by Last Night in Little Rock

While the President and Congress rail against Immigration and non-English speaking immigrants, even objecting to the National Anthem in Spanish (while the rest of the Administration, including First Lady Laura Bush never got the memo), they are seeking to manufacture an election year issue that Lou Dobbs, of course, could love. After all, if there are 11-12 million illegals in the country, they sure aren't voters. (For additional background, see "Immigration Debate" at WaPo, and note the fact that the State Department has four versions of the National Anthem in Spanish on its website, the first dating from 1919.)

And, we see that the White House website also appears in Español.

"Welcome to America. Now learn the language." "Just kidding. Look us up in Spanish, if need be."

by Last Night in Little Rock

Primary day in Arkansas is Tuesday, May 23d. I first notice this about three weeks ago but had to confirm it first: Republicans are not admitting it.

A friend of mine, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, is running for Lt. Gov., and there is a primary. Neither candidate has "Republican" on their yard signs.

There is a contested Republican primary for the Second District of Congress between two seemingly nice fellows, one with cheesy ads playing on the "Mayberry" theme because that's his name: Andy Mayberry. The other is irrelevant to you if you're outside this District. (The Democratic incumbent, Vic Snyder, lives two blocks from me. He's one of the few to vote against the "permanent tax cuts" that have gutted the economy.)

by Last Night in Little Rock

Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, an oft-mentioned potential presidential candidate for 08, spent yesterday in Georgia on the stump for former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed. But, Rudi had to hide his support for gay civil unions while visiting Georgia:

Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani glided over his support for gay civil unions and declared heterosexual marriage to be "inviolate" on Thursday as he helped raise money for a former leader of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed, who is in a tough fight to become lieutenant governor of Georgia. For Mr. Giuliani, who is considering a run for the presidency in 2008, the political foray into the South allowed him to pocket a campaign chit from Mr. Reed that could be useful if the former mayor tries to build a national coalition that includes religious-minded Republicans, who are a core part of Mr. Reed's voter base.

by TChris

The funniest political race this year has to be Katherine Harris' inept campaign for a Senate seat. Despite pledging to spend $10 million of her own money to resurrect her sinking campaign, every day seems to bring more bad (but comical) news for Harris.

Today's news tells us that Mitchell Wade, who bribed Randall "Duke" Cunningham, spent $2,800 on wine and food while entertaining Harris at the Washington restaurant Citronelle.

In her interview Wednesday, Harris acknowledged for the first time that Wade had paid for the dinner at Citronelle, reversing a statement from her congressional spokeswoman earlier this year.

Part of Harris' defense is based on ignorance.

The congressional race in Colorado's 7th District has been referred to as one of the most important for Democrats in taking back the House in November, 2006. It's the seat currently held by Republican Bob Beauprez, who is vacating it to run for Governor. There are three Democrats vying for the primary, Peggy Lamm, Ed Perlmutter and Herb Rubenstein. The Republican challenger will be Rick O'Donnell (for whom Dick Cheney came to town in recent months to fundraise.)

Politicians are reaching out to bloggers to get their message across. A few months ago I spent two hours interviewing Peggy Lamm at a local eatery and she followed up with a phone call. This Tuesday, I spent two hours with Ed Perlmutter at a downtown Starbucks.

I just posted my interview with Ed Perlmutter over at 5280, Denver's superb monthly glossy magazine, where I blog on local issues. My post on my followup phone call with Peggy is here. My post on Ed came out much more detailed, so I'm going to write more on Peggy and what she had to say during our two hour interview soon. Colorado Pols reports that Peggy just did a campaign shakeup.

This is pretty big news. Time Magazine has an exclusive interview with Tom DeLay who says he will not run for re-election and will leave Congress hopefully by the end of May. He will make the announcement tomorrow.

Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress,"

The New York Times reports that Joe Lieberman did not command the attention or respect of his audience at a fundraising event in Connecticut Thursday night.

Three times on Thursday night, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman asked the crowd of 1,700 for quiet during his remarks at the state Democrats' annual Jefferson Jackson Bailey fund-raising dinner. "Shhh," he told the guests. But rather than interrupting him with applause, many were ignoring him, having struck up conversations after finishing their chicken.

The inattentiveness -- as well as the scattered boos amid the supportive calls of "Joe" that welcomed Mr. Lieberman to the podium -- convinced some that the three-term senator, criticized for months because of his continued support for the war in Iraq, may be vulnerable in the primary challenge he faces.

Who came to his rescue? Sen. Barak Obama, with a ringing endorsement.

Katherine Harris will spend $10 million of her own money to save her fledgling Senate campaign. She has the money -- her father left it to her when he died in January. She made the announcement tonight on Hannity and Colmes.

Does she want to be Senator because she believes if she wins, the people of Florida win? I didn't see the show, but from the article linked above, it doesn't seem the people are her top priority:

"When I lost him, I said I would win this for my father," she said.

We all want our fathers, whether dead or alive, to be proud of us, but is that a reason people should vote for her? It wouldn't sway me if I lived in her district.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]

Although his website is already up, it won't be official until tomorrow. Democrat Ned Lamont will challenge Joe Lieberman for his Senate seat.

"People want a good debate of the issues. They don't want a rubber stamp for their senator," said Lamont, 52, who is scheduled to announce his candidacy at a 4 p.m. ceremony at the Old State House.

Lamont, of course, is an underdog. But he offers a refreshing change from Lieberman on the issues.

Embattled Tom DeLay won his primary race by a wide margin.

Update: John Nichols provides analysis at The Nation, and says maybe Texas will mess with Delay.

Bump and Update: The New York Times reports here. My DD's Jonathan Singer weighs in here.

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Original Post 3/4/06

Could Tom DeLay get voted out of office by Texans before his criminal trial? It's possible. The Texas Republican primary is Tuesday and DeLay has challengers. He needs 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off election.

It will not help DeLay that his district is more Democratic, ironically by his own making. DeLay's legal and ethical entanglements stem from his efforts to redistrict Texas to elect more Republicans to the U.S. House....In that same Chronicle poll, 68 percent of respondents said they were undecided on a candidate in the Republican primary, a potentially worrisome sign for DeLay, who enjoys near universal name recognition in the district.

On the other hand, his challengers seem pretty light-weight:

Paul Hackett has dropped out of the Ohio U.S. Senate Race.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Markos at Daily Kos explains what happened, and disputes it was a "betrayal."