Here it is, the somewhat anticlimactic morning after the historic vote on health care reform in the House of Representatives. I thought it would be nice to have a reminder of why we are fighting and why the fight continues.

This version of health care reform was never going to be the final product. Certainly, the inclusion of the Stupak amendment makes its current version unpalatable to me and others. But we must remember Lisa and Cathy and her son and stake out this new ground and then push for more and more, until we have truly universal health coverage and we catch up with the rest of the industrialized world.

Health care will be topic one with the bobbleheads. Joe Lieberman gets the attention he so whorishly craves, with an appearance on Fox News Sunday. The rest of the shows seem to take pains to offer up matched sets: DNC chair Tim Kaine with RNC chair Michael Steele on This Week, Governors Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Haley Barbour (R-MS) on Meet the Press. Astroturf King Dick Armey will be on Face the Nation, (note the description isn't his current gig with FreedomWorks, but as a former House leader...sneaky). New Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell gets dual exposure on Fox News Sunday and State of the Union. Think they'll mention his rather retro-notions on gender roles? Nah, I don't think so either. My favorite round table guest, Rachel Maddow, is back on Meet the Press. Let's see her show David Gregory for the chump he is.

ABC's "This Week" - Democratic National Chairman Tim Kaine and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele; Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey.

CBS' "Face the Nation" -Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Govs. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., and Ed Rendell, D-Pa.

NBC's "The Chris Matthew Show" - Panel: Kathleen Parker, Andrew Sullivan, John Heilemann, Savannah Guthrie. Topics: Election Fallout: How Will Democrats Both Stick with Obama and Move to the Center? The GOP's Strange Bedfellows: Do the Wingnuts Run the Show? Meter Questions: Will Tuesday's vote scare moderates on health care? YES: 1 NO: 11; Will Afghanistan define President Obama's legacy more than health care? YES: 6 No: 6.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Army chief of staff Casey; Virginia Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - A star-studded panel of historians discusses Obama's first year in office and the political climate in America. Plus, as Hamid Karzai gets another term as President of Afghanistan, we get the view from across the border: Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf on Karzai, corruption, and the prospects for peace in Afghanistan.

CNN's "Amanpour" - Christiane talks to Iranian mastermind of 1979 US Embassy takeover, plus a hostage, and Pres. Carter's Iran point man.

"Fox News Sunday" - McDonnell; Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut independent; Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Mike Pence, R-Ind.

So, what's catching your eye this morning?

From the department of You Can't Make This Sh*t Up:

Republican Rep. Tom Price, of Georgia, has introduced a House resolution that would, if passed, express the legislative body's "gratitude and appreciation" to Tea Party members who marched on Washington on Sept. 12 to "show their love of liberty and their grievance with recent government actions."

The proposed resolution is co-signed by more than 70 members of the House.

The proposed resolution would single for praise the "hundreds of thousands of American patriots, who refuse to sit idly by as the Federal Government advances skyrocketing deficits, taxpayer-funded bailouts, pork-barrel projects, burdensome taxes, unaccountable policy czars, command-and-control energy policy, and a government takeover of health care, came to Washington, D.C, to show their disapproval ..."

So let me get this straight...Price wants to pass a resolution that would praise anti-government, right wing extremists who want to overthrow their president? Really? If one single Democrat votes for this garbage, you can be sure we will call them out and ridicule them mercilessly.

Just to be clear, there weren't hundreds of thousands of people at that joke of a march on September 12th. And this was not an anti-tax march, this was a well funded hate-fest that was organized by Fox News and Glenn Beck.

You can read Price's entire resolution here. For added entertainment, click through to the original article and check out some of the comments. Didn't they learn anything from our Jon Perr's 10 Lessons for Teabaggers?

Jeez, all we need now is one less liberal to push those damn Blue Dogs into doing the right thing. From Rep. Wexler's site:

“Today, I am announcing that I will be accepting the position of president of the Center for Middle East Peace and will leave Congress effective in January of 2010.

