Sending Scranton to the White House

I couldn't be happier.

God Bless NEPA, and God Bless the USA.

Oh, Grandpa...

Anyone who has spent any amount of time with a grandparent has had one of those embarrassing moments when your beloved old granddad refers to a person of color by a less than friendly name, not to demean or incite a race war, but because they're old, and unfortunately, that's "what they called 'em in my day" is usually the best apology he can muster. You, of course, are mortified and feel slimy, not only because you just witness racism in action, but because it came from the mouth of your dementia-addled loved one.

Have you ever imagined what it's like to hear a presidential candidate say something like that? Well imagine no more:

"I hate the gooks," McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. "I will hate them as long as I live."

This gem of 21st century thinking spewed forth from the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain during a campaign stop in February in South Carolina in 2000 when a then-young McCain was apparently trying to out-bigot Karl Rove and company.

"I will call right now, my interrogator that tortured me, a gook," McCain said. "(I can't believe that) anybody doesn't believe these interrogators and prison guards were cruel and sadistic people who deserve the worst appellations possible."
McCain said he does not consider the comment an epithet.
"Gook," he said, "is the kindest appellation I can give."

I wonder if this is why James Dobson has such a problem with John McCain?

Big H/T to The San Francisco Chronicle for this one

President Bush to Survey Damage Caused by President Bush

I love The Onion.

Running for President Five Days a Week

Since I finished school, I've been spending alot of my time in interviews. All sorts of interviews from campaigns to restaurants to taking the civil service test. You see, I'm looking for a job in the hardest time of the year: after the school year. Everyone who just graduated from college is now looking for a job, and everyone who is on summer break is out looking, too. So while I'm searching for the job of my dreams, I need to find a part-time job to help pay the bills in the interim. The former is a goal, the latter is a means to an end. And to reach that end I am often asked, "Will you work weekends?"

Working weekends is mandatory if you're a fireman or a cop. I'm sure that doctors, nurses, x-ray technicians and EMTs all have to work weekends, too. If you work at a restaurant or in a mall, you'll be working weekends as well. It seems like all career paths involve some weekend work, even at home, to get ahead in the office. Both of my parents work in offices and both of them have worked a few weekends, home or at work.

This brings me to my point: if you're trying to get ahead, or at least make it look like you're really trying, you'll work weekends to curry the good favor of the bosses, or whomever it is you need to impress. Like donors, or party leaders, or even voters.

From the Politico: Since effectively capturing the Republican nomination when Mitt Romney dropped out of the race on Feb. 7, John McCain has held just one public campaign event on a weekend.

Larry Sabato: "This statistic will generate further questions about how well McCain has used the gift of three and a half months this spring when he was clearly the GOP choice, while Obama and [Hillary Rodham] Clinton were still slugging it out,”

So taking into consideration that if you want to get ahead in your job, you'll likely volunteer to work weekends, why shouldn't a man who wants to be the leader of the free world work weekends, too?

Women For John McCain

I found this online today, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Announcing "Women for John McCain dot com!!!"

Here's where you can learn about John's maverick stands on women's issues like:

Equal Pay: Rather than voting for legislation supporting equal pay for women, who on average in America earn 75 cents on the dollar earned by equally qualified, educated, and experienced men in comparable jobs, John McCain explained that rather than equal pay for equal work, women need “the education and training”, particularly because “so many of them are heads of their households.”

Teen pregnancy: That’s why John McCain voted against an amendment in the Senate’s 2006 fiscal year budget that would have provided 100 million dollars to our schools to reduce teen pregnancy through sex education, use of contraceptives, lower the incidence of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, make birth control more affordable, and improve access to women’s health care. Because if our teenagers and young adult daughters remain innocent, if we take a stand as Americans to protect them from sex education and birth control until they’re married, we can stop teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases before they start.

Chelsea Clinton: “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.”
~ John McCain at a GOP fundraiser in Washington

Roe v Wade: “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”
~ John McCain

Fun With Numbers

The Times-Leader reports this morning that Barletta now leads Kanjorski in a head to head match up 47-42 will 11% classified as "Other." The poll was conducted in March, and was a survey of 400 likely voters.

