We've seen lots of hand wringing of late in regard to Obama's most recent position on FISA:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) today announced his support for a sweeping intelligence surveillance law that has been heavily denounced by the liberal activists who have fueled the financial engines of his presidential campaign.

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x-posted at Daily Kos and Calitics

Hi MyDD'ers (and Kossacks and Calitics'istas) -

I would like to invite all of you to join Congressman Jerry McNerney -- the netroots hero who defeated Richard Pombo -- this afternoon at firedoglake's Blue America. But first, I have some great news to tell you.

On Monday, your votes helped Jerry win Senator John Kerry's national "March Madness" campaign competition (along with Rep. Nancy Boyda, KS-2). As a result, Senator Kerry sent over 3 million people an email yesterday asking them to support Jerry, as well as Rep. Boyda, and Senators Tom Harkin and Mark Pryor.

Last night, you did it again. We asked our grassroots and netroots supporters to "Hit a Home Run for Jerry" by raising $300,000 before the Federal Election Commission's March 31st midnight deadline. And, late last night, you hit it out of the park-- a full 24 hours before the deadline.   

More below the flip...

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David Lutrin is on Firedoglake right now talking about his experience running for Congress in Florida's 16th district.  Lutrin didn't get the nomination, that went to now freshman Congressman Tim Mahoney.  Here's Howie Klein on what happened:

Early on in the process- in mid-2005- Dave contacted Democratic Party organizations throughout the district, as well as the state party and the DCCC in Washington. Everyone was enthusiastic and encouraging. Glen Rushing, the DCCC point person for the region, told Dave he was "just the type of candidate we're looking for." He offered to introduce him to Alabama Congressman Artur Davis, the DCCC-appointed mentor for Democratic candidates in the region, who following their first phone conversation offered to help him with his race. Rushing then promised to get him in touch with Florida DCCC chief, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Emanuel's lieutenant for the Southeast.

Then something happened, something very dark and secretive, something people are just uncovering now. DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel found out something that could- and did- change the dynamics of the race in FL-16 dramatically. Emanuel became aware that Mark Foley- well-known for years Inside-The-Beltway, albeit not among his church-going constituents, as a very active (and very hypocritical) homosexual- was molesting the underage male congressional pages, and that he had been for many years. Did Emanuel call the police? Did he even call the staffers who are charged by Congress with looking out for the welfare of the pages? Doesn't look that way. What it does look like is that he called a fast-and-loose Republican businessman he knew, someone, like Emanuel, with elastic values and an even more elastic code of personal ethics. He offered him a congressional seat and all he'd have to do was switch party registration and become a Democrat. That man is freshman Congressman Tim Mahoney.

Suddenly there was a new DCCC point person, John Vogel, and he had no idea who Dave was. Rushing called and suggested Dave talk to someone named... Tim Mahoney. Dave did. And Mahoney offered him an intricate bribe to drop out of the race and run against Republican Bill Young in FL-10 instead. Dave Lutrin never had a single conversation with Rahm Emanuel. But Emanuel's paw prints are all over this operation. It's the way he worked in district after district, everywhere in the country, seeking to find business-friendly, quasi-Republicans who would soft-peddle their opposition to the war in Iraq and never mention "impeachment." Many of us have experienced first hand Emanuel's tactics in CA-11, FL-13, and IL-06 to name a few. Scared of career-ending retribution, virtually no Democrats have been willing to go on the record about DCCC practices that are at variance with internal party rules.

I would add that in NC-08 the DCCC backed anti-choice and pro-war veteran Tim Dunn (disliked by the grassroots) over eventual nominee Larry Kissell, who narrowly lost in the general to Robin Hayes.  I know that Emanuel is kicking himself for that one, since he didn't put resources into that race (one of his assistants at the DCCC, Ali Wade, is reported in the latest issue of GQ to have said on a targeting conference call that 'NC-08 is for suckers').

Democrats have traditionally recruited millionaires, conservatives and/or former Republicans to run for the House and Senate.  There are a variety of reasons for this, all dressed up as 'we are just trying to win and we're willing to overlook ideology to do it'.  Of course, the idea that conservatives, millionaires, and former Republicans are the best candidates is itself ideological and not particularly pragmatic.  

Anyway, there is no evil conspiracy in which someone gives the order to undermine liberals in these races.  It's just sort of understood that progressives can't win and so should be pushed out of viable districts.  As a result, it's much harder to raise money and get to the magic 'viability' threshold if you are a grassroots progressive - politicians badmouth you to donors, unions and PACs, and your lifeblood is cut before you know it.  It's part of the culture, sort of like people with mid-Atlantic accents who think that they have no accent.  

Within the political class there's this set of illiberal values wired into our cultural norms, a kind of Broderism and Gergenism and Iraq Study Groupism.  This culture is changing within at least the Democratic Party itself, declining rapidly from 2002-2006.  I felt a very different environment in Congress a few days ago, a genuine sense of mutual respect.  Staffers are no longer reflexively snotty and members are no longer all skeptical.  It's even gone Presidential - John Edwards is overtly calling himself a progressive, and the press isn't going with stories about that crazy John Edwards and his uppity wife.  I would trace this shift within the party to the netroots - we have been able to explain the general public mainstream anger to the our party elites, and they are beginning to listen.  

Anyway, head over to FDL and chat with Lutrin.  He's spilling the beans on what happened.  

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If you've checked the Blue America ActBlue page in the last couple of days, you may have noticed a new addition. That ain't no candidate's face the second from the top. No, it's the graphic symbol that our sometime art director, Adam, did to represent our "campaign" theme sung by Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher, "Have You Had Enough?"

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One thing that folks who took a close look at the links in a challenge to the netroots may have noticed is that one blog popped up with informative articles about vulnerable GOP Congressional incumbents time after time. That result is no accident.

Now, that blog is Down with Tyranny. Down with Tyranny is a blogspot group blog based in Southern California led by a blogger who goes by the handle Down with Tyranny (his co-blogger is keninny). In real life, Down with Tyranny's name is Howie Klein and, as many of you well know, he's been running an excellent series about progressive candidates on firedoglake that goes under the header Blue America and features a powerful ACTBlue page.

This essay will explain not simply why Howie is a netroots hero, but also what we in the netroots might learn from how he blogs...

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