H-Bomb in New Hampshire

Well, it's certainly been awhile since I last posted anything here. Only time will tell if this is fluke, or if I'm back for good. Why break my silence today? Because H-Bomb and in particular my friend Jenna Mellor got some great video up in New Hampshire, which I haven't seen posted or sent around yet. Keep watching until about a minute in when a major party candidate makes an appearance:

...amazing. You can find the rest here.

Dems gain another House seat! (hope this isn't premature...)

Burnt Orange Report calls TX-23 for Democrat Ciro Rodriguez!

Update: AP calls it for Rodriguez!

It's over!!!

Thank goodness the UC race is over. Now we can get back to the important matters at hand...like Sen. Chris Dodd's impending visit to Harvard. And Judge Richard Posner's impending visit to Second Life (tonight from 9-11pm EST).

(Hat tip: Lessig's Blog)

Time to leave Iraq

So says Richard Clarke:

In The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman documented repeated instances when leaders persisted in disastrous policies well after they knew that success was no longer an available outcome. They did so because the personal consequences of admitting failure would be very high. So they postponed the disastrous end to their policy adventures, hoping for a deus ex machina or to eventually shift the blame. There is no need to do that now. Everyone already knows who is to blame. It is time to stop the adventure, lower our sights, and focus on America's core interests. And that means withdrawal of major combat units.

And Chuck Hagel:

There will be no victory or defeat for the United States in Iraq. These terms do not reflect the reality of what is going to happen there. The future of Iraq was always going to be determined by the Iraqis -- not the Americans.

Iraq is not a prize to be won or lost. It is part of the ongoing global struggle against instability, brutality, intolerance, extremism and terrorism. There will be no military victory or military solution for Iraq. Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger made this point last weekend.

The time for more U.S. troops in Iraq has passed. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq. Militaries are built to fight and win wars, not bind together failing nations. We are once again learning a very hard lesson in foreign affairs: America cannot impose a democracy on any nation -- regardless of our noble purpose.

It's also time for anyone who wants a shot at the presidency in '08 to stand up now and get this right. I think that Obama, who I've been down on recently is close to getting it right, although he says a "gradual and substantial" reduction of troops should begin in 4-6 months. What happens in 4-6 months? It's time to start calling for troops to be pulled out now. (Of course, "now" doesn't mean Saturday, November 25 at 2 pm: it means actually outlining and undertaking a plan to withdraw as soon as possible, rather than the meaningless "stay the course" or the atrocious John McCain-send more soldiers to die-plan.)

Think Iraq dominated the general elections in 2006? Or the Democratic primaries in 2004? Just wait until 2008.

Six tickets?

Seriously? Twelve people are crazy enough to want to run for pres. and VP of the UC?

Six pairs of candidates have filed to run for the leadership of the Undergraduate Council, doubling the number of tickets that were in contention last year.

As The Crimson first reported two weeks ago, Tom D. Hadfield ’08 and Adam Goldenberg ’08, Ryan A. Petersen ’08 and Matthew L. Sundquist ’09, and Ali A. Zaidi ’08 and Edward Y. Lee ’08 will be seeking the top two positions.

New contenders to the field are Tim R. Hwang ’08 and Alexander S. Wong ’08, Brian S. Gillis ’07-’08 and Morgan C. Wimberley ’08, and Omar A. Musa ’08 and Daniel Ross-Rieder ’08.

Blue Mass. Group is here at the Berkman Center

Update: I'm here...come in, come up the stairs, come down the hall, and look for the room on the left called the "John Forry Faculty Library". Oh, but I have class at 11:30.

Stop by and say hello (I'm heading over now). Here's a map.

The good folks at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society have kindly agreed to host a unique election day live-blogging extravaganza, to which all bloggers, commenters, and lurkers, of whatever political stripe, are cordially invited. Starting at 10 am or so, Bob (up from New York for the occasion), Charley, and I will all be on site at the Berkman Center blogging the day's events -- both local and national, as we hear about them -- and you are heartily encouraged to join us. The Berkman folks offer free wi-fi (BYOLaptop, if you can), as well as free refreshments throughout the day, and we of course offer scintillating conversation and astonishing good looks.

The Berkman Center is just outside of Harvard Square in Cambridge, next to the law school campus, on the second floor of 23 Everett Street (Everett runs between Mass. Ave. and Oxford Street, and unfortunately does not have a street sign on the Mass. Ave. end - note that it's called Chauncy St. on the other side of Mass. Ave.). No. 23 is an unprepossessing yellow house, and I don't think there's a sign (or possibly even a street number) on the building, which is an odd choice by the powers that be at Harvard, but there you go.

Fun with Google

Just doing my part:

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
--AZ-01: Rick Renzi
--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
--CA-04: John Doolittle
--CA-11: Richard Pombo
--CA-50: Brian Bilbray
--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
--CO-05: Doug Lamborn
--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell
--CT-04: Christopher Shays
--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
--FL-16: Joe Negron
--FL-22: Clay Shaw
--ID-01: Bill Sali
--IL-06: Peter Roskam
--IL-10: Mark Kirk
--IL-14: Dennis Hastert
--IN-02: Chris Chocola
--IN-08: John Hostettler
--IA-01: Mike Whalen
--KS-02: Jim Ryun
--KY-03: Anne Northup
--KY-04: Geoff Davis
--MD-Sen: Michael Steele
--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
--MN-06: Michele Bachmann
--MO-Sen: Jim Talent
--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
--NV-03: Jon Porter
--NH-02: Charlie Bass
--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
--NM-01: Heather Wilson
--NY-03: Peter King
--NY-20: John Sweeney
--NY-26: Tom Reynolds
--NY-29: Randy Kuhl
--NC-08: Robin Hayes
--NC-11: Charles Taylor
--OH-01: Steve Chabot
--OH-02: Jean Schmidt
--OH-15: Deborah Pryce
--OH-18: Joy Padgett
--PA-04: Melissa Hart
--PA-07: Curt Weldon
--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
--PA-10: Don Sherwood
--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
--TN-Sen: Bob Corker
--VA-Sen: George Allen
--VA-10: Frank Wolf
--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
--WA-08: Dave Reichert

Time to pony up $26,288,418?

