Democracy for Cecil County

Republicans Vote Against Moms; No Word Yet on Puppies, Kittens

By Dana Milbank
Friday, May 9, 2008; A03

It was already shaping up to be a difficult year for congressional Republicans. Now, on the cusp of Mother’s Day, comes this: A majority of the House GOP has voted against motherhood.

On Wednesday afternoon, the House had just voted, 412 to 0, to pass H. Res. 1113, “Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother’s Day,” when Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), rose in protest.

“Mr. Speaker, I move to reconsider the vote,” he announced.

Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), who has two young daughters, moved to table Tiahrt’s request, setting up a revote. This time, 178 Republicans cast their votes against mothers.

It has long been the custom to compare a popular piece of legislation to motherhood and apple pie. Evidently, that is no longer the standard. Worse, Republicans are now confronted with a John Kerry-esque predicament: They actually voted for motherhood before they voted against it.

Republicans, unhappy with the Democratic majority, have been using such procedural tactics as this all week to bring the House to a standstill, but the assault on mothers may have gone too far. House Minority Leader John Boehner, asked yesterday to explain why he and 177 of his colleagues switched their votes, answered: “Oh, we just wanted to make sure that everyone was on record in support of Mother’s Day.”

By voting against it?

If Boehner’s explanation doesn’t make much sense, he’s been under a great deal of stress lately.

There’s the case of one member of his caucus, Rep. Vito Fossella (N.Y.); the father of three from Staten Island yesterday announced that he has a fourth, a 3-year-old love child with a woman from Virginia. That admission was prompted by his drunken-driving arrest in Virginia last week, when he told police he was on his way to see his daughter. “I think Mr. Fossella is going to have some decisions to make over the weekend,” Boehner said at his news conference yesterday, cutting Fossella loose. Fossella was spotted on the House floor, in tears, speaking to the chaplain.

For the record, Fossella did not participate in the Mother’s Day vote.

Neither is Boehner likely to be helped by a Senate ethics committee decision yesterday exonerating Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) over his use of the “D.C. Madam’s” call girls. The Senate cleared him because the prostitution occurred when he was in the House — and the House can’t punish him because he left for the Senate. The madam, meanwhile, killed herself by hanging last week.

Then Boehner must grapple with the problematic case of Don Cazayoux. The Democrat last week won a House seat in Louisiana vacated by Republican Richard Baker. The seat hadn’t been held by a Democrat since 1974, and President Bush won 59 percent of the vote in the district in 2004. “The loss in Louisiana is a wake-up call,” Boehner admitted yesterday.

Worse news could come for Boehner on Tuesday, when Mississippi voters decide on a replacement for Rep. Roger Wicker (R) in a district where Bush won 62 percent of the vote in 2004. The seat should be a safe one for Republicans, but Democrat Travis Childers is running even with Republican Greg Davis — a potential sign of things to come in November, when Republicans stand to lose another 10 seats.

Whatever happens in Mississippi, Boehner has enough trouble to preoccupy him here in Washington, where House Democrats have been passing their agenda with little thought for Republican preferences. “The majority has taken, once again, their go-it-alone policy,” Boehner lamented yesterday. “It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to work together.”

To induce this working together, Boehner decided to stop the House from working at all. As House Democrats tried to pass legislation to ease the mortgage crisis on Wednesday, Republicans served up hours of procedural delays, demanding a score of roll call votes: 10 motions to adjourn, half a dozen motions to reconsider, various and sundry amendments, a motion to approve the daily journal, a motion to instruct and a “motion to rise.”

The high point came just after 6 p.m., when, after one of the motions to adjourn, 61 members lined up to change their votes, one by one. Forty-six went from aye to no, while 15 changed from no to aye. The maneuver ate up 28 minutes in all — and caused an eruption by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who accused the minority of a “filibuster by vote changing.”

