I decided a few weeks ago that I might take a shot at running for one of the Obama delegate slots to the Democratic National Convention from my congressional district (OR-3).

I knew the odds were against me. The Fightin' 3rd is a strongly Democratic district, with a large activist population. We had six Obama delegates and one alternate (4M, 3F) to elect, and almost 120 candidates in total registered (among 300 Democrats registered to participate as delegates to the 3rd CD convention).

The Democratic Party of Oregon did a great job with an online registration site that made the whole process as painless as possible.

More below the jump.

I'm still in mourning for the US Senate campaign of my friend Steve Novick, which ended on Tuesday after a last minute infusion of about $400K of independent advertising and phone calls funded by the DSCC for Novick's opponent in the Oregon primary.

Whatever. Those reasons are in the past now and we're all on the same team, the team that will take down Gordon Smith in November.

But Steve gave the most gracious, funny, gallant, dignified, and upbeat concession speech I've ever heard, or heard of. Maybe the best ever. And it would be a shame for the dailykos community not to get a chance to see it..... although I sure as hell wish I had never had to hear it.

I present it below the fold for your delectation.

Like many of you, I came into 2008 as a strong supporter of John Edwards. After he dropped out of the race a lot of the interest went out of it for me. I have been undecided for a very long time, and struggling to make up my mind.

I was hoping that by the time the Oregon primary rolled around my Presidential primary vote would be irrelevant, the way it has been in the past. But not this time.

Here in Oregon we vote by mail. My ballot arrived almost a week ago, and it's due on Tuesday, May 20.

Normally I vote immediately and mail my ballot in right away. This year I've been waiting, trying to be sure who my Presidential choice would be. But we've got a few big races downticket in this primary, and I have a business trip coming up on Wednesday May 14. So I've decided that I need to vote before then, so that even if my plane crashes my candidates for the US Senate (Steve Novick) and Attorney General (John Kroger) will still get my vote.

Almost sixteen months ago, when my friend Steve Novick first broached the idea of taking on Senator Gordon Smith, he asked me if I would help him.

It wasn't as if we were really close friends then. We weren't. I would say we were casual friends. But I had seen something in Steve that I responded to. Perhaps it was his remarkable intelligence and sense of humor. Perhaps it was his ease in his own skin, despite significant physical disabilities. Maybe it was just that I knew he was reliably progressive, very hardworking, and a veritable pithy quote machine. In any case, I felt instinctively that no matter who else might decide to get into the race, I just loved the very idea of Steve Novick being my next US Senator, and I was willing to work hard to achieve that goal. I especially enjoyed imagining the net karmic transfer that would result from swapping Steve in for Gordon Smith. And I felt that despite the fact that Smith had survived two re-election campaigns against well-meaning but inept Democratic challengers, Steve would be different.

Turns out I was right. More below.

Part of what makes "better Democrats" actually better is that they avoid Republican traps, trickery and nonsense.  

Five years ago today, March 21, 2003, Oregon US Senate candidate Jeff Merkley was faced with just such a trap as a member of the state House. On that occasion he cast a vote some might call craven, others simply stupid. Others, more charitably, might just say it was a mistake.

In any case, like Hillary Clinton, he still doesn't realize it.

Five years ago the Oregon House of Representatives passed the now-notorious HR2, setting forth the rationale for the Iraq war and then validating it.  All but five Democrats in the chamber, including Jeff Merkley, voted Yes.

An analysis of the resolution, and the vote, below the jump, along with the full text of the resolution itself.

Yesterday both of Oregon's leading Democratic US Senate candidates, Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley, endorsed Barack Obama. Both had formerly supported John Edwards, as I did and as many kossacks did (and some of us still do). Merkley, in fact, was a cochair of Edwards' campaign in Oregon.

The words they chose are revealing of the two men who want to be my next Senator.  While Novick acknowledged Edwards and the issues he championed, Merkley simply wiped the slate clean and wrote on it anew, as if John Edwards had never existed.

I supported John Edwards. I was (OK, I still am) one of those diehard flaming Edwards supporters who especially loved his fighting spirit and his commitment to economic justice.

