Back From New York

Just got back from SNAP's first New York City fundraiser, and it was a huge success. The energy and commitment of our guests are an inspiration to keep up the work of effecting progressive change. And the funds we raised tonight will enable four more students to devote their summer full time to that work.

Geraldine Ferraro struck a chord with everyone in the room when she said:

I wasn't a student activist in college because my father had died when I was eight and I had to work some nights, most weekends and every summer to help my mother financially. That's why I'm glad that with the help of SNAP, students who are financially strapped as I was, can still participate in the process.

The final numbers are still coming in, but we can already announce that tonight's event raised over $10,000. That's a major step forward towards causing the kind of change we know is possible this summer. But we still have a ways to go. Your donation is crucial to making that possible.

As Carolyn Maloney told the crowd:

SNAP is empowering the next generation of progressive leaders, and it's ensuring that those leaders will be as diverse and dynamic as this country.

Special thanks to Congresswomen Ferraro and Maloney, to the Vladeck family, to our event committee - Gloria Steinem, Sean Patrick Maloney, and Representatives Gary Ackerman and Jerrold Nadler - and to our hosts: Elisabeth Kalogris, Presta Bansal, Brian Ellner, Mickey Dobbs, Felice Gaer, Robert Rifkind, Nancy Rubin, and Shelley Rubin.

Look out for an upcoming SNAP fundraiser near you - or let us know if you want to host one yourself!

Meanwhile, check out these pictures:

Cook Political Report

Dear SNAP
Just passing along the information from the Jan 13th COOK Political Report. Here is the list of competive house races.
Likely Democrats
CA 20th Jim Costa
KS 3rd Dennis Moore
IN 7th Julia Carson[Snap PAC Endorsed]
NY 1st Tim Bishop
NY 27th Brian Higgins
ND AL Earl Pomeroy
OR 5th Darlene Hooley
SC 5th John Spratt
SD AL Stephaine Herseth
TN 04 Lincoln Davis
UT 02 Jim Matheson
11 total
Lean Democratic
CO 3rd John Salazar
GA 8th Jim Marshall
GA 12th John Barrow
IA 3rd Leonard Boswell
LA 3rd Charlie Melacon
TX 17th Chet Edwards
WA 2nd Rick Larsen
VT AL Open Seat
8 total
Toss UP
IL 8th Melissa Bean
OH 6th Open Seat[Strickland]
Total 2
Likely Republican
AZ 1st Rick Renzi
CA 11th Richard Pombo
C0 4th Marilyn Musgrave
CT 5th Nancy Johnson[Snap Pac Endorsed Opponent Chris Murphy]
FL 8th Ric Keller
FL 9th [Open Seat] Bilirakis
FL 13th [Open Seat] Harris
Il 6th [Open Seat] Hyde
KY 2nd Ron Lewis
KY 3rd Anne Northup
LA 7th Charles Boustany
MN 2nd John Kline
NV 2nd Open Seat [Gibbons]
NV 3rd Jon Porter
NH 2nd Charlie Bass
NJ 7th Mike Ferguson
NY 20th John Sweeney
NY 29th Randy Kuhl
NC 8th Robin Hayes
OH 1st Steve Chabot
OH 15th Deborag Pryce
PA 7th Curt Weldon
PA 10th Don Sherwood
Total 24
Lean Republican
CA 50th Open Seat [Cunningham]
CT 2nd Rob Simmons[ Snap Pac Endorsed Joe Courtney]
CT 4th Chris Shays [Snap Pac Endorsed Diane Farrell]
FL 22nd Clay Shaw
IN 2nd Chris Chocola
MN 6th Open Seat[Kennedy]
NC 11th Charles Taylor
PA 8th Mike Fitzpatrick
WA 8th Dave Reichert
WI 8th Open Seat [Green]
Total 9
Toss UP
AZ 8th Open Seat[Kolbe]
CO 7th Open Seat[Beauprez]
IA Open Seat [Nussle]
IN 8th John Hostettler
IN 9th Mike Sodrel
NM 1st Heather Wilson
OH 18th Bob Ney
PA 6th Jim Gerlach[Snap PAC Endorsed Lois Murphy]
TX 22nd Tom Delay[Snap PAC Endorsed Nick Lampson]
Total 9

So these are the 63 races where control will most likely be decided though I think
Democrats might but a few more into play. Such as the CA 26th,FL 16th IL 11th KY 4th
MI 7th MI 8th MI 9th MI 11th NJ 3rd NY 3rd NY 19th NY 24th NY 25th VA 2nd VA 5th VA 11th.
Maybe a few more depending on candidates and some of these could fall out.

