Alan Grayson endorsed Norman Solomon yesterday. Did he ever:

I have five children. Sometimes I try to explain to them what it was like to live in America in the '60s and '70s. When the federal government listened in on phone conversations of civil rights leaders, and bugged their homes. When the President of the United States and his henchmen plotted to kill a reporter, Jack Anderson. When one major party burglarized the headquarters of the other major party. When the National Guard shot and killed college students. When rioting prisoners were picked off and killed by marksmen with rifle scopes.

There is one candidate for Congress this year who knows all about that. Because the FBI had a file on him. When he was 14 years old.

Here is how Solomon describes how it came about that the FBI opened a file on him when he was 14:

“I’d heard that some people were protesting at an all-white apartment complex close by, near the D.C. border, named Summit Hills. I was just a kid, but I’d figured out that segregation was wrong. So I picked up a sign, and joined the picket line.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was enough in 1966 to label you a “subversive,” and put you under FBI surveillance.

But what’s important now is that Norman Solomon showed what he was made of, at the age of 14.

Support someone who doesn’t just talk the talk, but someone who walks the walk. Someone who has been walking in picket lines and protest marches for the past 46 years. Someone whom J. Edgar Hoover wouldn’t like at all. Someone named Norman Solomon.

Tuesday, June 5th is what Blue America is calling its "Super Tuesday", when several extremely important primary races will be decided. In fact, early voting has begun in California and Norman's running to replace progressive stalwart Lynn Woolsey in the second district just above San Francisco.

We don't need to tell you again what an amazing person Norman is. His progressive resume spans 30 years as an activist and media critic and an elected official. He's been endorsed by the most committed progressives in the nation. His good friend and longtime colleague Jeff Cohen, co-founder of FAIR, is one of them. In a recent impassioned endorsement, he explained why this particular race is so important:

Getting to a bloc of 25 genuine, principled progressives in Congress is attainable. What’s needed is a strategy and resources to develop candidates in dozens of solidly progressive congressional districts nationwide: black, Latino, college town, liberal urban, etc. When an incumbent Democrat sells-out or leaves office, activists in such a district should be able to call upon national organizational and netroots support to get a 100 percent progressive into Congress. Once elected by the grassroots in such districts, it’s hard for corporate or conservative forces to ever get them out. Think Bernie Sanders. Think Barbara Lee.

Think Blue America. Think Norman Solomon -- a progressive leader with a lifetime of liberal activism representing a deep blue district, unencumbered by obligation to business or the Democratic establishment. This is how we build our bloc.

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Earlier this week Blue America made Congressman Tim Holden (PA-17) uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. And he's going to remain uncomfortable until his primary contest with progressive Matt Cartwright on April 24th.

Everywhere he turns he, and all of his potential constituents, will be seeing this:

It will pop up all over the district on freeways and thoroughfares and rural highways. All his neighbors and potential voters will know just how friendly old Tim is with the fracking industry.

Let's just say he isn't happy. According to Politics PA Holden's campaign issued a press release calling Blue America a "Super PAC" (which is just hilarious.)

Holden’s campaign blasted the Blue America PAC as an outside group trying to meddle in the 17th district, and noted that Holden is taking heat from interest groups on both sides of the aisle.

“Throughout his career, Tim Holden has legislated from the political center, which is where most of America and the 17th district find themselves,” said campaign manager Eric Nagy. “Now he is getting hit from the right by Texas oil baron billionaires with the Primary Accountability PAC and from the left by a Hollywood record company executive with Blue America PAC. It’s clear that no matter where your political ideology falls, you run the risk of offending one of these groups.”

Nagy took a swipe at Cartwright, too.

“What we have here is a case of the rich helping the rich – billionaires and millionaires coming to the rescue of fellow millionaire Matt Cartwright.”

The PAC’s press release highlighted this article from Republic Report, a watchdog website that features writings from former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Cartwright echoed their criticism of Holden.

“I am thrilled by Blue America’s endorsement. The people of Northeastern PA need to know Tim Holden’s record over the past 19 years that he is trying to hide,” he said. “It is not just the Halliburton loophole, but his vote against health care reform, his opposition to legislation that would have made it harder for banks to foreclose on struggling families at the height of the recession, and the fact that he voted with George W. Bush 60% of the time.”

Yes, there's another group coming at Holden from the right. Seems a Blue Dog just can't get a break these days.

