The Accountability Now PAC announced its arrival today:

"We need members of Congress to leave the bubble of Washington, D.C. and stand with their constituents," said Jane Hamsher, founder of Firedoglake.com and co-founder of Accountability Now. "We need members of Congress to ask the tough questions about continued Wall Street bailouts that reward the donor class, two wars without seeming end, the ceaseless assault on our civil liberties, and other issues that separate the citizenry from the DC cocoon."

"Accountability Now is an organization built around a single guiding principle: challenging the institutional power structures that make it so easy, so consequence-free for Congress to open up the government coffers for looting by corporate America while people across the country are losing their jobs and their basic constitutional rights while unable to afford basic health care," said Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com and co-founder of Accountability Now. "Accountability Now believes that members of Congress in both parties need to hear from their constituents, and that nothing focuses the mind of a politician on listening to citizens better than a primary."

"Accountability Now PAC will recruit, coordinate, and support primary challenges against vulnerable Congressional incumbents who have become more responsive to corporate America than to their constituents," said Accountability Now's new Executive Director, Jeff Hauser. "By empowering the grassroots, Accountability Now will help create the political space needed to enable President Obama to make good on the many progressive policies he campaigned on - such as getting out of Iraq, ensuring access to affordable health care for every man, woman and child, restoring our constitutional liberties and ending torture."

In 2007, grassroots activists banded together to oust Al Wynn out of office, and it shook House Democrats to their core. Similarly, we learned in 2006 how even a primary challenge that does not win could change behavior, as Jane Harman has been more accountable to the concerns of her constituents after a tough primary race against Marcy Winograd.

Out of these recent lessons, diverse and politically powerful groups have decided to support Accountability Now's efforts, such as MoveOn, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), DailyKos, ColorOfChange.org, and Democracy for America, 21st Century Democrats and BlogPAC.

On principle, I agree with the goals of this PAC. Like some guy once said, "the system in Washington is rigged and our government is broken. It's rigged by greedy corporate powers to protect corporate profits. [...] We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats [...]"

However, I won't get excited about the Accountability Now PAC until I learn more about the criteria it will use to determine which Democratic incumbents are "bad enough" to be primaried, and which primary challengers are "good enough" to be endorsed.

To my knowledge, Democracy for America was the only organization in the Accountability Now PAC that helped Ed Fallon in last year's primary in Iowa's third district (a D+1 district represented by Blue Dog Leonard Boswell).

How would someone thinking about a primary challenge know whether he or she is likely to get full support, like Donna Edwards in MD-04, or almost nothing, like Fallon?

Speaking of Democracy for America, they have announced the 2009 schedule for their acclaimed two-day training academy. I've never attended one of these, but I have heard great things about the program. My fellow Iowa blogger noneed4thneed has signed up for this weekend's DFA academy in Des Moines.

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Expected, but yet still wonderful:

Democrat Donna F. Edwards was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by voters in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties yesterday, becoming the first black woman selected to serve Maryland in Congress.

Edwards, 49, a lawyer and nonprofit executive from Fort Washington, defeated Republican Peter James and Libertarian Thibeaux Lincecum in a contest marked by exceptionally low turnout at the polls. Edwards will replace eight-term Rep. Albert R. Wynn (D), whom she defeated in a primary election in February.

"We've been able to do it, and with your help," she told a crowd of about 100 supporters last night at a victory party in Lanham, including House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). "I actually cannot wait to get into the United States Congress."

Welcome, Congresswoman Edwards.

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Donna Edwards has just taken the stage at the SEIU convention after a passionate introduction: "The new voice for working people in Maryland."

Edwards: "In about 2 weeks I'm going to represent the 4th congressional district in Maryland and it's because of you!"

Stream is HERE.

Update [2008-6-3 10:36:15 by Todd Beeton]:Edwards: "Workers should have the right to get together, to organize because it benefits not just you in organized labor but it benefits me too."

"To all you banks and credit card companies that got away with just about everything over the last 20 years: 'game over.' We're going to say to the oil and gas companies, 'you know what, your good times, gone!' To WalMart and all those other marts, 'you can not take advantage of workers in the United States and workers around the world and get away with it. Game over!' So I'm gonna mosey on back to Prince George's County and compete in that special election on June 17th and then I'm going to go to work for you."

I like this "game over" theme.

Update [2008-6-3 10:40:7 by Todd Beeton]:That was quick. She was great, I'll throw the video up when it's ready.

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Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., whose backing of the war in Iraq led to his defeat in the primary, will announce his resignation from Congress this afternoon, Democratic Party sources said. Wynn, who lost in the primary to Donna Edwards, has scheduled an announcement for 2 p.m. He is expected to leave in June.

This is from nationaljournal.com. I do not have an exact link yet.

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Donna Edwards received a standing ovation.

It became the politics of the usual once they got back to Washington.

The voters get it and it's time for members of congress to get it too.

Here's what's going to happen in 2008. Getting out of the war in Iraq is n ot rocket science. You know what it is, it's common sense. It's time for us to start investing in peace and prosperity and stop investing in war. It's time for us to engage with other partners in the world who walked away from us because we were engaged in something that was illfated to begin.

We know that the 100 years guy is out there too, but we're not going to let them have their way. We're going to rear our shoulders back, we're going to get some spine and we're going to team up with the Democrat in the White House and we're going to get out of Iraq.

It's time to put the war back on the front pages of America's newspapers.

reengage in diplomacy, take care of the returning soldiers, invest in international institutions so this never happens again and the US  congress takes back the responsibility for oversight, so they don't make the mistake in the first place.

I want to pat the congress on the back for last week finally standing up to the telecom companies. No to the banks and the credit card companies, no to those companies that are profiting from war instead of peace.

I am counting on you to have my back in the 111th congress.

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