Calitics:

"1) CA-04: Lean Dem. Charlie Brown has been ahead in multiple polls and actually has a ground game, unlike Tom McClintock."

Real Clear Politics:

CA-04 is the 46th most likely House seat to change hands this year.

46. California 4 -- Open -- Doolittle (R) retiring: The Fourth almost flipped in 2006, when Rep. John Doolittle's ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff left him vulnerable in a comfortably Republican district. Retired Air Force officer Charlie Brown (D) quickly started a second bid, and this time he faces State Senator Tom McClintock (R), the closest thing California has to a conservative standout. McClintock's home is 400 miles away from the Sacramento-based district, which could cause the Republican problems in November.

Pollster.com:

CA-04 = Tossup

Not everyone is as far behind the curve as Cook.

Bob

"Bob" - Calitics is as biased as Daily Joke.

Please show me an independent poll in CA-04. It will show you what your internals are showing you - Brown is behind by a healthy margin.

I did not attribute this post to cook - you identified it as cook. The universe of people who know who cook is, is a very small universe indeed. Most are getting paid for their opinions.

So when you are kicking it at Lincoln Street trying to figure out your next batch of Kool-Aid... take a look at the following:

Effigy / opposed surge / anti-war
Support of Gay Marriage
Opposing New Oil Leases
Left-Wing Blogs calling Charlie a real democrat, not a Blue Dog
Soundbyte after soundbyte confirming Charlie is no moderate
Affirmation of ACLU membership
Supports tax increases

And on and on it goes...

Aaron,

Sorry an amateur is here kicking your butt so hard you think he's a professional. Hardly. I am just fairly good at finding stuff online, and with you it's like an Easter Egg Hunt. You put the faleshoods or half-truths in your posts and I enjoy doing a little research knocking them down one after the other. Most of all I want to see a good U.S. Representative for our district. I would have been a lot less intense about this had you guys found somebody in the middle of the road to replace Doolittle--somebody a lot like Brown--but no, you had to find the most unlikable guy imaginable, a self-centered carpetbagging career politico to the right of Attila the Hun.

So I'm here fighting for Charlie not because I get paid. I'm not even a volunteer with the campaign. It's because I think he'll be a much better representative for me and my family than McClintock. And if he doesn't do a good job I'll be the first guy in 2010 to ask, "OK, whatcha got Republicans"? If past is prologue, though, you guys will stumble again in 2010 and pick another ultra conservative dino-dork.

I want a moderate in Congress and I'm willing to spend time fighting for one.

Bob

As far as Mahoney is concerned, I am absolutely sick of Democrats claiming to be so free of corruption, when we've got John Edwards, Charlie Rangel, Nancy Pelosi, and now this disgusting hypocrite all flying their true colors over the last few months.

Here's how Brown could score a lot of points with me and many others like me: denounce the above as just as much a part of the problem as the Doolittles of the world. Then maybe his rhetoric would look like more than just... rhetoric.

Hector

AARON PARK FALLS OFF THE WAGON

This is scandalis. Aaron just finishes his gym thing and has registered a half a dozen or so as he is toweling off and holding forth on Prop 8.

Feeling extra euphoric as he anticipates telling this tale on Red County Placer, he feels he needs to celebrate. Names and addresses of some hunky guys who seemed very turned on by his explaining that they would not have to get married to him.

Pride goeth before the fall.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2008/10/13/vo.ny.pizza.eating.wabc

I tell you what tune is not going through Aaron's mind this morning...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6-b7CONDI

Lee

Nice to see Leehog can sort of stay on topic.

Nice to see "Bob" continues to lie through his teeth about being an amateur and about Charlie being a Moderate. Keep it up "bob" only 20+ days to go until the Colonel gets overrun by the General.

Hector,

All corrupt politicians - regardless of party affiliation - deserve the most severe punishment available under the law. I am an equal-opportunity anti-corruption guy. So, ya betcha, folks like Mahoney and William Jefferson--and Sarah Palin--all ought to be hung by their thumbs.

There needs to be something like this:

1) A truly bipartisan ethics oversight process for Congress (all government institutions, actually)
2) If a complaint is not acted on by the Congressional ethics committee within a short timeframe then there should be an automatic referral to Justice requiring an investigation. There needs to be a timetable around this process
3) Politicians who are under investigation should be required to formally notify every single one of their constituents by mail. The mailer must be approved by the ethics committee and comply with a standard format to be sure constituents have all the facts.
4) If a politician is indicted he/she MUST resign all leadership positions

Bob

Bob,

I'd say that all sounds pretty good. I am honestly glad we agree on that. But it's very easy to generally recommend stricter standards on our elected leaders. It is not as easy to single out corrupt members of your own party. This point is where the truly incorruptible distinguish themselves. Unless I am mistaken, Brown has yet to do so with Rangel, Pelosi et al. In contrast, McClintock has shown a tremendous willingness to take on members of his own party who get too big for their britches.

I still have a little respect for Brown -- his service and his sincerity -- as much as I disagree with him. He should follow through on his word and not be silent just because someone has a D next to his or her name. He certainly give Doolittle no mercy.