The problem with the Barletta camp's spin on the poll results is this: they claim to now hold a 5 point lead over Kanjorski, while the poll itself has a margin of error of -- wait for it -- 4.9 points !

From the TL:

[Barletta Campaign Manager] Galko said the numbers “give real hope to the citizens of Northeastern Pennsylvania” and said the results indicate constituents are “tired of Mr. Kanjorski’s antics and want real change.”


Hmmm.. "real hope" .... who's that popular fella peddling "real hope" these days? Oh right, the Democratic nominee for president. If the best they can do is try to link Obama's message to Barletta's xenophobic campaign, they're going to get crushed.

Let's see if this poll helps Louie raise any money.

This Does Not A "Macaca" Make

A video of Congressman Kanjorksi admitting the Democrats "pushed the envelope" in 2006 to win the midterm elections has been circulating around people's email this past few weeks. In the video, which is posted below, Kanjorski is addressing a group in Ashley during a town hall meeting. While talking about the Democrats' desire to end the Iraq war as a rally cry for the midterm elections, Kanjorski said this:

“But you know the temptation to want to win back Congress — we sort of stretched the facts, and people ate it up."

This "maverick" moment by the congressman has gotten some press and certainly drew the attention of Lou Barletta's campaign.



Somehow, someone got the idea that they should ask Kanjorski about his statement. And when they ask them, they should bring a camcorder with them. And when they tape it, they should make sure it looks like a hidden camera so the footage will look like something on "Nightline."



Now the Barletta camp has denied they had anything to do with the video, which is fine, and frankly may actually be the case. For all we know, it could have been John Yudichak asking the questions. But the video doesn't really have the gotcha! the now-famous George Allen "macaca" video had.

At that time in Virginia, there were allegations of George Allen having less than stellar credentials on matters of race relations. Rumors of a desktop "tree and noose" set, as well as an alleged former membership in the KKK as a young man were beginning to make an impact on the race. Then one afternoon Allen referred to his opponent's researcher (the guy who tapes the opponent's public remarks) as "macaca." While Allen later claimed that he made the word up, the damage was done. The phrase is according to Wikipedia: is a pejorative epithet used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa's Belgian Congo for the native population. It may be derived from the name of the genus comprising macaque monkeys. This incident is also recapped here.

So the bottom line is, following a member of Congress around with a camera might make them upset, and get them to say something "off the script", but dear voters of the 11th CD, don't read into this, there isn't much there.

My Interview with Daren Berringer

Recently I had the opportunity to talk to Daren Berringer, who works with pioneering Democratic strategist Joe Trippi at Trippi & Associates. Daren is a native of Indiana, Pa, which is somewhere between State College and Ohio on I-80, or so I'm told.

In the photo above, you see Daren with then-candidate Howard Dean. Daren is mentioned a few times in Trippi's book, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, which is, if you're a campaign junkie, a must read.




1. How did you get into politics?

In 1995, a friend of mine in Indiana County was preparing to run for
District Attorney. I decided to offer myself up as a volunteer and told him
that I would be more than happy to come by and stuff envelopes, make phone
calls or put up yard signs if he needed it. As it turned out, the more and
more I got involved, the more I got hooked. I ended up managing the
campaign and doing everything from putting together our field plan to
writing scripts for our radio and television ads. It was a great experience
because I had to learn how to do everything on my own. Sink or swim.

2. What was your first "big break" ?

I would have to say that my big break actually came at the misfortune of Bob
Casey losing his primary campaign to now Governor Rendell in the spring of
2002. Nothing to do with now Senator Casey, but that campaign left me with
some bad feelings about politics and I really didn't know what I was going
to do next.

About a month later I received a call from Bruce Andrews who was going to be
managing Congressman Tim Holden's campaign in a now redistricted seat
against then Rep. George Gekas. Bruce wanted me to come aboard as his
deputy to handle the Field and Political departments. By everyone's gauge it
was going to be a huge hill to climb. In fact, of the six districts around
the country where a Democrat member of Congress was now lumped in with an
incumbent Republican, this one had the largest disparity of performance for
Democratic vote - - 60% R to 40% D.