While I'm sure that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama consider economic justice to be a good and important thing, neither has really made it a centerpiece of their respective campaigns. But they are the only two games in town right now, and some or us have to choose up sides (if our states haven't voted yet, or if we give money to candidates we support.

Since I live in Oregon and we don't vote till May 20, and since I have been known to give money to political candidates I support, and since my butt has been perched on this fence for a few weeks now and it's starting to hurt, I need to make up my mind.

I hear people say, all the time and with pride, "I vote for the man, well, the person, not the party," or "I don't care if the candidate is a Democrat or a Republican or whatever, I vote for the one I think is best qualified."

Alternatively, sometimes I hear people say, "If [my preferred candidate in the primary] doesn't win, I'm going to vote for [other party's presumptive nominee], because [non-preferred candidate in the primary] is too conservative" or too untrustworthy or too polarizing or whatever.

Well, that's just crap.

Maybe it wasn't always crap, but it is now.

It is essential to suck it up if necessary and vote Democratic. Stay tuned and I'll tell you why.

My husband Mike and I are on a good long vacation, thanks to my five week sabbatical (a reward from my employer for ten years' service, then every five years thereafter). We've been in Australia for about two and a half weeks so far (a week in Melbourne, 9 days in Sydney) and we're having a blast. But when we were planning the trip we were both a little dismayed to figure out that we'd have to be far away from home (Portland, Oregon) on Super Tuesday.

We are both active Democrats and although Oregon won't vote till May 20 (yeah, I know, pathetic), we were looking forward to watching the returns with friends. But this trip required a change of plans. I went online to Democrats Abroad, found the local chapter in New South Wales, Australia, and fired off emails to a couple of the officers to ask about Super Tuesday. Never mind that 19 hour time difference! Within hours I had heard back. They were delighted to hear from me and welcomed us to their Super Tuesday viewing party (locally Wednesday at 11 am).

(cross-posted from Loaded Orygun, Oregon's progressive community)

 
I know it will shock all of you to learn this, but occasionally I peek at other blogs, and even more occasionally I find something inspirational or just plain useful there. So it was with the New York Times' Freakonomics blog a few days ago.The blog entry is called "Swimming Pools and Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The author is Yale professor Ian Ayres.  He's talking about the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy but the underlying principles are applicable to any form of de jure discrimination. Details below the jump.

(crossposted with permission of the original author, torridjoe, from Loaded Orygun, Oregon's progressive community)

Steve Novick's new "to Tell The Truth" adcontinues to rack up views, favorable comments and DONATIONS for more opportunities to see the first ad of the Senate campaign in the US, I think just beating out Al Franken. The campaign has already pulled in over $2,000 on ActBlue since Monday directed to air the ad on David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, and the Jan 21 Democratic debate. There's only a couple more days until the deadline in order to get the full buy.

{read about all the great buzz, below}

(cross-posted from Loaded Orygun, Oregon's progressive community)

The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes reportsfrom yesterday's joint appearance in Lake Oswego by Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick:

Novick, who appears to face the toughest path to the nomination, was more willing to toss out ideas that could be a more difficult sell in a general election, such as getting rid of the lower tax rate for capital gains and raising the cap on wages subject to Social Security. Merkley said after their appearance before the Willamette Women Democrats that he thinks there should be a "modest" differential for capital gains rate and that he sees raising the Social Security cap as one option that he isn't ready to endorse.

In accordance with tradition, the residents of the hamlet of Dixville Notch, NH gathered at midnight to cast their ballots, the first ballots cast in the First In The Nation [TM] New Hampshire primary election.

Totals are below the fold.

I just returned from a holiday visit to my parents and other assorted family members in Baltimore.

These trips are precious to me because my mom and dad are 77 and 85, respectively, and although still in reasonably good health, seem to not be getting any younger. The trips also represent precious opportunities for quality time with my brother's only child, my nine year old niece, Christina.

