A glorious day for David Roth (CA-45th) and our happy throng of Americans to march in the Desert Pride Parade in Palm Springs.  Look who the gay community in Palm Springs is for:

GOTV precinct captains have our orders, the final call lists are getting together, and David, as usual, was talking with the voters all day.  The local paper, The Desert Sun, recapped the candidates in today’s edition.  My home delivered print edition showed both candidates on the front page, with equal space devoted to their respective articles.  Look how the web version formats it.  The panic among the shills and GOP machine is palpable.  GO ROTH!

I was glad to see that Diana Marrero wrote the Mary Bono section, as she is, I believe, based in Washington, and covered Bono without spin in the past.  In fact, The Desert Sun buried one of her articles on Mary Bono.  Roth’s campaign found it on Lexis/Nexis, the print readership got some whitewash hackery for Bono instead:

October 3, 2006 Tuesday
 SECTION: Pg. ARC
 LENGTH: 331 words
 HEADLINE: Foley close to Bonos
 BYLINE: DIANA MARRERO
 DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
Rep. Mary Bono and her late husband, Sonny, had ties to former lawmaker Mark Foley, who recently resigned from Congress amid scandal.
An avid rock fan, Foley became friends with Sonny Bono after the two joined the ranks of House Republicans in 1994.

But Bono, R-Palm Springs, denied having any personal ties to Foley on Monday, adding that she was shocked to learn the Florida Republican had reportedly sent explicit Internet messages to teenage boys.
Her spokesman, Jason Vasquez, said Bono did not know whether her late husband and Foley had been close.

“The inappropriate conduct by former Rep. Mark Foley is unacceptable and abhorrent,” Bono said in a statement. “Mr. Foley’s actions go against the values and responsibilities upheld by Congress. If he has violated the law, he should be prosecuted.”

In an interview with the Palm Beach Post in 2003, Foley said he had been friends with the couple. He loved the entertainment scene so much that Mary and Sonny Bono began calling him “Hollywood,” he told the Post.
Sonny Bono and Foley formed a Republican Entertainment Industry Task Force to boost ties between Republicans and entertainment industry executives.
When Sonny Bono died eight years ago, Foley was among a group of lawmakers who flew to California for the funeral. Later, Mary Bono sold Foley her late husband’s 1994 Jeep Wrangler.

Before Sonny Bono died, the former singer helped raise campaign cash for Foley. In 1998, the Florida lawmaker gave Mary Bono a $1,000 contribution, for her campaign to succeed her late husband in Congress.

Mary Bono now co-chairs the Recording Arts and Sciences Congressional Caucus, of which Foley was a member. Mary Bono has also worked with Foley on legislation, signing on as a co-sponsor earlier this year on a bill Foley introduced to strengthen Congress’ scrutiny over the sales of ports and other properties to foreign buyers.
—-
Contact reporter Diana Marrero at [email protected].

The Desert Sun blacks out coverage negative to Bono or positive for Roth, doesn’t do much to mask the fact, either.  That sense of Republican entitlement dies hard.  But die it must.

To the polls!  GOTV!

I’m pulling together MapQuest prints of the polling areas, caller lists and schedules, thinking I’d better clean this house if people are actually coming in to drop off data, when what to my bloodshot eyes should appear but some helpful pressure from Josh Marshall:

(November 05, 2006 — 11:51 PM EDT // link)

More and more reports coming in of irate voters calling various House Democratic campaigns complaining about the repeat-call-back robocalls.

In other words, these are the harassing calls paid for by the NRCC made to appear that they’re from the Democratic campaign. And a lot of angry voters are getting fooled by the scam, it seems.

Take this and the tightening polls together and you get one net result: this election is going to be decided on the ground. It’s in the hands of the folks running the get-out-the-vote operations, manning the phone banks, helping people get to the polls. The Republicans are going to do their best to scam their way through this one. So it’s up to the people on the ground to make sure they don’t get away with it. If you’re in the GOTV operation, it’s all up to you.

— Josh Marshall

Put me in, coach.  

The media investigation of the Republican leadership cover-up is now focusing Republican Secretary John Doolittle (R-CA) who is refusing to answer questions about his role in the Mark Foley scandal.

“This story is going to trace itself up to just exactly who exactly in the leadership of the Republican Party knew what when,” former White House advisor David Gergen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The tracking through the GOP leadership advanced with the Associated Press quote from Kirk Fordham that draws the senior staff of the Republican leadership into the scandal — while extending the length of the GOP leadership cover-up by more than a year.

What did Doolittle’s former chief of staff, Kevin A. Ring know and when did he know it? What did Richard Robinson known and when did he know it? What did GOP Secretary John Doolittle know and when did he know it?

