(Preface: I am an Edwards supporter who voted for Obama after Edwards dropped out. As you can see from my DKos page and comments page I've stayed out of the online Clinton-Obama wars. I'm not 'trolling' over here to stir the pot.)

As an a Obama supporter I just have to make this clear to Clinton supporters and the Democratic party: If a disputed Michigan delegation provides the margin for a Clinton nomination, that is simply a bridge too far for me. An election with only one name on the ballot is no way to choose an nominee, let alone be the determinative difference.

As I see stories of how supposedly Michigan is becoming Clinton's secret weapon, with Clinton trying to get some of the uncommitted delegates in addition to her tainted, one candidate election, pledged delegates, I say this in candor and sincerity to my Clinton supporting friends -- Be very careful, because you're playing with fire.  Michigan cannot provide the decisive delegate votes.

Well, it's possible, but until she releases her tax returns we'll never know. Is it irresponsible to speculate? Frankly, it's irresponsible not to...

There was a time when spousal finances were the root of all scandal, when the media vultures picked at every last bare bone of Hillary's finances, yet today we get a collective yawn when Cindy ($100+ million net worth) McCain refuses to release her tax returns. Just like they would've had Bill Clinton filed separately and refused...

What is Cindy McCain hiding? The voters have a right to know. Let's push this until she relents.

There are a several of items in this week's Newsweek cover story on John McCain which are, well, disturbing and telling:

As an angry toddler, he would hold his breath until he passed out (his parents' cure was to drop him fully clothed into a bathtub of icy water).

~~~

According to Robert Timberg's "The Nightingale's Song," McCain's nicknames at (Episcopal High School) were "Punk," "Nasty" and "McNasty." A classmate described him as a "tough, mean little f–––er." Episcopal had borrowed from state military schools the sobriquet "rat" to describe first-year students at the mercy of upperclassmen hazing. McCain writes: "My resentment, along with my affected disregard for rules and school authorities, soon earned me the distinction of 'worst rat'." ... "I acted like a jerk," McCain writes. McCain came close to "bilging"—getting kicked out—but seemed to know exactly how far he could go. He graduated fifth from the bottom of his class.

This diary is going to be short and (not so) sweet because I'm just fed up and this needs to be said: I have NO CONFIDENCE in the Senate Democratic caucus and its leadership (if you can call it that).

After gutting FISA and slinking out of town in shame they've returned to pick up their impotence and incompetence right where they left off.  For all the bluster from Durbin and Boxer, Majority Whip Durbin was unable to unite Democrats behind it as a caucus as the price for not filibustering the Cornyn amendment, resulting in yet another base-demoralizing vote.  The Democratic caucus won't force a real filibuster on restoring habeas corpus and, incredibly, as a caucus, procedurally disabled a real filibuster over the Webb amendment.

WILLARD: "They told me that you had gone totally insane and that your methods were unsound."

KURTZ: "Are my methods unsound?"

WILLARD: "I don't see any method at all, sir."

Please tell me that as a matter of strategy our leaders didn't capitulate to avoid being bitch slapped...

Please tell me that as a matter of strategy our leaders our leaders don't believe this capitulation is victory...

Look, setting aside for the moment whether confrontation, supported by the majority of the American people, would be the better tactic at the moment, it appears our leaders have no effective rhetorical or political strategy whatsoever. If you're going to capitulate, if that is your short term strategy, at least embrace it and frame to your advantage.

(Adapted from this post at Crystal Gazing)

Fred Kaplan in Slate:

The FY 2008 budget does not include the cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Those costs are covered in the $95.5 billion emergency-spending bill, part of a supplement to the FY 2007 budget, over which the White House and Congress are currently quarreling.) (emphasis original)

That would be true if by 'not include(d)' he means $140+ billion in additional funding...

The FY08 National Defense Authorization Act just reported out of the House Armed Services Committee on a 58-0 vote (pdf) includes $ 140+ billion in "Authorization of Additional Appropriations for Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom" (pdf - see Sections 1501-1517, starting on page 655). Almost $120 billion of the $140+ billion is for Iraq.

(Crossposted at Crystal Gazing)

In the new debate now entered about how the Iraq war is to be funded and brought to a speedy close, there is much talk about "benchmarks" and "timetables" and "two months at a time funding" and "full funding with benchmarks," etc. Furthermore, there's a debate and tension in trying to find the optimal balance between the moral duty to act/vote to end this war ASAP vs. trying to devise a politically practical solution given the dynamics of the Democratic caucus, with the misguided concern that the former inhibits the latter and the latter is abdication of the former.

In my view all of this is the wrong way to view the situation. It's divisive and sets factions of our caucus against each other instead of focusing on what unites us. Quite simply, there are two fundamental principles that should unite the caucus and represent why we were voted into the majority: Accountability and Enforcement.

Article II, Section 3: "(The Executive) ... shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

Article I, Section 2: "The House of Representatives ... shall have the sole power of impeachment."

Article I, Section 3: "The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments."

(Crossposted at Crystal Gazing.)

Sometimes it's worth stating the obvious, because the simple, basic civics class level statement is what the average citizen will understand.

The Executive is required to "faithfully execute" the laws. Failure to do so is a High Crime.

The Legislative branches have the "sole power" to remove Executive branch officers when they commit High Crimes.

There is no role for the Judiciary in this matter (save the Chief Justice presiding over a Presidential impeachment trial).

Congress has the constitutional obligation to investigate allegations that the Executive has not 'faithfully executed the law.' Failure to provide Congress the information necessary to ascertain whether the Executive has failed to comply with the constitution -- which is a High Crime -- is Contempt of Congress, and itself constitutes a High Crime.

Today's Washington Post reports that Bush's new budget proposes defunding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars next year:

Their request, for the first time, attempts to show the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming fiscal year, $145 billion, but includes just $50 billion for fiscal 2009 and nothing thereafter.

Fiscal 2009 begins in October, 2008 and to reduce funding to just $50 billion in FY2009 significant troop reductions would have to occur prior to October, 2008.  In the spirit of bipartisanship, perhaps Pelosi and Reid should quickly move to enact Bush's proposal.

h/t Karen Tumulty.

However, with his petulant non-concession and determination to continue as an independent Lieberman has crossed the line. Joe Lieberman is now nothing more than a scab.  A person who put his own interests above the interests of the party, the union of Democrats.  So my question is will blue collar, rank and file Democrats treat Lieberman with the shunning and scorn worthy of a scab?  

It's worth noting that while Reid, Schumer, Clinton et al have endorsed Lamont they have not yet shunned Lieberman.  None have called on him to stop his independent run.  This "half a loaf" positioning is not good enough.  They need to publically call for scab Lieberman to stop "crossing the line."

More after the flip.

The netroots/progressive wing of the Democratic Party has over the past months been developing a narrative that the GOP leadership and elected members are corrupted by big business moneyed interests, out-of-touch with average Americans and under the control of radical Christian clerics.  It's a narrative designed to separate the GOP electeds from moderate segments of their constituency -- to illuminate the GOP agenda and its leaders as radical and divorced from the values of moderate America - so that we can move the middle to us, rather than the DLC strategy which requires us to move to them.  Let's be clear:  The strategic objective is to separate independents and moderates from the corrupt, radical GOP electeds.

Assuming the seven Democrats who were part of the compromise all agree that a Supreme Court opening and/or nominee constitute an "extraordinary circumstance," will Graham and DeWine vote to reject the nuclear option?

Every time a GOP Senator asks for unanimous consent my ears want to hear some Dem Senator object.  The time to stop this outrage is NOW -- before it happens.  So here's a shout out to Senator Boxer -- go to the floor, start objecting to GOP UC requests and make the following statement:

Over the past months the rallying cry in the run-up leading to the successful election of Howard Dean as the DNC party chairman has been "I am a reform Democrat!" In the context of a debate over leadership of the party machinery, the focus on this "reform" message was rightly on grass/net-roots tactics, infrastructure and a more inclusive, bottom-up leadership role in the party. And behind this rallying cry we've we won some important victories in electing Dean, the emergence of BlogPac as a net-based leader in the Social Security fight (tip of the hat, of course, to Josh Marshall, too), the State Party Blog Project etc. Organizationally, we are on the move.

However, as we move forward to the policy fights and party positioning leading up to the mid-terms next year it is imperative that we expand the "Reform Democrat" franchise to these arenas.

The obstacle the GOP faces in selling SS reform/privatization is the transparency of the program itself.  Revenues in, payments out, its fiscal health are all tracked separately, openly for all to see.  Transparency is not the GOP's friend.  

(more here to meet 300 characters.....................)

"Osama is trying to influence the election.  If you change your vote because of the Osama tape -- Osama wins.

"If you want to change the direction of this country but change your vote because of the Osama tape -- Osama wins.

"If Osama scares you into changing your vote -- Osama wins.

"Tell Osama he can't win.  Vote for change.  Vote for John Kerry."