“More than anything, I want to thank the voters of Palm Beach and Broward Counties who have allowed me the privilege of representing our community in the United States House of Representatives and the Florida Senate for the past nineteen years. I have truly cherished the opportunity to serve my constituents – many of whom make up the generation that sacrificed in World War II and Korea and rebuilt our nation after the Great Depression.

“I have both admired and learned from my constituents, especially their love of country and commitment to community.

“I am proud that everyday I have sought to advocate for and provide a voice to my constituents: whether it was fighting for a legitimate vote during the 2000 election, working toward enacting a voter verified paper trail in Florida, or advocating for health care, education, Social Security and countless other issues. Therefore, my decision to leave Congress did not come easy.

“Those who know me, and those who have followed my career know that one of my overriding passions has been my work on the Foreign Affairs Committee helping to strengthen and preserve the unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel, and working toward a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab world. Additionally, I have made a special effort to improve congressional relations with key allies in the Muslim world by founding the Turkey and Indonesia caucuses. Moreover, it was an extraordinary honor to serve as a Middle East advisor to President Obama during the presidential campaign, and I treasure the experiences I had traveling the country, and especially throughout Florida, advocating for the President’s Middle East agenda.

“Taking over as president of the Center for Middle East Peace offers me an unparalleled opportunity to work on behalf of Middle East peace for an important and influential non-profit institute. After much discussion with my family, I have decided that I cannot pass up on this opportunity.

“My one regret is that I will be unable to complete my current term in office, but I truly believe there is no time to waste. We are at a unique and critically tense moment in the history of the Middle East with both significant opportunities to succeed in the Arab-Israeli conflict as well as major challenges involving Iran, Hamas, and al Qaeda. In the coming months, Israeli and Arab leaders will be faced with monumental decisions that will dramatically affect the region and the entire world for decades to come. Critically important American security and foreign policy interests are also at stake. I am convinced that now is the time for me to engage on these issues on a full time basis.”

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You may recall the above town hall video of Kansas Republican Lynn Jenkins laughing at a young, uninsured mother and telling her to grow up and get health insurance. Jenkins may be best known for her stunning gaffe in which she talked of the GOP searching for their "great white hope."

Seeing a major opportunity for victory in 2010, Democratic State Senator Laura Kelly has decided to throw her hat in the ring and has announced she will take on Lynn Jenkins:

Kansas State Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said Friday she'll run to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins next year.

Democrats like their chances. It's a district that's gone both ways in the past few election cycles, and Jenkins, in her first-term, has had a gaffe or two. (Remember Jenkins' "great white hope" comment from two months ago?)

"Kansas families in the 2nd district deserve a representative who will energetically stand up for their most important concerns - their pocketbooks, their jobs, and their health care - not sit back and block progress in Washington," Kelly said in her campaign announcement.

"In the last few months people from all across the district have been urging me to run for Congress. They are tired of leaders tied to a do-or-die narrow partisan agenda that has failed our country for the last eight years. Saying NO is not enough in these challenging times. People deserve common sense answers and real solutions," she said. Read on...

Lynn Jenkins has been nothing short of an embarrassment to her state and our country and is extremely vulnerable. Click here to visit Laura Kelly's website, and if you like what you see and want to show her some love, donate if you can. Jenkins ranks near the top of the right wing nutjob heap -- let's send her packing.

[Ed. note: Please welcome to C&L our old friend and erstwhile congressional candidate from Washington's 8th District, Darcy Burner. Darcy's now heading up Progressive Congress, and we hope to have her contribute posts as often as she's willing and able. -- DN]

We talk a lot about wanting representatives who will display courage and conviction. But the real test of that isn’t what they do when it’s easy – it’s what they do when it’s hard.

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When I was running for Congress, my son Henry would take every opportunity he could to talk about climate change. He talked to me, he talked to Democrats at legislative district meetings, he grabbed the microphone if he saw TV cameras. He used my webcam two years ago to cut this video:

Today the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Waxman-Markey energy bill, the most significant climate change legislation in history. It establishes a cap-and-trade regulatory system designed to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere over the next several years.

