The more I see of Mike Gravel, the more I like him.

And, um, Gilmore, kinda sane? Ignore the fact that he ran the Virginia budget into the ground and depleted a good surplus budget situation faster than Bush II, and yes, you have someone maybe a teeny bit sane.

He was and is a fool. It would be a really bad idea for him to run for Senate - he remains terribly unpopular in Virginia due to his fiscal mismanagement. It would usher in another Dem Senator from VA, tho!

I was a volunteer in the "WHite House Email Project Office" in the Old Executive Office Building, right after graduating from college in 1993. I coded emails for the issues and positions, printing out ones that prez advisors should read.

We got the emails downloaded as text files to disc (In 1993 we were using Win 3.0 - you still booted to Dos). The computers were NOT connected directly to the internet.

So anyway, I recall coding many many emails on my volunteer nights AGAINST NAFTA - people from all over the US emailing in how bad it was and how it was going to ruin the US.

Little did I know at the time. I chalked it up to anti-Clinton foolishness, which was pretty heavy at that time.... but now.... I get it.

Don't forget that Johnson (D-SD) is still in the hospital.

I really agree with you.... After seeing him on An Inconvenient Truth... and seeing his new comfort with audiences - he seems to have really found his voice at last. He is representing hard truths and talking in a no-nonsense way to the American People.

I really love this about him now - its what I didn't see in 2000 = in 2000 when I voted half-heartedly for him, I saw him as a tool, as a triangulator and as a DLC hack. Now that he stepped out of the "normal" ways of running a campaign he seems more at ease and more REAL - something I think that voters will flock to.

If he deep inside plans to run in 08 - he is totally doing it the right way. Totally, and he has me heart and soul.

I'm all over:

Gore/Clark with Edwards as Sec'y of Labor (build up his experience base)
or
Gore/Edwards with Clark as Sec'y of state.

I'm almost done with the audiobook version, and I love it.

Carter is an international hero, given all the work he continues to do for peace, and the legacy he will leave will be of continued struggle to create peace and justice in the middle east.

I have to say that I find that Carter is very just in his criticism of both sides here. He is clear that Israel is to blame on many counts and that the Palestinians have their own problems.

I find that the paranoia the Israeali soldiers show, (especially when Carter talks about a visit where two young Israelis escort Rosalyn and him through the West bank and the soldiers smack a newspaper out of the hands of some elderly palestinians, claiming that they may be hiding guns) disturbing similar to the paranoia that Bush et al want to create post 9/11.

Enough is enough. Israel and the Palestinian Authority must be held to agreements made in the past and forge ahead on new treaties. Mistake or no mistake, there must be peace and justice and fairness in the land.

As Northern VA grows, its tensions grow. One bonehead state legislature dude in Western Fairfax decried the "Arlingtonization" or Fairfax --- meaning the influc of Brown-skinned people and the liberalizing of it all.... ya know - safe places for day laborers to wait for work and all that....

But being the economic powerhouse of the state, and the massive population/growth center, we end up being more progressive and voting that way.

The irony is, we ship all our tax dollars off to support the rural conservative communities.

OK That is good to know. I like his environmental stance, and the fact that he personally helping clean up Katrina and save people carries a lot of weight with me.

I'm in a wait and see posture. My two faves - Feingold and Warner are out of the running now, so I dont know who I will wind up favoring yet.....

WOW - I wasn' thrilled with Gore, and I voted for Bradley in the primary, if I remember right - or I intended to vote for him, but I think Gore had already won it (kinda like Dean had dropped out when I finally got to vote for him in VA's primary.....)....

Gore is interesting - but possibly the most CONVINCING criticism of him yet to me is, WHERE THE HECK WAS HE DURING THIS CAMPAIGN? That's a beef I have with Hillary - spending more than $30 mil on a reelection that was in the bag anyway and NOT helping downticket candidates in NY... why didn't she support Lamont, Ford, Webb, ? (OK, maybe she is poltical poison in VA and TN)....  but where was Al during this cycle? Why wasn't he out there talking about global warming and stumping for alt energy candidates? Al does have a mystique of "What if we could re-do the last 6 years and not have all the damage Bush has wrought?" but he should have been more present. Clark was helping to elect people. Warner was (and dropped out) Feingold was (and sadly, since he was my #1, dropped out)....

I do not recall Gore being the progressive end-all be-all in 2000. I remember being frustrated by him and thinking there would be little difference between him and Bush - I know better, but I prefer someone more progressive to undo the damage that has been done.

I was proud to buy a "Democracy Bond" when Dean took over the DNC.... I posted a link to donate in his name after he took office and faced heck from jerkwads like Carville.

I pledge to cease all contributions to the DNC if Howard Dean is forced out.

Yeah, I am not at all a Hoyer fan- he seems wed to everything we ran against - corruption!

John Lewis is progressive and sensible.

The repubs are not stupid- they're gonna give Michael Steele a high-profile position in the RNC. I hate to reduce the argument to pragmatic racial politics, but who exactly are the prominent African-American leaders within the democratic fold? Where on earth are they?

John Lewis' politics are sound - his record looks mightily clean, and we can count on him to keep the agenda focused.

We need a whip who will pull the votes into line behind a solid agenda and pull people away from pork etc.

I like Murtha, but I am concerned about the possible dirty record.

They were the choice because they were very very close by 2000 census to getting one more house rep....

Talk to me! Recommend, vilify, or tell me that I should spend my after either writing about Webb v Allen or working on my comp!

I think there's a good chance you are right - watching Loudon go for Webb impressed me - it was not long ago that half their county board and school board were Christian Coalition people.

But them dems NEED to be grooming their leadership - who is rising - if Warner decides to take Senate 08, who will go for Gov 09? Deeds needs to take a higher profile in the assembly if he wants either one.

If Warner stays with Gov in 09, who will go for Senate in 08? Davis is quite formidable.

I think we are trending heavily blue - BUT - I simply don't see young leaders being groomed for the future of the dem party in VA. Am I missing something?

How can we not stay and fight?

Guts? Guts were the drag queens at Stonewall. Guts were the ACT-UP people who forced the public to acknowledge that AIDS was a nationwide (soon to be worldwide) epidemic to which they needed to pay attention and do something to help people!

As an educator, how can I leave VA to be a hellhole for kids growing up and realizing they are gay? I went thru that stuff when I was in my teens and figured I'd be better off dead, I worked thru it, and I'm here today, alive and fighting on the other side of that.

We have to repeal this law - for justice for ourselves, our brothers and sisters, and for those who come after us.

That's not guts. That's American.

Amen.