Who's Being 'Extremist,' Black Conservative Asks
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Who's Being 'Extremist,' Black Conservative Asks

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus reportedly plan to march into the Senate on Wednesday to show their opposition to California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown.

The Senate is expected to confirm Brown's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, following a two-year filibuster by Democrats.

One black conservative says Senate Democrats are behaving like extremists: "They should stop blocking the courthouse door and vote to confirm Judge Janice Rogers Brown," said the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny.

Peterson said Democrats' opposition to Brown is another example of their "deep-seated hostility towards black conservative nominees."

He called Brown a highly qualified nominee who has earned her position and a good role model for all Americans.

"To label her as 'unqualified' or 'ideologically extreme' is simply a smokescreen," Peterson said in a press release.

"This is not the era of George Wallace and the segregationist Democrats. So when will Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Senators Edward Kennedy, Barbra Boxer, and other Democrats stop blocking qualified blacks from advancing? When will the Congressional Black Caucus stand up for clear-thinking black people?

"Judge Brown deserves confirmation without any further delay," Peterson concluded.

A report in Wednesday's Washington Post says some liberals are "questioning the wisdom" of the deal that allowed a confirmation vote on Brown and two other controversial nominees - in exchange for Republicans agreeing not to invoke the "nuclear option."

"Our problem with the compromise is the price that was paid," the Post quoted Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) as saying on Tuesday.

Liberals accuse Brown of being "hostile" to civil rights and many other elements of the liberal agenda.

Cybercast News Service ~ Susan Jones ** Who's Being 'Extremist,' Black Conservative Asks

Marxist / Queer Orthodoxy at the University of Colorado
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Columns

Queer Orthodoxy at the University of Colorado

By Jon Sanders

Academic Marxism shows up clothed in the attire of many scholarly courses of study. In its most recent incarnation, academic Marxism makes an entrance as the sexy bedfellow of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

There, in diligent pursuit of scholarly material, co-director of LGBT studies and English professor Mark Winokur, explored the Internet. But such a research tool as the computer is not without its ethical problems for Professor Winokur. With the peculiarly tortured conscience of a Marxist, Winokur worries about the political acts involved in using a computer to surf the 'Net–of using such a tool for the ends of the revolution. In other words, does the revolutionary end justify the phallic means? Winokur wonders: "Can the Internet be presumed to be phallic in this fashion: simultaneously powerful and nonexistent? ... I think that the answer depends on how one views the apparatus that connects one to the Internet: the monitor." The monitor, according to Winokur, has "coercive qualities" and "is that part of the larger Internet apparatus that most immediately reminds one of now more traditional visual entertainment/information media. Governmental and corporate surveillance aside, I wonder whether, like other media, the monitor through which we view the world is always monitoring us."

After several paragraphs wrangling with these and other concerns, Winokur finds reason for optimism in a quotation from Walter Benjamin, with which he closes his essay: "Only when in technology body and image so interpenetrate that all revolutionary tension becomes bodily collective innervation, and all the bodily innervations of the collective become revolutionary discharge, has reality transcended itself to the extent demanded by the Communist Manifesto." Goodness knows how many teenagers are in front of their monitors committing revolutionary acts of tension discharge right now.

Indeed, students signing up for classes in LGBT, which advertises itself as "an interdisciplinary program encompassing more than 20 courses in a dozen departments [and] involv[ing] the academic investigation of sexuality in established fields such as literature, history, theatre, law, medicine, economics, sociology, anthropology and political science," will find themselves engaging in a complete indoctrination in Marxism as they prepare themselves for the intellectual challenges of ENGL 4038: Queer Modernism and ETHN 3010: Queer Ethnic Studies.

But before undertaking such heady scholarly study, they will first need to take several required classes. One is "Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies" (LGBT 2000), where students will find themselves "Investigat[ing] the social and historical meanings of racial, gender, and sexual identities and their relationship to contemporary lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender communities." That description is boilerplate academic Marxism, useful for all kinds of identity-politics programs (q.v., "Investigates the social and historical meanings of racial, gender, and sexual identities and their relationship to contemporary [insert group identity here] communities"). Students can expect to be introduced to the Marxist assumption of social construction of identity, as evident with the phrase "social and historical meanings of racial, gender, and sexual identities." This assumption also appears to be active in the description for the program's other required class, "Introduction to Lesbian, Bisexual, and Gay Literature" (ENGL 2707), which introduces students "to some of the forms, concerns, and genres of contemporary lesbian, bisexual, and gay writing in English."

This same deterministic notion?which has animated academic Marxists since, well, Marx and Engels?can be found throughout the electives, too. Colorado's LGBT Studies course descriptions frequently promise to "interrogate," "examine," "analyze, question, and explode," etc., the current array of cultural, political, and other social elements responsible for constructing students' social beings, because, of course, those things must all change.

The student up to the challenges of interrogation and examination has a shopper's list of courses and of descriptions of the credentials of the faculty members who teach them. For example, he or she will learn that Professor Winokur's academic interests range from popular culture and film to race and ethnicity. Currently, he is working on articles titled "The Racial Fetish in American Horror," "Barbara Hammer and the Politics of Lesbian Cinema," and "Film Relics: Some Analogies Between the Classical Hollywood Style and Medieval Worship of Saints," and a book, Technologies of Race: Makeup, Special Effects and Ethnic Groups in American Film (book). He is also co-author with Bruce Holsinger of The Complete Idiot?s Guide to Movies, Flicks, and Film.

For the LGBT Studies program, Winokur teaches "ENGL 3856: Queer Film," which "examine[s] approximately thirteen primary texts [movies] that reflect the various ideologies, politics, and aesthetics of 'alternative sexualities' in the history of filmic representation" and "discuss[es] secondary readings that include theory, history, and criticism of both film studies and gay and lesbian studies."

The other co-director of LGBT Studies, Jane Garrity, has interests ranging from 20th-century British literature to feminist and lesbian theory. Garrity is currently working on articles titled "'Queens Survive: Mary Butts, Homophile" and "Queer Modernism." She has contributed articles to Straight With a Twist: Queer Theory and the Subject of Heterosexuality, edited by Calvin Thomas, and Lesbian Erotics, edited by Karla Jay. She wrote Step-Daughters of England: British Women Modernists and the National Imaginary, a book that reads British woman modernists? "literary texts through the lens of material culture" and "demonstrates the intersections among nationalism, imperialism, gender and sexuality in the construction of English national culture." Her book Sapphic Modernities: Sexuality, Women, and Modern English Culture, co-edited with Laura Doan, is forthcoming. The book description on Amazon.com states, "This exciting collection?s aim is to show how the sapphic [i.e., lesbian] figure, in her multiple and contradictory guises, refigures the relation between public and private space, interrogates the category of Englishness, and redefines what it means to be a modern citizen in the early decades of the twentieth century."