I want to help principled progressives who vote their conscience when it's politically costly understand that we have their backs.

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From the Department of "Not Making This Up":

Representative Brian Nieves, who as Missouri GOP Majority Whip is the #5 Republican in the state's House of Representatives, in the first clip refers to waterboarding as "a little water on the face," and in the second clip clarifies his position that he is really truly supportive of "waterboarding terrorists" but not American citizens held in a privately-run prison.

From the terrific state blog Fired Up! Missouri:

The mocking of the controversy about waterboarding as "putting a little bit of water in their face" is really offensive. If Nieves doesn't think that waterboarding doesn't reach the threshold for torture, fine. I think he's wrong (as do more than 70% of Americans, including weak-kneed libruls like John McCain), but the minimizing of the practice as just "water in the face" is way beyond the pale.

....[T]his Nieves Doctrine of torturing terrorists -- but not American citizens -- raises another whole set of questions. For instance: how does the Nieves [Torture] Doctrine address situations in which an individual is both a terrorist and an American citizen? For instance, would it have been okay to waterboard Timothy McVeigh or Unabomber Ted Kaczynski? If waterboarding is both (a) not torture and (b) effective, then why wouldn't we do it to citizens?

And why don't the voters of Nieves' 98th district throw him out on his fanny? Because he's tougher on terrorists than John McCain? Maybe they think they'll get more media attention if they're represented by a pro-torture decline-of-the-GOP poster child. We got your media attention right here, Missouri.

More likely, because Nieves can't run for re-election in 2010 due to term limits, he's working really hard to make a name for himself state-wide as "more Republican than thou", which of course means really really loving the waterboarding thing.

Honestly, they make me sick.

Once the Republicans stopped obstructing the confirmation of southern California Congresswoman Hilda Solis to the Secretary of Labor post Obama had nominated her, the special election for her overwhelmingly Hispanic and overwhelmingly Democratic (PVI is D+15 and McCain received less than a third of the votes) got under way. CA-32 includes parts of East L.A., Monterey Park, Rosemeade, El Monte, Baldwin Park, Azusa, Covina and West Covina; it's 62% Hispanic and 18% Asian. The Republicans haven't bothered to run a candidate there since 2002. The multiparty primary is scheduled for May 19 and the general election will follow on Bastille Day (July 14). There are an even dozen candidates but political handicappers say it all comes down to 4 progressive front-runners: state Senator Gil Cedillo, state Board of Equalization member Judy Chu, former Solis deputy district director Benita Duran, and ex-Obama transition team member Emanuel Pleitez.

Blue America hasn't taken a stand on the race because all four front-runners seem like good choices. We had Emanuel Pleitez over for a live blog session at FDL in early March and today we'll be meeting Judy Chu at Crooks and Liars at 11 am (PT).

People who wrote off Judy Chu's chances in such an overwhelmingly Hispanic district missed the fact that Judy has represented the district in various elected capacities for two decades and that many of the Hispanic elected officials in the district have endorsed her (as has Hilda Solis' family and both the SEIU and the L.A. County Labor Federation). You can check out her stands on the important issues facing the district at her website, where you can also donate to her campaign. But first, please join us below, in the comments section for Dr. Chu's first official visit to Crooks and Liars.

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Rick Sanchez shows us some of the debate that took place on the floor of the House today over taxing executives' bonuses. Lawrence O'Donnell was pointing out on Rachel's show that this might not sit too well with Grover Norquist. A whole lot of Republicans just broke his no raising taxes pledge.

Crooks & Liars is really proud of all the progressive candidates we got behind in 2008 and we're excited about the winners who are starting work in Washington this week-- as well as our California neighbor/Blue America superstar, Rep. Hilda Solis, who will be leaving Congress to become Secretary of Labor in the Obama cabinet. We expect great things from Hilda, and from new members of Congress like Alan Grayson (D-FL), Larry Kissell (D-NC), Jared Polis (D-CO), Eric Massa (D-NY), Tom Perriello (D-VA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jim Himes (D-CT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Mark Schauer (D-MI) and of course from Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

But this isn't the time to sit back and rest on our laurels. Soon there will be a special election to fill Hilda's seat. And this week it was announced that the special election to fill Rahm Emanuel's seat in Chicago (IL-05) will be on April 7, with the crucial Democratic primary in this overwhemingly Democratic district (PVI: D+18) on March 3. March 3; that's like in a few weeks! Good news though, one of the best progressives to run for Congress in years anywhere tossed his hat into the ring yesterday: labor lawwyer, activist and author Tom Geoghegan (pronounced gay-gun).