“I know that probably all of you did polls on that and focus groups on whether or not you should vote aye or nay,” Hoyer mocked. “What just happened is not appropriate for the House for either side, to simply use a device of changing votes, of voting late, of lining up in the aisle and coming down every 30 seconds or so with one more vote.”

But the dilatory maneuvers continued, and the Democrats finally announced that they would postpone the vote on the mortgage bill until Thursday, thereby pushing a war spending bill to next week.

Finally, Republicans decided yesterday to suspend their shenanigans; it was time to catch flights to their districts. “Never underestimate the desire of members to go home,” Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith explained.

They might also need some extra time with their mothers.

Raided counsel’s office shut down investigation into Siegelman case

Associated Press, Published: Thursday May 8, 2008

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel Scott Bloch — whose home and office were recently raided by the FBI –last year shut down a previously undisclosed investigation into the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, according to an internal memo made public Wednesday.

The investigation was being conducted by a task force formed at the agency a year ago to pursue high-profile political investigations in Washington, most notably whether the White House played politics in firing U.S. attorneys. It began gathering information on the Siegelman case in September and was planning to request documents from the Justice Department in October before Special Counsel Scott Bloch ordered the case closed, according to the Jan. 18 draft memo, made public by the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.

The investigation was one of many that the task force had taken up, and the memo shows that Bloch frequently differed with investigators about which cases to pursue.

For example, he asked the task force to broaden its investigations into the fired prosecutors and into whether federal agencies received political briefings from the White House to boost GOP electoral fortunes. But he shut down an investigation into whether the Justice Department was hinging its hiring decisions on job applicants’ political affiliations.

An attorney for Bloch, who himself is under a federal investigation, declined comment. But a person familiar with the origins of the POGO draft document said the decision to not pursue Siegelman or other cases stemmed mostly from a shortage of time and resources. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Siegelman, a Democrat, said the memo suggests further political interference in his case and reiterated his call for the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to take up the matter.

“The question is who told them to shut it down,” Siegelman said Wednesday when told of the memo. “Why would you start an investigation and let it proceed and then shut it down? The logical conclusion is that somebody intervened and told them to shut down the investigation.”

Siegelman has long claimed that Republicans engineered his prosecution on bribery and other corruption charges to kill his chances for re-election, a claim repeatedly denied by federal prosecutors. His attorneys requested earlier this year that the Justice Department appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether White House appointees in Washington, including former Bush adviser Karl Rove, influenced the case. Rove also has denied any involvement.

The Special Counsel’s office is an independent agency charged with investigating unlawful political activity by government employees and ensuring that government whistle-blowers are not subjected to reprisals.

The January memo is a summary of the task force’s activities and recommendations since it was formed in May 2007. It says investigators expressed concerns about closing the Siegelman investigation before completing it. But the task force was “directed to not further investigate this case and to wait for further instructions.”

The memo says the task force still considered the case open and was requesting authorization to continue.

“I’m stunned by all this,” said Vince Kilborn, one of the former governor’s attorneys. “If an ongoing government investigation was shut down, I would say it’s potential obstruction of justice.”

FBI agents raided the office and Bloch’s home this week in an investigation into whether he destroyed evidence potentially showing he retaliated against staffers who opposed his policies.

Siegelman, who served one term as governor after being elected in 1998, was convicted in 2006 on bribery and other charges and sentenced to more than seven years in prison. He was recently released on bond pending appeal.

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Raw Story link

Gas Tax Nonsense and Fundamental Energy Industry Change

The idea being promoted by both John McCain and Hillary Clinton of canceling the federal gasoline tax for the summer is a terrible idea. It fails to address the real issue of runaway fuel prices. It has negative consequences for the safety of our roads and bridges. It is essentially a campaign stunt and distraction. The oil profiteers have already gobbled up any benefit consumers might gain from the cut far in advance of the proposed summer suspension.

Runaway fuel prices are largely the result of market manipulation by speculators and oil companies combined with a “nod and wink” approach to government regulation and law enforcement from the Bush Administration. We need serious government intervention instead of cosmetic window dressing.