Garrity?s contribution to the LBGT Studies program is "ENGL 4038: Queer Modernism," which "look[s] closely at the relation between each author?s textual innovations and his/her representation of sexual difference, asking the crucial question: is sexuality conceived as something that is natural, or is it understood to be a cultural construct?" and also "examine[s] the various ways that the meaning of the body and desire shift and change in modernist texts, paying close attention to how these representations intersect with the categories of gender, race, class and national identity." She also teaches "ENGL 4287 (1): Twentieth-century Anglo-American Lesbian Literature and Theory," which "tracks the lesbian in British and American literature" and "begin[s] by interrogating the category of 'the lesbian text,'" then "examine[s], among other things, the relationship between historical context and representational possibilities, the constraining or enabling impact of 'community,' the class and racial inflections of 'lesbian' identity, and also the benefits and dangers?for a marginalized group?of being put into and reclaiming representational space."

The program?s course listing also offers "ENGL 3217-1: Film/Theory/Gender" taught by Prof. Ann M. Kibbey, whose professional interests are "Gender studies; feminist theory; film studies." Kibbey is the author of Theory of the Image: Capitalism, Contemporary Film, and Women, in which she "contends that the image itself is an ideological construct," "argues that capitalism enforces social identity and fetishism through religious iconoclastic beliefs about the commodity as image," "creates a new feminist approach to women in film" and "challenges conservative and racist agendas informing the assumption that a photograph records an image."

Kibbey is also the founding editor of the journal Genders, which contains such articles as "Utopia and Castration: How to Read the History of Homosexuality," "Rhetoric on the Medical Management of Intersexed Children: New Insights into 'Disease', 'Curing', 'Illness', and 'Healing,'" "Flesh in the Word: Billy Budd, Sailor, Compulsory Homosociality, and the Uses of Queer Desire," and "How My Dick Spent Its Summer Vacation: Labor, Leisure, And Masculinity On The Web."

Her course "Film/Theory/Gender" "is about modern leftist films," "analyz[es] the construction of genders as socialized roles, as reactionary and coercive methods of social organization" with the "primary interest" being "the deployment of gender in relation to political and economic concepts." This entails "analyzing the film image as an ideological construct" and "critiqu[ing] the concept of gender-as-explanation through readings in leftist theory by Eisenstein, Bourdieu, Debord, Foucault, Lukacs, etc."

Then there?s "ENGL 4277-1: Early Modern Women Writers (1500-1700)," taught by Prof. Valerie Forman, whose interests range from early modern literature, drama, poetry and culture to Marxist and critical theory. Forman?s essay on "Material Dispossessions and Counterfeit Investments: The Economies of Twelfth Night" was published in Money and the Age of Shakespeare: Essays in New Economic Criticism (2003), edited by Linda Woodbridge. Forman has an essay forthcoming in The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies that would provide "A Marxist Reading of the Early Documents of the English East India Company."

Her "Early Modern Women Writers" course promises to consider such issues as, "How did women writers of 'fictional' texts engage in the writing and rewriting of history? How did women participate in the production of new knowledges?scientific, legal, political, and economic?and in revolutionary political activities? What were women?s contributions to the discursive constructions and deconstructions of nation and empire, of gender, sexuality, and desire, of social status and race?"

"ENGL 5179 (1): African American Literature and Queer Theory" is taught by Prof. Vincent Woodard, who is a poet interested in "literatures" categorized as ethnic, Third World, African-American, queer, and 19th- and 20th-century American, and who is also interested in "African diasporic studies." Woodard has published essays titled "Just as (Queer) as They Want To Be: A Review of the Black Queer Studies in the Millennium Conference" and "Haiti, Myth-making and Black Gay Identity Politics in the Writing of Assotto Saint." He delivered a 2003 "Diaspora Talk" at the University of Texas Center for African & African American Studies on the subject of "Anal-Rights, Civilized-Bodies, and the Politics of Sanctification."

Woodard?s "African American Literature and Queer Theory" primarily seeks "to understand how black queer (gays, lesbians, transgendered, transexual, bisexual and even heterosexual) artists, activists and critics have constructed queer theoretical paradigms that have originated in the intimate regions of their lives, and then translated these personal theoretical models into the more public, externalized domains of black experience" and how "this process of intersecting the personal with the public and political is a strategy inherent in African American, feminist, gay and lesbian and queer theoretical communities."

Also there is "ETHN 3010: Queer Ethnic Studies," taught by Prof. Emma Perez, who has replaced Ward Churchill as the chairman of Colorado?s Ethnic Studies program. Perez is known to FrontPage Magazine readers as one of Churchill?s "earliest?and most fanatical ?defenders," having written for Counterpunch.org that the "attacks on Ward Churchill" are "A Neocon Test Case For Academic Purges." Recently Perez lectured at Colorado College on the subject of "Racialized Sexualities in the Borderlands." She has also given a "Queer Speakers Series" lecture at UC-Santa Barbara on the topic of "The Technologies of Desire," which "examine[d] how desire works as a theory and method for social change" and a lecture at UC-Los Angeles in 2003 on "Queering the Border: An El Paso/Juarez Case Study." Perez is a founding member of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) ("Women Active in Letters and Social Change"), a group devoted to "Chicana/Latina feminist perspectives," and is author of The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History (Theories of Representation and Difference) and the novel Gulf Dreams. In her novel "Perez traces the life of one woman, a girl who falls in love with another girl. The narrator refuses the path laid out for female friendships ?comadres [sic] who will see one another through 'adolescence, marriage, menopause, death, and even divorce,'?saying instead 'I had not come for that. I had come for her kiss.' Ironically, the unnamed (lesbian) narrator learns sex from her (heterosexual? bisexual? otherwise queer?) girlfriend, as the latter recounts what her boyfriend does for her."

