Author: Limelite

At least it’s the beginning of the end.  America will awake by the dawn’s early light this November 8, 2006 renewed to Her original purpose and on the verge of changing the miserable course She’s been hijacked to follow by despicable politicians calling themselves Republicans, when they are in fact thugs and killers of the American Dream.

The world is about to become a safer place for Democracy.
I’m not going to chant, “Death to the neocons,” while singing victory anthems to Democrats.  But my hymn of affirmation to one will be my eulogy over the other.

So many firsts and near-firsts to be proud of in their accomplishment and in their attempt in this, our just-written history.

So many promises to be fulfilled for the uninsured, the minimum wage-earners, the immigrants who want a better life, the under-employed who want an improved standard of living, and the under class who want a fair chance.

The breeze that carries true freedom is wafting once again across our land, and I hope it carries with it the refreshed hopes of all our citizens to infuse us with the true Spirit of America and to cleanse us of the wretched excess of those who kidnapped our country six years ago, and to restore to us all the parental liberties that have been sacrificed in their false cause.

Starting tomorrow, I can believe that soldiers will return home, that the national debt will be reduced, that the military will be relieved of wars of misadventure, that justice may prevail over the corrupt, that America is returning to her rightful place among the family of nations, recovering her respect and honor.

What I see . . .It’s a beautiful thing.  The nightmare is ending, the dream returns.

So, you think you know politics?  You pride yourself on your knowledge of arcana concerning our national politcal leaders?  You’ve been huffing and puffing in the wake of all the political scandals, but by god! you’re up-to-date and know who’s who.

Right?

Okay.  Yesterday I brought you Radar Online’s 10 Stupidist Congresspeople.  Today I’m giving you more of what you’re longing for — Rolling Stone’s 10 worst.

You remember the drill.  I give you the results below the fold in reverse order.  You don’t peek before you try to guess who’s No. 1.
To keep your politically savvy palates unjaded, I’m going to supply titles this time, but no names.  Those you have to puzzle out for yourselves.  No cheating!

And after all’s said and done, if you want to post your own 10 Worst Congressmen list in a comment, I’m sure we’d all like to see it.  Please just keep to the same format.

Here we go. . .   (hint:  They’re ALL Republican but one.)

10.  The Christian Soldier  (hint: female, does not believe in separation of church and state)
9.  Bin Laden’s Best Friend   (hint:  has something to do with Homeland Security)
8.  The Conspiracy Nut  (hint:  he’s in trouble with the law — now that’s a clue!)
7.  Enemy of the Earth   (hint: Stetson-wearing cattleman)
6.  Mr. Bigotry   (hint: doens’t just want a border fence, wants it electrified)
5.  The King of Payoffs   (hint:  sitting congressman next likely to be indicted)
4.  The Bribe Taker   (hint:  NOT Republican)
3.  Mr. Pork   (hint:  can you “play” bridge?)
2.  The Dictator   (hint:  lock-’em-up zealot)

And coming in at No. 1  is the King of the Hill. . .

1.  The Highway Robber  (hint:  I already gave it to you.)

Congratulations!  Bet everybody got “who’s No. 1?” right.  But can somebody tell me how on this (still) green Earth Katherine Harris didn’t make this list?

Who’s head comes to the sharpest point in this Confederacy of Dunces?  Who is the King of Fools?  Whose tee-shirt reading. “I’m with Stupid” has an “error” pointing straight up?  

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who’s the dumbest of them all?

Radar Online must be the mirror, ’cause they have the answer.  Want to know the relative ranking among the rankly stupid?

Three guesses who leads the list.  No peeking!
WARNING:  Prepare to be outraged and don’t be disappointed if your Favorite Fool isn’t No. 1.  Remember this list is just Radar’s opinion.

With equality for all (Republicans and Democrats make the list) and fairness to some (the 7 Republicans), we present. . .

THE  LIST

10. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY)
9. Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI)
8. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT)
7. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
6. Representative Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
5. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
4. Representative J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
3. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)
2. Representative Donald Young (R-AK)

. . .and who else could occupy that No.1 spot other than Florida’s own Queen of the Nitwits. . .