Gasoline inventories are rising at the same time that prices are skyrocketing! Oil companies have been intentionally closing refineries to raise prices. The Bush administration has been taking huge quantities off the market by continuing to fill a strategic reserve when the federal government should be releasing the reserve to drive down the prices and breaking the power of speculators.

The federal taxes on fuel are a very tiny percentage of the total price. Gasoline prices rose nationally last month by nearly twice the amount of the federal gas tax. While the suspension of the gasoline tax sounds good, it does nothing but slow the price rise for a couple of weeks while gutting our ability to maintain our roads and bridges.

We already have bridges collapsing and citizens dying. Our transportation safety issue is really important. It is already in a crisis situation without following this irresponsible proposal. We need a huge increase in transportation infrastructure spending by the federal government instead of a dramatic decrease. We need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years on rebuilding our national economic infrastructure. We should be training millions of new construction workers by giving our construction unions support for their apprenticeship and training programs. The money has to come from somewhere.

McCain and Clinton are pushing a proposal that is irresponsible and will not even occur under their terms if elected. Neither will be in the White House this summer.

There are some ideas that will help. Aggressive investigations and prosecutions in the oil industry are certainly in order. Illegal price manipulation is likely. Strengthening laws and penalties for market manipulation should be a top priority. All profits derived from illegal market manipulation should be surrendered to the federal government along with huge additional penalties. The law should immediately be changed to make this the standard.

All oil imports should be done through the federal government. The federal government should negotiate the price from a position of strength. Oil companies should not be able to drive up prices by bidding against competitors for imports and using the process as an excuse for price-gouging.

We need a strong “windfall profits tax” on the oil industry. This tax should be used to promote alternative energy and to subsidize the trucking industry fuel costs, which is driving up consumer inflation on other products like food.

Oil refinery closings should only be permitted by the federal government when they do not result in huge price increases. If necessary, the federal government should build their own refineries to supply the American military and feral government vehicles. We should end the Iraq War which is wasting huge quantities of fuel needed by the homeland.

If all else fails, the federal government should consider price controls on fuel and/or nationalizing the oil industry. The oil industry cannot be permitted to control the entire American economy for the benefit of the very, very few.

McCain and Clinton should stop playing politics with the gas tax issue. They should be aggressively pushing for alternative energy solutions like solar, wind, conservation, bio-fuels, Green jobs and technology along with much more federal regulation of the oil companies.

Written by Stephen Crockett (host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com). Mail: 698 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware 19702. Phone: 443-907-2367.

Feel free to publish at no charge without prior approval.

Why is the Associated Press not carrying nationally Alabama newspaper story about Don Siegelman?

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2008/04/siegelman-and-alabama-press.html

This is very, very strange!

The national Press should look into this situation.

For the Good of the Party and America, an Obama-Clinton Democratic ticket

Hillary Clinton should end her bid for the White House. Obama should offer her the Vice Presidency. Clinton should accept the offer. It would be a bitter pill for both to swallow but it is what both the Democratic Party and the American nation desperately needs. Neither Clinton nor Obama should place their personal ambition, pride or emotions ahead of the needs of the American people.

Clinton won a big victory in Pennsylvania but the election was tainted by the highly negative campaign and by serious election equipment and logistical flaws. At this point, she could easily withdraw with honor. Clinton is certainly not responsible for the defective voting equipment or the thousands of Republicans who switched their registrations in Pennsylvania to Democratic but were denied their right to cast even provisional ballots.

Brad Friedman of Brad Blog predicted in advance on his website and in an interview broadcast on my Democratic Talk Radio show that the election process in Pennsylvania was going to be a disaster logistically. He told our listening audience in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (WGPA SUNNY 1100AM) and our Internet audience that after the problems arose that the type of voting machines used in Pennsylvania made it impossible to fix errors likely to arise. The voting machines used made it impossible to verify the count or audit the results. Pennsylvania election laws and processes tainted Clinton’s victory through no fault of her own.

