I find it ludicrous how many Republicans attempt to tie themselves to the spirit of founding father Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, born to the land-owner class in Virginia, used his status to champion working families and prevent all forms of tyranny in government. A fact lost on Republican legislators.

Recently when Virgil Goode VA-05 wrote a letter to John McCain’s staff endorsing Eric Cantor  VA-07 for the Vice Presidential position, I was compelled to research Cantor and his record. What I uncovered came as no surprise to me, based on the fact Goode recommends him.

Virgil Goode continues with his partisan politics and finger pointing in his most recent edition of "Goode News"

The main thing preventing the United States from drilling for oil and natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico is the majority leadership of the House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate.
On July 10 th, 43 House Republicans, including me, wrote to the President, urging him to lift the Executive moratorium on offshore drilling. Subsequently, President Bush did lift the executive order on such drilling. Last month, the President called on Congress to work with him to lift this 17-year-old moratorium jointly. Congress failed to act, so the President did his part. In increasing numbers, the American public is calling for our country to make use of its own natural resources, even as we work diligently to develop alternative forms of energy. These alternative energy sources will help the U. S. lessen sharply its dependence on petroleum-based products produced by foreign nations, many of which are not friendly to us. In some cases, we are sending billions of dollars each year to nations that sponsor terrorists. We must stop this; it is past time for Congress to act and lift its part of the moratorium.

The News and Advance, the daily paper in Lynchberg, VA - yes, that Lynchberg, VA, has released some very good news that must have pained them, sorely.

In our apparently hopeless battle to send Virgil Goode (R-VA, 05) back to the Republican Hell of Insignificance, we may just have found a candidate up to the challenge!

The fund raising figures are out, and "Our Guy" is showing sufficient strength against "That Nice Boy", to finally give Virgil a run for his money.  These figures should, at the very least, peak the interest of the DCCC.  (The DCCC has been less than helpful in the past, when we tried to unseat Virgil.)

Note:  "That Nice Boy" is the epithet uttered by elderly women in the 5th whenever the name of Virgil comes up.

Given what happened yesterday, I feel it's important I repost my earlier diary on who are the GOOD Democratic challengers when it comes to FISA.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  (For the Senate, I'm only including those who voted against cloture yesterday for the bill.)  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

Whoever writes the Republican talking points needs to either fact-check better, or improve their redaction process, because this is getting ridiculous. The bogus claim that China is drilling 50 miles off the coast of Florida has been thoroughly refuted. Republican Sen. Mel Martinez said on the floor of the Senate

China is not drilling off the coast of Cuba. Reports to the contrary are simply false. They are akin to urban legends. China drilling off the coast of Cuba only 60 miles from the Keys, that is not taking place...any talk of using some fabricated Cuba-China connection as an argument to change U.S. policy has no merit.

In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms.  But so far, it's been all over the map.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number 18 in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole Brunswick Stew.  Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

Virginia is arguably the best Democratic success story in the South since the years started beginning with a 2.  We won two elections for Governor; elected Jim Webb to the US Senate (Virginia’s first Democratic Senator since Chuck Robb); and reclaimed the State Senate for Team Democrat in spite of a Republican gerrymander.  And let’s hear it for Old Dominion!!!

Tom Perriello is running against Rep. Virgil Goode (R), who of course voted for telecom immunity. Perriello's statement (via e-mail):

June 20, 2008 – Ivy, VA - Tom Perriello, the Democratic nominee for Virginia's Fifth District, today denounced Congress for capitulating to President Bush and allowing warrant-less spying on innocent Americans. Congress struck a deal on Thursday on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (HR 3773), changing the rules on the government's wiretapping powers and providing legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in President Bush's program of eavesdropping on American citizens.

"This "compromise" will not make Americans safer," said Perriello, a national security consultant with experience in Afghanistan, Darfur and West Africa. "If Congress and the President were serious about national security they would have spent their time and energy giving our brave intelligence officers the resources they need, not the American freedoms that our armed forces defend. Our constitutional principles are never up for negotiation."

Race tracker wiki: VA-05

Tom Perriello, the Democratic nominee for Virginia's 5th Congressional District and recently named as one of 20 emerging races by the DCCC in its Red to Blue program, is an expert on national security and has devoted his life to making the world safer around him.

He released the following statement on the recent "compromise" by the Democratic leadership and Republicans on FISA:

In the latest list of Emerging Races put out by the DCCC we find the name of Tom Perriello, running in the 5th CD of Virginia against Virgil Goode, Jr.     I have written about Tom before, and I think this race has real possibility.   Increasingly, so do others, as seen in his inclusion on the list of Emerging Races.

