This morning Republican Rep. Richard Baker announced what many had expected, that he would bail out of his congressional job in mid term in exchange for an extremely plush salary in the financial sector. This is not just any old case of the revolving door, for Baker is a high profile member of the House Financial Services Committee. From the Times-Picayune:

Baker...will take the helm of the Managed Funds Association, the industry group that represents the $1.8 trillion hedge fund industry. As president and CEO, his salary and benefits package is expected to exceed $1 million a year.

"The reason the industry came to me was because of my work in the subject area," Baker said in a morning interview with WJBO Radio in Baton Rouge. "I have put my life into developing considerable knowledge in this area."

Baker said in an interview that he would step aside "no later than Feb. 6." His new job starts the following day. It is possible that the election to fill Baker's seat could be held March 8, the same day as the first party primary to fill the vacancy of former Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, who was inaugurated as governor Monday.

I don't know about you, but I'm vaguely reassured that Richard Baker won't have to endure a break in employment. The victims of Katrina won't shed a tear as he departs, I suspect:

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that (Baker) was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."...

Baker issued a lengthy statement saying he was "taken aback" by the Journal's brief item. "What I remember expressing, in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that 'We have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it,' " Baker wrote. "Obviously I have never expressed anything but the deepest concern about the suffering that this terrible catastrophe has caused for so many in our state."

Quite.

Baker's the third Louisiana representive to jump ship in the last two months, and the 20th Republican member of the House to announce his retirement during the first year of the Democratic Congress. He's not the only financial expert that MFA might have hired, of course, and he's been debating for some time whether to run for a 12th term. The Democrats already had at least one challenger announced in LA-06, Don Cazayoux, and others may jump in now. No Republicans have announced yet.

First-time diarist brouski caught Baker's announcement this morning.

It only took a few tweaks and voila!  Richard Cohen managed to repackage the "Obama is actually a closet black racist who will turn the White House into a black Muslim enclave" smears that are circulating the worst of the right wing hate sites, into a column for today's Washington Post:

Barack Obama is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Its minister, and Obama's spiritual adviser, is the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. In 1982, the church launched Trumpet Newsmagazine; Wright's daughters serve as publisher and executive editor. Every year, the magazine makes awards in various categories. Last year, it gave the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award to a man it said "truly epitomized greatness." That man is Louis Farrakhan.

That's right.  Barack Obama goes to a church that has a pastor who has a daughter who publishes a magazine that gave an award to Louis Farrakhan.  You can understand Cohen's outrage.  And apparently that outrage paralyzed him to the point where it took nearly a year after the story was first reported for Cohen to call Obama out on this.  Isn't it lucky for all of America that he was able to find the words to express his feelings in time for the heart of the primary season?   And kudos to Cohen for being so even-handed.  Because he does, three paragraphs in, say that:  

It's important to state right off that nothing in Obama's record suggests he harbors anti-Semitic views or agrees with Wright when it comes to Farrakhan.

Well, nothing in his record suggests such a thing, but we can't be too careful, eh, Richard?  But really, nice job on stating that "right off."

There is no doubt that Louis Farrahkan has a history of making hateful, anti-Semitic remarks.  But Barack Obama is not an associate of Mr. Farrakhan, nor has he ever advocated his views, so for Richard Cohen to attempt to connect the two men in the voter's minds is nothing short of equating Obama with every vicious, racial stereotype out there that is used to generate fear and hatred.  

Cohen ends with:

I don't for a moment think that Obama shares Wright's views on Farrakhan. But the rap on Obama is that he is a fog of a man. We know little about him, and, for all my admiration of him, I wonder about his mettle.

No, Cohen doesn't think that for a minute, but he still chose to write this because Obama is "a fog of a man."  You know...he's not quite one of us, he might be a Muslim, and I heard that he went to a madrassa.  Maybe with Louis Farrakhan.  We can't be too careful.  