This writer believes she won big in Pennsylvania but the voting process was so bad that many voters will always doubt the size of that victory.

Regardless of the Pennsylvania win, Clinton has almost zero chance of gaining the Democratic Presidential nomination without changing the nominating rules to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida selected in unfair primary elections. Even with those delegates counted, Clinton has very little chance of gaining the nomination. It would take a nearly complete sweep of the remaining election contests in places like North Carolina, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, South Dakota, Puerto Rico, Guam and Idaho along with gaining most of the Super Delegates. Basically, it would take a whole series of miracles for her to gain the nomination and place her in a very weak position in terms of defeating McCain in the Fall.

Counting on a series of miracles to win a nomination that would split the Democratic Party in half is a pretty poor campaign strategy. Staying in the race would cast Clinton in a Democratic spoiler role in the minds of the American people should it result in a McCain victory in November. It would ruin her place in history.

A McCain victory would be an absolute disaster for the American nation. It would be basically a third term for Bush Republicanism and the insane policies that have wrecked the American economy. It would mean a foreign policy of endless, pointless, bloody wars. Make no mistake about it, John McCain is a war-monger who has no clue about how to run an economy.

McCain would pack our federal courts with the same kind of partisan, ideologically driven, Far Right judges that Bush appointed. Helping to elect McCain would gut the Bill of Rights and essentially destroy American Democracy. McCain would be both stubborn and inept in the White House just like Bush.

McCain is and always has been a tool of Corporate forces in politics- just like Bush. He and his wife are likely worth hundreds of millions of dollars although the so-called “straight talker” has refused to expose their full family finances. McCain is hiding his conflicts of interests and financially self-serving political position by hiding behind his wife! It is shameful and dishonest.

The American nation cannot afford a Bush Presidency. Clinton and Obama should make any sacrifice necessary to spare the American nation of this impending disaster. I am calling on their proven patriotism to work together as a Democratic ticket to defeat Bush Republicanism in the form of John McCain. Please save the American nation!
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Written by Stephen Crockett (host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com). Mail: 698 Old Baltimore Pike, Newark, Delaware 19702. Phone: 443-907-2367.

Feel free to publish or post without prior approval.

Are you making at least $20 an hour?

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8374

By Doug Cunningham

The percentage of hourly workers earning at least $20 an hour in the U.S. is down to just 16 percent. In 1979 it was 23 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That middle-class blue collar wage is essential to sustaining America’s middle class. The hourly wage decline is the worst in manufacturing, which is seeing a 60 percent drop in the number of workers earning at least $20 an hour.

UPCOMING SHOWS (times are Eastern)
On May 8, we have Ron Ennis who is Editor of the Lehigh Valley (PA) Labor Council, AFL-CIO newsletter and an American Postal Workers Union activist on the show. He is a great writer on union and political topics.

Tentatively have Cindy Sheehan scheduled for May 1 at 8:35am. About her Congressional run against Pelosi. We have Steve Raysely , who is the Steelworkers (and PACE) Rapid Response Coordinator for eastern Pennsylvania, in the studio for the entire show.

April 24th in studio whole show: Dennis Hower, VP of Teamsters Local 773 http://www.teamster773.org/hower.html & Allentown City Council President Michael D’Amore.

April 17th we had Pennsylvania State Representative and candidate for Pennsylvania Treasurer Jennifer Mann on the first half of the show. Brad Friedman from Brad Blog http://www.bradblog.com/ was on at 8:40am.

April 10th- Sam Bennett http://www.bennett2008.com/ , Democratic Congressional candidate in the 15th District (Lehigh Valley) and Joe Long, Chair of the Northampton Democratic Party, Chair of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Democratic Caucus and retired UAW organizer were are guests on this show.

April 3rd- Joe Long (see April 10th for bio) was in the studio for the whole show. We were joined by IBEW National Rep. Paul Simon at 8:35 for the end of the show.

