HorsesAss.Org

I’ve missed a couple open threads recently. Ooops. Talk about your crap.

Oh man does Darcy Burner have the Republicans running scared. First, our good friend Stefan attempts to “pull a Goldy” with his ridiculous hit on Burner’s resume, and now the WA State GOP gets into the act with a frivolous FEC complaint.

In regards to the Burner campaign, the complaint mostly focuses on a video produced last fall at the caucuses for Eastside Democracy for America. After tossing about a few insults, state GOP chair Diane Tebelius alleges that:

The group produced and distributed a videotape of the event, the cost of which likely exceeds the $5,000 contribution limit for Political Action Committees.

I’ll ignore the question of whether Eastside DFA is or is not a PAC; that’s none of Burner’s concern. But “the group” did not produce this video. It was produced by Andrew Tsao (who also happens to be NPI’s Media & Communications Director) on a purely volunteer basis. Nobody paid him for his efforts. As far as I know, he wasn’t even reimbursed for the cost of the videotape.

And as the Burner campaign points out in response to the complaint, if individuals volunteer their services to a campaign without compensation, such volunteer activity is not reportable. Indeed, they don’t just point this out, they provide the text of the actual FEC regulation:

Personal Services

Basic Rule: No Compensation

An individual may volunteer personal services to a campaign without making a contribution as long as the individual is not compensated by anyone for the services. 100.74. Volunteer activity is not reportable.

EXAMPLE: An attorney, working as a volunteer (i.e., he receives no compensation from anyone), writes policy papers for the campaign.

Note, however, that if volunteers are, in fact, paid for their services, the activity is no longer considered volunteer activity, and the payments, if made by someone other than the campaign itself, result in in-kind contributions, which must be reported by the campaign. 100.54. (Exception: “Free Legal and Accounting Services,” above.)

Hmm. Well, Tebelius may not have done her homework, but I understand a couple of reporters have, and the FEC told them exactly what they told the Burner campaign. Tsao’s video was completely kosher, and was not subject to the reporting requirements.

But you know, I can see how a professional politico like Tebelius might be confused, as doing stuff for free just isn’t something one expects from Republicans. So if you think they’re nervous now, just wait until reality sets in… for Burner didn’t just outraise Reichert two-to-one during the last quarter all by her lonesome… she did it on the backs of grassroots volunteers like Tsao.

The Burner Buzz continues to build….

UPDATE:
More details over on NPI.

Hey, remember those mobile “biolabs” that President Bush claimed as proof positive of Iraq’s WMD program… you know, the ones that eventually turned out not to be biolabs after all? Well, the Washington Post reports today that the Bush administration knew these weren’t really biolabs all along:

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile “biological laboratories.” He declared, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.”

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq — not made public until now — had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president’s statement.

The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped “secret” and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.

As if we needed any further evidence to convince us that President Bush has been blatantly lying to the American public for years.

Last night was an important turning point in the history of Podcasting Liberally, as it marked the moment our show was mature enough to welcome its first, genuine, right-wing guest: Gen. JC Christian, Patriot, of the much reviled cesspool of theocracy, Jesus’ General. It was a very manly performance.

Joining the General and me in our left-right dialectic were Mollie, Will, Lee, and Darryl. Topic’s of discussion included immigration, the Iraq war, nuking Iran, the Darcy Burner Buzz, The General’s tatooed buttocks, and Markos & Jerome’s "Crashing the Gate" tour and how Democrats might want to focus on, um… winning.

The show is 51:56, and is available here as a 31.5 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]

UPDATE:
Just updated the link to the MP3, to actually link to this week’s recording. Duh-uh.

I keep hearing from people who claim to be Democrats who tell me that they just can’t vote for Sen. Maria Cantwell because of her ongoing support for the war in Iraq. Well, Andrew heard her speak at a fundraiser today, and gee, I dunno… she doesn’t sound all that pro-war to me:

Addressing the administration’s failures in Iraq, Cantwell declared to thunderous applause, “This year must be a year of transition. In 2006 we must get the Iraqi people back on their feet and bring our troops home.”

Though Senator Cantwell has been repeatedly criticized for not having a position on Iraq, it was clear tonight that she does indeed have one.

Senator Cantwell believes that our presence so far in the region hasn’t made Iraq a freer, safer, healthier country. She is evidently frustrated with the administration’s inability to bring stability to the Middle East, and its constant stonewalling.

[…]

Senator Cantwell’s speech had great themes. Most importantly, she showed that she does have a position on the Iraq War and that she is very concerned about the administration’s mismanagement of the conflict.

For those who want to see some sort of dramatic mea culpa in which Cantwell begs forgiveness from constituents for her vote to authorize the war, well… I just don’t think you’re going to get it. But I do expect her to further explicate her position on the war as the campaign unfolds. And as I’ve previously written, her position is decidedly not pro-war.

One fascist dictator down… one to go.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.