There has been a flurry of press in Pennsylvania, from PoliticsPA to the Scranton Times-Tribune and The Pocono-Record, among others. Progressive blogs in the area such as NEPArtisan are all over it. Holden is clearly rattled.

And for Howie, it's now personal:

I don't write a lot about my days in the music business here at DWT but then I've never been attacked-- not even by a Republican-- for being in the music business before. Yesterday was the first time and it was in a press release from corrupt Blue Dog, Tim Holden. Reacting to the billboards Blue America put up revealing his shady role in the fracking industry he decided to ignore the substance and attack our PAC and my old job instead. Holden sent out a press release calling Blue America a SuperPAC-- our average contribution is $45-- and whining he's being attacked "from the left by a Hollywood record company executive with Blue America PAC."

I retired from my job at Warner Bros almost a decade ago and work full time running by blog, DownWithTyranny, exposing corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle, like Holden. But, for Holden's sake, I'll give a brief run-down of my experience as "a Hollywood record company executive." I started a small, independent label called 415 in San Francisco in 1978, on of the country's first "alternative rock" labels. It was funny when I heard from Borys Krawczeniuk at the Scranton Times-Tribune yesterday morning. He asked me if I was the same Howie Klein he used to chat with about SVT and Romeo Void when he was music director at WRKC (88.5 fm) at King's College in Wilkes-Barre. What a hoot; we hadn't talked in 30 years!!! Funny how music brings people together!

A small indie label with absolutely no capital-- I lived in a $90/month apartment in the Mission District and often had to decide if I wanted to put $2 of gas in my car or eat a meal-- 415 thrived and eventually attracted the attention of the major labels. CBS bought the label and my life changed, although I keep my old Fairlane and stayed in my old Mission District apartment. But I could at least afford health care for the people working at 415. I ran the label for CBS for a few years and then went to work for Warner Bros, as general manager of Sire Records, where I helped guide the careers of the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, k.d. lang, The Pretenders, The Smiths, Morrissey, Ice-T, Ministry, Tommy Page and dozens of other musicians who have probably had more of a positive impact on people's lives than a hack politician in Washington. And speaking of Tommy Page, he was just a teenager when Seymour Stein signed him to the label and we released the #1 worldwide smash hit "I'll Be Your Everything".

But the career of a teen idol doesn't usually last forever. When Tommy came to me and told me he had decided to go back to college and get a degree he asked me if I would give him a job at the label when he graduated. Four years later he was back and he started at the bottom of the ladder-- a promotion department assistant, where his hard work and dedication earned him promotion after promotion until he was an A& R man and then a senior vice president of promotion. Around that time I had bought an old house in gorgeous Monroe County in what is now the 17th CD. Many of my music business friends, hearing from me how beautiful the Poconos are, also bought homes there. One was Tommy and his growing family. Tommy still calls Stroudsburg home-- and now he's the publisher of Billboard Magazine.

Read on for the full screed. It's priceless.

We'd like to keep the pressure on Holden all the way through the primary. If you can help with a few bucks we'd really appreciate it. This is a newly drawn Democratic district --- no Republican can win it. So, it's a race between a progressive Democrat and a corrupt, conservative Democrat who half the district has never heard of. Holden's so desperate that he's bringing in Steny Hoyer to prop him up. And he's clearly nervous about Cartwright's excellent fundraising and support. These billboards are sending him over the edge.

Holden is a plodding Beta Blue Dog foot soldier who does whatever he's told by the people who run him. He's a super social conservative, anti-choice, anti-gay rights and a guy that Steny can always count on to vote on behalf of the 1%. He has no business representing working families. And he's beatable.

If you can help, please send a couple of bucks to our Fracking Holden campaign. Let's make him lose some sleep before he loses his seat.

You can also follow this campaign at Facebook.com/FrackersHeartHolden

One of the greatest difficulties for progressives these days is imagining how we can possibly win elections when the 1% has uncapped a fire hose full of money into our politics. It's a daunting prospect, to be sure. Their gusher of cash is so overwhelming that it's hard to see how average people can possibly compete. But that's why Blue America is so enthusiastic about progressive candidates around the country who are coming up with creative strategies and tactics to meet the challenge. Turns out that big money ads may be able to tear someone down but it still can't buy you love the way a one on one conversation can.