Christina has been getting into movie musicals lately. My mom has been showing her classics like My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Singin' in the Rain.  She loved the singing and dancing and Deborah Kerr's "big dresses" in The King and I, but she hated it when [SPOILER ALERT!] the King died at the end. "I like it better when they get married," she explained. But far above the rest, as far as Christina is concerned, is the musical adaptation of the John Waters classic "Hairspray," a gift we watched  five times together in as many days. After the first viewing she exclaimed, "I love this movie! If I could I would watch this movie every day for the rest of my life UNTIL I DIE!"

Watching it with her four more times in recent days, I found myself trying to sort out exactly what it was about this picture that was pushing her buttons so effectively.

I've been thinking a lot about the Edwardses this holiday season as Iowa approaches and so much media attention is lavished on the Hillary-vs-Obama horserace. I've been their fan for about four years now (although I went into 2004 as a Howard Dean supporter). As a candidate in 2008 John Edwards is talking about the issues that concern me the most, especially the twin ticking time bombs of economic injustice and access to health care.

He's smart. He's progressive. He is committed to the wellbeing of working people. He's great on the stump. He's passionate. He's handsome and charming. He's got good hair and adorable children. Yes, there are a lot of great things about John Edwards. But the very best thing about him might be his wife, Elizabeth.

I have a theory that the single most revealing thing about a man is to know his wife. And in keeping with this theory, to me it speaks very well of John Edwards that he chooses to be married to a woman like Elizabeth. I knew from seeing her on TV and reading her book that she was smart, brave, kind, and beautiful. I learned a lot more about her in the course of a single afternoon and evening in Portland, Oregon almost exactly six months ago.

(cross-posted from Loaded Orygun, Oregon's progressive community)

I will state for the record that I am an ardent and shameless Steve Novick supporter.

But really, the fundraising appeal I received yesterday from the Novick campaign is the greatest fundraising email I can ever remember receiving -- way better than John Edwards' mother's pecan pie recipe (although sucker that I am, I did pony up for that one).

(It sure beats the "Save the Children" style fundraising appeal that came in from Steve's primary opponent Jeff Merkley the other day. How DID he get my email address, anyway?)

But judge for yourselves. And then toss Steve Novick a few bucks. You can rest assured he won't spend any of it on RVs with out-of-state tags.

(Also posted at www.loadedorygun.net, Oregon's progressive community.)

Last night I ran into Jeff Merkley at an event, and I was very pleased to be able to get a few minutes of his uninterrupted attention so I could ask him about two issues that I care a lot about: (a) marriage equality, and (b) reform of the Internal Revenue Code to tax capital gains at the same rate as wages.

In the interest of full disclosure, I told him upfront that I was supporting his primary opponent Steve Novick, but that I was also sincerely interested in his positions on those two issues specifically, yes or no.

I should say at this point that Jeff Merkley seems to be a true gentleman, bright, and a very nice guy. He didn't have to give me the time of day once I had identified myself as a Novick supporter, but he was very cordial. I had met him only once before, very briefly, more than a year ago, and there was no way he would have remembered me. He was just being kind, which I appreciated.

But after I told him I was a Novick supporter and asked him my two yes-or-no questions, what happened next was interesting. He locked those big brown puppylike eyes onto mine (also brown, somewhat smaller and less puppylike) and proceeded to tell me why in his view "those are not 'yes or no' issues."

I've been traveling in Europe on business for the past ten days, and earlier this week in Brussels I had the opportunity to take a tour of the European Parliament there. I say "there" because there is a whole other European Parliament edifice in Strasbourg, France, where the body meets for plenary sessions 10-12 times per year. The Brussels location is used for committee meetings and other sessions. The cost of sending truckfuls of documents and hundreds of Members (plus some staff) back and forth to Strasbourg once a month is astronomical. The carbon emissions must also be staggering to comprehend. But like so many other things about the united Europe, this is just another trade-off that was made to keep one of the big member states (in this case France) happy.

We had a great young tour guide, a beyond-fluent English speaker who works for a Member of the Parliament who shall remain nameless and unidentified by country. Our tour guide describes himself as a "Euroskeptic" but seems to respect much of the work being done there.

I knew next to nothing about the European Parliament before my visit. But I've learned a few fascinating things that I thought Kos readers might also be interested to know.