1.Representative Katherine Harris (R-FL)

Okay, okay, before you spew high dudgeon all over the comments section go visit the link and read the reasons each “honoree” is one.  And come back and tell me your vote for “Best Picture.”  Now, go forth and re-order the list to suit yourself.  Why not post it below?

In the case of Antonin Scalia, Justice, SCOTUS vs. Nadine Strossen, president, American Civil Liberties Union, the jury finds that Justice Scolia is a judicial bigot.

Justice Scalia debated Nadine Strossen in a televised debate yesterday.

While claiming,

. . .nothing in the Constitution supports abortion rights and the use of race in school admissions, AP Miami Herald

Scalia went on to defend his position,

“Whether it’s good or bad is not my job. My job is simply to say if those things you find desirable are contained in the Constitution,” he said.

There’s a conservative limited view of justice; there’s a defense of the iron-clad Constitution.  Good job, Justice Scalia, last bastion upholder of the American Way.  His sentiments are neatly balanced by the implication of his judicial philosophy that if rights aren’t strictly referred to in the Constitution, they’re reserved for government.  

Except, there’s just a little bit of a problem with bringing that inflexible attitude to the bench of this Nation’s highest court.  And a hint of closeted bigotry, too.

. . .such a legal approach would have barred the landmark 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, a unanimous decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

This ruling came at a time in our history when neither state governments or the federal government had any intention of changing the status quo of an oppressed minority, easing their way into a status of equality supposedly protected by our founding father’s intentions in a document preceding the Constitution — the Declaration of Independence.  

Scalia wants us to know that appointed, not elected, liberal judges have gone too far in “granting” civil rights.  He characterizes their rulings as “improper” behavior.  Well, thank you, Mr. Moral Arbiter.  And he warns, like an Old Testament god that

“Someday, you’re going to get a very conservative Supreme Court and regret that approach.”

He thinks abortion rights for women are unconstitutional “political” rights.  Guess he’s telling us women are chattel, incapable of making medical decisions regarding their own bodies. Exactly.  Because Scalia self-confesses that his judicial philosophy adheres to

interpreting the Constitution according to its text, as understood at the time it was adopted.

He’s also clairvoyent and can communicate with the dead!  How else can he know how the writers of the Constitution “understood it at the time”?

For Scalia, the Age of Enlightenment died with the 18th C. and probably would have been better not being an Age at all.  For Scalia, the march of human progress stopped in 1781, and probably should have been interrupted when Jefferson, et. al, penned the Declaration. For Scalia, time’s arrow needs to be turned back.  Back to the time of Moses, probably, since Scalia supports displaying the 10 Commandments in court houses.

Scalia, who must have realized he appeared Medieval at best and Hunnish at worst during his televised debate with the ACLU president, noted

. . .there were cases in which he and the ACLU agreed. They included rulings upholding flag burning and a 2004 opinion arguing that a U.S. citizen seized in Afghanistan in wartime could challenge his detention as an enemy combatant in U.S. courts.

Well, burning the flag, as compared to abortion rights, is a real life make-or-break kind of issue, isn’t it?  The second, I have to admit is a step back from the brink of complete paternal authoritarianism.

Scalia finds Constitutional alliances for depersonalized or minimally human impacting issues fairly easily.  But he’s unable to temper justice with mercy when issues impact, say, half the population (women), or a third of the population (minorities) of this country.  And god forbid he should protect the civil liberties of all of us against the intrusion of government!

Ms. Strossen speaks for me when she says,

“I’m very distressed about your failure to find protections in the Constitution for the right of consenting individuals in their homes to decide what they see and read, and what type of sexual relations they have.

Unlike Scalia (thank god!) Ms. Strossen insists,

“There are some rights that are so fundamental that no majority can take them away from any minority, no matter how small or unpopular that minority might be.”

Count on Scalia to protect us peon-citizens from radicalism of that nature.  He was one of the 5 in the 5-4 decision allowing police more leeway to enter private homes.

Were the Russians forewarned by North Korea of its impending test?  Particularly, did they know telling details like the size of the device that Kim Jong Il’s regime set off?

There is evidence to suggest they did.  But they apparently didn’t know enough to keep quiet about it when the test, practically speaking, fizzled.  Nor, converesly, did they choose to share what they knew with their good friend, America. In spite of President Bush’s assessment of his relationship with Mr. Putin,

And the more I get to know President Putin, the more I get to see his heart and soul, and the more I know we can work together in a positive way.  White House News

it appears that five years into their “special friendship,” Mr. Putin doesn’t hold Mr. Bush in the same regard.