Tom will be liveblogging on the afternoon of the 28th at FireDogLake, although I do not as yet know the exact time.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of CT is sponsoring an event for Tom at her DC home next Monday, for which Sen. Russ Feingold is an honorary co-host.  If you think you might be able to attend that, feel free to contact the campaign.

Attached to the emailed invitation were several pages of information, some of which I will take the liberty of sharing in two snips below the fold.

Progressive and Netroots favorite Barry Welsh, who is running against the noxious Mike Pence in the 6th District of Indiana, will be at a meet and greet on Capital Hill tonight.  Barry is in town seeking to develop support for his run against Pence.  Below the fold I will offer some details about the race, and about the response Barry was able to develop yesterday.

We really want you to come and meet Barry.  Like Tom Perriello, he is a person of faith (Barry is an ordained minister) who is also a strong progressive, yet capable of winning a district currently held by a Republican.

We will be at Hawk 'n Dove, 329 Pennsylvania Ave SE, from 5-7:30 this evening.  We will be in the 1st floor party room.  This is your chance to come and meet Barry, if you do not already know him.  The event is free (cash bar), because we want to encourage you to come.

Please keep reading.

I love hard work. It's our promise in that great agreement that is the American Dream. But too often I feel like our politicians are coasting while we're trying to make ends meet. Remember when Jack Kingston complained after the 2006 election that the new Democrat controlled House was going to have a 5 day work week which would "make Congressional marriages suffer"?

I'm tired of Republicans (and Congress in general) appearing to be on vacation more often than President Bush. That's why watching Tom Perriello accept the Democratic nomination in the Virginia 5th was so exciting. I've found someone who is committed to working long hours to actually serve the people he represents!

At a great blog called "That's My Congress", there is a story about Georgia Republican Paul Broun and his 'Sanctity of Human Life Act' (HR-4157) that is right on the money. Let's find out about the bill itself, shall we?

H.R. 4157, which Representative Broun refers to as the Sanctity of Human Life Act, might more accurately be entitled the Zygote Political Enfranchisement Act or the Anti-Fertility Act. The legislation has been written by Congressman Broun in order to define a human egg created in the United States from the moment of fertilization, through its development into a fetus ready to be born, as a complete person with full legal rights and constitutional protections equal to that of any other American citizen.

Under Broun's proposed law, this award of full legal protections to all fertilized eggs, even one created just one minute ago, would be given regardless of the ability of the fertilized egg to implant in a womb and grow to become a baby. H.R. 4157 states this very directly:

Remember Virgil Goode?  Goode, whose name is pronounced like spreading goo rather than doing the right thing, entered Congress as a Democrat, but jumped to the GOP side when he feared being in the minority.  Once on Team Bush, he remade himself as the man who is afraid of Muslims

During today’s House debate on Iraq, virulently anti-Muslim Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) said supporting the anti-escalation resolution would "aid and assist the Islamic jihadists who want the crescent and star to wave over the Capitol of the United States and over the White House of this country."

very afraid of Muslims

"I fear that radical Muslims who want to control the Middle East and ultimately the world would love to see 'In God We Trust' stricken from our money and replaced with 'In Muhammad We Trust.'"

very very afraid of Muslim immigrants

I believe that if we do not stop illegal immigration totally, reduce legal immigration and end diversity visas, we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to infiltration by those who want to mold the United States into the image of their religion, rather than working within the Judeo-Christian principles that have made us a beacon for freedom-loving persons around the world.

and afraid of Muslim congressmen

I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America...

Doesn't it seem like someone ought to give Mr. Goode the chance to escape the horrors of Washington and hide from scary Muslims in the safety of own basement?  

That someone is Tom Perriello.  

Perriello has launched a program to take out Virgil Goode, for good, by  doing good for his community.  

With events in Danville, Collinsville, and Charlottesville, the Perriello for Congress campaign launched its volunteer tithing initiative, unprecedented for a political campaign. The campaign will tithe 10% of all its volunteer hours to community service projects around the district. The campaign has logged more than 1,700 volunteer hours in total; over the weekend, volunteers kicked off the initiative by tithing 42 volunteer hours and moving forward, will tithe 10% of its hours.

This idea, of putting campaign efforts into doing work for the community, is one that I've been pushing for some time, and I'm extremely excited to see the Perriello campaign making this move (though I don't think for a second that they got the idea from me!  After all, the Dean Corps followed much the same plan).  I'm betting that time spent on actually helping out around the district will be much more valuable than more hours on phone banks or another commercial on local TV.  If you're a local, you could help make that prediction come true by volunteering.  If you're stuck at a distance, there's always the Perriello Act Blue Page.

