Congressional Quarterly has long been a favorite publication of mine, but their journalistic standards is slipping these days. The perfect example can be found in today's article on the Wyoming primaries and what they mean for November. With a title like this, you would think the races were all in the bag:

As many of you know, New Jersey has one of the most right wing republicans in Congress, Scott Garrett.  He was one of 11 congressmen to vote against rebuilding New Orleans.  He is generally out of touch with New Jersey.  Fortunately, the people of NJ-05 have gradually realized this and he has won by progressively smaller margins in each election.

Even better, we have the pleasure of voting for a truly moral man in Dennis Shulman this year.  Even better, Congressional Quarterly has just upgraded the race from Safe Republican to Republican favored.  This could be the year where we can finally get rid of Garrett.

More below the fold

By L C Johnson (blog/bio)

George W. Bush and his neocon buddies love to hype the "WAR" on terrorism and talk tough.  Their basic premise is that we must "fight" terrorists using military force rather than that wimpy law enforcement stuff.  This is neither new nor news.  John Kerry made this point, unsuccessfully, during his ill-fated 2004 Presidential campaign.  Opening a can of military whoop ass on terrorists resonates in the hearts of red blooded Americans, but it is largely patent nonsense.  Once you get past the rhetorical excess and political posturing, it turns out that the U.S. military really does not have much of a role to play in combating terrorism.

It is not a lack of desire.  The problem is that the capabilities inherent in the military do not match up with organization and behavior of terrorists.  The U.S. military, even the most highly classified special operations forces, are not good at precise, limited use of force.

I realize this subject was diaried yesterday but I thought it needed "fleshing out" a bit more. For one thing Ms. Jennings’ "stay" of her Fla. Court appeal is temporary, and dependent on the outcome of the U.S. House investigation. She still could conceivably continue her appeal if for some reason the House investigation doesn’t go her way.

With that said, as a Floridian, and a resident of Congressional District 13, I’ve fervently followed the Christine Jennings case since last November. I can tell you first hand that it was a depressing time for Florida progressives – especially knowing that her opponent in the race, Vern Buchanan, has what I’d consider, a dubious past.

I can’t help but admire the lady. She’s never given up her quest – even in the face of adverse court decisions. And, it’s not as if Ms. Jennings needs the job. She’s fairly wealthy and a very respectable member of this community. In fact, the last I heard she was still the president of a local bank. Anyway, I admire her persistence.

And, that persistence may have paid off.

As some of you who follow financial-related diaries here might know, I've been writing a lot about interchange fees lately. The main reason for this is I'm doing some work with UnfairCreditCardFees.com, which is a coalition of small businesses standing up to the credit card industry's unfair tactics. This week in CQ Weekly (one of those insidery DC publications you can't get unless your employer pays for it) there's an article about my pet subject -- the interchange fee.

The article is called "Lobbying War Brewing Over Credit Card Fees." If you want to find out why we cannot let the few Republicans who are interested take this issue away, and what kind of underhanded tactics that VISA is using to prop up its punitive card fees, follow me below the fold.

I just posted this as a comment in this diary by RenaRF.  And it might be worth further discussion.

As an indicator of changing societal attitudes and analyzing tangible gains made by female politicians in recent years, look at the following

• The number of female US Senators has gone from 2 (prior to 1992) to 17 in 2006.  Does it represent their strength in the overall population?  No.  But, at this rate of progression, women may well make up a majority of the Senate in the next decade or two.  Undoubtedly, similar gains have been made in state legislatures around the country.  
• Few talk of it but it's there beneath the surface: a female (and an African-American male) are considered serious candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination.  And, will that be a problem for much of the electorate? Not according to this excellent article by Craig Crawford in Congressional Quarterly.  

More follows.

Congressional Quarterly just
moved my race in AZ-01, along with AZ-05, from 'Leans R' to 'No Clear Favorite'.

Here at the Ellen Simon campaign this is no great surprise; we've known we were this competitive with Renzi all along, and I'm sure Harry Mitchell feels the same way about Hayworth. But it's always nice to have a little confirmation.

As always, read my other diaries on the race for more.

Congressional Quarterly Weekly put together scores for all 100 Senators on how often they voted WITH Pres. Bush, on 60 of the latest 263 roll-call vote pieces of legislation, ending September 30, 2006.

More on the flip.

CQ Politics has just upgraded the Hall-Kelly race in NY-19 from "Likely Republican" to "Leans Republican." The prime reason for this? It's in the headline: "Kelly's Connections to Foley Scandal Put Her Seat at Risk."

The New York Times is giving the piece full play on their website right now, as well. Really quite a good overview of the race, actually. The only thing they're not mentioning, however, is the fact that Sue Kelly actually took over the Chair of the House Page Board directly from Jim Kolbe,  himself. This is not a fact to be swept under the rug either.   It's really at the heart of the matter. The question is:  Did Sue Kelly know about Foley's predatory behavior while she was running the program? (See poll, below the fold.)

If the page in question was directed to talk with the House Clerk, it's probably more than likely that the Page was also directed to Ms. Kelly, too. Meanwhile, Kelly denies she knew anything about it.  Here's the link...
[http://www.nytimes.com/...]

The corporate media has gone batshit crazy over the prospects of an imminent Democratic takeover of Congress. More and more we read and hear contrived stories about "GOP surges" no one else sees or detects.

The latest entrant is the Congressional Quarterly. And what better source to spew propaganda than Craig Crawford.

In his latest CQ column, Crawford finds a remarkable reason for GOP optimism: Bush's invocation of Iraq in his 9/11 speech. I shit you not.

Well, since comments on CQPolitics.com are collected and edited before posting, I thought I'd share this long-form comment to this article debating the likelihood of a Lieberman loss on August 8th.

I'd like to note that Lieberman learned that being the first to attack a Democrat would get you on television back when Bill Clinton was president, and he's only sharpened his claws on his own party in the years since.

This month alone has seen Joe using a time-worn Reagan line on challenger Lamont, and the Republican line "retreat and defeat" on the Senate floor against John Kerry (who I'm sure heard more than enough of the phrase in his 2004 campaign).

(more below...)

According to Congressional Quarterly, Inc. the TSA put out a November 15 request for database contractors to construct a means of screening additional passengers.

From CQ: "Up first are the files of the Defense Department (DoD) and Veterans Administration (VA), which the TSA says it wants scoured for "mental defectives."

http://www.cq.com/public/20051209_homeland.html DoD spokeswoman Lt. Col. Ellen G. Krenke flatly declared, "There is no such category" in military records. But, she added by e-mail, "The only area where information such as this may be contained is in the section for standard separation program designator codes. However . . . this information is stamped `For Official Use Only' and will not be furnished to any agency or individual outside the Department of Defense."  (Except perhaps to the TSA?)

The Congressional Quarterly's Homeland Security - Intelligence section had an article
 focused on Juan Zarate, who became W's seventh terrorism czar this past May.

This is a rather complementary article about this young (34-year old) rising star who comes off as a dedicated public servant without necessarily suggesting what his political proclivities might be.  (Although we might need to assume by being in the W White House what those are, he is a career (okay, roughly 10-year) civil servant -- and, taking the complimentary nature of this discussion, the type of person we should hope chooses a life of civil service.)

In the article, a Kossack (Lowell Feld) is cited in reference to a speech Zarate gave in September at the "liberal" New America Foundation.  As per Jeff Stein, National Security Editor, CQ Staff, the comments were made on "the gossipy but influential anti-Bush political blog Daily Kos."