Democratic Talk Radio will have Jack Wagner, Pennsylvania State Auditor; Gregg Potter, President of the Greater Lehigh Valley Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of Americaand and Paul Tucker, Editor & Publisher of the Union News newspapers in eastern Pennsylvania on future shows.

We hope to soon announce the appearances of several talk radio show hosts (Rick Smith and Jerry Pippin have agreed to appear) and at least two other Presidents of very large international unions. Keep checking back for details!

I forgot to mention that Sam Lathem, President of the Delaware AFL-CIO and Senator Joe Biden have both agreed to be future guests. We are still working on a schedule for them.

Congressional Quarterly
GOP Rift Over Maryland Rep’s Ouster Boosts Longshot Dem into Competition

“… the nominees were virtually tied in cash on hand as April began, with Harris holding $204,000 in reserves to roughly $190,000 for Kratovil.”

By Michael Teitelbaum, Congressional Quarterly Staff

Republican state Sen. Andy Harris emerged from his Feb. 12 primary upset of nine-term Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest as a solid favorite for the general election in Maryland’s 1st District, based on the GOP tendencies of voters there. But lingering hard feelings over the ideologically tinged battle between the strongly conservative Harris and the more moderate Gilchrest — and the Democrats’ nomination of a politically experienced candidate in local prosecutor Frank Kratovil Jr. — have created the possibility of the district’s first competitive fall contest in many years.

CQ Politics has changed its rating on the race to Republican Favored from Safe Republican. The new rating means that Harris still appears very likely to win in November, but that there is at least a slight and feasible chance of an upset…

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002705182

PolitickerMD.com
Top Gilchrest aide to join Kratovil campaign
By Kevin Agnese

Lynn Caligiuri, a longtime aide to Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Kennedyville) has been hired by the congressional campaign of Frank Kratovil (D-Stevensville) to assist in fundraising matters, according to Erik Gulbrandsen, the campaign’s communications director.
“She will be helping us to go after some of the Republican money and some of the national money,” Gulbrandsen told PolitickerMD.com.

Gilchrest lost his bid for re-nomination to Andy Harris (R-Cockeysville) in February’s Republican primary in Maryland’s First Congressional District.

Kratovil, the Democratic nominee, has been courting Gilchrest supporters; both men are political moderates.

Tony Caligiuri, Lynn’s husband and Gilchrest’s chief of staff, has already pledged his support to Kratovil. Gilchrest has not endorsed a candidate.

Chris Meekins, Harris’ campaign manager, could not be reached for immediate comment.

http://www.politickermd.com/kevinagnese/1822/top-gilchrest-aide-join-kratovil-campaign

DailyKos.com
Primary defeat of Wayne Gilchrest (MD-01) to lose ‘Publicans another safe House seat
Wed Apr 16, 2008

Wayne Gilchrest was one of the 2 Publicans to come forward and oppose Dubya’s preemptive war in Iraq (albeit a few years too late). His prize for not being a Bush puppet was a somewhat unexpected primary loss to far-right wing state senator Andy Harris in MD-01.

Here’s the fun part though, it turns out that due in no small part to the viciousness in the Publican primary to take out the incumbent Gilchrest, an opening may just have been created for the Dem candidate, State’s attorney and well known (and liked) prosecutor Frank Kratovil, to actually challenge yet another usually ironclad safe Publican seat.
More on the flip about our latest pick-up opportunity…

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/16/13309/4340

Published on OurFuture.org (http://www.ourfuture.org)

Rand To The Rescue
By Digby

Paul Krugman points [1] to an article [2] that should send chills down the backs of good progressives everywhere:

Ayn Rand’s novels of headstrong entrepreneurs’ battles against convention enjoy a devoted following in business circles. While academia has failed to embrace Rand, calling her philosophy simplistic, schools have agreed to teach her works in exchange for a donation.

The charitable arm of BB&T Corp., a banking company, pledged $1 million to the University of North Carolina Charlotte in 2005 and obtained an agreement that Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged'’ would become required reading for students. Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, say they also took grants and agreed to teach Rand.