One of the most inventive progressive grassroots strategists in the country is Ken Aden of Arkansas' 3rd district. Ken is one of those rare politicians with both the common touch and a long term vision who has sat down and thought through how to wage his campaign on the ground, one on one. With a combination of high-tech micro-targeting savvy and a sophisticated field operation using dedicated volunteers to walk the district and meet every possible voter, this strategy shows how progressives can overcome the odds.

As you can see from the video above, Ken is a man with grassroots organizing experience, empathy and intelligence. And he knows his constituents as neighbors and friends.

Ken says:

Because a legitimate campaign effort has never been mounted by a Democrat running for Congress, voters have never had the opportunity to be introduced to a Democratic candidate who believes what they believe. Incumbent Steve Womack is a Tea Party Republican who believes Social Security and Medicare must be cut and changed. However, the residents of the district don’t feel the same way. In Benton County alone, more than $600 million in Social Security payments, Medicare funding, and Medicare prescription drug coverage was utilized by residents. Districtwide, that figure tops $1 billion dollars in combine Medicare and Social Security Payments. The people who depend upon these programs don’t want to see them cut, but they’ve never had a Democratic congressional campaign knock on their door and make them aware that there is an option other than a Republican.

Check out the reaction he gets on that subject:

"If you even think of cutting Medicare, if you even think of cutting Social Security, you're a criminal." Words progressive Democrats should live by.

Ken's making some waves, that's for sure. You may have read in the national news that his campaign manager came home a few weeks ago to find that someone had murdered his family cat and scrawled the word "liberal" on it. Aden is a former combat soldier and doesn't scare easily and neither does his campaign. In fact, it propelled them to double their efforts to get out and talk to the people and let them know who it is that's on their side when it comes to protecting their livelihoods, their economic security and their futures. (Hint: it isn't cowards who would kill a defenseless animal.)

Blue America endorsed Ken with great enthusiasm and we are spreading the good word about his grassroots strategic vision to progressive challengers across the country. We believe that this kind of creativity and energy can pay off. But he needs all the help we can give him to keep the campaign funded. He won't be able to match a corrupt Republican incumbent, not even close. But he has a good chance to win if he can put this plan into practice and defeat him with sharp grassroots tactics and hard work. Please donate here if you can.

And please welcome Ken to Crooks and Liars.

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Back in 2006, when Blue America was just a young PAC, one congressional candidate seemed to emerge from out of our own ranks, so conversant with the way the new technology had merged with progressive politics that she was, in many ways, the first Netroots candidate. It was Darcy Burner of Washington state, a brilliant former Microsoft executive who famously declared that she knew she had to step into the arena when she realized that she needed to leave a better world for her young son.

She lost a couple of heart breakers '06 and '08 and spent the last few years working in DC as executive director the Progressive Caucus Foundation. Now she's back home in Washington state and ... she's running again! As always, she wants to hear what you have to say and answer your questions directly.

So please join us on Saturday as we welcome our good friend Darcy back to her first Blue America chat of the election season at 11am PST/2pm EST. (And if you have a mind to welcome her with a campaign contribution, you can do so here.)

That viral Youtube may be the most famous American cri de coeur of the new century --- a shot heard round the political world announcing that Elizabeth Warren was not just running for the Senate in Massachusetts, but that she was going to do it by redefining the political framework that's governed this nation for the past 30 years. Warren's message put fear in the hearts of the big money boyz and the political establishment and they reacted. Strongly. This is not a person they want in the Senate and they are going to do whatever they can to ensure she isn't elected.

As someone who has been fighting for the middle class for many years as a researcher and advocate, Warren is a rare politician who has knowledge of the way Washington works while not being of Washington. As her recent battles setting up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau showed, the wall of resistance to her ideas is formidable and a lesser person would have done her work and gone back to her secure and happy life as a professor and lecturer. But those battles only made her more determined.

She's going to be the next Senator from Massachusetts if we have anything to do with it --- and if her track record is any indication that ossified institution isn't going to know what hit it.

Elizabeth Warren is staking her race on a commitment to resist the lures of big money and special interests. Wall Street, for obvious reasons, has her in their crosshairs and will pour unlimited amounts of cash into the race to defeat her and the GOP establishment is desperate that they do so --- after all, her win could keep the Senate in the hands of the Democrats.

