Author: jedinecny

Last night I received a fundraising email from the Charlie Brown for Congress campaign stating that 15% of online donations will go to the Sacramento – Sierra Red Cross to help the victims of the Angora fire in South Lake Tahoe (which is in California’s 4th congressional district).

Now, for those of you who don’t know it, Charlie Brown has done something similar before. At the end of the previous fundraising quarter in March he pledged to give 10% of contributions to local veteran aide groups. The donations were distributed to the Sacramento Stand Down, Nevada County Stand Down, and Sierra College Veterans Club in mid April.

This is in stark contrast to the actions of Congressman John Doolittle who’s practise it was to give 15% of all contributions to his wife. Charlie in contrast is giving money to the community in his district.
Here’s the fundraising email:

As you know, the upcoming June 30th FEC deadline is a very important benchmark for our campaign. But it pales in comparison to what’s happening right now in Lake Tahoe, where thousands of our neighbors are facing a devastating wildfire.

That’s why between now and the FEC deadline of midnight on June 30th, we will be donating 15% of all contributions made through our online ActBlue page to the Sacramento- Sierra Red Cross–to help area residents who have been affected by this horrible tragedy.

CLICK HERE to Contribute Now! (15% of your donation will help Tahoe Area Fire Victims).

CLICK HERE for a list of groups who are helping those displaced by the fire, and information about how you can help.

Together, we’ve shown that leadership is about much more than just affecting policy in Washington. It is also about mobilizing our collective strength to address real life problems here at home. In other words, leading by example.

A few months ago, our “no veteran left behind” campaign did much more than provide needed funds to area organizations helping veterans and families in need. It set an example that others have followed- both inside an outside of politics. Veterans and families in need across America, not just in our own community, have been the beneficiaries.

The events of this week demand that we lead by example once again.

Please be aware that it says that 15% of all contributions through Charlie’s ActBlue page will go to the Tahoe fire victims. So, I’m not sure if this also applies to other ActBlue pages raising funds for Charlie. I’ll ask the campaign and update once I’ve heard back from them.

cross-posted from Turn Tahoe Blue

More information on the Angora Fire at Lake Tahoe:

Tahoe Daily Tribune
OurTahoe.org
Reno Gazette-Journal
Sacramento Bee

The race between Republican Congressman Jon Porter and Democrat Tessa Hafen in NV-03 (the suburbs of Las Vegas) has been one of the closest in the country with 48.46% for Porter and 46.57% for Hafen and Porter winning by less than 4,000 votes. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Democrats, both in DC and in Nevada, are looking for another serious challenger to Porter after Hafen, a former aide to Sen. Reid, declined to run again. Last week, another potential contender, 2006 gubernatorial nominee and State Sen. Min. Leader Dina Titus, took herself out of the running leaving the field with one announced candidate and two others seriously considering.

Thus far only Andrew Martin has announced his intention to run. He’s an accountant making his first run for elected office and would be Nevada’s first openly gay member of Congress. He’s fairly unknown, though, and I’m not sure if he’d be able to raise the funds necessary for a successful run. Another potential candidate is Larry Lehrner, a nephrologist, a former Republican who does not even live in the district but is nontheless taken very seriously because he’s married to Shelley Berkley, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley that is. A married couple representing two districts of one state in Congress, I don’t think we’ve had that before and I’m not sure we’d want that.

So, maybe it’s time for a waitress in Congress.
There has been speculation that Maggie Carlton, a state senator since 1999 is interested in running and this past weekend she confirmed this:

“My husband and I have been talking about it for a while,” she said. “We might try it. I don’t think it’s too far fetched.”

Carlton, a waitress at the Treasure Island resort, said she wants to talk it over with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and her supporters at home before she makes a decision.

“He’s my congressman, and I don’t like some of the things he’s done,” she said of Porter. “Maybe we need a waitress in Congress, not an insurance guy.”

Yup, you read that right, a waitress. Nevada’s legislature is only in session for four months every other year, meaning legislators have to keep their job after being elected and work to make a living. Wonder how Maggie Carlton does it? So did NPR a year ago. You can listen to their profile of Maggie Carlton here.

Maggie Carlton represents the working people of Las Vegas and Nevada in the State Senate. One co-worker says:

We got somebody speaking for us on a higher level. […] She’ll bring up the questions that other senators probably wouldn’t bring up because they don’t know about nine-to-five working people. […] If Maggie wouldn’t be doing it who would do it?