Joining us tonight will be our first right-wing special guest… none other than Gen. JC Christian, the founder and proprietor of the always informative (and manly) Jesus’ General. The General, as we fondly call him, provides a valuable insight into the minds of the far-right theocrats who have come to dominate the Republican Party nationally, and we look forward to plying him with beer, and teasing little tidbits of GOP strategy from him during his moment of weakness. Perhaps we can even coax him onto the podcast.

For those of you on the other side of the mountains, please join Jimmy at the Tri-Cities chapter of DL, every Tuesday from 5:30 onwards, Tuscany Lounge, 1515 George Washington Way, Richland.

UPDATE:
Oh… I almost forgot. Tonight is also a special election night edition of Drinking Liberally, as we closely follow the open primary in CA-50, to see who replaces disgraced GOP congressman Duke Cunningham. MyDD has the preelection analysis.

We are a nation of immigrants, a fact brought home in Seattle and other cities around the nation yesterday when hundreds of thousands marched through the streets in support of humane and pragmatic immigration reform:

From sidewalks and bus stops and stranded cars along the way, onlookers stared in awe at a spectacle seldom seen in Seattle

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Um… I guess the good news for President Bush is that he’s still more than twice as popular as Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Political reversals at home and continued bad news from Iraq have dragged President Bush’s standing with the public to a new low, at the same time that Republican fortunes on Capitol Hill also are deteriorating, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 38 percent of the public approve of the job Bush is doing, down three percentage points in the past month and his worst showing in Post-ABC polling since he became president. Sixty percent disapprove of his performance.

[…]

A majority of registered voters, 55 percent, say they plan to vote for the Democratic candidate in their House district, while 40 percent support the Republican candidate. That is the largest share of the electorate favoring Democrats in Post-ABC polls since the mid-1980s.

This grim news for the GOP is offset somewhat by the finding that 59 percent of voters still say they approve of their own representative. But even these numbers are weaker than in recent off-year election cycles and identical to support of congressional incumbents in June 1994 — five months before Democrats lost control of Congress to Republicans.

The emphasis is mine… and well deserved.

Yeah, sure… when I talk up Darcy Burner, you can dismiss that as partisan puffery. But when Roll Call says “Reichert May Face Tough Challenge From Neophyte,” um, well… you can bet the R’s are more than a little bit nervous.

While McMorris, whose district sits safely east of the Cascade Mountains in strong GOP territory, likely will coast back to Congress, Reichert may have to fight tooth-and-nail to become a sophomore.

Reichert represents a classic swing suburban district outside of Seattle that is becoming more Democratic. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) took the 8th district with 51 percent of the vote in 2004, compared to President Bush’s 48 percent, and Reichert won with just 52 percent last time.

“The 8th is a swing, Democratic district,” concedes Reichert’s political consultant Bruce Boram. “Any Democratic opponent who runs against Reichert starts at 43 percent [of the vote].”

Add that more than 60 percent of 8th district voters currently believe the country is on the wrong track, according to recent polls, that the popularity of Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress are at all-time lows and that the district “is definitely trending in the Democrats’ favor,” and “it’s an environment where you have to take that seriously,” Boram added.

The factors Boram ticks off combine to make a potent electoral cocktail, but what could make it a double for Reichert is money.

Democrat Darcy Burner surprised national Democrats, Republicans and probably Reichert by outraising him 2-1 in the first quarter of this year.

She still trails him in overall cash on hand, but she dramatically narrowed the ratio with a stellar three-month period that saw her bring in $140,000 in the last 10 days of March.

Boram said Reichert likely began April with more than $700,000 while Burner had $355,000 in the bank.

Burner gave her campaign $25,000 and loaned it $10,000 but is not expected to seriously self-fund.

“Darcy Burner has done a phenomenal job establishing herself as an aggressive candidate for change right out of the gate,” said Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “She’s really demonstrated she’s going to make a run at this seat.”

She certainly has.

We all know that 4th Congressional District Rep. Doc Hastings is an incompetent, partisan hack… but who knew he was so modest? The General went browsing around Hastings website today, and couldn’t find any mention of his “leadership” of the House Ethics Committee, a tenure during which not a single ethics case has been heard.

You’ve obviously scared everyone in Congress into faithfully following ethics rules. Otherwise, your hearing schedule would be packed. Of course there will always be misunderstandings like Duke Cunningham’s incarceration, the free market lawmaking approach taken by representatives DeLay, Noe, Pombo, Blunt, Doolittle, Harris, Hunter, Ney, Chocola, yourself, and others, and Don Sherwood’s penchant for strangling mistresses, but you’ve obviously found a way to clear their good names without resorting to hearings. That’s one heck of an accomplishment.

You’re doing yourself a tremendous disservice by not publicizing all of this great work. Do yourself a favor and add your Ethics Committee accomplishments to your website. And while you’re at it, put your name and photograph on the Ethics website as well. I couldn’t find either anywhere there. It’s almost like you’re ashamed of the things you’ve accomplished as Chair.