Perez? "Queer Ethnic Studies" promises to "explore the social construction of racialized queer sexuality" and that "the manner in which race and sexuality collide to construct non-heteronormative bodies and cultures will be investigated." The course will also look at "how deviant behavior in the 19th century has become a politicized queer identity in the 21st century," "challenge the manner in which 'deviance' becomes privileged rather than erotica when examining queer sexualities," and "interrogate" the problem that "the majority of historical and theoretical studies on queer sexuality ignore race." Finally, it promises to "examine representations of sexual 'deviants' and track ideologies about queer sexualities as well as interrogate theories."

"GRMN/FILM 3504: Women and German Film" is taught by Prof. Patrick Greaney, whose interests are French, German, Australian, Italian and Japanese literature, literary theory, and New German cinema. Greaney "has published articles on Holderlin, Nietzsche, Fassbinder, and theories of poverty and globalization." He also has "recently completed a book manuscript, titled Impoverished Writing, which explores the theoretical foundations of modern French and German literary and philosophical texts about poverty and power."

"Women and German Film" seeks to answer the questions "Why does violence play such an important role in the work of feminist, queer, and transgender directors? What is liberating for these directors about the destruction of bodies and identities?" It also "offer[s] an introduction to the field of feminism and film studies with special attention to German cinema after 1970 ... films about women and transgender figures and films made by women and transgendered directors."

Visiting scholar Christopher Laferl from the University of Vienna teaches "GRMN 4503-3: Divas: Cultures and Theories of Stardom." This course "address[es] the figure of the diva in a global perspective as an artistic, cultural, and historical construction that engages key issues in cultural and media theory," asking such questions as "How did these stars of the past shape themselves into divas on stage as well as in their lives? How do their followers in the early 21st century (such as Nina Hagen, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez) continue this tradition?" The course promises to "address key issues in cultural studies, feminism, and media theory that come into play when discussing divas."

Prof. Kira Hall, whose interests are language, gender, and sexuality, teaches "LING 2400. Language and Gender." Hall is co-editor with Mary Bucholtz of Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self, which "forges new connections between language-related fields and feminist theory" and whose essays "Refut[e] apolitical, essentialist perspectives on language and gender" and "explicitly connect feminist theory to language research." With Anna Livia, Hall co-edited Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality, a "compilation of research on the peculiar use of language in gay and lesbian communities [that] breaks new ground," "documents lexical usage and variation in deaf, Jewish, Japanese, and other communities," looks at "computer-mediated text (E-mail), homophobic slang, media reports, and literary language to conclude whether characteristics specific to gay and lesbian speech must be found exclusively in speech to label them as 'gay,'" and "examines the fluid nature of gender and sexuality and how that may be seen in the conscious use of language as it applies to hermaphrodites, the castrated hijras of India, Nigerian transvestites, Yoruba priests, Parisian gays, and Japanese same-sex couples." The hijras, "a transgendered group often discussed in the anthropological literature as a 'third sex,'" is the subject of a forthcoming book.

"Language and Gender" pledges to "examine organizations of language, gender, and sexuality from a crosscultural perspective" involving "the investigation of how cultural paradigms of gender relations are perpetuated through language; the study of innovative uses of language to challenge or subvert these dominant paradigms; and the examination of how women and men use language to construct social identities and communities." The course addresses the following themes: "differences between 'men's talk' and 'women's talk'; linguistic constructions of masculinity and femininity; ritual insult, slang, and gossip; sexism in language; how children learn gender through language; language and sexual harassment; the interaction of gender with race, ethnicity, and class; gender in cyberspace; gay, lesbian, and transgender uses of language; and gender and bilingualism."

Sheila M. Rucki teaches "PSCI 4291 (3). Sex Discrimination: Federal and State Law," which "Examines continuity and change in legal treatment of sex and gender. Using the case method, focuses on family law, education equity, employment law, and gender-related criminal law."

There is also Glenda Walden's "SOCY 1006, WMST 1006: Social Construction of Sexuality." This course uses "a queer feminist perspective of the social constructionist paradigm to critically engage with essentialist and biological determinist perspectives, dominant in Western society, regarding sexual identity and sexual expression." This means that "Contemporary sexual identity, desire, behavior, health, research, and expert advice will be viewed in part as outcomes and techniques of social control." Furthermore, the course seeks to "explore the construction of heterosexuality, femininity, and masculinity as they impact our cultural and individual understandings of sexuality," "examin[e] and analyz[e] our own and others' sexualities in a sociological perspective of larger trends and social influences," and to identify "erotic injustice and oppression."

A Fall 2001 syllabus shows the course required Sexuality Today: The Human Perspective by Gary Kelly, The Good Vibrations Guide to Sex by Cathy Winks and Anne Semans, and The Good Vibrations Guide to Adult Videos by Cathy Winks. Walden wrote that she used the "social constructionist perspective [which] is founded on the principle that the language we use creates our reality and experience of the world in which we live," meaning "we will consciously use language to uncover the implicit meanings about sexuality and gender and how words are used to create our common understanding of sexuality." Class presentations included discussions of "sex pioneers," "gendered" and other "scripts" of sexuality, "sexually explicit images in video format or photographs," and a "Guest Presentation on BDSM philosophy and practices," which features "a discussion of BDSM practices and philosophy as well as a safety demonstration of some techniques" and to which "Your guests are welcome" but alas, "No cameras or recording devices are permitted."

"SOCY 1016, WMST 1016: Sex, Gender, and Society" is taught by Prof. Eleanor Hubbard, whose interests are "interpretative sociology, qualitative research methods, sex and gender, diversity." Hubbard has published essays on the topics of "Whites" and "Everyday Ideology: A Case Study of Sexual Activity." She is completing work on "Coming Out: Heterosexual Students' Emotional Experience with a Coming Out Assignment," although it?s unlikely her heterosexual students knew they were being exploited while they were being emotionally disrupted by an assignment that countered their sexual "ideology."

Bud Coleman teaches "THTR 6081: Seminar in American Theatre: Lesbians and Gays." Coleman?s recent work includes a 2004 paper on "The (Re-)Performed Gay Male Body: A Queer Biography?" a chapter titled "The Electric Fairy?The Apparition and The Woman? Loie Fuller" in Volume II of Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theatre History, edited by Kim Marra and Robert A. Shanke; and conference presentations on the subjects of American vaudeville and "Performance Transvestism." Coleman is also the author, director, and performer of one-man show An Evening?s Intercourse With Natasha Notgoudenuff, Bailiwick Theatre, Chicago.