All of these are SurveyUSA polls. Florida is January 29, though without delegates at stake, the Democratic primary may or may not matter. California, New York and Oklahoma are February 5th states.

Florida. 1/11-13. Likely primary voters. (12/15-16 results)

California. 1/11-13. Likely primary voters. (12/14-16 results)

Oklahoma. 1/11-13. Likely primary voters. (No trend lines)

New York. 1/9-10. Likely primary voters. (No trend lines)

It's hard to see a path to the nomination for Obama without California on February 5. Hillary has some pretty comfortable leads in many of the other states that day. He better close that gap or he'll be in a world of hurt that Tuesday night.

Obama has got to hope that a strong showing in South Carolina gives him some momentum, while hoping everyone ignores Florida since it has been stripped of its delegates like Michigan for moving up in front of February 5.

The rest of the states on Super Tuesday, with the number of delegates at stake:

Remember that this isn't winner-take-all. So without a knockout punch, we may truly see a slow grind to the convention.

• A US Embassy vehicle in Beruit was attacked with an explosive device.  At least 4 dead and an unknown injured, but the 2 men in the vehicle survived the attack.
• The FDA announced that it was moving forward to get cloned meat and milk into our grocery stores:

  The FDA has concluded that meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals,'' the agency said in a summary of its report.

  The FDA also said it will not require special labeling indicating it a product is from a cloned animal.

• Saudi Arabia denied President Bush's request to increase oil production.

  "Our interest is to keep oil supplies matching demand with minimum volatility in the oil market," Oil Minister Ali Naimi told reporters. "We will raise production when the market justifies it. This is our policy."

  GWB sounded like he was pratically begging and yet the Saudi's still denied the request.  What is it going to take before we say ENOUGH!  If we can put a man on the moon in 10 years, we can certainly free this country from our oil addiction in the same time.

• Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez (who ended his very short Senate campaign against Tom Udall in December) gets slammed for greenwashing:  

  If you aren't reading John Fleck's blog, then you have to start doing so.  The Albuquerque Journal's science writer (who also has a blog at the horribly-designed Journal website) may be my favorite local newspaper writer.  He has a knack for making science interesting to those who might not find science interesting at all.

  But enough praise of Fleck.  He wrote an excellent front-page story for Sunday's Journal about the reality when it comes to Albuquerque's numbers on green initiatives.  There is also a sidebar on ethanol-friendly city vehicles that don't fill up on ethanol. Chavez has gained a lot of attention for environmental work.  Over and over  again.

  - Plutonium Page

• Don't forget that we're trying to get Mark Pera to 5,000 total contributions on ActBlue. He's at 2,799 now. - MissLaura
• WaPo hack John Solomon is moving on to seek new opportunities at...wait for it...The Moonie Times. WashTimes President Thomas McDevitt believes that Solomon will help his paper to maintain "traditional news values and credibility." Heh. - smintheus

When it was announced that the New York Times had hired William Kristol to peddle his neocon fantasies to a wider audience, editorial page editor Andy Rosenthal defended the move saying:

The idea that The New York Times is giving voice to a guy who is a serious, respected conservative intellectual — and somehow that’s a bad thing.   How intolerant is that?

Leaving aside the fact that Kristol is respected only within the walls of the White House, Fox News and the like, one wonders if it occured to Mr. Rosenthal that that "intolerance" isn't because of Kristol's conservatism, but his record.  That Kristol's beating of the drum for war with Iraq, writing nearly 30 columns advocating the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in the year between September 11th and the AUMF vote, with claims of WMD, anthrax attacks in the U.S. and of course, Iraq's involvement in September 11th itself, may have caused that mistrust.  And that the nearly five years of claims of "turning points," "pivotal moments," and "happy days," in Iraq make it impossible to take his intellect seriously.  Or, we're intolerant.

And now, in his second effort as a New York Times columnist, William Kristol gives a scolding to Democrats for refusing to celebrate the latest impending victory in Iraq.