How the Russians may have known is a question whose answer can only be purely speculation. And it’s just as likely that China may have been aware of the same information known to the Russians.

Recall, it was Russia’s Defense Minister, Sergi Ivanov, who said the Moscow Government believed the strength of the NK weapon was between 5-15 kilotons on October 9, 2006, the day after the test.  And as of Wednesday, October 11, 2006:

Only Russia has said the evidence available confirms a nuclear blast actually occurred.

 What that evidence is has never been clarified exactly.  Threat’s Watch.org does a nice bit of analysis on this part of Ivan Oelrich’s post on the Strategic Security Blog concerning Russia’s characterization:

There was early confusion about how large the explosion actually was, with U.S., French, and South Korean seismologists reporting a yield equivalent to about 500 tons of high explosive, that is half a kiloton, while the Russians reported that the yield was in the range of 10 to 15 kilotons, or twenty to thirty times larger. From the beginning, the source of this huge discrepancy was difficult to understand. Soon, the Russian seismic data were released and it became clear that even their own data did not support the Russian claim.  Federation of American Scientists

The key question is: Did the Russians knowingly release an estimation of bomb size, even though their own — and the rest of the monitoring world’s — seismic data could not support that estimate.  It looks like they did.  Russia’s ambassador to the UN was first out of the blocks objecting to US sanctions proposals against NK.

Mr. Churkin said Hе had аsked Mr. Boltоn on Thursday [Oct. 12, 2006] morning not tо call for a vote, “but what happened, happened.” Forex News

but China was less vehment, when it

. . .sent an emissary tо thе White House, Tang Jiaхuan, who met with President Bush during thе day and appeared tо bе walking a line bеtween punishing North Korea and preventing thе United States from taking meаsures thаt would seriously threaten thе government, according tо thе deputy national security adviser, J. D. Crouch.

The explosion occurred Sunday, October 8, 2006 around 10:36 PM EST — 11:36 AM Monday in Korea.  

That was less than an hour after North Korean officials had called their counterparts in China and warned them that a test was just minutes away.  NYT

 Russia has not reported receiving a similar call, in spite of being, like China, North Korea’s abutting neighbor and historically sharing a Stalinist government.

Yet, it is the Russians who seem to be the first — and only? — who are talking to the North Koreans face-to-face over their nuclear test.  

A Russian nuclear envoy who visited North Korea said Saturday he pressed the North to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said he had a “very useful” meeting Friday [October 13, 2006] with Kim Gye Gwan, the North’s nuclear negotiator, but did not say how Kim responded. Lycos News

 Useful to whom?  Presumably to Russia.

While China’s objections to the now in place sanctions agaist NK have largely been economic ones,

Liu Jianchao, a senior Foreign Ministry official of China, Pyongyang’s strongest ally, said Thursday that. . .it would not cut off economic assistance to Pyongyang. “China’s economic assistance to North Korea is improving the living standards of its people,” Jianchao said.  Novosti

Russia, who also opposed the stiffer sanction proposal, has not iterated the reasons for objecting to the current proposal over which it has expressed some dissatisfaction.

If the Russians are “running interference” for NK’s nuclear program, like they’re doing for Iran’s, the question also remains — why?.

What we do know is this.  The North Korean bomb is a plutonium device (unlike the uranium program of Iran and Pakistan), like India’s program.  Plutonium is easier to produce than enriched bomb-grade uranium but highly toxic and of far greater threat to the environment.  And, while small, Russia does share a common border with their crazy neighbor to the south.  Enough to have them worried about the potential hazard?

Finally,

North Korea maintains uranium mines with an estimated four million tons of exploitable high-quality uranium ore.
<snip>
[NK has] trained specialists from students who had studied in the Soviet Union. Under the cooperation agreement concluded between the USSR and the DPRK, a nuclear research center was constructed near the small town of Yongbyon.
<snip>
Estimates vary of both the amount of plutonium in North Korea’s possession and number of nuclear weapons that could be manufactured from the material. South Korean, Japanese, and Russian intelligence estimates of the amount of plutonium separated, for example, are reported to be higher — 7 to 22 kilograms, 16 to 24 kilograms, and 20 kilograms, respectively — than the reported US estimate of about 12 kilograms.
<snip>
the amount of plutonium needed [to make a nuclear bomb is] 4 kilograms*. . .enough to make up to three bombs if the US estimate is used and up to six bombs if the other estimates are used.  FAS on WMD

*Or, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1-3 kg., depending on the size weapon wanted and the technological skill of the manufacturer.  Difficulty is indirectly proportional to yield.