"Seminar in American Theatre: Lesbians and Gays" looks at "the portrayal of lesbians and gays in mainstream American theatre during the 20th century, as well as the contributions of gay and lesbian theatre artists during the same period."

Currently, the LGBT Studies program offers one graduate-level course: "JOUR 6871: Special Topics: Gays in the Media," taught by Prof. Meg Moritz. Moritz was a writer and story consultant for the film Scout?s Honor, which "traces the conflict between the anti-gay policies of the Boy Scouts of America and the broad-based movement by many of its members to overturn them." She has written a documentary on the Columbine school shooting, Covering Columbine, and published an essay about news coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks in Representing Realities: Essays on American Literature, Art and Culture. Moritz "is on the Board of Governors of the National TV Academy, Heartland Chapter, a member of the Research Advisory Board for the GLAAD and a founding board member of the Boulder Gay and Lesbian Film Festival."

"Gays in the Media" notes that "In an era of media saturation and sexual appropriation, mainstream images of sexuality and gender offer complex and shifting definitions of normalcy" and "explore[s] representations of gays in the media over the last several decades as interpreted by a range of theorists, including Butler, Duberman, Doty, Gross, Sedgewick, Fiske, Rubin and Hall."

A few courses in the syllabus are listed without an instructor specified, but like the others, their descriptions generally hew to the Marxist notion of social "construction" of one?s gender and sexuality. For example, "ENGL 3796: Queer Theory ... Surveys theoretical, critical, and historical writings in the context of lesbian, bisexual, and gay literature" and "Examines relationships among aesthetic, cultural, and political agendas, and literary and visual texts of the 20th century."

Meanwhile, "WMST 2600: Gender, Race, and Class in Contemporary U.S. Society" involves itself in "the main forms of domination in U.S. society around gender, class, and race relations" and "Examines intersections of the relations and influences in institutions and everyday life" with "[p]articular attention given to "women of color perspectives and resistance to domination."

Finally, "WRTG 3020: Topics in Writing: Queer Rhetorics" starts "with an[other] introduction to Queer Theory" and proceeds "first to examine notions of 'queer' and later to analyze, question, and explode the discourse of queer, the binary of straight/queer, and politics of power embedded in any college course, even Queer Rhetorics." The goal is "a course that is safe and encouraging for those who identify as queer, as well as those who do not, a course that questions itself, and a course that is shaped around the politics of queer. The assignments, the texts, the goals, and the space of the classroom will be 'queered,' or not quite 'straight.'"

FrontPageMagazine ~ Jon Sanders ** Queer Orthodoxy at the University of Colorado

Crime Drops, Despite Expiration of Gun Ban
Mood:  sharp
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Crime Drops, Despite Expiration of Gun Ban

So much for "anti-gun hysterics" and predictions of "blood running in the streets," a Second Amendment group says.

Nine months after the Clinton-era "assault weapons ban" expired, the FBI has released crime statistics showing a drop in homicides in 2004 -- the first such drop since 1999. The FBI report said all types of violent crime declined last year, and cities with more than a million people showed the largest drops in violent crime.

When the Clinton ban on certain semiautomatic weapons expired last September, gun control groups warned that violent crime would escalate, including violence against children.

But those "doom and gloom" forecasts have been exposed as "pure clap-trap," said SAF President Joe Tartaro.

"Where is the news media on this?" Tartaro wondered. He said if the number of homicides had gone up, reporters would be writing front-page stories linking the rise to the end of the semi-auto ban.

"But that's not the case, and the mainstream press, with the exception of an April 28 New York Times article, has been pretty quiet about it," Tartaro said.

The FBI crime report is more proof that the rhetoric from anti-gunners is bogus, Tartaro added. "The press should now question all the other outrageous claims and predictions from the gun control crowd."

"The gun control movement is, and always has been, built on a foundation of hysteria and lies," SAF Founder Alan Gottlieb said.

"From their lawsuits against gun makers to their assaults on the firearm civil rights of law-abiding American citizens, these gun grabbers have been deliberately deceitful and consistently wrong."

Cybercast News Service ~ Susan Jones ** Crime Drops, Despite Expiration of Gun Ban

Dems tiring of Howard Dean
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

His comment that the Republican Party is a "pretty much a white Christian party," probably will not lead to his ouster. Nevertheless, Dems are tiring of the controversy and unhappy with the fund-raising gulf between them and Republicans. The GOP is alternately shocked and pleased with the gaffes from Howard Dean.

The mouth that won't stop roaring
Even some Democrats weary of Dean's blunt style

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in the face of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans "all behave the same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party."

"We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the kind of people we are," Dean said Monday, responding to a question about diversity during a forum with minority leaders and journalists. "But that's not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities and college opportunities."

Dean's remarks are an example of why the former Vermont governor, who remains popular with the party's grass roots, has been a lightning rod for criticism since being elected to head the Democratic National Committee in February. His comments last week that Republicans "never made an honest living in their lives," which he later clarified to say Republican "leaders," were disavowed by such leading Democrats as Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Dean's latest remarks -- made as he trolled California this week, stoking his party's coffers and meeting with grassroots activists as part of a nationwide trip -- could ignite more controversy and reaction from his own party.

"You know, the Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people. They're a pretty monolithic party. Pretty much, they all behave the same, and they all look the same. ... It's pretty much a white Christian party," the former Vermont governor told a San Francisco roundtable Monday in reaction to a question about the lack of outreach to minority communities by political parties.

"Our folks have got to spend time in the communities," he said. "We want a very diverse group of people running for office -- African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos."

After the story of Dean's comments broke on SFGate.com, The Chronicle Web site, on Tuesday and was picked up by the Drudge Report, DNC spokesman Josh Earnest scrambled to soften the impact of Dean's comments. While acknowledging that Dean was quoted accurately, Earnest insisted that once again Dean meant to say "Republican leadership."

But Dean's rhetoric -- and his headline-grabbing style -- have become a concern to deep-pocketed donors in California, particularly Silicon Valley, which ranks third in the country for political fund raising behind New York and Los Angeles, according to Wade Randlett, a key party fund-raiser in the high-tech capital.

"For small donors, hearing 'George Bush is bad' is enough," Randlett said. "What I'm hearing very clearly from big donors is: Tell me how we'll win."