The Democrats were wrong in their assessments of the surge. Attacks per week on American troops are now down about 60 percent from June. Civilian deaths are down approximately 75 percent from a year ago. December 2007 saw the second-lowest number of U.S. troops killed in action since March 2003.  [...]

Do Obama and Clinton and Reid now acknowledge that they were wrong? Are they willing to say the surge worked?

No. It’s apparently impermissible for leading Democrats to acknowledge — let alone celebrate — progress in Iraq

Of course Kristol doesn't say that June was a period where American casualties were at their highest levels of the war, making that 60 percent decrease a lot less impressive, and naturally Kristol failed to mention that:

The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.  [...]

For the year, 18,610 Iraqis were killed. In 2006, the only other full year an AP count has been tallied, 13,813 civilians were killed.

...because saying that 19,509 people were killed would  make it harder to spin his fairy tale.  And as Clinton and Obama have both pointed out, the purpose of the surge was to reduce the violence so political reconciliation could occur.  Aha, says Kristol:

And now Iraq’s Parliament has passed a de-Baathification law — one of the so-called benchmarks Congress established for political reconciliation. For much of 2007, Democrats were able to deprecate the military progress and political reconciliation taking place on the ground by harping on the failure of the Iraqi government to pass the benchmark legislation. They are being deprived of even that talking point.

And it is driven by a refusal to admit real success because that success has been achieved under the leadership of ... George W. Bush. The horror!

But if Kristol would have bothered to read the pages of his new employer, he would have known that:

A day after the Iraqi Parliament passed legislation billed as the first significant political step forward in Iraq after months of deadlock, there were troubling questions — and troubling silences — about the measure’s actual effects.  [...]

But the legislation is at once confusing and controversial, a document riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries.

And a day afterward, officials were still putting off questions about it.

It seems that the "harping" can continue.  And how is the rest of Bush's "not open-ended" commitment working out, Bill?  Last January when Bush announced his escalation, he said that the Iraqi government would be responsible for security throughout Iraq by November, that oil revenue sharing would be enacted, and that provincial elections would be held in 2007.  That's zero for four in key benchmarks for success in Iraq.  Which makes William Kristol wrong.  Again.    

If John Grisham had invented Dan Lipinski, we'd be saying he went too far. It's just too much to believe that one man can be this corrupt. But he is.

We know a lot of the details: How he got into office through nepotism, has used a children's charity to fund his campaign, is dealing with a primary challenge from Mark Pera by recruiting allies to split the vote, and has a who's who of Chicago patronage politics working his campaign.

Then there's this:

It's interesting to note that Rep. Lipinski's close alliances with lobbyists and family member's financial interests would be illegal if he was in the U.S. Senate. If Dan Lipinski were a senator, his father would not be able to interact with staff, attend constituent events or travel with his son. Since he's in the House and doesn't have much to worry about it in that regard, he doesn't think it's a problem to break all of the rules U.S. senators must abide by.

Rep. Lipinski unapologetically shares political office space with his father's lobbying firm, Blue Chip Consulting. 5838 S. Archer Ave. also houses the notorious All-American Eagles; the political offices of Alderman (and lobbyist) Michael Zalewski of the 23rd Ward, the 23rd Ward Democratic Organization and state Rep. Bob Molaro D-21st; and Rose Marie Lipinski's State of Illinois Court of Claims office. It also houses a mortgage firm and a security firm. That's an awful lot to fit into four office suites!

If you wanted to volunteer at Dan Lipinski's Chicago campaign offices, you would have a hard time finding it without an address. "The Bunker," as the Lipinski's call it, is located in the back of a building that resembles many along Archer Avenue. From the road, it looks like the generic, two-story building is just an Herbalife weight loss clinic. There are no requisite campaign signs in the windows. There's no buzzer or signage on the doorway. Its appearance would leave most people to think that the Lipinskis "don't want nobody, nobody sent." And, perhaps, that they don't feel that it would be prudent to flaunt these ties in public.

