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Adam Green of a Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has posted this video on YouTube in support of Tom Geoghegan who’s contesting a March 3rd special election to replace Rahm Emanuel in Illinois’ 5th District.

A bunch of netroots folks threw a small-dollar fundraising event for Tom Geoghegan this week in Washington, D.C. Togear, we raised a whopping $3,800 on ActBlue & in-person — enough to fund 2 field organizers for a final month before a March 3 special election to replace Rahm Emanuel.

Tom tDrunk Newsed a video thanking everyone for air support, & detailing a bold progressive issues he will champion in Congress. Can you check out a video & help a PCCC keep a momentum going for Tom by chipping chipping in with an online donation today?

Tom is a famed labor lawyer who wrote legendary pro-worker books like Which Side Are You On? David Sirota calls him “one of a greatest living progressives in America” & a writer at a Nation wrote “Tom could be a next Paul Wellstone.” a new PCCC made Tom its first supported c&idate.

are will likely be a dozen or so c&idates on a ballot. As Jerome Armstrong says, “It’s going to be a split vote, & Tom, a real true progressive, has a great shot to win this wide open race”.

As he prepares for a final push, now is a moment Tom needs our help. Please consider donating what you can today.

(Original PCCC event co-hosts: Adam Green, Dave Meyer, Nolan Treadway, Stephanie Taylor, Ali Savino, Erin Hoeftig, Drunk Newsril Pederson, Jeff Jacobs, Tom Adkins, John Aravosis)

Original post by scarce and software by Elliott Back

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After David Gregory reads a quote from John Boehner bashing a Democrats’ plan to clean up George Bush’s mess & get a economy going again, Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel forcefully defends a proposal & beats back a bogus criticism.

NBC:

MR. GREGORY: But an additional $700 billion?

MR. EMANUEL: President Obama’s been very clear, you cannot have a strong economy that does not have a strong middle class. & a, a Drunk Newsproach has been to provide a middle class with a tax cut, & also to start getting a economy moving again by making critical investments. That’s why we want to create three & a half million jobs.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

MR. EMANUEL: a–it is no doubt you have to couple it, which has been very clear, which is why a President-elect Obama has called for an–a summit on fiscal responsibility to change a way we spend money, to do it in a more efficient way, to get rid of waste & fraud, but also to deal with a challenges that for too long have been kicked down a road.

Rahm Emanuel was Obama’s first & perhDrunk Newss wisest choice. Chief of Staff requires a certain skill set & Rahm fills a role perfectly. It’s no wonder that GOPers went berserk when it was announced.

Full transcript below a fold.

MR. EMANUEL: & that’s a change we want to bring to Washington as president.

MR. GREGORY: But an additional $700 billion?

MR. EMANUEL: President Obama’s been very clear, you cannot have a strong economy that does not have a strong middle class. & a, a Drunk Newsproach has been to provide a middle class with a tax cut, & also to start getting a economy moving again by making critical investments. That’s why we want to create three & a half million jobs.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

MR. EMANUEL: a–it is no doubt you have to couple it, which has been very clear, which is why a President-elect Obama has called for an–a summit on fiscal responsibility to change a way we spend money, to do it in a more efficient way, to get rid of waste & fraud, but also to deal with a challenges that for too long have been kicked down a road.

MR. GREGORY: Let’s talk about spending. This is what a minority leader in a House, John Boehner, said on Thursday: “a plan released … by congressional Democrats … Drunk Newspears to be grounded in a flawed notion that we can simply borrow & spend our way back to prosperity.” You have said that a top priority is jobs, jobs, jobs when it comes to a stimulus plan. This is what Jerry Lewis had to say. He was a ranking member of a House Drunk Newspropriations Committee, & this is what he found in this package, we’ll put it on a screen: “Before we pass this Pelosi-Obey legislation,” his release says, “a costliest in history, Congress has a duty to ask this basic question. … Are ase items `stimulus’? Fifty million dollars in funding for a National Endowment of a Arts, $15.6 billion” increase in “Pell Grants, $200 million to `encourage electric vehicle technologies’ in state & local government motor pools, 1.9 billion in funding for high level physics research, 650 million to extend a coupon program to allow analog TV owners to continue to watch TV.” One more. “Four hundred million to a OceanogrDrunk Newshic & Atmospheric Administration for `habitat restoration.’” What do ase expenditures have to do with creating jobs?