But despite all that, it's not impossible for her to win this, not by a long shot. There's a limit to what money can buy and Elizabeth's message is resonating strongly as she crosses the state meeting people. She's consistently running ahead of her opponent Scott Brown in the polls, but she needs our help to stay competitive.

This week her campaign is running a money bomb collecting donations from like-minded individuals all over the country who understand that Elizabeth Warren doesn't just represent the people of Massachusetts, although she does. She represents all of us who want to see the American dream restored and the middle class strong and thriving again in this country.

Howie, John and I were thrilled to have Blue America be among the very first to endorse her campaign and we couldn't be more excited that she's found a few minutes to join us here today.

Please give as generously as you can--- and please welcome her to Crooks and Liars!

On election night 2010, when progressives around the country were pummeled and defeated, one race kept us all up late, hoping against hope that we'd have a memorable victory among the defeats. As it turned out New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district candidate Ann McLane Kuster lost to Charlie Bass that night by only a few votes, but showed that even in a GOP tsunami she had what it took to compete as a progressive. So naturally she's challenging Bass to a rematch in 2012.

This time there's no doubt about what she's up against. Bass has turned out to be a very typical Republican by voting to end Medicare and then whining about semantics when Democratic groups called him on it. He's collecting money from all the usual suspects, notably energy and insurance companies who have business in front of the energy and commerce committee, along with practically every other lobbyist from tobacco to Walmart. It didn't take him long to put his hand out and start collecting the big bucks from the corporations and the 1 percent.

By contrast Annie has had over 11,000 individual donations, 90% of which are under a hundred dollars. (You can join the crowd, by donating to her campaign here.)

She's running a grassroots campaign with an army of progressives on the ground and around the country who are anxious to see a "frugal yankee" put these priorities to work for the people:

I believe we need to cut wasteful government spending -- like the billions in subsidies for oil companies, the corporate tax breaks for moving jobs overseas, and the billions more spent on redundant weapons systems that our military leaders have identified as wasteful and unneeded. But instead of these cuts, the US House of Representatives is cutting what we need most: education, public safety, and the clean energy research that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. It makes no sense. America can do better than this -- so, it's time for all of us to do something about it.

From the beginning Annie has been a strong voice against the American empire, opposing the Iraq invasion, the Afghanistan surge and additional war funding over the past few years. In 2010 she was endorsed by NH Peace Action which said "It is Ms. Kuster's outspoken criticism of the war in Iraq and the surge in Afghanistan that brought us to this decision." She says that everywhere she goes in her district, people are tired of war and want to bring the troops home and spend the money to rebuild America --- just like many of you.

America can do better --- with the help of dedicated, energetic progressives in the House, fighting for the people instead of catering to the special interests. Blue America is very excited to once again endorse Ann McLane Kuster for the congressional seat in New Hampshire's second district and are pleased that she has accepted our invitation to join us for the first Blue America chat of the 2012 campaign.

Please join Annie and Howie, John and I for a freewheeling conversation about her campaign, the state of politics and her plans to help us all create a better country for the 99%.

And if you would like to help her with this grassroots endeavor, you can contribute to her campaign here.

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As you may or may not know, Howie, John and I are based in Los Angeles, and as progressives nothing has stuck in our craws more than the fact that that Jane Harman was able to hang onto her seat in California's 36th district (John's home district!) despite the fact that she was a Big Money Blue Dog who barely set foot in the area. When she announced her resignation from Congress we whooped for joy. Her retirement to the world of think tank advocacy has given us another opportunity to elect a real progressive to fill the seat.

Amazingly, we are blessed with two fine progressives who have thrown their hats into the ring: Marcy Winograd, who we endorsed in the two primaries she ran against Harman, and Debra Bowen the current Secretary of State who we also endorsed in her two statewide runs. It's an unusual and luxurious choice for progressives -- it so rarely happens that we have more than one great candidate.

We are fond of Winograd and greatly admired her willingness to take on the Democratic establishment as she did at last year's convention. That kind of pluck is in short supply. She is a stalwart progressive and a good friend and it was a privilege to support her in 2006 and 2010. However, after much deliberation we have decided to endorse Debra Bowen in this race. The reason is quite simple. We believe that all other things being equal, Bowen simply has the better chance to win.

Bowen is a hero to California progressives, and you may know of her through her national leadership on election integrity and internet issues as California Secretary of State. Indeed, she decided to run for the office after the debacle of 2000 for reasons I imagine many of us can relate to:

“I became motivated to get it right before we had another horrible disaster for our whole democracy,” said Bowen. “We couldn’t afford another election where there was vast mistrust of the results.”