And on the other side, there's former steelworker, assistant state's attorney, and Blue Majority candidate Mark Pera. If you want to replace a corrupt Democrat who votes for Iraq funding without withdrawal deadlines, who opposes stem cell research and the right to choose, and for whom the crappier the FISA bill, the better, Pera is the replacement we need. This is how we clean the party and the Congress, and the primary is February 5.

Our goal is to get Pera to 5,000 contributions total on ActBlue - not just on the Blue Majority page, but across the site. He's more than halfway there, and any amount you can give will help.

As Markos says, this is how we get the establishment to sit up and take notice.

On the web;
Mark Pera for Congress
Blue Majority ActBlue page

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Some reasons why Democrats should cross the aisle---just this one little time---and vote for Mitt today in Michigan:

It'll remind former governor John Engler of the 2000 primary, when Democrats helped sink the candidate he backed (George W. Bush) and blew his chance of snagging a cushy cabinet post. You may even make his lower lip tremble.

Everyone who votes for a Republican in Michigan gets a free sugar beet.

It'll make you feel like immediately driving home and taking a nice, long, hot shower, and won't that feel good.

How can you pass up this once-in-a-lifetime chance to actually experience Mittmentum???

Republican primary = "the works."  You = "a wrench."

As soon as you cast your vote, the machine will give you a little spritz of lavender body spray.

You'll drive John "You Kids Get Off My Lawn" Bambenek crazy. Sorry, crazier.

It'll be a great story to tell your grandkids at Christmas time. Every time you tell it you'll laugh so hard that your blood pressure pill will shoot out your nose, making you the centerpiece of a cherished holiday tradition.

John McCain says "my friends" 50% less during a concession speech than he does during a victory speech, so you'll be helping to save our sanity.

The only reason that matters: it'll make you hella-cool.

Good luck. We're all counting on you.  Yes, Yoopers...you too.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Markos Moulitsas, author and creator of the political commentary weblog "The Daily Kos" will speak at Williams on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at 8 p.m. in the '62 Center for Theatre and Dance [...]

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Call the '62 Center box office at (413) 597-2425, Tues. - Sat., 1 -5 p.m. for reservations.

At Asia Times, Kaveh L Afrasiabi writes:

Legal mist stokes US-Iran tensions in strait

Tension spiked markedly last week when Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) speedboats were involved in an "incident" with three US Navy vessels, which claimed they were international waters.

Yet there is no "international water" in the Strait of Hormuz, straddled between the territorial waters of Iran and Oman. The US government claimed, through a Pentagon spokesperson, Bryan Whitman, that the three US ships "transiting through the Strait of Hormuz" were provocatively harassed by the speedboats. This was followed by the Pentagon's release of a videotape of the encounter, where in response to Iran's request for ship identification, we hear a dispatch from one of the US ships stating the ship's number and adding that "we are in international waters and we intend no harm".

Thus there is the issue of the exact whereabouts of the US ships at the time of the standoff with the Iranian boats manned by the IRGC patrolling the area. According to Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgiff, the US ships were "five kilometers outside Iranian territorial waters". Yet, this is disputed by another dispatch from the US ships that states, "I am engaged in transit passage in accordance with international law."

Given that the approximately three-kilometer-wide inbound traffic lane in the Strait of Hormuz is within Iran's territorial water, the US Navy's invocation of "transit passage" harking back to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, (UNCLOS) is hardly surprising.  ...

Although the US has yet to ratify the UNCLOS, it has been a strong advocate of its provisions regarding navigational rights, thus explaining the US officers' availing themselves of "international law". ...

Article 19, elaborating on the meaning of "innocent passage", states that "passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal state". And that means a prohibition on "any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind" and or "any act of harmful and serious pollution".

