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:

slacktivist: The Republican Party of 2010 is anti-Lincoln, anti-Reconstruction, anti-13th, 14th and 15th Amendment.

Barefoot and Progressive: Why does Rand Paul's new campaign manager work with a white supremacist?

Pharyngula: Republicans discover sarcasm, don't like it much

The Impolitic: Plame was a scandal. Sestak, not even particularly interesting

TalkLeft: Facebook revamps privacy settings

HOLY CRAP: Fundamentalism's sci-fi roots...South Dakota scofflaws...Fischer really outdoes himself...Christian History on TeeVee...Searching for Jesus...Suicide school...Praising the symptoms of disease...Subsidizing religion...The End of the World...Commandments not in the Constitution...Hungup on Religion ...Morally bankrupt...partisan prayer...Priestly justice...

Kentucky Republicans will choose between establishment Republican Trey Grayson, and Tea Party hero Rand Paul in today's primary. In a year when candidates are trying to shed the "politician" label, Grayson is embracing it, currying endorsements from GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell and conservative icons like Rick Santorum:

LOUISVILLE – Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson unleashed a withering attack on the surging Senate candidacy of Rand Paul, calling him a grand-standing leader who will struggle in the general election because his views are out of the mainstream with Kentucky voters.

Grayson, on the eve of Kentucky’s closely watched Republican Senate primary, also said Paul has used his campaign to build up his own image with positive coverage on Fox News while ignoring the specific needs of Kentucky.

“I think he’d be more of a grandstander,” Grayson said standing in an airport hangar before a giant R/V with a Grayson banner across it. “I want to be a leader for Kentucky. I’m running to be a United States senator from Kentucky, I’m not running to be the candidate of the tea party. … Listen to his speeches, watch him in our debates. … The guy never talks about our state.”

The tough line of attack comes as Paul, a doctor from Bowling Green, appears headed to victory Tuesday night, buoyed by fervent tea partiers who have latched onto his calls for radical changes in government spending, including the abolition of the Education Department.

“We think there’s a tea party tidal wave coming,” Paul said Monday. “It’s already hit Utah, and it’s coming to Kentucky next.”

“There’s enormous momentum out there,” he said.

Paul’s comments came on Fox News right at the time Grayson was complaining about what he said was the cable network’s favorable coverage of his opponent and the “softballs” lobbed at him when he regularly appears there.

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Hey, good luck with that! I'm sure the shy and uncertain Rep. Grayson will fold quickly under all the Republican wonderfulness:

Republicans eager to unseat a brash Orlando Democrat who said their party's health care plan amounts to hoping people "die quickly" have so far been unsuccessful in finding a candidate.

But now comes a willing Republican -- all the way from South Florida.

Armando Gutierrez Jr., son of one of Miami's best-known political consultants and a member of local civic boards, voted in the city of Coral Gables as recently as April.

But he says he's the right person to take on Rep. Alan Grayson, who likes to call Republicans "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals" and has become one of the party's top targets in 2010.

Gutierrez, a 28-year-old real estate developer and Republican Party fundraiser, said he has already lined up endorsements from three Central Florida Republicans: U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis and state Reps. Chris Dorworth and Bryan Nelson.

At least three Orlando Republicans have declined to run against Grayson, who has millions of dollars of his own to spend on the race and is emerging as a rock star in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Even some Republican strategists say Gutierrez is a long shot.

"The fact that Republicans have to import their candidate from 300 miles away shows how strong Congressman Grayson is," said Eric Jotkoff, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party.

Gutierrez says he has been doing business in Central Florida for six years and started renting in downtown Orlando earlier this year. State law does not require congressional candidates to live in the district. He registered to vote in Orange County on Sept. 11, his birthday.

h/t Progress Not Congress

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Tom Arnold is not exactly known as a towering intellect. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a very nice man; he's certainly built a pretty decent career in a notoriously difficult industry, no small feat. But when you think of politically astute Hollywood types, Tom Arnold isn't exactly the person that comes to mind.

Clearly, Hannity assumed that Arnold is a Republican (I'm guessing that Hannity's researchers got no further than a picture of Tom Arnold endorsing Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor, since Tom has publicly said he's a Democrat), because I can't imagine Hannity asking a Democrat on.

But the multi-millionaire Hannity (who is so out of touch with everyday Americans he insists that ham costs on 79 cents/pound) didn't count on the former meat packer from Iowa whose whole act centered around being a common man actually championing policies that help the average American, instead of the corporate oligarchy. Progress Not Congress breaks down some highlights:

00:58 – Blakeman says: We got Medicare and we got Medicaid, what did we get for it? We got abuse, fraud, and mismanagement.

01:11 Arnold replies: You don’t think the private sector has fraud and abuse (like the government)?

01:15 Blakeman replies: But not to the scale of government.

This whole exchange is laughable. The fact that Blakeman is even trying to claim that the private sector, which is strictly in business for profit, is not as corrupt as the government, is idiotic at best.

01:21 Blakeman asks: What’s your recourse if government provides you with substandard health care? What are you going to do, sue the government?