"We need a Democratic National Committee that is convincing white Republican Christians that they should be voting for us -- not vilifying them," said Randlett, who supported Dean for the chairmanship. "He's got himself in trouble with social commentary -- and that's not what the DNC chair does."

With that kind of increasing criticism from inside the Democratic Party in recent weeks, gleeful Republicans say they couldn't be happier.

"Where do I sign up on a committee to keep Howard Dean?" crowed GOP operative Jon Fleischman, publisher of the FlashReport, a daily roundup of California political news and commentary. "He's the best thing to happen to the GOP in ages."

"I'm thrilled he's the DNC chair," says Tom Del Becarro, chairman of the Contra Costa County Republican Party. "Howard Dean is scaring away the middle. People don't like angry people. They like hopeful people."

Simi Valley Councilman Glenn Becerra, a staffer with former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson and a Bush appointee to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, said Tuesday he was far from amused by Dean's suggestion that Republicans constitute "a white Christian party," and he called the Democratic Party chairman "an embarrassment."

"I'm living proof that the (GOP) isn't what Howard Dean is trying to describe," Becerra said during a telephone interview. "It's a sad day when Democrats don't have any ideas to put forward and they have to resort to race politics. President Bush didn't get 40 percent of the Hispanic vote (in 2004) because we're a monolithic, white Christian party."

Dean said Monday that coverage of his remarks about Republicans not making an "honest living" was overblown.

"This is one of those flaps that comes up once in awhile when I get tough," Dean said. "We have to be rough on the Republicans. Republicans don't represent ordinary Americans, and they don't have any understanding of what it is to go out and try and make ends meet."

Dean said that he had been addressing the matter of Americans standing in long lines to vote.

"What I said was the Republican leadership didn't seem to care much about working people," he said. "That's essentially the gist of the quote."

Still, the words brought sharp rebukes from fellow Democrats such as Biden, who said on Sunday that Dean "doesn't speak for me ... and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats."

Other Democrats, including Richardson, said such comments hurt Dean's effort to increase Democratic registration, contributions and votes in red states dominated by Republicans.

But Alicia Wang, a DNC member and vice chair of the California Democratic Party, said: "If there are any criticisms, it comes out of love. It's like family."

Grassroots Democrats "love him," she said of Dean, whose roller-coaster presidential bid drew thousands of new voters and donors to the party before his defeat during the primaries. "People again and again say we need him to speak up ... and sound like a Democrat."

Still, Randlett said Dean has been criticized for not quickly improving the pace of fund raising for the party. A recent Business Week story suggested that Dean has been far outpaced by Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman.

According to the story and FEC filings, the DNC has raised $18.6 million in the first four months of the year -- less than half of the $42.6 million raised by the RNC in the same period.

Dean, whose schedule in San Francisco Monday included the roundtable, a visit to a gay and lesbian house party and a fund-raiser, called the report "total hooey."

"It's silliness and gossip. We're raising twice as much money as we did in 2003," Dean said. "We're raising a million dollars a week. We're doing fine."

But Republicans note that Mehlman wrapped up his third trip to California as chairman last week, following an aggressive schedule in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Jose and Sacramento that included hitting Latino small business events in Santa Ana and addressing African American voters and women's groups.

"(Ken's) an operative, a tactician," said Fleischman. "Dean is a politician."

Randlett said he hopes and expects party leaders will soon "have a sit- down" with Dean over his message "that we're smarter than they are, and we ought to be running the country."

It's an approach that appears "shrill, angry and dismissive of all things Republican," Randlett said.

Garry South, a leading Democratic strategist, said of Dean, "The only thing we can hope is that he understands the difference from being a shadow president to being the head of the party when we're out of office."

His job is to "get the Democratic Party ready for the next election," South said. But "if he views himself as the public face of the Democratic Party, then we have a problem."

Dean says the criticism doesn't bother him.

"I'm used to it. Look, this is a tough job. But it's not as tough as running for president."

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Howard Dean: In his own words

Some of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean's comments while speaking this week with minority community leaders and journalists at a roundtable in San Francisco:

On Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Gov. Schwarzenegger has been a big disappointment to a lot of Californians. ... Americans are tired of politicians that break their promise, especially in an area like education ... so I think there's going to be a lot of questions about whether the governor really cares about average Californians."

On Schwarzenegger's endorsement of the Minutemen: "This is why I don't agree that there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats. ... You would never have heard a Democrat talk like that ... I think the Republicans are always like this. I remember (former Republican Gov.) Pete Wilson ... got elected by victimizing immigrants. Republicans always divide people."

On illegal immigration: "(Democrats) understand we have a border problem. But we think that if you enforce the laws you already have, the people who are already here ... they haven't broken any laws, they paid their taxes, a lot of them are paying into the Social Security system and getting nothing. Those people ought to be on a reasonable track toward citizenship."

On past promises by Democratic officials to minority communities: "It does make a difference that we now have senior management that is African American (and minority) ... which means we're not going to have the white boys' club make all the decision anymore. Everybody's going to be included.

On San Francisco politics: "It's always a pleasure to come to San Francisco because I don't look so liberal when I come to San Francisco."

On the Democrats' strategy for 2008: "We're trying to resurrect this party. We're going to be in every state. You're not going to see any 18-state strategies. We're going to be in places like Mississippi and Kansas and Idaho. We're going to be in the Republican counties of California from now on; we're not going to try to win by getting San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley ... we're not going to sit around anymore. We are going to fight back. We haven't been fighting back."

San Francisco Chronicle ~ Carla Marinucci ** The mouth that won't stop roaring / Even some Democrats weary of Dean's blunt style

Millionaire to take on Dem senator Corzine in N.J. governor's race
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News

Millionaire to take on Democratic senator in N.J. governor's race

<<<<< Doug Forrester spent millions of his own fortune to finance a primary campaign that took aim at New Jersey's nation-high property taxes.

\/

TRENTON, N.J. - A millionaire businessman won New Jersey's Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday and earned the right to face Democratic Sen. Jon Corzine in November — the state's first race for governor since James McGreevey resigned in a gay-sex scandal.

Doug Forrester edged former Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler after spending millions of his own fortune to finance a campaign that took aim at the state's highest-in-the-nation property taxes.

Corzine easily won the Democratic primary after facing only token opposition.

