Some people on both the right and the left are already trying to use this tragedy to score political points. I have no doubt that most of these people are quite sincere in their beliefs but this not the time.
Naiveté is no substitute for idealism. Which is why I've got some real issues with this diary on the rec list. The author seems like a nice person and I hate picking on nice people, but as a progressive I hold "reason" to be one of my ideals and this diary offends that principle.
Disclaimer: I'm volunteering with the Lichtman campaign
Last Saturday Allan Lichtman stood out in a straw poll conducted at a Democratic conference in western Maryland. He beat out former congressman and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume for the second place slot, taking the lead in the pack challenging the DINO ten-term congressman Ben Cardin. Cardin, who has the backing of party insiders, needed the support of a local AFSCME chapter to muster enough votes to win the poll. Had the Cardin campaign not shipped in supporters to stack the deck Allan would have beaten him as well. This is a truly impressive display for a first time candidate like professor Lichtman; who is running on the strength of his ideas and his passion for making politics work for ordinary Americans.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery; at least that is my excuse for shamelessly stealing Team Slacker's $5 Friday idea. I'd like to make this a weekly event for those of us who have candidates that need the support of the net-roots. So "pimp your candidate" in the comments bellow. Give us a good pitch, take the time to read the others and remember to hit the recommend button.
Allan Lichtman's campaign is really taking off and this past week he has gotten a slew of endorsements from national figures & progressive organizations.
Dr. Allan Lichtman, a Democratic candidate for the open US Senate seat here in Maryland has just shaken up the race by launching the first TV spot of the campaign season.
Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, who is the Republican candidate in this year's U.S. Senate race, has apparently been stiffing Maryland's taxpayers on some of his travel expenses. There is nothing wrong with Marylanders picking up the tab when he's out and about on official business, but that's not what we're talking about here. These were trips to GOP political events, so we've been helping to fund his political activities. This may not technically be illegal but it sure doesn't seem right. More than half of Maryland's registered voters are Democrats, why should they help finance the political ambitions of a Republican official?
As this story shows Kweisi Mfume has started reaching out to the LGBT community here in Maryland. Normally, as a supporter of gay rights, I would applaud this, but the timing has me a bit skeptical about Mfume's motives.
With the confirmation of a radical-conservative like Samuel Alito to the Supreme court the simple fact that we need real Democrats in the Senate has become undeniable. Only 25 Dems supported the filibuster and four voted to confirm Alito. This is outrageous and those Democrats who betrayed their party, their country, and their oaths to defend the Constitution should pay for that betrayal in their primaries. But it is not enough to punish those who have betrayed us, we must look to the future and support strong progressives that we know will stand-up to the conservative agenda. Democrats like Allan Lichtman.
It is with a heavy heart that I have come to the realization that our nation is in crisis and our republic is in jeopardy. This crisis is made most dire, and the damage will be all the worse, because most Americans are either wholly unaware of our country's plight or, if aware, think that the danger is not nearly so great as it truly is. As former Vice President Al Gore so recently and eloquently put it, "The stakes for America's democracy are far higher than has been generally recognized."
I just finished listening to Al Gore's speach and, on the whole, I was quite pleased with it. He made a number of important points, but there was one thing he left out. Here's what I would have liked to have heard added to his speach:
With the retirement of Senator Sarbanes a heavily contested democratic primary race has erupted in Maryland. Yesterday Ben Cardin, a sitting congressman and one of the candidates, voted in favor of the GOP's Patriot Act. Now Allan Lichtman, who is challenging Cardin, has offered his opinion on this vote and on Cardin's habitual support for conservative Bush administration policies.
For some time I've been hearing outrage over the treatment of Mike Steele in the Maryland Senate campaign. For those of you who don't follow Maryland politics, Mike Steele is the Republican Lieutenant Governor and candidate for the Senate seat that Paul Sarbanes is retiring from in '06. He is also an African American. The outrage amongst republicans arises is because some members of the black community have launched racially charged attacks against Mr. Steele calling him an "uncle Tom." In one famed event Mr. Steele was pelted with Oreo cookies after a debate. Unfortunately for the Steele campaign it now appears that event never happened.
Democrats should immediately begin submitting resolutions of inquiry into the involvement of Rove in the White House leak case, the manipulation of prewar intelligence and whether his conduct on the White House Iraq Group violated federal anti-propaganda laws. Resolutions of Inquiry are always the first step in an impeachment case and this resolution should be made explicitly as part of a call for Roves impeachment.
The current lack of comity in the senate is a direct reflection on its current leadership. It was conservative Republicans who threatened a "nuclear option" to illegally rewrite the Senate filibuster rules. It was conservative Republicans who dragged the senate into the private affairs of the Schaivo family. It was conservative Republicans who, in the run up to the failed Iraq war, attacked any voice of reason or dissent as unpatriotic.
For years now conservatives have been attacking the right to privacy that the Supreme Court found in Griswold v. Connecticut, because it became the basis for Roe v. Wade and undermine all other conservative attempts to impose their idea of morality on the American people. They have derided it as "the so-called `right to privacy.'" Indeed, conservative complaints about Judicial activism and the need for "strict constructionists" who won't "invent new rights" or "legislate from the bench" all come back to Griswold and its impact on Roe. Their reasoning is spurious, but that's no reason we can't use it against them. They claim the constitution contains no right to privacy, fine, let's add one.