I would like to know what Mr. Blakeman thinks his recourse would be if he received substandard care from a private insurance company?

As for recourse if you are receiving substandard care from a public health plan, yes of course you can sue the government. Why would an American not be able to sue the government? It happens all the time.

But even before that, an American has a litany of contacts at their disposal in the form of public, elected officials that would act as the patient’s advocate, and they do it for free, and they would do it well because their job depends on making their constituents happy, and keeping their voters alive.

Blakeman has no idea what he is talking about.

01:59 Hannity says: You cannot deny someone care in this country because of their inability to pay…no it is not happening all of the time.

Hannity’s lack of knowledge on the issues is staggering. Hannity’s previous claim can be refuted in two ways.

1. It is true that if a patient comes to the emergency room of a hospital without health insurance, the hospital is required to treat them. The hospital can and will turn around and bill that patient for services rendered. This ultimately leads many down the road of bankruptcy. Keep in mind, that a woman with breast cancer, to build off of Hannity’s analogy, cannot go into a hospital and say “I need treatment, but I can’t pay for it.” The hospital is not required to, and most likely won’t, treat that woman’s condition.

2. Americans are denied care all of the time by insurance companies who refuse to cover certain procedures, or simply refuse to provide coverage to someone with a preexisting condition.

Tom Arnold was correct when he said “It’s happening all the time.”

Sean, Brad, dudes. You just got totally pwned by Tom Arnold.

Great news for McCain. Cheney emerged from his undisclosed location today to lend his hefty endorsement to the Arizona Senator. President Bush, on the other hand, has taken Cheney's place in the bunker and plans to stay out of sight for the next three days.

Barack Obama is all over it at a stop in Pueblo, CO.:

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I'd like to congratulate Senator McCain on this endorsement because he really earned it. That endorsement didn't come easy. Senator McCain had to vote 90 percent of the time with George Bush and Dick Cheney to get it. He served as Washington's biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq, and supports economic policies that are no different from the last eight years. So Senator McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney's support.

But here's my question for you, Colorado: Do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain's going to bring change? Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to shake things up, and get rid of the lobbyists and the old boys club in Washington?

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Above all else, Chris Matthews loves the game of politics. As show after show prove, he makes no value judgments, applies no moral compass. Playing the game well is admirable, even if your character is not. But every once in a while, reality creeps into the discussion and Matthews reacts to the net result of treating life as a game of partisan one-upsmanship. Such as it was on Monday, as Matthews spoke to conservative talk show host Michael Smerconish -- who rather surprisingly endorsed Obama last week -- about Rush Limbaugh's racist reaction to Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama.

I don't know how you get into this tribalist talk. We could make all kinds of assumptions, but we have no knowledge of a person's inner beliefs. ... You know what drives me crazy? When somebody says 'well, I know you're Catholic, so you must believe this.' Or 'I know you're Jewish, you must believe this.' Or 'I know you're black, you must believe this.' Give us all a break, Rush. Let us think. Let us think. Let us decide.

I'd like to think that he is waking up to the nastiness of the right but sadly, as my buddies at MM's Country Fair point out, Chris Matthews has a history of "tribalist talk" himself.

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Former Secretary of State Colin Powell appeared on Meet The Press today and as expected, he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama. Powell didn't just endorse Obama, he scolded John McCain for his scurrilous campaign tactics and his purely political choice of the highly unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said flatly. By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, “is ready to be president on day one.”

As with other Republicans this campaign season, Powell voiced great concern about the far right turn the Republican Party has taken which is leading to it's demise.

“I truly believe that at this point in America’s history we need a president who will not just continue ... basically the policies we have followed in recent years,” “We need a president with transformational qualities.” For that reason, he said, “I will be voting for Barack Obama.” Read on...

Powell's endorsement will have little effect on Democrats, but he is an icon of the Republican Party -- which is where the true impact of this endorsement lies.

Obsidian Wings: National Review — wrong about those Democratic 'economic elites' and campaign contributions.

Alicublog: National Review — wrong about McCain's chances of selling the GOP as "the party of optimism" in 2008.

Sadly, No: National Review — wrong about the homeless causing global warming. (Hmm, I'm sensing a trend here.)

Eye on Economics: Distributorcap NY examines growing socio-economic inequality, while Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman explain why you should hate some economists — something to do with endorsements of McCain's "wildly irresponsible" tax proposals.

Guest roundup by Batocchio. Please e-mail submissions and tips to Batocchio9 at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

The Chuck Todd post I did about the McCain treatment by the press on Sunday has resonated far and wide (I wasn't the only one who caught that) and explains so much of their behavior towards our Democratic candidates and John McCain.

Kevin Drum says it all:

Let's recap. Foreign policy cred lets him get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. "Man of conviction" cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA does it.

Remind me again: where does all this cred come from? And what window do Democrats go to to get the same treatment the press gives McCain?

The press will never give McCain the same treatment to our candidates and that's why we must stay on top of it because who else is there?