In other words, US warships transiting through Hormuz must, in effect, act as non-war ships, "temporarily depriving themselves of their armed might". And any "warning shots" fired by US ships at Iranian boats, inspecting the US ships under customary international laws, must be considered an infringement on Iran's rights. This technically warrants a legal backlash in the form of the Iranians temporary suspending the US warships' right of passage. Again, the US could be technically prosecuted by Iran in international forums for conducting questionable activities while in Iranian territorial waters.

As we have seen the past seven years, the Cheney-Bush administration and international law mix like ... uh ... oil and water.

Check out the Overnight News Digest.

(Tonight's selections are brought to you courtesy of the Rescue Rangers. SusanG)

This evening's Rescue Rangers are PaintyKat, taylormattd, BentLiberal, dadanation, TruthOfAngels, YatPundit, Joyful and nyc in exile as editor.

• joegarcia follows GWB to the UAE and analyzes the hypocrisy of his speeches there in Bush to Middle East: Do as I say not as I do (BentLiberal)
• GTPinNJ sets out the traits that a good leader should have and a certain leader is found to be very definitely wanting in Leadership. (TruthOfAngels)
• MLDB points out that threats to our civil liberties continue while so many of us candidate-bash in McConnell Wants to Peek at YOUR Web Searches. (YatPundit)
• gjohnsit provides a wonderful history of the first writers strike, including a primer on the House Un-American Activities Committee, in When writers strike. (taylormattd)
• In The God Strategy goes to South Carolina diarist kcoe reflects on the injection of religion into presidential politics. (BentLiberal)
• Another local story with national implications is Ronnie Earle, Tom DeLay and Why A Texas DA's Race Matters to Every American, by Richard Morrison. (YatPundit)
• YatPundit offers up the first in a series of diaries on LA-01: Getting to Know the District. (BentLiberal)
• In an effort to give us a break from the divisive mud slinging hoopla surrounding Obama's run, democracy888 provides an hilarious little tribute to some of the previous African Americans who made a run for the highest office in the land. The focus is on Dick Gregory, who ran in 1968 with Mark Lane on the Freedom & Peace ticket. Dick Gregory's '68 Run for the White House (PaintyKat)
• Philip Munger reports on governor Sarah Palin's disgusting response to the plight of Alaskan polar bears in Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin Hearts Polar Bears - NOT! (taylormattd)
• David Brin asks what kind of Twilight Zone do we live in when GOP icon Alan Greenspan gives his highest presidential rating to Bill Clinton and by-far lowest rating ever to George W. Bush? Is Goldwater spinning in his grave so fast Arizona is able, using coils to obtain half its power supply? Disparities of taxation and wealth? Top conservative minds call the GOP candidates loopy. (PaintyKat)
• In I am not voting, undercovercalico offers up political observation from an immigrant perspective in a "tale of two countries" piece on North American politics. A good read. (BentLiberal)
• In the diary Elderly Disposal, undercovercalico shares details concerning elderly care and steps the government is taking to streamline inspections and penalties for nursing homes. Will the result be better/more efficient care or will the organizations increase profits with less care? (PaintyKat).
• A New York Times Article concerning returning Iraq vets with PTSD touched a nerve for TheUnConventionalAnalysist's discussion of his own situation since returning. What is being done for these vets? What needs to be done? The NY Times, PTSD, and Me. (PaintyKat)
• Angie in WA State, an employee in a small primary care office with a single doctor, gives her first-hand account of the obstacles to effective care erected by insurance companies in Healthcare VS Health Insurance #1. (taylormattd)
• The fate of an embattled MA institution for the mentally retarded becomes the basis for Dave in Ma's broader discussion of the issue in Fernald and the folly of unchecked privatization. (YatPundit)
• In My Child Did Not Die Last Week, And Why Iím Pro-Choice, nathanrudy shares a very honest and personal perspective on the issue of choice, from a father's/husband's point of view. (dadanation)

monkeybiz has Top Comments 1.14.08: Ainít That America.

Wanker of the Year, Blogosphere Division winner John Bambenek has topped his crowning achievement.