With 99% of precincts counted, Forrester had 106,542 votes, or 36%, to 93,541 votes, or 31%, for Schundler in the seven-way primary. Corzine had 88% of the vote.

In other races around the country, a 70-year-old retired judge defeated a 30-year-old Hispanic city councilman in a runoff for mayor of San Antonio, the nation's eighth-largest city.

Forrester promised to "turn Jersey around" in a fiery victory speech in which he attacked the senator as being ill-equipped to solve New Jersey's property tax dilemma.

"He (Corzine) can't fix these problems because he is part of the problem," Forrester said to cheering supporters. "Our victory tonight is a message to Jon Corzine: Don't come home, we can't afford you."

Hours earlier, Corzine accepted his party's nomination without attacking the Republicans or Forrester. "Tonight I make a pledge to the people of New Jersey, I won't be anybody's governor but yours," he said in a veiled reference to New Jersey's image as a state rife with political corruption.

Corzine declared his candidacy in December, a month after McGreevey, a fellow Democrat, resigned following his announcement that he had an extramarital affair with a man while in office. The man was later identified as his homeland security adviser.

Corzine's name recognition and wealth — he spent a record $63 million of his own fortune to get elected to the Senate in 2000 — will make the former Goldman Sachs chairman the favorite against Forrester in this Democratic-leaning state. Like his GOP rivals, Corzine has promised property tax relief. His plan would shift the property tax burden away from senior citizens and poor working families.

Forrester has said he will reduce property taxes by 10% in each of the next three years through spending cuts and layoffs.

The New Jersey contest is one of only two governor's races being decided this year. The other is in Virginia.

Forrester, 52, is the owner of a prescription drug management company and former mayor of West Windsor, outside Princeton. He spent $7 million of his own money in 2002 trying to win a Senate seat, but Frank Lautenberg came out of retirement and beat him by 10 points.

Forrester had a big spending edge over Schundler, who accepted public matching funds. According to one estimate, Forrester spent more than $5 million on TV advertising alone.

In his victory speech, Forrester made special mention of his daughter Briana, 18, who suffered a near fatal brain hemorrhage in February 2004 and was diagnosed with cancer seven months later.

Forrester nearly skipped the governor's race. But his daughter, the youngest of his three children, insisted he run.

The winner in November will succeed Democrat Richard J. Codey, who as president of the state Senate became acting governor when McGreevey stepped down. Codey decided not to run for a full term.

In other races Tuesday:

♠ Former judge Phil Hardberger, 70, beat Julian Castro, a youthful city councilman, in the race to become mayor of San Antonio after a campaign that got closer — nastier — in recent weeks. Hardberger picked up 51.5% to Castro's 48.5%, pulling off an improbable comeback after losing by double-digits in last month's election. The race was forced into a runoff because neither candidate recieved more than 50% of the vote. Castro would have become the second Hispanic elected mayor of a big city in three weeks, following Antonio Villaraigosa's victory in Los Angeles last month.

♠ In Atlantic City, a veteran lifeguard ousted the incumbent in the race to lead the New Jersey gambling town. The victory by Bob Levy followed a mean-spirited campaign.

USA Today ~ Associated Press ** Millionaire to take on Democratic senator in N.J. governor's race

Who is Ken Blackwell and why are Dems scared of him
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell is a Democrats nightmare. He is part of the team that delivered that tight, crucial state to ‘W’ in November and is now running to be Ohio’s next governor. Black, educated, articulate and likable he could springboard from the governor's mansion to VP or President in 2008. The terror is that he could be exactly the kind of person who helps draw large numbers of black voters to the Republican Party, spelling the end of any national hopes for the party and throwing local and statewide positions in reliably blue states up for grabs.

Soros Group: Blackwell Is No. 1 Target for Democrats

Liberal forces – including a key group backed by George Soros - are saying their No. 1 political target is Ohio's secretary of state, Ken Blackwell.

An array of liberal groups is gearing up to derail Blackwell's candidacy for governor of Ohio in next year's election.

The Democrats fear that Blackwell, a staunch conservative, will play a key role in winning Ohio for the Republican presidential ticket in 2008 – just as he did in 2004.

They also worry that the conservative one-time football player could be a powerful addition to the GOP presidential ticket in 2008.

The left-wing Air America Radio, which carries hosts like Al Franken, blasted Blackwell in early June and urged listeners to support an organized effort to defeat him.

And Steve Rosenthal, CEO of the 527 group America Coming Together – a group backed by anti-Bush billionaire George Soros – has called the 2006 Ohio governor's race the most important in the nation.

Here's why:

"The hot 2008 GOP presidential ticket links either Virginia Sen. George Allen or Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour with Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a 2006 gubernatorial candidate," reports the Web site of U.S. News & World Report.

"He's the guy Republicans love for certifying Ohio's 2004 vote for President Bush. And he's African-American and conservative. 'With him as No. 2, it creates a dream ticket,' said a GOP strategist."

Blackwell's candidacy also appears to be a nightmare for the Ohio Democratic Party, which has a banner across the top of its Web site reading: "Help Ohio Democrats Stop Ken Blackwell."

Blackwell supporters have fired back with a posting saying Democrats "are raising money nationwide to defeat this conservative African-American statesman" and asking for donations to help Blackwell fend off his opponents' efforts.

NewsMax.com ~ Carl Limbacher ** Soros Group: Blackwell Is No. 1 Target for Democrats

John Edwards agrees with Coward Deanpeace
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

He got his headlines now he wants to make nice. John Edwards says in his own blog that he and Howard Dean have been saying the same things for years. Remember this in two years when Edwards tries to paint himself as a centrist again.

From John Edwards...

We Agree: Working Americans Let Down by the Republican Party

What a flap has arisen over a disagreement about the way something is said! I was in Nashville over the weekend, thanking the good people of Tennessee who supported the Democratic presidential ticket this year, when I was asked whether I thought that it was fair to say that people who were Republican hadn’t done a good day’s work. Of course, I didn’t think so, and I said that. I don’t think our DNC chair, Howard Dean, would put it that way again if asked either. I disagreed with him, and I said so. And, I want to be clear, I would have to say so again if I were asked again. I said a lot of good things about Howard’s outreach program and invigoration of the internet as a communication and fundraising tool, but no one wrote about that. Instead the headlines blared that I disagreed with Howard. And then the flap arose: A chasm! A split! A revolt!

