DPW Founder's Day Gala
Saturday, February 16, 2008
5:30p.m. Pre-reception
6:00p.m. Gala
Midwest Airlines Center
Milwaukee, WI
Senators Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama to attend
For more information, please contact the DPW at 608-260-2021 or send an email to: Email:founders@wisdems.org

LCDP General Party Meeting
Monday, February 18, 2008
7:00 to 9:00 P.M.
Ho Chunk Nation 3 Rivers House
724 Main St.
La Crosse
Single Payer Healthcare/National Convention Delegate Information

Wisconsin Presidential Primary
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE

LCDP Spring Fling/St. Pat's Day Party
Saturday March 15th, 5:30 P.M.
Loren Kannenberg & Karri Kline residence
322 23rd St. South
La Crosse

3rd Congressional District Convention
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Jake's Northwoods
1132 Angelo Rd.
Sparta
Registration: 8:30 A.M. to 10:00 A.M.
Call to Order: 9:30 A.M.

First Tier National Convention Delegate Selection
Sunday, April 6, 2008
12:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.
Cartwright Center (Port O'Call Room)
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Democratic Leadership Institute
April 12-13, 2008
Devil's Head Resort
Merrimac, WI
details below

LCDP General Party Meeting
Monday, April 21, 2008
7:00 to 9:00 P.M.
Ho Chunk Nation 3 Rivers House
724 Main St.
La Crosse
Speaker: Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now

Democratic Party of Wisconsin State Convention
June 13-14, 2008
Stevens Point Holiday Inn & Convention Center
Stevens Point, WI

by Peter Dreier
via The Huffington Post

Funny how the right-wing echo chamber is reverberating in the mainstream media. Consider an article in Saturday's New York Times about the fast-fading presidential hopes of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. According to the article, Bloomberg's chances are "diminished by the success of Senator John McCain, a moderate candidate..." and because "Mr. McCain's centrist views" appeal to the same people that Bloomberg had hoped to attract.

Moderate? Centrist? Is this the same John McCain whose voting record and views since his election to the Senate in 1986 have consistently been conservative, even reactionary?

During the past year, right-wing opinion- makers and politicians -- including Rush Limbaugh and other radio talk-show hosts, the Religious Right leaders like James Dobson, and the Romney and Huckabee campaigns -- kept repeating the mantra that McCain was a "liberal." In her New York Times column last week, Gail Collins, trying to figure out how these adults could be so worked up about McCain, concluded, correctly: "These people are nuts."

This seems like a reasonable description of Limbaugh, Dobson and their ilk. But how do we account for the reporters on Collins' own paper, plus the rest of the establishment press, who continue to define McCain as a moderate and a centrist, in the face of so much evidence to the contrary?

Indeed, McCain keeps insisting that he's a conservative, a "foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution," but the right-wing attack machine has so far prevailed in defining him otherwise. Exit polls showed that evangelical and conservative voters were more favorable to Romney and Huckabee. Now McCain, the likely GOP nominee, is trying to win them back. He's not worried that they'll vote next November for Obama or Clinton (as Ann Coulter has threatened to do as a protest against McCain), but that they'll stay home on Election Day.

Eventually, most of the right-wing fanatics will make peace with McCain, and may even contribute to the 527 political groups that, allegedly independent of McCain's official campaign, will embark on a mud- slinging campaign against Obama or Clinton like they Swift-Boated John Kerry in 2004.

But, as Ari Berman wrote in an article, "The Real McCain" in The Nation two years ago (December 15, 2005), "McCain has always been far more conservative than either his supporters or detractors acknowledge." On foreign and military policy, economic policy (like taxes, aid to the poor, and regulating business to protect consumers, workers and the environment), and issues like abortion and gay rights, McCain has consistently taken conservative positions. In recent years, he has co-sponsored a handful of bills with Democrats on immigration reform and campaign finance reform, that violated GOP orthodoxy, and cast an occasional vote (for example, initially opposing Bush's tax cuts for the rich, a position he has now reversed) that fueled the right-wing's over- reaction. But these votes are rare exceptions, hardly indications that McCain would govern from the center.

These rare votes, however, have considerable weight in the National Journal's ratings of senators on the conservative-liberal dimension. During his first decade in the Senate, McCain consistently scored in the 80s (100 being the most conservative). In the late 1990s, as he began thinking about running for president, he cast a few votes that broke ranks with the Republican party line and reduced his overall conservative ranking, but he still scored in the low- and mid- 60s.

The nonprofit nonpartisan group Project Vote Smart compiles the ratings of various interest groups on its website, along with each congressmember's key votes on each major issue. Consumer and environmental groups, civil liberties groups, labor unions, groups that advocate for women's rights, groups that voice the concerns of small family farmers, and groups that advocate for public schools, children, and the poor consistently give McCain low marks. Even the Disabled American Veterans gave McCain a bare- bones 20 percent rating in 2006, the most recent scorecard. In contrast, groups representing big business and social conservatives (such as the American Conservative Union) rank McCain among their loyal supporters.