She ended up winning the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage award for her work on election integrity.

With her high profile as a reformer and advocate for government transparency as Secretary of State, she has been a member in good standing of the Progressive Movement from the beginning, speaking at Netroots Nation and identifying herself with our cause. What you may not know is that previous to holding statewide office, she represented 90% of CA 36 for 14 years in the state Assembly and Senate and that she has a stellar progressive track record as a legislator as well. She is very popular in the district to this day among moderates and progressives alike, who see her as "their" statewide candidate. It's a big advantage and one that we think will propel her to victory over all the others in the race.

As a movement progressive, Bowen will naturally lend her strong voice to advocate for working families in congress and stand up for civil rights and civil liberties. Her record is clear on that. And with her reformer credentials, along with her dedication to green energy (her first foray into politics was working with Heal the Bay back in the 1980s) she is perfectly positioned to be a leader for us, for our time.

As a progressive netroots candidate, Bowen is naturally running a people powered campaign and we urge you to contribute to her cause. She will have a race on her hands with Winograd, LA Machine City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (Harman's hand-picked successor) and wealthy well connected Republican Mike Ross running and she'll needs our help. (Read Howie's post at Down With Tyranny for more on the machinations of the Hahn campaign.) We have a real chance to elect a movement progressive to this seat. Please donate if you can.

And now it's my pleasure to introduce you to Blue America candidate for congress from the 36th district, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Please give her a nice welcome:

I think most of us have come to realize that something has gone terribly wrong. The rampant cronyism, corporatism, demagoguery and sheer irrationality of our politics is almost impossible to wrap our minds around and I worry that we are losing our ability to see clearly. These are confusing, frustrating times with pressures from major social change and global transition bearing down and leaving us disoriented and off-kilter.

But all is not lost. The world has seen big changes before and this country has faced greater challenges. It does require, however, that we seek out and support new political leadership. The system is no longer functioning on behalf of the people and it's going to take smart, creative, energetic people with fresh ideas and a different perspective to turn it around.

We at Blue America believe that Nicholas Ruiz III is one of those leaders. Howie introduced him to his readers like this:

Over the course of the next few months, Blue America plans to help you get to know another courageous, fighting progressive from central Florida, Nicholas Ruiz III. A young father and university professor, Nicholas ran for Congress on the Green Party platform in 2010 and has since re-registered as a Democrat. He's already challenging extreme right-wing Republican freshman Sandy Adams for the right to represent FL-24, folks in Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Brevard counties who dumped one-term conservative Democrat Suzanne Kosmas in November. Kosmas was one of 39 Democrats to join with the Republicans voting against the historic Affordable Health Care for America Act on November 7, 2009. She and Sandy Adams saw eye to eye on that one-- tax-payer subsidized health care for them and their families-- but no health care reform for the people of Central Florida...Last November Democrats didn't have much of a choice. Kosmas was against health care reform and Adams was even more against it!

Here's Ruiz, the progressive alternative:

We must decide, once and for all, what sort of society defines America. We have already decided that law enforcement (i.e. the police department) is a guaranteed service for all, regardless of social or economic status. We have also decided that the fire department is a guaranteed service. Our society, rightfully so, honors both of these public features. They are freely available to all, regardless of the size of one's wallet.

Why should healthcare be any different?

I don't know about you, but I haven't heard anyone making that sort of argument on the stump. They talk about "cost curves" and issue ten point plans and explain about how the most important part of anything is free markets and "consumer choice." They are making their arguments almost entirely on conservative terms and in the process they fail to give people a way to understand why government makes sense. Voters are adrift, knowing that their lives are insecure and that they pay taxes and that government plays a role but they don't have a way of thinking about it anymore outside of rightwing cant and some vague moral notions that aren't well articulated.

We need politicians who can make the progressive case for political action and empower the people to make reasoned decisions and Nicholas Ruiz is one of them He is a dynamic, creative thinker who isn't bound by the artificial parameters of the stale political debate. He's pressing against them, offering up ideas that should be part of the dialog if only our leadership were willing to build a rationale for real progressivism.

Like this, for instance:

That's not something you hear every day, but it should be. This is how we widen the terms of the debate and begin to get progressive ideas back into American politics.