Instead, how about: Nonsense!
We are both talking about the Republicans and their failure to address the needs of working people. We both agree with this basic truth: This Republican president and this Republican majority are not doing what they should be doing for working people in this country. That’s a core belief we need to fight for. And what’s more, we agree that we - all Democrats and all working people - should be complaining, criticizing, and generally speaking out about this critical failure of the Republican party and offering our positive vision for America. And we have.

Howard and I have been saying the same thing about this for years. Hear that? The same thing. For years. Have I ever put it some way that Howard wouldn't agree with? Probably. And he put it in a way, once, just the other day, that I can’t agree with, since I come from a place where hard-working people, who are better served by the agenda and passion of the Democrats, somehow still vote Republican. But Howard and I are committed to a 50-state strategy that will reach out to those voters, in North Carolina, and in Kansas, and in Tennessee, across this country and tell the truth about what is happening in this country to their jobs, to their health care, to their forests and streams, to their vision of what this country is and should be.

This President is not fighting for our jobs. His administration has on numerous occasions said that the out-sourcing of American jobs is good for this country. Well, it may be good for Wall Street, but it is lousy on Main Street. If he thinks that jobs moving overseas is good for us, why would he ever fight for American jobs?

Our labor laws have seen weak enforcement during the time we have had this Republican administration in place. Companies that skirt this country’s labor laws have gotten a slap on the hand, and even that has come too slowly. Efforts to allow workers to choose whether to unionize have not been protected in the way that they should, and the mutually beneficial bargain between labor and management that made this country the greatest economic power in the world has been broken, all while the Republican administration and Republican majority stand idle, with their hands dug deep in their pockets.

Those working people I grew up with that I talked about earlier live where I lived, in our rural communities, which is exactly where this Republican president wants to cut broadband extension, firefighter grants and investment and market access programs that will protect our rural jobs. The manufacturing extension program, which helps small manufacturers everywhere stay profitable - and therefore open, gets little support from this President. How are our towns going to remain vital with policies that ignore them? Where will the sons and daughters in our rural communities have to go to find jobs?

And this President has made choices that, if enacted by the Republican majority in Congress, will deny the opportunity to learn the skills for a new job to an untold number of Americans. Vocational and adult education would be cut by 89%. He wants to drastically cut adult education and retraining programs that allow American workers to better their skills either to get ahead or to get a new job when theirs leaves for overseas.

And if you happen to be a working man or woman in the United States military, this Republican president doesn’t support loan forgiveness for your student loans or top quality health care when you get out of the military.

The safety net is eroding. The ladder has been pulled up. This is not new. For more than two decades, the Republican Party has talked about an agenda that addresses concerns of working people while they have passed an agenda that serves the goals of the wealthiest among us. Howard and I know that these are the wrong choices for America. We won’t always use the same words. But we will always fight the same fight: for the dignity, the respect, and the rights of those who built this country, the working people in America.

Origional Source: Lib Loser Dem Blog and replies...
One America Committee Blog ~ John Edwards ** We Agree: Working Americans Let Down by the Republican Party

Kerry?s grades were no better than Bush?s
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

The Dems have tried to paint themselves as a party of intellectuals and have put extra time into portraying ‘W’ as stupid. John Kerry’s college transcripts show him to be an average student, no better than the President.

Transcript Shows John Kerry's Yale Grades Similar to President Bush's

BOSTON - Sen. John F. Kerry's grade average at Yale University was virtually identical to President Bush's record there, despite repeated portrayals of Kerry as the more intellectual candidate during the 2004 presidential campaign. Kerry had a cumulative average of 76 and got four Ds his freshman year - in geology, two history courses and political science, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

His grades improved with time, and he averaged an 81 his senior year and earned an 89 - his highest grade - in political science as a senior.

"I always told my dad that D stood for distinction," Kerry said in a written response to reporters' questions. He said he has previously acknowledged focusing more on learning to fly than studying.

Under Yale's grading system in effect at the time, grades between 90 and 100 equaled an A, 80-89 a B, 70-79 a C, 60 to 69 a D, and anything below that was a failing grade.

In 1999, The New Yorker magazine published a transcript showing Bush had a cumulative grade average of 77 his first three years at Yale, and a similar average under a non-numerical rating system his senior year.

Bush's highest grade at Yale was an 88 in anthropology, history and philosophy. He received one D in his four years, a 69 in astronomy, and improved his grades after his freshman year, the transcript showed.

Kerry, a Democrat, previously declined to release the transcript, which was included in his Navy records. He gave the Navy permission to release the documents last month, the Globe reported.

Kerry graduated from Yale in 1966, Bush in 1968.

Tampa Bay Online ~ Associated Press ** Transcript Shows John Kerry's Yale Grades Similar to President Bush's

(D) Mass. Ex-House Speaker indicted for obstructing civil rights case
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas Finneran was indicted by a grand jury for perjury and obstruction of justice. It stems from Finneran’s testimony in a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups that contend that redistricting in the state undermined minority representation and protected white incumbents.

Former House Speaker Thomas Finneran faces perjury charges. \/

Grand jury indicts Finneran

3 counts of perjury, 1 of obstructing justice

A federal grand jury today brought a criminal indictment against former Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran for allegedly lying in a civil case on legislative redistricting.

Finneran is charged with three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment follows a yearlong investigation into the Mattapan Democrat, who dominated state politics for nearly a decade until his departure last year.

The charges from the Boston grand jury involve Finneran's testimony under oath after civil rights groups filed a federal suit alleging that a House redistricting plan protected white incumbents and diluted the clout of minority voters.

The charges could lead to jail time and the loss of Finneran's license to practice law if he's convicted.

The first perjury count alleges that Finneran lied on the stand Nov. 14, 2003 during the civil trial, when he was still speaker, and testified that he had no knowledge of the contents of the redistricting plan until it was made public on Oct. 18, 2001.

The second perjury count alleges that Finneran also lied when he testified that he didn't discuss the redistricting plan as it related to his district in advance with one of his top lieutenants, the House chairman of the Joint Committee on Redistricting, Representative Thomas M. Petrolati.

The third perjury charge accuses Finneran of lying during a March 28, 2003 deposition when questioned by lawyers in the civil case about documents they were seeking. Finneran allgedly said he did not have the documents the lawyers were seeking -- including calendars relating to campaign events -- when did actually have them.

