Wexler calls for impeachment hearings

Rep. Robert Wexler (FL-19) and two other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee - Luis Gutierrez (IL-04) and Tammy Baldwin (WI-02) - today called on the committee to begin impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney.

They declared, "The charges are too serious to ignore. There is credible evidence that the Vice President abused the power of his office, and not only brought us into an unneccesary war but violated the civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. It is the constitutional duty of Congress to hold impeachment hearings."

The three Democrats wrote an op-ed to announce their position, but none of the nation's leading newspapers would publish it - just as they refuse to include impeachment in their polls, and just as they refuse to publish their own investigations of the crimes of the Bush Administration. Why? Because the Corporate Media is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, as it has been since the Reagan Revolution of 1980.

So this important announcement was made on a Blogcall hosted by Democrat.com, and was covered by progressive blogs - the only news media that serves the people, not the Corporations.

You can read the full op-ed at Rep. Wexler's new site - http://wexlerwantshearings.com - where you can also watch a powerful video by Wexler.

Rep. Wexler needs to collect 50,000 signatures to convince his Democratic colleagues that the American people truly support impeachment hearings. So please sign his petition:
http://wexlerwantshearings.com

You can also send an email to Wexler's other colleagues on Judiciary:
http://www.democrats.com/topelosiandjudiciary

Please share this exciting news with your friends, your favorite blogs, and your favorite talk shows.

Give Peace a Chance

Mike Gravel....from a couple weeks ago. In response to not being allowed to participate in the last debate of the year in Iowa.

Dennis Kucinich was also not invited.

Five Reasons for Public Financing in Elections

USA TODAY, December 10, 2007

Our view on elections: 5 reasons for public financing

States, cities lead with clean-money alternative to a seamy system.

The election year hasn't even begun, but the nation's political system is already awash in record amounts of money, much of it spent to buy influence.

In other times, this would have evoked outrage. But candidates have grown so dependent on the money that all but a few stand mute — afraid to push the obvious remedy, public financing of elections. So perhaps it's worth pausing to note some of the reasons that the idea makes sense, even if it's getting no attention from the major presidential contenders. Here are five:

* Wretched excess. Candidates, the two major parties and the nominally "independent" groups allied with them are on track to raise and spend $5 billion or more in the 2008 campaign, far more than ever before. In Iowa alone, it's projected that Democrats will spend the equivalent of $300 a vote for each caucus participant who turns out on Jan. 3. That kind of money doesn't come just from upright civic-minded citizens.

* Wealth test. Both parties acknowledge that in recruiting candidates for congressional races, a major criterion is whether the prospect is rich enough to personally finance a campaign. That smells of reserving public office for the elite.

* Dialing for dollars. Members of Congress complain repeatedly that running for re-election is so costly that they have to spend up to one-third of their time "dialing for dollars." For challengers, it's worse.

* Fat cats. Despite all the stories about an Internet-powered rise in small contributors, just 21% of all presidential campaign contributions have been in donations of $200 or less, little change from previous years. Meanwhile, contributions are up 91% from donors linked to the securities and investment industries, 68% from the entertainment industry, and 47% from drug makers.

* Shady bundlers. The power of "bundlers," power brokers who aggregate individual donations into giant packages, continues to grow. Hillary Clinton has been embarrassed twice by such operators, one indicted on business fraud charges.

There is an alternative already adopted by seven states. It's called clean elections, or clean-money campaigning. Pioneered in Maine a decade ago, it lets candidates accept public financing in return for a promise not to take private contributions beyond a required threshold sum of small donations.

The result is more time for candidates to talk with the voters; more women, minorities and middle-class candidates seeking office; and fewer campaign-finance transactions that look like thinly disguised bribes.

Clean election systems cost from $2 to $6 per year for each voting-age resident, a bargain for trimming costly special-interest influence. In North Carolina, for example, the clean-election option has virtually ended an outrageous special-interest bidding war for seats on the state's top courts.

But in Washington, a clean-election plan for Congress is buried (Barack Obama and Dennis Kucinich are the only presidential candidates listed as sponsors), and the presidential campaign fund is woefully outdated.

As in state and local politics across the country, reform will only happen when citizens demand it. What's missing is a high-profile champion willing to lead the charge.

John Edwards: Can He Win?

Watching Hardball tonight, they said this advertisement is an effort by the John Edwards campaign to remind people that he has a southern accent. It came out of a conversation where the consultant said that Giuliani should run commercials that show he is the only candidate that can beat Hillary Clinton. I didn't catch the name of the media consultant, but he encouraged the Mayor to run an advertisement that conveyed the message that "Sure Edwards beats me, but I won't be running against Edwards, I'll be running against Hillary, and only I beat Hillary"

Chris Matthews then went on to talk about the advertisement above, saying that John Edwards is trying to run on being southern, and by pointing out that the last two Democrats to win the Presidency had southern accents, and I would add that so does our current President. I don't think that is the message of the advertisement. I did not watch the ad and think, southerner.

But I do think that discussion is worth having regarding the southern vote. Can the south vote Democrat in a federal election? Congressman Boyd represents our thoroughly rural and southern congressional district. Our CD elects a Democrat so strongly that during the last two cycles the Republican party failed to field a candidate at all. So, yes, I do think that the south will vote Democrat, but I don't think that they are guaranteed to vote Democrat.

Southern voters are more inclined to vote for someone because they like the candidate, not the party. I think that people in the south are more inclined to like someone who speaks like they do. Which I do think gives John Edwards and Mike Huckabee an advantage, especially against some of the candidates that I think will rub many southerns the wrong way... like Mitt Romney.

I Yahoo'd (I use Yahoo over Google as a search engine) John Edwards and Southern and most of the articles were from the 2004 election, there was this one article: Link by Tom Schaller, author of "Whistling Past Dixie".

I think I might write more on this in the near future. As I sign off tonight, I still have Hardball on in the background, and it is getting ready to end. Chris Matthews keeps talking about how Sen. Edwards is the most popular D with the R's. Another interesting tid bit...

Provide some feedback, and let me know what you think....

Transitions in Tallahassee

Local Leon Young Democrat update: Immediate past LCYD President Beth Kennedy has moved on past Leon County, at least for a little while, and she is with the Democratic Leadership Council in Washington, DC. Specifically she is now working for the DLC's think tank The Progressive Policy Institute. We are really proud of Beth and wish her the best of luck on her new adventure!



Congrats Beth, we already miss you here, and if the weather continues like last week, I think you will wish your were back sooner than you thought. Here is the view of Pennsylvania Avenue from Beth's Window. Gotta love snow!




Also, with news this week, Tevya Harley will be taking Beth's place as the new Executive Director of the Florida Mainstream Democrats. Mainstream is the equivalent of the DLC in Florida. I think Tevya will do a great job, and continue the hard work of former ED's Beth, Justin Day, and the work of the Chair's Sen. Aronberg, and Rep. Ausley. Keep up the hard work! The LCYD's are here to help Mainstream in any way that we can.



Congrats & Good Luck Tevya!