Even embattled Speaker Dennis Hastert told the Chicago Tribune, “I think the base has to realize after a while, who knew about it? Who knew what, when?”

This week, Doolittle’s re-election campaign in California’s fourth district has been featured in articles by Peter Hecht, Rachel Gordon, Laura Kurtzman, Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Rone Tempest with none of the reporters getting on record what John Doolittle knew and when he learned it.

The A.P.’s Robin Hindry reported on the Doolittle stonewall that is now in at least it’s third day:

[Charlie] Brown on Monday also called for Doolittle to return a donation he received from Mark Foley, the Republican Florida congressman who resigned last week after sexually explicit e-mails he sent to congressional pages were made public.

Doolittle should say what he knew about Foley’s actions and return $1,000 he received from him in 2002, Brown said.

Doolittle issued a statement through his House office on Monday condemning Foley. Calls requesting comment from his campaign Monday evening were not returned.

Congressman Doolittle’s government website – www.gopsecretary.house.gov – features a welcome message from the GOP Secretary listing his primary objective as, “to provide members and their staffs with the support they need to become more informed, innovative, and proactive.” Voters deserve to know to what degree Doolittle was informed, whether he was innovative in the cover-up, and why he wasn’t proactive in protecting children.

While the media has failed to get Congressman Doolittle on record, constituent’s are demanding answers. This morning’s Sacramento Bee features a letter from John Garon of Placerville who notes, “Rep. John Doolittle makes much of the fact that he is a member of the “leadership” of the House GOP. Since members of this inner circle, and a few more, knew of Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual advances to young boys, what did Doolittle do if and when he found out? Prima facie evidence indicates he did nothing, going along to get along, as he always does.”

With Doolittle stonewalling the press and refusing to deny involvement, the speculation is growing that Doolittle will play dumb. In another SacBee letter today, Mary Ann Keerer wonders, “Does Doolittle want us to believe that he knew nothing about his cohort’s sexual exploitation of underage boys just like he knows nothing about the sex slaves and other obscenities occurring in the Northern Mariana Islands?”

The Predatorgate scandal is sure to draw attention to Doolittle’s long history of protecting sexual predators in the Northern Marianas Islands for Jack Abramoff.

In addition to stonewalling the press, Doolittle’s damage control team is also ignoring constituent questions:

I called John Doolittle’s office today to ask if he still supports Dennis Hastert for Speaker, since the guy has known about and covered up the truly creepy activities of Congressman Foley.

The person who answered started telling me about how Hastert didn’t know about what was going on with Foley.  I said, “So that means Congressman Doolittle does support Hastert?”

She said no, no, no.  I’ll find out and get back to you.

Why is this important?  I’ve called Doolittle’s office many times over the years to ask about his positions on things like social security, net neutrality, etc.  The people there are always arrogant and dismissive, they give Doolittle’s position with no regard or care whether anyone disagrees with Doolittle.

This time, the person seemed very worried.

Unlike Representatives Heather Wilson and Geoff Davis, Rep. Doolittle is refusing to donate to charity the donations he received from former Congressman Mark Foley.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Charlie Brown is demanding that Rep. John Doolittle, who’s too cowardly to even face him in a televised debate, to return a campaign donation from Mark Foley’s Political Action Committee.

Now the donation is a mere $1,000.  I think Abramoff would tip Doolittle that for walking him to his car.  But the point is that Brown is campaigning with the aggressive, take-no-prisoners, seize-every-opportunity streak we’ve come to expect from Republicans.  From his multitude of creative websites to his non-stop attacks on Doolittle’s involvement with the CNMI, Brown is attacking hard but also putting the entire thing into an easy-to-read narrative.  From his email to supporters:

“This is an absolute moral outrage,” said Brown.  “Any Member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, who had knowledge of Congressman Foley’s illicit behavior and took no action should resign. There is no excuse for putting political considerations before protecting children,” Brown said. He called for an independent, non-partisan investigation into the issue.

“This Congress is losing the moral authority to lead – every day the news is about corruption, bribery, campaign-finance scandals and cover ups,” Brown continued. “This is not about left versus right, it’s about right versus wrong. It’s long past time for a change.”

I can’t help but be impressed with Brown’s skills as a campaigner and a candidate.  His rapid response team is ridiculously good.  He’s skilled at grabbing free media attention by attacking his opponent’s weak points and not letting go.

There is no way Charlie Brown should have a shot in CA-04.  It’s redder than red.  But contesting everywhere has a great benefit, by freeing up the Democrat in question to absolutely go for broke.

I don’t make predictions often, but I really think that Charlie Brown will be the next Congressman from California’s 4th District.