by Andrew Zajac

Eager to have a hand in setting the Democratic Party's fall election agenda, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council heads to Chicago this weekend for a "national conversation" about where the party and the country need to be heading.

The DLC applies the term 'progressive' to its positions, but it tends to rely on middle-of-the-road market-oriented solutions to policy issues. Critics charge this gives the corporate business perspective too much sway in Democratic circles.

The DLC, in turn, worries that the identity and interest politics of the party -- think race, gender and environmentalism, for instance -- turn off voters and make it harder to win in more conservative areas of the country, like the South.

As a general rule, the DLC thinks the party should steer clear of populist positions, which translates into staunch support for free trade, wariness of market regulation and opposition to universal single-payer health care.

Among other things, the DLC is anxious to make sure likely Dem presidential nominee Barack Obama has a strong, clear national defense message in his campaign.

Here's the group's announcement about the upcoming meeting:

by Frank James

Our colleagues at the L.A. Times's "Top of the Ticket blog" brought to our attention a YouTube video that has gotten more than two million views in a little over a week.

It's called "I'm Voting Republican" and essentially caricatures GOP voters in ways many Democrats will get a laugh from and that will incense many Republicans.

We await the Republican response video.

(Charles Riede, AP File Photo)

by Frank James

When Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat, broached the idea for the nationalization of the nation's oil refineries at a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday, it was a safe bet that congressional Republicans would seize on a patently controversial idea to paint House Democrats in toto as extreme.

The office of Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House Minority Leader, didn't disappoint. Last night, they put up a press release that started this way:

Bombshell: House Democrats Call for Government Takeover of Oil Refineries

Should the Federal Government Run the Entire Oil Industry? Senior Dem Says: "To Me, That Sounds Like a Very Good Idea"

It continued to strike this note:

In front of a sea of news cameras at a press conference earlier today, when senior House Democrats discussed the ongoing energy crisis that has spun out of control on their watch, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) dropped this bombshell as he stood next to House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL): He proposed a Washington takeover of the entire oil industry!...

Andrew Zajac

With the primaries out of the way, the political theater gets a bit more pointed.

Americans United for Change, the liberal Democratic-oriented advocacy group, this morning announced a bus tour to spotlight the perceived policy failings of the Bush Administration.

Can a PR campaign framing John McCain's candidacy as a third Bush term be far behind?

Here's a copy of the AUC release:
Spread the Word...You Are Invited....
To the Bush Legacy Bus Kickoff and Cook Out

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 @ 11:30 A.M.
At the AFLCIO in Washington, DC
815 16th Street, NW
(within sight of the White House!!)

Join us for Free Food and Drinks (courtesy of the AFLCIO) and The Unveiling of the Bush Legacy Bus - A Museum on Wheels Dedicated to Chronicling the Disastrous Legacy of President Bush and the Conservative Policies he and His Allies Have Pursued. The cookout will begin at 11:30 A.M. - a short speaking program will commence at 12:30 P.M.

Please Join us for this Important Event and Spread the Word. Progressives CANNOT Allow The History of The Bush Presidency and the Consequences of Conservative Ideology to be Defined by Others. If we are to Achieve the Progressive Future and Solutions to the Nation's Intractable Problems That we All Crave - We have to Define Bush-Conservative Ideology for What it is: A Disaster. Hope to See You on Tuesday.
------------------
Hardcore AUC fans and/bus construction junkies can click here for a slide show of the aforementioned legacy bus.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee today added 14 more challengers to its Red to Blue program, which gives Democrats running in Republican districts access to party money and advice.

The new designees, who bring the Red to Blue list to 37, include Joe Garcia, the former Cuban-American National Foundation director now challenging Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart in South Florida, and Gerry Connolly, the Fairfax County official running to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Davis in Northern Virginia.

"The candidates for change being named to the DCCC Red to Blue program are running strong campaigns and are committed to making things easier for middle class families in their districts," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who chairs the campaign committee. "With less than five months to make their case for change to voters in their districts, the Red to Blue program will give these candidates the financial and structural edge to be even more competitive in November."

A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed the list.

"The DCCC is now trotting out their B-list candidates for the sake of landing a cheap press hit," spokesman Ken Spain said. "The truth of the matter is that many of these very same candidates have been running for months, but had been rejected for admittance into the Red to Blue program because Chris Van Hollen and the DCCC doubted their viability."

by Matthew Hay Brown

Riding the enthusiastic support of the antiwar left, Democratic attorney and activist Donna Edwards has won a special election in Maryland's Fourth Congressional District, completing a multiyear effort to wrest the seat from the more moderate Rep. Albert R. Wynn.