I have written about the pernicious effect of Rand before [3], and noted that the Ayn Rand Institute provides nearly half a million free copies to American high schools to indoctrinate teen-agers into romantic selfishness (thus validating their natural adolescent tendencies as being acceptable adult behavior.) But this is truly beyond the pale.

Corporations, which have very good reasons to train young people into an ethos that extols the alleged virtues of heroic captains of industry and their lonely fight to retain freedom in the face of left wing collectivism, should not be buying academic curriculum of any kind. The very idea of academic freedom is that the academics decide what to teach, not the government or the community or especially some company who wants to promulgate a puerile political philosophy designed to make people believe that selfishness is a virtue. That it’s in the form of a very bad romance novel makes it even worse. (To those romance novel aficionados out there, please note that I said “bad” romance novel. It’s not a slam at the whole genre.)

The Ayn Rand Institute, ever creative, has come up with a new marketing scheme to promote the book. Sensing a change in the zeitgeist, and seeking to take advantage of what they perceive as this opening in academe, they are pushing the anti-religious side of objectivism.

Yaron Brook, the executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization in Irvine, California, that promotes objectivism, said some professors are re-evaluating Rand.

“We’re definitely seeing more of an interest in the academic world,'’ Brook said. He said he senses a softening of opposition from academics and sees more conferences and articles about Rand.

“Ayn Rand has a kind of absolutist ethics,'’ Brook said. “She believes in right or wrong, good and evil, but based on secular principles, not religious principles, and I think there’s an appeal for that now.'’

Very, very clever. As for its moral dimension, objectivism simply holds that it’s moral to be completely selfish and rapacious. Indeed, it is immoral not to be. That would seem to be something of a difficult sell in an age of greedy sub-prime mortgage brokers and billionaire hedge fund operators, but you have to give them credit for perseverance in the face of abject philosophical failure. It’s hard to believe that any academic worth his or her salt would take this line of argument seriously, but apparently the lure of big money is enough to make them consider it:

Allison’s BB&T, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in March pledged $2 million to establish the first U.S. chair in the study of objectivism, at the University of Texas at Austin.

That school and 27 others have accepted an aggregate $30 million from the bank’s foundation in the last decade.

“These gifts are really about the study of capitalism from a moral perspective and all we want is to make Rand part of the dialogue,'’ said Bob Denham, a spokesman for BB&T, the parent of Branch Banking & Trust Co.

The BB&T Charitable Foundation made a five-year, $1 million commitment to the University of North Carolina Charlotte in January 2005 after a dinner meeting between Allison and Claude Lilly, then dean of UNC Charlotte’s business school.

The grant agreement described “Atlas Shrugged'’ as “required reading'’ in a course about the fundamentals of capitalism.

This is the real agenda. It’s not about literature or about philosophy. The point of this is to indoctrinate young business majors into the Rand philosophy, which is a perverted and radical form of capitalism that bears no relationship to the way the world really works. (In fact, it’s real agenda may be to indoctrinate young people into believing that overpaid executives actually deserve to make hundreds of times the average worker’s pay [4] while driving the company into the ground.)

This book has gotten a powerful hold on enough young minds that I think it has made a difference in our politics over the last generation or so. The question is what to do about it? I suspect that we will get nowhere with protests. But no self-respecting university wants to be accused of propagandizing its students purely because some big corporation with an agenda gave them some money, right? What if there were a concerted effort to pressure these universities to offer a competing view?

If so, what book should progressives push to counteract the Randian propaganda?

1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
202-955-5665 (tel) | 202-955-5606 (fax) | http://www.ourfuture.org

Sam Bennett: Democratic Hope in the Pennsylvania 15th Congressional District
April 1st, 2008

If I had only one Republican controlled Congressional District to target in a key battleground state this year, it would be the Pennsylvania 15th. This is a proven Democratic performing District that could very easily take the swing out of the swing state of Pennsylvania. Turning the 15th Congressional District solidly Democratic along with the recent electoral gains made in eastern Pennsylvania by Democrats means the state will remain reliably “Blue” in upcoming elections.

