Apologies for the relatively short diary, but there's no current Open Thread handy.
Had an email from the Massa campaign -- and today is Orange to Blue candidate Eric Massa's 49th birthday.
I had the honor and pleasure of meeting Eric briefly in Chicago in 2007, at the second Yearly Kos convention. Not only did I get to hear his perspective as a former conservative who found that his party left him years ago (along with others like David Brock, John Dean, and Cenk Uygur), I was delighted to share an elevator with him when both of us were returning to our rooms one afternoon.
I was amazed to find that he's my age (49) -- he seems so much more mature and self-possessed than I'll ever be. Got to admit I'm pretty jealous.
Anyway, the point is that we need plenty of Democrats in Congress to either help President Obama rebuild this nation after 8 years of Republican misrule in the Oval Office...or if the worst happens and McCain/Palin are elected, to act as a needed check and balance.
Massa's opponent in the NY-29 campaign is Randy Kuhl, a so-called "moderate Republican" who voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues 87.5% of the time. He voted NO on the S-CHIP reauthorization every time it came up (including the veto override attempt). He voted NO on the Unequal Pay Bill that would have amended the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to provide more remedies for victims of wage discrimination on the basis of sex. He voted NO on the Stem Cell Research Act of 2007. He voted NO on the GI Bill Expansion. (You can check out his voting record for yourself at Project Vote Smart.) This dude doesn't sound like much of a "moderate" to me.
If you can, send Eric a little bit of a birthday present and help him get to Congress on November 4. And if you've got some extra green hanging around, let's give him a few more kick-ass freshman colleagues to work with.
Eric's ActBlue page
Orange To Blue
Massa For Congress