After her first primary challenge against Wynn, a Democrat who voted to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq, fell just short in 2006, Edwards defeated the incumbent soundly on her second try in February.

Rather than complete his term, Wynn resigned from the seat to take a job as a lobbyist, setting up Tuesday's special election. Edwards, 49, becomes the first African-American woman to represent Maryland in Congress.

"Donna Edward's campaign successfully amassed resounding support from residents of Maryland's 4th Congressional district," said Democratic Rep. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "Her training as a spirited activist and grassroots organizer will translate well in the halls of Congress."

A favorite of antiwar groups and labor unions, Edwards had been heavily favored to beat self-described Ron Paul Republican Peter James in the suburban Washington district where Democrats hold a 5-1 edge in voter reigstration.

"Congresswoman-Elect Edwards has spent her career fighting tirelessly to bring hope and opportunity for Maryland's working families," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, whose Maryland district borders the Fourth. "That same spirit and commitment to working for change will make her an outstanding addition to our Democratic Caucus and a powerful voice for a New Direction in Washington."

by Frank James

House Democrats responded to President Bush's proposal to end the moratorium on drilling for oil offshore as well as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by telling the president to drop dead, although they used a lot more words to make the same point.

The Democrats' main argument was that the oil industry is already in possession of 68 million acres of oil leases and that Big Oil should drill away on those before they come around asking the federal government for any more land or ocean floor.

At a Capitol Hill press conference following Bush's White House Rose Garden appearance, Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts ridiculed the president as essentially a mouthpiece for the oil and gas industry.

Then he urged Bush to support legislation that would charge oil companies fees that would increase the longer the companies hold onto the leases without producing oil on them:

And you know, today is an historic day. The president has decided to take out some of the oldest ideas which the oil and gas industry have had for destroying the most pristine wilderness and shoreline that we have in the United States. After eight years, President Bush and Dick Cheney have turned the GOP into the "Gas and Oil Party." That's the legacy that they are going to leave.

And what we're going to do, Mr. (Rahm) Emanuel, Mr. (Nick) Rahall, Mr. (Maurice) Hinchey and the Democratic Party is going to do, is we're going to give them a chance in the White House to put their money where their mouth is. We're going to give them a chance to impose fees on the oil industry on the public lands where they do not drill, where the American people have already given them an opportunity to drill. And we will increase the fees as the years go by, because otherwise, they will have wound up warehousing where the oil is in the United States that the American people, the Democratic Party, everyone wants them to drill, but they're refusing to drill, and at the same time, they're insisting that we should go to places that should be preserved forever.

by Frank James

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, one of Congress's best trash talkers, has some ideas on where President Bush can go.

Riffing off Bush's recent farewell tour to Europe, Emanuel, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, suggests, tongue-in-cheek, the president take a similar tour of the U.S.

Obviously, Emanuel is engaging in some Bush-bashing here, but it's a clever and entertaining form of Bush-bashing. Take a look.

EMANUEL CALLS ON BUSH TO TAKE AMERICAN FAREWELL TOUR

Visit the Treasury Department and learn more about the $236 billion annual surplus you turned into a $410 billion deficit this year. Ask how we managed to accrue $3 trillion in new debt.

by Frank James

Has the U.S. passed the point where it can enjoy the luxury of restricting drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and even the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

That is clearly the decision that's been made by Sen. John McCain, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, who now supports drilling off the U.S. coast, though he's still hanging on, for now, to his opposition to drilling in Alaska. Florida politicians and fellow Republicans like Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez have followed suit.

President Bush has long supported drilling in Alaska but is now calling for lifting the federal ban on off-shore drilling.

Democrats, at least to this point, are showing no such change of heart. Indeed, it will be harder for Democrats to make a similar shift because the party has an environmental constituency that would make such a move painful for any Democratic politician who dares suggest that such drilling bans be lifted.

Many Democrats and environmentalists argue the nation can't "drill it's way out of the problem," that any effort to increase the domestic production of oil just continues the nation's addition to that energy source by postponing the needed transition to alternative and renewable fuel sources and increased conservation.

by Matthew Hay Brown

After a primrary season divided between two of their colleagues, the Democratic women of the Senate rallied together behind a 10-item Checklist for Change they said they would pursue through the rest of the election season.

"This is a way to show that whether you were for Hillary or whether you were for Barack, that we've come together," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who was a national co-chairwoman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. "It's all part of our momentum for the campaign."

Mikulski and fellow Clinton supporters Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington, Dianne Feinstein of California, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan now will be working to woo women, seen as a key segment of the electorate, on behalf of Barack Obama.

Joined by Obama supporters Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Barbara Boxer of California, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who remained neutral during the primary campaign, they unveiled a to-do list that included providing equal pay for equal work, keeping jobs in America, making healthcare affordable and taking care of military families and veterans.