There are only 7 Congressional districts in the nation that were won by both Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004 that are currently represented in the U.S. House by a Republican. This seat is currently held by relative newcomer Charles Dent. He is facing a stiff challenge from a talented female candidate in Sam Bennett. With a solid background in politics as a Democratic Party leader, grassroots activist and organizer, Bennett is raising significant support both nationally and locally.

Emily’s List is already looking hard at adding Sam Bennett to their endorsement list. All the women’s organizations are likely to provide significant resources and expertise to her campaign. Organized labor has been solid in their support for the Bennett candidacy. As a businessperson in the community, Sam Bennett has developed some significant support from outside the traditional base of Democratic supporters.

Sam Bennett is starting to get some national recognition especially from the Democratic and Progressive Netroots community. While most journalists from outside the District have not yet discovered the race, it is starting to be discussed in the larger organized labor community as a likely pick-up seat.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee are working on expanding their operations and logistical support in all the greater Lehigh Valley communities that comprise the Pennsylvania 15th Congressional District. The local Democratic Party is vibrant and growing. The local Democratic Party leadership is strong in every community and at every level. There is a solid Democratic Party organization to build on for any Democratic candidate. There has been a steady stream of Democratic gains at the local and state level in recent elections.

Bennett is certainly benefiting from the respect of the local Democratic Party leadership developed over the years by her activities in the field. The 15th Congressional District is not a Democratic performance District by accident. The Democrats in the greater Lehigh Valley work very hard and admire hard work. A candidate like Bennett is used to hard work. She worked her own way through college at SUNY. She is a successful businesswoman helping to run a business with her husband while raising a family and being active in community affairs.

The Chair of the Northeast Pennsylvania Democratic Caucus and the Northampton Democratic Party Joe Long says, “In all my decades of political involvement, I have never seen a harder-working candidate. I have been involved in a lot of campaigns and seen lots of candidates.”

Organized labor is working the region aggressively with various kinds of programs and resources coming in from the national and state levels. The local labor community is blessed by an excellent collection of highly talented and politically aware union leaders. The labor community is highly involved, highly organized and highly visible. Many cities, towns and organizations in the Lehigh Valley have been passing resolutions or writing letters in support of the Employee Free Choice act.

In this writer’s very first conversation with Sam Bennett many months ago, she strongly expressed her support for the Employee Free Choice Act and for providing universal healthcare.

It is often stated that the 15th Congressional District has the largest number of union members, members of union households and union retirees in the nation. There can be no doubt that organized labor is very strong and active in the area. The industrial, blue-collar roots of many residents help shift the 15th District solidly toward the Democratic camp in most recent national elections. The 15th Congressional District comprises the formerly heavily industrial Pennsylvania cities of Allentown and Bethlehem.

Although greatly reduced in numbers from their 20th Century highs, the United Steel Workers (USW), the United Auto Workers (UAW), International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) and other industrial unions still have many members in the region. Total union membership had declined significantly as American factories were closed. In recent decades, new unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have emerged to replace some of the union membership lost in recent decades because of factory closings. The region was badly hit by the closure of American steel mills and off-shoring of American manufacturing. Almost all the other large unions are active in the Lehigh Valley such as the various building trades (like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Carpenters, Laborers, etc.), American Postal Workers (APWU), hotel and textile employees (UNITE-HERE) and service employees (SEIU).

Recently, the decline in union membership in the greater Lehigh Valley has halted. Last year, union membership in the area actually increased.

Because the labor community is solidly behind Sam Bennett, she has a very strong chance of winning the Congressional seat. She has earned their support by being right on the issues and working very, very hard to win the race. The President of the Greater Lehigh Valley Labor Council Gregg Potter, a CWA member, stated, “immediately after the votes were counted in 2006 and it became clear that Dent had edged out Northampton County Councilman and IBEW member Charles Dertinger, Sam Bennett let it be know that she would challenge Dent in 2008. She has been working enthusiastically toward that end ever since without rest. She has been a good friend of organized labor.”

