[Update: Obama's meeting with McNerney today!]

I just got of the phone with a super happy gal at Jerry McNerney's office who confirmed that he's meeting with Clinton right now.  I called to let her know that I'd hit the streets for McNerney and would be proud if he would let Clinton know that his supporters feel that Obama is their candidate and that Clinton is no longer in a position to win the nomination without hurting the party's chances of winning in November.

The nice woman (again, she was really sweet) told me that they are glad to hear from folks and that they will be keeping track of who calls and what they have to say about this meeting.

Let McNerney -- who owes much to DailyKos -- know that it's time to get behind Obama!

Here's the phone number:
925-833-0643

And here's other contact info

(So I do these every month for Calitics, but it occurs to me that I've never cross-posted it here.  So, um, here.)

Getting this one in under the wire.  On the last day of April, with just over a month to go until the June primaries, and six months to go until Election Day, there's a lot going on all over the state in the Congressional races.  Of the 19 seats in California currently held by Republicans, 17 will be contested in the fall, and some strongly so.  And we now have a full 34 Democrats with the election of Jackie Speier early in the month, and only one of them is a serious challenge.  We also have the first quarter of 2008 fundraising numbers, which will raise some eyebrows.  You can track these races yourself with the 2008 Race Tracker wiki.

A note: I'm mainly getting my numbers on cash-on-hand competitiveness from the Swing State Project.  Fundraising information comes from the FEC.

Here we go...

A 501 is running attack ads against Jerry McNerney (CA-11) on KCBS radio accusing him of being soft on the terrorists because he doesn’t support giving away our freedoms to support the Bush Administration. I have a call in to Ed Cavinero, News Director at KCBS (phone--415-765-4049) to ask why KCBS has chosen to run this false and defamatory ad.

I was driving to work this morning, listening to my local news station -- KCBS 740am -- and what comes on but an ad targeting Jerry McNerney sponsored by the "Defense of Democracies Action Fund".

Jerry McNerney Facts:

McNerney was born June 18, 1951. This is also known as the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

There are no weapons of mass destruction. Just McNerney.

Time waits for no man. Unless that man is McNerney.

Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a McNerneytatorship.

Man is by nature a political animal...and if McNerney was an animal, he would be a shark riding on an elephant's back.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely...and McNerney tends to absolutely kick the ass of redneck republicans from the Central Valley.

Politics is more difficult than physics, until McNerney took office. - Albert Einstein

Jerry McNerney's  poop is considered currency in Argentina.

McNerney's family crest is a picture of a barracuda eating Neil Armstrong.

McNerney can divide by zero.

Last night I attended a fundraiser organized by several veterans groups on behalf of one of their own, retired Air Force officer Charlie Brown, who is taking a second run at the very corrupt John Doolittle in the 4th CD of California.  

I met Charlie at the first Fighting Dems event in DC last cycle, and found him not only passionate about veterans' and military issues, but concerned and curious about a wide range of other issues, including education.  The interest in education is perhaps a natural, given that he actually holds a California teaching certificate, although he's never served in a classroom.     We have spent time together at both Yearlykos conventions, and stayed in contact via email.  Charlie is a good guy, who came within a whisker of beating Doolittle last time despite lacking resources, and his, like Eric Massa's in NY-29, is becoming a targeted race this time, and he is getting much more help.

Come along below the fold as I describe last night's event, and consider possibly adding his campaign to your list of those to support.

E-mail received today from Congressman Jerry McNerney, CA-11, the mighty conqueror of all that is Pombo, reminds us that this coming Sunday is Veterans Day. Folks who followed his David-vs-Goliath struggle to overthrow the appalling Republican incumbent in his district might remember that Jerry's underdog campaign actually got started when Jerry's son, a serviceman on active duty, urged him to run despite the odds.

I think we should consider doing something to show that progressive Democrats honor our veterans. If there are local ceremonies in your area, show up. If you have a flag, fly it. If you don't have a flag - why wouldn't you have a flag?.  If you have a friend, a neighbor, a family member who's a vet, contact them.