"We've looked at the macro issues," Mikulski said. "But also, it's our special task to look at the macaroni-and-cheese issues - the issues that affect American families."

Sen. Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Friday, June 6, 2008, during an unscheduled stop at the Chicago 2016 Olympic Rally in Chicago at Daley Plaza.(Chicago Tribune photo by Heather Stone)

by Amanda Erickson

Chicago's taking a political backseat to the likes of likes of New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Little Rock no longer. Thanks to Barack Obama, it's back in the spotlight as the headquarters of the Democratic Party.

In a Politico article, David Paul Kuhn writes that the city has become central to American politics and the Democrats' efforts to retake the White House this year. "Chicago," Kuhn writes, "is the new capital of the Democratic Party."

It's only fair. The city has a storied history of painting the town blue. According to Kuhn, it has hosted 25 nominating conventions. It's where Abraham Lincoln was nominated by the new Republican Party in 1860. And it controversially "delivered" just enough votes in 1960 to squeeze John F. Kennedy past Richard Nixon for the White House. It's where where Bill Clinton accepted renomination in 1996.

But in the last ten years, Kuhn writes, Chicago has played a bit part in the national presidential election drama. It's been more than a decade since Dems met in Chicago, and more than 50 years since a nominee had broad Chicagoland roots.

Not anymore. The city's political scene features a 33,000 square foot Michigan Avenue campaign office for Obama and vital Democratic National Committee operations, as well as Richard M. Daley, who the article considers one of the nation's most influential Democratic mayors.

by Frank James

It's probably safe to assume that Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican, knows he wasn't one of the "Friends of Angelo," as in Mozilo, the former chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial.

That's because Hensarling is calling for a congressional investigation into members of Congress who might have received preferential treatment on mortgages from Countrywide.

As Portfolio magazine first reported, Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were among the FOAs who apparently got discounts on VIP loans from Countrywide.

Both senators have said they were unaware that they were being favored with preferential treatment, with Conrad, according to NPR, going so far as giving $10,000 to Habitat for Humanity, the amount he calculates he unknowingly saved when Mozilo waived closing points on his loan.

Hensarling and Washington watchdogs are calling for a congressional probe in order to examine just how widespread the practice was, just how many lawmakers were FOAs.

But the odds of such a probe are long. It may not just be Democrats that get embarrassed (only Democrats who've been involved so far, including James Johnson who recently left Sen. Barack Obama's campaign) but Republicans too.

Here's a snippet to that effect from Politico.com:

by Mark Silva

It is not a senator or congressman, but Jeff Alberici, a father of three from upstate New York, who is delivering the Democratic Radio Address today.

In celebration of Father's Day Weekend, the party wants to talk about the economy.

"As the economy continues to decline, the costs of living rise and middle-class life becoming less affordable, it is harder and harder for families to make ends meet,'' the Senate Majority Office explains. "That is why, Alberici says, he and his family support Democrats' efforts to make the American Dream affordable again, even as Republicans block those efforts at every turn.''

See the rest here:

by Frank James

The National Republican Congressional Committee is hitting Sen. Barack Obama and congressional Democrats for hypocrisy, noting the contradiction between Obama vowing that he and the Democratic National Committee will not take lobbyists' money while Hill Democrats will.

What really has Hill Republicans fuming is how congressional Democrats are using Obama and his message of "change" to help raise money but parting company on the whole lobbyist-money issue.

Here's the top of a NRCC press release:

Washington - Despite their well documented opposition to Barack Obama's policy of refusing lobbyist donations, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is ramping up their fraudulent 'change' rhetoric by using their nominee as a front man to disguise their agenda of empty promises in a fundraising plea.

While the Democratic National Committee (DNC) followed Obama's lead and promised to refuse lobbyist donations, the DCCC - which is housed in the very same building - declined to do so. Ironically, Obama is now fundraising on behalf of the committee...

And here, also from the press release, is a statement from NRCC Press Secretary Ken Spain:

"It is the height of hypocrisy for Barack Obama to solicit campaign contributions on behalf of the very same campaign committee that opposes his position of refusing lobbyist donations," "It appears that Democrats want to have it both ways; they want to run on a platform of so-called 'change' while simultaneously shaking down Washington lobbyists before they bash them on the campaign trail."

By Naftali Bendavid

To the various and sundry gaps John McCain must confront this fall--the fundraising gap, the excitement gap, the party approval gap--add one more: the surrogate gap.

