl, if they have any howling left in them.

It’s been a pretty big day for Obama in newspaper-endorsement land, for what it’s worth. From Editor and Publisher:

The Obama-Biden ticket maintains its strong lead in the race for newspaper endorsements, picking up 16 more papers in the past day, including the giant Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune on Friday afternoon (see separate story), and the Denver Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Salt Lake Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times tonight.

This brings his lead over McCain-Palin by this measure to over 3-1 so far, at 56-16, including most of the major papers that have decided so far. In contrast, John Kerry barely edged George W. Bush in endorsements in 2004, by about 220 to 205.

The readership of the 53 newspapers backing Obama now stands at well over 7 million. He gained two biggies yesterday in The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle, and today picked up the Modesto Bee in addition to the larger papers.

An interesting footnote: the Chicago Tribune has never endorsed a Democrat for president. Ever. Something about that Abraham Lincoln guy I think.

Is the political re-alignment of the United States very nearly complete? If you look at the maps Darryl has posted below, it would seem that way. The Republican’s Southern Strategy of 1968 has come to its final and logical conclusion, confining the GOP Party to the South and states that are rather southern in culture. (This isn’t my thinking, it’s put forth by none other than the mastermind of the Southern Strategy, Kevin Phillips, in his book “American Theocracy.”)

It would be nice if we get past our history some day, but the racist incidents and histrionics we are currently enduring in this campaign show we still have a ways to go. I know it’s going out on a limb to try to speak for most Americans, but you have to be pretty tone deaf not to pick up on the genuine longing for a leader who will do a good job and get this country working on the severe challenges we face.

I’d imagine we’re going to be seeing more stories like this all around the state:

Faced with a dire state budget forecast, Clark College has announced a hiring freeze and asked executive department heads to cut budgets about 3 percent.

That might not be all, for the 12,500-student Vancouver college.

Deeper budget cuts may follow as the state economy continues to slide, Clark President Bob Knight wrote in an e-mail to the college community on Wednesday night.

Our state’s revenue system makes this sort of thing pretty much inevitable. I remember writing stories about such stuff during the George H.W. Bush recession back in the early 1990’s for a community college newspaper.

Sure, it’s easier to play politics than to actually prioritize, but for once I would like to hear Republicans state how much education (and thus our state’s future potential economic growth) they wish to cut. Vague “waste fraud and abuse” accusations don’t count. Where efficiency can really be improved, that’s great, but it takes hard work in boring hearings, not campaign talking points.

The United States Supreme Court has overturned an appellate court that ruled in favor of the Republican Party regarding voter registrations in Ohio.

In a brief unsigned opinion, the justices said they were not commenting on whether Ohio is complying with a provision of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 that lays out requirements for verifying voter eligibility.

Instead, they said they were granting Brunner’s request because it appears that the law does not allow private entities, like the Ohio GOP, to file suit to enforce the provision of the law at issue.

About 200,000 of 666,000 voters who have registered in Ohio since Jan. 1 have records that don’t match. Brunner has said the discrepancies most likely stem from innocent clerical errors rather than fraud but has set up a verification plan.

While this is heartening, it’s not the end of Republican monkey business. Josh Marshall, as usual, leads the way covering highly suspect Department of Justice actions, this time with the ridiculous FBI folderol regarding ACORN. If that’s not an attempt to screw with the outcome of the election, I don’t know what is. That lady from Alaska even mentioned it this morning on my tee-vee. Here’s a bit from TPM’s story this morning:

“I’m astounded that this issue is being trotted out again. Based on what I saw in 2004 and 2006, it’s a scare tactic.”

Who’s that speaking? And what’s he talking about?

That’s fired US Attorney David Iglesias talking about the news leaked today that the DOJ and FBI are opening a nationwide investigation into allegations that the community organization ACORN is somehow working to undermine the November election through fraud. For more from Iglesias and his fellow fired US Attorney Bud Cummins, don’t miss TPMMuckraker’s Zack Roth’s interview post from earlier this evening.

There really needs to be intense scrutiny of the FBI investigation of ACORN in the traditional media. If there’s anything there other than everyday mistakes and the occasional people ripping off ACORN, then we all want to know about it. Because if there’s not anything worth investigating then the FBI itself is now being used as an arm of the Republican Party. (I know, who would think the Bush Justice Department would do such a thing?)

As Iglesias notes in his interview with TPM, the leaking of the investigation itself is highly suspicious. It’s hard enough to win elections without having to win by margins larger than Republican suppression efforts.