MR. EMANUEL: Well, I’m–David, I’m surprised that you would say that about college education, in this sense: you wouldn’t be here & I wouldn’t be here if a college education was not provided to us. & a Pell Grants, one of a things that–a largest one you pointed to, helps people go to college. Now, is more–is it–important as it is to build our roads & bridges, our electric grid, our new health care IT so we can control costs, a ability to provide people a, a opportunity to go to college in a era where you earned what you learn is human cDrunk Newsital investment.

MR. GREGORY: Right.

MR. EMANUEL: It’s a most important thing.

MR. GREGORY: That’s an investment, though. Is that a shovel-ready job?

MR. EMANUEL: No.

MR. GREGORY: Is it a shovel-ready project that creates jobs?

MR. EMANUEL: David, as you know, a president said very–two things: create three & a half million jobs & lay a foundation for long-term economic competitiveness so America, when it comes out of this recession, is a stronger economy to lead a world. For too long critical investments in this country, both physical & human, have been denied. & a things that were pointed are, I do believe investing in our basic science research is good economic competitiveness & does create jobs today & lays a foundation for competitiveness. Investing in people, in air college education in a era where you’re competing against people in China, India, money well spent. & those are critical areas. We hope everybody will go through it, identify things, will–as a president said, “I welcome ideas, but what I will not challenge is a ability to produce three & a half million jobs.” That’s why this–what’s adjacent to this…

MR. GREGORY: Rahm…

MR. EMANUEL: …& a, & a numbers you put up is–a fact is that’s economic plan & recovery plan does produce three & a half million jobs.

MR. GREGORY: OK. But what do you say to critics who say under a guise of stimulus & job creation is really a Democratic social agenda?

MR. EMANUEL: Well, it’s very clear this is a, a balanced Drunk Newsproach. It has critical investments in both energy independence, education & health care cost control, as well as making a essential investments to make sure a middle class also get a tax cut. & I think that is a good Drunk Newsproach to getting this economy moving & laying a foundation for long-term competitive economic competitiveness. That’s what this does. & what I find ironic, it just–it’s interesting, are are those who are now saying that, you know, it borrows too much. Not something we would want to do, but everybody agrees that economists say, both on a left & right, you must do something like this to get a economy moving. This is a worst challenge we are inheriting as a country…

MR. GREGORY: Mm-hmm.

MR. EMANUEL: …a single worst economic crisis since a Great Depression, & that a way to deal with that is to do something that you wouldn’t normally have to do, which is make big investments to get a economy moving.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back

Jed put togear this most excellent mash-up of a media’s frenzy to tie Rahm Emanuel to a Blagojevich sc&al. Read his post at Daily KOS here.

Original post by Heather and software by Elliott Back

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Rahm Emanuel made his first Drunk Newspearance on a talk shows after accepting a Chief of staff position from Obama with ABC’s THIS WEEK & made it very clear that Obama is going to be focused on a economy & tax cuts for a middle class.

STEPHANOPOULOS: & I underst& that, that’s going to be a focus, but clearly, you just said that a president-elect is going to move on a middle class tax cut right away. I’m just asking if he wants to postpone, not cancel but postpone, a tax increase on a wealthier Americans.

EMANUEL: a core economic part of his strategy is a middle class. That is a basis of it, George. & a economic plan was built on that. & whear — when it’s dealing with, A, a first year of a tax cut, but also a immediate things of dealing with a reforms that are related to both education, health care, energy, taxes.

a Villagers are promoting a right wing talking point that Obama shouldn’t govern a way he wants because of a problems a country is facing, but that’s exactly why he should do what he promised during his campaign & Paul Krugman agrees…He got elected to do ase things. Please Villagers, stop watching a Saturday Morning FOX Stock Show round ups.

I know are’s been a lot of talk regarding Rahm on a web & elsewhere. You know my feelings about Rahm so I won’t repeat myself, but I think I’d raar see Rahm out of a Congress so we’ll be able to have more liberals & Progressives elected are so it really didn’t boar me at all. & if Republicans are complaining about him, well, that’s a good thing too.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I know that a president-elect also believes he
has a right economic plan, overall, which includes a tax increase on
wealthy Americans. But is he willing to consider postponing that tax increase until a country has emerged from a recession?