So, you could argue she’s too valuable in the State Senate and should stay put. However, term limits were introduced in Nevada which means she cannot stand for re-election in 2010. Having her speak for the nine-to-five people in Congress might not be such a bad idea.

How could she win? We know the district is competitive, Porter is vulnerable. She’d have one distinctive advantage: the Culinary Union Local 226 – the most powerful union in Nevada, so powerful that the Culinary’s endorsement might swing the presidential contest in the Nevada Caucus next year. Maggie Carlton is not only a member of the Culinary Union and a Culinary Local No. 226 Shop Steward, she says she was actually encouraged to run for the State Senate by the Culinary:

They wanted someone who clocked in for a living and who understood: running to PTA meetings, trying to do the girl scout thing, getting kids to school on time, all those types of things.

Maggie Carlton has been doing her day-job for 30 years now, maybe it’s time she put down that 40 pound tray not just for 120 days every other year but permanently and take her experience to Washington.

Cross-posted from Turn Tahoe Blue.

So the Democratic Majority in Congress caved to Bush yesterday. We’re clearly all pissed and rightfully so.

However, I’d like to take a step back from this and see how this plays itself out in the media. For this reason, I’ve taken a look at news headlines (and headlines only, not the substance of the reports) of the Bush administration’s unreliable ally on the Iraq war – Germany. I’ve compared this with US headlines.

The result: striking. Follow me below the fold.
Headlines in the German media this morning:

Vereinigte Staaten – Kongress beugt sich Bush (United States – Congress bows to Bush) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

US-Kongress – Pralle Kriegskasse für Bush (US Congress – Full war chest for Bush) Stern

Bush bekommt seinen Willen (Bush gets his will) Handelsblatt

USA – 120 Milliarden für Bushs Kriegskasse (USA – 120 billion for Bush’s war chest) Focus

Irak-Politik – US-Kongress beugt sich Bush (Iraq policy – US Congress bows to Bush) Spiegel

Bush setzt Milliarden für den Irak-Krieg durch (Bush pushes through billions for Iraq war) Die Welt

Kompromiss zur Finanzierung des Irak-Krieges – Bush gewinnt Machtkampf im Kongress (Compromise on financing the Iraq war – Bush wins power struggle in Congress) Bild

Bushs Veto zwingt Opposition in die Knie (Bush’s veto brings opposition to their knees) taz

US-Demokraten geben Kampf um Rückzug aus dem Irak auf (US Democrats give up fight on withdrawal from Iraq) Der Tagesspiegel

US-Demokraten geben nach – Neuer Irakkriegsetat ohne Abzugsplan (US Democrats give in – New Iraq war budget without withdrawal timeline) Deutsche Welle

10 headlines from German news reports. You probably don’t know the names but these are major German news organizations from across the political spectrum – left to right.

Overall, the assessment is the same: Bush wins, Democrats lose and cave in.

Now, let’s take a look at the headlines of major US news organizations:

Congress Passes War Funds Bill, Ending Impasse New York Times

Congress OKs Iraq funding without timeline Baltimore Sun

House, Senate pass war funding bill CNN

Congress Passes Deadline-Free War Funding Bill Washington Post

Bush predicts bloody summer in Iraq; House OKs funding Boston Globe

Congress passes war funding bill Los Angeles Times

Congress OKs war bill sans timeline Washington Times

Senate Approves Iraq Funding Bill Without Timetable For Withdrawing U.S. Troops Fox News

Congress OKs Iraq funds, benchmarks Chicago Tribune

Congress Votes to Fund the Troops ABC News

Again, 10 news headlines from major news organizations across the political spectrum, this time from the US. Notice the difference to German headlines?

In case you’re still wondering what’s wrong with the American media, here’s the take from a small paper from über neutral Switzerland:

Kapitulation der Demokraten (Capitulation of the Democrats) Der Zürcher Oberländer

Bill Richardson has the impressive resume and – with his official declaration to run for president today – he has a website to match his resume.

Looking at the websites of the all eight candidates Richardson’s is the best – hands down. There are several reasons for this.

Let me go into detail:

Navigation: Richardson’s website is easy to navigate, when you click through the top bar you get all the information you need, above the bar is a box to register for email updates, the action center is clearly highlighted on the left hand side and there’s a welcome video on the right hand side. When you scroll further down you get a more detailed look at news, blog entries, issues, etc, all the information you could also find by clicking the top bar. The only additional information you wouldn’t find in the top bar are the links to PartyBuilder, MySpace, etc. That’s how it should be. You should have a clear overview of the site without having to scroll down. Only on the third look does the website seem a little crowded. But just a little.