If you're a fan of someone who has already proven himself a tough and unrelenting fighter for progressive ideals, from single payer health care to the unfettered rights of workers to unionize to livable pensions for retired workers comparable to the rest of the industrialized world's, please join me in donating to Tom's campaign. And if you take a look at DownWithTyranny, you'll find a special party-in-a-box offer for anyone who donates today.

I don't know how to tell you this, Jean, but craven Republicans desperate to hold on to their seats cut and run from their word, patriots never do. Don't look now, but I think your knickers are on fire.

Just one week after making this pledge(.pdf), Schmidt releases an ad attacking rival (and Blue America candidate) Victoria Wulsin as a physician. Way to stay on the issues, Jean. In the interest of disclosure about the charges in the ad, I received this from the Wulsin campaign:

(I)n 2006, the Ohio Elections Commission ruled that Jean Schmidt displayed a “reckless disregard for the truth” during her 2005 campaign for Congress.

In 2004, Dr. Wulsin was hired as a consultant by the Cincinnati-based Heimlich institute to review existing research on a controversial treatment for AIDS and other diseases. Dr. Wulsin determined that the experiments failed and her consultancy was promptly terminated.

In April, after a “thorough review,” the State Medical Board of Ohio determined these false charges had no merit. Steve Black, who originally raised this issue in the Democratic Primary Election, endorsed Dr. Wulsin and said he accepted the State Medical Board of Ohio’s decision that these charges had no merit. [Rulon, Cincinnati Enquirer “Politics Extra Blog”, 8/7/08]

Though the ad attacks Dr. Wulsin’s record as a physician, she is supported by the Ohio State Medical Association and the American Medical Association as well as 10 other medical and health groups. Over 350 individual physicians have supported Dr. Wulsin’s campaign.

The false charges in Schmidt’s new ad are identical to charges made by the Congresswoman in fundraising letters earlier this year. After analyzing one such letter, the Cincinnati Enquirer characterized Schmidt’s attacks as “stretching the truth.” [Rulon, Cincinnati Enquirer, 6/15/08]

Well, turnabout is fair play, so Wulsin is putting out this ad in response:

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VetVoice:

A Republican attack ad invites viewers to "meet the real Ashwin Madia," but the still photos featured in the spot present a noticeably darker version of the 3rd District DFL congressional candidate.

"At least three of the photos of Madia were obviously darkened, using one method or another," public affairs and media consultant Dean Alger told KARE 11.

The NRCC's statement:

Reached by phone in Washington Wednesday, NRCC spokesman Ken Spain replayed the ad on YouTube and told KARE, "We stand by the ad."

Ashwin's Campaign's statement:

"It's just deplorable that the national Republicans have chosen to sink to this level," Rosenberg said, "I've seen negative campaigns but nothing as deplorable as, or disgusting as this advertisement."

Tell the NRCC and Eric Paulsen that you won't stand for these disgusting and dishonorable attacks by dropping Ashwin some coin here.

The Republican Party: Not Even Trying To Disguise Their Racism. I guess when you've so completely screwed up the country entrusted to you, the only thing you have left is to sell the Fear of The Other.

October 22, 2008 C-SPAN
Financial and credit industry executives testified about credit industry operations, regulatory procedures, and financial mismanagement that influenced credit market turmoil and led to global financial instability. They focused on the role of credit rating agencies, standards for issuing AAA ratings, and the levels of transparency in accounting practices at financial institutions.