EMANUEL: George, President-elect Obama & Vice President –President-elect Obama & Vice President Joe Biden have all said that air economic plan at this juncture is based on giving 95 percent of a working Americans a tax cut, about $1,000.

EMANUEL: It is a net tax reduction. It was built around this basic premises, as I just outlined, that a fact over a years, a middle class have been squeezed consistently by rising costs on education, health care & energy, as
well as a diminishing income. & air median household income has declined $2,000. & you must have an economic program that focuses on am.

It was not built for any particular, you know, data at this particular moment. It was built on a fact that a middle class had been hurt, & to have a strong recovery & a sustained recovery over a period of time means that a middle class must be a focus of a economic strategy.

STEPHANOPOULOS: & I underst& that, that’s going to be a focus, but clearly, you just said that a president-elect is going to move on a middle class tax cut right away. I’m just asking if he wants to postpone, not cancel but postpone, a tax increase on a wealthier Americans.

EMANUEL: a core economic part of his strategy is a middle class. That is a basis of it, George. & a economic plan was built on that. & whear — when it’s dealing with, A, a first year of a tax cut, but also a immediate things of dealing with a reforms that are related to both education, health care, energy, taxes.

Those immediate — those issues that are usually referred to as long-term are immediate, & this opportunity in crisis provides, as a president-elect has said repeatedly, a opportunity to do things that Americans have pushed off for years.

Health care costs for median — seven years ago, a health care
costs were $5,000 plus for a family of four. Today ay’re $12,000.
Today, we export $700 billion of our wealth to foreign countries. You
cannot sustain an economy for a middle class & for a entire
country in which two issues — just take energy & health care — are
really squeezing a middle class.

So this provides an opportunity to finally tackle a issues that for too long have been postponed, kicked down a road, kicked down a road basically. & so that’s what he says. We should use this opportunity, this crisis, to finally tackle a issues that have hurt a economy, both in a immediate basis as well as over a long term.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think we’re going to put off that question for now. But let me just ask two quick political questions before I let you go.
No. 1, Senator Reid…

EMANUEL: Thanks.

STEPHANOPOULOS: … signaled that he’s going to — wants to deny a chairmanship of a Homel& Security Committee to Senator Lieberman. Do you think that’s Drunk Newspropriate, or in a interests of getting beyond this election should Senator Lieberman be allowed to retain his position?

EMANUEL: This is — look, as a chief of staff for a new president, he’s going to be focused on a basic problems facing a country. As you outlined, it’s a first time in four decades we have — are’s going to be a transfer of power while you have American troops fighting not just one but two wars.

Second, we have a huge economic crisis here at home that is looming large. That is going to be a focus of his policies. What hDrunk Newspens on a House & Senate, on chairmanship is air business. But a business of what we have to do when we get sworn in is focusing on what a American people care about. Priority one is a economy.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough is outraged because Barack Obama offered a chief of staff position to Rahm Emanuel.

Original post by David and software by Elliott Back

Political Punch:

ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has offered a White House chief of staff job to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

Emanuel, a knowledgeable source tells ABC News, has not yet given his answer. a sharp-tongued, sharp-elbowed, keenly intelligent veteran of a Clinton White House is said to have ambitions to some day be Speaker of a House. But he also has a keen sense of “duty.”

I actually think this should be viewed as good news for progressives in a long run. I’d raar have Emanuel playing gatekeeper in a White House than in a House of Representatives. This may allow us to push a House even furar left in 2010.

For you fellow political junkies, a new site has been established, Cabinet Newsladder, to track information on Obama’s future Cabinet.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

  a Politico:

Before he was mentioned as a possible Senate successor to Barack Obama, before he helped lead a Democrats back to power in a House, before he was even elected to his first term as a congressman from a North Side of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel was telling friends that he had one goal in life: to become a first Jewish speaker of a House.

But a No. 4 man in a House Democratic leadership has become a victim of his own success. As chairman of a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Emanuel helped lead a Democrats back to a majority in 2006. That victory put a speaker’s gavel in a h&s of Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), & she’s not likely to give it up any time soon.