The Gregoire campaign alerted me this afternoon to this news release from the National Letter Carrier’s union blasting some ads created by the Republican Governors Association to aid Dino Rossi.

The television ad, being run by the Republican Governors Association in support of GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, shows a man walking a dog, and then a letter carrier (with satchel and mail), leering at young children near an ice cream truck, while in the audio background a woman depicting a mother warns that some convicted sex offenders have not properly registered with law enforcement agencies during the Gregoire administration.

“This television ad is beneath contempt,” said NALC President William H. Young. “It is ludicrous and shameful that the Republican Governors Association would stoop so low as to portray America’s most trusted government agents in this manner just to pump up a specious political argument against the incumbent governor.”

Yeah, that sounds pretty low, although I must confess I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing this particular piece of GOP Party handiwork. Let us know in comments if it pops up on the YouTube.

Talk about “leave no sleaze behind.” I guess they haven’t caught on that regular people get disgusted with demagoguery surrounding this issue. The state House Republicans tried it and look where it got them. The Speaker’s Roundtable, one of the Republican organizing committees, can now meet at a booth at McDonald’s.

As I recall, the fake sex offender postcard was met with widespread editorial board condemnation in this state. Just sayin’.

So both Vancouver-Portland metro dailies have now endorsed Gov. Chris Gregoire, Democrat, over Dino Rossi, GOP Party. From The Oregonian:

Attacking the gas tax, he has argued that major transportation improvements that Washington needs desperately could be financed out of the state’s general fund without new revenue. His recent TV ads making dark charges about the state’s oversight of sexual predators have been found both odious and inaccurate by many of the state’s law enforcement officers.

Rossi’s arguments, and the voice he would provide to an element of the state that too often feels unheard, don’t outweigh Gregoire’s impressive first term.

Washington voters should give her another.

Yeah, I know, they’re just newspaper endorsements. Campaigns covet them but it’s pretty hard to claim they influence that many voters.

Still, lots of folks on the north side of the Columbia subscribe to The Oregonian, so it’s worth noting. Editorial boards seem to be noticing Gregoire’s steady hand.

Who is this “Batman?”

(Props to Ezra Klein.)

Late Joe the Plumber coverage: According to Ben Smith at The Politico, it appears Joe the Plumber is not registered to vote in Ohio. He’s apparently going to be on all morning shows ever created, including “Wake Up Finland.” Maybe someone will ask him about this whole “actually bothering to vote” thing. Seeing as he’s so, so concerned about his taxes.

(UPDATE–8:40 AM Oct. 16– I wanted to go back to Politico this morning to double-check about Joe the Plumber’s voter registration, and sure enough Politico has a link to the Toledo Blade, which reports that a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher is registered to vote in Ohio as a Republican. Not clear why the difference in spelling.)

Joe the Plumber told Katie Couric he doesn’t actually make $250,000 a year yet, but is concerned about a “slippery slope.” Then Joe the Plumber compared Obama to Sammie Davis, Jr., (as in he was dancing,) which made Katie LOL. I wonder if Joe the Plumber knows Sammie was um, Jewish?

As if McCain needs more problems in Florida…

Even MORE debate coverage Although this time it’s from the WSJ 2000 election archives. Good old John Fund ‘splains about sighing.

Mr. Gore sighed with deep impatience throughout the debate in an attempt either to distract George W. Bush in his answers to debate questions or influence the audience. Yesterday Mr. Gore blamed his behavior on the TV cameras. “Under the debate rules, we were told there was going to be no coverage of our reactions when the other guy was talking.”

This is preposterous. Mr. Gore’s sighs were highly theatrical in nature, and he accompanied them with a series of squints, grimaces and eye-rolling that couldn’t have been accidental.

I’m sure Fund will be in similar high dudgeon tomorrow.

SurveyUSA has released a new poll in the governor’s race it conducted for KING-TV (Seattle) and KATU-TV (Portland.) No surprise really, the race is a statistical dead heat, with Gov. Chris Gregoire polling at 48% and Dino Rossi (GOP Party) 47%.. From the SurveyUSA summary:

Among men, Rossi has regained the nominal lead, swinging from a tie to a six-point lead. Among women, Rossi has fallen off, increasing Gregoire’s lead from 4 points to 7. The gender gap between the two candidates is now 13 points, the largest since Mid-August. Independents, who make up 28% of likely voters, have consistently preferred Rossi since June, by margins of 24, 8, 10, 6, 2, and 10 points; today, independents favor Rossi by 8.

