I couldn’t believe I saw this headline again.  My friggin head practically exploded:

Pelosi calls Iraq a 'failure':  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said twice Sunday that Iraq "is a failure," adding that President Bush’s troop surge has "not produced the desired effect." - Politico

Democrats continue to flail in the politics of Iraq.  Their obvious betrayal of the anti-war movement is well documented, but it didn't need to be this way.  By simply proclaiming victory and identifying our current action as an occupation, Dems could have won the debate, peeled off Republican Senate votes and catapulted the Democratic brand as the brand of moral leadership in the world.

The worst part is that Paul Hackett showed us how to win this debate years ago, and we're still fighting like losers.  

Join me for video and controversy below...

On the heels of Mitch McConnell's deciding vote to kill the Senate's economic stimulus package, we've got an exciting update about our campaign to toss him out of the Capitol.

Back in 2006, when Andrew was a Congressional candidate, he met another Marine who had taken the plunge into politics: a reserve officer from Ohio by the name of Paul Hackett.

Now that Andrew is running for Senate, Major Hackett is back in action, and sent this message to supporters:

When I ran for Congress in 2005, I believed that the only way to bring this misguided, disastrous war to a close was by sending its veterans to Washington. I knew that only the men and women who have seen this conflict up-close would be able to bring the realities of it to the Capitol.

That's why I'm supporting Andrew Horne for the US Senate in Kentucky.

Of the 4 democrats running for the nomination to replace retiring Rep. John Peterson, Bill Cahir seems to be the only one with a website so far.

The very first thing posted is an endorsement from Paul Hackett, the original "fighting Dem" (who nearly beat mean Jean Schmidt in OH-02's special election in 2005). Hackett and Cahir served together in Iraq.

quote from the endorsement on the flip

Last night, I spent some time with Ned Lamont as he spoke to folks in Second Life.  There were many supporters who showed up, people who had been moved by Ned’s campaign.  As I reflected back on 2006, it struck me that perhaps we are undervaluing moral victories.

We all want to get agents of change elected.  We may factor ‘electablity’ into our calculations.  Clearly ‘electability’ is a factor, but people can make big changes without being elected.

Let’s take a couple of examples.  Who do you think are the politicians that have had the biggest positive effect on our country?

You remember Paul Hackett's Special Election in 2005?

I sure remember sitting in the Cincinnati war room on election night, thinking back on the two weeks prior as the blogs and DFA funneled nearly $550,000 into his campaign coffers.

We came up just short that evening (after leading most of the night), but comparing this year's Ohio Special Election with that one shows us just how far we have come as a party, and the importance of the 50 State Strategy.

Contribute to Robin Weirauch

Map of Hackett online contributors from across the country

All those Democrats who voted to condemn that one ad in a newspaper, like Jim Webb, I'm sure will be lining up to pass another resolution condemning Rush Limbaugh for his repeated attacks against our servicemembers.

His calling of progressive members of the Armed Forces "fake soldiers" is just the latest in a long line of similar smears.

Paul Hackett served in the 1st Marine Division in Ramadi and Fallujah during 2004 and 2005. When he returned home, Hackett was a vocal war critic and ended up running for Congress in a special election against Republican Jean Schmidt.

The Huffington Post obtained audio of Limbaugh smearing Hackett on his radio show in 2005. Limbaugh calls Hackett a "staff puke," claims he went to Iraq "to pad [his] resume," and attacks him as "a liberal hiding behind a military uniform."

And now that Congress is in the habit of rebuking such attacks on our troops, I'm sure they'll spring into action, right?

Right?

Or is this yet the latest edition of "Its Okay If You Are A Republican"?

Update [2007-9-28 15:1:54 by Kagro X]: From the Deparment of Knives Sporks to a Gunfight comes word that Senate Dems will be issuing one of their trademarked "Sternly Worded Letters," demanding an apology from Limbaugh. Hold on to your hats!

Rather than allow ourselves to be duped and manipulated any longer by a party which calls saving the U.S. Constitution "unproductive," through the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, I think it's time to exit the wilderness and show we will go after the machinery that keeps the Democrats from changing.  Such a mantle can be bestowed upon no more deserving a politico's politico than congressman and DCCC chairman Rahm Emanuel.  

Emanuel rushed in to take credit for the 2006 Democratic victory, which was in fact fueled largely by the Iraq War.   The reality is that the Democrats should have won another 5-7 seats, and didn't fully tap the credit line the party had available, not to mention John Kerry's old war chest with about $15 million laying around.

This piece in Truthout.org shows that Emanuel's specialty is finding any candidate who does not support the "free trade" position in CAFTA and other treaties, or who is too hasty about trying to stop any more American soldiers from getting killed in Iraq, and stabbing them in the back.  The article jibes with what Emanuel did to Paul Hackett in Ohio...

