Republicans are strongly implying that Secretary of State Jan Brewer is responsible for the large increase in voter registration in 2004, despite her support of Prop 200 and generally acting like Arizona’s own Katherine Harris. What is responsible for the surge in voter registration is not Brewer’s non-existent leadership, but the contentious and close-run 2004 … Read more

I wasn’t going to give the cowards behind two recent anonymous hit mailers the satisfaction of spreading their disease for them, but since other local bloggers have already broached the subject, I decided to put in my two cents. I’m not going to itemize or debunk the charges, Ted has done that quite sufficiently at … Read more

I hosted a MoveOn agenda party yesterday, and one of the very popular ideas was to have a national system of public campaign finance similar to Arizona’s own Clean Elections (which just got a new directer in Eric Ehst, a long-time grassroots political organizer and consultant who is definitely on the people’s side). What most … Read more

I don’t mean to denegrate Gore, or to imply any unethical behavior on his part by a comparison with Richard Nixon. Instead, I intend to illustrate through Nixon’s career an eminently reasonable trajectory in Gore’s political career. There are several parallels between the careers of Nixon and Gore. Both were elected to Congress at a … Read more

Please attend a MoveOn.org sponsored Positive Agenda party this Thursday, May 25th @ 6pm. The time is coming to kick GOP butt in ’06 and ’08, and it certainly appears to be up to the grassroots to set a positive agenda to move the Democratic Party forward. Come on down to the Shanty in downtown … Read more

UPDATE 5/26/06: The Senate today confirmed Hayden by a 78-15 vote, demonstrating that the majority of Democratic Senators have forgotten their role as constitutional counterweight to the Administration and an investigatory and oversight body. They’re still running scared from a President whom less than 1/3 of Americans continue to support. In short, they’re letting down their party by failing to provide an effective opposition, and worse, they are letting down America.

Senate Intelligence Committee backs NSA’s Gen. Hayden’s CIA confirmation by a 12-3 vote. That means that 4 Democrats, Feinstein, Rockfeller, Levin, and MIkulski, voted to confirm General Hayden, likely giving him exactly the bi-partisan lustre he needs to win confirmation.

The links above are to each Senator’s statement on their votes to recommend confirmation to the full Senate. Every single one of them dodges the real issue that, as Senator Feingold said in his statement on his NO vote, "General Hayden directed an illegal program that put Americans on American soil under surveillance without the legally required approval of a judge."

The issue is that Hayden has already proven himself amenable to carrying out illegal directives of the President. He did not resign when asked to break the law, he rolled over and did it. Now the Administration is moving him to the CIA where they can order him to violate American laws and the Constitution again.

I’m disgusted with my party today.

Senators Feingold, Wyden, and Bayh did the right thing and voted against a man, who despite his talents and qualifications, facilitated a massive breach of the public trust and the rule of law. Senator Feingold’s statement explains the case eloquently below the fold…

DailyKos is having a early straw poll on early support for the Democratic nomination in 2008: Daily Kos :: Who do you support in 2008?. The results are trending about as I anticipated. As people search their souls and look over the past 6 years, it has become apparent to the vast majority of Kossacks … Read more