Hmm. Wouldn’t it be nice if Washingtonians could erase our shame by removing any reference to Hastings from our congressional delegation? Jimmy over at McCranium has some suggestions.

Despite the fact that he is “extremely proud of all that we have achieved in the last eight months,” Mike McGavick’s campaign manager, Ian Goodhew announced his resignation yesterday. In a prepared statement, Goodhew said that “our early success has taken more of a personal toll on me than I had anticipated.”

Um, yeah… success always does that, I guess.

For his part, McGavick sent Goodhew off with a glowing letter of recommendation:

“Ian has shown great leadership throughout this campaign. Because of his dedication and hard work, we are in a great position. Our grassroots effort is strong, we have had early fundraising success and a great team has been assembled.”

Which of course explains why Goodhew was booted resigned on his own volition.

No doubt the campaign has taken a personal toll on the relatively inexperienced Goodhew, but clearly, the handwriting was on the wall. As Daniel points out, even Republican pollster Strategic Vision shows McGavick mired in a double-digit deficit, even after months of television ads. Other polls confirm McGavick’s total lack of traction.

Unless McGavick wants to dump his personal fortune into this race he’s going to have to rely on the national GOP to raise the kind of money he needs to stay competitive. But that money comes with a loss of local control, and his campaign’s poor showing thus far made a campaign shakeup inevitable. Apparently Goodhew and McGavick chose sooner rather than later.

McGavick, a former campaign manager himself (Slade Gorton, 1988) is now moving on to his third campaign manager in less than a year. Hmm. I guess he’s hoping third time will be the charm.

Hmm. As it turns out, both Markos and Jerome are real people. Real people with Treos attached to their thumbs, but real people nonetheless.

A packed crowd of about 200 showed up at the Labor Temple last night, and a smaller group went out for drinks afterwards. Andrew has the details.

Everything went incredibly smoothly yesterday, which I guess validates the concept of a volunteer, netroots organized book tour. Kudos to Nick for organizing last night’s event, and a big thanks to the SEIU for footing the bill. (Local 775, Local 925 and District 1199NW.

I had the privilege of hearing Markos and Jerome repeat their message to a number of different audiences and respond to a variety of questions, and I was struck by how commonsense — even obvious — some of their criticism of the Democratic Party really is. Crashing the Gate may be an intentionally provocative title, but my hope is that if party officials read the book and take the criticism constructively, that gate will swing wide open, and they will welcome the help of the netroots in revitalizing our party.

As both Jerome and Markos pointed out repeatedly, the Republicans have all these huge infrastructure advantages… and yet they just barely win. It won’t happen overnight, but if we can manage to overcome the institutional inertia and shove our party into the 21st century, we really can achieve a Democratic majority.

UPDATE:
Fixed the post to recognize all the SEIU locals who supported the event. My apologies.

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos fame, and his co-author Jerome Armstrong of MyDD will be in town this week promoting their new book, “Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People Powered Politics.”

Please join me tonight in welcoming Markos and Jerome to Seattle:

Friday, April 7th, 7:00 p.m.
Seattle Labor Temple
2800 1st Ave, Hall 1
Seattle

There will be a discussion, Q&A, and book signing, open to the general public and the media. Think of it as a very special edition of Drinking Liberally… but without the drinking. (Though expect there will be some of that afterwards.)

If you can’t make it tonight, there will be to more opportunities tomorrow (Saturday, April 8th) to meet the authors:

11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Marymoor Park
6046 West Lake Sammamish Pkwy NE
Redmond

7:00 p.m.
Orca Books
509 E 4th Ave
Olympia

Again, all the events are open to the public, no reservations needed, so please come out and show your support for Markos and Jerome, and the tremendous work they are doing in building the netroots and transforming the Democratic Party.

NOTE:
I’m out playing the role of “publicity flak for a day,” so consider this one and only post an open thread. There will be media availability at all three events, so if you are a journalist looking for some one-on-one, please contact me, or just show up and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.

… Or so Carl says:

My first revelation is that McGavick seems to have made up his title. His bio page on his website says, “Prior to joining Safeco, Mike held a number of positions at Chicago-based CNA Financial Corporation starting in 1995.” Yet from my “research” I’ve discovered that there was no position called “a number of positions.” This is as disturbing as I am phony.

Second, where’s the formality? The page keeps calling him “Mike.” He’s a man who keeps kicking off his run for the Senate. You’d think Mr. McGavick would be more appropriate. But no, it’s Mike this and Mike that. He has no sense of the importance of the Senate! Did he tell his underlings at CNA financial to call him Mike when he was a “number of positions,” or is a sense of decorum something that you leave behind to the corporate world?

Finally, does he eat babies? The 8 paragraph bio he wrote didn’t mention it one way or the other. If he’d really never eaten a baby, why not mention it in the bio? Is there a history of baby eating? Does he know any baby eaters? Does he eat them raw or at least have the decency to cook the babies he eats? Are you too stupid to figure out that I haven’t answered the baby eating question, and instead just put a bunch of silly questions?

‘Nuff said.