MCDAC Democratic Newsletter for 11.17.2006

More on Medina County Election Results

A lot of people who have recently moved into Medina County or recently got involved in politics may be wondering why so many long time Medina County Democrats were so excited by last Tuesday's results. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-on-medina-county-election-results.html

The On-Going Battle in American Politics

Since the creation of the United States, there has been an on-going debate in America over what is and is not the proper role of government. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/on-going-battle-in-american-politics.html )

Dem TV Video on the U.S. Supreme Court

Last week we put up a video on Dem TV that raises a question about the U.S. Supreme Court. Click here to view the video: http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/dem-tv-video-on-us-supreme-court.html

Rove is Not a Genius

In 2000 the "boy genius" Karl Rove, aka Turd Blossom as the President fondly refers to him, sent George W. Bush to California during the last week of the campaign. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/rove-is-not-genius-in-2000-boy-genius.html)

Name Recognition Trumps Everything

This is very hard for candidates to understand, especially if they have never run for office before, but name recognition is extremely important. (Read the rest at http://mcdac.blogspot.com/2006/11/name-recognition-trumps-everything.html)

Articles/Links

Is Hillary getting ready to announce this winter for the 2008 nomination? The Hill, a Congressional newspaper that covers the Senate and House, seems to think so in this article: http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/111406/clinton.html

Senator-elect Jim Webb does the unthinkable and actually talks about America's growing class differences. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246

Is support for "free trade" bills crumbling? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/business/15trade.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1163566800&en=87fe6f8f64b83576&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

Republicans upset over Bush announcing that Rumsfeld would resign after the 2006 midterm election. Many believe that it cost them control of one or both Houses of Congress. Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/11/12/ap3166168.html

How King Karl got is so wrong. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15675318/site/newsweek/ And how the media continues to kiss his rotund behind. http://mediamatters.org/columns/200611140003

The Boston Globe reports on how the battle over Social Security laid the groundwork for the Dems taking control of Congress on November 7th, 2006: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/12/social_security_at_roots_of_shift/?page=1

Remember oversight by Congress of the Executive Branch? Well, the Democrats plan to restore the concept in Washington. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/washington/12oversight.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=07d26de296e6c4dd&ex=1320987600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin rules out running for the Democratic nomination in 2008. In his statement he said that since the Democrats took control of the Senate, he believes that he can be more effective working in the Senate than running for president. It will be interesting to see if other Senators such as Biden, Kerry, and even Clinton find staying in the Senate more attractive now that they will be in the majority for at least two years and maybe the next six. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061112/ap_on_el_pr/feingold_president

A very interesting profile on Harry Reid, the new Senate Majority Leader. One of the dumbest things that Frist did, and he did a whole lot of dumb things, was work to get rid of Tom Daschle. He got rid of Daschle and got Reid in his life who has been a much more effective Minority Leader than Daschle ever was. Thanks for helping us out, Bill, you idiot. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/us/politics/10reid.html?ei=5094&en=76271991a422d347&hp=&ex=1163221200&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1163174308-45H8yOpFr16LD4tXCLuIHg

A lot of people don't realize that while Nancy Pelosi has lived in San Fransisco, where she raised her family, she actually grew up in Baltimore where both her father and her brother were mayor. This article points out how she learned politics from watching her father. One thing that that taught her was the importance of government in helping those who can't help themselves. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/09/AR2006110901581.html

Bush wants John Bolton to be confirmed as U.N. Ambassador, but Senator Lincoln Chaffee is not going to back him on the Bolton nomination in the committee. According to Joe Biden, incoming Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, the Bolton nomination is "dead." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6134734.stm

From the "I don't belong to an organized party, I'm a Democrat" department. After winning both the House and the Senate and a whole lot of state legislative seats, James Carville has the bright idea of getting rid of Howard Dean as DNC Chair. Why? Because Dean wants to build up the Democratic Party in all 50 states. Only a Washington insider married to a high-level Republican operative would think that is a bad idea. Oh, and it gets better, he wants to replace him with Harold Ford, who just lost the Tennessee Senate race. Boy, that's just makes a lot of freaking sense, doesn't it. http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=56467

By the way, James, a poster over at Red State, a conservative blog, credits Dean's "50-state strategy" with "destroying" the Delaware GOP.

http://www.redstate.com/blogs/j_map/2006/nov/14/is_howard_deans_strategy_working

Lincoln Chaffee, who just lost a race as an incumbent Republican Senator from Rhode Island, is thinking about leaving the Republican Party. Now on the one hand this could be seen as "sour grapes" but on the other hand it could be seen as the harbinger of things to come. Over the last several election cycles the New England states have become more and more Democratic as the national GOP has gone further and further to the right under Rove and Bush. Over the next several years, look for other NE Republicans to move into the Democratic party. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_el_se/rhode_island_senate

Two of the six newly elected Senators come from the South, four of them, including Sherrod Brown, come from states that Bush carried twice. Clearly Democrats can win in so-called "red states". This article explains why we can't write off the South: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_el_se/rhode_island_senate

Twenty-four states have now raised the minimum wage, with Ohio joining five other states last Tuesday. http://www.alternet.org/workplace/44084/

Democrats pledge ethics overhaul when the take control in January. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061110/ap_on_el_ge/ethics_overhaul

For the love of God, can we finally put to rest the idea that the media is somehow "liberal"? Read this blog entry and tell me why it is that when Bush admits to lying, the Washington Post can't bring itself to call the lie a lie. What is with these people that they are just afraid to say that this administration tells lies? http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/11/extremely-odd-behavior-from-washington.html

Franklin County won't count provisional ballots until after the OSU-Michigan game. http://www.dispatch.com/news/news.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/10/20061110-A1-00.html

Washington Post article on Sherrod Brown's victory in the Ohio Senate race. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001454.html?nav=rss_politics

Bush's popularity slips to a new low in the Newsweek as only 31% of Americans approve of the job he is doing. Frankly, that seems a bit high to us, but as Abraham Lincoln once said "you can fool some of the people all of the time." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15667442/site/newsweek/