After reading the above, one can hardly help speculating that Russia may have a well placed intelligence conduit in the NK nuclear program.  They may know, better than anyone else, how many bombs NK is capable of producing, once they get their design right.  Useful information they may wish to keep to themselves.

To the rest of the world it only appears that NK may have wasted one, or a portion of one.

Trailhead Group may well be a money laundering operation for illegal campaign funds.  By now the liberal/progressive blogosphere is a-buzz over Jason Bane’s investigative expose (a work still in progress) that appeared at Colorado Confidential.

Someone’s got to investigate this fishy organization; local newspapers aren’t really, the national news is asleep at the word processor, and good citizens of Colorado are frustrated in their attempts.

In spite of citizens’ petition to the Colorado State AG requesting him to investigate Trailhead, he refused.  Of course, the State AG is an appointee of the Republican former governor of CO, Bill Owens, AKA the initial founder of Trailhead Group.

The sub rosa purpose behind Trailhead Group appears to be the promotion of unfettered capitalism and the destruction of all those who stand in the way of that purpose.

Witness their attack on Rep. Buffie McFadyen who opposes privatized corporate operation of prisons.  The operators of the prisons are major contributors to Trailhead Group and want to continue receiving lucrative private contracts to operate more prisons, natch.  They are us.  We are them.

Allied organizations to Trailhead Group in terms of philosphical ideology are the training and action arms.  The first is called Leadership Program of the Rockies (LPF), a rightwing agendized Republican grooming machine for lockstep capitalistic — in the mold of Ayn Rand — political candidates and “leaders.”  The second is a faux newspaper funded by them called Common Sense that is the organ of attack against opponents to the Coors/Owens/Benson (Benson Mineral Group) idea of Corporate Colorado.

The leading financial contributor and sometimes authorial contributor to Common Sense and to the LPF is Denver oilman, Alex Cranberg, President and Chairman of Aspect Management Corporation and Aspect Energy, LLC and the founder of the Alliance for Choice in Education, an organization behind the school charter/voucher movement in Colorado.

Cranberg loves his LLC.  He has five of them, and uses them to make hefty campaign donations that otherwise would be illegal if coming from a private individual.  He claims he uses a “loophole” in the law that allows people like him to counterbalance the otherwise too powerful labor union campaign contributions.

To add to the smarminess, Trailhead Group is also philosophically allied with the front group called the Economic Freedom Fund.  It’s big contributor ($5M) is Robert J. Perry, bosom buddy of Turd Blossom and the guy who financed the Swiftboaters of Kerry.  Other players include

Charles Bell, of the Sacramento, California law firm Bell, Mcandrews & Hiltachk. Charles Bell is general counsel to the California Republican Party, is Vice Chairman of The Federalist Society’s free speech and election law practice group, and is active in the Republican National Lawyers Association. SMirking ChimP

Here’s what the EFF (I refuse to provide the link) says about its purpose:

    The specific purposes of this corporation are to
    educate the public concerning issues related to the
    preservation of economic freedom, the promotion
    of economic growth and prosperity for the people
    of the United States of America, which purposes
    are consistent with Section 527 of the Internal
    Revenue Code.

Bell, Mcandrews & Hiltachk’s clients include the California Tribal Business Alliance – an “Indian Gaming” organization.

Notice a theme?  Does that close the loop of corruption?  Remind anyone of Jack Abramoff’s and Tom DeLay’s preferred clients and lickspittles?

But this is just the tip of the iceberg in Colorado.

Another diary needs to be written (by someone) about Colorado Sec’y. of State, Gigi Dennis, who, according to Colorado Media Matters:

approved new campaign finance rules designed to make it harder for mostly Democratic small-donor committees to function.”
<snip>
[Changes]. . .requested by lawyers** for the Republican Party, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez’s campaign, and the Republican-backed Trailhead Group.