While Dennis Kucinich travels around the country on his presidential pursuit, some in Ohio's 10th congressional district (Cleveland's West Side and West inner-ring suburbs) are becoming disenchanted with his increasing lack of attention to the district, his rigid positions which have led to some strange votes, and his inability or lack of desire to work with his colleagues to move his progressive agenda forward. About two months ago,  former Kucinich supporter Rosemary Palmer announced that she is challenging Kucinich in the Democratic primary for congress.

http://www.rosemarypalmerforcongress.com/

While Dennis Kucinich travels around the country trying to build support for his presidential race, Rosemary Palmer has been methodically organizing her campaign to challenge Kucinich in the Democratic primary for the congressional seat in Oh-10, a district that covers Cleveand's West Side and some of its inner-ring  Western suburbs.

http://www.rosemarypalmerforcongress.com/

Remember just a year ago when I was touting a great new democrat, Paul Hackett, to be the next Democratic Senator from my state. I had gobs of assholes foaming at the mouth to rip me to shreds telling the bloggasphear that Sherrod Brown was God re-incarnated.

Guess what fools!...his last two friggin votes were rubber stamping the Monkey Boy president!!!

  First diary in a while. I was thinking about a lot of the events over the past several months. Events in the political world, here on dailykos and where I'm currently living. I experienced a lot during the 2006 mid term elections. I thought I would take my diary today to post some congratulations and some denunciations of things I have seen and heard over the past several months, much of it here on Dailykos.

The right of gay Americans to serve openly in the American military is not an issue that ranks in my top ten most important issues facing America today. However this weeks public/political discourse stemming from Marine General Pace’s remarks implying not only that homosexuality is immoral but that such “alleged” immorality makes “said” homosexuals morally unfit for service in the American military aside from its absurdity spotlights issues that do rank in my most important top ten.

General Pace’s comment and the responses or substantive lack thereof from the spectrum of our alleged political “leaders” should give most Americans cause for concern.

I’m an average American citizen who happens to have been born heterosexual/straight.  

written by Redenemy, crossposted at BuckeyeStateBlog

While we're talking about John Kasich possibly running for Ohio Gov, I was thinking of a certain other GOP elected official: Fmr. Treasurer and current Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Deters.

After reading various diaries about the mindboggling amount of fraud and the general disapperance of cold hard cash in Iraq, I remembered a past video clip of a true American calling out a republican hack.

Today's video of the day is a short clip that aired August 2006 and features Paul Hackett, a Marine and Iraq war Veteran, calling out and thrashing "Herr" Senor on a Fox show (does anyone know the name... I'm not familiar with Fox programming?  Ah... I've been informed that this was infact on the O'Reilly Factor.).  

The video: http://www.demosmedia.com/...

Yesterday Jon Soltz of  Votevets.org a group of veterans primarily of the Iraqi War, but which have members from other era's of veterans, such as Vietnam, Gulf War One etc, he met with Jack Murtha, Steny Hoyer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among others.

They were not there to be polite, they wanted to be heard, and heard they were, they called Senator Mitch McConnell guilty of "aiding the enemy" and pronounced out President and Vice President as "draft dodgers", not exactly the usual decorum the perfumed Princes of Capitol Hill are used to hearing. I think I can hear  Colonel Hack in the background still whispering in some soldiers ears.

Usually, when Paul Hackett ends up in the paper, it is going to be worth a read. I remember what I considered his great framing by tying gay marriage to the second amendment (the government shouldn't care about what my neighbors do in the privacy of their own home any more than they care about what I keep in my gun safe).

But now it looks like Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters (who was plagued by scandal as GOP Treasurer) is looking to take on Hackett in a way that is clearly backfiring and turning Hackett into even more of a hero in Ohio's second district.

Paul Hackett was involved in a wild west vigilante style bring-em to justice  incident that just hit the news today.

Apparantly an auto ran through his fence and he chased the bandits down with a gun and held them till the police arrived.

If this doesn't 'speak' to the Reagan-Dems and NRA GOP swing voters then nothing will. The man needs to get ready to run for office again. Just a shame Voinavich isn't up next cycle, but maybe he can take out mean Jean and then build up to a Senate run in 2010.

Former Congressional candidate and netroots hero Paul Hackett was involved in a little vigilante incident the other month.  It appears some hooligans crashed into a fence at his house in the middle of the night.  Instead of doing what I'd do - waking up from my bed in a state of panic and then proceeding to call the cops.. no wait.. first I would look out the window and hope it was my neighbor's problem... then I'd call the cops, Hackett decided to take care of things himself.