Combustible Materials

Twelve miners died after the Sago Mine explosion in West Virginia, and a thirteenth is in critical condition. That much has been all over the news this week. What hasn't been, as Jordan Barab reminds us, is the mine's 200 citations by the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the year leading up to this horrific but preventable accident. That includes 21 citations for "accumulation of combustible materials," the likely fuel source for this kind of tragedy. The Sago mine had three times the industry average for accidents. The highest of the penalties for these citations? A $878 fine. But as Jordan notes, most of the penalties were closer to $60.

The human tragedy in West Virginia might give pause to some of the ardent libertarians committed to arguing that miners willfully and knowingly take risks upon themselves by entering into free contract arrangements, and that the industry which employs them will correct itself for the sake of free-market competition for employees. But not Glenn Reynolds. Why consider the perverse incentives that led to twelve men's deaths when you can instead blame the media for passing along rumors that they hadn't died?

The miners' families aren't in anguish because of false reports that these men were alive. They're in anguish because these men are dead.

Abramoff Pleads Guilty

Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion under a plea bargain which limits him to ten years in prison. As Josh Marshall observes:

This seems more like the beginning of a long process. They go after Ney first and continue their investigation, with Abramoff's fate hanging in the balance, depending on how cooperative he chooses to be in providing information on coconspirators and sundry bad acts.

Abramoff is a bad, bad man (more on this from me here, here, and here) who did bad things not - as talking heads will tell you tomorrow - out of simple personal greed but as a devoted cog in a fundamentally corrupt corporate-political alliance which continues to wreak havoc on the country. So taking away his toys and using his testimony to go after his proven accomplices is a step - but only a step - in restoring honor and integrity to government.

Max Sawicky offered a sobering reminder that even if we're facing a "Watergate moment," Watergate itself, and the Democrats' response, failed to stem the rising conservative tide in this country:

Watergate ushered in a generation of Democratic politicians with little in the way of ideological commitment other than honesty. Not long after Watergate we got the Reagan revolution. Honesty is not enough.

In response, Josh Marshall argued that

the country was in the midst of a broad shift toward the right...the other side's scandals can reshuffle the political cards temporarily. But it probably won't be for that long if the scandals aren't intrinsically connected to the bases of the afflicted party's power or if their fall-out doesn't catalyze a some deeper political and ideological reconfiguration in the country. Nixon's dirty-tricksterism wasn't at the heart of the rise of the American right in the late 20th century. So it continued on without him.

Thing is, whether you buy Max's argument that the attention to Watergate ultimately hastened the rise of Reaganism or Josh's that it merely failed to do more than slow it, I think the key point going forward is that it's not just the facts on the ground that determine whether the scandals now inundating the White House are understood as "intrinsically connected to the bases of the afflicted party's power." Conservatives, with many in the media in tow, aren't just trying to obscure the partisan nature of the current scandal crop - they're trying to obscure the ideological nature of it. That's because they recognize that this is about more than just the 2006 elections, important as they are - it's about public understandings of what kind of people are fit to lead the country. So it's on progressives to expose not just the partisan narrative behind these scandals but the ideological one as well:

Right-wingers take bribes from men like Jack Abramoff because they represent big business, and they represent wealthy elites pushing policies that hurt working families.

Right-wingers lie about what their intelligence says and how they get it because they need to justify immoral wars that make us less safe and obscure their attacks on our privacy that leave us less free.

Needless to say, these talking points will not win any points from Al From, Chris Matthews, or Joe Klein. But if it's elections you care about, each of these men only gets one vote. And if it's ideological realignment you care about, they may get even less.

The joy of good challengers.

Heading into 06 I have very good news. I could not be more impressed with the depth and breadth of the people stepping forward to run as Democrats for Congress. We can take from their strength. We win because of good candidates. To see some of these candidates yourself, just browse the state sections of www.politics1.com. I will be doing profiles of the candidates we have already endorsed over the coming days and weeks. Until then, always remember who you are fighting with.
Jason