Assuming the Clintons recover from their primary battle wounds and campaign hard for Barack Obama, which seems likely, the Democratic candidate could have quite a stable of stars to campaign for him around the country, augmenting his own demonstrated ability to draw a crowd. Consider, just for starters:

= Hillary Clinton herself. She has an impassioned following among working-class voters, women and the elderly. She inspired millions by almost becoming the first woman nominee of a major party. Her supporters remain disappointed by her loss to Obama, but if she campaigns in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, she could generate significant excitement on Obama's behalf.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The Democratic House leadership is preparing to stick the articles of impeachment raised by Rep. Dennis Kucinich Monday night against President Bush on the same shelf that they stuck a similar effort the Ohio Democrat filed last year against Vice President Dick Cheney.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today that the 35-count indictment of Bush, which took Kucinich more than four hours to read on the House floor, would be forwarded to the House Judiciary Committee. The Democratic leadership has opposed impeachment as an unhelpful distraction; the Judiciary Committee is unlikely to pursue further action.

Kucinich, using arguments similar to those he employed last year against Cheney, says Bush misled Congress and the American people into war with tales of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

House leaders were caught off-guard last year when Republicans voted to take up the Cheney impeachment in order to force a debate that could have proved awkward for Democrats. They avoided that debate by sending it to the Judiciary Committee.

Hoyer said today that Kucinich had "an absolute right" to raise the issue. But he questioned whether it made sense to spend time on it during what he called "the waning months" of the Bush administration.

Hoyer said the administration has one of the worst records of any administration in his lifetime, or maybe ever. He said Congress has conducted wide-ranging oversight since Democrats took over last year.

by Matthew Hay Brown

For the first time since he was elected to the Senate 24 years ago, John Kerry, who voted to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq before becoming one of the war's most ardent critics, will face a primary challenge for his Massachusetts seat.

Attorney and former Gloucester city councilman Ed O'Reilly, a onetime commercial lobsterman, won 22.5 percent of the delegates today at the Democratic state convention in Lowell, Mass., to secure a place on the state primary ballot in September.

"Party officials said this campaign is a nuisance. And it is. It's a total nuisance," O'Reilly said to the convention floor, The Boston Globe is reporting. "Democracy is a nuisance. People said the American Revolution was a nuisance - and it was!"

O'Reilly has been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, the antiwar group that helped activist Donna Edwards unseat eight-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Albert R. Wynn in Maryland earlier this year.

"While we have great respect for Sen. Kerry, we are elated that Ed found more than enough support among the delegates to make the ballot," said Tim Carpenter, national director of PDA. "For too long congressional Democrats have let their Republican counterparts hijack the agenda instead of standing firmly for our American - our Democratic - values."

by Matthew Hay Brown

Hillary Clinton, who is looking to narrow the gap in the popular vote in the primaries that remain, enjoys a 13-point lead of Barack Obama in the largest of the three, according to one poll.

Fifty-one percent of Puerto Ricans said they plan to vote for the New York Democrat when islanders head to the polls on Sunday, according to the survey of 800 released Wednesday by the San Juan newspaper El Vocero and the Spanish-language network Univision.

Thirty-eight percent planned to vote for Obama. Eight percent said they would not vote, and 3 percent didn't know or didn't answer in the survey conducted by the firm of former Bill Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg between May 8 and 20.

It doesn't sound as if Puerto Ricans would be disappointed if Obama won the nomination: Asked whether they would support the Democratic candidate if they could vote in the general election, 72 percent said yes; only 2 percent said it depended on which candidate won the nomination. Ten percent said they would vote for John McCain.

Voter turnout has been projected as high as 1 million in this U.S. territory of 4 million, known for high rates of political awareness and partcipation, but where islanders may not vote for president.

Seventy-two percent of respondents described the primary as very or somewhat important. At stake are 55 pledged delegates, more than Montana and South Dakota combined.

Clinton, who spent three days on the island this week is due back on Saturday, has long been expected to win there. She represents 1 million Puerto Ricans in New York, many of whom have relatives on the island, and benefits from her association with her husband's administration, of which 69 percent of respondents expressed approval.

Obama has spent just 18 hours on the island, but has advertised heavily on local radio and television.

by Frank James

When you watch the Democratic National Convention this summer and see the diverse ocean of faces, keep in mind that the diversity you're witnessing didn't happen by accident.

Instead, it will be the result, in substantial measure, of a very strong affirmative action program within the Democratic Party which at times seems virtually indistinguishable from the use of quotas.

This comes through in an informative Wall Street Journal story by June Kronholz about the other campaign going on in the Democratic Party currently, the effort many people have undertaken to become delegates to the party's national convention in Denver.

The story explains how some candidates for delegate spots host parties at restaurants, bake cookies or produce campaign videos for cell phones in order to win a delegate position. It also explains how various state party organizations go about filling their delegations.

