A good friend of the campaign here in IL-03 -- Don Reed -- asked me to write up a short piece on stem cell research to circulate among proponents of stem cell research.

He posted it here at DailyKos and asked me to cross post it. I think it does a good job of drawing yet another distinction between myself and Dan Lipinski.

The election is just 32 days away. Please take a minute to read this and keep following our exciting campaign for Congress here and at www.PERA08.com.

Thank you -- Mark

Dear friend of stem cell research,

My name is Mark Pera and I'm a Democratic candidate for Congress in Illinois' 3rd district. I'm writing you today to ask you an important question. Have you, like me, wondered why a Democratically-controlled Congress cannot override President Bush's endless mistakes, including his opposition to stem cell research?

Part of the blame belongs to a handful of Democrats, including Congressman Dan Lipinski, who have consistently voted with Bush on many issues important to Democrats, including the critical issue of stem-cell research.

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Over the weekend, I've been mulling the roll call votes from the 109th House that Chris identified as the

twenty-eight votes on actual pieces of legislation where the majority position among Democrats in the House was different from the majority position among Republicans in the House.

(There's a slight hitch to be got over: there are 30 actual RCVs in the list (his #7 is not one, his #11 has four), of which all but one (his #8) involve a majority of Dems voting against, a majority of GOP for. It makes the spreadsheet a pain to leave #8 in, so I've ignored it - leaving 29 votes left to consider.)

Chris's idea in selecting these RCVs was, he said,

those twenty-eight votes provide the answer to the age-old question: how are Republicans different from Democrats?

Some of us doubted at the time whether the test chosen was capable of answering the question posed. But they're certainly important RCVs when considering the cohesion and coherence of the Dem party in the House.

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There used to be a breed of progressive GOP in Congress from out of the West, led by Robert La Follette, Sr of WI. (Home of our very own Russ, of course. Plus ça change and so forth.)

And when I say led, I mean he was the first. As a group they had even less coherence than today's Senate Dems...

One of their number, William Borah of ID, said

Any man who can carry a Republican primary is a Republican...He might believe in the Communistic state, in the dictatorship of the proletariat, in the abolition of private property, and in the extermination of the bourgeoisie; yet, if he carried his Republican primary, he would still be a Republican.

These western insurgents (names like Nye, Norris and Hiram Johnson) were not the most liberal in the Senate: for example, in the 68th, La Follette Sr was only the 32nd most liberal, measured by DW-NOMINATE scores.

But they were (a permutation of) ornery, populist, grandstanding and undisciplined - such that many old-line Republicans would deny that they were real Republicans at all.

Hence the quote.

(From 1923, in Brogan's Introduction to American Politics p89n.)

Odd that, with the 2006 Dems, it's (some) liberals who seem to be rather keen to read conservatives out of their party...

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I know some people think I've been too harsh on the Democratic Party. This diary is simpy a cross-post from The Left Coaster.

If we needed proof that the Democrats are throwing the fight to save the nation, this is certainly it:

Popular Ohio Democrat Drops Out of Race, and Perhaps Politics

     Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders.

   Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."

It is time to abandon the Democratic Party and seek to establish a real opposition to Bu$hCo. It is clear that there is no other option. Every chance they have had to do something to halt the destruction of America, they have found some way to drop the ball. They don't want to win. they don't want to try.

They must want a one-party state.

This should make THE MODERATE very happy.  As I said in a comment yesterday I may be finished with the Democratic Party.

I'm just so surprised it happened so abruptly. I will not have anything to do with a political party that absolutely refuses to protect the Constitution and my civil liberties. This is a more important issue to me than protecting Social Security. Are the Democrats going to cave on Social Security later this year too? It beats the hell out of me. I wouldn't want to make a Buddah Dollar Challenge that they won't.

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Suddenly, because of Henry Cuellar's kissy-kissy with Bush, TX-28 is jerked into the sights of the lefty 'sphere. (That's my impression, anyway.)

There was some consideration at Swing State Project whether Cuellar could switch parties before the primary. It seems that, under TX law, the time for such a switch has expired. But he could switch after the general if he beats Rodriguez in the primary.

What are the chances of other DINOs making the same move, before or after the elections?

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