Maybe someone out there who knows the inner workings of EMILY's List can explain to me why this group has not put money behind Becky Greenwald, the Democrat challenging loyal Republican foot-soldier Tom Latham in Iowa's fourth Congressional district.

I have been going over the list of Democratic women running for Congress whom EMILY's List is supporting, with a particular focus on the six challengers most recently added to this group in early August. I do not mean to denigrate any of those candidates, and I recognize that every race has its own dynamic.

However, after comparing Greenwald's race to those of other candidates, I remain puzzled that EMILY's list is not more involved in IA-04.

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In the last couple days, there have been several posts across the blogosphere citing what various candidates running for Congress have said on FISA and retroactive immunity for the telecoms.  But so far, it's been all over the map.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

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It looks like at least one Democrat, Sam Bennett, is seriously considering running against Charlie Dent next year. From the Morning Call:

City Democratic Party Chairwoman Siobhan [Sam] Bennett, taking a page from the new presidential campaign playbook, will announce today that she is ''seriously'' considering a run for Congress.

The ''pre-announcement'' will come during an afternoon news conference at Bennett's Allentown home, where she intends to criticize Republican Rep. Charlie Dent's position on the Iraq war, Bennett said in a brief interview Wednesday.

Bennett said she'll discuss her interest in seeking the Democratic nomination for the 15th District seat that Dent now holds and plans to set a date for making a final decision on whether she'll run. She declined to talk further about a potential run.

''I am seriously looking at the seat,'' Bennett said.

Asked why she's considering a run and what makes her think she can win the nomination, Bennett said, ''Those are all questions I'll be answering [today].''

Bennett, 49, has been politically active for years and twice ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination in the Allentown mayoral race, first in 2001 and again in 2005. She is the statewide director and chief executive officer of Properties of Merit of Pennsylvania Inc., a community and economic revitalization program she founded 25 years ago. She worked as a regional sales manager at The Morning Call from 2005 to 2006.

Bennett's early push for the nomination, more than a year before the Democratic primary, comes with Democrats nationwide still feeling giddy about their drubbing of Republicans in the November elections. In Pennsylvania alone, the party picked up four House seats.

But it was the party's narrower-than-expected loss in the 15th District -- which includes Lehigh and Northampton counties and parts of Berks and Montgomery counties -- that has Democrats buzzing about their prospects to unseat Dent in 2008.

Charles Dertinger, a Northampton County councilman who ran as the Democratic nominee against Dent in 2006, was ignored by the national party and spent $89,000 on the campaign. He still nabbed 43 percent of the vote. Dent spent $1.3 million and won 53 percent of the vote.

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