But here's a key passage that speaks to the use of what many would view as quotas.

The states and parties have different ways of filling those seats. Some, like Pennsylvania, put delegates' names on the primary ballot. Party central committees name some delegates in others. But for Washington state's Mr. (Jody) Rodgers, for example, the road to Denver began at a Feb. 9 caucus at his West Seattle elementary school. There, his neighbors elected him an Obama delegate to Seattle's 34th Legislative District convention, which in turn elected him an Obama delegate to the state's 7th Congressional District convention.

The odds are long: The party's big-tent diversity goals reserve six of Washington's convention seats for blacks, 10 for Hispanics, and others for Asian, American-Indian, young, disabled, and gay, lesbian and transgendered Democrats. Any diversity seats that haven't been filled at the congressional-district meeting will be plugged at the state convention.

by Naftali Bendavid

The question of the hour seems to be: Should Barack Obama put Hillary Clinton on the ticket?

The idea of a Democratic "dream ticket," of course, has been out there a long time. It originated, you may recall, when Clinton began trailing Obama, and the Clinton camp floated the idea of a Clinton-Obama ticket to persuade voters they could vote for her and get him, too.

More recently it's come up as the natural consequence of one of the closest nomination battles in history. When a fight is this close, with the loser generating enormous support and passion in her own right, there's a certain logic to simply putting both candidates on the ticket. (The satirical newspaper The Onion suggested the possibility of a "nightmare ticket," featuring Obama, McCain and Clinton.)

The speculation has been fueled further by a couple of recent news reports. The New York Times suggested that Bill Clinton would like his wife to be Obama's running mate if she is not the nominee. CNN reported that extremely preliminary talks have begun between the two camps about an Obama-Clinton ticket. My sense is that there is no serious attempt, as yet, to make this happen.

by Matthew Hay Brown

PEÑUELAS, Puerto Rico -- A week before this U.S. territory votes in the Democratic primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton said today she would work to resolve the debate that has paralyzed island politics for generations -- during her first term in the White House.

"I will as your president on day one work with all of the factions here in Puerto Rico and with the Congress to enable you to determine your status by majority vote among all of the options that are available," she told several dozen supporters in this southern town on the Caribbean Sea. "I wish to get this accomplished within the first four years of my term."

Resolving the political status of this island of 4 million would be an ambitious goal. Islanders have long been split between statehood and the status quo; unless a clear majority emerges for change, Washington is unlikely to reconsider the current relationship.

Clinton, like Sen. Barack Obama, has been careful to avoid choosing sides in the status debate. Like other American politicians, they say they would support whatever option a clear majority of Puerto Ricans chooses.

During her first visit of the presidential campaign -- she stopped in the western town of Aguadilla on Saturday, and makes a couple of appearances in San Juan tonight -- Clinton highlighted her experience with Puerto Rico.

by Frank James

Sen. Barack Obama and his campaign evidently feel they have found a productive line of attack against Sen. John McCain on the veterans' benefits issue. That's the most obvious explanation for why the senator from Illinois returned to the subject on Saturday while campaigning in Puerto Rico.

Obama supports the Democrats' version of a bill which passed the Senate on Thursday and would make expanded college education benefits available to veterans after a three-year enlistment.

McCain, the White House and the Pentagon oppose that approach because they say it would give too many service members a reason to leave the military, after only at a relatively brief enlistment, at a time when the forces are already stretched thin and the Army and Marines are trying to grow their overall strength in order to field enough forces in Iraq and Afghanistan while adding to the U.S. ability to respond to crises elsewhere in the world.

But while the Democrats' plan is more liberal in one respect--the relative short enlistment needed to qualify for the full benefit--the Republican plan has a liberal feature the Democratic plan lacks. It would allow veterans to transfer their benefits to family members.

In any event, one of the more interesting aspects about Obama's strategy is that his campaign has clearly decided to go after a McCain strength and turn it into a weakness, his biography as a Navy fighter pilot and a prisoner-of-war, which gives him a strong natural political base within the active and retired military community.

by David Lerman

In his new book, Virginia Sen. Jim Webb describes an America that lacks a coherent national security strategy while bogged down in a war that should never have been fought.

It is a country, he says, where the economic disparities between rich and poor have reached frightening levels.

And it is a nation, he says, that is waging an ineffective battle against crime by locking up more than 2 million residents-- or 25 percent of the world's reported prisoners.

