Round-Up

Ciro Rodriguez won a stunning upset victory in TX-23 yesterday even after this horrible ad ran there calling him a terrorist sympathizer. This gives Democrats 233 seats in the House of Representatives, to 202 seats for Republicans. This could still change if there is a new election in FL-13. But the point is that Democrats, with 233 seats, hold a larger majority than Republicans ever held during their twelve-year Republican Revolution. So for those pundits that say that this country is still a center-right, conservative country, just realize that Republicans have not held this large a majority in the House of Representatives since 1952. And by the way, of the Democrats' 30 seat pick up this year, only half were in states that Bush won in 2004. Therefore, even without those Red-state Democrats winning this year, Democrats would have a majority in the House of Representatives.

Karen Carter lost her race against corrupt Democrat William Jefferson in LA-02. This is a setback, but we will run another Democrat against him in 2008, and this time, we'll beat him, if he's not already thrown in jail by then.

Dennis Kucinich announced he's running for President again. I think Dennis Kucinich is kind of a nutjob and obviously far too liberal for this country, and as a passionate, hardcore liberal, that's saying a lot. But I support his getting into the race, not his candidacy, but his voice. With Russ Feingold out of the race, there are actually few, if any liberals, running in the Democratic primary this year. Barack Obama, John Edwards, and John Kerry come closest, but they are not down-the-line liberals, really. Dennis Kucinich adds a voice, for single-payer universal health care, for gay marriage, for ending the war in Iraq immediately, that no other candidate in the primaries will advocate. We are a big tent party, and it's necessary that we have all ideas in our debates this year, especially so the Democrat who actually becomes President (God willing) will have heard liberal ideas.

Barack Obama, my personal favorite in the 2008 race, gave a roaring appearance in New Hampshire this weekend. He was on the front page of all local, and most national newspapers, after a speech that gave an inkling of the kind of campaign he would run if he decides to make a bid for the Presidency. You can watch the speech here. By the way, for all those detractors that say that Obama has no pieces of major legislation with his name to it, even in the minority as a freshman Senator, take a look at this.