Finneran is also charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly attempting to thwart a federal investigation by lying durign the civil trial and in his deposition.

Finneran, who served as speaker for eight years before resigning last fall to become president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, has not been arrested, and instead will be summonsed into US District Court in Boston for arraignment on the charges.

Today's charges followed a yearlong probe by the FBI which was triggered after a three-judge panel threw out the redistricting map and issued an opinion that expressed skepticism about Finneran's truthfulness.

Later this afternoon, Finneran issued the following statement concerning the indictments: "26 years of unblemished public service and unquestioned integrity speaks volumes. So do the calls, cards, and comments from state and federal prosecutors, past and present, judges, attorneys, business leaders and citizens of all stripes regarding the questionable motives and machinations of the US attorney's office. My response to the charges brought against me today is NOT GUILTY. My family and I look forward to my day in court. Until then, I will have no further comment."

Boston Globe ~ Shelley Murphy ** Grand jury indicts Finneran

''Real'' Hillary reappears, attacks Bush, GOP, congress, press
Mood:  spacey
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

Hillary Clinton tossed aside her 2008-looking, centrist persona for a Dem party fundraiser. In classic "Hillary" style she told the press to "get a spine" called the U.S. House of Representatives a "dictatorship" and even mocked the president?s faith.

Senator Clinton Assails Bush and G.O.P. at Campaign Fund-Raiser

By Patrick D. Healy

Senator Hillary Clinton castigated President Bush and Washington Republicans today as mad with power and bent on marginalizing Democrats during a speech to 1,000 supporters at her first major re-election fund-raiser, which netted about $250,000.

Mrs. Clinton, who is running for a second term in 2006 and is widely described as a possible Democratic nominee for the presidency in 2008, said that her party is hamstrung because Republicans dissemble and smear without shame and the news media has lost its investigatory zeal for exposing misdeeds.

Left unchallenged, especially if Democrats fail to pick up seats in next year's Congressional elections, she said, Republican leaders could ram through extremist conservative judges, wreck Social Security and make unacceptable concessions to China, Saudi Arabia and other nations that are needed to finance the United States budget deficit.

"There has never been an administration, I don't believe in our history, more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda," Mrs. Clinton told the audience at a "Women for Hillary" gathering in Midtown Manhattan this morning.

"I know it's frustrating for many of you; it's frustrating for me: Why can't the Democrats do more to stop them?" she continued to growing applause and cheers. "I can tell you this: It's very hard to stop people who have no shame about what they're doing. It is very hard to tell people that they are making decisions that will undermine our checks and balances and constitutional system of government who don't care. It is very hard to stop people who have never been acquainted with the truth."

Mrs. Clinton described Republican leaders as messianic in their beliefs, willing to manipulate facts and even "destroy" the Senate to gain political advantage over the Democratic minority. She also labeled the House of Representatives as "a dictatorship of the Republican leadership," where individual members are all but required to vote in lock-step with the majority's agenda.

Referring to Congress' Republican leadership, she said, "Some honestly believe they are motivated by the truth, they are motivated by a higher calling, they are motivated by, I guess, a direct line to the heavens."

Then, leavening the moment a bit, she referred to reports from the Clinton White House that she would try to channel with a favorite First Lady of the past. "Now, I talk to Eleanor Roosevelt all the time, and she has never said there is any reason to only have one point of view," she said. "But apparently they have a different direct line."

While Mrs. Clinton has sought opportunities in recent months to stake claims to the political center, emphasizing nuances on abortion and immigration that may appeal to some Republicans and conservatives, her speech today was a starkly partisan rallying cry to her troops at a time when at least four New York Republicans are preparing to challenge her in 2006. She did, however, have some kind words for some past Republican presidents - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush - but only to praise their stabs at bipartisanship and to slight the current President Bush's posture by comparison.

"We can't ever, ever give in to the Republican agenda," she declared. "It isn't good for New York and it isn't good for America."

Abetting the Republicans, she said in some of her sharpest language, is a Washington press corps that has become a pale imitation of the Watergate-era reporters who are being celebrated this month amid the identification of the anonymous Washington Post source, Deep Throat.

"The press is missing in action, with all due respect," she said. "Where are the investigative reporters today? Why aren't they asking the hard questions? It's shocking when you see how easily they fold in the media today. They don't stand their ground. If they're criticized by the White House, they just fall apart.

"I mean, c'mon, toughen up, guys, it's only our Constitution and country at stake," she said. "Let's get some spine."

Suggesting some lines of reporting, she asserted that the Bush administration could not account for $9 billion in Coalition Authority spending in Iraq, and that the Food and Drug Administration had allowed religious and political bias to interfere with science-driven decision-making on reproductive drugs.

Mrs. Clinton said she wanted to "move back toward a progressive agenda that will lift up people." The other side, she argued, was pressing retrograde steps like the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown, a California Supreme Court Justice, for a federal appeals court seat. Many Democrats plan to vote against Judge Brown if her nomination comes to the Senate floor as expected this week, taking issue with an array of her court decisions and past remarks, like her once describing President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal as "the triumph of our own socialist revolution."

"If you read about her, try not to get upset - I had to read about her and it kept me upset for months," Mrs. Clinton said of Judge Brown. "This is a woman who truly sees the world in 19th century terms. You know, during the Clinton administration, we used to talk about building a bridge to the 21st century. This administration wants to build a bridge to the 19th century.

"They want to undo and turn the clock back on the progress of the 20th century, whether it's the right to organize, whether it's the right to be able to have a choice when it comes to the most private and intimate decisions that a woman has to make, whether it is to protect the environment."

A particularly "excruciating test" for the nation's political future, Mrs. Clinton predicted, could come this summer in a showdown over a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, if one or more current members retire.

President Bush "wants to nominate someone, I believe, who will be a confrontational nominee so that he can provide support to his far-right extremist base," Mrs. Clinton said. "And we have to stand as firmly as possible against that."

On a brighter note, she said, Democrats appear to have all but "stopped" President Bush's "scheme" to overhaul Social Security. But she decried his fiscal policies, particularly Republican-backed tax cuts, saying they were ballooning the deficit and ceding "fiscal sovereignty" to countries like China, which are harder to influence when they become "your banker."

(Origional story requires registration)
NY Times ~ Patrick D. Healy ** Senator Clinton Assails Bush and G.O.P. at Campaign Fund-Raiser