**The lawyers are Scott Gessler — he’s a successful alum of the Leadership Program of the Rockies and John Zakhem, who counsels both the GOP’s Trailhead Group political committee and the state Republican Party.

(With apologies in advance to Edna Buchanan, author of The Corpse had a Familiar Face.)

Lest we forget the murder and mayhem angle within our favorite Figure of Scandal, Jack Abramoff’s never ending story, Friday’s Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel tells us that Adam Kidan, Abramoff’s business partner in the purchase of Sun Cruz Casinos from Gus Boulis, who was gunned down in true Buchanan fashion on the streets of Ft. Lauderdale back in 2001, has had a sudden recollection of the facts surrounding Boulis’ murder.

Wanna know what he says he knows?
In a 2 1/2 hour taped interview given to Ft. Lauderdale police last May 1st, and made public today, Kidan, who’s been nailed on fraud charges, chooses to finger a corpse for Boulis’ murder, saying that John Gurino, a one-time Howard Beach deli owner

. . .sprayed Boulis’ BMW with bullets on Feb. 6, 2001, shortly after the self-made millionaire left his Fort Lauderdale office. Kidan said the plot to kill Boulis was orchestrated by two of the three men now awaiting trial for the murder.

Who knew!?  One can speculate that Kidan heard himself saying something like this to the patient policemen taking his interview, “I know that I told everyone I didn’t know anything about the murders, and now I know I know who did it!”

Folks down south are speculating just how Kidan, who’s apparently feeling all fuzzy, warm, and cooperative, will play in the murder trial of the three hapless henchmen: Anthony “Big Tony” Moscatiello, 68; Anthony “Little Tony” Ferrari, 49; and James “Pudgy” Fiorillo, 28.  They’re facing the death penalty.  Will Kidan help them get it?

It’s unclear how Kidan will figure in the high-profile murder case, or whether prosecutors will call him as a witness.

And exactly who is this deceased John Gurino?  Well, exactly isn’t quite clear, but he was at least fond of John Gotti.  Enough to take part in the mini-riot outside the courthouse where Gotti got his life sentence back in ’92.

One arrested demonstrator, Richard Valley, 20 is an associate of Junior Gotti who frequents his social club, and another, Joseph Gotti, 22, is Junior’s cousin. A third, John Gurino, is a Howard Beach deli owner whose acquittal of murder in 1984 earned his then-unknown defense lawyer, Bruce Cutler, a spot next to John Gotti. [emphasis mine]

Notice a pattern here?  Murderers get murdered when they’re mob murderers.  Hmmm….

Kidan

said he had no role in the murder plot, only learning details after the killing when Moscatiello, an alleged associate of late mob boss John Gotti, and Ferrari confided they were responsible for it.

STOP  THE  PRESS  !!

Will somebody tell me, please, why a mobster would up and confide/confess such a thing?  I can’t picture it.  And especially at a time when the guy he’s having the intimate soul-baring chat with is currently involved in a tough negotiation with the victim for a floating gambling operation with lots of potential for laundering money!!  [Money like certain shady donations to Republican lobbyist (oh, and Kidan business partner in the purchase — remember?) Jack Abramoff.]

I can picture a mob hit man reporting back to the goon who hired him that the job was done, if imperfectly, which is apparently what Moscatiello and Ferrari were doing.

Moscatiello admitted the murder didn’t go off as planned, Kidan said.

“(Moscatiello said) the plan was to kidnap and kill him and bury him somewhere and that he would never be found,” Kidan said.

Well, that may have been Kidan’s plan.  And instructions.  Too bad Boulis wouldn’t pull over his Beamer, cooperate, get out of his car, and go with Little Tony to wherever.  All this could have blown over.  Who knows, Tom DeLay might not have had to leave his buddies in the House; all those associates of his could continue to take Scottish golfing holidays; and numerous politicians wouldn’t have had to dump their filthy lucre so suddenly on unsuspecting charities in the past tax year.

Ahhh, the fickle finger of Fate moves in mysterious ways when you get nailed and decide to cooperate with the law.  Suppose Jack’s sweating and squirming at the thought of his former friend’s refreshed memory?