Hector

Hector,

The Rangel / Pelosi angle is just that. It's an angle. An acute angle. It's all you have so you are making as much hay as you can from it. But let's face it: It's very, very weak. Consider the current incumbent. He defiantly refused to return even one dollar to Jack Abramoff even after Abramoff was indicted. Even after he was thrown in a federal prison! Where are the calls from you on John Doolittle to comply with your (suddenly) high moral standards for politicans?

I tell you what. If all Republicans offer to donate every tainted dollar from Abramoff and a long list of other indicted or jailed lobbysists and fellow politicians then I will call on Brown to return the money he received from Rangel and Pelosi to needy causes. Oh, wait! Brown has already given far more money than he has received from Rangel and Pelosi to charitable organizations! Over $55,000 in fact! Looks like he's doing the right thing! You're a good man, Charlie Brown!

Now let's look at the "charities" McClintock has contributed to for the purpose of reducing the amount of money in his 2010 campaign committee accounts that he intends to keep open so when he loses he can run for statewide office. As Lee pointed out one of the "charities" is an organization that counts John Stoos on its leadership team. John has to date refused to comply with Lee's requests for transparency as required by law. What's up with that?

Sorry, Hector. Your dog not only won't hunt it is lying on the gound upside down with its legs sticking up and its tongue hanging out, eyes closed.

Bob

"Bob" - sorry, you're being a hypocrite.

There are a ton of amoral dirtbags that give money to charity. $55K does not make taking dirty money OK, it does not make anti-war activism OK.

However, since you have a paycheck depending on your towing the line... you have to maintain the You're a Good Man Charlie Brown mantra.

Someone should ask the Credit Union or the Koh Tang Island folks about that... I knew the effigy and the Sean Penn rally weren't isolated events...

Charitable Donations are being used as a smokescreen by Brown. see also Matthew 6: 1-4.

EXTREMIST GOOD NEWS FOR THE THEOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF PLACER

Sarah Palin is going to bring the rest of this great nation in beside you. CNN is following up on a Salon story that Palin is indeed the God Mother of AIP. AIP is under the umbrella of the American Constitutional Party.

pssst...keep this on the qt now that I am a Republican.

Come on Aaron-

This guy is sooooo not liberal enough Charlie.

He isn't even a former communist party member. He did not give nuclear material to a state sponsor of terror. He is not far enough down the socialist path to support Charlie.

Oh- and "Bobbie"- how does it feel to be abandoned by the DCCC again! They just bailed out on another week of Ads (which means according to DCCC internal polling you are more than 10 points back)- Ouch!

Jimmy,

Or ten points ahead.

Bob

Lee,

McCain - Palin is melting down into something that is completely unrecognizable as the campaign of a major U.S. political party. GOP insiders want Palin bounced from the ticket but to what end? The damage is done. Bush political strategist Matthew Dowd had a lot to say about this...

Matthew Dowd, a prominent political consultant and chief strategist for George W. Bush's reelection campaign eviscerated John McCain on Tuesday for his choice of Sarah Palin as vice president.

Dowd proclaimed that, in his heart of hearts, McCain knew he put the country at risk with his VP choice and that he would "have to live" with that fact for the rest of his career.

"They didn't let John McCain pick the person he wanted to pick as VP," Dowd declared during the Time Warner Summit panel. "When Sarah Palin got picked instead of Joe Lieberman, which I fundamentally believed would have given John McCain the best opportunity in this race... as soon as he picked Palin, that whole ready versus not ready argument was not credible."

Saying that Palin was a "net negative" on the ticket, he went on: "[McCain] knows, in his gut, that he put somebody unqualified on the ballot. He knows that in his gut, and when this race is over that is something he will have to live with... He put somebody unqualified on that ballot and he put the country at risk, he knows that."

The other panelists were surprised, a bit, by Dowd's bluntness. Not least because McCain's well-known campaign motto is "country first."

"No, I don't agree," said Mark McKinnon, a former McCain aide, after chiding Dowd for claiming particular insight into McCain's soul.

"Well," responded Dowd, "that's even more disturbing than my thought" -- the implication being that it would be truly frightening if McCain didn't know how bad Palin truly was.

Time columnist Joe Klein summed up what seemed to be the panel's Palin consensus.

"It was a gimmick," he said of the pick. "It was one of the most disastrous decisions I have seen in a presidential campaign since I've begun covering them."

Later in the session, Hilary Rosen, the Huffington Post's Washington editor at large, noted that the Palin pick had been successful in energizing the Republican base -- and McCain himself. But Dowd wasn't biting.

"To me it is like Halloween," he said. "You get energized by eating all that candy at night but then you feel sick the next day."

Bob

On the quote from my last post, Dowd used the word "eviscerated".

If you don't know what that means I recommend you look it up. Strong word.

Also, ya gotta wonder when an insider like Dowd says something like this:

"They didn't let John McCain pick the person he wanted to pick as VP"

Wow. Doesn't the candidate make the call? Maybe THAT'S why Bush got pushed around by Cheney and Rumsfeld. Republicans want and expect their presidents to be compliant to the inside power brokers. Revealing.

Bob

I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK

Some wise ass said McCain rambled around the last townhall debate stage...looked like an old guy in a nursing home looking for his room...