The other websites are equally easy to navigate, especially Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and Biden, to a lesser degree Kucinich, Dodd, and Gravel.

Information: Couldn’t be better. You can find it all by navigating the top bar. Say, you’re looking for his stance on Iraq, you go to issues, click on Iraq and get quite a bit of information. In addition to his stance on Iraq you can download a two page flyer and find related news and press releases.

The other websites are not as good as Richardson’s. Hillary has a video in addition to her stance , at Obama‘s site you can submit your ideas. Edwards‘ issues page is disappointing. He has one paragraph on “Restoring America’s Moral Leadership in the World” and that’s it. I only found his plan on Iraq by looking at the frontpage again. I don’t understand why they can’t link to it from their issues page. Dodd doesn’t have an issues page. But there’s a link to his Iraq stance clearly visible on the frontpage. What you get is a video with his remarks on Iraq and a transcript. On Gravel’s website issues are front and center with Iraq on the top. He writes only a couple of paragraphs on it – but more than Edwards. At Kucinich‘s site Iraq is one of the top issues and is incorporated into the “International Cooperation” page. On the sidebar you’ll find related stories and forum topics. The only one who can compete, at least on the Iraq issue – I didn’t look at the other issue pages, is Joe Biden. He has a detailed plan for Iraq and a seperate website devoted to his plan.

Networking: Thus far Obama had the best networking site, and only true networking site in my opinion, of all the candidates. Hillary‘s action center is not the real thing as networking between supporters (like personal blogs and messaging system) is not taking place. Edwards has a community blog and his One Corps site. Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel have a forum and Dodd and Biden don’t have any form of networking at all – apart from writing comments on their blog posts.

Richardson’s web team seems to have taken a look at all the other websites and must have wondered “what more can we do” as I would say their networking site now beats that of Obama. Their Action Center seems to be modeled on the same platform as My.BarackObama.com and the Democratic Party’s PartyBuilder and the same functions. The only additional function on Richardson’s network that Obama doesn’t have (but PartyBuilder does) is that you can write a letter to the editor of your local paper.

External networking sites: Most campaigns are using them, so we’re looking at two things here: a) are they linking to the networking sites directly from their frontpage and b) are they linking to the Democratic Party’s PartyBuilder.

Richardson does both a) and b) – as does Obama. All the other candidates don’t.

Hillary, Biden, Kucinich, and Edwards link to external networking sites, though not to PartyBuilder, Dodd and Gravel make you find their links but they don’t link to PartyBuilder either. Which is a shame. As I said before it runs on the same platform as Obama’s and Richardson’s networking sites and is a great tool, both to enhance their own network and to build a network for Democrats in general. PartyBuilder provides an extra page for presidential candidates and links to their profiles. I did a little test to see how candidates use this tool and added them to my friends network. They added me in the following order: Kucinich, Gravel, Obama, Biden, Richardson. After more than a week still no reaction from Hillary, Edwards and Dodd which I find surprising considering their resources.

I’ve also set up Nevada groups for all campaigns:

Nevada for Barack Obama
Nevada for Bill Richardson
Nevada for Chris Dodd
Nevada for Dennis Kucinich
Nevada for Hillary Clinton
Nevada for Joe Biden
Nevada for John Edwards
Nevada for Mike Gravel

Nevada: Speaking of Nevada, how much do the campaigns currently care about the Silver State? I’m not gonna talk about their appearances in Nevada right now, nor about their campaign infrastructure in the state but only about their web presence.

People always say Richardson needs to win or do extremely well in Nevada to stand any chance in the primaries. Not surprisingly, Richardson’s Nevada page is the best among all presidential candidates. You’ll find links to the Action Center, Nevada related news, press releases, video, and photo gallery. The same applies to the other state pages (Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina).

Dennis Kucinich is the only other candidate to have a Nevada page. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since March. Obama, Hillary, and Edwards are still in the old New Hampshire and Iowa mode, as they currently only have state sites for these two. I couldn’t find any state specific pages at Dodd’s, Gravel’s, and Biden’s websites.

Overall, Richardson has today launched a website that’s ahead of the pack and his rivals will have some catching up to do, some more, some not that much.

Please note: this is not an endorsement of Richardson on my part. This is an analysis of his website compared to those of other candidates and does not reflect my preferences for the primaries.