Oh, and how did poor John Gurino meet his end?  Gunned down in a Ft. Lauderdale deli by the owner, Ralph Liotta, who claimed self-defense.  Apparently Liotta was threatened by Gurino who’d loaned him $26,000 so he could open his deli.  When Liotta didn’t pay back the loan as promptly as Gurino would have wished, and when Gurino paid him a visit (presumably to collect), Liotta shot him dead.

Too many delis spoil the mob.

* Notes for the dedicated afficianados of the Abramoff Scandal:

1.  It tickles me pink that “Little Tony” Ferrari was the wheel man in Boulis’ murder, according to Kidan’s belief.  Hee hee!
2.  And isn’t it simply fascinating that Kidan’s own mother was killed in a mob-connected (Bonanno crime family as opposed to Gambino crime family — Gotti’s mob) robbery in 1993?
3. And “Big Tony” Moscatiello is allegedly an FBI informant!  Could it get any better?
4. Finally, for the best summary of this murder for hire/Abramoff scandal, read, “Money, Mobsters, Murder” by Matthew Continetti.

——————–
Diary also appears at that Orange Place

These are the four adjectives Jack Abramoff, late “lobbyist to the stars” employs in his biography of appeal for mercy to U.S. District Judge Paul Huck.  Tomorrow is sentencing day, and the former Numero Uno Ripper-Offer, Congressional Bribery Boy, and Lyer to Lenders is facing a stretch of seven years for the last crime alone.

Here are the details of his sob story from today’s Miami Herald. . .

• My parents endured the Depression;
• I had to live in Beverly Hills where I was only a non-upper class kid in the land of upper class kids;
• The biggest event in my live was converting from a secular Jewish life to Orthodox Judaism;
• I performed charity work in high school for “Sugar” Ray Robinson’s Youth Foundation;
• I wasn’t smart enough to get into Brandeis University on my own merit;
• But “Sugar Daddy” Ray Robinson put in a good word there and — lo! a miracle! — I was accepted;
• I graduated from Georgetown University Law Center where I became a Young Republican;
• Hop!  Skip!  Jump!  I became a Washington lobbyist;
• Oops!  I made friends with Adam Kidan.

IT’S  ALL  HIS  FAULT  !!

Now the father of five is going to do time for defrauding a bank; faces time on corruption charges; and is subpoenaed to be a witness in a murder trial that he may be deeply entangled in beyond just “witnessing.”  But all of this is Adam Kidan’s fault.  Well, maybe not the corruption and collusion with congressmen.  Heh.  Heh.  Heh.

But judge — he pleads — I’m really a nice guy!

Yeah, the Republican version.

[Crossposted at DailyKos]

Voter Madness???

American Anger appears to be the theme of this election year.  In fact, November 7, 2006 may not be so much an election day but the Day the Second American Revolution started and ended.  Sentiment among the population is overwhelmingly negative toward Republican issues, policies, and candidates.  And a great deal of the sentiment has been measured for us by everyone’s polling favorite:  Fox News.

Only 29 percent of voters approve of the job Congress is doing today, while a 55 percent majority disapproves. 03/16/06 FOX News Poll

One is tempted to ask, if Democratic candidates merely breathe, smile, and shake hands at campaign rallies without saying anything, will it be enough to get them elected?
Traditional Republican issues are no longer winning support for Republican candidates among registered voters.  President Bush has gone from being a lame duck president at the end of 2005, to a sitting duck president over the Dubai ports miscue, to a dead duck president in terms of helping Republicans get re-elected in 2006.  The War in Iraq has every liklihood of causing a war against Republicans on election day this year.

A Fox News poll this month showed the war in a statistical tie with spending and taxes as voters’ top concerns heading into election season.

<and>

Democrats are now seen as the party that would do a better job on taxes (+ 5 points), and voters are about equally likely to pick Democrats on handling Iraq — issues that are traditionally thought of as being in the Republican column.

Yesterday’s hero, our President, is today’s albatross for Republican candidates.  When once it was an incumbent Republican’s dream to be up for re-election in the heartland of America, it’s now a potential nightmare.

Among Republicans most at risk are those closely allied with Bush and the war effort.

