Across the state, female leaders are coming together to oppose Proposition 8.  In Oakland, Senator Boxer will be joining Representative Barbara Lee and Asm, soon to be Senator, Loni Hancock. In Los Angeles, Rep. Hilda Solis will be joined by LA City Councilmember Jan Perry and legendary labor leader Dolores Huerta. And in Sacramento, Mayor Heather Fargo and future Asm. Mariko Yamada will rally against prop 8 at the CTA headquarters. These press events express the seriousness of which our Democratic leaders take Proposition 8. Leaders like Reps. Solis and Lee understand the importance of this fight right here in California.

The future of gay rights will be decided on Tuesday, and that is no exaggeration.  That is not to say that there aren’t a myriad of other issues that we should be fighting for, but this is a vote which could set back marriage equality for a decade or more.  And these brave women are standing up for the freedom to marry. Many of these leaders are not in competitive races this time, but it still takes guts to do this.  

The one exception is Sacramento Mayor Fargo; she is in a competitive race against Kevin Johnson.  She has been unequivocal in her opposition to Prop 8 and support for marriage equality. And she has been vocal about her support for the progressive position on a number of issues (No on 4, etc.). This is worth considering as the run-off for mayor of Sacramento concludes on Tuesday.

One more thing.  In Sacramento, the event is being hosted by the California Teachers Association.  CTA has gone above and beyond the call of duty this year.  They have effectively run the campaign against the two ineffective, yet expensive “ToughOnCrime” measures, 6 & 9. They have been an asset to the No on Prop 10 campaign run by the Consumer Federation.  And most importantly, they have been there for the LGBT Community, as not just the largest donor to No on 8, but also an active coalition partner.  While we may have occasional disagreements on one policy or another, it is clear that CTA is a powerful force for positive change.

I know that we all have to be focused on the final eight days of this election, and I’m committed to bringing a great victory for Senator Obama, wins up and down our Congressional and legislative targets, and progressive values embodied in passing high speed rail and beating back the extremism of Props. 4, 6, 8, and 9.  But there are some events on the near-term horizon that we all need to be aware of going forward.  The challenge does not end on November 4.  Eternal vigilance, price of liberty, etc.

• Rick Caruso, a right-wing Bush Republican developer who created the great eyesore that is The Grove in Los Angeles along with Americana at Brand in Glendale, is seriously considering a run for LA Mayor.  Right now, there will either be a legitimate election between Caruso and Antonio Villaraigosa, or Villaraigosa will win in a walk.  Caruso, a billionaire, says he will make the decision by the end of the week.  Caruso would certainly self-fund and would have the ability to basically buy the seat if he were so inclined.  Richard Riordan was able to win as a Republican and I have no doubt that Caruso could as well.  He’d play it moderate on social issues over which the mayor has no jurisdiction, and mask his true colors as a right-wing plutocrat.  As we head into an economic downturn, Caruso would be simply horrendous for the biggest city in the state.

• Not only has Arnold Schwarzenegger already tipped off his next move after redistricting reform (and he shouldn’t be counting his chickens), but the ballot initiative has already been filed.  A measure calling for open primaries has been handed in to the Secretary of State.  Instead of a primary where the top vote-getter in each party would move to the general election, open primaries would move the top two regardless of party into the general.  Candidates would also be allowed to remove their party affiliation from the ballot.  The Governor’s office is saying they have nothing to do with this filing, but color me skeptical.  We’ve already beaten the open primary concept at the ballot box at least once in recent years.  The political culture is already too diffuse to allow a candidate to hide their party affiliation at the ballot, and the success of this idea in providing competition to the political process is more than mixed.

• And then there’s the Governor’s race in 2010.  That gadfly Willie Brown is telling anyone who will listen that Dianne Feinstein is a legitimate candidate and is seriously considering the race:

She didn’t tell me outright that she’s running. She talked a lot about how she wanted to make sure the Democrats have 60 seats in the Senate after Nov. 4 so they and Barack Obama will be filibuster-proof – assuming he’s elected as well.

But she didn’t talk about staying in the Senate, either.

She talked about how things are supposed to work between the Legislature and the governor, and she wondered why they aren’t working these days – and did I have any formula for fixing it?

She even brought notes. I don’t know who prepared them, but somebody had done what appeared to be a detailed briefing paper on the state of California, including its finances.

It was not the kind of information you’d be seeking unless you figured that dealing with that mess might soon be your job.

Good thing she’s asking Willie Brown on how to fix Sacramento.  I’m sure that appealing to the state’s high Broderists would be the only way she would ever govern.  God forbid she ask her constituents.