Tonight I drove past the grave of Edgar Allen Poe.

Like me, he rests in Baltimore.

Many of Poe’s stories focused on a common fear of the Victorian era, being buried alive.

That notion seemed appropriate as I pondered a press release from Nick Rahall, Chair of the House Resources Committee: Rahall: CNMI Bill ‘Nails the Coffin Shut' on Abramoff Era.

The bill, H.R. 3079, was reported out of the Committee yesterday. It does a lot right to end the decades of abuse on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), but it asks us to pay a steep and immoral price.

It seems that in our 110th Congress the cost of legislation to end the system of abuse is to bury the remaining 20,000 victims alive with the specter of the Abramoff scandal.

Is that a harsh judgment?

Nope.

To the jump...

This one goes out to all the haters trying to punk my boy Jerry McNerney!

Jerry McNerney be my Irish dawg from P-town
Holdin’ down the 11th, he ain’t no clown
Fighting for healthcare, our kids, and the earth
He’s an East Bay tough guy showin’ his worth
But some hater "progressives" want to feed him to the dogs
They bitch about two votes, and whine in their blogs
You want to step to Jerry, and I thought you knew
You just a traitor and a punk like "babaloo"
You ain’t got no loyalty, you just a scrub
You just want to look cool at the Berkeley social club

Don’t get me wrong, the Daily Kos and The Huffington Post are great blogs and America benefits from having them. It is blogs like The Progressive Connection and Firedoglake that are the problem. It is all or nothing with them. If McNerney doesn’t completely adhere to their every demand, they make him walk the plank. Blinded by their own self-interests, progressives attack him like sharks. Can you progressives give the brother a break?! Can you take some time to understand the realities of his district? Can you take the time to understand his circumstances? Can you appreciate the fact that he chatted with the progressive bloggers for a couple hours, unlike 100% of the politicians in American? Do you know what the alternative to McNerney will be? Lets get back down to earth people.

So I just read the diary about the vote in the House on the bullsh*t moveon.org "condemnsation legislation."

I had a favorite Congressman -- Jerry McNerney.  Notice the use of the word "had".  He ran against the dangerous ignoramous incumbent Pombo, and won, thanks to people, many of us here, who supported his campaign with donations and hard work.  

My eyes ran down the list of the "yeas", expecting to happily see that he had been one of the "nays".  

He wasn't.  He was one of the "yeas".  

As if it wasn't hard enough, in 2006, to have to fight against the Lazy Media's stenographic efforts in promoting the neo-conservative talking points, progressive candidates also had to fight against the strong will of Rahm Emanuel.  The Democrats won in November 2006, in spite of, not because of the efforts of Mr. Emanuel.  His blueprint for "success" in the 2006 Congressional elections was to find DLC-friendly, "Republican-ish" candidates to field, giving us the present day dilemma of the Bush-Dog Democrats helping to seize defeat from the jaws of victory on the National Stage.  

Many of the candidates that Emanuel helped elect have joined with a group of self-styled conservative Blue Dog Democrats and have cast key votes with Republicans and stymied Democratic efforts to end the occupation of Iraq and the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.

In an article just published at Truthout four races from this time period show a pattern of deviousness which was Mr. Emanuel's Modus Operandi.

Seriously - Nancy, Harry, Hillary, Barack, John - and, for that matter, Jerry McNerney, Jim Webb, Brian Baird, and all of you other Democrats Who Know Who You Are:

Don't.

TERROR!!

Please, please, please, for the sake of all that is good and pure and right and, well, American, do not fall victim to those who would terrorize you - and all of us - into making idiotic choices based on nothing but The Boogeyman Under The Bed.

And - check this. Are you listening? Listening carefully? Okay, I'm only gonna say this once:

The Boogeyman Isn't Under The Bed.

Some of you may remember the Sesame Street song that shows four different things, three of which are alike and one that is not.  By the time the song is over, you are supposed to guess which of the four is not like the other three.  And with respect to a number of recent developments on Iraq, the near unanimous mutiny by different yet unexpected parts of our government on the events going on in Iraq and the "progress" that is most certainly not being made on any meaningful level has one component that sticks out like a sore thumb.