There are a growing number of Hispanic voters in the various communities of the Lehigh Valley. The Hispanic voter has been trending Democratic very heavily in the most recent elections and opinion polls. Democrats can gain significantly by devoting more resources to voter registration and turn-out in this community. In the 15th District race, this could be a key target opportunity that could be exploited by a Democratic Congressional candidate like Sam Bennett. According to the Congressional Quarterly website, the 15th District is 8 percent Hispanic.

American seniors vote in large numbers. This is especially true in the greater Lehigh Valley. They represent a much larger percentage of the total votes cast than of the general population in almost all elections. The 15th Congressional District may be demographically the oldest in the nation by many estimates. These voters are very much inclined to respond in a positive way to the majority of Democratic economic proposals. Current economic concerns are likely to be huge campaign issues in the Lehigh Valley.

The growing emphasis on economic issues is a natural advantage to Democrats in the 15th Congressional District. The current Republican Congressman Charles Dent has been voting with the rest of the Bush Republicans on almost every economic issue that has come before Congress. High fuel prices and increasing employment insecurity are working strongly against Dent. His support for Bush’s Iraq War hurts Dent. With 72 percent owner-occupied housing, mortgage insecurity issues are not going to bode well for the incumbent.

Sam Bennett is strongly supporting a Green Jobs approach to revitalizing the economy of her Congressional District. Bennett believes that the Lehigh Valley is very well-placed to benefit from a shift in federal government priorities regarding support for Green Jobs and Green Technology. The area is blessed with world-class environment and technology research facilities. It has a very high level of per capita college attendance. There are numerous colleges in the Congressional District. It has a community supportive of environmental efforts. For example, Allentown has an extremely high level of participation in recycling efforts.

Their long history of manufacturing has given the area a workforce experienced and skilled at taking ideas and turning them into high quality products. Bennett noted that “there is a well-organized business community in the greater Lehigh Valley that could rally around a Green Jobs initiative if the federal government would provide some support and leadership. I intend to work towards that end. There are good jobs to be had and money to be made while promoting the public good by cleaning-up the environment for our children.”

Bennett connects her opposition to the Iraq War directly to the economic difficulties we are facing today. She stated that “there is a direct link between the Iraq War and healthcare in America.” She cites the wasted money spent on the war and occupation as resources that could have been spent on smaller class-sizes in our public schools and on increased support for Pennsylvania college students struggling with ever rising educational costs.

Sam Bennett can relate to the opportunity costs of the war both intellectually and personally. She and her family are struggling with the enormous costs of putting two daughters through college at the same time while saving for the future college education of her youngest child. Bennett can relate to her constituents’ real life problems and struggles.

On issues like access to the courts for average citizens, Bennett is a real leader. She says that “Republican so-called tort reform is not really tort reform. It is a denial of access to the court system for the little guy.”

Although still currently likely to be outspent by Dent, Sam Bennett has been fairly successful in raising campaign donations. Among all the Pennsylvania Democratic Congressional candidates challenging setting Republicans, she is the top fundraiser (excluding self-financing by one other candidate in western Pennsylvania) and is without a Democratic Primary challenge. Charles Dertinger was outspent in 2006 by some estimates nearly 23 to 1. Dent still only received 53.6 percent of the vote. Dent lost a full 5 percentages points out when it comes to the vote total between his first run in 2004 (58.6%) and his 2006 (53.6%) race. If Bennett can receive any significant funding from outside the 15th Congressional District, she will in my opinion likely defeat Dent.

If I was Republican Congressman Charles Dent, I would be touching up my resume.

Written by Stephen Crockett (co-host of Democratic Talk Radio http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com and Editor of Mid-Atlantic Labor.com http://www.midatlanticlabor.com).