Let me be perfectly clear.  Dianne Feinstein cannot be allowed to ever assume the Governor’s mansion.  She has stabbed Democrats in the back time and again in the US Senate and would only do the same as Governor.  A perfect example of this is her cutting an ad for No on Prop. 5, putting her face out in front of a position DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED to the consensus view of the state Democratic Party.  It’s not surprising; DiFi is the original “tough on crime” Democrat, and policies like the ones she advocates have caused a terrible crisis in our prisons where we are routinely violating the Constitutional rights of our citizens and bankrupting the state to pay for this warehousing.  And yes, Jerry Brown’s no good on this either; there’s a political class of Democrats that think being tough on crime is the right thing to do, despite thirty years’ worth of failure reflected in our current prison mess.

Compare this to our other Senator from the state and how she’s been busying herself this campaign season – raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for potential Senate colleagues, sending a mass email to her entire list urging a No vote on Prop. 8 (good for Sen. Boxer) and writing the Treasury Department to demand that the government backstop the bad deals of AIG that would absolutely cripple public transit across the state.  That’s what a Senator that has respect for her constituents would do, not the contempt that Sen. Feinstein shows.

So, those are the looming battles.

By and large the Democratic response to the Palin pick as McCain’s running mate has been strong, especially when you contrast it to the feeble words from the Republicans after Obama’s big speech last night.

Sen. Barbara Boxer just issued this fantastic statement about Gov. Palin, who is a weak pick for McCain and a huge gamble.  Boxer goes right after her.

The Vice President is a heartbeat away from becoming President, so to choose someone with not one hour’s worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice.

If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken.

The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women.  On the issues, they could not be further apart.

Senator McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a women on his ticket, such as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison or Senator Olympia Snowe – they would have been an appropriate choice compared to this dangerous choice.

In addition, Sarah Palin is under investigation by the Alaska state legislature which makes this more incomprehensible.

Interestingly, Hillary’s statement is much weaker, but I think by design.

“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain.  While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”

Clinton is going to be all nice and then spend the next several months tearing into her.  This pick guarantees an even bigger role for Hillary Clinton.  She will be the one continuing to make the argument to her supporters that Barack Obama is a much superior choice than the anti-choice, anti-equality, anti-working class ticket of McCain/Palin.

If there were any justice in the world, Claire McCaskill would be Presidential material.  So would Barbara Boxer.  As the PUMAs (all 30 or so of them) march around Denver making a far greater ruckus than their pathetic numbers would dictate supposedly on behalf of Hillary Clinton, lost in the drama is the fact that the glass ceiling silently preventing women from achieving the Presidential consideration so far denied to 50% of the population has been far more brutal to the likes of Barbara Boxer and Claire McCaskill.  These remarkable women, absent the latent sexism of our nation, would and should be under serious consideration for the Presidency by the Democratic Party and the United States of America.

Senator McCaskill has been a fantastic and tireless advocate for Barack Obama on the campaign trail, and her speech tonight is yet another example of her charisma, speaking skills, and ability to connect with the average voter.

America’s almost unique relationship with sexism means that unless a female politician can simultaneously project steely toughness and worldliness and a matronly presence that would seem just as at home caring for children and grandchildren while baking cookies and sewing a dress, she is rarely well-liked outside of a few blue-state bastions.  A sense of humor and a good fashion sense is also a near necessity.  Insofar as sexism did play a role in derailing Hillary Clinton’s campaign, it was Hillary’s inability (an at times quite intentionally fostered inability) to demonstrate this “down-to-earth”, inherently conservative quality to many voters.  It’s an unfair fact of American electoral life for women.

Claire McCaskill does have that quality, however.  Introduced prior to her just completed speech at the convention by her three children looking straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, she was the perfect (for the voting public) combination of charisma, resolve, and down-home matronly charm and humility.

She brought up her and her parents’ roots, and tied those humble origins to similar origins shared by Barack Obama; and in so doing, she reinforced tonight’s “One America” meme by showing how, even on very different sides of American life, a black boy from Hawai’i and a white girl from Middle America share the same truly American story: the ability to succeed by reaching out for the American Dream given the equal opportunity to do so.  It was a truly heartwarming and extraordinary speech.

But watching Senator McCaskill, I couldn’t help feeling a sense of irony in seeing this theme of “sameness” and “American unity” and “equal opportunity”.  While both Barack and Claire had the ability to become Senators, there is some question as to whether today’s America would be willing to give Senator McCaskill the same opportunity being afforded to President Obama.  There is no question that Hillary Clinton got as far as she did in large part due to the “Clinton” name; would America give Senators Boxer or McCaskill the same credit based solely on their abilities and the content of their character, without the advantage of the name recognition provided by a former President?

