From Roll Call:

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has opted not to run in the special election to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D), leaving the field wide open for several Democrats -- including at least two House Members -- to run in the Dec. 8 Democratic primary.

With Joe Kennedy, Meehan, and now Markey out, the betting money is probably on state Attorney General Martha Coakley, what with the state-wide name recognition and all.

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It has been a year since Ed Markey pushed this:

Now it's time to see where we are today.

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Well there's some hope.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the deal "a substantial improvement" over Bush's plan, but said it still had "a number of problems."

But Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, derided it for using "legal mumbo jumbo to obscure the fact that the CIA will continue to be allowed to use torture and will actually be insulated from legal liability for previous acts of torture."

And at Raising Kaine, Rep. Bobby Scott isn't tolerating torture.

Levin's really the key.  He's not set on this bill.

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A couple of updates on the net neutrality fight.  The tech companies are wading into the fight, gingerly (with eBay as the most effective).  I'm hearing, though I can't confirm, that the telcos are spending between ten and fifty million dollars on this fight.  Their ads are splashed all over local TV in DC, and in other areas of the country, though it's hard to track because the money is channeled through front groups like Hands off the Internet and TV4US (along with indirect costs, such as money to think tanks).

This money has bought a lot of support in the House, though less in the Senate.  The overall telecom reform bill that's passing is called the COPE Act, and that includes the evisceration of net neutrality.  We always thought that it would go through the House; what's surprising is how long it's taken.

We've set up this fight in the House so that the Senate takes the issue seriously.  Now we're in the last throes of the House fight.  This Wednesday, the Rules Committee is going to rule on which amendment or bill to bring to the floor, or whether to vote on any amendment or bill at all.  The competing bills are the Markey Amendment and the Sensenbrenner-Conyers Bill.  Lobbyists seem to think that the Sensenbrenner-Conyers Bill will get more votes, but either way we go, net neutrality is going to be a Senate fight since COPE is going through one way or another without net neutrality protections in place.  The House vote will let us see which Democrats are serious about internet freedom, and whether any Republicans are.  

In the Senate, the key players are the Nelson's, Ted Stevens, and John McCain.  This is a key test for McCain, where he might have to pick between the Republican establishment and his good government principles.  Ted Stevens is a wily Senator who will probably end up slotting net neutrality into a Defense Appropriations Bill at midnight, so we'll have to be on the lookout.

So that's where we are.

And to end this blog post on a note of levity, here's really funny video with Moby about net neutrality.

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I'm wondering who you like and why.  Here's my list of favorite politicians, though it's by no means comprehensive.  These are all people that I think are courageous and smart about wielding power, as well as interested in pushing the progressive populist agenda forward in their own way.

Deval Patrick, candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.  Deval is simply awesome.  He's smart, honest, a risk-taker, credible, progressive and a fighter.  His campaign is the most innovative state-wide campaign this cycle (with possible competition from Connecticut), and he's turning out to be competitive against a very strong Massachusetts machine using an organizing base tied into the web.  As one savvy Boston-based political consultant told me, Deval is the most exciting thing to happen to Massachusetts politics in over 20 years.  I agree.  His opponents are good people, but they just don't hold a candle to Patrick.  He will be a transformative force in American politics and government for 20 years if he wins.

Runners Up
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate in New York
Bernie Sanders, Congressman from Vermont and Senate candidate
Jerry Nadler, Congressman from New York
Barbara Boxer, Senator from California
Ned Lamont, candidate for Senate in Connecticut
Ed Markey, Congressman from Massachusetts and potential candidate for Senate in Massachusetts in 2008
John Edwards, former Senator from North Carolina, former Vice Presidential candidate
Jerry Meek, Chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party
Kent Conrad, Senator from North Dakota

Runners Up, Second Tier
Chris Bell, former Congressman from Texas and current gubernatorial candidate
Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman from San Francisco (I know this is a shocker)
Bob Menendez, Senator from New Jersey
Ron Wyden, Senator from Oregon
Louise Slaughter, Congresswoman from New York
Byron Dorgan, Senator from North Dakota

I also enjoyed meeting Robert Rodriguez, a smart 29 year old challenging a corrupt and doddering old Republican in California's 25th district.  It's a tough district, but it's great the Democratic party is fielding such talent all over the place.

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