Cross posted from Nevada Caucus 2008

Nationally, many pundits and bloggers didn’t take Nevada’s 2nd district too seriously in 2006. It was too safe a Republican district to be even slightly competitive, so the argument went.

Well, we all know that Dean Heller in the end won his election against Democrat Jill Derby. Against expectations though, his result wasn’t very convincing. The man who was elected Secretary of State of Nevada three times, barely won more than 50% of the vote in a district that doesn’t include Democratic Las Vegas. So today, I ventured out in search of Republicans who won their districts in 2006 and did worse than him. Turns out that there weren’t that many.
Only 11 Republicans were elected with a worse result than Heller. Among them: Rep. Sali of Idaho, Rep. Cubin of Wyoming, Rep. Musgrave of Colorado and Rep. Doolittle of California. All these districts were presumed to be safely in Republican hands. There was no way they would become competitive and yet they were.

Again, there is talk of Heller being safe, of other Republican districts more important than Nevada’s 2nd. This is reminder for all of these folks that Heller is among the vulnerable dozen Republicans currently serving in Congress:

    * 50.37% Heller
    * 50.24% Pryce (OH-15)
    * 50.21% Wilson (NM-01)
    * 50.14% Hayes (NC-08)
    * 50.08% Buchanan (FL-13)
    * 50.05% Bachmann (MN-06)
    * 49.95% Sali (ID-01)
    * 49.53% Ferguson (NJ-07)
    * 49.26% Doolittle (CA-04)
    * 48.46% Porter (NV-03)
    * 48.33% Cubin (WY-01)
    * 45.91% Musgrave (CO-04)

Results were taken from NPR.

PS: Please note that I only looked at how many people were willing to vote for the Republican, not how well the opponent did. This is not a diary on close margins. Feel free to comment on that below.

Cross posted from Helluva Heller, where Nevada bloggers have united to take down Heller in 2008.

This diary is in response to BooMan’s diary Can We Get Some Female Senate Contenders?

I agree with BooMan that, so far, the situation in 2008 looks very bleak. This is quite a disappointment as we’ve seen in the past that there are strong female contenders out there. In the last cycle Amy Klobuchar and Clair McCaskill have proven this.

As of now it looks like 2008 will be a male year as far as Democratic Senate contenders go. However, I have a feeling that 2010 might become a female year and we might even be able to increase the number of female Senators from currently 16 (11 D and 5 R) to 20. While that’s not a huge number any increase is still historic.

I’ve put together a list of potential female candidates for the 2010 Senate election. I have no idea, of course, what their plans for the future are but they all have more or less clout currently and thus could be potential contenders:

Incumbents up for reelection:

Arkansas: Blanche Lincoln
California: Barbara Boxer
Maryland: Barbara Mikulski
Washington: Patty Murray

Possible female candidates:

Alabama:

State Sen. Vivian Figures

Alaska:

State House Min. Leader Beth Kerttula

Connecticut (should Dodd retire):

SoS Susan Bysiewicz
Treas. Denise Nappier
Comptroller Nancy Wyman

Florida:

State CFO Alex Sink
Rep. Kathy Castor
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Georgia:

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin

Hawaii (should Inouye retire):

Rep. Mazie Hirono
State Senate Pres. Colleen Hanabusa

Idaho:

State House Min Leader Wendy Jaquet

Illinois (currently held by Obama, possibly P/VP):

AG Lisa Madigan
Rep. Melissa Bean
Rep. Jan Schakowsky

Indiana (currently held by Bayh, possibly VP/Cabinet):

?

Iowa:

Lt. Gov Patty Judge

Kansas:

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
Rep. Nancy Boyda

Kentucky:

State Auditor Crit Luallen

Louisiana:

?

Maryland (should Barbara Mikulski retire):

State Senate Maj Whip Lisa Gladden
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon

Missouri:

SoS Robin Carnahan
Auditor Susan Montee

Nevada (should Reid retire):

AG Catherine Cortez Masto
Treas Kate Marshall
State Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley
State Sen. Min. Leader Dina Titus
Controller Kim Wallin

New Hampshire:

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter
former Gov. Jean Shaheen

North Carolina:

SoS Elaine Marshall
Education Superintendent June Atkinson

North Dakota (should Dorgan retire):

?

Ohio:

SoS Jennifer Brunner
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones

Oklahoma:

Lt. Gov Jari Askins
SI of Public Instruction Sandy Garrett
Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland

Pennsylvania:

Rep. Allyson Schwartz

South Carolina:

former Education SI Inez Tenenbaum (this would be a rematch)

South Dakota:

Rep. Stephanie Herseth

Utah:

?