Two years ago in Kentucky, Republican Rep. Anne M. Northup wrapped herself in the American flag, held hands with the president, and defeated a popular Democrat in part by suggesting that his antiwar views would leave America unprotected.  LA Times

There isn’t a single state in the union whose voters support the law banning almost all abortions like was recently enacted in South Dakota.

A majority of Americans say they would oppose having a law in their state like the new South Dakota legislation that bans abortion in all cases except to save the life of the mother, according to those “fair and balanced” Fox pollsters.

And in at least one southern state, a Democratic candidate has entered the congressional race after just having switched his lifelong affiliation from Independent to Democrat in order to do so.

This time, [Northup’s] Democratic challenger Andrew Horne — one of more than 50 war veterans running for Congress as Democrats — is betting that public opinion has so soured against the war in Iraq in this horse-country swing district that it’s now safe for him to run against Northup’s support for the war.

Like many he grew up with, Horne was an independent for most of his voting life.

He registered as a Democrat for the first time in December, when he announced his candidacy.

Cast a glad eye over the numbers:

“If the elections for Congress were being held today, which party’s candidate would you vote for in your congressional district: the Democratic Party’s candidate or the Republican Party’s candidate?”

CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll
Democrat …………….. 55%
Republican …………… 39%

FOX/Opinion Dynamics
Democrat ……………… 48%
Republican ……………. 34%

Diageo/Hotline
Democrat ……………… 46%
Republican ……………. 31%

ABC/Washington Post
Democrat ……………… 54%
Republican ……………. 38%

NPR
Democrat ……………… 52%
Republican ……………. 38%

“In general, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time?”

Gallup Poll. March 13-16
Satisfied …………………… 29%
Dissatisfied ………………… 68%

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll March 10-13
Satisfied …………………… 26%
Dissatisfied ………………… 62%

Associated Press/Ipsos poll March 6-8
Satisfied ………………….. 30%
Dissatisfied ……………….. 67%

Time Poll March 22-23
Satisfied ………………… 32%.
Dissatisfied ……………… 60%

If those numbers don’t make you salivate for the ballot box, I don’t know what will.  And they’re not likely to reverse even if they fade a little between now and election day.  Grassroots volunteers will no doubt work with pleasure to get out the vote in November.

Ever the lobbyist, our man Jack has sent a Very Private (ha!) e-mail to his special friends.  Naturally, a select few one would think.  It seems he needs their help in this his hour of need.

What?! You may well ask.  The Solicitor General of various Indian Nations wants character references?  Is he applying for a position with a casino or something?  With all his experience is he trying to get a bank to loan him money for an actual laundry?  Aren’t there enough high-powered GoOPers out there who feel somewhere deep down inside their pockets that they owe him?

Why does a fine guy such as himself need to ask for attaboys?  You’d think, with the way that Washington works — quid pro quo and all — that folks would be crawling out of the woodwork (or wherever it is they’ve gone to ground) to step up and defend the guy with some glowing words.  
But no.

Come to find out last Sunday night Jack sends out an e-mail marked “please do not forward” and “no, no you mustn’t share,” or “entres nous.”  Or words to that effect.

It seems his lawyers think he needs a little buck-you-uppo with Miami judge, Paul C. Huck. As Himself so genteely expresses,

“The reason letters from friends are so important is that Judge Paul C. Huck in Florida has not been privy to much of my background and life. He probably only knows of me through the harsh media caricature which has plagued me for the past two years. It may only be through letters of friends that any compassion and balance can be achieved.”

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[Abramoff] asks that any letters of compassion include “suggestions for alternatives to or reduction of amount of incarceration and any reference to any redeeming character trait or actions of mine.”  The Washington Times March 14, 2006

Doesn’t your heart just bleed?

Snatch me up to heaven I’ve seen it all.  Poor Man Jack.  Judge Huck wouldn’t let him stretch his cooperative phase out over years and years, instead he set that dreaded sentencing date for two weeks from now.  Jack’ll just have to finish up his lengthy cooperating behind bars.

But, as populist wants to know in his diary, What Ever Happened to Empathy?, I suggest we all take this golden opportunity to reach out to the man without a job and show Jack that we understand he’s a good man who just happens to be a bad actor.

So, take a few moments out of your busy lives to write a letter to Judge Huck and tell him of any redeeming qualities and good deeds that come to mind when you think of Jack Abramoff.  C’mon, folks, show a little empathy.