The book, ``A Time to Fight: Reclaiming a Fair and Just America," resurrects the basic themes of his 2006 election campaign, when he ousted Republican Sen. George Allen and helped bring Democrats to power on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton walks out of the home of Eddie and Robin Clark for a campaign rally in Prestonsburg, Ky., Monday, May 19, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

by Rick Pearson

PRESTONSBURG, Ky.--Deep in the coal-rich mountains of eastern Kentucky, Sen. Hillary Clinton began wrapping up her last full day of campaigning in the Bluegrass State before tomorrow's primary by telling supporters "there is no way that this is going to end anytime soon" despite Sen. Barack Obama's frontrunner status.

Acknowledging Obama will likely win Oregon while she expects to take Kentucky in tomorrow's ballot counting, Clinton and her supporters urged a large turnout to offset the perception driven by the daunting delegate math that the race is all but over.

"As of today, I have won more votes than any person who's ever run for president in either party to be nominated," she said, speaking to a crowd of several hundred people from the front porch of supporters Eddie and Robin Clark. "And I am so grateful for that. I lead Sen.Obama in the popular vote. I think that's a great indication and I'm hoping to add to those numbers tomorrow with your votes in Kentucky."

By Rick Pearson

LOUISVILLE--During his bid for the presidency, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was known to be quick with a quip, using his background as a motivational speaker to make audiences laugh.

But a few hours after he appeared before the National Rifle Association's annual meeting yesterday, the Baptist minister and former Republican presidential contender was forced to apologize for an off-the-cuff comment that backfired.

Huckabee was among a number of prominent Republicans who used the NRA's "Celebration of American Values" at the Kentucky Exposition Center to argue that Democrats would take away gun-owner rights.

During his speech, a crashing sound was heard from off-stage.

"That was Barack Obama," Huckabee said. "He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he--he dove for the floor."

Even before a friendly audience, Huckabee's line fell flat and, later, he issued an apology. "I made an offhand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama," Huckabee said. "I apologize that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention."

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, left, announces his resignation Wednesday, May 14, 2008 in the Cabinet room of the Governor's office in Columbus, Ohio. At right is Gov. Ted Strickland. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

Andrew Zajac

It didn't take long. Five weeks from the first report of sexual harassment in Marc Dann's office to his resignation in Columbus late this afternoon.

Democrats are hoping this calms the political waters in the run-up to the November election, but don't count on it.

The state inspector general, acting under special authority granted yesterday by the General Assembly, raided Dann's office earlier today and removed computers and files.

That virtually guarantees the scandal will have legs long after Dann's departure.

A lingering inquiry could have implications for the presidential race. Revelations of criminal behavior or even just more sleaze would make selling Barack Obama, in particular, more difficult for Ohio Democrats.

Sen. Hillary Clinton in Charleston, West Virginia, May 13, 2008. (Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

The Hill newspaper draws back the curtain on something a lot of people, including me, didn't know. Sen. Hillary Clinton was the motive force behind the Senate Democrats's war room to combat their Republican colleagues and which has contributed to the poisonous partisan politics in that chamber.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was the original impetus behind the Senate Democratic "war room," a legacy the candidate does not mention on the campaign trail but one that has significantly changed the upper chamber.

Daschle did not respond to several requests for comment.

Travis Childers delivers his victory speech in Booneville, Miss., Tuesday night May 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Michael H. Miller)

by Jill Zuckman

Another Republican district bites the dust.

First, House Republicans lost previously safe seats in Louisiana and Illinois - including the one belonging to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Last night, they lost a third in Mississippi.

Travis Childers, a Democrat, defeated Republican Greg Davis in a special election to fill the remaining months of the congressional term. The seat had been held by Roger Wicker who moved to the U.S. Senate after Trent Lott stepped down.

"The scoreboard now reads 'Change 3, Status Quo 0,'" crowed Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "In districts across the country, the American people are rejecting Bush Rubberstamp Republicans and casting their votes for real change."

House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a somber statement calling the news "a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide."

Andrew Zajac

One more sign congressional Republicans may be in for a rough ride this election season: Democrats are fielding strong candidates in GOP breadbasket districts, like the western Miami-Dade county redoubt of Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart.

Diaz-Balart cruised to victory in 2006 with nearly 59 percent of the vote, but he faces an energetic and savvy challenger in Democratic operative Joe Garcia, who is wasting no time in zinging the GOP incumbent as obsessed with Castro at the expense of bread-and-butter economic issues.

In the not-too-distant past, no Castro obsession was too strong for the rabidly anti-Fidel exile community in south Florida. But the 1960s-era generation of exiles is aging and their children and grandchildren don't always take the same rock-hard line toward Cuba.

Garcia himself has the street cred to call out Diaz-Balart on Cuba because he is a former director of the ardently anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation.

Click here for a taste of what Garcia's throwing at the Diaz-Balart -- and at his brother, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, who occupies a neighboring seat and holds similar Cuban policy views.

