Great news. Go Nick!!!!

Great news, indeed!

If a Democrat is willing to stand up to Tom DeLay (clap, clap, clap) deep in the heart of Texas, how long will it take for one to stand up to DeLay's badly compromised deputy Eric Cantor?

The Republicans in Congress have made themselves vulnerable through their corruption, and tolerance of corruption. The mid-term elections of 2006 could be a historic turning point if Democrats will stand up and push back.

For more about Virginia politics, visit me online at:

The Richmond Democrat
http://richmonddemocrat.blogspot.com/

I wonder what the numbers will be like when the trial begins and the witnesses begin to testify...and all the dirty laundry begins to be aired out in public? A lot of DeLay's political cronies in Texas and all over the country must be shaking in their boots.

Money laundering sounds so much worse than conspiracy. Any Republican politican in the country who ever took money from DeLay will be suspect of being involved.

Thanks for the numbers, Tim.

I had to miss the TV version of them.

I was afraid that the people in TX, would be brainwashed into thinking poor Tom was merely the victim of a political smear.!

Fighting words from David Sirota at Huffington Post.

Iraq Transforms American Democracy Into American Eliteocracy

If you read the papers today, you will see that the disconnection between the insulated political Establishment in Washington, D.C. and the rest of the country has grown to a point where the American political system now resembles a fictional television show - not democracy. If we were to start being honest, we would simply stop calling America "the greatest democracy in the world," because what it has become in recent years is anything but democracy.

It has instead become the greatest eliteocracy in the world. That's right - it is a government of, by and for the elite insiders, pundits, and powerbrokers in the nation's capital - not the people.

Poll after poll after poll shows Americans are demanding a very different Iraq War policy - one that includes a detailed exit strategy to bring our troops home. And polls show Americans believe the war was a mistake and that it is damaging U.S. national security. And yet, incredibly, if you look at the rhetoric coming out of Washington's elite, it is as if the public simply does not exist.

Just look at today's Washington Post story headlined "Democrats Find Iraq Alternative Is Elusive":

"Among the Democratic foreign-policy elite, dominated by people who previously served in the top ranks of government, there are stark differences -- and significant vagueness -- about a viable alternative...Several accept Bush's premise that a rapid withdrawal anytime soon would leave Iraq unstable and risk a strategic disaster in the broader Middle East."

Yes, that's right - Iraq is turning into a slow-motion disaster, American casualties continue to pile up, and yet the insulated Democratic elite in Washington are backing up President Bush's "stay the course" nonsense. This elite class, of course, is filled with many people who helped justify the Iraq War in the first place, and who from their well-guarded enclaves in Northwest Washington, Northern Virginia or Bethesda never have to feel the real-world consequences of their actions.

Then there is Roll Call's story, headlined "House Democrats Seek to Avoid Iraq Stance Vote":

"House Democratic leaders this week will try to block any effort by members to adopt an official Democratic Caucus position on the Iraq war...Caucus members remain at odds over whether to continue U.S. involvement in Iraq and for how long."

Again, don't rub your eyes - you read it right. The minority party - which purports to be serious about taking back the majority - is actually working overtime to prevent its rank-and-file members from backing up Vietnam War hero Jack Murtha and putting the party on record with a clear, concise position.

Then again, many of the party's elected officials have for years been more interested in appeasing the Washington pundit class, than in actually representing or mobilizing voters. They are, in short, too interested in making people like Mort Kondracke happy. And that brings us to today's final example of wholesale disconnection from reality: Mort Kondracke.

Here is an excerpt of his column today:

"In 1966, Republican Sen. George Aiken (Vt.) famously advised President Lyndon Johnson to 'declare victory and get out' of Vietnam. There’s a danger that this will become U.S. policy in Iraq and lead to a too-early withdrawal of American troops and disaster in the Middle East."

This is really too much. Kondracke - who you may recall appears on Fox News supposedly representing the left - is now attacking George Aiken for having suggested getting out of Vietnam in 1966, as if in retrospect it would have been a bad idea to avoid tens of thousands of U.S. casualties in that bloody quagmire (which, of course, Kondracke did not serve in). But even worse, Kondracke is actually using his own attacks on Aiken to justify doing something different in Iraq - namely, having American troops stay there in perpetuity, no matter how many more casualties accrue, no matter how deleterious the conflict is to our military, and no matter how much damage we are doing to America's overall national security.