Vermont (should Leahy retire):

SoS Deborah Markowitz
State House Speaker Gaye Symington

Male Dems expected to run for reelection:

Colarado (Salazar)
New York (Schumer)
Oregon (Wyden)
Wisconsin (Feingold)

The list is highly speculative but looking at it I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least a handful of the women mentioned above actually run.

Your thoughts?

America’s worst governor has now been discovered by NBC News “Senior investigative correspondent” Lisa Myers. Why this late? Probably because the corruption of Republican politicians only get interesting for the media nowadays when you have something saucy, like, say, photos of a drunk politician dressing up as a pseudo pirate and allegations by an FBI witness of bribes in the form of casino chips.

Here’s an exerpt of what Lisa Myers reported on the “Today Show” this morning:

The new governor of Nevada, Jim Gibbons, is being investigated by the FBI because of alleged gifts and payments from Warren Trepp, a defense contractor whose Nevada firm received tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

That’s the main allegation in a nutshell. Now for the juicy part.
According to software designer Dennis Montgomery, Trepp’s former business partner and a Republican, Gibbons accepted “close to $100,000” in casino chips and cash on a cruise ship.

Honestly, where to start? A Nevada politicians accepting bribes in form of casino chips? This wouldn’t even make for a Hollywood B-movie.

Of course, this is the same Jim Gibbons who claimed that there was a conspiracy between the Wall Street Journal and Democrats to bring him down and who’s scandals make up about half of his Wikipedia profile.

Anyhow, there is already talk about a recall of Gibbons. And we only have to wait about 7 more weeks because a recall can only be started six months after the governor takes office. In the meantime, you can sign an online petition here.

Hopefully, the Gibbons scandals will get enough attention for Lisa Myers and other DC journalists to learn how to correctly pronounce Nevada…

More on all things Gibbons over at the fabulous Vote Gibbons Out!

Video and photos over at MSNBC.

Cross posted from Turn Tahoe Blue.

When talking about trying to win the 2nd congressional district in Nevada, which encompasses almost all of Nevada except for the heavily populated parts of Clark County, you almost always encounter one argument: Democrats cannot win in the rurals.

Now, at first look that might be true, statewide Democratic candidates often lose the rural counties and often by a large margin. One reason for that might be that statewide Democratic candidates most often hail from Clark County and might not campaign too much in the rurals.

However, when you take a closer look you might come away shocked. Why? Because Democrats actually get elected in the rurals on a regular basis.
Just take a look at this list of current office holders who identified themselves as Democrats on the ballot:

Churchill County:

Vicky Tripp, County Recorder
John Serpa, County Public Administrator

Elko County:

Mike Nannini, County Commissioner

Esmeralda County:

Nancy Boland, County Commissioner
R.J. Gillum, County Commissioner
Karen Scott, County Auditor/Recorder

Eureka County:

Michael Rebaleati, County Recorder/Auditor

Lander County:

Gladys Burris, County Clerk

Lincoln County:

Bill Lloyd, County Commissioner
Leslie Boucher, County Recorder/Auditor
Kathy Hiatt, County Treasurer
Tommy Rowe, County Commissioner

Mineral County:

Ed Fowler, County Commissioner
Richard Bryant, County Commissioner
Cheri Emm-Smith, District Attorney

Nye County:

Gary Budahl, County Treasurer
Sandra Musselman, County Assessor

Pershing County:

Roger Mancebo, County Commissioner
Celeste Hamilton, County Assessor
Donna Giles, County Clerk/Treasurer
Darlene Moura, Recorder/Auditor
Dave Ayoob, County Commissioner

Storey County:

Harold Swafford, District Attorney

White Pine County:

Robert Bishop, County Assessor
RaLeene Makley, County Commissioner
Martha Rivera Sindelar, County Recorder

Now, that’s one impressive list. You know how I got this information? By skimming through the Secretary of State’s website and writing down each person who won an election in the last four years and was marked as a Democrat. By doing that I may have missed someone, and there may also be persons included who are registered as Democrats but might just be so called DINOs (Democrats in name only). But I have no way of knowing. Why? Because the Nevada State Democratic Party hasn’t actually advertised the fact that Democrats get routinely (and sometimes without even having an opponent) elected in the rurals. Just take a look at their page listing county commissioners. They list the five Clark County commissioners and Pete Sferrazza from Washoe County. That’s it. No mention of the county commissioners from Elko, Esmeralda, Lincoln, Mineral, Pershing, and White Pine counties.