Adam B already gave you what you need to know about how wrong Bambo is on the law. But I just couldn't resist a point-by-point look at the various and ridiculous wrong turns Bambenek made along the way to his audaciously stupid conclusion.

So yes, the yo-yo who filed the FEC complaint against Daily Kos that was so wholly without merit that the Commission actually disposed of it (wearing clothespins on their noses, no doubt) in record time is back again with another publicly-financed Morons-a-Poppin^TM boondoggle: a criminal complaint to the Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox (control yourself, Beavis) alleging that urging Democrats to vote for Romney in the Michigan Republican presidential primary constitutes voter fraud.

Oh. My. God.

Will these right-wing "bootstrappers" never tire of making the public pay for their inevitable smackdowns? Is this some kind of a weird fetish I just don't understand? Surely there are privately-financed ways Bambenek can come to grips (if such were his wont, let's say) with his hard-on for Markos, no?

But Bambenek wants none of that. He wants to do this on your dime. Make the FEC waste the time and resources to restate the rules it had already promulgated a year before. Make the Michigan Attorney General explain that an open primary is... well, open. All on the taxpayer dime. What a prince, eh?

Here's the thing: It's. Not. Voter. Fraud.

When people entitled by Michigan law to participate in elections held at public cost do so under their own names, in their assigned polling places, and cast just one ballot, there's no fraud. None.

Special Note #1 for the media: This case should tell you in no uncertain terms that when wingnuts cry to you about voter fraud -- and let's be honest, they're constantly crying about it -- they have not a clue in the world what they're talking about, and they should be given no more attention than if they'd told you they've got video of Elvis descending from a UFO to cast a stretchy, sequined ballot.

Do not believe Republican crocodile tears about voter fraud. They don't know what it is.

So Bambenek is just stupid, right? Wrong. Bambenek is spectacularly stupid. Why? Here's a point-by-point rundown of the idiocy (and a second Special Note for the Media), after the break.

In the hot summer of 1988 - while Americans prepared to decide whether Vice President George H.W. Bush or the "Atari Democrat" – Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis – would replace Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, testified at a congressional hearing that he was convinced the earth’s atmosphere was warming up, that the warming was caused by human activity, and that severe shocks would result. A three-scenario graph accompanying his testimony sent a clarion warning.

The smears and propaganda began almost immediately from contrarians such as Patrick Michaels and a snake-oil salesman named S. Fred Singer. Eventually, it became known that both men (and others) were part of a well-financed campaign on the part of fossil-fuel companies to persuade Americans (and politicians) that global warming was a hoax and that Hansen and other scientists sounding the alarm were fools or worse.

The hearings in June 1988 weren’t the first time Hansen had said trouble was brewing. Nor were they the first time other scientists had publicly spoken of the potential crises warming might cause. But 1988 demarcated two periods. Before then, the science of climate change was tentative and the political opposition was mostly directly toward keeping data from being gathered in the first place, much less analyzed. Afterward, with the science ever more sure and cohesive, a cabal of petro-industrialists paid aggressive liars to attack the science and, sometimes, the scientists. Chief among those in the crosshairs were Hansen and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the research organization set up in that same watershed year by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Program.

With the express purpose of casting "doubt on the theory of global warming," front groups with misleading names such as the Global Climate Coalition, the Global Climate Information Project, and the Cooler Heads Project (as well as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Consumer Coalition) spread fabrications while their corporate sponsors paid tens of millions of dollars for public relations campaigns, advertising, and contributions to Democratic and Republican politicians.

These slick propagandists were immensely successful. In the ‘90s, President Bill Clinton – under assault by retrograde ideologues over a wide range of issues – chose to invest only a smidgen of his political capital to deal with a crisis many in the chattering classes still claimed was bogus. Throughout the ‘00s, the propagandists’ comrades-in-avarice have directly controlled the federal machinery, censoring, distorting, threatening and dragging their feet. The professional deniers’ favorite targets, from the IPCC to Hansen to Al Gore, have been repeatedly vindicated. Global warming has become the worst nightmare of the deniers and delayers: a household phrase.