Time will tell.  If the PUMAs are serious about their mission, they will do well to focus not on a misguided campaign for misogynist John McCain, but on promoting the chances of such extraordinary individuals as Barbara Boxer and Claire McCaskill.

Monday evening I had the priveledge of standing in the same small room as one of my all-time favorite senators, Barbara Boxer along with Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and numermous local candidates. Here is the rundown of my impressions of the night.

1. Garmanendi knows how to work a room. I spent a few moments talking to him and found him to be quite a gregarious and genioune person. He knows California and the federal government inside and out. He would definately be ready to handle the levers on day one.

2. Board candidates Alicia Wang and Eva Royale are cute, although Wang wore some odd eyewear.

3. Scott Wiener came in with Senator Boxer. He grit his teeth and politely clapped for Aaron Peskin but left while Peskin spoke. Feelings are obviously raw.

4. Boxer seemed honestly optimistic about the presidential race, especially in the west. Told us not to take our eyes off Oregon though. All the good news about Obama in red states is apparently true.

5. I asked her about the CA-46 and she seemed unaware of having a shot at winning there. Instead, she delivered the line about making Republicans spend money in their own districts.

6. She has little patience for cell phones and interruptions.

7. The Harrisons are nice folks.

8. The food was great.

9. Back to Senator Boxer, I believe she said that she expected us to pick up 5-6 senate seats.

10. Schwartzenegger, Carly Fiorina and one other person are potential opponents.

11. Peskin announced 1,100 square feet of campaign space on Market St.

12. Of all the money raised, how much will really be spent for Obama as opposed to local issues and races?

Just a quickie to give respect to some of the women in our California caucus.

Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is hammering home a simple message on offshore drilling:

Boxer said she had zero confidence in recent Senate Republican assurances that increased drilling will not lead to environmental damage from spills.

She pointed to recent comments from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), which were recently echoed by Sen. John McCain, the GOP presumptive presidential nominee, who said that “not a drop of oil was spilled” due to the Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the U.S. Minerals Management Service reported that the storm was blamed for no less than 146 oil spills from drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

“These are lies, just bald-faced lies,” Boxer said. “You want to know about my conclusion about $4 a gallon gas? Just divide eight years by two oilmen in the White House and you have your $4 a gallon.”

And here’s Rep. Hilda Solis, who has been leading the fight from the Congress against Arnold’s wage cuts, explaining the Paycheck Fairness Act on the blog Latina Lista (I give here extreme credit for using the brownosphere as a tool):

The House of Representatives made significant progress in closing the wage gap for all women last Thursday, especially women of color, by passing H.R. 1338, the Paycheck Fairness Act. Even though the Equal Pay Act was first signed into law in 45 years ago, women today earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. For women of color, the pay disparities are even worse.

Latinas earn on average 57 cents to every dollar that a man earns. African-American women earn just 68 cents to every dollar that a man earns.

These unacceptably low wage disparities for women are finally being address by Congress. The Paycheck Fairness Act will help empower women workers with the skills and knowledge they need to achieve pay equity with their male colleagues.

Even Speaker Pelosi is doing yeoman work for taking the heat on resisting a drilling vote while letting things roll over into the next Congress when the landscape will be more favorable.  

Good for our strong women leaders.  We need more of them.

I have on more than one occasion lamented the fact that our shiny new Democratic Congress in Washington has a hard time getting much more done than renaming post office buidlings and declaring National Asparagus Week.

And, sometimes, I guess, they even have trouble with that.

A bill introduced by Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer would officially change the name of the fourth-highest peak in California to honor longtime Sierra Club leader and Friends of the Earth founder David Brower.

North Palisade, which at 14,242 feet ranks behind Mt. Whitney, Mt. Williamson and White Mountain among the state’s highest points, would be renamed Brower Palisade in recognition of Brower’s contributions to the preservation of much of America’s best-loved and most well-known wilderness areas.

Brower, the Sierra Club’s first executive director, died eight years ago at the age of 88. A tireless crusader who was frequently criticized as arrogant, he led the fight to keep dams out of the Grand Canyon, rallied support for Redwood National Park and the Point Reyes National Seashore, sounded warnings on nuclear energy and, over decades, became one of the nation’s most influential environmental warriors.

A no-brainer, right? Right – unless you, um, actually have no brain. From the same LA Times article:

“I most likely wouldn’t support it,” Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Visalia) said Thursday. “If you look at a lot of these radical groups that were formed, they’ve cost my district thousands of jobs. Take the timber industry: We let our forests burn up and meanwhile buy all our wood from Canada — it’s kind of a sad deal.”

Yes, he really said that. To a reporter. On the record.

Wonder if there might be a sewage treatment plant Rep. Nunes would like to have his name attached to?