MyDD's Chris Bowers has an intriguing campaign he'd like to start, as he details in "Unopposed House Democrats Sitting On $26,288,418":

Amidst all of this talk about taking out loans to fund key races and newly emerging races, not enough attention has been given to the huge amount of money House Democrats who are unopposed for re-election are currently storing away in their campaign bank accounts. I just did a quick tallying using Open Secrets, and calculated that the 45 Democrats who are not facing a Republican opponent this November have $26,288,418 in their campaign bank accounts as of September 30th, 2006. I put together a web page that details the cahs on hand for each of the forty-five unopposed Democrats:

Read more »

Did the Cheyney University Democrats endorse Crazy Curt Weldon?

Crazy Curt Weldon, who would love for you to believe he's not under FBI investigation (and if he isn't, his daughter certainly is) lists the following endorsements on his webpage under "Democrats":

• Cheney College Democrats
• Democrat Mayor of Media Bob McMahon
• Former Clinton Administration FEMA Director James Lee Witt
• Former Democratic Congressman Ron Klink

Now, I don't know who Bob McMahon is and I guess it's believable that James Lee Witt endorsed Weldon because of his work on safety legislation (although I couldn't find any evidence either way on Google), but who the hell are the Cheney College Democrats and why did they endorse Weldon?

My best guess is that "Cheney College" should read "Cheyney University," which is located in PA. But did the Democrats of Cheyney University, an historically black institution, really endorse Crazy Curt Weldon? I sent them an e-mail through the CDA website...we'll see if they respond.

(Oh, and Congressman Ron Klink ran against Santorum in 2000, but he sounds like he's a bit kooky as well.)

Quote of the day

"Joe favors amnesty... Ned Lamont he actually wants to give them scholarships" -- Alan Schlesinger, at today's debate between Lieberman (CfL), Lamont (D), and Schlesinger (R).

Can conservative Alan Schlesinger pull in enough Republican votes to throw this election to Lamont? And what about independents: is there any reason to think independents will all choose between Lieberman and Lamont? Might not some of the conservative minded among them cast a protest vote for Schlesinger and against both Lieberman and the very unconservative Republican party, which has refused to provide any support for Schlesinger?

(correction: I had accidentally written Lieberman instead of Schlesinger, right above. woops!)

Paul Bass explains in more detail, on the flip:

Read more »

NRCC to spend 1 million to defend Foley's seat

We know the other side sucks at policy, but there's a prevailing belief that they're master tacticians, always out-gunning us on politics. Thankfully, that's not quite correct:

At the same time, GOP strategists signaled they intend to spend nearly $1 million in an attempt to hold the seat recently vacated by Rep. Mark Foley.

That's absurd, but I'm not complaining. Remember, voters who really want to vote for the GOP's annointed candidate will be forced to select Foley's name on the ballot. How many voters are going to be willing to hold their nose and do that? How many Republicans will just stay home out of disgust?

Mark Warner Won't Run in 2008

Via Hotline on Call, the "AP's Bob Lewis and the Washington Post's Michael Shear both have Dem sources confirming that Warner has decided not to run for president."

No one seems to know why. Maybe we'll find out at the press conference at 11 am.

Update: Warner has released a statement, "I Have Decided Not To Run For President". (See extended entry for text.)

Read more »

Crimson editorial cartoon takes aim at Clinton

Content notwithstanding, this editorial cartoon from the Crimson isn't particularly funny:

...although it is well drawn. But as far as the content goes, it quite uncritically swallows whole the Republican misinformation campaign, best typified by the very bogus ABC/Disney "Path to 9/11". Clinton did a great job going on the offensive on this, and I think it's fair to say that the campaign has been thoroughly derailed by recent revelations. So in sum, the cartoon is late, lame, and laughable (or it would be if it didn't deal with such a serious subject)--but not very funny.

I'll give Bill Clinton the last word:

Couldn't have said it better myself

I wanted to highlight a comment on ABCNews regarding the recent revelations that Mark Foley engaged in pre-vote cybersex:

Foley is a sick deviant and, by blaming alcohol, is demeaning alcoholics. There is no excuse that will justify his years of perversion and child abuse. Every member of Congress who was aware of his behavior but took no action should be required to resign.

Posted by: Margaret Benson | Oct 3, 2006 1:48:11 PM

A query: how is ABCNews uncovering these conversations? I guess pages must now be talking?

Update:

Foley's new admissions, via his lawyer, are that (1) he was molested by a clergyman when he himself was young, (2) that he is in rehab, and (3) that he is gay.

This just in...

Just posted on harvarddems.com, two campaign updates complete with photo galleries. Click on "photos" under the "Links" column.

Got your own pictures to share? Let me know.

(Good work, Rob.)