While there’s always a danger in becoming too reliant on polls, two other things are worth mentioning. Rossi has a large lead among 19-34 year old voters in the poll, leading Gregoire 54%-38%, and Rossi is ahead everywhere outside Metro Seattle.

So the fact that the final debate tonight between the pair is in Seattle and will be available outside the Seattle market only on cable is something of a tactical victory for the Rossi campaign. Plus it’s after the presidential debate, and surely only the hardest of hardcore followers of politics could sit through four hours of debates and coverage.

People are going to be voting any day now, so it looks like another extremely close gubernatorial election is a possibility. The BIAW and the Republican Governor’s Association obviously think they can buy the election for Rossi, but dropping such obscene amounts so late could backfire on them as traditional journalists inform the public about it. Postman or Ammons or Herrington or Mulick will be all over it.

(To be fair, Garber is on it. At the Seattle Times. Which I believe is widely read in um, Metro Seattle.)

And yes, Gregoire benefits from union money. Whatever. It’s not even as much as the phoney-baloney PAC money BIAW alone raises, however it actually raises it.

What Ezra Klein says:

The liberal understanding of the economy and its problems has been, in recent months and years, superior to the conservative understanding of the country and its problems. And this has only sharpened in recent weeks, as the Republican Party has spun off into the Gamma Quadrant with laughable theories about ACORN and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Their argument isn’t wrong in the sense that it’s a serious engagement with the situation that happens to be less empirically sound than competing theories. It’s just nonsense. And this isn’t a time when we can afford governance powered by nonsense. We need governance by people who understood the magnitude and nature of the problem, and have some idea how to go forward fixing it.

And as Robert Reich put things last week:

For years, regardless of the business cycle, American consumers were the Energizer Bunnies of the world economy. Their spending kept it going. But now the Energizer Bunnies have turned into scared rabbits, and they’re going back into their holes.

Yes, we need better regulation of Wall Street in order to avoid the sort of bubbles and distrust that have generated a credit crisis. But even more than that, we need to get money back into the pockets of average American consumers — including major investments in infrastructure, affordable health care, and a more progressive tax code.

Easier said than done, of course, but when you hear Republicans blither on about balanced budgets and lowering capital gains taxes it’s kind of hard not to simply burst out laughing. Yeah, let’s suck a few trillion more out of the economy and see what happens.

As it turns out, the “Old Europe” types the Bushies were so happy to excoriate a few years ago seem to be the only ones with half a clue about how to start fixing the economic mess. Talk about irony.

One of the excuses the Dino Rossi campaign has used to explain why he can’t show up when he’s subpoenaed claims it’s because “it’s on the day of the last debate.” In fact, there is now late word that the plaintiff’s attorney in “Buildergate” will ask for a different date for Rossi to appear in order to avoid such a conflict.

Rossi loves him some debates, you betcha, unless it’s in Clark County and it would cost him a half hour’s worth of high-donor contact.

Rossi ducked a debate today in Vancouver, preferring instead to pose for photos with contributors at $500 per person. At least that was the plan when I first posted about it on Sept. 27.

And get this. Rossi wouldn’t even let the local newspaper report from his event today.

Gov. Chris Gregoire used an hour-long town hall meeting in Vancouver Monday to tout her record, answer questions from a friendly audience of about 250 and campaign for re-election.

Her GOP opponent Dino Rossi, meanwhile, was at the Red Lion Inn at the Quay for a private fundraiser. His campaign declined a request from The Columbian to attend.

But then that’s the way Republicans such as Rossi like to operate, isn’t it? Sure, you have a Constitutional right to keep people out of a private event, but last time I checked political campaigns usually crave media attention.

But if the Rossi campaign lets him be exposed to the public down here in a debate or even by being quoted, they risk losing in Clark County as voters realize he’s nothing but a big bundle of anti-tax platitudes and accusatory BIAW-inspired rhetoric.

My crystal ball has lost thirty percent of its value recently, but I’m guessing a lot of voters here are pretty much like a lot of voters everywhere—they’re not buying what the Republicans are selling. Best for the GOP Party to keep things quiet and keep Rossi out of the public eye, in case anyone notices the platitudes have a familiar, Bush-ish quality about them.

It’s pretty remarkable that in a county Rossi needs to take to have any chance of winning, the only people he seems to have talked to today were those willing to pay him for the right.

I hope they had cake at least.