3 Senate candidates who need our support

Al Franken, the former liberal radio talk show host, comedian and author, is running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota. His opponent is the Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Since there's no Senate race to follow in Pennsylvania this election, I've been following this race the closest.

In short, Coleman has been nothing short of a Bush rubber stamp since he took office in 2002, and it's essential that progressives send him packing. I normally am not a big fan of sharing political ads (ad fatigue is quickly setting in with 16 days to go), but the one above is pretty damning about Coleman and his alleged "investigations" of war profiteering. Take a look at the vid, and drop by Franken's Website and make a donation. Even $5 or $10 can make a difference. The Democrats, regardless of whether Obama wins or not, need as many seats in the Senate as they can to reverse many of Bush's disastrous policies. (And the Senate needs new leadership to go along with a nice majority, too.)

Anyway, Franken, by most accounts I've read, has run a remarkably honest campaign, while Coleman has lamely attempted to use Franken's sardonic wit from his past gigs as a radio host, comedian and author to discredit him. So far, it hasn't worked - right now, Franken is up in the polls, holding a small lead. An average of polls by Quinnipiac, University of Minnesota and Rasmussen gives Franken a four-point lead, but he needs all the help he can get, because Coleman is getting plenty from the RNC and his corporate contributors.

Two other U.S. Senate races that bear watching and deserve our support...

In North Carolina, Kay Hagan is running against Republican incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole. In case you're wondering, yes, this is the same Dole who did a spectacularly bad job as chairman of the NRSC in 2006 in recruiting strong senatorial candidates to challenge weak Democratic senators. For example, She couldn't find anyone better than the detestable Katherine "Cruella de Vil" Harris to unseat mediocre Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson. Even worse, Dole said Democrats were "content with losing in Iraq" on Meet the Press just days before the '06 election. (Anyone still wondering why the GOP got its collective butt kicked in '06?)

Here's hoping that Hagan sends Dole back to North Carolina, or Kansas, or wherever she says she's living, to be with another failed GOP presidential candidate, Bob Dole. Maybe she can help him spend all the money he made off of his Viagra ads (and help him use his medicine, too - eeeewwwwwwww).

The latest Rasmussen poll has Hagan up by four points, but the race is still very, very close. Please drop by Hagan's Website to make a contribution - every dollar will make a difference in this race.

In Georgia, the thoroughly contemptible Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the incumbent Republican, is running for reelection against Jim Martin. Chambliss is the man who ran an incredibly mean-spirited campaign against Sen. Max Cleland in 2002, where his campaign ads criticized Cleland for not helping to defeat Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. (See video above) Of all of the incumbents running for reelection in the Senate, I'd like to see him bounced out more than any other.

Martin, another Vietnam vet, is running a pretty strong campaign, but he too needs our support. Two days ago, an average of three polls showed Martin running a razor-thin two points behind Chambliss. Martin is doing surprisingly well, and he's picking up plenty of support and endorsements, but he's also fighting an uphill battle against an incumbent with plenty of resources in party support and campaign cash.

Chambliss is yet another Republican on a very long list of GOP chickenhawks - a warmonger and Iraq War cheerleader who did all he could to avoid service in Vietnam in the 1960, receiving five student deferments (is he related to Dick Cheney?). Here's hoping that Chambliss' past embrace of Karl Rove tactics that helped him win his seat will come back to bite him this time around. Please drop by Martin's Website to make a contribution as well.

Please, even if it's just $5, support these three very, very important Democratic challengers - three keys to building a larger Democratic majority in the Senate.

Bush's "Whoops!" on Iraq

This Freudian slip is funny - I wonder if there will be a big outcry about what Bush really meant with this gaffe, vis-à-vis Kerry's flub last week? Of course not.

The more distance we get from Kerry's goof, the angrier I get at the GOP's trying to club us over the head with their messages about it. It's hilarious, but sad, too. Keith Olbermann put it best last week when he said that if you take quote in its entire context, there's no way you could cconceivably think that Kerry was referring to the troops: He spoke about being in Texas the day before, and that Bush used to live in Texas, now he's in a state of denial; he spoke of the importance of education and if you don't do well, you can get stuck in Iraq (he was referring, I'm guessing to Bush's bragging about his "C" average at Yale). The context is pretty uunmistakable to anyone who listens to an extended version of the clip, which I have, and not the 20 second clip played over and over on the "news" networks. Even the most partisan of hacks would have to admit that nowhere in his remarks was he even insinuating that the troops are stupid.

In essence, the GOP's running on a gaffe - what a laugh. Hey, they've got nothing else to run on, do they?

I'm sort of echoing Keith Olbermann's commentary from the other night as I type this (Get those clips from my blog Here), but really there is no boundry these people will not cross to stay in power. And I almost just typed, "The only thing they haven't used to stay in power is the military" and then I stopped myself. Because they have. The War in Iraq wasn't conceived solely for the Republicans to stay in power, but it's part of it.

Anyway, back to the boundries thing. Thanks to Karl Rove, "Swiftboating" has entered the political vernacular. In '04, Rove and the Republicans made Kerry, a decorated Vietnam Vet who earned a Silver Star, a Bronze Star Medal and three Purple Hearts, sound like a traitor. How laughable is that, especially considering that most of the ass wipes who are criticizing him have never served one damn day in combat - President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Tony Snow among them. And Kerry isn't the only one that Republicans have done this to - Max Cleland and John Murtha are two other Hall of Fame examples.

What's more curious to me is how combat veterans could possibly support, much less condone and vote for people who see no shame in committing such reprehensible behavior. That's like an African-American supporting a KKK candidate for president.

More Coulter: I just had to

Boy, someone shut up in a hurry? Where did Ann Coulter go? Unfortuately, not to hell, yet. But, her cake hole has been notably silent since her book was exposed as a plagiarized steaming turd. I love how Hannity and Coulter trip over each other trying to attack the Democratic strategist. I gotta give credit here to a man who deserves so little - Alan Colmes. He actually takes Ann to task here on some stuff, and notice how she doesn't answer his question about her comment on John Murtha?

For those of you who don't know, Ann said that Murtha is "The reason soldiers invented fragging."

A bit on Murtha, courtesy Wikipedia:

In 1959, Murtha, then a captain, took command of the 34th Special Infantry Company, Marine Corps Reserves, in Johnstown. He remained in the Reserves after his discharge from active duty until he volunteered for service in the Vietnam War, serving from 1966 to 1967, serving as a battalion staff officer (S-2 Intelligence Section), receiving the Bronze Star with Valor device, two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. He retired from the Reserves as a colonel in 1990, receiving the Navy Distinguished Service Medal.

What's the message here? If you are a war hero, don't run for public office. Just like Max Cleland and John Kerry before him, Murtha is latest victim in the long line of Swiftboat Attacks.

And the part in the beginning of the above video about liberals apologizing about WMDs is a riot.