I am sure the media will find a way to give Giuliani a pass on this. After all, he is the hero of 9/11. Haven't you heard?

I knew Dan when he was the spokesman for Bill Bradley and he is a terrific individual.

That should be the slogan for 2008. Any of these candidates would constitute a Bush third term. It would be a reprise of the Republican slogan in 1940. Of course Roosevelt deserved a third term.

The problem with the Democrats is leadership. They would have lost the last election if the blogosphere did not push opposition to the war and for running candidates everywhere. The Washington establishment was wrong on both these counts.

Now that they are in power, the leadership does not seem to know what to do with it. The top presidential candidates, with the exception of Edwards, also are hewing to the Beltway conventional wisdom.

The Democrats have a fired-up base, lots of ideas, and an energized netroots. But once, people get elected and go to Washington, they seem to lose their way.

Maybe among the freshmen, some leaders will emerge to challenge this phenomenon. Jon Tester, maybe?

In any event, the netroots must continue to put pressure on the D.C. establishment, whether Republican or Democratic.

This is an important test for the Democratic Congress. If they can't get this one right, what are they doing there?

This is a rare, possibly unique, situation where the Bush administration is on the right side, and the congressional Dems on the wrong side.

Unless I am missing something, the Bush administration wants to revamp the farm bill to make it more of a conservation bill, and less of a corporate subsidy bill.

People like Peterson will try to block this.

Cornyn could be in line for an AG nomination if Abu G flames out. He's in trouble in Texas. He is a reliable administration man, and he a senator, which should mean the Democrats in the Senate will give him a pass.

Except that last part may not be true. I don't think the Democrats would be inclined to give anyone a pass.

I am in the Newspaper Guild and I say net neutrality all the way.

If you give AT&T control over content, there goes the wide-open internet.

It is likely that no one would get a majority in a national primary. This would set the stage for an open convention to actually choose the candidate.

This could return the convention to some semblance of its traditional role.

Thank you for this diary.

One thing he pointed out was that the House Democrats' 100-hour agenda got a lot of Republican votes. That's the kind of bipartisanship we need. Put forward the Dem agenda, and make the Republicans like it, just as Truman said.

Make Hillary talk about Iraq. Don't let her avoid it. If he is a smart politician, he will smoke her out, and not let her do the two-step.

Don't let her talk about her issues. Make her talk about Iraq.

How do you embed a hyperlink in a word?

I can't googlebomb the senator if I don't know how to create a hyperlink with his name on it.

Americans chose Bush only once. Gore actually won in 2000, and some people think Ohio wasn't really a fair vote in 2004.

Go see Steve Soto at The Left Coaster. He lays it all out.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/0 09452.php

"1. Democrats should convene early hearings at Ike Skelton's House Armed Services Committee and Carl Levin's Senate Armed Services Committee in mid-January to pin down the Joint Chiefs on what they told the White House about an escalation;

2. Then use those hearings to force the escalation votes ahead of his 2007 State of the Union speech as a way to kneecap him prior to the speech and undercut his influence for the remainder of the Congress."

Go read the rest of it.

It's easy. It's fun. Do it.