What conclusions can be drawn from that list? Democrats can win in the rurals, so much is for sure. How do they win? My guess is by meeting the voters and proving that they’re more qualified for the job than their Republican opponent.

Ahead of her election as Chair of the Nevada State Democratic Party, I asked Jill Derby about her experiences on the campaign trail. Here’s what she had to say:

I was able to connect with many people in all 17 of Nevada’s counties during my campaign for Congress. That experience provides me with a network of positive relationships with which to build the unity, focus, and cohesion which will be important to the Party in the year ahead. Democrats often talk about being the party of inclusion and I intend to make that happen by involving everyone – rural and urban, north and south. I also learned that many Nevadans are independent and not locked into strict party vote. I learned that reaching out and framing our message in ways that resonate beyond our traditional Democratic audience can bring support across party lines, and is particularly attractive to independent voters, of which there are many in Nevada.

In order for a Democratic candidate to beat Dean Heller next year, one can only encourage Jill Derby and hope she’ll focus more heavily on the rurals, highlight achievements in counties like Lincoln and Pershing, and set up a party structure in the rural counties.

Cross-posted from Helluva Heller, a group effort by Nevada bloggers to take on freshman Rep. Dean Heller (R, NV-02) and defeat him in 2008.

After giving up his seat on the House Appropriations Committee yesterday, Congressman John Doolittle today had the audacity to compare himself to the Duke lacrosse players during a press conference:

I have been an effective representative for the region and shall continue to be one despite this situation. Finally I will just say that if there is anything we should have learned from the Duke lacrosse case, it is that the destruction of the reputations of innocent people can occur when the government, the press and the public jump to unfounded conclusions. I ask everyone to withhold judgment until the all facts are known and the truth can prevail.

It’s really time that this disgrace of a Congressman leaves not only the Appropriations Committee but Congress itself. However, Doolittle stated he will not resign and will run for re-election:

First I would like you to know I have no intention of resigning from Congress and I have every intention of running for reelection again. Over past last two days the support I have received from colleagues in the House and elected officials from my district has been overwhelming.

Well, you can actually do something about forcing Doolittle out of Congress. You can support Charlie Brown in his attempt to succeed Doolittle. In the last election Brown gathered 46% of the vote compared to Doolittle’s 49% in a heavily Republican district.

Help Charlie Brown by contrubiting to his campaign and by voting for him at the DFA Grassroots All-Star contest.

Read the entire transcript of the press conference here. You’ll notice that Doolittle declines to answer most questions. And here’s the audio.

Cross posted from Turn Tahoe Blue

Cross posted from Helluva Heller

After being hit on his Iraq stance by the ad of Americans United for Change, Dean Heller went on Bill Manders radio talk-show last night. That in itself is to be expected. However what is not to be expected is that a conservative talk show host and a sitting Congressman care about some little blogger from Germany. But apparently they do.

Listen to this clip (this is the second part of their talk).

Here’s the transcript:

Bill Manders: “What do you know about this guy named Sven Stromann?”

Dean Heller: “Uh… Some guy from Germany.”

Bill Manders: “Well, actually he’s an exchange student in Nevada.”

Dean Heller: “Yea, I think he was at one time…”

Bill Manders: “And he’s got a, I guess they’ve got a website. They’re attacking you,   they want to defeat you in 2008..”

Dean Heller: “Yes they do…”

Funny, ain’t it, how Mr. Manders and Congressman Heller have not only noticed a blog barely three days old but are worried enough about Heller’s re-election to give it credence by mentioning me. Also, Mr. Manders, this is a one person effort. No need for invoking the “they’ve got a website” notion there.

Further highlights from the two parts of this interview: Heller claims that Lisa Mascaro misquoted him in the Las Vegas Sun article. Manders very worried that Heller might change his stance on Iraq, especially his support for the surge. Most hilarious thing, though, is that Heller clearly used information from this blog concerning the automated phone calls made by VoteVets. I’m not surprised, though, as Helluva Heller receives most of its hits from the server of the House of Representatives according to my site statistics (click on “Visitor Paths” on the sidebar and then scroll down).

All in all, you can only come away from this talk show segment with the feeling that Heller’s not all that certain about his re-election prospects. Funny thing, that.

Here are the links to listen to this segment in full:

Clip 1
Clip 2

Thanks to JWH over at No Gibbons for the tip and the clips.

Read more about Heller in yesterday’s diary.