Pro-war GOP senators up for re-election have repeatedly refused to go on MSNBC and discuss Iraq.
That didn’t take long. Spy Chief Mike McConnell just said again that public oversight of the administration’s FISA policies will cost American lives.
In recent years, the very Republican state of Virginia has been slowly trending Democratic. It has elected two Democratic governors in a row. It elected a Democrat to the senate last year (Webb) and will likely do so again next year (Warner). But in the senate races especially those are the results of a particular set of circumstances and very good candidates rather than overwhelming generic support for the Dems.
But check out these numbers Eric Kleefeld just found over at TPM Election Central. A new poll shows nine match ups — each of the three leading Dem candidates (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) against each of the three leading Republicans (Giuliani, Thompson, Romney). And 8 of 9 match-ups put the Democratic candidate ahead. The one exception is Thompson v. Obama, where Thompson edges out Obama by 2 percentage points, 47-45.
Significantly, Clinton is at 50% or over against each of the three candidates. Rudy does best against here, pulling 44% to her 50%.
Over the last six months here at TPM we’ve extensively discussed the issue of voter suppression tactics the Republican party uses to suppress voter turn out among minority and lower-income voters. One of the chief of these are so-called ‘voter ID laws’. Now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about Indiana’s voter ID law in advance of next year’s election.
In the lower court ruling, right-wing Judge Richard Posner said the law was intended “to reduce voting fraud, and voting fraud impairs the right of legitimate voters to vote by diluting their votes” even though there’s little or no evidence of in-person vote fraud in the United States today.
Historically, at least over the last half century, the Supreme Court has been very protective of the right to vote. But does anyone think the Roberts Court will uphold that tradition? I don’t know where Kennedy is seen as standing on voting rights issues. But it sounds to me like the court is likely to give a big thumbs up to GOP voter suppression tactics in this case and probably usher in a whole new raft of these laws, perhaps in time for pumped up GOP voter suppression next year.
Did you hear about the War on Iran Authorization bill the Senate is going to vote on perhaps as early as today? No, that’s not how it’s getting billed. But that’s what the ‘Kyl-Lieberman’ amendment is. In fact, the supporters of going to war against Iran are using exactly the same strategy with this amendment that they did to lay the groundwork for the Iraq War.
We give you the rundown in today’s episode of TPMtv …
The National Republican Congressional Committee is broke and rudderless.
The GOP knows a fund-raising opportunity when it sees one, and MoveOn’s Petraeus ad is nothing if not a fund-raising opportunity. Here’s the email that the National Republican Senatorial Committee has sent out condemning the ad. It’s from Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and asks recipients to sign a petition demanding that Senate Democrats return contributions from MoveOn, while making a pitch to pony up a contribution to the NRSC:
Regardless of how you feel about the war in Iraq, Americans must always value the sacrifice and service of America’s soldiers. We cannot let our political views cloud our judgment and cast any shadow of a doubt on our soldiers’ honor.
Sign the Petition to Senate Democrats today urging them to return MoveOn’s contributions.
And after you complete the Petition, please make an immediate contribution of $25, $50, $75, $100, $500 or even $1,000 to our efforts to regain the Republican Senate Majority.
Because what better way to honor our troops’ sacrifice than contributing to the NRSC. I have a lump in my throat just thinking about it.
ThinkProgress has good video from the senate floor today of Jim Webb on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment. As Webb notes, Kyl-Amendment is a cleverly worded back door use of force resolution against Iran.
For more on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment see today’s episode of TPMtv.
One of the Alaska state legislators on trial in the VECO investigation, Rep. Pete Kott (R) has been convicted on 3 of 4 counts. Not directly connected to Sen. Stevens (R), but the more convictions the feds pile up, the more people there are going to be willing to talk.