In recent weeks, I have been writing about the need to primary out Dianne Feinstein when she comes up for reelection and the need to lay down the groundwork now so that we will have a credible candidate in place. In recent days, we have been writing about the need for our Democratic legislators to not make any more deals with the President, given that he has proven that he is dishonest and cannot be trusted to keep his word.

The fact of the matter is that this is the exact reason why we need to primary her out by uniting behind a candidate to replace her -- she has shown a proven propensity for cutting deals with the Bush administration even though they have a proven record of dishonesty.

It's kinda sad.  He's got his story and he's sticking to it.

Congressman Jerry McNerney did a live chat over at FDL in response to the firestorm of criticism he's brought down on himself with his remarks about the "progress" in Iraq that he saw on his recent tour of the Green Zone.

If listening to repetition of an MSM talking point is your idea of a good time, then follow me over the fold for the ugly details.

You know and love Cheers & Jeers.

This morning, on Iraq of all things, we have Props & Flops. Only this ain't that funny.

Props -- at long last -- to Rep. Ellen Tauscher, who shows an extraordinary grasp of the lay of the land today:

GOP leaders have latched on to positive comments from Democrats -- often out of context -- to portray the congressional majority as splintering. Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.), an Armed Services Committee member who is close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said many of her colleagues learned a hard lesson from the Republican campaign.

"I don't know of anybody who isn't desperately supportive of the military," she said. "People want to say positive things. But it's difficult to say positive things in this environment and not have some snarky apologist for the White House turn it into some clipped phraseology that looks like support for the president's policies."

Snarky apologists? Clipped phraseology? POW! Dead on! And she even uses our kind of language to say it!

Meanwhile, the same article reveals a new problem of exactly the type she identifies. Which is where the Flops come in.

Flops, to Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-11), quoted last month:

That followed comments by Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) suggesting that his trip to Iraq made him more flexible in his search for a bipartisan accord on the future U.S. role in the conflict. "If anything, I'm more willing to work to find a way forward," he told reporters late last month.

Jerry McNerney, yesterday:

I am firmly in favor of withdrawing troops on a timeline that includes both a definite start date and a definite end date ("date certain") and uses clearly-defined benchmarks. I am not in favor of an "open-ended" timeline for withdrawal, as some members of Congress have proposed recently.

Jerry McNerney, quoted today:

But in an interview yesterday, McNerney made clear his views have shifted since returning from Iraq. He said Democrats should be willing to negotiate with the generals in Iraq over just how much more time they might need. And, he said, Democrats should move beyond their confrontational approach, away from tough-minded, partisan withdrawal resolutions, to be more conciliatory with Republicans who might also be looking for a way out of the war.

"We should sit down with Republicans, see what would be acceptable to them to end the war and present it to the president, start negotiating from the beginning," he said, adding, "I don't know what the [Democratic] leadership is thinking. Sometimes they've done things that are beyond me."

Does anybody know what Jerry McNerney's position on Iraq is?

Does Jerry know? Or is he waiting for Republicans to sit down with him and tell him what it is?

This isn't all irretrievably contradictory. He could very well mean that he wants firm deadlines and that he wants to negotiate with the generals and the Republicans on setting those deadlines. That's not necessarily internally inconsistent.

But it is reality challenged.

The Republicans are suddenly going to wake up and become good faith negotiating partners? Please.

This is the latest update on our efforts to primary out Dianne Feinstein, one of the chief enablers of the Bush administration now that Joe Lieberman is no longer a Democrat. Many people said that an outsider would be better than an insider in making a case against DiFi in the next election. As we eliminate people who do not get voted for, we will replace them with people that you suggest. So, in all likelyhood, your candidate will be considered.

Having said that, I must state that the candidates in question have to be Democrats. For that reason, I can't put up Medea Benjamin for the simple fact that she is a Green and not a Democrat; not only that, she is not willing to become one. However, I will add Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez to the ballot as she was suggested by some people as a possible candidate.