These rankings and votes are public information and available on-line to even the laziest reporter, as are news clippings about McCain's membership in the Keating 5 scandal in the 1980s (senators caught in a web of corruption that involved lobbying federal bank regulators to lay off Charles Keating, a campaign contributor whose savings-and-loan company was under investigation).

But, with some exceptions, the mainstream media have given McCain a free pass, allowing his right-wing opponents to define him as a moderate, without scrutinizing his record. Perhaps because McCain is a somewhat avuncular, charming, grandfatherly guy with a sense of humor who occasionally shows up on "The Daily Show," he doesn't come off as an angry right-wing curmudgeon. Perhaps because he cosponsored a handful of bills with Democrats, and occasionally broke ranks with GOP litmus tests, reporters think he's a real maverick. Or maybe reporters' love affair with McCain stems from the fact that he battled and beat cancer, or that he was a prisonor of war during the Viet Nam war.

But reporters would have to be on a different planet to not recognize that McCain's views on health care reform, global warming, and war put him solidly in the conservative camp. Yes, there are some Republican senators who have even higher conservative scores, showing how far right the party has moved in the past decade. But to call McCain a "centrist" or a "moderate" is to remove any meaning from those terms. In terms of what McCain would be like as President, think William McKinley, Herbert Hoover, and George W. Bush. His agenda would please the Chamber of Commerce and the social conservatives.

The 2008 Democratic Leadership Institute will take place on April 12-13th, 2008 at the Devil's Head Resort & Convention Center in Merrimac. There is an activist track and a student track. For more information, please contact Steve Gillitzer at (608) 260- 2412 or email Email:dli@wisdems.org

The deadline for signup is Friday March 21st. An application can be found at the link below.

February will be an exciting time in Wisconsin as the Presidential race finally gets into our neck of the woods. Please watch your email for updates on campaign events. At the LCDP February 18 meeting there will be a presentation on single payer health care. In addition, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will have a presenter at this meeting regarding the delegate selection process for the National Convention in Denver.

Thanks to all party members who participated in the Martin Luther King Jr. city-wide celebration on January 21st, despite snowy weather. Although the mainstream media tends to only focus on Martin Luther King the civil rights leader, we must remember that he was among the foremost anti-war voices in the nation as well as someone who helped organize striking workers at the end of his life.

Whether our primary issue is the ending the war in Iraq, access to healthcare, reproductive rights or protecting American workers, we must strive to be attentive to the concerns of everyone in our party. All of these concerns are intertwined, and in each case the Republican party stands opposed to progress.

Fabio Burgos
Chair
La Crosse County Democratic Party

QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

We know one of these three men will be out of a job in January, 2009. Let's do our best to make sure that the other two get to join him in retirement.

The way to do this is to get involved. The LCDP needs volunteers now for party building and 2008 election preparation. This will include: list development, data entry, event planning and eventually phone banking. 2008 is not just a presidential election year. We need a special effort in '08, particularly in the 94th Assembly District and in the 32nd State Senate District.

via Thinkprogress.org

Earlier this week, when President Bush signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act, he issued a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law - including the barring of funds for permanent bases in Iraq - could be disregarded.

Democrats in Congress were quick to condemn Bush's stealth measure. On the Senate floor, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) called it "the clearest signal yet that the Administration wants to hold" the "option" of permanent bases "in reserve." Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said Congress expects Bush to "faithfully implement all of the provisions of the [act], not just the ones he happens to agree with."

In a statement, Sen. Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Bush's signing statement "outrageous" and constitutionally questionable:

It is outrageous for the President to suggest that Congress cannot bar the use of funds - something clearly within the power of Congress under our Constitution - for the construction of permanent bases in Iraq.

Conspicuously absent from the debate over Bush's signing statement is Sen. John McCain (R- AZ). In the past, McCain has spoken out aggressively against signing statements, saying they are "wrong" and that they "should not be done":

"I would never issue a signing statement," the Arizona senator said at a Rotary Club meeting in Nashua, adding that he "would only sign it or veto" any legislation that reached his desk as president.

Perhaps McCain is keeping silent because he shares Bush's goal of an indefinite, long-term presence of American troops in Iraq. Last month, McCain said it would be "fine with" him "if we maintain a presence in" Iraq for "a hundred" years.

Please renew your memberships!! If you have not done so, you can find our 08 membership form at laxdems.com. (Left side of front page).

Our goal is to push party membership over 400 people. Please check our website at laxdems.com, which has a membership form or email laxdems.com if you cannot come to our future party meetings.

Membership rates, effective October 1, 2006, as established by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, are as follows:

Students, Senior Citizens: $10.00
General: $25.00
Pairs (two memberships): $35.00
Activist (up to three): $45.00
Family(includes all family members: $75.00
Supporter: $120.00
Friend: $240.00
Patron: $600.00
Investor: $1200.00
Benefactor $2400.00
 

Half of the above membership dues go to the State party, with the exception of the Family membership, where $45.00 of $75.00 goes to the local party. Those who join at the higher levels of membership ($120.00 and above) should remember that only $50.00 of those memberships will stay with the local party.

If your intention is to become a new member or renew your membership with the Democratic Party and you want more of your contribution to go to the Local County Party, I encourage you to join at the single $25 or $75 Family membership level and make additional contributions to the county party directly.