Daily Kos notes that Kwesi Mfume has announced he will run for the Maryland Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes. He will make an excellent Senator, he was a terrific Congressman. The Washington Post reports,

Mfume, a Baltimore native, was elected to serve Maryland's 7th Congressional Distict in 1986. His decade in the U.S. House of Representatives included a stint as chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He became president and chief executive officer of the NAACP in February 1996 and retired from that post at the end of last year.

Here's his platform statement:

He said his campaign would focus on "overcrowded and ill-equipped schools," health-care costs and disparities and fighting "low expectations" for some youths.

Like Kos, I'm a big Kwesi Mfume fan.

Allen Raymond, President of GOP Marketplace, LLC, has been sentenced to five months in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to jamming Democratic phone lines in New Hampshire during the 2002 election. The lines were in three cities/ They were the designated lines to allow Democrats to call in and get free rides to their polling precincts.

Chuck McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, also pleaded guilty. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month. James Tobin, 44, regional chairman of Bush's campaign last year, was indicted in December and pleaded innocent. Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, had stepped down from Bush's New England campaign in October after the allegations against him became public. In 2002, he was northeast political director of the party committee working to elect Republican senators.

by TChris

Question: If reasonable Americans get so fed up with the Bush administration that they move to Canada, who will be left to vote the rascals out?

Visits to the Canadian government's immigration website increased substantially after Bush's reelection.

Yet immigration lawyers say that Americans are not just making inquiries and that more are pursuing a move above the 49th parallel, fed up with a country they see drifting persistently to the right and abandoning the principles of tolerance, compassion and peaceful idealism they felt once defined the nation.

America is in no danger of emptying out. But even a small loss of residents, many of whom cite a deep sense of political despair, is a significant event in the life of a nation that thinks of itself as a place to escape to.

Via Buzzflash: Reporter Dave Lindorff, writing in FAIR, says that the New York Times killed a story in the days before the election that could have changed the outcome of the election. The issue: Did President Bush cheat during the debate by wearing an electronic cueing device.

Could the last-minute decision by the New York Times not to run the Nelson photos story, or the decision by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times not even to pursue it, have affected the outcome of the recent presidential race? There is no question that if such a story had run in any one of those major venues, instead of just in two online publications, Bulgegate would have been a major issue in the waning days of the campaign.

Given that exit polls show many who voted for Bush around the country listed "moral values" as a big factor in their decision, it seems reasonable to assume that at least some would have changed their minds had evidence been presented in the nation’s biggest and most influential newspapers that Bush had been dishonest. "Cheating on a debate should affect an election," says Bagdikian. "The decision not to let people know this story could affect the history of the United States."

New York Times public editor Daniel Okrant confirms Lindhorff's allegations about the Times killing the story:

Russ Feingold is considering a run for President in 2008. He says he might if there's enough support. How's his record? Close to perfect--his one error was voting to confirm Ashcroft, but that pales in comparision to these positions:

• Voted against Homeland Security Bill
• Consistently introduces Anti-Death Penalty Legislation
• Introduced a bill to Stop TIA (Total Information Awareness)
• Called on Ashcroft to explain the process by which he decides to seek the death penalty
• Joined in bill to repeal Feeney Amendment
• Opposed Diane Feinstein and John Kyl's Victims Rights Amendment
• Criticized the Government's "abuse of power" in treatment of detainees in June, 2003
• Was the sole senator to vote against the Patriot Act.
• Joined sponsoring bill in opposition to Feinstein's fear-mongering anti-gang legislation

Feel free to leave your support here. I'll be part of a conference call with Sen. Feingold next week, and I'm sure his staff will see and relay your support.

Is Joe Lieberman vulnerable in the next election cycle? Daily Kos says it's a distinct possibility. He and Atrios say online funding for a primary challenger to Lieberman might be arranged.

We're on board. Lieberman has been Republican-lite so long that I doubt even he remembers which party he belongs to.

Smart move by Robert Kennedy, Jr. He's decided against running for Attorney General of New York. He now leaves the field clear for his soon-to-be former brother-in-law, Andrew Cuomo, a far better choice, as we explain here. Cuomo hasn't yet made a decision.

According to the Associated Press, liberal radio show host Al Franken is considering a run for the Senate against Minnesota's Norm Coleman.

Coleman and Bush are friends. It was Bush who suggested Coleman run for the Senate against Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane crash in October, 2002, before Election day.

Robert Kennedy, Jr, environmental activist and lawyer, may run for Attorney General of New York against his soon-to-be ex-brother-in-law Andrew Cuomo.

Andrew Cuomo had a short-lived fling with running for Governor in 2002. We support Cuomo for Attorney General. He supports repeal of the Rockefeller drug laws. Cuomo opposes the death penalty and asked New York lawmakers to end it in 2001. Now that the state Supreme Court has declared the law unconsitutional, Cuomo says:

Democrats will challenge the electoral vote count in the 2004 election. Senator Barbara Boxer of California has told Progressive Democrats of America that she will stand with the members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the challenge.

Call Senator Harry Reid (D., Nevada) this morning, or send him a fax. Ask him to support Senator Boxer and the challenge. It is not a question of making a claim as to who won Ohio, but of acknowledging the undisputed fact that the election there was deeply flawed.

Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax:: 202-224-7327

It costs $10k for tickets to all of Bush's inaugural events. Many of his younger supporters, including those that raised $50 and $100k for his campaign, are finding the price too steep for them to attend. What did they expect? They supported an elitest and that's what they got.

Here are the text of Howard Dean's remarks Wednesday on the future of the Democratic Party. Dean wants to be Chair of the DNC. I'm in favor of Dean for the job, I think he'd be great. I don't want to see a Democratic leader who tries to co-opt the value debate - I'm sick to death of moderates who think the way to win is to be more like Republicans. This is the perfect job for Dean and his passion. Some of his comments today :

We cannot win by being "Republican-lite." We've tried it; it doesn't work. The question is not whether we move left or right. It's not about our direction. What we need to start focusing on... is the destination.

The destination of the Democratic Party requires that it be financially viable, able to raise money not only from big donors but small contributors, not only through dinners and telephone solicitations and direct mail, but also through the Internet and person-to-person outreach.

The destination of the Democratic Party means making it a party that can communicate with its supporters and with all Americans. Politics is at its best when we create and inspire a sense of community... We must use all of the power and potential of technology as part of an aggressive outreach to meet and include voters, to work with the state parties, and to influence media coverage.

The way we will rebuild the Democratic Party is not from consultants down, but from the ground up....Now we need to build on our successes while transforming the Democratic Party into a grassroots organization that can win in 50 states....We cannot be a Party that seeks the presidency by running an 18-state campaign. We cannot be a party that cedes a single state, a single District, a single precinct, nor should we cede a single voter. We're going to lift our Party up... And we're going to take this country back for the people who built it.