It is my great pleasure to welcome Nicholas Ruiz III to our first Blue America chat of 2011.

There's a lot of despair in these parts lately and it's perfectly understandable. The country is going to hell in a handbasket and the forces of corporatism and know-nothingism are dominating the political culture while the Democrats seem to be in a state of suspended animation. It's very tempting to just tune it all out and watch TV. But we can't. Not as long as there are progressive politicians like David Segal out there on the campaign trail fighting to change things every day. If don't support real progressive leaders with a track record of success, we are basically giving up.

David is running in a primary for the Democratic nomination for Patrick Kennedy's seat against two doctrinaire establishment hacks and an anti-choice zealot and he needs our help in the home stretch. (The election is September 14th.) His most formidable rival, the mayor of Providence is using his money advantage to run a deceptive ad and David needs our help to run this rebuttal to remind people who the real progressive in the race is:

I know it's hard to get excited about politics right now. But it would be foolish for us to fail to support a young, smart progressive with a proven track record in his run for congress. Unless we are prepared to simply surrender to the forces gathering around us we need to nurture future progressive leaders who understand this political environment and have ideas about how to prevail in it. David is one of those future leaders.

Here's what Howie wrote about him when Blue America endorsed him:

David Segal is one of us. He was elected to the Providence City Council in 2002 as a Green, and is now a lefty Democratic state Rep for Providence and East Providence. He has a very clear path to victory and he can win-- and if he does, he'll be among the strongest voices for progressives in the halls of the Capitol.

David's worked on the meat-and-potato issues: Jobs, the environment, housing, progressive taxes, all with success. He's successfully pushed for expanded renewable energy, more affordable housing, against predatory lending, and for foreclosure prevention measures.

But he's never shied away from the really controversial issues: He's been a vocal leader on criminal justice reform, standing up for the rights of immigrants and for gay rights, and has pushed as hard as one can from the state level against war spending. He's an ardent supporter of gay marriage, and was the sponsor of the last year's bill, which was passed over the Governor's veto, to allow gay partners to plan each other's funerals.

He's a co-sponsor of marijuana decriminalization, and just convinced the Governor-- after two years of vetoes-- to allow a bill to become law that ensures due process for people on probation.

He's sponsored the "Bring the Guard Home" legislation, and his first act on the City Council was to pass a resolution against the war in Iraq.

But, most importantly, he's an organizer at heart, who is committed to joining the Progressive Caucus-- and making it function better. Here's an excerpt from an interview with David:

"[I]n Rhode Island I've tried to develop alternative structures for legislators to lean on when the leadership makes such threats. I am the lead organizer for our progressive caucus. I founded a political action committee to support members of our progressive caucus so that if funding from sources dries up at leadership's request because something was done to offend them, that we would have at least some, some degree of money to fall back on to help fund our campaigns nonetheless. We funded ten, twelve races relatively modestly in the last cycle and hopefully we'll be able to do something in the forthcoming cycle."

That's the kind of inside political organizing we desperately need in the US Congress. If you can help with a few dollars today the campaign can keep its ads on the air and compete. If he wins the primary, there's almost no doubt that he will win the seat. It could be one of the few progressive victories in this midterm election.

So the right wing is predictably euphoric about Bush's latest political ploy. Here's an example from The Corner:

The President just pulled one of the best maneuvers of his entire presidency. By transferring most major Al Qaeda terrorists to Guantanamo, and simultaneously sending Congress a bill to rescue the Military Commissions from the Supreme Court's ruling Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the President spectacularly ambushed the Democrats on terrain they fondly thought their own. Now Democrats who oppose (and who have vociferously opposed) the Military Commissions will in effect be opposing the prosecution of the terrorists who planned and launched the attacks of September 11 for war crimes.

And if that were not enough, the President also frontally attacked the Hamdan ruling's potentially chilling effect on CIA extraordinary interrogation techniques, by arguing that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is too vague, and asking Congress to define clearly the criminal law limiting the scope of permissible interrogation.

Taken as a whole, the President's maneuver today turned the political tables completely around. He stole the terms of debate from the Democrats, and rewrote them, all in a single speech. It will be delightful to watch in coming days and hours as bewildered Democrats try to understand what just hit them, and then sort through the rubble of their anti-Bush national security strategy to see what, if anything, remains.

(Boy, I sure hate it when the Democrats politicize the war on terror. It's so wrong.)

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