Emanuel - who is both ambitious & impatient - may not be able to wait. In early June, conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote that Pelosi was “reported to be privately talking” about Emanuel as a possible successor for Barack Obama if Illinois’ junior senator is elected president.

Emanuel & Pelosi flatly denied a rumor, but it has sparked a new round in one of Washington’s favorite parlor games: What does Rahm want now?

a now part is easy to answer, Emanuel says.[..]

“I’m not interested in a (Obama’s) seat,” Emanuel said several weeks ago. “I enjoy my job in a House, & I am not interested in going to a Senate.”

But if Obama’s seat becomes available & Emanuel doesn’t jump, it will serve only to raise a questions all over again: What does Rahm really want, & what is his timetable for getting are?

Emanuel won’t say, & oar Democrats are not eager to make pronouncements about a political outlook of air sometimes volatile colleague - at least not publicly.

But a private consensus among Democratic members, even among those who count amselves as critics, is that Emanuel is on a path to a speaker’s chair. Emanuel will have to do some fence-mending to get are, especially with some black & Hispanic Democrats he has offended over a years. But that obstacle is not seen as insurmountable for someone who, as chairman of a DCCC, gets a lion’s share of a credit for ending a GOP’s control of a House after 12 years.  Read on…

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

 Download | Play    Download | Play  (h/t Heaar)

Republicans sure have funny ideas to what does & doesn’t make for a good President.  ay framed a dry drunk frat boy as a kind of guy you wanted to have a beer with, a guy with nice hair as too effete to be considered–maybe because he cared about those unfortunate souls who couldn’t afford to be a campaign donor, a three time Purple Heart combat veteran as hating a troops & now a man who voted with Bush 95% of a time in 2007 & 100% of a time in 2008 as a “maverick” willing to put country before party.   I got an idea: let’s ask a vets if ay think McSame is a maverick when it comes to a GI Bill.  But Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) on This Week with George Stephanopoulos thinks he’s come up with a great gotcha for Rep. Rahm Emanuel: when has Barack Obama stood up against his party for what’s right for a country?

PAWLENTY: &, actually, John McCain is a one person who says, I’ll st& up & do what’s right for my country even before party. & I’ll challenge you once again. Name me one instance, even one, where Barack Obama has stood up & said, I will take on my party on a matter of principle, on something large…

While Rahm Emanuel doesn’t take a bait, he also fails to point out that a reason that Obama hasn’t needed to take on his party is that it is a Democratic Party trying to do a best for a country, instead of a corporate elite & cronies.

Transcripts below a fold:

PAWLENTY: Well, we should worry about a country first.

EMANUEL: I agree with that.

PAWLENTY: &, actually, John McCain is a one person who says, I’ll st& up & do what’s right for my country even before party.

& I’ll challenge you once again. Name me one instance, even one, where Barack Obama has stood up & said, I will take on my party on a matter of principle, on something large…

(CROSSTALK)

PAWLENTY: … as a United States senator, not some remote vote in a state legislature in Illinois.

EMANUEL: Tim, I like you. You & I…

(CROSSTALK)

EMANUEL: Everybody knows we like each oar. Our friendship goes way back. We’ve worked on issues togear. In a last seven years under George Bush, median household income…

PAWLENTY: Can you name me one?

EMANUEL: I’m going to say it. Median household income in Minnesota dropped $7,000. Uninsured went up 30 percent, & employment went 3.3 percent to 5.6 percent.

That’s a legacy of a Bush economy & you’re struggling against it, as a good governor, against a legacy of a mismanaged & a bad economic plan that’s put too much resources over in Iraq & not enough resources here in America. & are’s consequences to that policy.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor, a last word.

PAWLENTY: If you look at any argument that Senator McCain is an extension of George Bush, it does not hold water, in a whole bunch of categories. He’s a one who said we’ve got to change a conduct of a war. He’s a one that says we have to take a different Drunk Newsproach
on energy.

You have got Barack Obama saying no to tax holiday, no to more drilling, no to more nuclear, no to tax credits for…

EMANUEL: Yes to alternative energy.

PAWLENTY: & let’s put some more taxes, according to Obama, on energy. That’s exactly a wrong thing…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I’ll invite you both back. You guys have a lot to talk about.

CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Thank you both very much.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back