You will remember that this was just after 9/11 and back then, President
Bush's approval ratings were soaring in the 80% range. The Republicans
brought everyone in to help Rep. Gekas. We saw President Bush, V.P. Cheney
and then Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. As for Holden, not one of
the top Democrats in the nation stopped by. They all thought we were dead.

Even though we were outspent by millions of dollars, our team out hustled
the opposition. And as a part of that team, Joe Trippi was our media
consultant. He and I quickly built a bond and well, in the end, we ended up
winning by about 5,000 votes. We were the only Democrat in an incumbent vs.
incumbent district to do so. As a result, Trippi brought me on board the
now historic Dean for America campaign and later I joined his media and
political consulting firm.

3. Have you ever thought about doing something else?

I have. I actually worked in government a couple of times and was bored out
of my mind. I ended up quitting both times to jump on a campaign. And now
every time I think about doing something else, I always realize that if I
did so that I would probably end up quitting to jump into a fight somewhere.
So until I can't do this anymore, I think I am stuck.

4. What are you working on right now?

Well, earlier this year our firm, Joe Trippi & Associates ended its stint
with John Edwards' presidential campaign. I had to good fortune of not only
serving as his national field director, but then later went back to working
with the firm and was able to produce my first presidential commercial in
New Hampshire.

Our firm is now working with several U.S. Senate and Congressional races. I
personally stay involved with Pennsylvania politics by volunteering my
services to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Mary Isenhour, their
executive director asked me to help them out as they ramped up their web
presence. So I became involved with their online communications and
organizing as well as producing viral videos for their use from
time-to-time.

5. Why are you a Democrat?

This is easy. Its because of my mom. I grew up in your typical
lower-middle class single parent family in Indiana, PA. She worked all
kinds of jobs, sometimes two at a time to make ends meet. I will never
forget when I was in grade school, my mom was a shop steward at the Fisher
Scientific plant and they were on strike. In the mornings, instead of
riding the bus, every couple days during the strike my mom would take us to
a donut shop before school. We'd get a couple dozen and some coffee and
then we would drive it over to the workers who were in the cold on the
picket line. My mom wanted us to see the faces of the people she was
fighting for. Well, one day, one of the strikers decided to step in front
of one of the trucks trying to cross the picket line. He died because he
was protecting his job.

At the time I didn't think much about how much we didn't have because my mom
always made sure we had what we needed. In my early 20's I was able to
understand more about all of this and what she had to do to make sure we
were taken care of. It was then I realized that I wanted to be affiliated
with a political party that stood up for people like my mom and the guy who
was willing to risk his life just so he could provide for his family.

6. How do you think the Democrats do on a federal level in 2008?

Democrats are going to surprise a lot of people this year. As long as they
don't get cocky and think that "this is our year" so we are just going to
win, then you will see some upsets no one is looking at right now. If we
keep working hard like we're 10 points down, Democrats can make significant
gains this year.

7. Who are the "rising stars" you see in the Democratic party?

I have had the pleasure to work with some real amazing young people from
across the country over the course of the past two years. I am not going to
mention any names because if I forget someone, I don't want them getting
mad. So instead of giving you the name, I will give you the type of person
who is going to be the rising star.

The rising stars of tomorrow are not the young people who are now hanging
out in all the hot spot political bars. They are not the people who went
the traditional route of getting involved in politics by going straight into
the halls of government with the hope that if they just stick around long
enough and are in the right place at the right time, then someone will
promote them. I think we have seen in recent years at many different levels
of government that this approach has landed a lot of staff in trouble with
the law or have had their ethics seriously challenged.

I think that with the rise of the campaign policies of John Edwards and
Barack Obama not accepting lobbyist contributions, you are witnessing a new
wave of politics and that will result in a new wave of political leaders.
The process will require it. You will begin to see young people who went
out and got involved in other areas of improving their community who will be
the ones who are highly sought after. They will bring a fresh and new
approach to how our government is about to change. My advice is that if you
never went out into the world and gained experience outside of government,
you better watch your back because this next generation of leaders will
probably take your job.

Daren blogs at Joe Trippi's website more regularly than I do here, so check him out.