Andrew Zajac

Faced with a scandal-soiled attorney general who won't go away, the Ohio Democratic Party is trying a 'if you can't beat Marc Dann, erase him' strategy.

Click here to get to the ODP web site. Then click on 'elected officials'.

Whoa. Where's Marc Dann?

There's a statement on the front page of the web site from top Democrats asking Dann to step down, but his bio listing is gone.

Here's some background on why Ohio Dems are so eager to see Dann disappear.

The Democrats attempted erasure recalls those old Kremlin group photos in which a commissar or field marshal who'd fallen from favor was airbrushed out of the pic.

Except in those cases, the pariah really was gone, to the gulag, the grave or, if he was lucky, to a gilded confinement at his dacha.

Dann's still around, vowing to ride out the heat from both parties. But it's hard to imagine an end game that works out favorably for him. One factor in his intransigence may be lack of another job. Word is that Dann has been calling around to various Ohio politicos looking for a place to land.

by Frank James

Tom Edsall of the Huffington Post writes about the Obama campaign's efforts to cut a deal with the Clinton camp that would allow the former to help pay off the latter's campaign debt as a way of buying peace in the party i.e. getting her to end her campaign.

But there are problems. As Edsall reports:

The first is obvious: the deep and growing animosity of Obama supporters towards Clinton, whom they see as raising issues of race and 'elitism' that will hurt the Illinois Senator in November.

For many Obama backers, Penn, the former chief strategist for Clinton
and head of one of the biggest PR-lobbying conglomerates in the nation's
capital, is the quintessential Washington insider, capitalizing on political
connections to become a multi-millionaire.

If you run a presidential campaign that skewers Washington lobbyists, as Obama has, it would send a contradictory message to turn around and indirectly drop a cool $10 million or more into the lap of one of Washington's wealthiest lobbyists.

Then there's one more problem for Obama, as Edsall reports: a lot of his supporters viscerally hate the Clinton campaign and might revolt if he helps her pay down her debt.

by Matthew Hay Brown

In the public service announcement they taped recently to promote cleaner energy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Speaker Newt Gingrich joked that they don't agree on much.

It sounds now as if they can add a second item to the list.

Earlier this week, Gingrich pleaded with fellow Republicans to "chart a bold course of real change" or face "catastrophe" at the polls in November.

Pelosi appears to agree.

"Right now I would say we would gain seats," the California Democrat told reporters Thursday. "I wouldn't venture a guess as to how many. But I do see November as a time of great victory for the Democrats."

With special election wins in Illinois and Louisiana, Democrats already have increased their House majority by two seats this year. Pelosi says a major electoral shift is underway.

"We will have an historic election as to whom we elect as the president of the United States, either the first woman or the first African American, but a person who can unify America," she said. "We will have a strong, confident, predictable Democratic Majority to take us forward, and then we will be in 2010, 2012, and on the path to a strong Democratic leadership for a long time to come."

by Matthew Hay Brown

House Democrats are taking exception to President Bush's dismissal today of a housing bill expected to pass today in the House.

Bush, after meeting this morning with House Republicans, said he would veto the bill to insure new loans for cash-strapped homeowners. The White House has called it a "bailout;" Bush said today it would reward "speculators and lenders."

"American families confronting foreclosue deserve better from the president than a veto threat," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in response to Bush's remarks. "They deserve the House's bipartisan housing plan that will protect the American dream of home ownership."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was more pointed.

"As the second term of his failed presidency winds to an end, President Bush has little left on the agenda but finger-pointing. With gas prices skyrocketing and with Americans losing their homes to foreclosure at record rates, the president can do little but blame, criticize, and pass the buck. ... Americans saw today an Administration out of leadership, and a president out of ideas."

Bush said he was "committed to a good housing bill that will help folks stay in their house, as opposed to a housing bill that will reward speculators and lenders. There's a House alternative that will do the right thing for the American people when it comes to housing."

by Matthew Hay Brown

House Democrats picked up an anti-abortion member over the weekend with the special election victory of Don Cazayoux, and could gain another if Travis Childers defeats Greg Davis in Mississippi next week. So does that mean the caucus, which has relied on the support of voters who favor legal abortion, is growing more conservative?

"This is not a party issue," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said this morning, when asked the question at his weekly meeting with the Capitol press corps. "We don't make that a party issue. We don't whip that issue. Members have to vote their conscience on that issue, and do."

Hoyer, himself a moderate Democrat from conservative Southern Maryland, listed the issues that unite the party as "the quality of life for real people, jobs, their health care, their education for their kids, and their national security and homeland security and security at home."