Believe it or not, The Daily Show creator and former Air America host Lizz Winstead created this video of Michelle Bachmann before she appeared on Hardball last week. Oooh, baby, that's all sorts of nuttiness. I mean, that's even more nutty than trolling Young Republican groups to find stories of teachers/administrators not looking favorably at conservative ideology.

Bachmann's Democratic rival for her House seat representing the 6th District of Minnesota, Elwyn Tinkleberg, has received almost $1 million in donations since her appearance and the race has definitely trended away from Bachmann.

Gus Ayer was the Mayor of Fountain Valley in Orange County when he first became a good friend of Blue America's. Today he's a senior advisor to Debbie Cook's congressional campaign. The other day we were talking about the difficulties a progressive challenger faces in a red district, especially with a DCCC seemingly so dedicated to electing lots and lots and lots of dull, go-along-to-get-along Blue Dogs. Debbie's neither a Blue Dog nor someone who goes along with anything she hasn't gone over thoroughly from every angle. As of September 30th, her opponent, Dana Rohrabacher, had $497,388 left to spend on a blitz of negative media. Debbie, who is getting zero help from the DCCC, is left with $30,284. Several Orange County Democrats pooled their money and came up with a $10,000 package that they are challenging DWT and Crooks & Liars readers to match today. Gus is joining us in the comments section here from 3-4pm PT to discuss the campaign. Here's his take on what's happening right now:

Dana Rohrabacher’s handlers have been keeping him out of the public eye because they know he’s really crazier than Michelle Bachman. He might talk about the Iraq war going badly because Bush picked the really handsome generals instead of the smart ones, rant about the threat from asteroids and the need for a “Death Star” in space, or start shouting about feminists, environmentalists, Mexicans and Chinese ruining America, or terrorists killing your family at Disneyland.

By contrast, Debbie Cook really represents the values of the district, an athlete who married her college sweetheart, and followed a progression of small business owner, PTA President, environmental activist, environmental attorney, then eight years on the City Council and as Mayor of Huntington Beach. She’s smart, driven, decent, and surprisingly modest, and for the last three years, she’s been working to educate local and regional leaders on Peak Oil and renewable energy.

Debbie doesn’t mince words about women’s issues, marriage equality, getting out of Iraq, or the need for single payer health. But her passion is energy and the need to act now to leave fossil fuels before they leave us.

We’re riding a wave of change here in Surf City, and Republicans panicked when they finally did internal polling and showed the race within the margin of error. We’ve gotten great response to our ads on cable, and we can still increase our buy for the last week. We’re on track to knock on almost every door in the district before the election more than once, and we’re getting tremendous support for GOTV from every environmental group, the unions, the nurses, PDA, and DFA.

We have targeted mail ready to go to hit the low-propensity voters and remind younger voters, women, seniors, veterans, Latinos, and Vietnamese that Rohrabacher is a ZERO while Debbie is a HERO. Every dollar you give today goes out the door to communicate to voters.

A series of donors have made a $10,000 matching dollar for dollar pledge.

And donating will allow them to keep this ad up on TV:

So please join me in welcoming Gus Ayers to C&L.

The Albany Project:

Now we get to see and hear "Shotgun" Randy Kuhl (R-Hair Club for Men) say on camera that he "firmly believes" that Democrats want the American People to suffer and to hurt." No, really. Here's the exact quote:

I firmly believe the Democratic majority wants the American public to suffer and to hurt so that they can make some political gains at election time, and I think that's wrong.

Excuse me, Randy? Did you really just say that? The tape doesn't lie, I guess.

I have just about enough of this crap from GOP dweebs nationwide, but this addition to their 2008 Hall of Shame is simply beyond the pale.

I understand that Randy is polling well behind progressive Eric Massa and that desperate times call for desperate measures and all, but this is ridiculous.

Another day, another McCarthyite. The hate and vitriol pouring through this election is bone chilling to me. I'm trying to understand how we can ever go back to being an United States of America.

Kuhl is polling behind his Democratic rival, Blue America candidate Eric Massa. (See the ad we ran in that district here) It will be a happy day to see a progressive not insane with hate representing the 29th District of NY.