This is what it's come to - a situation where pencilnecks, slimy political operatives, cowering politicians, and chickenhawk pundits sit in their comfortable Washington offices, strut around puffing out their chests, and make themselves feel like red-meat eating patriots by advocating the continuation of a policy based on lies, a policy that is destroying our military, getting our soldiers killed or maimed in a quagmire, and hurting our country's overall position in the world. And they are advocating for this policy - and even labeling it "moderate" or "mainstream" - even though the vast majority of Americans want an exit strategy.

This is not democracy - and to call it democracy is an insult to the courageous icons throughout history who actually fought for a real democracy. This is something dangerous, and something that threatens to truly re-shape our country in destructive ways. This is eliteocracy - and it is taking over our political system every single day we don't expose it and label it a fraud being perpetrated on America.

Howard Dean and the DNC should speak up about this at once. Michael Reagan just said Dean should be arrested for treason and hung.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/12/5/234519.shtml

Michael Reagan, son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is blasting Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean for declaring that the U.S. won't be able to win the war in Iraq, saying Dean ought to be "hung for treason."

"Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!" Reagan told his Radio America audience on Monday.

Reagan was reacting to Dean's comments earlier in the day, when the top Democrat said that the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."

This is pretty bad stuff, Tim. Hope they don't let it go. I saw it at Democratic Underground and found the link.

The people have spoken.It does not matter how much cash Cheney squeezes out of his constituants.Judging from the poll results and taking into account that the heaviest of the charges brought in the indictment will go forward in trial,that cash raised will be going strait towards the Legal fund.LOL! Go, Nick Lampsom,Go! Go! Go!.

It is no great wonder that both Tom Delay and Saddam Hussein had their day in court today. When some politicians behave in a ruthless manner of arrogance for basic human decency, with goals solely to destroy their opponents rather than gain their respect, and conduct themselves in a smiling and smirking manner that is above the rule of law, then politicians who represent the worst of worst human values often find themselves in a court of law.

PROGRESSIVE VALUES: TOM DELAY AND SADDAM COMMENTARY

If you want to try and help Lampson match dollars raised last night by Cheney and DeLay, click here.

Even a couple bucks from all of us helps!

https://secure.ga3.org/03/lampson06

Watch Out! The wealthy will come in and spend 100 Million or even 200 million to get Delay back because he is willing to be crooked to get his way for the Republicans. He is that valuable to them and they know it.

Have heart oneforall...there is one fact that is standing out bare naked before all on that money table....
The Table is turning.
The Repugs are hanging in their own hysterical spin.
They are BUSTED.
No Solomon, no Jesus, no silver or gold coins are getting them out this time, it all went down the black hole of Bagdad and it was a bad investment.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...the 9/11 commission is asking where the money went.
New Orleans is asking where the money went.
Poor people are homeless and freezing tonight in the USA.
Their wagon train is surrounded.
They've lost it. Now it is time to boot them out of Dodge. The Polker game is over.
Any one with a brain who has been watching the news or reading the papers online or off...knows it is time for change.
That cooked book recipe does not work...just think of all the people who are ripped off.
Just think of all the incredible blunders since 2000. Just think of the stolen elections. Just think of all the People who have no medical insurance, the maimed and dead, those who cannot afford homeowner's insurance, all the foreclosures, the gas gauging, the job losses, the reality of no more pensions, the pollution, on and on it goes and mostly the middle class broke and in debt victims of these scammers with their sniveling crooked grins and squinting eyes. There are many folks tonight who will be awakening to the truth, folks who were led down a phoney path, who put out coin. So many who were betrayed by corruption, who never got paid back after investing. so many now whose children cannot afford college tuition or get student loans, who are no longer enjoying the benefits taken for granted before 2000.
The elitist minority is shrinking as the circle closes in and instead of cooked books, justice will be served...By a silent majority that is horrified and fed up.
County by county, state by state, the People will take back their house and the People will have their way...they will vote informed and with concience in the secret ballot boxes and their votes will be counted honestly and accurately as our forefathers demanded to start with....or they will march and protest for their rights.
They must now choose between a phoney hypocritical eliteocracy or a real democracy. The first choice is total ruin.
Its a no brainer...its a landslide.
It's "Where's the People's money, stupid...."
Time to put it back...

We are sick and tired of candidates like DeLay buying elections with money and redistricting to win! And what do the Rich and powerful want? Control over the people and the Government. We are giving both Parties a MANDATE FOR POWER BACK TO THE PEOPLE. Unless each Candidate is willing to pledge under oath that they will pass laws that will guarentee the people that no more will a few be able to buy elections. And when we vote them into the majority they pledge to start immidatly to vote in laws to giving control of elections into the voters hands and out of a few rich and powerful ones that are control freaks.