"That is why people are Democrats," Hoyer said. "And that is what distinguishes, I think, the Democratic Party from the Republican Party. The social issues are issues which people feel strongly about for one reason or another. But the issues that I think you will see pretty consistent Democratic unity on are issues affecting families every day."

by Matthew Hay Brown

With the victory Saturday of former prosecutor and state legislator Don Cazayoux to the Louisiana seat last held by Republican Richard Baker, House Democrats have gained another seat ahead of the November election.

In March, Democrat Bill Foster won the special election in Illinois to succeed Republican former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. The Democratic House majority now stands at 235, up two since the elections of 2006.

"Democrats are winning in solidly Republican districts because the country agrees it's time for a change from the status quo in Washington," House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel said today. "Louisiana has sent a clear message about that need for change."

In a memo circulated late Saturday, the National Republican Congressional Committee said there was a lesson to be learned from the result.

"When Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi were introduced into this campaign, Don Cazayoux was leading by a large margin in the polls," the NRCC said. "Since then, Republicans saturated the Baton Rouge airwaves in an effort to nationalize this contest and make the election about the real life consequences of a Barack Obama presidency and a continued Pelosi-run Democratic Congress. In that time, Republicans made substantial ground.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Perhaps it was a coincidence. Or, perhaps, the Obama campaign wanted to remind anyone who might have been paying attention Saturday that they've got Kennedys, too.

Two e-mails relating to the Democratic dynasty landed in our inbox Saturday afternoon. First came the news from the Clinton campaign that the Maryland State Democratic Committee had elected former Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and a Hillary supporter, an automatic delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Just 96 minutes later, and another Kennedy heard from: Townsend's cousin Caroline, daughter of John F. Kennedy, writing on behalf of Obama.

"My father called on Americans to ask what they could do for their country," she said.

"Those who answered his call built a movement that transformed our country and brought out the best in our national character.

"Barack Obama has followed in that tradition - dedicating himself to public service as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago and then as a state and U.S. Senator."

What follows is a pitch for the Obama Organizing Fellowship, for which the campaign is seeking students and recent graduates who "will be trained on the basics of organizing & campaign fundamentals and then placed in a community to carry out grassroots activities."

In Democratic circles, Caroline Kennedy, the sole surviving heir to Camelot, might be the more influential of the two cousins. As of Saturday, however, Kennedy Townsend is the one who gets to vote at the convention.

(Photo by Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

Sen. Richard Durbin knew he potentially could be stepping on a cow pie yesterday if he didn't carefully answer a reporter's question yesterday about the inflationary effect U.S. ethanol mandates might be having on food prices around the world.

The Senate's second-in-commade represents Illinois, after all, a state with large farm interests. And his party's presidential and congressional fortunes also depend on voters in states significant agricultural interests.

So Durbin was not only careful in what he said, but he was clear in asking reporters to report his answer accurately. He basically acknowledged that ethanol is part of the problem without saying much that would offend farmers. Budding politicians should study it as a great example of how to straddle an issue.

REPORTER: Senator Durbin, a lot of people, hunger experts, say that the demand for biofuels, ethanol and other biofuels, is contributing a lot to the increase in prices.

But we have to understand that it's had an impact on food prices, and let's be honest about it. Even in the corn belt, we'd better be honest about it.

by Frank James

Despite all the pleas by Democratic Party officials, including Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, that his party's superdelegates make up their minds and soon, about whom they'll support for their party's presidential nomination, there are apparently still unswayed superdelegates who might wait all the way to the convention.

According to a Los Angeles Times story today:

But many superdelegates preferred their place on the fence, content to watch as the race plays out. "I feel no compulsion whatsoever to cast my vote until the convention, but I may make a determination following the primaries," said Nancy Worley, vice chairwoman of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Larry Gates, the Kansas state chairman, said he too was content to wait, knowing any decision he makes is bound to tick off somebody. "I like them both," he said of Clinton and Obama. "Always have."

Workers leave the Warren Truck Assembly in Warren, Mich. during a shift change, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

by Frank James

For Sen. Barack Obama, there's good and bad news as far as white working-class voters are concerned.

The good news is that the kind of voters who once again showed in Pennsylvania their unwillingness to vote for him are declining as a percentage of the electorate.

The bad news is that their proportion among voters generally isn't going to shrink fast enough to help him.

That and other conclusions can drawn from a new and very enlightening paper by Ruy Teixeira, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University.

In "The Decline of the White Working Class and the Rise of a Mass Upper Middle Class," Teixeira and Abramowitz say that however you define the white working class--by income, education, or occupation--its percentage among all voters is declining. It has fallen 30-50 percentage points since the World War II period till now.

Depending on which definition you use, the white-working class population has gone from being the vast majority of white Americans 60 years ago to a third or less of then white population.