While Virgil Goode talks about defending his values from scary Muslims.  Tom Perriello wants to show his values not through fear, but in service to others.

"I was raised to believe that a strong faith is a lived faith that must be made clear by our deeds. I want my campaign for Congress to reflect those same values," said Tom Perriello. "That is why we are asking our campaign team to commit 10% of their volunteer hours to local charities to reflect the value of service to community and to country."

What Perriello is asking from his volunteers is only an extension of what he's already asked of himself.

After receiving his law degree from Yale University, Tom accepted an assignment working to end atrocities in the West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone, which had suffered long civil wars fueled by blood diamonds. Tom’s work with child soldiers, amputees, and local pro-democracy groups in Sierra Leone played a significant role in the peace and reconciliation process that ended twelve years of violence in that country. ... He has worked inside Darfur and twice in Afghanistan.

Here's hoping that other campaigns also make this commitment.

Race tracker wiki: VA-05

One thing interesting this cycle is the recognition of some candidates that they have the power through their campaign to do good beyond themselves.   We have seen this with Charlie Brown, Democratic Congressional Candidate in CA-04 with his Veterans Charity Challenge.  And of course we all know about the Obama campaign and its cooperation with the DNC to register more voters.

Now let's add Tom Periello, Democratic Congressional Candidate in Virginia's 5th CD, against the noxious Virgil Goode.  Tom, who is a founder of the progressive faith movement, is tithing volunteer hours.

Keep reading to see what I mean.

 I don't begrudge supporters of the other candidate usually. But this was too good to pass up. I know it has been live for some time now, but what do we really know about "Goode Bless America"? (or as they call it, "Ain't Nothing But A Republican"

Well, finally they have defined themselves. Go and see and write something to Virgil Goode. There is even a little button to submit called 'I Believe in America". Imagine that...

Anyway, I am sure it is all in good fun (or 'Goode fun'?) I personally have many questions for the Congressman. I plan on asking in emails about certain issues and the absolutely fluffy-like-marshmallow-creme "Goode News".

One of the greatest joys in the 2006 election, amid the triumph of capturing both the House and Senate, came with now Congressman Jerry McNerney's defeat of Richard Pombo in CA-11. Pombo was in real competition to be the worst member of Congress when it came to energy and environmental issues.  On the other hand, McNerney knows energy, clean energy

During his career in wind energy, McNerney's work contributed to saving the equivalent of approximately 30 million barrels of oil, or 8.3 million tons of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - as well as other harmful pollutants.

In 2008, across the country, we have the opportunity for similarly stark shifts from Energy Dumb to Energy Smart elected officials.  

On this 38th Earth Day, you (and I) can take action to help ensure that the 39th Earth Day will be better than today's by sending some $.01s toward Energy Smart/Earth-Friendly challengers across the country.

One of the best indicators that this is shaping up to be a special election year for Democrats is the high number of relatively credible candidates running around the country...including in some districts we’ve abandoned for years, districts with entrenched Republican incumbents or districts which vote preposterously Republican at the federal level.

It seems as if everyone who has kicked around the idea of running for Congress has decided this is the year, that getting in now is their best chance at winning election for the foreseeable future.

Districts which most people never dreamed would be competitive this fall have drawn surprisingly credible Democratic candidates. Some of these, like Debbie Cook or Donald Betts, happen to be unusually high-profile. Others have shown shocking fundraising prowess, like Linda Ketner or Michael Skelly.

So here is a partial list of long-shot campaigns run by credible candidates. These are the kind of races that won't be listed as top-tier pickup opportunities, and most of them will be under the radar for the bulk of the election cycle, but may have some sleeper potential.

At the very least, it's certainly possible that the Republicans are going to have to defend their incumbents from dark-horse campaigns in these formerly safe, untouchable territories...which has the effect of drawing Republican money away from other, less solidly Republican districts where Democrats have an even better shot at winning.

It is not likely that many of these districts will wind up being competitive; in fact, a few of the candidates below will undoubtedly wind up losing by significant margins. Still, these candidates have done well enough so far that they're worthy of attention; in fact, some of them have already been added to the DCCC's race map, indicating that their strengths have not gone unnoticed by the powers that be.

So here are a few dark horses who are showing the ability to cause trouble for Republicans in some of the reddest of turf.

Special thanks to James L. at Swing State Project for putting together his fantastic table of fundraising numbers.

Race tracker wiki: AL-03 AZ-03 TX-07 VA-05 SC-01 SC-02 KS-04 CA-46 NJ-05 IL-13