Yet their two-decade-long assault on science and sound policy continues its negative impacts. Key world leaders, even including Mister Bush, say they understand that global warming is a crisis. But their acknowledgement hasn't been transformed into a passionate commitment for what matters: bold action.

Scientific interest in climate change goes back nearly two centuries, but the politics of global warming are only 50 years old.

We've won the first round in the war over scheduling Mississippi's special election to replace Senator Trent Lott:

A Hinds County Circuit judge ruled today that Gov. Haley Barbour exceeded his constitutional authority by setting the special election to replace former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott for November.

DeLaughter heard about an hour of arguments Monday in the dispute between state Attorney General Jim Hood and Barbour.

Barbour had intended to schedule the special election in November, no doubt because a year of incumbency and a presidential election on the same day (which would no doubt go strongly for the Republican in Mississippi) would help his chosen, GOP Representative Senator Roger Wicker.

Mississippi law mandates that special elections be held within 90 days of a vacancy, except in years in which a statewide election occurs. The vacancy technically occurred in 2007, but after the statewide election had been held; therein lies the controversy.

For the time being, however, the courts have ruled against Barbour:

In his order, DeLaughter said the election should be held "within 90 days of the governor's Dec. 20, 2007 proclamation of writ of election...on or before March 19, 2008.

Hood cited Mississippi Code 23-15-855, which applies to U.S. senator vacancies. He and Barbour have differing interpretations of that statute.

A special election in March may well provide a real opening for Democrats, as Wicker suffers from limited name recognition outside his old district, while at least one of our candidates, former Governor Ronnie Musgrove, enjoys excellent name rec from his stint as Barbour's predecessor. In an earlier piece, I posted the polling data for Musgrove, which certainly suggests that he would be a tough adversary for Wicker, particularly with the DSCC's money advantage over their beleaguered Republican counterparts.

Our other candidate, former Rep. Ronnie Shows, was a popular Congressman who was redistricted out of a seat in 2002. I have no polling data for Shows, unfortunately.

Now, it is very likely that this case will be appealed to the Mississippi Supreme Court, and that the court, heavy with Barbour cronies, will overturn the lower court's decision. So I am not optimistic that the special election will actually be held by March.

But for the time being, the news is good for Democrats.

Hat tip to MrLiberal for his excellent diary on this news.

And some interesting background on Bobby DeLaughter, the judge who ruled in this case: he is the man who successfully prosecuted Byron de la Beckwith in 1994 for the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, and he was played by Alec Baldwin in the film based on the case, Ghosts of Mississippi.

If you, like New Hampshire's John Sununu, are a Republican senator facing a tough reelection battle in a state that went blue in 2006, you can't like last week's primary results:

The turnout results were dramatic – 50,000 more Granite Staters voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary, with nearly 280,000 voting in the Democratic race and only 229,000 turning out for Republicans. This was the first time since the establishment of the modern New Hampshire primary system that more people voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary when both were contested. Republicans actually turned out 10,000 fewer voters for their primary than in 2000, the last time there was a contested Republican presidential primary in their state. On the Democratic side, there were 125,000 more voters than in the 2000 primary, and 61,000 more voters than the 2004 primary, which was then a Democratic record, largely due to the fact that there was no Republican contest that year.

New Hampshire independents also showed that they are trending Democratic. According to exit polls, in the Democratic primary, 42% of voters were independents, up 1% from 2000, while in the Republican primary, only 34% of voters were registered independents – a 7% drop from 2000.

John Sununu now faces an electorate that produced 50,000 more votes last night for Democratic candidates than he won in his election in 2002, a stunning deficit that shows the extent of the challenge he faces in November.

We're Democrats, and we're coming for that seat.